I
waited on him several times, and always found him very courteous and
civil. Here are about 400 soldiers in garrison. They commonly draw up and
exercise in a large parade before the governor's house; and many of them
attend him when he goes abroad. The soldiers are decently clad in brown
linen, which in these hot countries is far better than woollen; but I
never saw any clad in linen but only these. Beside the soldiers in pay,
he can soon have some thousands of men up in arms on occasion. The
magazine is on the skirts of the town, on a small rising between the
nunnery and the soldiers' church. It is big enough to hold 2 or 3000
barrels of powder; but I was told it seldom has more than 100, sometimes
but 80. There are always a band of soldiers to guard it, and sentinels
looking out both day and night.
A great many merchants always reside at Bahia; for it is a place of great
trade: I found here above 30 great ships from Europe, with 2 of the King
of Portugal's ships of war for their convoy; beside 2 ships that traded
to Africa only, either to Angola, Gambia, or other places on the coast of
Guinea; and abundance of small craft that only run to and fro on this
coast, carrying commodities from one part of Brazil to another.
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