The exterior of the Opera-house does not promise anything very beautiful or astonishing, and the stranger is, consequently, much surprised to find, on entering, a large and magnificent house with a deep stage.  I should say it could contain more than 2,000 persons.  There are four tiers of spacious boxes rising one above the other, the balustrades of which, formed of delicately-wrought iron trellis-work, give the theatre a very tasty appearance.  The pit is only for men.  I was present at a tolerably good representation, by an Italian company, of the opera of Lucrezia Borgia; the scenery and costumes are not amiss.

If, however, I was agreeably surprised by my visit to the theatre, I experienced quite a contrary feeling on going to the Museum.  In a land so richly and luxuriously endowed by Nature, I expected an equally rich and magnificent museum, and found a number of very fine rooms, it is true, which one day or other may be filled, but which at present are empty.  The collection of birds, which is the most complete of all, is really fine; that of the minerals is very defective; and those of the quadrupeds and insects poor in the extreme.  The objects which most excited my curiosity, were the heads of four savages, in excellent preservation; two of them belonged to the Malay, and two to the New Zealand tribes.  The latter especially I could not sufficiently contemplate, completely covered as they were with tattooing of the most beautiful and elegant design, and so well preserved that they seemed only to have just ceased to live.

During the period of my stay in Rio Janeiro, the rooms of the Museum were undergoing repairs, and a new classification of the different objects was also talked of.  In consequence of this, the building was not open to the public, and I have to thank the kindness of Herr Riedl, the director, for allowing me to view it.  He acted himself as my guide; and, like me, regretted that in a country where the formation of a rich museum would be so easy a task, so little had been done.

I likewise visited the studio of the sculptor Petrich, a native of Dresden, who came over at the unsolicited command of the court, to execute a statue of the emperor in Carrara marble.  The emperor is represented the size of life, in a standing position, and arrayed in his imperial robes, with the ermine cloak thrown over his shoulder.  The head is strikingly like, and the whole figure worked out of the stone with great artistic skill.  I believe this statue was destined for some public building.

I was fortunate enough during my stay in Rio Janeiro to witness several different public festivals.