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TRAVELS

IN

BRAZIL.

VOL. I.

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LONDON:
Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode,
New-Street-Square.

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TRAVELS

IN

BRAZIL,

IN THE YEARS

1817—1820

UNDERTAKEN BY COMMAND OF

HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF BAVARIA

BY

DR. JOH. BAPT. VON SPIX,

AND DR. C. F. PHIL. VON MARTIUS,

ENIGHTS OF THE ROYAL BAVARIAN ORDER OF CIVIL MERIT,
AND MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF
SCIENCES AT MUNICH, &C. &C.

VOLUME THE FIRST.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR

LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN,

PATERNOWTER-ROW

1824

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TO

HIS MAJESTY

MAXIMILIAN JOSEPH THE FIRST,

KING OF BAVARIA.

SIRE,

WHEN Your Majesty had decided on sending a literary expedition to Brazil, you were pleased to confide to us the execution of this royal resolution.

Attachment to Your Majesty and to the sciences was the guardian Genius that guided us amidst the dangers and fatigues of so extensive a journey, through a part of the world so imperfectly known, and brought

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us back in safety, from that remote hemisphere, to our native land.

This undertaking, therefore, which is, perhaps, not without importance in the history of the Bavarian nation, owes its origin and its success to Your Majesty; and whatever advantages the sciences may derive from it, must be solely ascribed to the magnanimity and favour of a monarch, who, considering science as the highest ornament of humanity, founds upon it, by means of the wisest institutions, the happiness of his people.

Penetrated with feelings of the most profound gratitude, we, therefore, venture to approach Your Majesty's throne, and most respectfully to offer to the best of kings the first fruits of our mission.

Encouraged by Your Majesty's most gracious assurance, that, in the performance of our undertaking, we have fulfilled Your

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Majesty's intentions, we are now animated by the wish that the literary description of its results may likewise be found worthy of the approbation of our beloved Sovereign.

With the most profound respect we are,

SIRE,

Your Majesty's

Most devoted and

Most faithful subjects,

DR J. B. VON SPIX.

DR. C. F. P. VON MARTIUS.

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TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

AT a period when the peculiar situation of the immense countries in America, formerly belonging to the crowns of Spain and Portugal, so powerfully claims the attention of the politician, the statesman, and the merchant, no more can be required to recommend a work like that here offered to the public, than the assurance that it is not a mere compilation, got up to meet the exigencies of the moment, but a real and authentic narrative, of a journey through a great extent of a most interesting country, hitherto but imperfectly, or not at all explored, and performed by persons every way qualified to gather ample materials for both instruction and entertainment That such a feeling is very general may be inferred from the numerous works that have been published of late years relating to different parts of South America. In exploring this vast continent, peculiar merit belongs to the Germans, to whom the illustrious name of Von Humboldt alone, secures, without dispute, the palm of superiority. The removal of the Court of Portugal from Lisbon to Rio de

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Janeiro, opened an extensive field of research, of which the Germans amply availed themselves. Many men, well-versed in different branches of science, especially mineralogy, entered into the service of the Court of Rio de Janeiro, and very interesting communications sent by them, have been published in the German literary journals, though it is to be regretted that few of them have become known in this country. The marriage of an Austrian Princess with the Crown Prince of Brazil, gave, however, the most powerful stimulus to the German literati, and the fairest opportunity for visiting Brazil with all the advantages that the protection of the government could afford. Accordingly the Emperor of Austria sent several learned men, well skilled in the various departments of natural history and natural philosophy, in the suite of the Archduchess his daughter, and His Majesty the King of Bavaria embraced this favourable opportunity to send two members of the Academy of Sciences at Munich, who would thus be under the protection of the Austrian embassy, and enjoy the best recommendation to the Court of Rio de Janeiro. The particulars being detailed in the first chapter of this work, it is unnecessary to dwell on them here; but it may be observed that this is the first account yet published by any of the German literati who went to Brazil with the Austrian legation, excepting some essays on subjects of natural history, as well by the authors of this work, as by

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some of the Austrian naturalists which have appeared in different German journals. Professor Natterer, one of the most distinguished of the latter, has not yet returned to Europe, but may be expected in the course of this year. With regard to Messrs. Spix and Martius, they have adopted, in a great measure, the plan of Baron Von Humboldt, having published, besides this personal narrative, three or four separate works, each exclusively dedicated to some one branch of natural history.

As the volumes now offered to the public contain only the first half of the personal narrative, (the remaining part being in the press) it may not be irrelevant to acquaint the reader, that notwithstanding the interest which it is hoped will be excited by these volumes, it may be justly expected that the remaining part will be found to possess still greater novelty, and to afford more ample information, and more striking incidents. In confirmation of this assurance, I add the following outline of the latter part of their travels in Brazil The fatigues that they had to endure in the sequel of their expedition having brought on severe illness, they rested for a time in the capitania of Maranham, whence, as soon as they were sufficiently recovered, they proceeded to the island of SL Louis and after a six days' voyage by sea, from that place, landed at Para. Having at length reached the banks of the majestic and immense river of the Amazons, bounded by a lofty and

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evergreen forest, they had attained the chief object of their wishes; and setting out on the 21st of August, 1819, proceeded along the bank of the stream (amidst a chaos of floating islands, falling masses of the banks, immense trunks of trees carried down by the current, the cries and screams of countless multitudes of monkeys and birds, shoals of turtles, crocodiles, and fish, gloomy forests full of parasite plants and palms, with tribes of wandering Indians on the banks, marked and disfigured in various manners, according to their fancies,) till they reached the settlement of Panxis, where, at the distance of 500 miles up the country, the tide of the sea is still visible, and the river, confined to the breadth of a quarter of a league, of unfathomable depth. They then journeyed to the mouth of the Rio Negro. From this place every thing becomes more wild, and the river of the Amazons resumes its ancient name of Solimoës, which it had from a nation now extinct The travellers had chosen the most favourable season of the year, when the numerous sandy islands, which are at other times covered, rising above the now low water, invited the inhabitants of the surrounding tracts, who piled up in heaps the new-laid turtles' eggs, out of which, by the aid of water and rum, they prepared the finest oil.

At the town of Ega on the Rio Teffe the two travellers separated. Dr. Martius proceeded up the collateral stream, the Japura, overcame, by

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the most painful exertions, the cataracts and the rocks on the river, and at length arrived at the foot of the mountain Arascoara, in the middle of the southern continent, separated from Quito only by the Cordilleras. Dr. Spix proceeded up the main stream, crossed the broad rivers Jurua and Jurahy, and the Spanish river Iça, and penetrated at length, through clouds of poisoned arrows discharged by the Indians, and of venomous insects, through contagious diseases, and threatening mountain torrents, to the mouth of the river Jupary, at the last Portuguese settlement of Tabatiaga, on the frontiers of Peru, where he heard the language of the Incas. Had the two travellers prosecuted their enterprise, a few weeks longer, they would have reached the opposite shores of the South American continent. But to effect this they needed the permission of the viceroy of Peru, and the time allowed them for their journey, would not permit them to extend it further. They again turned to the east, and the stream carried them down so rapidly that they arrived in five days at the place, from which it had cost a full month's exertion to work their way up the river. After several lateral excursions, which amply repaid their labour, they again reached Para on the 16th of April 1820. The object of their mission was completed: the continent had been traversed from 24° south latitude to the Equator, and under the line, from Para to the eastern frontier of Peru; an in-

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credible store of natural treasures, and of curious information had been acquired. It is a mort gratifying circumstance that all their collections, without a single exception, have arrived safe, and in perfect preservation at Munich, where His Majesty the King of Bavaria has had them all scientifically arranged, according to the several divisions of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, in a noble building fitted up expressly for their reception, under the appropriate name of the Brazilian Museum, of which the indefatigable travellers, to whom it owes its existence, are mort deservedly appointed conservators.

With respect to the translation, I do not feel it necessary to say more, than that it has been executed with all the care that I could bestow upon it, and that in the whole of the mineralogical part, especially the notes, I have had the assistance of one of the ablest mineralogists in the kingdom, to whom, though I do not feel myself authorised to mention his name in this place, I cannot refrain from returning my acknowledgments for the additional value which the work has derived from his liberal assistance.

H. E. LLOYD.

London, March 1824.

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CONTENTS

OF

THE FIRST VOLUME.

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

preparation for the Expedition.—— Journey from Munich, by way of Vienna, to Triest.

Page 1——18

Occasion and object of the journey.—— Preparation for it —— Stay at Vienna. —— Meeting with the Austrian naturalists belonging to the expedition to Brazil. —— Journey by way Of Laibach and Idria to Triest. —— Excursion to Venice. —— Return over land to Triest. —— Marine productions of this country. —— Arrival of the Imperial Austrian embassy.——NOTES.

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CHAPTER II.

Departure from Triest. —— Voyage through the Adriatic and the Mediterranean to Gibraltar.

Page 19——52.

Storm in the Adriatic. —— Stay at Pola. —— Voyage in the Adriatic, along the Dalmatian and Italian coasts. —— Stay at Malta. —— Lavalletta. —— Citta Vecchia. —— Voyage in the Mediterranean. —— Phosphorescence of the water of that sea.——Arrival at Gibraltar.——NOTES:——The plants of Pola and the vicinity. —— The Fauna and Flora of the island of Malta.

CHAPTER III.

Stay at Gibraltar, and in the vicinity. Page 53——80.

The town and its inhabitants. —— Mount Calpe. —— Osseous breccia. —— St. Roque. —— Algesiras. —— Tarifa. —— Observations relative to Natural History. —— The Strait of Gibraltar, and the currents in it.——NOTES:——List of animals and plants found about Gibraltar and Algesiras.

CHAPTER IV.

Voyage from Gibraltar to Madeira, and thence across the Atlantic Ocean, to Rio de Janeiro.

Page 81——130.

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Passage through the Straits of Gibraltar. — The Atlantic Ocean. — Sea-sickness. — Arrival at Madeira, and stay in that island. — A description of the island with respect to Natural History. — Voyage past the Canary Islands. — Observation on Natural Philosophy and Natural History, reletive to the winds, the temperature of the air, of the water at and below the surface, to the barometer, the areometer, the hygrometer, the electrometer, the variation of the needle, the currents, the lightnings, &c. — The Atlantic Ocean to the Tropic of Cancer, from that to the Equator, and thence to Riode Janeiro. — Phosphorescence. — Flying fish, tunny fish, sharks, sea-fowl, mollusca, &c. — Natural and Mathematical Equator. — Fear of pirates. — Feelings on passing the Equator. — A day between the tropics. — Communication with a vessel. — The coast of Brazil. — The llhas Abrolhos. — Rocks and shoals. — Trinidad. — Perilous situation of the crew of a French vessel. — Arrival. — The harbour of Rio de Janeiro. NOTES: — The dyer's lichen. — The vegetation of the islands of Canaria and Madeira. — Animals near the equator. — Equatorial limits of the north-east and south-east trade winds.

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BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

Stay in Rio de Janeiro. Page 131——205.

Description of the city. —— Population.—— Influence of the residence of the court. —— Library. —— The press. —— Schools. —— Foundation of a chirurgical school. —— Great want of a university. —— Academy of arts. —— The climate. —— The mode of living of the people. —— Character of diseases. —— Hospitals. —— The public promenade. —— Slave trade.—— Commerce. —— Imports and exports of the capital, and the interior. —— The bank. —— Money. —— View of the duties of customs in Brazil, and of the exportation from Rio de Janeiro. —— NOTES: —— A royal passport. —— Duties of customs, &c.

CHAPTER II

Excursions in the environs of Rio de Janeiro.

Page 206——268.

Natural history of the environs. —— The aqueduct of Caryoca. —— Noble prospect from Mount Corcovado. —— Tijuca. —— Lake Camorim. —— The coffee plantation of Dr. Lesesne —— Lagoa de Rodrigo Freitas. —— Botanic garden. —— Tea plantation. —— Gunpowder manufactory. —— Islands in the Bay of Rio de Janeiro. —— Porto de Estrella, on the high road to Minas Geraës. —— Stay at Mandiocca, the country -seat of Mr. Von Langsdorf. —— Visit to the Serra

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dos Orgaos. —— Description of the forest, of the plants, and animals. —— Rocks, their formation. —— Way over the Serra to Corrego Seco, and as far as the passage of the river Paraiba. —— Agriculture, and the obstacles to it —— Considerations and counsels for European settlers —— The weather at Rio. —— Preparations for the journey into the interior. —— The arrival of Her Imperial Highness the Princess Royal of Brazil.

CHAPTER III.

Journey from Rio de Janeiro, to the city of S. Paulo

Page 269——327.

Departure to Campinho, and S. Cruz, the estate of the Prince Regent. —— Chinese settlers. —— Taguahy. —— Last view of the sea-coast from the Serra do Mar. —— Retiro. —— Fazenda dos Negros. —— Bananal. —— S. Anna das Areâs, and the Indians there. —— Tacasava. —— Lorena. —— The Serra de Mantequeira. —— Beginning of the grassy Campos. —— Rio Paraiba. —— Guarantinguetá. —— Pendamonhangaba. ——The different forms of vegetation. —— Taubaté, and its inhabitants, the first discoverers of the gold mines. —— Frequency of goitres, especially in the women. —— Causes and cure of them. —— Jacarehy. —— Aldea da Escada. —— Indians there. —— Description of the Cafusos descendants of Indians and Negroes, with natural perukes a foot high. —— Mogy das Cruces.

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DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES

IN

THE FIRST VOLUME.

VILLA VELHA Frontispiece.

A village consisting of scattered houses, a league to the south-west of the Villa do Rio de Contas in the interior of the capitania of Bahia. The grotesque mica-slate mountain, Serra do Rio de Contas, or de Brumado, forms the back-ground of this luxuriant landscape. In the foreground are palms, calabash and gum anime trees (Carica, Papaja, and Hymenea Courbaril); and negro slaves are employed in gathering cotton.

A BOTOCUDO and A COROADO To face page 143.

We are obliged to His Serene Highness Prince Maximilian of Neuwied for this portrait of a Botocudo.

The Coroado is the portrait of our attendant, Custodio, who accompanied us on a great part of our journey through the interior. See Vol. II. page 264.

MANDIOCCA To face page 238.

The farm of M. Von Langsdorff at the foot of the Serra de Estrella, the continuation of the Serra dos Orgaos; on the north side of the bay of Rio de Janeiro, and on the road to Villa Rica, the capital of the capitania of Minas Geraës.

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A MAMELUCA and A CAFUSA To face page 316.

The Mameluca is a woman of the lowest clan in the province of S. Paulo, descended from a father of the European, and a mother of the American race. The goitre is frequent in many parts of this province, and is almost considered as an ornament.

The Cafusa is likewise a female of the lower class in the province of S. Paulo. The Cafusos are a middle race, between the American and the Negro. The smooth hair of the former and the wool of the latter are modified in their mixed descendants into a high curly kind of peruke. The custom of smoking is general in this province, especially among the lower classes. See page 324.

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DESCRIPTION OF THE FOLATES

IN

THE SECOND VOLUME.

DIAMOND WASHING AT CURRALINHO…Frontispiece.

The negroes looking for diamonds, sit in row on a bench in a shallow pond. Some are busy washing, in wooden bowls (pateas, gamellas), the gravel taken from the bed of the river; others hold up their arms, with their fingers spread, to show that they hare found nothing in the bowls, which are swimming empty in the water, or they are fetching fresh gravel from the heap near them. Before the pond is a bowl with clean water, into which a negro is going to pat the diamond he has just found, after holding it up between his fingers to show it. To the right and left, on a seat a little raised, and under a kind of parasol, is an overseer to watch the negroes at their work. The director, who is just arrived, puts the diamonds that have been found into a bag.

JCRI and MIRANHA To face page 41.

Juri is the son of, a cacique of the nation of the Juri, and the tribe Juri Cómas, on the Rio Puréos, which flows into the Japurá, whom we delivered from his captivity among the Miranhas, and carried with us to Munich.

Miranha is a girl of the cannibal tribe of the Miranhas, a warlike and numerous nation on the upper part of the Rio

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DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES

Japurá. in the capitania of Rio Negro, on the frontiers of the Spanish province of Popayan. This young girl also accompanied us to Munich.

VILLAGE OF THE COROADOS. To face page 232.

Residence of several families of Coroados in the forest near the fazenda of Guidowald, on the Rio Xipoto. Some women are pounding maize in the hollowed trunk of a tree, others take the boiled flour from the pot, chew it, and put it in again, as a leaven, to prepare an intoxicating beverage. Another group. chiefly men, are employed about the fire, where the repast is prepared. Some Indians are resting in their hammocks.

FESTIVAL OF THE COROADOS. To face page 234.

A horde of Coroados beginning their drinking bout at the fazenda of Guidowald, stand round the vessel filled with the beverage, Eivir. The leader opens the solemnity, endeavouring, as it were, to chase the evil spirit, by rattling with his Gringcrina. He dances, stamping with his foot in triple time. The others wait till the exorcism is over, and the filled cup goes round.

RANCHO, NEAR THE SERRA DO CARACA.

To face page 287.

A rendezvous for travellers in Minas, at which a caravan carrying cotton, has just stopped. Some negro slaves bring wood and water and prepare the dinner, others drive the mules to pasture, arrange the baggage, or assist the Arieiro to shoe the mules. The young negro slave of the owner, who is riding up, is fixing the hammock for him. In the neighbouring building the Vendeiro is selling provisions.

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TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE VOYAGE. —— DEPARATURE FROM MUNICH; JOURNEY BY WAY OF VIENNA TO TRIEST.

AMERICA, which was unknown to us till within a few centuries, has, from the time of its discovery, been the object of the admiration and the regard of Europe. The advantages of its situation, the fertility and diversified riches of its soil, held out equal attractions to the European colonist and merchant, and to the scientific inquirer. This new country was rapidly peopled, and unfolded to our view, by the active intercourse with the mother country, and by the exertions of the learned men, who, animated by a laudable emulation, endea-

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voured to make themselves acquainted with it by extensive journeys into the interior. In this respect we are infinitely indebted to many enterprising travellers of former times, but more particularly to those of the last half century, through whose immortal labours America has been more successfully explored than any of the continents of the Old World, Europe alone excepted. Notwithstanding, however, the great advances we have made in our acquaintance with this part of the world, it still offers so wide a field for research and discovery as would greatly extend the sphere of human knowledge. This observation is peculiarly applicable to Brazil, the heart of this new continent; and which, although it is the most beautiful, and most richly endowed portion, has been hitherto but thinly peopled and imperfectly known.

His Majesty the King of Bavaria, the generous patron of the sciences, sensible of the advantages which would accrue to them, and to the interests of mankind in general, from a more accurate knowledge of America, directed the Academy of Sciences at Munich, about the end of the year 1815, to draw up, and lay before him, a plan for a literary tour into the interior of South America. Among others selected for this expedition, were the two academicians, authors of the present narrative. Dr. Spix for zoology, and Dr. Martius for botany. The original plan was, to proceed from Buenos Ayres, by land, to Chili; thence to travel northwards to

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Quito; and to return by way of Carraccas or Mexico to Europe.

