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Introduction to "The New Guide of the Conversation in Portuguese and English"
by
The cupola and the nave are not less curious to see.
What is this palace how I see yonder?
It is the town hall.
And this tower here at this side?
It is the Observatory.
The bridge is very fine, it have ten arches, and is constructed of free stone.
The streets are very layed out by line and too paved.
What is the circuit of this town?
Two leagues.
There is it also hospitals here?
It not fail them.
What are then the edifices the worthest to have seen?
It is the arsnehal, the spectacle’s hall, the Cusiomhouse, and the Purse.
We are going too see the others monuments such that the public pawnbroker’s office, the plants garden’s, the money office’s, the library.
That it shall be for another day; we are tired.
DIALOGUE 17
To Inform One’self of a Person
How is that gentilman who you did speak by and by?
Is a German.
I did think him Englishman.
He is of the Saxony side.
He speak the french very well.
Tough he is German, he speak so much well italyan, french, spanish and english, that among the Italyans, they believe him Italyan, he speak the frenche as the Frenches himselves. The Spanishesmen believe him Spanishing, and the Englishes, Englishman. It is difficult to enjoy well so much several languages.
The last remark contains a general truth; but it ceases to be a truth when one contracts it and apples it to an individual–provided that that individual is the author of this book, Sehnor Pedro Carolino. I am sure I should not find it difficult “to enjoy well so much several languages”–or even a thousand of them–if he did the translating for me from the originals into his ostensible English.