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The porch has an effective vault of black and white marble, and domes with black and white panels cover the spaces under the towers. Inside the church is all built of white marble with panels and pilasters of pink marble from Pero Pinheiro on the road to Cintra. The whole church measures about 200 feet long by 100 wide, with a nave also 100 feet long.
We followed the same road we had taken in coming, till about four miles before reaching Ponte de Pinheiro, and then struck off towards Porto de Praja. This road was thirty-two miles longer by land, but so much shorter by sea, that the passage is made by steamer from Porto de Praja to Rio Janeiro in half an hour.
Pinheiro loved distinctions, and could no more conceive of a State without great dignitaries than of an army without drum-majors; and as he also loved, or thought he loved, liberty, equality, and fraternity, he combined the good and the evil of our old society in an eclectic philosophy which he embodied in a constitution. Excellent Pinheiro!
The scenery around Pinheiro was mostly dull and tedious, almost like a desert, the monotony of which was only broken here and there by a few scanty woods or low hills. We were not lucky enough to see the mountains again until we were near the capital.
However, before visiting São Marcos mention must be made of two tombs, one in Nossa Senhora dos Olivaes at Thomar, and one in the Graça church at Santarem. Both are exceedingly French in design, and both were erected not long after the coming of the foreigners. The tomb in Thomar is the older. It is that of Diogo Pinheiro, the first bishop of Funchal which he never visited who died in 1525.
The little town of Ponte de Cairas, which we passed, consists of a few shops and vendas, a number of smaller houses, an inconsiderable church, and an apothecary's; the principal square looked like a meadow. Ponte do Pinheiro is rather larger. 3rd October. We did not set off till 7 o'clock: here, as everywhere else in the country, there is no getting away early in the morning.
As we arrived at Porto Sampajo by 2 o'clock, we resolved on going on as far as Ponte do Pinheiro, a distance of sixteen miles. The road lay mostly through valleys covered with large bushes and surrounded by low rocks. The country wore a general aspect of wildness, and only here and there were a few scanty pasture-grounds and poverty- stricken huts to be seen.
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