Some difficulties, however, presented themselves, which obliged His Majesty's government to defer the execution of this project. But His Majesty's wish for the fitting out of this expedition being again revived, the marriage of Her Imperial Highness Caroline Josepha Leopoldina, Archduchess of Austria, with His Royal Highness Don Pedro D'Alcantara, Crown Prince of Portugal, Algarve, and Brazil, presented the most favourable opportunity for gratifying it. At the time of the conclusion of this alliance, which was to unite Europe more closely with the New World, His Majesty the King of Bavaria was at Vienna in person; and the Imperial Court having resolved to send some scientific men to Brazil, in the suite of the august bride, the king made arrangements for some members of his academy to accompany the Austrian expedition, with the same views towards the advancement of knowledge. The flattering choice fell upon us; and we accordingly received on the 28th of January, 1817, directions to repair, without loss of time, to Vienna, and thence to Triest; there to embark on board the frigates, which were already equipped for their voyage, to Rio de Janeiro. The Royal Academy of Sciences, at the same time, received orders to furnish us with instructions, not only respecting the principal departments with which we were specially charged, but also, generally, relative

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to all that might fall within the sphere of our observations and researches, and to provide us with those instruments, the judicious employment of which, during the course of the expedition, might be productive of results particularly interesting to science.

In consequence of these commands, the travellers were recommended to direct their chief attention towards enriching the two departments of zoology and botany, and at the same time to keep in view the other branches of science, as far as time and circumstances should allow. Dr. Spix, as zoologist, engaged to make the whole animal kingdom the object of his observations and labours. With this view he had to observe the inhabitants, whether aborigines or colonists; to remark the different effects of climate upon them; their physical and intellectual powers, &c: the external and internal conformation of all the indigenous animals; their habits and instincts, and the geographical limits in which they are found their migrations: and, lastly, to investigate the fossil remains of animals, those most authentic records of the past, and most convincing proofs of the gradual development of the creation. Dr. Martius, as botanist, undertook to explore, in its whole extent, the vegetable kingdom of the tropics. Besides the study of the botanical families peculiar to the country, he was particularly to examine those forms which, by their affinity or identity with those of other countries.

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lead to conclusions respecting their original country, and their gradual diffusion over the surface of the globe. He proposed connecting these researches with climatic and geognostic observations; and to this end to extend them to the most insignificant members of the vegetable kingdom, such as mosses, lichens, and fungi. He was likewise to observe the changes which both the native and exotic plants undergo, when exposed to certain external influences; and to investigate the history of the soil, and the method of cultivation there in use. An examination of the internal structure, and of the development of tropical plants, promised interesting solutions of the laws of vegetable life in genera), as the observation of any traces that should be discovered of an earlier vegetation, now extinct, might afford materials for the foundation of a geognostic theory. Lastly, he conceived he should promote the object of the mission by an accurate investigation of the Brazilian materia medica, drawn from the vegetable kingdom, as well as of all other vegetable substances, the use of which might be interesting to arts and manufactures, and by carefully indicating the manner in which they are employed in their native country. But besides the observations and researches in the departments peculiar to each professor, in which reciprocal assistance and support were presupposed, they were particularly enjoined to complete, as far as possible, the collections of the academy, by send-

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ing specimens of all the natural productions of the several kingdoms, as the best certificate of the observations made.

In addition to these instructions, each particular branch of study at the university had its peculiar claims upon the industry and observation of the travellers. With respect to mineralogy, they were instructed accurately to observe the geognostic relations in which the different formations of the mountain masses in general and to each other; their succession, magnitude, thickness, and particularly their dip; and, farther, to examine the hitherto problematical production of gold, of diamonds, and other precious stones, as well as of all the more important fossils. In physics, they were to observe the declination and inclination of the magnetic needle, its daily variation; the phenomena of electricity, according to the several degrees of latitude and longitude; the transparency and colour, the phosphorescence, temperature, and saltness of the sea in different regions, and at various depths; the temperature of the atmosphere; the phenomenon of the Fata Morgana; the mean temperature and the differences of climate in various parts of the continent; the periodical oscillation of the barometer; the different elevations of the ground; the traces of the gradual receding or advancing of the sea, on the coasts; the currents, the local anomalies in the tides; the electricity of the fish, &c. The historical and philosophic-philological classes of the university recommended

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attention to the different languages, national peculiarities, religious and historical traditions ancient and modern monuments; such as writings, coins, idols, and, in general, whatever might throw light on the state of society, and the history both of the aboriginal and other inhabitants of Brazil, or which concerned the topography and geography of that hitherto so imperfectly known country. In order to satisfy, to the utmost of their power, these duties and wishes, the two travellers exerted themselves to provide every requisite for to great an enterprise, and to make, without loss of time, the necessary preparations. After every thing possible was got ready, and the books, instruments, medicine chest, and other travelling equipage, sent off direct to Triest, they set out from Munich on the 6th of February, 1817, for Vienna.

In this imperial capital, where they arrived on the 10th of February, they were favoured with the most active and generous support, by His Highness Prince Metternich, and by His Excellency Baron Von Stainlein, the Bavarian ambassador, in the further preparations, and in collecting what was necessary to accomplish the scientific objects proposed by the enlightened sovereigns. M. Von Schreibers, director of the Imperial Museum of Natural History, — as honourably distinguished in the learned world by his writings, as amiable in private life, to whom the organization of the Austrian scientific expedition

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to Brazil was confided,——had the goodness immediately to introduce them to the learned gentlemen selected by the Austrian government, who were to be their fellow travellers. Professor Mikan, from Prague, was appointed for the departments of botany and entomology; Mr. Pohl, M. D., for mineralogy and botany; Mr. Natterer, assistant in the Imperial Museum of Natural History, for zoology: Mr. Th. Ender, to be landscape painter, Mr. Buchberger, botanical painter; and M. H. Schott, son of the worthy superintendent of the University Garden, to be gardener, the two last were assigned as assistants to professor Mikan: there were besides with the company a huntsman and a working miner.

Rejoiced at the acquaintance with our future companions, we longed for orders to set out together for Triest But as several circumstances left it doubtful when the two Austrian frigates would sail, we employed the time that we had remaining, partly in further preparations for the voyage, especially in procuring maps and other things which could not be purchased in the New World, or only at a very great expence, and partly in visiting the learned men residing in the capital. Among these were the venerable Baron Von Jacquin, the Nestor of German botanists (since unfortunately dead), who had himself passed many years in the West India islands, and on the Terra Firma, with such great advantage to science, and

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whose counsels were extremely welcome to us; his worthy son; Messrs. Prohaska, Trattinik, Host, Portenschlag, Bredemeyer, Prechtl, Meissner, &c; all of whom testified great interest in our enterprise. But what. particularly animated our courage and enthusiasm was the personal acquaintance of M. Ferdinand Bauer, the painter, who had accompanied Captain Flinders on his voyage in the South Sea and to New Holland, and was then actually engaged in pourtraying the strange forma of plants and animals of those remote regions.

We left Vienna on the 4th of March to repair to Triest. At Grätz we visited the Johanneum, founded by His Imperial Highness the Archduke John of Austria. This excellent institution is chiefly designed for the propagation of practical knowledge in the departments of natural history and the arts, and is a noble monument of the esteem of its princely founder for the sciences. On this occasion we became acquainted with the professors Chrys. V. Vest and M. Fr. Mohs, and if our time had permitted, would willingly have explored the beautiful environs of the capital of Styria, in company with those able enquirers; but circumstances were imperious, and we hastened away to visit the quicksilver mines of Idria. We thought it would be very interesting to obtain by personal inspection, a knowledge of those mines, the produce of which must prove of incalculable benefit to Brazil, rich as it is in gold,

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when the importance of amalgamation shall be understood there as well as it is in Peru and Mexico.

From Laibach, the residence of the aged and venerable Baron Von Zoys, who is still ardent in the study of natural history, and in possession of an admirable collection of the minerals of the country, we proceeded to Idria, which lies two poets to the aide of the high road. The way, after many windings, leads into an extremely deep valley, in which the little town is situated. We passed some days there, in examining the curious formation of the slate clay, which forma an extensive bed in compact limestone, of the rich hepatic mercurial ores, especially the coral ore, which represents concentric lamellar, roundish concretions, resembling petrified bivalves, and, lastly, of the extensive smelting-houses, which for many years have furnished annually three thousand quintals of quicksilver. Returning to the high road, we visited, near Adelsberg, the caves in what is called the cavern limestone, in which are found not only loose skulls and other human bones, together with rosaries, but also remains of animals resembling the tapir, imbedded in the limestone. We were very desirous of visiting the neighbouring lake of Zircknitz, famous for its rising and failing; but the object of our journey required haste, and we set out immediately, after having by a fortunate chance obtained eighteen

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living specimens of the Proteus anguinus which is found here. As it is not yet fully decided whether this animal, which in is structure is between lizards and fishes, is only a larva or a perfectly developed animal, we took half of those we had procured to the torrid zone alive, in order, if possible, to promote their metamorphosis by the greater heat; the other half we sent to the Royal Academy at Munich, that they might be duly examined. Our road led us over the declivity of the Julian limestone alps, on which many masses of rock containing petrified shells lie scattered about, down to the fine seaport of Triest, where we arrived on the 10th of March. From the heights at Obczina, we had a noble view of the Adriatic Gulf, extending between the Italian and Istrian coasts; and saw the two Austrian frigates, whose masts rose above all the rest, lying at anchor, ready to sail.

The situation of Triest, the capital of Illyria, on the Adriatic, renders it one of the most important seaports of Italy for the Levant trade. The old town is built along the declivity of a mountain, on which the castle stands; the new town on the sea shore; the latter consists of some handsome streets with large houses, on a canal, by means of which the merchants' goods are conveniently brought front the sea to the interior of the town. The inhabitants are partly of Greek, Illyrian, and Italian, but principally of German origin. The market, amply furnished with the finest southern fruits, as well as the rarest produc-

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tions of the sea, proves, by the union of the produce of the north and of the south, the happy situation of the city. Though a high mountain rises near it, and that on the north side, the harbour is not sufficiently protected against winds, and the cold is sometimes severe. The warm sirocco, which often blows over from Africa, is very relaxing, and frequently brings on diseases. At the time of our arrival the vegetable world was almost dead, and excepting Helleborus hyemalis, Crocus reticulatus, and Primula acaulis, we found on the bare ground scarcely a sign of the approaching spring. The sea, however, afforded a more ample supply of animals and marine plants; which, with the collections made on our way hither, and the insects which we obtained from naturalists here, were sent to the cabinet of natural history at Munich.* A painful sensation was excited in us by the information which we received, some days after our arrival, that the room which we occupied in the hotel where we put up, was that in which Winkelmann met his death from the hand of an assassin. We were here neighbours to the commander of the two frigates, Signor Nicola de Pasqualigo, a noble of Venice; a seaman, as much distinguished by general information and nautical knowledge, as by his courage and resolution, of' which he gave proofs in the last war. He immediately took us to our future quarters on board

* See Note, page 17.

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the Austria frigate, which, as well as the Augusta, was built and equipped in the arsenal of Venice, and were destined by the Austrian government to receive on board the greater part of the extraordinary embassy, and of the legation to the court of Brazil, the members of the scientific expedition, and some agents for the commercial intercourse to be opened with Brazil, as well as the Austrian mercantile articles intended for that purpose. Some of the officers and crew were Germans, but the greater part Venetians.

Every thing was ready for sailing, and we too had completed alt our preparations, when news was received that it would be above a week before the embassy would arrive. We resolved, therefore, before we quitted our native land, to view the treasures of art at Venice. A favourable opportunity for this plan was offered by the return of an imperial brig to Venice, which had brought from the arsenal some stores necessary to complete the equipment of our two frigates. We sailed in the night of the 25th of March, and in the morning were already at the entrance of the harbour of Venice. The sea ran high, and the motion of the vessel did not fail to produce in us the usual symptoms of sickness; we were therefore doubly rejoiced when we had passed the dangerous entrance, and felt ourselves upon terra firma in the square of St. Mark. In order to make ourselves acquainted with the city, we rowed in one of the black gondolas in use here, through

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the labyrinth of canals, to those noble buildings which remain as monuments of the time when Venice, in possession of the sovereignty of the Mediterranean, brought to the markets of Europe all the treasures of the East Its present state bears testimony to the instability of all human splendour. But every thing great and glorious that the commerce of the world could produce, is preserved in the architectural monuments in the square of St Mark; which the art of Tintoret, Paul Veronese, and Titian, by their warm and vivid colouring, adorned, in the decline of the republic, like the parting beams of the setting sun.

From the top of St Mark's we enjoyed the delightful prospect of the plain of Lombardy, stretched out between the Alps and the Appennines, and so richly adorned with cities and universities. A view of this country involuntarily calls to mind the immortal poets and artists whom its romantic natural beauties have inspired, and fills the soul of the observer with the most pleasing and sublime sensations. In us it excited a wish, to see at least the neighbouring city of Padua, and its once celebrated university. Half a day's journey brought us to that antique place, where we had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with professors Brera, Caldani, and Bonato. In the botanic garden, which formerly, under Guilandinus, so greatly contributed to the reputation of the university, we were struck with some trees, originally brought from the East, and which have now grown

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to a large size; viz. Laurus Borbonia, L. Benzoin, L. Sassatfras, Liquidambar Styraciflua, imberbe, Pinus Cedrus, Acacia Julibrissin, which continue to flourish, in undiminished verdure, monuments of the former glory of Venice. But beyond the limits of this garden, the country, at this season, was still dry and bare; only a few liliaceous plants, such as Hyacinthus racemosus, Erythronium, Dens Canis, Scilla bifolia, Crocus reticulatus, adorning the naked limestone hills. With this excursion the time of absence allowed us expired, and it was necessary to think of returning to Triest. The wind, since our arrival at Venice, had blown so steadily from the north, that, to ensure our not being too late, we resolved, instead of going by sea, to proceed by land, by way of Treviso, to Triest, which we reached safe after an agreeable journey of two days.

Some members of the legation and some of the naturalists had arrived meantime at Triest, and the remainder came the following day; so that our births on board the frigates were assigned us, the baggage embarked, and the whole company took up their quarters on board, on the 7th of April. Baron Von Neveu, counsellor of legation, who was afterwards to be chargé d'affaires at the court of Brazil, had the sole direction of the expedition because the ambassador, Count Von Eltz, was to embark afterwards, with the august bride, at Legborn. He had with him Count Von Schönfeld, and Count Von Palffy, as gentlemen of the

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embassy. All three were on board the Austria, as well as the commander of the two frigates. Quarters were assigned on board the same vessel, to professor Mikan and his lady; the two Bavarian naturalists, Spix and Martius; the Austrian landscape painter Th. Ender; M. Weber, merchant of Triest; and to M. Nerini, Austrian consulgeneral at Cadiz, who took the opportunity of this conveyance to Gibraltar. The Augusta frigate took on board the Austrian naturalist, Natterer; the gardener, Schott; the botanical painter, Buchberger, with some assistants; a mercantile commissioner, and his secretary. The command of this vessel was given to lieutenant-colonel Agurti. The Austrian mineralogist Pohl, and the animal painter Frick, were to make the voyage on board a Portuguese vessel. Count Von Wrbna was to proceed from London to Brazil, to bring thither the first news of the celebration of the marriage by proxy. The two frigates were ordered to sail in company to Gibraltar, there to wait for the Archduchess; who, with her retinue and the embassy, was to embark on board a Portuguese squadron ordered to Leghorn. As soon as all the travellers were on board, and the preparations entirely completed, the governor of Triest visited the two frigates, each of which had forty-four guns, and a crew of 260 men, inspected the crews and the cargoes, and then, with the most ardent wishes for a happy voyage, and amidst the thunder of artillery, took his leave.

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NOTE TO CHAPTER I.

AVES: Larus eyanorhynchus, minutus; Anas fuligula, acuta, fusca, Tadorna; Hœmatopus ostralegus; Totanus ferrugineus; Numerius phaeopus, arcuatus; Ardea minuta. PISCES: Squalus Zygæna, Acanthias, Catulus, centrinus, glaucus, Squatina; Raja Torpedo, R. torp. nigromaculata, Rubus. clavata, spec nova, trunco subtriangulari, mutico, supra cinerascente subtus albo cauda tenui, longissima, inermi, pinna unica supra ad radicem caudœ; Accipenser Sturio, ruthenus; Syngnuthus Acus Hippocampus; Lophius piscatorius; Murœna Anguilla; Uranoscopus scaber; Blennius viviparus; Cottus Scorpius; Scorpœna horrida; Zeus Faber; Pleuronectes hippoglossus, maximus, Solen, Flesus; Sparus Sargus, auratus; Scarus et Labrus, div. spec. Lutianus Linkii; Trigla Cuculus, Hirundo; Scomber Thynnus trachurus; Mugil, n. sp. MOLLUscA: Loligo octopus; Aplysia depilans, fusca; Ascidia mentula, conchylega, n. sp. vesiculosa, appendicibus numerosis; Thetis Coriacea. CONCHYL. Patella sanguinea; Fissurella græca; Mureæ Haustelluna, Brandaris Turbo rugosus; Strombus Pes pelicani; Turritella Tarebra; pholas costata; Cardiuna rusticum; Pecten jacobæum Pectunculus pilosus; Tellina Remies; Arca Noæ; Solen Vagina; Anomia Cepa; Pinna nobilis, pectinata. CRUSTACEA: Astacus marinus, norwegicus; Mantis Squilla; Maja Squinado; Cancer Mœnas, spinifrons; Dromia Rumphii; Portunus Depurator; Oniscus Armadillo, Asellus; Scorpio italicus. INSECT. ELEUTHERATA: Scarabœus stercorarius, sylvaticus, autumnalis; Sisyphus Schaefferi; Copris lunaris, emarginata; Oniticellus flavipes; Onthophagus Taurus, austriacus, nuchicornis, Xiphiss; Aphodius fimetarius, Fossor, Scrutator, fœtens; Hister 4-maculatus, politus; Necrophorus Vespillo, mortnorum; Cetonia florentina, marmorata, obscura, hirta.

VOL. I. C

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aurata; Trichius hemipterus; Carabus catenatus; Chlœnius festivus; Staphylinus hirtus, olens, erythropterus: Buprestis læta; Cantharis fusca, melanure, nigricans; Malachius æneus, bipunctatus; Blaps obtusa, spinimana; Tenebrio obscura; Rhingites populi; Curculio cribrosus, sulcirostris; Pachygaster goerzensis, gemmatus; Cerambyx moschatus; Lamia funesta, tristis; Callidium luridum; Dorcadion pedestre, rufipes; Donacia semicuprea; Galleruca rustica; Chrysomela ænea, Adonides, populi, coriaria; Clythra longimana; Panagœus Crux major; Cryptocephalus auritus. RHYNGOTA; Ligaeus equestris, apterus; Coreus marginatus; Cydnus violaceus; Cimex brassicæ; Cercopis fasciata, sanguinolenta; Parnops, carnea. VERM. ANNUL: Aphrodite aculeata; Holothuria pendactes, elegans. ASTEROID.: Asterias aurantiaca, membranacea, rubra; Ophiurus ciliatus, Caput Medusæ; Echinus edulis. ZOOPHYTA: Medusa, Actinia, div. sp.; Alcyon exos, Ficus, pulmonarius; Spongia cannabina. PLANTE MARINÆ: Fucus vesiculosus, L. et var. spiralis, L., obtusus, Turn. mucronatus, T., ovalis, T., ericoides, T.; Sphœrococcus Teedii; Chondrus crispus laceratus; Zonaria Pavonia; Ulva purpurea; Lactuca Linza; Cystoseira (Halidrys Lyngb.) siliquosa, Ag., Hoppii, Ag., ericoides, Ag.; Sporochnus rhizodes, Ag.; Plocamium coccineum; Gelidium pinnatifidium, gigartinum; Gigartina plicata, purpurascens; Scytosiphon fistulosus, compressus; Cladostephus hirsutus, verticillatus; Sphacelaria aciculata, scoparia; Hutchinsia violacea, stricta; Ceramium elongatum, rubrum, diaphanum, ciliatum; Callithamnion coccineum fruticulosum, corymbosum; Ectocarpus siliquosus; Conferva fructa. (The greater part determined ofter Lyngbye; a few after Agardh.)

