3-043-784 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Emperor of Brazil, 1864. 'His Imperial Majesty Dom Pedro II., Emperor of Brazil...is justly esteemed for his personal qualities and accomplishments, as well as for his loyalty and integrity...His Majesty, we are told, presides at every meeting of the Brazilian 'Imperial Geographical and Historical Society;" and it has been "by his direction that geographical explorations have been made in the important province of Ceará, and also, in 1862, of the River Purus, one of the largest affluents of the Amazon, which is really more unknown than the Nile...at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society of London...the Emperor was...elected an honorary member of that society...He is said to possess some skill as a topographical surveyor and engineer, which he has shown by his designs for the building of bridges. He has likewise devoted much time to the study of chemistry...He is tolerably familiar with the languages and literature of England, Germany, France, and Italy, and has a special partiality for the poetry of Longfellow, as he told an American visitor one day...His Majesty is thirty-nine years of age, a handsome, portly man, whose stature is several inches above six feet. He is much beloved for the frankness and gentleness of his manners'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.