The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

EIO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 191
and is supported witliin tlio bay by other defensive -works crossing the promontories
on both sides. The elongated islet of Villcgagnon facing the city proper is also forti-
fied and used as a marine barracks and outpost of the arsenal which occupies the
nearest headland over half a mile distant.
Yillegagnon, formerly Scrigipe (Sergipe) marks the site of the first European
settlement by the Huguenot adventurer who here erected Fori Coligny in 155-5.
A few years later the victorious Portuguese captain, Estacio de Sa, established
himself on the mainland near the Pao d'Assucar. After his death this military
station was removed to the Morro do CasfcIIo promontory, at the northern foot of
which were grouped the first houses of S. Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro, in some
documents called also Sebastianopolis. The heart of the city which was gradually
developed round this position during the eighteenth century, stretches over a mile
east and west, being limited on the south by the Morros do Castello and de Santo
Antonio, and northwards by the S. Bento and Conceicao heights.
Within this narrow space, houses, streets, and squares are necessarily crowded
together, giving difficult access to carriages, although most of the thoroughfares
are laid down with tramways. The mean and commonplace houses receive little
sunshine, and gloom prevails in all the large warehouses. Yet in the middle of
this wretched, badly-paved quarter, with its open drains and close atmosphere, is
situated the Rua do Ouvidor, chief resort of merchants, loungers, and fashionable
society.
But this old quarter, traversed by the Rua do Ouvidor, forms a mere fragment
of the present metropolis, which has overgrown its natural limits in every
direction. After covering the low saddleback between the Castello and Santo
Antonio heights, it has spread out along the shores and tributary valleys, succes-
sively absorbing all the surrounding hamlets, villas, and other groups of rural
habitations.
Gradually the hills near the waterside have been encircled like islands by the
surging tide of buildings, while the more inland heights project like peninsulas
amid the semi-circle of expanding suburbs. Thus have been formed the districts
of Lajm on the creek of like name at the foot of the Santa Thereza hills ; Flamengo
farther south ;
Laraiigeiras, the " Orangeries," between the Carioca and Corcovado
cliffs ; Bofqfogo, on a circular inlet enclosed by the Pao dAssucar and other
granite heights. Farther on the chain of suburbs is continued along the shore
by Capocabana, and south of Corcovado by various other quarters stretching
beyond the Rodrigues de Freitas lagoon to the Botanic Garden and to Guvia.
Northwards the semi-circular S. Christovao Bay is skirted by a large quarter
grouped romid the former imperial palace ; westwards, beyond the vast public
groimds of Largo da RepubKca, foUow other serpentine suburbs aU the way to the
brooks descending from the vallej's of the Tijuca mountains. Altogether from
Gavia on the Atlantic to Caju on the bay, or to Cascadura in the interior, the
distance in a straight line is no less than 17 miles, and even beyond these points
other suburban groups are springing up in various directions.
Nicthcroy also has spread like the metropolis along the shores of the bay and