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CHAPTER II.

DEPARTURE FROM THIRST. — VOYAGE IN THE ADRIATIC AND THE MEDITERRANEAN TO GIBRALTAR.

ON the 10th of April, at two o'clock in the morning, our vessels weighed anchor, and in the silent darkness of the night quitted the harbour. The sea was calm; and the wind blowing moderately from the north, we made four or five Italian marine miles in an hour. When the company met on deck at sun-rise, the mountains of Friaul were already visible in the hazy distance. The greater part of our company, who had never been at sea before, remained on deck the whole day, and in the mingled feeling of regret and pleasure, which the departure from home excites, fixed their eyes on their native land, as it seemed gradually to recede from their view, till the increasing motion of the ship, and the raw cold wind that swept towards evening over the darkening surface of the sea, compelled the greater number to retire to the cabin. The night passed over quietly; but in the morning we were all awakened from our sleep by an uncommonly violent motion of the ship. Those whom sea-sickness had not rendered insensible,

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readily perceived, from the tossing, cracking, and rolling of the ship, which struggled with the foaming sea, — from the creaking of the masts, the roaring of the wind, the cries of the sailors running backwards and forwards, and the whistling of the boatswain's pipes, that we were in a great storm.

The Bora, a cold, very violent north-east wind, which, especially in spring, frequently blows from the Istrian mountains, and prevails in the northern part of the Adriatic sea, had suddenly assailed the two ships. A black cloud, hanging very low, was the only indication that the officer on duty had of the approach of the gale; so that there was scarcely time to take in the sails. In a few minutes we lost sight of the Augusta, which hitherto had kept at a small distance from us. A thick fog enveloped our ship; a cold rain, mixed with hailstones, which the storm furiously drove before it, covered the deck with pieces of ice of considerable size, and almost froze the crew. The ship was tossed violently; the yards and tackle were torn and broken; the waves rushed through the window into the forecastle, partly filled the hold with water; and at last, when the storm was at ha height, the bowsprit broke short off. The hurricane raged with the utmost fury till noon, when the sea grew calmer, and the bleak Bora being succeeded by a mild east wind, we cast anchor in the middle of the sea, about three miles to the west of Rovigno. In this situation we awaited the break

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of day, all hands being meantime busily employed in repairing the damage that had been done, especially among the cordage, which had suffered by the breaking of the bowsprit. The fine library of Baron Von Neveu was overflowed by the waves, which had beat in the windows of the great cabin, and almost all the travellers had sustained some damage by this furious storm; yet, being now in safety, we were less concerned about our own misfortunes than about the fate of our consort. The passengers, to whom this first trial had been very severe, gradually assembled on the deck, where the view of the great damage so suddenly occasioned, and of the exhausted crew, who were benumbed with cold, completed the impression of the extent of the danger from which we had so providentially escaped.

The gloomy sky having cleared up a little, the ship began to proceed slowly towards the southeast At noon we descried the arid coasts of Istria, on which the sun, just then breaking from the clouds, threw a light stronger contrasted with the darkness of the other parts of the scene. At this moment no sight could be more welcome to us, than that of what might be called a part of our own country. We sailed past the little islands covered with the olive and phillyrea, which lie at the entrance of the harbour of Pola, and anchored near the town. The passengers went on shore the same evening to enjoy the sight of the fine Roman

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antiquities which render this country so interesting. The greatest ornament of this poor little town, which contains scarcely a thousand inhabitants, (though in the time of the Romans it ranked next to Ægida now, Capo d'lstria, the most important place in Istria,) is the circus. It has three stories, each of seventy-two arches, and is one of the best preserved monuments of this kind, which is principally owing to the material of which it is built; a solid, fine-grained limestone. The temple, which the city of Pola dedicated to Rome, under Cæsar Augustus, in a chaste and noble style, with a propylæum of the Corinthian order, is not so well preserved. The porta aurea, a triumphal arch, with columns of the Corinthian order, now serves as a gate to the town.* The Venetians, after they had separated Pola, and many other seaport towns of Istria and Dalmatia, from the dominions of the kings of Hungary, erected a fort here, with four bastions, which, however, is now in ruins. From it there is a fine view of the harbour with its verdant islands, of the town and the colossal amphitheatre, which rises above pleasant groves of olives and laurels.

While our frigate was under repair, we had leisure to make several excursions in the environs of

* Voyage pittoresque et historique de I'lstrie et Dalmatie, rédigé d'après I'itinéraire de L. F. Cassas, par Joseph Lavallée. Paris, 1802. fol.

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Pola, which made us better acquainted with the interesting peninsula of Istria. The mountains, which run from north to south, consist, like the other parts of the country, of floetz lime-stone, and are of the same formation as the Karst, that desolate ridge of mountains, remarkable for its rugged clefts, which runs, several leagues in breadth, from the district of Gorz, in the direction from W. N.W. to E.S.E., to the shores of the gulf of Fiume, and thence southwards to Croatia. Large and small caverns and vesicular cavities, holes, and ravines, which frequently give the mountain the appearance of having been washed by the rains; petrifications, such as Ammonites, Gryphites, Terebratulites, which, however, are not so common in the Istrian peninsula as on the continent, and in the islands of the Golfo di Quarnero, a compact fine grain, large conchoidal fracture fragments, indeterminately angular and sharp-edged, absence of metal, and a whitish-yellow or reddish-grey colour, characterise this lime-stone, which constitutes the chief formation, not only of the peninsula, but of all the islands in the gulf of Quarnero, and of the mountain chain in the north of Croatia. It is said that there are in the peninsula, especially in the northern part, several large caverns which have never been explored, an accurate investigation of which might afford interesting results respecting the fossile remains of animals found in the islands of Osero and Cherso, and still

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more abundantly in Croatia. About Pola itself the limestone is without those fossile bones, indeed almost without petrifications; and towards the sea, where it is inhabited and perforated by innumerable mytili, frequently shews almost horizontal strata from two to three feet thick. In general, only a little would lies over it. In former times, the great stone quarries of Pola and Pirano furnished materials for building the proud palaces of Venice. The vegetation of this dry and rocky soil is by no means luxuriant. The charms of the south European Flora, to which that of Istria belongs, do not consist in those thick and lofty forests, those verdant pastures and rich meadows, that distinguish the north. On the contrary, we are surprised at the nakedness of the hills, and of the plains, destitute of trees, with hardly any thing growing on them but juiceless shrubs; and, lastly, by the want of general cultivation. The Phillyrea lutifolia, Erica arburea, Buxus sempervirens, Cistus Ledon, C. salvifolius Jumiperus Oxycedrus, Pistaria lentiscus, Smilax and Arbutus Unedo, form low, shadowless, dry clumps, which cannot bear a comparison even with our dry pine forests; but the many plantations of olives and laurels have an appearance of softness and lustre, which corresponds with the mildness and transparency of a southern climate. This great transparency, and the beautiful asure of the sky, were observed by us with pleasure in some sun-shiny days during our stay, as infallible indi-

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cations of more favourable weather, and of the approach of spring; some of the harbingers of which, belonging to the vegetable kingdom, were already in full bloom; such as Anemone hortensis, Parietaria judaica, Plantago subulata and Coronopus, Ornithogalum umbellatum, Muscari comosum and racemosum, Ixia Bulbocodium, Ranunculus muricatus and parviflorus, and some others. The season being still so cold, hardly any animals were to be found except a Testacella Europæa, the Scorpio Italicus, and the more common marine animals, such as Aplysia depilans, Holothuria elegans, some fish and medusæ.

The meteorological phenomena here were not very different from those observed at Triest The barometer was at 27° 11′: Reaumur's thermometer in the air was, in the morning, never above 8°; at noon, 10°——11°; in the evening, 6°——7°: in the water, in the morning, 8°——9°; at noon, 9°——10°; in the evening, 8° to 8° 5′. The specific gravity of the sea water was 1.0372. The whalebone hygrometer stood between 39° and 48°.

The naval officer, who had been sent from Pola to Venice, to bring a new bowsprit from the arsenal, and make inquiry respecting the fate of our consort, the frigate Augusta, of which we could obtain no information on the solitary coast of Istria, returned in a few days, with the bowsprit, and the news that the Augusta, after losing all her masts, sails, and boats, had sought shelter in the island of

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Chioggia, and would in all probability be obliged to go from that place to Venice, in order to repair in the arsenal of that city the great damage she had sustained, which was estimated at twenty thousand francs. The bowsprit was soon put up, and on the seventh day the Austria was again ready to sail. The embassy, therefore, resolved to proceed to Gibraltar alone, and there to wait both the Augusta frigate and the royal Portuguese squadron, as well as further instructions from the imperial court of Vienna.

On the 21st of April, at six o'clock in the morning, we weighed anchor, and left the harbour of Pola with a faint east-north-east wind. By the time it was broad daylight we were in the open sea. The horizon was covered with thin white clouds, but the sky in the zenith was of the purest azure, and we indulged in the most pleasing hopes as a faint but favourable wind conveyed us to the entrance of the Golfo di Quarnero. About ten o'clock in the morning we had the south east point of Istria before us, about ten leagues distant We took a last look of the Monte Maggiore, the highest mountain in the peninsula, the summit of which had been covered with snow on the day of the storm, and was not yet free from it. When we had doubled this southernmost promontory, the high mountains behind Fiume rose in the distant back ground to the north, and before us Il Monte d'Osero, a steep barren limestone chain, which

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runs lengthwise through the greater part of the island of the same name, and is a great advantage to navigation, as a mark in these seas, where there are so many rocks and shoals. In the afternoon we passed the island of Sansego. The wind now increased, so that during the whole night we never sailed less than five leagues in an hour by the Illyrian islands of Grossa and Coronata; and the following morning we were in the latitude of Ortona.

At sunrise we saw the island of St. Andrea; at noon, Brasso; and soon after, the Pomo, an insulated rock in the form of a sugar-loaf, with a beetling point on the north side; which was an agreeable sign to us of the rapid progress of our voyage. In the afternoon it was N. N. E. of us; and the larger island of Lissa, which concealed Lessina from us, appeared afterward, in the mist, to the north-east. All these islands still belong to the limestone formation of the Golfo di Quarnero. On the Italian coast we perceived the most southern promontory of the Garganus Mons, the Monte St. Angelo, which was covered with snow very low down, an appearance which agreed with the cold observed by us (the thermometer had never risen above 8° Reaumur). Manfredonia, the saline coasts of Salapia, and the mouths of the renowned Aufidus, in the neighbourhood of which Hannibal humbled the Roman pride, gradually vanished; while Cuzzola, Cazziol, Agosta, and then in the

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back ground Meleda, came in sight, as also the two rocks, Pelagosa, which stand in the middle of the sea, and are inhabited by innumerable flocks of gulls. We left the latter to the windward, and sailed between them and the Italian continent The appearance of the sky had changed several times, and we had some showers; the wind, however, remained constant Monopoli, and the long edge of the coast of Apulia, came in sight on the morning of the following day; and towards eleven o'clock we were in the vicinity of the ancient Brundusium. We clearly distinguished the seashore, which is covered with pines, the broad crowns of which are visible at a great distance. Two small forts seemed to us to lie to the north, and a third to the south of the town, which stands rather more in the back ground. Several watchtowers, built to observe the Barbary pirates, stand along the coast; memorials of a different age from that when Brundusium, the eastern station of the Roman maritime power, sent formidable fleets to sea, and kept Greece subject to Italy. Cicero's complaints, when, avoiding Rome, he came here to pass over to the Peloponnesus, and Cæsar's vast efforts when besieging his rival Pompey, rise before the mind of the traveller, on seeing this ancient maritime town. St Cataldo and the mountains of Lezze became visible before we doubled Capo della St Maria, the extreme point of Apulia, where, on the steep naked coast which stretched

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before us to the north-west, we could discover nothing but one solitary church. In this latitude, where we saw the islands of Merlera and Corfu to the south-east, in a grey mist, and nearer to us the mountain ridge of the island of Fano and the Montagne di Cimara, on the coast of Albania, which joins the higher chain of Pegola, the temperature remained higher the whole day than we had hitherto observed it. The thermometer stood in the morning, in the air, at 9° 50′, R.; in the water, 10°; at noon, in the air, 11° 75′; in the evening, in the air, 10°; in the water, 11° 75′. But the night during which we were in the gulf of Tarento, was again, however, remarkably cold. The horizon was enveloped in dark clouds; and we had frequent lightnings, succeeded by long-continued peals of thunder. The sea in the gulf of Tarento is often stormy and very dangerous, particularly for small coasting vessels. In the night of the 25th we doubled Capo Spartivento, the most southerly promontory of Italy, and with a fresh breeze from K. S. K. directed our course towards Malta, Thus our voyage through the Adriatic sea was happily completed; and we left behind us those countries in which, above all others, ancient and modern history are blended together.

The awfully majestic Etna soon came in sight: its snow-crowned summits were veiled in a thick fog. Soon after we beheld, on the Sicilian coast, about ten miles to the north of us, the renowned

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Syracuse, the birthplace of Theocritus and Archimedes. With the assistance of our telescopes, we distinguished the walls and towers on the east side of the city, and the roofs of several of the principal buildings, which, indeed, seem to retain but little of the splendour of the opulent Syracuse, which Cicero describes as one of the most beautiful cities of antiquity. Recollections of the noble-minded Timoleon,—— of the tyrant Dionysius,—— of the grandeur and magnificence which Syracuse attained alter the conquest of its rival Agrigentum, strike upon the mind of the observer.

The sea in this latitude, as well as in the gulf of Tarento, is of a light-green colour, which is principally owing to its inferior depth. As this colour changes according as the rays of the sun fall, it is hardly possible accurately to determine the various degrees of the blue, green, and grey colour; for the sea apppears in the same place of a much brighter hue when it is strongly illuminated by the sun, than when the horizon is overspread with dark clouds. It is in this place also that we first discovered the phosphorescence of the sea. It was, however, much fainter and more dispersed than we afterwards noticed it on the coasts of Spain, at Gibraltar, and in the ocean, and seemed to arise chiefly from minute mollusca.

The stormy weather had driven birds of various kinds from the Sicilian coast, which came and rested upon the frigate. We caught several turtle-

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doves, a small sparrow-hawk, a goat-sucker, seaswallows, and fly-catchers; all birds which belong to the south European continent, and partly commence from hence their annual migrations over the sea. It is, perhaps, from this circumstance, that the neighbouring promontory of Sicily derives its name of Capo Passaro. The superstition of the Venetian sailors looked upon the doves as a token of a happy voyage: the goat-sucker, on the contrary, was pursued by them as a bird of ill omen, and it found no secure asylum on the rigging.

On the following morning we were already forty-two leagues to the west of Malta, when the wind suddenly settled in the N. N. W. It soon increased, and the waves ran so high, that it was impossible to keep the course to the south-west The frigate rolled so violently, that in a short time the tackling was materially damaged; every thing movable was thrown backwards and forwards; and it seemed dangerous longer to expose the ship to the fury of the waves. As the wind besides threatened to continue, and the captain, taught by former experience in these seas, foresaw that perseverance would only cause delay, he resolved to put back to Malta, there to wait for a more favourable wind. After having been buffetted for some hours by the storm, we accordingly changed our course, and the wind being now in the right quarter, we speedily arrived off Malta, and sailed round the little and great Gozzo, and at two o'clock

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in the afternoon cast anchor in the fine harbour of Lavaletta. Scarcely had the frigate announced its arrival by the customary salute, when the lofty walls of the city were crowded with spectators; but this sight did not surprise us so much as that of a number of naked men, who were drying their clothes in the hollows of the limestone rocks next the beach. They were the crew of a vessel which had suffered shipwreck the preceding day in this harbour. We considered ourselves doubly fortunate in having escaped the danger which threatened us at the entrance into the harbour, and in being able to view this island, whose situation between Africa and Europe renders it so remarkable.

Lavaletta is one of the most glorious monuments of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, founded during the crusades the grand masters of which from the time of Charles V. to the latest period, were established here, after having been driven from Palestine farther and farther to the west. This celebrated order was the fairest fruit of the ancient spirit of chivalry, and its members united by the Christian faith and heroic deeds for the security of Europe against the infidels, have founded in it a monument of general European civilization. The entrance into the harbour of Lavaletta excites admiration and surprise. At the sides of the narrow entrance, steep bastions and forts rise above the lofty limestone rocks, which

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present formidable rows of batteries towards the sea. Behind them a broad road leads up the rock to the city, the houses of which, with flat roots, are built on terraces one above the other. The palace of the governor-general, in the highest part of the city, enjoys a fine prospect over the sea. It still contains many memorials of the order: among others, the portraits of the grand masters; the library of the order, which is said to be rich in ancient works in theology, antiquities, and jurisprudence; and the arsenal, in which there are many trophies taken from the infidels; also the small but very heavy armour of the noble grand master, Lavalette. The church of St. John, built on a small eminence in the city, in bad taste, and overloaded with ornaments is particularly remarkable for its riches in Italian, Greek, and Oriental marble, as also in Egyptian porphyry and serpentine. The paintings, among which those of Matthew Preti, surnamed Il Calabrese, are the best, are chiefly by Neapolitan masters. The separate tongues of the order have their own chapels in the church, which, as well as the vault, contains many fine monuments.

