Chapter 56

A SHORE EMPEROR ON BOARD A MAN-OF-WAR.

While we lay in Rio, we sometimes had company from shore; but an
unforeseen honour awaited us. One day, the young Emperor, Don
Pedro II., and suite--making a circuit of the harbour, and
visiting all the men-of-war in rotation--at last condescendingly
visited the Neversink.

He came in a splendid barge, rowed by thirty African slaves, who,
after the Brazilian manner, in concert rose upright to their oars
at every stroke; then sank backward again to their seats with a
simultaneous groan.

He reclined under a canopy of yellow silk, looped with tassels of
green, the national colours. At the stern waved the Brazilian
flag, bearing a large diamond figure in the centre, emblematical,
perhaps, of the mines of precious stones in the interior; or, it
may be, a magnified portrait of the famous "Portuguese diamond"
itself, which was found in Brazil, in the district of Tejuco, on
the banks of the Rio Belmonte.

We gave them a grand salute, which almost made the ship's live-
oak _knees_ knock together with the tremendous concussions. We
manned the yards, and went through a long ceremonial of paying
the Emperor homage. Republicans are often more courteous to
royalty than royalists themselves. But doubtless this springs
from a noble magnanimity.

At the gangway, the Emperor was received by our Commodore in
person, arrayed in his most resplendent coat and finest French
epaulets. His servant had devoted himself to polishing every
button that morning with rotten-stone and rags--your sea air is a
sworn foe to metallic glosses; whence it comes that the swords of
sea-officers have, of late, so rusted in their scabbards that
they are with difficulty drawn.

It was a fine sight to see this Emperor and Commodore complimenting
each other. Both were _chapeaux-de-bras_, and both continually waved
them. By instinct, the Emperor knew that the venerable personage before
him was as much a monarch afloat as he himself was ashore. Did not our
Commodore carry the sword of state by his side? For though not borne
before him, it must have been a sword of state, since it looked far
to lustrous to have been his fighting sword. _That_ was naught but a
limber steel blade, with a plain, serviceable handle, like the handle
of a slaughter-house knife.

Who ever saw a star when the noon sun was in sight? But you seldom see
a king without satellites. In the suite of the youthful Emperor came a
princely train; so brilliant with gems, that they seemed just emerged
from the mines of the Rio Belmonte.

You have seen cones of crystallised salt? Just so flashed these
Portuguese Barons, Marquises, Viscounts, and Counts. Were it not
for their titles, and