From Lavaletta the way leads to Citta Vecchia, over naked fields, between innumerable little country-houses. The first thing shown to strangers here, in the old town, is the church of Saint Paul the Apostle, who, according to the Acts of the Apostles, suffered shipwreck in a place where

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two currents met, according to the tradition of the people, close to the island. Hence all the environs are looked upon by the inhabitants with religious respect They likewise attribute to the circumstance which occurred upon the apostle's landing, the supposed absence of serpents in the island; contrary to which opinion, we must, however, confess that we saw a snake in the fields. The church of St. Paul is built in the modern style, but overloaded with all imaginable ornaments, ——gilding lapis lazuli, and marble. Not far from the church is the grotto of St. Paul, where there is an image of the apostle as large as life. The stone, of which the cavern consists, supposed by the inhabitants to possess the miraculous power of curing all kinds of fevers, is a marl-like, light, white, brittle limestone, of recent formation, in which there are traces of petrifications of marine shells, still found in the adjacent seas, such as the Mytilus esculentus, and several species of Cardium. Though thousands of chisels have been at work upon this wonder-working rock, the pious credulity of the people cannot observe any diminution of it. We were not permitted to leave the old town without seeing the celebrated catacombs. The entrance to them is in a garden, very near the church of St. Paul. They are extensive intricate passages, hewn in the soft rock, sometimes only a few feet broad, and the height of a man, and sometimes widened into large vaults. Popular tradition ascribes them to the

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first Maltese Christians, who, to escape persecution, built a subterraneous town; and the inhabitants therefore fancy that they can distinguish the church, with the altar and the font, the dwellings of the families, with the kitchens, cradles, and tables, hewn in the rock. Others suppose them to have been the repositories of the wounded Christians brought hither during the crusades, or the burying-places of those who died in that period. They place their origin in an earlier age; and consider them to have been made partly to procure stones for building, and partly in conformity with the custom derived from the mother country, Carthage, and still practised in the time of the Romans, to dig such extensive receptacles for the dead. Those who hold this opinion consider the remains of bones sometimes found here to belong to that period.

Some traces still seem to remain in the features of the Maltese, of the affinity of Malta with old Carthage; or with the Moors, who possessed the island till they were expelled by the Normans. The yellow-brown complexion, — the lank black slovenly hair, and black beard, — the black oblong eyes, — high bushy eyebrows, which give them a malicious look, — sharp, but not disproportionately high cheek-bones, — the high, but blunt nose, — thick lips, — the slender, lean, and rather hairy body, seem to indicate partly an oriental origin, and partly an affinity with the Neapolitans and Sicilians. This oriental origin is remarkably confirmed by the

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peculiarity of the Maltese language, which essentially differing from the European, renders it difficult for the stranger to understand the Italian dialect of the common people, and according to the researches of modern philologists, seems evidently to resemble in its elements (both the words and the grammatical forms) the ancient Phœnician, and still more the Arabian.* The inhabitants seem also to resemble in activity and industry that ancient commercial people. The common people are employed in fishery, including the coral fishery, and also in navigation or in agriculture. The whole island is most carefully cultivated; and the grounds round the city, as well as round the numerous villages, bear the appearance of laborious industry. On every side you see fields surrounded with heaps of stones three feet high, on which the American cactus grows abundantly, and between them numerous stone country houses, not distinguished either for their size or architecture. In the spring the eye dwells with pleasure on the fresh generally diffused verdure; but in the height of summer, when only the moist valleys remain green, the island is said to have a desolate appearance. The ground does not rise into mountains, nor can woods grow in the thin coat of mould upon

* Bellermann, Phœniciæ linguæ, vestigiorum in Melitensi Specim. I. Berol. 1809. Gasenius, Essay on the Maltese Language. Leipzig, 1810.

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the rocks, which is often prepared, or fetched from a distance, with great labour.

The most agreeable part of the island is the Boschetto, a small valley, cooled by the sea breeze, and watered by a stream, with an orange grove, which flourishes in all the luxuriance of southern vegetation. The adjoining country house, built in a chaste style, and belonging to the king, affords a delightful prospect of the sea and the environs. On our return from Citta Vecchia, we visited the country seat of Sir Thomas Maitland, near St. Antonio. We here saw a very fine African ostrich and a lioness, curiosities which are more common here, because the Maltese, as is well known, carry on a trade in live animals. His excellency's garden, which is laid out in the French style, extends on one side to the sea, and is adorned with many fine plants from the Levant and from the Cape, which thrive as in their native soil. Perhaps no part of Europe, even the most southern provinces of Spain and Portugal not excepted, affords a more favourable climate than Malta, for the establishment of a botanic garden, where all the productions of the vegetable kingdom might be successfully cultivated. For this reason the public garden of the city, which existed when the island was in possession of the order, is especially protected by the present government It is under the direction of Fra Carlo Giacinto, a very obliging Carmelite, who communicated to us much interesting information.

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He has paid much attention to the cultivation of fine kinds of fruit, and has published a book on the agriculture of Malta.* The superiority of the Maltese oranges is well known, and they are with justice esteemed the finest in Europe. We tasted some of these fruits in the garden of Sir Thomas Maitland, which might with propriety be called apples of the Hesperides. Citrons in the greatest variety, and the shaddock (Citrus decumana), are as common in the gardens as the carob tree (Ceratonia Siliqua); and fine stone fruit, which, though originally brought from the Caucasus and Pontus, yet attain the highest perfection under this almost African sky. This island produces a little wine, but far from sufficient for its own consumption; but they have fine Salernian, and the strong wine of the neighbouring island of Sicily. Besides the vegetables common in the north, the love-apple (Solanum Lycopersicum) is likewise cultivated. The Indian torch-thistle (Cactus Ficus Indica) and C. Opuntia are common in the gardens, and on the dry walls, and together with the aloe, impart to the landscape somewhat of a foreign appearance. The common people eat the fruit of the cactus, and the leaves are sometimes cut to pieces and given to the cattle. These leaves, which contain a great quantity of carbonic acid, are used at Zante, as an excellent remedy for the stone, and the fleet of

* Saggio di Agricoltura per le Isole di Malta e Gozo. Messina, 1811, small 4to.

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Admiral Collingwood took a stoek of them salted among their provisions. In the sequel of this narrative, we shall have occasion to speak of the importance of these fleshy plants (which derive almost their whole nourishment from the air) to the inhabitants of some of the arid districts of Brazil, and show how necessity and experience direct the most remote nations, to make the same use of the productions of nature. Here, as in Calabria, a very durable and silky thread is made of the fibres of the American aloe. Instead of hay they use the Sula (Hedysarum coronarium), which is sown in fields, and is generally brought to market fresh, in bundles, for sale. This fodder would be preferable to our sain-foin, but seems not able to bear the German winter. A remarkable production of Malta is the Fungus melitensis*, a leafless fleshy plant, which grows parasitically at the roots of the trees on the sea-shore, and was formerly celebrated as a favourite remedy for the phthisis. The people regard the peculiar form of this plant as an evidence of its wonderful virtues, which, however, are not confirmed. Nay, the government itself formerly set a high value on this singular plant, and had it cultivated at Casal Bingli, not far from Boschetto, by two persons, each of whom received an annual salary of fifty scudi. We saw in the fields maize, oats, barley, buck wheat, and beans. The wheat is said to produce, in the worst soil.

* See Note 2. page 50.

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sixteen fold, and in the best sixty-four fold, a fertility which exceeds that of Sicily. Cotton too, which when spun is mostly exported to Spain, the carraway seed (Cuminum Cyminum, L.) and the aniseed (Pimpinella Anisum, L. Sison Anisum, Spreng.), all brought hither from the East, during the crusades, are much cultivated in Malta and the neighbouring Gozzos; one of which, the Lampas of the ancients, even bears the name of Comino from carraway (Cuminum).*

In general the observer is every where struck with the proofs of the extraordinary care with which the industrious inhabitants take advantage of every spot, however small, that can be obtained from the rocky soil, which is almost entirely destitute of mould. Indeed, were it otherwise, this little spot, which does not much exceed six square miles in extent, would not be able to maintain a population of above seventy thousand souls. It is said, however, that the population has decreased since the island has been under the dominion of the English, especially of late years, both by the stagnation of commerce and by diseases. The situation of the island is indeed, on the whole, healthy; but the S.E. sirocco, which blows frequently during the summer and autumn, and in the short passage over the sea from the coast of Africa hither, cannot lose the malignant vapours with

* See Note 3. page 51.

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which it is impregnated, not only causes in most of the inhabitants an unpleasant sensation and great lassitude, but sometimes, when it is of long continuance, has still more pernicious effects on the body, producing great relaxation of the nerves, corruption of the juices, dysentery, putrid fevers, &c. The plague, which was brought in 1813 from Alexandria to Malta, and continued to rage nearly a whole year, carried off a great number of the inhabitants, especially of the lower class; and this distemper was found to be no less fatal here than in the Levant. Of the last hundred who were attacked, only four survived.* During our stay the thermometer was at 26° 00′ of Reaumur, which with a N.N.W. wind, we did not find oppressive when walking out; but if it had been accompanied by the sirocco it would perhaps have obliged us to return to the city. Dolomieu† observes very justly, that the nature of the wind produces a great difference in the external warmth and that which is felt at Malta. In the harbour the thermometer was, at eight o'clock in the morning, in the air 13° of Reaumur, in water from the surface of the sea 12° 5′, and from a depth of twenty-four fathoms 12°; in the evening at eight o'clock, in the air 11° 74′; at three in the morning in the air 8° 4′, and in the water 12°. The specific gravity of the

* History of the Plague, as it lately appeared in the islands or Malta, Gozzo, Corfu, &c. by Tully. London, 1821.

† Voyage aux îles de Lipari. Paris, 1783.

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sea water was rather less here than in the Adriatic sea.

The formation of the whole island, as far as we examined it, has no trace of lava, and consists of a recent marl or tufa like limestone of late origin; in some parts very soft, in others firm, and the fracture showing a fine grain, of a whitish or yellowish colour, and mixed both with numerous particles of mica, and with small, nay, microscopical shells, (now and then a few some lines in length,) or with sharks' teeth. The shells are chiefly of the species of Mytilus and Cardium, and seem, if we may be allowed to judge from the examination of a few specimens, to be of kinds that are still, to be found alive. Beside these petrifications, which are very common in the grotto of St. Paul for instance, the island is said to abound in Terebratulites, Belemnites, &c. The same stone furnishes the admirable materials for building used in the island. The limestone rock is covered either with loose stones, sand, and dust, here and there converted by manure into garden ground, or by a good rich red clay, and lastly, in part by mould imported from Sicily.

The contrary wind which had hitherto detained us at Malta, changed, in the night of the 30th, to a taint S.E., and the frigate lost no time in leaving the harbour. On the 1st of May, at five in. the morning, we had the Capo di S. Dimitro to the W.N.W., Lavaletta distant ten leagues; at seven

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o'clock the Capo was S.W. by W.; the wind continued to increase during the day, so that at half past seven in the morning we already had the middle point of Capo Maritimo, the most southerly point of Sicily, E. by S., about six leagues distant. Here the ship was again visited by many birds, sparrowhawks, swallows, turtle doves, gold thrushes and motacillæ. It seems as if these animals, impelled by instinct to emigrate, resort to points of land where two countries approach the most nearly to each other, and take advantage of ships that sail by, as resting places in their long journey. On the 3d of May we came in sight of the Toro, not far from the Sardinian coast, a bare rock rising from the sea, and soon afterwards of S. Pietro, the most westerly point of that island. Many dolphins sported round our vessel, and, according to the observations of the crew, announced that the wind would abate, as in fact it did soon afterwards.

Several phenomena indicated that we were drawing nearer to the great ocean, among which we may particularly mention the greater phosphorescence of the sea. On the voyage from Triest, we had hitherto seen only detached luminous points in the sea, but now the ship seemed in the night-time to swim in liquid fire, and as it glided along and beat against the waves, the deck was illumined by a bright light The sight of this grand and magic nocturnal phenomenon excites the admiration of every beholder, especially if it is

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the first time he had the opportunity of traversing the liquid element in such splendour. The sea was covered with luminous balls, as large as a hazelnut, and with every wave that dashed against the ship in its course, it seemed to throw out sparks like hot iron, when it is hammered, or like a Catherine wheel, and lighted up all the surrounding objects. Besides these innumerable balls of fire, there were other larger insulated luminous bladders, most frequently near the ship, but likewise at a distance from it, in places where the waves broke in foam. The darker the night grew, the more beautiful did the phenomenon appear; and on moonlight nights it was less visible, and only on the side where the shadow of the vessel fell. This splendid sight has been an object of investigation in the accounts of numerous voyagers. Forster explains it partly as a consequence of the electricity excited by the violent friction of the ship, and partly as phosphorescence from putrefied animal substances or luminous insects. Adanson and the later naturalists, as Von Humboldt and Peron, ascribe this phenomenon entirely to mollusca, zoophytes and other marine animals. We likewise did not neglect carefully to investigate this important subject. We had several vessels filled during the night with the luminous sea water. The hand, or whatever was wetted with this water, shone, and the vessels, when shaken, were full of luminous particles. The water, when examined the following day, by means of an admirable microscope, made

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by Utzschneider and Fraunhofer, showed a number of little bodies, sometimes roundish, sometimes oblong, of the size of a poppy seed. Each of them had at one end, or on the top of the head, a small nave-like opening, having from six to nine fine filaments round it, which float within the bladder, and with which the little animal seems to attach itself to other bodies, and to take its nourishment. In the inside of these bladders we sometimes saw many other small darker points crowded together on one side, or here and there some larger ones, which might be either remains of smaller animals which they had swallowed, or the spawn. These globular animalculæ, which are entirely of the nature of medusæ, and are mentioned by Peron and Lechenault, under the name of Arethusa pelagica, and by Savigny under that of Noctiluca miliaris, swim in greater or less numbers in the sea water taken up at night, and appear to the naked eye, in the sunshine, like little drops of grease. If the water is not changed, or the examination continues too long, they do not remain in the middle of the glass, but fall dead to the bottom. It is remarkable that these globular animalculæ, when they come near together, involuntarily attract each other, and form whole groups, an effect resembling the magnetic phenomena of inanimate substances. We observed a similar phenomenon on a large scale, in the daytime, here as well as on the ocean. Whole masses of those animals swam on

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the surface of the water in long yellowish brown stripes, and looked like a stream covered with sawdust This, however, is never seen except when the sky is covered with thick clouds, which darken the sea. These marine infusoria appear to avoid the light of the sun, and to sink in the daytime to the bottom, to return to the surface as soon at darkness sets in; at least they were not to be found in the water which was taken up in the daytime, but only in that which we took up at night The mode of life and the social instinct which the abovementioned little arethusæ have in common with the other zoophytes, salpæ, &c. may perhaps be the cause that they are met with very frequently in some parts of the sea, and in others very rarely, or not at all. In the bay of Gibraltar they were so abundant, that if we only dipped a hand in the water, a furrow of light wan immediately seen, and the hand when taken out shone in innumerable points. All these facts seem therefore to prove that the phosphorescence of the sea is principally to be attributed to animals. The large fiery balls, often a foot in diameter, which rise singly above the water, or swim about in it, are probably larger mollusca or medusæ, or perhaps bladders in the water, illumined by the phosphoric light of these animals. But besides this insulated or sparkling phosphorescence, there is another, the natural characteristics of which seem not to hare been yet sufficiently distinguished. At some distance from the

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ship, wherever two waves strike together or dash over each other, a shallow bluish streak of light, like the reflection of the lightning on the water, is seen. This light differs from that of the globular animalculæ in not consisting of single sparks or dazzling masses of light, of a bright yellow colour, but being rather equally diffused, and resembling the faint light that proceeds from burning spirits of wine. We do not pretend at present to decide on the nature of this faint light. It might be considered either as the combined, reflection of the sparks of light produced by the animalculæ, or as the process of restoring the balance of electricity between the single waves, or the sea and the atmosphere, as it appears only on the surface of the clashing and breaking waves. We axe almost inclined to adopt the latter opinion, especially when we consider the saltness of the sea water, which increases its electricity, and die corrupt substances in it, by which it is, as it were, rendered more organic and animalised. In all kinds of phosphorescence, oxydation and disoxydation probably act an essential part. Should we be obliged to assume a process of putrefaction in the sea, this is also an organic act, in which the putrefying substance, in the same manner as what is organic, comes into a relation with the atmosphere. But even putting all foreign substances out of the question, the sea has always a similar relation to the atmosphere, as its water, and the salt dissolved in it, become more oxydated

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by its motion. Whether this phenomenon therefore be explained as chemical, physical, or organical, this kind of shining appears as an effect of electricity, and of the process of oxydation in the sea, an effect which is increased and rendered visible by the peculiar beating of the waves. We leave it to other travellers more accurately to investigate and to correct the phenomena which we have stated, of the various kinds of phosphorescence and their causes.

The fresh breeze had carried our ship rapidly past the dangerous Gulf of Lyons, so that on the 4th of May we were off the island of Minorca: on the following day we passed Majorca and Ivica, and on the 6th at noon were off Cape Palos, which was eight leagues distant W. by N. The air was misty and did not permit us to have a distinct view of the land. Many large turtles swam past us, sleeping on the surface, as also several of the abovementioned large masses of zoophytes, which formed yellowish stripes on the sea. On the following day the island of Alboran appeared to the S.E. It is a sterile inhospitable limestone rock, inhabited only by sea birds, and with no other vegetation than the dyers' lichen (Rocella tinctoria, Ach.). It is said that the Moors sometimes land on it to dry fish, or to gather that valuable plant for dying. The mountains of Barbary were but seldom visible, but on the other hand we had almost always the picturesque chain

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of Granada in sight, which presented a grand spectacle when illuminated in the evening by the lightning. The wind had abated, and we could enjoy for some days the sight of the lovely green valleys, adorned with numerous villages and hamlets, extending from the sea towards the mountains. We were particularly delighted with the view of Velez Malaga, in the vicinity of which we could distinguish an aqueduct, and the road of Gibraltar winding through the mountains and pleasant gardens, in which the vine that produces the sweet and strong wine is planted near the olive. Variable faint winds brought us gradually forward, till on the 11th of May we descried the long-extended chain of Morabella, and at length were carried by a rather brisker wind, on the 12th of May at noon, into the bay of Gibraltar, where, amidst the thunder of the cannon, we happily cast anchor in safety.

NOTES TO CHAPTER II.

NOTE 1.

THE plants which we observed about Pola, besides those already specified, are — Poa annua, trivislis; Bromus tectorum, sterilis; Hordeum murinum; Carex extensa, capillaris; Scirpus romanus; Ophrys fuciflora, Arachnites; Asparagus acutifolius; Smilax aspera; Ruscus Hypophyl-

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lum; Ornithogalum umbellatum; Carpinus orientalis; Orobanche major; Antirrhinum Cymbalaria; Acanthus mollis; Ajuga Chamæpitys, genevensis; Glecboma hederacea; Lamium purpureum; Salvia Verbenaca; Artemisia Absinthium; Santolina rosmarinifolia; Leontodan taraxacoides Hoppe, Taraxacum; Bellis perennis; Vinca major; Plantago subulata, Coronopus; Globuiaria vulgaris; Brassica Erucastrum; Crambe maritima; Sisymbrium asperum, monense; Thlaspi præcox; Arabis verna; Erodium maritimum; Geranium rotundifolium; Corydalis capnoides; Paliurus australis; Lathyrus salivus, Nissolia; Hippocrepis comosa; Spartium junceum; Trifolium incarnatum, scabrum, cæspitosum, uniflorum; Coronilla Emerus; Potentilla subacaulis, verna, opaca; Prunus Mahalcb.—— The great number of species printed in Italics, which do not belong to the German flora, in a strict sense, but to that of the shores of the Mediterranean, may prove how much the vegetation, even of Pola, differs from ours. The species of the lowest classes are more similar to the vegetation of our German limestone tracts. Thus we observe of the fern species,——Scolopendrium officinarum, Adiantum Capillus Veneris, Asplenium viride, Pteris aquilina; of mosses and lichens,——Hypnum compressum, splendens, tamariscinum, abietinum, cupressiforme, rugulosum, Dicranum purpureum, Barbula tortuosa, Tortuia apiculata, Lecidea athroocarpa, rupestris, Parmelia murorum, physodes, glauca.

NOTE 2.

Cynomorium coccineum is said to be also found in several places on the coasts of Spain and Morocco, and resembles in its form the tropical parasites —— Aphyteia Hydnors, Cynomorium cayennense Balanophora, and the Langsdorffia hypogæa, which we discovered at Rio de Janeiro, of which we shall speak in the sequel.

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NOTE 3.

We have not yet any Fauna or Flora of tin island of Malta. As a contribution towards it, we will enumerate the following animals and plants, which came under our observation: —— AMPHIBIA: Testudo Mydas; Coluber, indeterm. PISCES: Raja clavata; Squalus Canicula; Uranoscopus scaber; Scomber Pelamys; Trigla Cuculus; Esox Sphyræna; Muræna Helena. MOLLUSCA: Sepia Loligo, octopus; Anomia Cepe. INSECTA: Ateuchus sacer; Pimelia bipunctata; Acheta umbraculata; Meloe lævigata.—— Forskol, in his Flora Ægyptiaco-arabica, p. xii. mentions eighty-seven Maltese plants, almost all of which we likewise found. For the convenience of the reader, the German species are printed in Roman letters, the south European in Italic, and the African in ITALIC SMALL CAPITALS. Festuca pinnata, distachyos, pratensis; Bromus madritensis, rubens; Poa annua, rigida; Rottboellia incurvata, Lagurus ovatus; Hordeum murinum; Ægilops ovata; Avena fatua; Crypsis schænoides; Arum italicum; Juncus bufoniua; Ixia Bulbocodium; Muscari comosum, racemosum; Scilla maritima; Asphodelus ramosus; Allium ciliatum, Cyr. —— Ruppia maritima; Zannichellia palustris.——Rumex Bucephalophorus, acutus; Nibo spinosa, Mönch. —— Salsola frutesecens; Chenopodium Bonus Henricus, album; Beta vulgaris; Salicornia fruticosa. —— Plantago Coronopus, subulata, lanceolata, Psyllium. —— Anagallis Monelli, arvensis; Bartschia versicolor; Rhinanthus Crista Galli. —— Euphrasia officinalis.——Rosmarinus officinalis; Ajuga pyramidalis; Lamium purpureum, amplexicaule; Stachys hirta; Sideritis montana; Prasium majus; Glechoma hederaces; Thymus Serpyllum, Zugis; Salvia Verbenaca, verticillata; Marrubium hispanicum; Clinopodium vulgare; Origanum vulgare.—— Scrophularia nodosa; Antirrhinum Cymbalaria, Orontium siculum, majus. —— Hyoscyamus niger, aureus, albus; Solanum miniatum, Bernh. nigrum, Dulcamara; Datura stramonium;

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Cynoglossum pictum; Eckium creticum; Anchusa italica; Lycopsisarvensis.—— Hyoseris radiata; Hypochœris minima; Seriola œthnensis; Apargia tuberosa; SONCHUS TENER-RIMVS; Picridium vulgare; Cichorium spinosum; Anthemis maritima; Buphthalmum maritimum, spinosum. —— Bellis annua; Chrysanthemum coronarium; Cineraria maritima; Gnaphalium luteo-album; Evax pygmœa; Artemisia Absinthium; CNICUS SYRIACUS: pycnocephalus, lanceolatus; Carduus marianus; Galactites tomentosa; Centaurea melitensis, Calcitrapa, solstitialis.—— Valeriana Calcitrapa; Fedia Cornucopiœ; Scabiosa stellata.—— Sherardia arvensis; Valantia Aparine.—— Hedera Helix; TORDYLIUM HUMILE; Daucus Carota; Crithmum maritimum; Cicuta virosa; Lagœcia cuminoides.——Adonis autumnalis; Ranunculus muricatus.——. Papaver Rhœas; Glancium luteum; Fumaria capreolata, officinalis.——Alyssum maritimum; Raphanus Raphanistrum; Thlaspi Bursa pastoris; Brassica campestris; Biscutella didyma. —— Capparis spinosa; Reseda alba. —— Malva nicœensis, Stelligera, nov. spec, caule prostrato stellato-piloso scabrido, foliis molliter pubescentibus suborbicularibus obsolete quinque usque septemlobis dentatis, floribus duobus vel tribus axillaribus, pedunculis quam folia brevioribus, calycibus pubescentibus, exterioris foliolis lato-ovatis; M. sylvestris; Alcea rosea.——Polycarpon tetraphyllum; Frankenia lœvis; SILENE ATOCION.——Sedum arenarium, Brot. Lotus Tetragonolobus, peregrinus, corniculatus; Lathyrus angulatus; Oxytropis montana; Ononis villosa; Trifolium patens, stellatum, scabrum, tomentosum; Scorpiurus vermiculata, sulcata; Melilotuscœruleus, grœca, tribuloides, apiculata; Melilotus cœruleus, messanensis; Hedysarum coronarium; Anthyllis Vulneraria, with red blossom.——Urtica pilulifera; Euphorbia Esula, helioscopia, nicœensis, villosa. Of the hundred and fifty species of the Maltese flora here enumerated, fifty-six belong to Germany, ninety to the southern part of Europe, and four to the north coast of Africa.

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CHAPTER III.

GIBRALTAR AND ITS EKVIRONS.

THE first part of our voyage was thus concluded, and we had reached the Pillars of Hercules, which have been usually considered as the limit of the boldest enterprises of the ancients. Many of the passengers went on shore the same day, desirous of viewing a country possessing so many claims to our attention. The rock of Gibraltar, Mons Calpe, forms the nucleus of a small tongue of land, which extends into the sea from north to south, and is connected with the continent only by a low sandy slip. On the southern point, called Europa Point, and upon the west side, it rises in the form of a terrace, but towards the north and east its steep walls make it absolutely inaccessible. Its highest point, the Sugar Loaf, is 1439 English feet above the level of the sea, the Rock Battery 1350, the Signal House 1276. Windmill-hill 330, and the lowest spot, Europa Point, 105 feet. The town lies upon the western part, which is the most habitable and level. It is protected by the sea-batteries, and the formidable rows of cannon projecting from the casemates hewn in the upper part

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of the rock. Besides these, batteries occupy the whole circle of the rock, and are discontinued only where the sides are so steep that every attack of an enemy is impossible. The works, which are equally excellent in every point, secure to the place the reputation of being invincible, which it acquired since General Elliot's heroic defence against the combined fleets of France and Spain, in the years 1779 to 1782. The operations of centuries have given its present strength to the northern pillar of Hercules.

The town itself, the greater part of which has been rebuilt since the last three years' siege, consists of low houses, crowded together in one principal street, and several smaller ones running parallel to it, from which the old wall of the Moorish castle, built in 725, extends towards the summit of the mountain. To the south of the town in Red Sands, handsome gardens intended for public promenades have lately been made. Under the sultry sun of this country the children of the Flora of the Fortunate Islands, the North coast of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, and of the East and West Indies, thrive with extraordinary luxuriance. The favourite flowers of the Spaniards from those countries, Jasmin real, Yerba doncella, Arbol del ciclo, Sauzgatillo chino, Pimienta, Arbol del coral, Don Drigo de noche*, rival the beau-

* Jasminum grandiflorum, Vinca roses, Ailanthus glaudulosa, Vitex Negundo, Capsicum fructicosum, Erythrina Corallodendron, Mirabilis Jalappa.

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tiful flowers of the South of Europe. Here and there Urge stems of the Tuna* grow against the garden-wall, as if to give a foretaste of their native western clime. The avenues along the sea-batteries enliven the scene on this side of the mountain, the upper rocky part of which is invested with a scanty verdure, by some shrubs, and the dwarf palm.† On the summit of the mountain lives an African species of ape (Simia Inuus, L.), which several of our party thought they had seen. It was probably brought here by the Moors. Proceeding farther up the mountain you reach a steep eminence, from which there is a surprisingly beautiful view of the sea. Mount Atlas in the S. W., and the mountains of Granada in the N.E.

The sight of two quarters of the globe, and the ocean which separates them, affords to the traveller ample matter for reflection. Along the northeast side there is a narrow path by the sea-shore, by which, however, you cannot go quite round the rock, because the most frightful cliffs soon rise perpendicularly from the sea to such a dizzy height that any path is impracticable. In the most remote accessible part on this side, stands a retired and small country house of the governor's, which is peculiarly inviting by the delightful boundless prospect over the Mediterranean, and by its seclusion

* Cactus Tuna. Ficus indica, Opuntia.

† Genista linifolia, Spartium junceum, Teucrium valentinum, Phlomis fructicosa, Chamæropa humilis.

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and silence. We were here shown, with patriotic pride, the furniture which General Elliot caused to be made out of the fragments of the floating batteries of the besiegers, which were destroyed by his red-hot balls. From this point to the northern end of the rock, towards the neutral ground, which separates Gibraltar from the Spanish line, there is no means of going round the rock but by sea. The bold gigantic form of the naked rock warms the fancy of the painter with scenery peculiar in its kind. The sea breaks with a violent surf against the steep shores, which are here and there hollowed out into deep caverns, which serve as a retreat for wild pigeons. Thousands of little sea-crabs, sea-stars, sea-hedgehogs, sea-nettles, and edible muscle, animate these barren cliffs, which afford asylum to no other living creature. The only place where a landing is practicable, and which is frequently visited by the inhabitants of Gibraltar for their recreation, is occupied by a village of fishermen, called La Galetta. A narrow path leads from thence round the other part of the rock to the northern gate of the town. The wanderer going along this path is almost terrified by the nearly perpendicular ascent of the rock just at the place where it is the highest. From this dangerous path on the precipice, you come at length, by a paved artificial causeway over an arm of the sea, to the town gate.

General Donn, the governor, gave us leave to

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visit every part of the rock, even the fortifications, and endeavoured besides to procure the embassy all the amusements which the insulated sea-port could afford. At a ball we saw the light fandango and bolero of the Andalusians, alternate with the dances of the north; and in the brilliantly illuminated avenues round the palace, were heard sometimes the tender strains of Spanish madrigals, sometimes the plaintive song of a northern bard. This contrast between the south and north, here strikes the traveller at every step. In the mixture of Spanish and English inhabitants, there are many Genoese and Calabrese, who, for the most part, follow the occupation of fishermen and mariners. The number of Jews, most of whom speak Spanish, is considerable. The possession of this place by the English has not yet been able to banish the Spanish manners and language; but the abode of numerous strangers, and the great trade, give a general and comprehensive character to this staple place for the commerce of the Mediterranean, But what completes the diversified picture which the inhabitants of Gibraltar present, is the presence of Asiatics and North Africans. Of the latter, there are many Moors, particularly from Morocco, who sell fruit and fine leather manufactures in the streets. The fair North European, and the tawny native of the south, are distinguished by striking differences in the features of the face, and in their whole figure, from these strangers of oriental

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origin. The physiognomy of the Moore, and other Africans who are met with here, is expressive of firmness and prudence, yet without that look of cunning of which the people of the Semitic race are accused, but rather united with an agreeable frankness, content, and tranquillity of mind. A lofty forehead, oval countenance, large, expressive black eyes, shaded by arched, bushy eyebrows, a well-formed, long, but not too pointed nose, rather broad lips meeting in an acute angle, thick, smooth black hair on the head and beard, brownish yellow complexions, muscular neck, firmly knit, and robust make, with a stature above the middle size, characterise the inhabitants of North Africa as they are frequently seen in the streets of Gibraltar. Among the most dangerous diseases that occur in this bay of the Mediterranean, which, from its situation, is very hot, and especially exposed to the south wind, is the yellow fever. Only a short time previously to our arrival, many persons fell a sacrifice to this disorder. As in Cuba in the Gulf of Mexico, this destructive disease appears here also, in Cadiz, Barcelona, and other maritime towns which do not enjoy a free circulation of air, where it is still more favoured by the heat and the corrupt and enervating exhalations of the salt water.

The rock of Gibraltar consists of compact limestone, generally of a light yellow, ash grey, and smoke colour, and is often traversed with veins of

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calcareous spar of a greyish white or yellowish brown colour. In single drused cavities, the spar is remarkably foliated, and sometimes crystallised in pretty large tables. This limestone rock is, especially towards the N. W. side, more stratified on the surface than deeper down, and contains several smaller and larger caves, so that there can be no doubt that the prevailing formation belongs to that of the Jura, or cavern limestone. In the mass of the limestone itself we discovered no shells, except a single species of sea-snail resembling the Buccinum undatum. The largest of the caves, Gruta de S. Miguel of the Spaniards, or Saint George's cavern of the English, situated almost in the middle of the rock, and 1100 feet above the level of the sea, contains a beautiful grotto, sixty feet high, and two hundred deep, adorned with various sparry petrifications, and supported by colossal stalactical pillars. The limestone in this cavern is traversed by vast fragments of a very fine brown stalactite, of which there are large mantlepieces in the house of the governor. The Pocoroca is a similar cavern, but not so deep. The tendency to the stalactic formation appears, however, not only in the vast pillars of the caverns, but also in the outside covering of many pieces of rock exposed to the air, which have a coat of yellow striped stalactite. On the south side of the town we observed, in the red clay of a ditch, several considerable pieces of a smoky grey

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hornstone, such as frequently occurs also in the Jura limestone.

At Europa Point, and on the east side of the rock between the extreme fortifications of Cave Guard, and the fishing bay of LaGaletta, there lies over this cavern limestone, the well known and remarkable osseous breccia (a limestone breccia), which, towards the sea, forms a mantle-shaped cayern, and seems here to dip in an angle of about 30°. In some places it fills up the rents, clefts, and corroded hollows in the limestone rock itself. The general cement of this breccia, which is chiefly composed of fragments of the same limestone, is a stalactic mass of considerable hardness, a reddish brown colour, and full of vesicular cavities, which occur, without order, from the size of a poppy seed to an extent of several lines. Sometimes it is itself consolidated into reniform pieces of nearly concentric structure: mixed up with it are pieces, partly rounded, and partly angular, of a smoky grey, and of a light grey limestone, of which the greater part of the M. Calpe consists, and it contains kidneys or nodules of a soft very ferruginous, yellowish brown, fine-grained calcareous marl, and rounded grains of quartz of the size of a millet seed. Here and there, are wavy stripes and streaks of calcareous spar, and in the vesicular cavities, druses of a white stalactic limestone. The mixture is very hard, and the ingredients, which have often a thicker stalactic crust close to them,

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are thereby cemented in the strongest manner, and very difficult to break asunder. Petrified bones are very seldom found in this stony mass, but they are so much the more frequent in the more recent bed of the conglomerate, or breccia, immediately over it, which contains the same rounded little grains of quartz, and the other ingredients, though of smaller grain, that is, the rolled pieces, from the size of a hen's egg to that of a bean, as well as a considerable quantity of the light grey limestone, and shows more frequent vesicular cavities. Besides the fossil bones, we found chiefly shells of recent land-snails. They are of the size of half a line to half an inch, partly whole, partly broken. We observed most frequently and clearly the Helix algira; several small white fragments seem, however, to belong to other kinds, perhaps even to sea-shells. The bones and teeth of the various animals themselves, lie pretty much calcined in the breccia, mingled together, not lying in regular strata, without any trace of having been rolled in the water, very seldom entire, more often sharp-splintery, without any connection or orderly disposition of the parts, which naturally belong together. Cuvier*, to whom we are indebted for a very accurate examination of these petrifactions, has declared these bones to be those of ruminating animals and glires, and, as he con-

* Rapport sur les Breches Osseuses, Annales du Mus. d'Hist. Nat. tom. 13. 1809.

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jectures, antelopes or stags, Siberian hares and rats. According to some imperfectly authenticated accounts*, parts of a human skeleton are said to have been found among the remains of those animals: we were not so fortunate as to see such bones anywhere in Gibraltar, or to find them in the stone itself. William and John Hunter corrected the earlier statements of others, according to specimens sent to themselves, and declared the supposed human bones to belong to ruminating animals.

Over the stalactic stratum which we have described; there is a more recent limestone breccia, which lies on the surface of the ground, here and there rent into separate blocks of rock. It consists of a greyish white, or grey limestone, the detritus of calcined shells, very few fragments of bones, and a rather reddish, grainy, mortar-like cement; the pieces of limestone are here smaller, from half a line to six lines in diameter, and instead of the abovementioned grains of quartz, which are entirely wanting, there are whitish, pearl-like globules of stalactic limestone, resembling the Carlsbad pea-stones. The calcined shells arc far more numerous here, and form in a manner, thin strata in the stone; no entire shells indeed are to be found among them; they seem, however, from their thickness

* Drinkwater's History of the Siege of Gibraltar, London, 1786. Imrie, Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. iv. 1798.

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and breadth, to belong to the common oyster; others, from their ribbed edge and convexity, perhaps, to a cockle (Cardium), that is to say, to marine conchylia. The water and air exercise great influence on this soft, and probably still forming mass, as deep cavities are found in it near the sea. The whole of this breccia formation may rise, perhaps, only a few hundred feet next the limestone mountain, and measure in its greatest thickness about fifty fathoms. The appearance of the petrified bones in it is very limited, as far as the country is at present known. They are found chiefly in the rock near Rosia Bay, and southward of the governor's country-house, on the sea-shore where the waves break violently against the cliffs, which in this place are from 30 to 40 feet high.

We have judged it proper to be more circumstantial in our description of the osseous breccia of Gibraltar, because the similar formation in many countries on the Adriatic and the Mediterranean, gives it very great interest in a geognostical view. For besides Gibraltar, some parts of Corsica, Cette, Antibes, Nice* in the south of France, Fustapidama in Corfu, Nona near Zara, and Ragosnitza in Dalmatia, the islands in the Golfo di Quarnero, Osero, Cherso, Sansego, &c., offer a perfectly similar breccia, which was formed from the fragments of the limestone mountains which run in a chain along the coasts of the Mediterranean. The late

* Faujas de St. Fond. Annal. du Mus. tom 10.

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origin of this formation will, perhaps, be more certainly shown, if by continued accurate investigation it shall be proved to contain human bones, as many persons have supposed*, which is not impossible, since the existence of objects of art, such, for instance, as Germar mentions†, has been certified. But the larger masses of osseous breccia, which Spallanzani‡ describes as heaped up in the isle of Cerigo, so as to form a considerable mountain, and the fossils of Vicentin, Verona, and of Concud in Arragon, which are, perhaps, not dissimilar, merit, on that account, to be more accurately investigated by naturalists. It is particularly important in this extensive maritime formation that those remains of bones belong to species of animals of the herbivorous kind, which are still extant, for the most part domesticated, or at least frequently used; whereas the cavern limestone in the interior of the European continent contains only those of bears and carnivorous animals enclosed in a similar manner.

The peculiarity of the mountain of Gibraltar

* James's History of the Herculean Strait. London. 1773. Donati. Storia del Mar Adriatico. Forlis, Saggio d'osservazioni sopra le Isole di Cherso ed Osero. Venez. 1771. iv. p. 99.

† Journey to Dalmatia and Ragusa. Lips. 1817. Where he represents the whole formation of this osseous breccia under the name of an alluvial mountain. Among the substances found in the mass he mentions a piece of glass; iron nails have also been found in it.

‡ Observations on the isle of Cerigo.

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appears in a still more striking manner, when we consider the country immediately adjacent. About half a mile* to the north-west of it, rises another mountain called by the English, "The Queen of Spain's Chair," which extends for many leagues almost directly from north to south. On both its sides, which are very gently sloped, it has in some places verdant pastures, in others, a scanty vegetation of heaths and cistus roses, and on the ridge chiefly bare blocks of rock. This mountain consists of a coarse-grained, red, and yellowish red sandstone. In general it seems not to be regularly stratified; the rare strata run from north-east to south-west, and incline in many different angles to the south-east. Towards the sea, the mountain gradually sinks to the flat sandy tract on the seashore. Most of the mountains which run westward of the Queen's Chair appear to have the same direction. Behind the latter mountain, a hilly country extends, which is adorned with all the charms of luxuriant vegetation and industrious cultivation. The little town of St. Roque, stands on an eminence opposite the western foot of the mountain; avenues of noble American aloes, and flowering bushes of oleander ornament this pleasant hill, the summits of which are crowned by the fortifications of the place, which were once considerable. A low sandy beach not only occupies

* It is not stated whether we are to understand a German mile, which is about four and half English miles. Trans.

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the neutral ground between the fortress and the Spanish lines, which are protected by the two forts of St. Barbara and St. Philip, but extends all round the bay to the Spanish town of Algesiras, situated on the west side of it The quicksand consists of rolled pieces of quartz, flinty slate, a yellowish jasper-like stone, and limestone.*

We crossed this little sandy desert in going from Gibraltar to visit the Spanish lines and Algesiras. At the frontier posts were a few Spanish troops of the line garrisoned in small houses; and, being unprotected from the beams of the sun, have a very disagreeable abode during the summer months: we obtained permission to visit the Spanish territory in our scientific excursion. Besides a few small gardens round the dwellings, we saw nothing on this strand except somesingle strand plants, which but sparingly cover the poverty of this tract, which the wind has raised into sandhills. Lizards, several species of Pimelia Copris, and Scarites, are the chief inhabitants (of the animal kingdom) of this sandy soil. Proceeding this way along the coast we passed two inconsiderable streams. Nearer to Algesiras we entered a little grove of pines. The town itself, a well-built pleasant place, enjoys a delightful situation. To the west of it, are gently rising hills, adorned with lovely verdure, scattered pines and cork trees; and from their summits a charming

* Germar mentions, after Chrysogono, in particular, the existence of horns.

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prospect opens into the valley. A lofty aqueduct brings water from the mountains, across the plains, to the town. The bay of Gibraltar, covered with innumerable vessels, extends here before the eye of the traveller, and the lofty Calpe, with its, steep cliffs, bounds the prospect in the horizon. The hills round Algesiras are composed of the same red sandstone as that of which the Queen's Chair consists. They are sparingly shaded by the Spanish, oak and the cork tree (Quercus esculus and suber), and diversified by the. finest flowering shrubs, among which is the Rhododendron ponticum, probably a remnant of Moorish horticulture; but they are inhabited by the European, scorpion and the American scolopendra.*

Near Algesiras, between the town and the, Cabrita to the south of it, some antiquarians fix the place where Karteia, afterwards called Heraclea by the Romans, stood, a flourishing trading colony of the Phœnicians. Carter† says that he saw the ruins of this city on the banks of the little river Guadaranque.

Southwest of Algesiras lies Tarifa, the most southerly point of Andalusia, and of the whole European continent. The way to it, through meadows and over scantily wooded sandstone, hills, is very diversified. This little town is, for the most part, of ancient construction, and, still possesses fortifications erected in the times of the Moors, which,

* See Note, page 77.

† Journey from Gibraltar to Malaga.

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however, are of far less importance at present than when the Saracens made this place the chief medium of their intercourse with Africa. This connection of Tarifa with the Moors, seems to have left some traces even in the physiognomy of the inhabitants. Their complexion and features are said to resemble the Arabian more than those of the other inhabitants of Andalusia. The beauty of the women of Tarifa is particularly celebrated, the charms of which they contrive to heighten, by improving their form with the black silk garment, and increasing the lustre of their ardent eyes by letting one of them peep through the veil which envelops their face. The Romans were already acquainted with the importance of this place, and peopled the town, which they called Julia Joza or Traducta, with colonists of Punic origin from Tingis (Tangier). At present the place being thinly peopled and without trade, has no general interest, except from its situation on the strait, from which it lies about a quarter of a league distant, with sandhills and sandbanks intervening.

From the towers of the town may be seen the opposite coast of Africa. Alcazar el Ceguer, a seaport of some importance under the Moors, but now deserted, is only three miles distant from Tarifa; to the east and west the strait becomes broader. The southern pillar of Hercules, Mons Abyla (Kynegetica, in some passages of the ancients), or the Mountain of Monkeys, at the foot

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of which Ceuta is situated, rises nearly opposite to Gibraltar; towards the west appears the chain of mountains which extends behind Tangier, and terminates in Cape Espartel. The current may be easily perceived in the strait, which constantly brings water from the ocean into the Mediterranean, and gave rise to Halley's well-known theory, of the more rapid evaporation of the water in that sea. This current runs about four or five leagues in the hour, and is so strong, that even large ships cannot sail from the strait to the west without a good east wind, for which reason they are frequently obliged to remain a long time in the harbour of Gibraltar, whereas vessels from the Atlantic can enter, even with a contrary wind. In the Mediterranean, the current is perceptible as far as the coast of Malaga, twenty leagues, or according to others, Cabo de Gata, seventy leagues from Gibraltar. Rennet's observation* is, that the whole surface of the ocean, from the 45th to the 30th degree of latitude, to the distance of a hundred and thirty miles westward of the shores of Europe and Africa, is in motion towards the Pillars of Hercules, and runs between Cape St. Vincent and Cape Cantin, as it were into a funnel, of which the strait of Gibraltar is the mouth. This current is connected with that which goes southward along the western coast of Spain and Portugal, is felt beyond Madeira, and causes vessels, bound to Madeira or

* Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 1821. vol. iv. p. 241.

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the Canary Islands, to deviate from their course, to the south-cast. Besides the current in the strait, from the ocean towards the east, a contrary motion of the Mediterranean from east to west, is observable below the surface. The existence of this lower current is further strengthened by the well known reappearance of a ship, sunk in the strait, to the west of it.* The greater specific gravity of the sea water in the Mediterranean, may be perhaps looked upon as the chief cause of this countercurrent. The accounts of travellers agree in this difference in the specific gravity, and our own observations confirm it, as we found that of the Mediterranean to be 1.03384, and that of the Atlantic ocean, hear the strait, 1.02944.† The

* Drinkwater's History of the late Siege of Gibraltar; Waiz, in Schwed. Abhandl. 1757; Marcet, in Phil. Trans. 1819; Patton. in Edinb. Phil. Journ. 1821, vol. iv. p. 243. It is also confirmed by two opposite currents in other straits, as in the Dardanelles in the Sound, &c. Mr. Von Hoff (History of the natural Changes of the Surface of the Earth Gotha, 1822.8.) has very lately suggested doubts, not indeed of the existence of a sub-marine countercurrent, but of water being conveyed by it from the Mediterranean to the ocean, for he supposes that the motion towards the west, begins in the middle of the strait itself, and therefore proceeds only from the lower parts of the water of the ocean, which are hindered, by a supposed dam at the bottom of the strait, from entering the more shallow Mediterranean, so that they strike against it, and must return to the west.

† The observation made by balande (Voyage en Italic) that the water on the coast of France is lighter than that in the middle of the sea, as it contains only 1/34 to 1/30, and not 1/27 to 1/22 of its weight of salt, does not contradict our supposition, because the water, which flows out at Gibraltar, can only come from a considerable depth, and consequently from the middle of the sea.

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experiments of Marcet*, it is true, do not show the specific gravity of the sea water, in the strait, taken from a considerable depth, to be greater than that of the surface. With respect to this difference, we too are unable to state anything positive, on account of the quickness of our passage, and for want of a convenient opportunity of procuring water from a sufficient depth; the certainty, however, of the greater specific gravity in the Mediterranean, may serve as an explanation, whereas, the accuracy of the result of Marcet's experiments may be doubted, on account of the difficulty of obtaining sea water, from a requisite depth. But if there is a difference in the specific gravity of the water of both seas, the countercurrent must really take place as supposed, because in the collision of two fluids of different gravity, the heavier naturally flows under the lighter. Besides the moot important cause of the current in the strait, which we have stated, others may contribute. Thus the revolution of our planet round its axis, which communicates to the sea that general motion from east to west, probably exercises its influence below the surface of the sea. Another cause of the lower current towards the west, may be looked for in the pressure of the many streams, some of them very

* Phil. Trans. in the place above quoted.

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considerable, falling into the Mediterranean, and that of the Black Sea, entering it from the east; this pressure can become sensible only at the single, proportionably narrow, issue of the Mediterranean, where it easily overcomes the counterpressure of the ocean, the force of which is broken by the coast of the two continents, by which it is bounded. Lastly, in considering the causes of this motion of the waters, we must bear in mind the possibility of a dam, which when the two seas formerly broke through the isthmus which separated them, still remained, and even now causes certain directions in the course of the water. The inconsiderable lateral currents, on the surface of the strait, towards the west, which Tofino, and others before him, have remarked, are perhaps to be considered as secondary effects of the main current, such as are observed on the banks of large rivers, and as they are chiefly observed at new and full moon, partly as caused by that planet.

It is a general opinion of the Spanish fishermen, that the strait grows gradually wider, and this perfectly coincides with the historical accounts of the breadth of the strait.* This enlargement of the

* The earliest statement of Skylax of Caryanda makes the breadth of the strait equal to that of the Thracian Bosphorus, that is only a quarter of a geographical mile. The accounts of the breadth make it greater as they approach nearer to our times. Thus, later than the time of Skylax, it is stated at three-fifths of a geographical mile; still later, at one geographical mile by Strabo, one geographical mile and a half; by Pliny, almost one geographical mile and two-fifths. At present the narrowest part is almost two geographical miles. (See Von Hoff's abovementioned work, p. 150.)

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channel, may, perhaps, be connected with the subsiding of the surface of the Mediterranean in general, a phenomenon, for which more historical and physical testimony may be found, than for the contrary one, of its increase, by encroaching on the land in some places, which probably may depend upon local circumstances. The tilling up several harbours with sand, the alluvion of considerable tracts upon the coasts, and the union of islands and rocks, with the continent, which were formerly surrounded by the sea, even where there are no rivers like the Nile to produce this effect, occur on many parts of the coast.* The Black Sea and the Caspian offer a phenomenon perfectly similar, very large tracts having gradually become uncovered on their coasts; it is therefore probable that these formerly great inland seas, began to decrease in depth when they became connected with the ocean. But the hypothesis, that the great basin which was once formed by the Euxine and the Sea of Asoph, and perhaps also by the Caspian, after bursting its dam in the Bosphorus, flowed westwards into the Mediterranean, but receded on the east, from the declivities of the Steppe of Caucasus into the pre-

* The facts are collected with great diligence in Mr. Von Hoff's abovementioned work.

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sent level of the Caspian sea, should be combined, we think, with the opening of the strait of Gibraltar; at least, there are not so many physical reasons for believing that the strait was formed by the ocean breaking through. It must be left to future investigation, to determine whether a conformation like that in the Mediterranean is found in other great gulfs, for instance, that of Mexico, which it in so many respects resembles.

The formation of the mountains in the vicinity of the town of Tarifa, agrees with that about Gibraltar; the limestone, however, is in thin strata, and the slabs are therefore used for domestic purposes. On the limestone lies a slaty bluish sandstone, of a finer grain than that of St. Roque. On the most southern point of the continent, which runs out from the harbour, towards a small rocky island, on which a tower is built, we observe a massy conglomerate of rolled fragments of limestone, and remains of still existing sea animals, such as cardium, mytilus, and the large flat edible Ostrea jacobœa (the Mediterranean scallop), which are sometimes heaped together in thick layers, united only by a little stalactic limestone. There are also petrified alcyonia, corallines, sponges, madrepores, &c. in this alluvial land, which has evident traces of a very recent origin; it appears to be constantly on the increase, as the sea daily brings a sufficient quantity of marine animals, and calcareous cement.

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After we had viewed the environs of Tarifa, the company, including Baron Von Neveu, resolved to return, in a small fishing boat, to Algesiras. We all felt ourselves in an agreeable frame of mind, at the view of this southern country, and delighted with the peculiar romantic spirit of the Spanish people, which is more freely manifested here, as it generally is in the warmer countries, and our longing after the tropical regions was increased. The evening was delightful, the night clear and serene, and the constellations of the northern hemisphere, reflected in the gently agitated waves of the strait, appeared to us here at the mouth of the ocean, to beam upon us with their friendly rays, as if to bid us a last farewell. We had scarcely arrived at Algesiras, when the ambassador received orders from the Court of Vienna, for the Austria to proceed alone to Rio de Janeiro, without waiting for the rest of the convoy. As the news of the troubles of Pernambuco had just then been received at Gibraltar, we congratulated ourselves on thus escaping a further loss of time, which might be caused by the continued delay of the Portuguese squadron. We had been only one day in Algesiras, when the east wind suddenly set in, and we were summoned on board by a gun fired from the Austria, and the hoisting of the signal flag. Towards noon a boat appeared, with the news that the frigate would sail in an hour, and immediately conveyed us on board.

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All was ready for sailing; only our colleague. Professor Mikan, who had gone too far from Algesiras, on a botanical excursion, had not yet returned; we therefore began to be uneasy on his account, when just as the anchor was weighed, and the sails spread, he fortunately came on board.

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NOTE TO CHAPTER III.

THE animals collected at Gibraltar and Algesiras are —AMPHIBIA: Testudo Mydas; Lacerta lepida, viridis, Ocellata, bosciana, maculata; Scineus algira; Gecko fiucicularis; Seps tridactylus. PISCES: Murœna Anguilla, Helena; Esox Sphyraena, Belone; Pleuronectes Solea; Labrus microlepidotus, maculatus, carneus; Epinephelus ruber; Trigla pini; Raja Torpedo; Syngnathus Typhle; Blennius viviparus, Pholis; Trichiurus ensiformis. INSECTA: Scarabœus stercorarius, vernalis; Geotrupes punctatus; Copris hispana, Paniscus; Onites Bison, Sphinx; Oniticellus flavipes; Onthophagus Taurus medius, Schreberi; Hister æqualis bipustulatus, unicolor; Ateuchus sacer, semipunctatus, variolosus, flagellatus; Trox granulaius; Cetonia Morio, stictica, hirta; Omaloplia terricola, ruricola. brunnea; Anisoplia fruticola, horticola; Hoplia argentea; Silpha rugosa, lunata; Scarites Gigas, subterraneus levigatus; Proscus cephalotes; Staphylinus olens; Zuphium olens; Aptinus Ballista? Buprestris villosa; Akis acuminata; Tentyria orbiculata; Erodius gibbus; Scaurus striatus, punctatus; Pimelia muricata, bipunctata; Helops caraboides; Ditomus sphærocephalus; Cistela ruficollis; Lagria hirta, læta; Lixus ferrugatus, angustatus; Pachygaster goerzensis; Chrysomela eumolpa; Colaspis areata; Clythra longimana, humeralis; Cossyphus Hoffmanseggii; Coccinella mutabilis; Forficula auricularia, Panorpa halterata; Xylocopa violacea; Andrena plumipes; Scolia flavifrons; Bombus terrestris; Sphex spirifex; Scorpio australis, europæus; Scolopendra morsitans; Julus Indus, terrestris;

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Cymothon physodes, linearis; Oniscus pustulatus, Asellus, Armadillo, sylvestris; Aranea picea; Ligœus equestris, Tabanus bovinus; Bombylius melanocephalus, fuscus; Truxalis hungaricus; Papilio D. Hyali; N. Megæra; Sat. Pasiphæ, Janira, Rumina; Pleb. R. Phlaius. VERMES: Sipunculus nudus; Noctiluca miliaris; Veretillum cynomorium; Actinia, div. sp.

The plants belonging to the Downs of Gibraltar are — Scirpus Holoschœnus; CYPERUS FASCICULARIS; Bromus rubens; FESTUCA ALOPECUROS, Calycina, Digitaria, Dactylon Juncus maritimus; Polygonum maritimum; RUMEX THYRSOIDEUS; Plantago Lofflingii, Lagopus; Salicornia fructicosa; Convolvulus Soldanella; Scrophularia frutescens, Crucianella maritima; Cakile maritima; Cheiranthus trilobus; Cachrys Libanotis; Caucalis maritima; DAUCUS MURICATUS; Oenanthe pimpinelloides; ERYNGIUM ILICIFOLIUM Frankenia lœvis; Anagallis cœrulea, Monelli; Linum maritimum; Drosophyllum Lusitanicum, LK.; Corrigiola littoralis; Medicago marina; ONONIS RAMOSISSIMA, viscosa, VARIEGATA, PICTA, HISPIDA; Euphorbia Paralius. — The vegetation of the mostly dry hills about Algesiras agrees with that of the Queen's Chair; we found on both — Daphne Gnidium, villosa; PASSERINA CANESCENS; Olea europœa; Ligustrum officinale; Thymus vulgaris, zygis, patavinus, Eriostemum Lusitanicum, LK.; Sideritis romana, subspinosa; Prasium majus; LAVANDULA MULTIFIDA; Phlomis purpurea; Teucrium valentinum; Rosmarinus officinalis; Hedera Helix; Erica umbellata, scoparia, australis; Cistus populifolius, formosus; Helianthemum halimifolium, glutinosum, serratum, guttatum; Tuberaria; Delphinium peregrinum, PENTAGYNUM; Rubus fruticosus; Polygala monspeliensis; Sedum arenarium, Brot.; Ulex europæus; Genista candicans, tridentata; Trifolium angustifolium; Spartium spinosum; Pistacia Lentiscus.—In the meadows and pastures there were—Cyperus longus; Scirpus acicularis; Schœnus

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mucronatus, nigricans; Panicum verticillatum; Cynodon Dactylon; Agrostis miliacea; Phalaris arundinacea; Festuca uniglumis, ciliata, divaricata; Brachypodium distachyum; Poa annua, trivialis; Briza maxima, minima; Phleum pratense; Alopecurus pratensis; Ægilops ovata; Chrysurus cynosuroides; Cenchrus echinatus; Lolium arvense; Elymus europæus; Andropogon Gryllus; Arundo Donax; Dactylis hispanica, glomerata; Trisetum paniceum; Danthonia decumbens; Piptatherum (Milium) comosum; Anthoxanthum odoratum, ß. minus; Stipa tortilis; Gladiolus communis; Alisma ranuncuoculoides; Valeriana Calcitrapa, Fedia, Cornucopiœ, Plantago, Psyllium, Bellardi, lanceolata; Chenopodium album; Illecebrum Paronychia, echinatum; Prunella intermedia; Betonica stricta; SALVIA BICOLOR; Orontium siculum, calycinum, Asarina, Orobanche minor; Batschia viscosa, versicolor; Pinguicula lusitanica; Veronica arvensis, hederæfolia; Echium violaceum, creticum; Cerinthe aspera; Lithospermum fruticosum; Symphytum tuberosum; Myosotis scorpioides, arvensis; Anchusa italica; Cynoglossum pictum; Hyoscyamus albus; Solanum nigrum, miniatum; Convolvulus althœoides, sepium arvensis, tricolor; Anagallis Monelli, COLLINA, latifolia; Samolus Valerandi; Hottonia palustris; Campanula Erinus; Lobelia urens; Galium hirsutum Nees(ovalifolium, Schott.); Rubia lucida, tinctorum; Valantia cruciata; Sherardia arvensis; Dipsacus sylvestris; Scabiosa Grammuntia, grandiflora, Columbaria; Anthemis arvensis; Scolymus hispanicus; Centrospermum chrysanthemum Spreng.; Cynara pygmœa, CHICHORIUM DIVARICATUM; Sison Anisum; Oenanthe pimpinelloides, prolifera, apiifolia; Viola canina; Lythrum Hyssopifolia; Lychnis lœta; Linum usitatissimum, Strictum; Silene gallica, bellidifolia, Cerastium dioicum; Erythræa conferta, grandiflora, maritima; STATICE ALLIACEA; Chlora perfoliata; Hypericum perforatum, ciliatum; Papaver Rhœas; Euphorbia segetalis, retusa Esula; Lotus edulis, intermedius, Lois; Medicago

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Terebellum uncinata orbiculata; Scorpiurus vermiculata; Vicia hirta, sulcata, atropurpurea.—Lastly, the plants which we have noticed as most characteristic on the rock of Gibraltar are—Daphne Gnidium; Anarrhinum tenellum; Prasium majus; NEPETA RETICULATA; Phlomis purpurea, Teucrium valentinum; Lavandula multifida; Thymus patavinus; Sideritis subspinosa; Statice cordata, sinuata; Verbascum sinuatum; Vinca major; Cotyledon Umbilicus; Fumaria capriolata; Genista candicans; and lastly, Chamarops humilis, the European Dwarf Palm, the fruit of which is a favourite food of the monkeys. — The species whose names are printed in Roman characters belong to the temperate part of Europe, those in Italics to the south of Europe, and those in ITALIC SMALL CAPITALS to the latter, and particularly to the north of Africa.

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CHAPTER IV.

VOYAGE FROM GIBRALTAR TO MADEIRA, AND ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN TO RIO DE JANEIRO.

ON the 3d of June, at noon, we left the bay of Gibraltar, accompanied by above fifty vessels of various sizes, which, like ourselves, had waited for a favourable wind to proceed from the strait into the ocean. There was a fresh east wind, and our vessel, which was a remarkably quick sailer, soon got the start of all the other ships. In an hour we had already doubled the most easterly point of Cabo Carnero, and were in the middle of the strait where the two continents are only a few miles from each other. The current from the west is here very remarkable, and every experienced eye readily perceives its effects on ships coming from the ocean. According to the general opinion, it runs from four to five leagues in an hour, which are therefore deducted from the ship's reckoning in sailing out While we proceeded over the dark green waters of the strait, the Spanish coast appeared in a blue mist; we could clearly distinguish two chains of mountains running from the E.N.E. to W.S.W. The most

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distant rises considerably above the nearer verdant hills, which gently ascending, rest on the steeper and more naked ridges of the others, and intersected by many little valleys, extend without any abrupt declivities towards the sea. On two of the extreme points of this cape there are still standing some Moorish watch-towers, and further to the west, we saw the sandy cape of Trafalgar, celebrated for the victory of Nelson. A blue streak higher towards the N. W. which terminates in the narrow Cabo de S. Sebastian, was the last point of the European continent which we were able to see. The mountains on the African side of the strait were, for the most part, enveloped in mist; they, however, appeared to us in their general outline to resemble those of the Spanish coast. At four o'clock we passed Tangiers at a distance of three or four leagues; we could clearly distinguish the town with its small, flat-roofed houses, surrounded with walls, and low square towers, behind which are steep limestone hills, and here and there detached masses of rock. At five o'clock, Cabo Spartel lay about six leagues distant in E.S.E.; the thought of leaving two quarters of the world to proceed to a third, affected us all. The vicinity of ancient Africa, which has remained the same for centuries, without improvement, the recollections of the boundaries which antiquity believed were set by these straits to its enterprises; the tradition of the happy Atlantis, which we

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hoped to find again in the luxuriant America, so rich in the wonders of nature; the idea of bidding farewell to Europe, the seat of civilisation and intellectual superiority; every thing combined to make the passage between the Pillars of Hercules into the ocean, a moment in our lives never to be forgotten.

At six o'clock in the evening the last points of the European and African coasts vanished from our eyes, and we were in the midst of the ocean; the waves rose majestically over each other, and seemed to swallow up the vessels as they glided down into their deep hollows; the ocean itself, like the serene firmament above it, showed as it were, in its deep blue, an image of its unfathomable depth. Each of the ships that had sailed with us, henceforth guided by the compass, pursued upon the ocean which divides and unites all the continents, the way to its own destination; our frigate, which was a-head of all the rest, advanced with incredible rapidity towards the west The wind still continued to blow briskly from the east, and the sails and deck were covered with dew; we sailed upon an average nine miles an hour. Though the first sight of the boundless element, of the rising and setting sun, of the moon and the starry heavens, transported the imagination of the beholder, the mode of life on board offered but little variety and amusement. The phosphorescence was very inconsiderable in this latitude, and, proceeding from only a few

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single animals, did not present the splendid sight Which had gratified us in the Mediterranean. The greater was our pleasure that the stronger and more favourable the wind became, and the more rapidly the ship sailed, the sea-sickness, from Which so many of us had suffered during our passage through the Mediterranean, gradually disappeared, and we were all able to remain upon deck without any inconvenience.

The sea-sickness is extremely troublesome to people at sea. All are not attacked in the same degree; in general, persons of strong constitution, and dwelling on the sea-coast, appear to suffer less from it than such as are weakly, and inhabitants of inland or mountainous countries. Instances of the contrary are, however, to be met with; nay, even sailors inured by many voyages, are attacked by it during violent storms. It is certain that the cause of this disorder is not so much the sight of the boundless ocean, the fear of danger excited by it, and the disagreeable smell proceeding from the Water in the hold, which immediately corrupts, longing for home, &c. but principally, if not entirely, the unsteady motion of the ship. The sensation which the voyager experiences from the heaving of the immense fluid element, is exactly similar to that which many persons feel from the motion of a carriage by land, and many continue to feel it even after they have been several hours on shore. This sickness generally commences with

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an oppression and pain in the head, and proceeds through a series of the most disagreeable sensations to more or less painful contractions in the stomach, which terminate in continued and violent vomitings, which sometimes even cause the bursting of a blood-vessel; or it happens that the patients, from the disgust excited by the smell or sight of food, fall into consumption for want of proper nourishment, and in long voyages are often in danger of their lives. He who has experienced the torments of this disorder, knows that a person attacked by it would willingly exchange all earthly happiness, for a single hour on shore, and will therefore consider it as no unimportant object in in the journal of a voyage. Several remedies have been proposed to remove or to alleviate this disagreeable sickness. Seafaring people especially recommend oranges, and the rust of the anchor. The most approved means against this evil are dietetical, and require above all things to remain as much as possible upon deck in the open air, and near the main mast, where the rocking of the vessel is least felt; not to look at the surface of the sea at all, or not steadfastly; to accustom yourself, instead of fluid, and especially warm nutriment, to solid, cold, particularly acid food, and such as requires good digestion; for instance, salt fish, ham, &c., but principally to overcome the first attacks of the sickness, and even the disposition to vomit, by immediately taking heavy food, however re-

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luctantly, and by pleasing amusement. Above all things, you must be careful not to leave the deck, or at the first attack of head-ach, to go down into the confined air of the cabin. But if, notwithstanding, the disease becomes so severe that you become quite despondent, and hardly able to move, no relief is to be expected but from an entirely horizontal position, and from the sleep which then ensues. In this position it is advisable, after some repose, to take some porter, solid cold food, such as ham, and then return into the air. Resolution and amusement can do much, whereas meditation and mental exertion, particularly in weak persons, may excite or prolong the disease. The less people reflect, and the more they divert themselves by various employments, by walking about on deck, nay, even by fencing, and sailors' work, the more easily do they become accustomed to the motion, particularly on a long voyage. In this manner we too were gradually more rarely visited by this disagreeable disorder, and favoured by fine weather, were able to spend the whole day upon deck. Only when the sea is very high, and the motion of the ship very violent, the first sensations return, though only for a time; but the more uniform the wind and the movement of the ship were, the more easily did we accustom ourselves to it, and the more agreeable did a seafaring life appear to us.

The wind continuing to be favourable, we soon reached Madeira. On the 5th of June, in the

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evening, when thin clouds began to overspread the horizon, we saw several birds, among others the Procellaria pelagica, swimming on the surface, which were all indications of the vicinity of land. We therefore shortened sail during the night. At six o'clock the following morning we descried, about six miles south of us, the three desert islands, Ilhas Desertas, belonging to the group of Madeira, rising like ruined portals or immense arches, out of the boundless ocean. The most northern of these three bare rocks, which has scarcely any inhabitants but a few sea-gulls, nor any other vegetation than the dyers' lichen*, is the lowest; the middle one, the largest in circumference, and the most southerly one (Bogia), on the other hand, are steeper, and may both be seen at a distance of eight or nine miles. The channels between these rocks, and between them and Madeira, are safe, in very few places less than sixty fathoms deep, and here and there from two to five hundred. In the summer months, during which the N.E. wind regularly prevails, a south-western current of the waters is perceived in them. The fog, which had hitherto concealed Madeira, which bore S. W., dispersed as the sun rose higher, and about nine o'clock we clearly distinguished the eastern promontory, Cabo de S. Lourenço; the multiform reddish cliffs rising steeply above each other, extend far into the sea. Leaving it to the north of us, we

* See Note 1. page 125.

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were delighted with the prospect of the luxuriant valley of Porto Novo; its verdant slopes rising out of the sea, are adorned with scattered habitations of a dazzling white. The brown or red walls, and steep sides of the rugged mountain that traverses the island, form a pleasing contrast with the rich green of the flowery valleys. Nothing can be more enchanting than the prospect of this island, which seems to float like a pleasant garden on the bosom of the ocean. We soon descried the town of Funchal to the N. W. and the steep Pico da Cruz rising behind it. In the evening, when the frigate was not far from the shore, the colours were hoisted, and a Portuguese boat immediately came from the town to make the usual enquiries. A stronger wind arising, which made the anchorage on the very steep rocky bottom still more unsafe and dangerous, the captain thought proper to continue under sail; a boat was therefore put out to land the embassy, and the naturalists, while the frigate remained in the roads during the night. The exposed situation of this harbour, where the ships, during high winds, particularly from the S.E. and S.W., may easily run against the cliffs of the coast, made this precaution necessary. It was not till the following day at noon, when we had already ascended the mountainous part of the island, and were enjoying the fine prospect of the ocean, that the salute of the frigate announced that she had come to an anchor.

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Great preparations had been made for the reception of the arch-duchess in this beautiful island, which was the first of the Portuguese possessions which Her Imperial Highness was to visit, and the embassy received repeated invitations to spend a few days here. It had, however, been determined to remain here no longer than was necessary to take in a stock of the excellent wine of the island, and as this was done on the day of our arrival, the naturalists had only one day to visit the immediate vicinity of Funchal. We visited the town the same evening. The principal street runs near the sea coast, the smaller side streets, consisting for the most part of old ruinous houses, extend up the sides of the mountain. An open square, in the middle of the town, opposite the church, is planted with rows of exotic trees, with Dracœna draco, Jasminum azoricum, and Datura arborea, the last of which was just then covered with its beautiful large blossoms. The governor of the island, who has also under him the neighbouring Porto Santo, resides in a very spacious and handsome fort, close to the harbour. This fort, as well as the immediate vicinity of the principal church, was splendidly illuminated during the night, when the governor gave a magnificent ball and entertainment in honour of the embassy. The ladies were carried to the palace in palanquins, richly gilded, and in fine veiled nets, fastened to poles; the bearers were negroes, the great number of whom surprised us

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the more, as we even saw some ecclesiastics of this colour. With respect to the general physiognomical character of the common people of Madeira, they are lean, muscular, of brown complexion, black disordered hair, bushy eyebrows, and dark eyes. In their coarse sailor's dress, with a pointed red cap, they excite more fear than confidence. The complexion, which very frequently has a tinge of dark brown, calls to mind the formerly more frequent mixture of whites and negroes, who were imported here in great numbers from Guinea. As in the countries of southern Europe, the ass is the principal domestic animal on which burdens are transported from one place to another; waggons, made in the shape of sledges, and drawn by many oxen, are very rarely seen in this mountainous country, and a chaise still more so.

The naturalists preferred an acquaintance with the interior of the island to the pleasures of the entainment. By daybreak we were already on our way to the eminence which rises amphitheatrically from the harbour, and is intersected by several valleys, into which streams of the purest water descend. Numerous small country houses lie scattered between gardens and vineyards, and the wanderer meets a pleasing picture of the persevering industry of the inhabitants, who have cultivated even steep hills, planted them with vines, and watered them by extensive canals. Walking by the side of such an aqueduct, which was built with bricks, and di-

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vided into many branches, which conveys several springs from the upper part of the island, we arrived at a hill in the shape of a dome, opposite the north-eastern part of the town, from which there is a delightful prospect over the deep valleys, the town with its verdant environs, the harbour, and the ocean. At the foot of the mountain, planted singly about the country houses, are the waving date palm, the broad-leafed pisang, the juicy sugarcane, the edible yams*, maize, and melons; higher up the mountain are vines trained upon lattices, and fenced with aloes and cactus, which spread as it were a green carpet over this beautiful island; still farther up the mountain is a shady wood of sweet chesnuts and laurel trees; lastly, the highest points are covered with heath, broom, ferns, and grasses. If we take a comprehensive view of the whole, we fancy that we have, in these deep mountainous defiles, adorned with the juicy verdure of the vine, these steep ascending pastures, which lean on lofty basalt walls, these beautiful shady woods, diversified by limpid streams rushing over the rocks, the picture of an European alpine country, which has been enriched with all the additional charms of a southern clime. The black basalt walls, however, impart an air of melancholy to the landscape which, at least during the time of our visit, was rendered more striking by the remarkably small number of

* Phœnix dactylifera, Musa sapientum and paradisiaca, Saccharum officinarum, Caladium esculentum.

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animals, for we scarcely saw any except a few European singing birds, waterwagtails, some butterflies, and a few other insects (Brachycerus barbarus, Asida coriacea nobis) which inhabit the barren rock. The birds, probably, fly backwards and forwards between the islands and the European and African continents. On the naked shores of the island, which are even without sand, there are no muscles or sea-stars, and in the adjacent seas but few fish, for which reason the dried fish of North America meet with a ready sale. This scarcity of animals in the island is common to many volcanic countries.

The principal chain of this island extends in the direction of W. by N. to E. by S. Its extreme points are Cabo de Pargo, and Cabo de S. Lourenço. The highest ridge, which rises in the Pico Ruivo to the height of 5250 feet, runs nearly through the centre of the island, many branches diverging from it in several directions towards the sea, forming valleys of different depths. The mountains are every where found to consist of a greyish black basalt, either compact or with vesicular cavities, the external characters of which entirely correspond with the appearance of other basalt mountains, but it does not show those columnal forms which are so often seen in basalt Towards the summit we thought we distinguished a kind of steps, in more or less massy divisions, and also more frequent vesicular cavities in it.

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The latter are irregularly scattered, some of them very small, others several lines long and broad, or sometimes run together into irregular hollows. Near them the colour of the basalt is either quite the same, or declines into a yellowish brown, which is probably caused by a decomposition, partly of the iron, and partly of the olivin; the latter is in great quantities, and of different dimensions, imbedded in the mass of the basalt; when fresh broken it is shining, and of a light olive green. In a weak state of oxydation its imperfectly foliated fracture separates, and such pieces are iridescent; it shows then principally a dark yellow or brown colour, in which the lustre and transparency are lost. The phenomenon of the attraction and repulsion of the magnetic needle is very evident in the basalt of Madeira; it often approaches the wacke; its vesicular cavities are then larger, often above an inch in length, and sometimes filled with a bluish earth, but generally lined with a pulverulent coating. In this softer stone are imbedded grains of olivin, often of a yellowish brown colour. At a considerable elevation, particularly on the surface of the ground, the rock consists entirely of wacke. It is of an ash and bluish grey colour, mingled with small, scaly, black points. The stratification is very apparent in it; the layers are generally horizontal, and their hardness and weight is less. The phenomenon of polarity, was more obvious in

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this wacke than in the basalt which lay lower, which coincides with the observation made by Giesecke, according to which the basalt at elevated points is more magnetic than that in lower situations.* That the basalt sooner acquires polarity in elevated places, that is, where it is more insulated from the soil, is to be ascribed to the same cause; in consequence of which every stone susceptible of magnetism, even the magnetic ironstone itself, does not become magnetic till it is brought up into the air and light; the iron weathercock till it is placed on the steeple, and every rod in general, till it is set upright. In elevated places exposed to the sun, and where the basalt is covered with the mould, ferruginous clay is found in brownish red masses, with granular fracture, sometimes hard, sometimes half hard. Friable brown points, probably of clay iron-stone, and delicate sparkles of pinchbeck brown mica, are scattered in it. The olivin is decomposed into a yellowish brown mass, in which, however, the cleavage is still to be recognised. These red spots of ferruginous clay are distinguishable from the sea, and heighten the variety and vivacity of the picture presented by the lovely mountain island. For the rest, the considerable decomposition of the basalt, which is observable here also, is only apparently in contra-

* Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 1821, p. 221.

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diction with the hardness of the stone. The relalation of its density, together with the natron it contains, is the most important cause of the great affinity with the water of the atmosphere. It is known that no kind of rock attracts the latter so strongly and so continually as the basalt, which is so remarkably compact; for this reason we so often see its summits veiled in thick clouds, and marshes in its vicinity. The basalt, too, in consequence of its disposition to assume columnar flat, and spherical forms, is more exposed than any other rock, on a thousand points, to the influence of the atmosphere. Hence, and still more by its remarkable composition of silex, clay, lime, talc, natron, oxyd of iron, nay, even muriatic acid, the basalt, more than any other kind of rock, appears like a great voltaic column. This comparison seems more just, if we consider the composition of the single strata of the flotztrap mountain; yet it is still worthy of remark, that the massy undetached basalt related to the amygdaloid, or the wacke, decomposes more readily than that which is separated into pillars, and which is more crystalline.

From one of the highest points of the island, which is covered with the Pinus canariensis of Smith, and with ferns, we descended in the evening through several deep ravines, and a thick grove of beautiful laurels and chesnuts, to the solitary

* Kennedy in Gilbert's Annuls, vii. p. 426.

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church of Nossa Senhora de Monte. A broad flight of steps leads to the building, which stands upon a projection of the rock between spreading chesnut trees. The setting sun gilded the sea, and illuminated the more remote parts of the island with a magic light, while the sound of the church bell summoned the wanderer to the shrine. The ground round it is planted, by the pious care of the faithful, with flowering groups of jessamine and honeysuckle, Fuchsia coccinea, Buddleja globosa, and Vinca major. Those foreign shrubs have here found a new country, which they adorn, almost without interruption, with their beautiful flowers. The climate of this happy island equally favours the productions of every zone; only the European misses his oaks, firs, birches, and willows; but, on the other hand, he beholds with astonishment the yam, Inhame, (Caladium esculentum,) the egg-plant (Solanum melongena), the cactus, aloe, and the potatoe of America, flourish near the corn and fruits from Caucasus; the fig-tree, the sugar-cane, and the pisang of the east; the date-palm, the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), and the cultivated cane (Arundo donax) of Africa. It is well known that the sugar-cane was introduced here from Sicily, by the Infant Don Henrique Navegador. If we may depend upon ancient accounts, the refining of sugar was carried on here with great success at a very early period, and at the end of the fifteenth century the greater part of the sugar used in Europe came perhaps from

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Madeira.* According to the historian Lemos Faria e Castro, one hundred and fifty sugar-houses (engenhos) furnished annually sixty thousand arrobas of sugar as the royal fifth (quinto).† But when the far greater fertility of the Portuguese colonies in America was known, the cultivation of the sugar-cane in Madeira gradually ceased. The yam (inhama) was brought hither soon after the dicovery of the New World, and is now one the most common articles of food, which is more planted than the potatoe, in sloping grounds, which may easily be watered. When the island was given up to the family of the Da Camaras, as donataries, they began to favour especially the growth of the vine which was like wise first introduced here from the Grecian atchipelago, by Prince Henry. The culture of the vine increased so rapidly, that a hundred and fifty years ago, it was the most important occupation of the inhabitants of the colony. Most of the grapes are white, of a longish shape; and the most esteemed is that called Verdelho.‡ The management of the vines is so far different from that in Portugal that they are planted on stony ground, exposed to the sun, and trained over wooden lattices, several feet high; they form an agreeable arcade, under which

* Hartmann Schedel liber Chronicarum edit. Anton Koburger, 1493, p. 390.

† Historia geral de Portugal. Lisb. 8vo. tom. vi. p. 184.

‡ John Williams, in Transact of the London Horticultural Society, vol. ii. p. 106.

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you may often walk from one vintner's cottage to another. In the warm climate of the island, the bare black basaltic soil of which imbibes much warmth, and reflects it upon the vines, this mode of cultivation seems to be particularly suitable; whereas it is less successful in colder countries. Thus, for instance, in some parts of Italy, the vinearbours (pergole) do not bear so well as those plants that are wreathed round poles. The vine is cultivated from the sea-coast up to two-fifths of the elevation of the island. The annual produce is estimated at from twenty-five to thirty thousand pipes. The best wine is called malmsey, and is made from a vine which came from Greece.

If our visit to the island had not been limited to a single day, we might, perhaps, have been able to add several interesting particulars respecting its original vegetation, to the excellent observations which Von Buch* has published on the Flora of the Canary Islands, and which might serve as a model for all future investigations into the vegetation of islands in general. The present state of Madeira does not allow us to form perfectly accurate ideas respecting its original vegetation. When Zarco, the discoverer, first viewed the island from Porto Santo, it was covered, from the sea-shore to the top of the highest summits, with almost impenetrable forests, which were not destroyed till after

* In the Essays of the Berlin Academy, 1816 and 1817, p. 337.

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a conflagration which lasted seven years.* Many of the birds peculiar to the island were perhaps destroyed on this occasion. Dragon trees (Dracœna draco) of the same kind as the ancient tree at Orotæva, in Teneriffe, are seldom seen here, and only singly in the gardens. Cultivation has since contributed to banish the native species, and to introduce foreign ones. However, the greatest affinity with the plants of the Canary Islands is still evident; and the several zones of vegetation may be properly characterised, in the same manner as Von Buch has done for those islands. We do not, however, distinguish five different zones, above one another, but only four, the two lowest of which are determined by the peculiarity of the cultivation, and the two higher by the natural state of the vegetation.†

Loaded with the treasures of all kinds which we had collected, but exhausted by our great exertions, we returned to the town late in the evening, by a road made between the vineyards. Though the heat, increased by the black basalt rock, had been very oppressive during this excursion, the thermo-

* Lemos Faria e Castro Historia, vol. vi. p. 183. The ancient historians all agree that the first donataries, descendants of Zarco, took the name of Camaras, from a cave in which he had found many sea-wolves (lobos marinhos), and which he therefore called Camara dos lobos. If they were really sea-lions which then frequented the coast of Madeira, it is remarkable that no traces of this animal are now to be found there.

† See Note 2. page 126.

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meter, at ten o'clock at night, was only 15.5° R. in the air, and 16.0° in the water; the hygrometer was 42°, and the aræometer, within the harbour, 2.75°, and afterwards, in the open sea, 3°. The frigate having taken on board a considerable supply of the fine wine of the island, and being quite ready to sail, we were obliged immediately to return on board.

The 8th of June, in the morning, we weighed anchor, and put out to sea. We were more fortunate on this occasion than the vessel which afterwards conveyed Her Imperial Highness the Crown Princess hither, and which, being driven too near the coast by a sudden squall of wind from the south, was obliged to cut both cables, in order to get out to sea. The depth round the island is so great, that it is only quite close to the shore, in 35 or 50 fathoms water, that a bottom can be found for the anchors, which easily take hold in the basalt rock: hence vessels are frequently obliged to go to sea with the loss of their anchors, particularly from the month of November to February, when storms from the S.W. or S.E. threaten to dash them against the coast We left the road of Funchal with a faint N. wind, but which soon veered to E. and N.E., and remained favourable all the day. At noon, the centre of the island bore N.E. by N.; our longitude was, according to the calculation of the officers, 19° 27′ W. of Paris, our latitude 31° 47′ 17″. The wind increasing during the night, we were already off the Canary Islands. The next morn-

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ing Palma appeared, covered with heavy clouds; it is almost always seen enveloped in mists, which is a consequence of the westerly winds that prevail here, and the rains brought by them, which are said to be more frequent here than in any of the other Canary Islands. At noon we saw the south point to the S.E. by E., but thick fogs and a passing shower of rain soon concealed it from our view. An English brig, which had colonists for New Holland on board, passed close by us in this latitude. There was a great number of women among them, who, though banished from their native country, appeared to go with good courage to their new destination. On the evening of the same day we descried the Inland of Ferro, but, as usual, enveloped in fog. We had now passed the limit of ancient navigation, from which the enterprising spirit of Bartholomew Diaz, Columbus, Magalhaens, formerly steered to seek a new world; and, confiding in human art and science, we proceeded across the boundless expanse of the ocean to the destination of our voyage. If the sojourner in the small and frail vessel feels himself seized with shuddering, at the view of the immense agitated element, yet when he contemplates the skilfully constructed edifice, triumphing over the air and water, steadily pursuing its course, he is lost in wonder at the greatness and the power of human invention. The improvement of navigation and ship-building in our times, inspires the voyager with a sense of com-

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fort and security, and banishes every idea of danger. In this manner we, too, on board an admirably well-built vessel, guided with prudence and science, surrounded by a company well calculated for mutual pleasure and instruction, became acquainted with the most agreeable part of a seafaring life. In the alternate occupations of cards, music, and literary employments, the hours passed as rapidly as our swift-sailing vessel glided over the waves.

The trifling thunderstorms and gusts of wind, quickly rising and passing away, which, from this time now and then occurred, appeared merely to diversify the uniformity of our mode of life, since, at once sublime, and threatening danger, they excited various emotions. Exactly in the latitude of Ferro, a sudden squall broke and threw down several yards, by which some sailors were hurt, but no other unpleasant consequence ensued. In the vicinity of those beautiful islands, which even the ancients distinguished by the name of the Fortunate, the naturalists, in particular, felt a secret wish that some favourable opportunity would occur to land upon one of them. We should have been very happy to have had a nearer view of the Peak; and should have felt great interest in examining, among other curiosities, the remains of the Guanches, who, according to our later observations, agree with the negroes in their slender forms, thick lips, and broad flat noses; but, by their sharp projecting

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cheek-bones, and long smooth hair, have more resemblance to the ancient Egyptians. The wind, however, drove us with increased rapidity past this delightful group of islands. In a few days we were in the latitude of Cape Verd. On the evening of the 14th of June, we descried the Island of Boa Vista, which appeared like a long and rather low land; the most southern point of the island bore N. by W. twelve miles distant. None of the other islands were visible, the sky being covered the whole day with grey clouds. In the channel, between the Cape Verd Islands and the continent of Africa, a thick white fog* prevails for the greater part of the year, particularly near the coast, and probably arises from the combination of the exhalations from the sea, with the impalpable dust brought by the N.E. wind from the neighbouring sandy desert; besides this, the islands themselves, that lie scattered about in this quarter, may, perhaps, contribute to collect and condense the vapours rising from the ocean. Navigators, therefore, seldom have a pure sky for their observations in this channel; and they now prefer, on the voyage to the Cape, New Holland, India, and America, to steer to the west, in sight of the islands; whereas, earlier voyagers kept close to the continent. Those ships which go through the channel keep in longitude

* Horsburgh's India Directory, London, 1817, 4to. vol. i. second edit. p. 11.

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19° and 20° W. of Greenwich; and, during the months in which the sun is in the south, find it advantageous to hold near the continent, where northerly winds usually blow. By this means they avoid the shoal called Banco de Porgas, the existence of which, however, has lately been called in question; as also, the dangerous reef (query, of coral?) Boneta, which is said to lie two miles E, by N. of the most northern point of Boa Vista.

The nearer we approached the Cape Verd Islands, the more different did the character of the elements become. Even in the latitude of the Canaries, we experienced rapid changes in the temperature of the air, and those sudden distinct gusts and whirlwinds which are here frequently observed, It vas not till about the 11th or 12th of June, in the longitude of 21° 51′ W. of Paris, when we crossed the tropic of Cancer, beyond those islands, that the N. and E. wind which had hitherto alternated, united in a N.E., and afterwards in a N.N.E. wind, which blew day and night with equal strength towards the equator; with this steady N. E. wind we made a hundred and fifty miles in four and twenty hours. We perceived a similar change in the temperature of the air and water, as in the saltness of the sea, and other natural phenomena. North of the tropic the temperature of the air changed day and night, always differing at least one degree from that of the water; but now there was a smaller

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difference, and alternately an almost equal decrease and increase; in the same manner the instrument always indicated a constant decrease in the saltness of the sea, but so, that here too, the water taken from some depth was more salt than that at the surface. The moisture of the air, on the other hand, had greatly increased; and excepting the hot and dry noon, the hygrometer, especially in the morning and evening, indicated the greatest relaxation, which was sensibly felt in frequent clammy dews. Here, in the torrid zone, the set of an indigo blue colour, rolled in uniform waves, and began to shine generally, and with great splendour, during the night, a phenomenon which we had hitherto seldom observed. This magnificent appearance, the frequent lightnings, and innumerable falling stars, together with the greater sultriness of the air, seemed to indicate a higher degree of electricity in the element, though the electrometer, in the prevailing moisture of the air, showed rather less electricity than before. A striking change gradually took place about ourselves, which affected our own persons, as well as the surrounding objects; our satellite, the shadow, at noon grew less and less, and withdrew between the feet, as if in this part of the creation everything became more independent. This is the latitude in which the flying-fish (Exocœtus volitans) appear in shoals on the surface of the sea, and present an entertaining sight to the solitary observer. To avoid the vessel under sail, and

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the fish of prey, they rise sometimes singly, sometimes in shoals, several feet above the surface of the water, into which they fall again after a flight of forty or fifty paces, in a direction contrary to the wind; sometimes they are cast by the wind upon the quarter-deck, where they are taken by the sailors. Their enemies, the tunny fish (Scomber Thynnus) and bonitoes (Sc. Pelamis), rival in velocity the ship in full sail. They show incredible strength in swimming, for they are able in the midst of their most rapid course, to leap perpendicularly above the surface, and plunge again head foremost into the waves. They were here so numerous, that the crew were able to procure a constant supply for our table by harpooning them, or taking them with strong hooks, to which a bunch of feathers, in imitation of a flying-fish, was tied. The largest of these fish which we took on board, weighed seventy pounds.

After we had entered this region of peace and tranquillity, between the tropics, the cushions, which were before placed round the tables, to prevent the glasses, bottles, and plates from falling down, were taken away, and the seamen looked forward to a smooth and safe passage. Our ship, carried on by the regular wind, sailed day and night with equal rapidity, and the sailors found on this passage, which resembled a party of pleasure, leisure enough for games and amusements. They conceived an idea of making a theatre of puppets; and the wanton Policinello, the pedantic Doctor,

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and the lively Colombine appeared, ridiculously enough put together. This agreeable mode of life suffered only one interruption; this was in latitude 8° 12′ N., when we descried at a distance a large ship, whose movements appeared suspicious. These seas are so much infested by privateers from Buenos Ayres and North America, that Portuguese and Spanish ships in particular must be upon their guard: these pirates, however, do not even spare English ships; which was experienced by Count V. Wrbna among others, who, returning as express from Rio de Janeiro, in an English packet-boat, was attacked and plundered, and even in danger of his life. On the sight of that ship, the necessary preparations for defence were made; but we soon found, from the course which it steered towards the coast of Africa, that it had no hostile intention. It was probably a Portuguese slave ship, bound for Guinea.

While the co-operation of the elements became more and more harmonious, the starry firmament began also to appear more and more in equilibrium to the inmates of the little vessel. On the 15th of June, in latitude 14° 6′ 45″, we beheld, for the first time, that glorious constellation of the southern heavens, the cross, which is to navigators a token of peace, and according to its position, indicates the hours of the night. We had long wished for this constellation, as a guide to the other hemisphere; we therefore felt inexpressible pleasure,

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when we perceived it in the resplendent firmament. We all contemplated it with feelings of profound devotion, as a type of salvation; but the mind was especially elevated at the sight of it, by the reflection that even into this region, which this beautiful constellation illumines, under the significant name of the cross, the European bas carried the noblest attributes of humanity, science and Christianity, and impelled by the most exalted feelings, endeavours to spread them more and more extensively in the remotest regions.

In proportion as the southern firmament rose above our horizon, that of the northern hemisphere sunk below it. Those who considered Europe exclusively as their country, looked with painful sensations on the polar star, as it sunk lower and lower, till it at length vanished in the thick mist of the horizon. The further we advanced to the south, the N.E. wind gradually abated, and alternated with fainter winds from the N. or E. In 10° 30′ N. latitude, and longitude 23° 15′ W. of Paris, the wind entirely ceased, and a majestic repose reigned in the air and water. While we remained in this region of calms, the thermometer was on an average at half-past six in the morning, in the shade 21.50° R., in the water 22.00°; at half-past seven, in the shade and in the water 22.00°; at noon, in the sun 24.75°; in the shade and in the water 22.50°; in the evening at half-past eight, in the air and water 22.50°; at nine o'clock.

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in the air 22.00°, in the water 22.50°, in water taken from the depth of 200 fathoms 21.50°; the aræometer in water taken from the surface 2.75°, and later 2.50° to 2.25°; from the depth of 200 fathoms 2.50°; the hygrometer stood between 54° and 64°; the barometer at 28°; the variation of the magnetic needle between 13° 48′, and 12° 48′ W.

In these seas the sun rises from the ocean with great splendour, and gilds the clouds accumulated in the horizon, which in grand and various groups seem to present to the eye of the spectator, continents with high mountains and valleys, with volcanoes and seas, mythological and other strange creations of fancy. The lamp of day gradually rises in the transparent blue sky; the damp grey fogs subside; the sea is calm or gently rises and falls, with a surface smooth as a mirror, in a regular motion. At noon a pale, faintly shining cloud rises, the herald of a sudden tempest, which at once disturbs the tranquility of the sea. Thunder and lightning seem as if they would split our planet; but a heavy rain of a salt taste, pouring down in the midst of roaring whirlwinds, puts an end to the raging of the elements, and several semicircular rainbows, extended over the ocean like gay triumphal arches, and multiplied on the wrinkled surface of the water, announce the peaceful termination of the great natural phenomenon. As soon as the air and sea have recovered their repose and equilibrium, the sky again shows its transparent azure;

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swarms of flying-fish rise sporting over the surface of the water, and the many-coloured natives of the ocean, among which is the shark, with his two inseparable companions (Gasterosteus Ductor and Echeneis Remora), come up from the bottom of the element, which is transparent to the depth of a hundred fathoms. Singularly formed Medusæ, the bladder-shaped Physalis with its blue pungent filaments, serpent-like streaks of Salpæ joined together, float carelessly along; and many other little marine animals, of the most various kinds, little marine animals, of the most various kinds, pass slowly, the sport of the waves, by the motionless vessel.* As the sun gradually sinks in the clouded horizon, the sea and sky assume a new dress, which is beyond description sublime and magnificent. The most brilliant red, yellow, violet, in infinite shades and contrast, are poured out in profusion over the azure of the firmament, and are reflected, in still gayer variety, from the surface of the water. The day departs amidst continued lightning in the dusky horizon, while the moon, in silent majesty rises from the unbounded ocean into the cloudless upper regions. Variable winds cool the atmosphere; numerous falling stars, coming particularly from the south, shed a magic light; the dark blue firmament, reflected with the constellations on the untroubled bosom of the water, represents the image of the whole starry hemisphere; and the ocean, agitated even by the faintest

* See Note 3. page 129.

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breeze of the night, is changed into a sea of waving fire.

Great and glorious are the impressions which the stranger here receives of the power and peace of the elements; but unused to the torrid zone, he feels a disagreeable sensation from the moisture and coolness of the morning and evening, and the oppressive heat of the noon. The whole crew, therefore, began to complain, in this latitude, of head-ach and cholic; and only artificial means, such as tartar and rhubarb, could prevent disease, in a climate where the rays of the sun fall perpendicular. At length we came, though slowly, out of this region of sultry and wearisome calm, because the wind which blew after the thunderstorms at noon, always carried the ship a little forward; by degrees, too, a faint south wind arose, varying from S.E. to S.W., and diminished the temperature, in the morning, at 7 o'clock, in the air, to 20.75° R., in the water to 22°; at noon, in the air, to 21.50°, in the water to 22°; in the evening, at half-past seven, in the air, to 21.25°. When we had reached longitude 21° 21′ west of Paris, and 5° 28′ N. latitude, the wind began to blow more steadily from the S., and fixing in S.E. and S.S.E., formed the constant wind, which blowing regularly, accompanied us through these latitudes. We still saw for a moment the polar star, a few degrees above the horizon, which is here generally clouded; on the other hand the cross, and the other constellations

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of the southern hemisphere, were likewise low. From this, as well as from the nautical observations, we knew that the equator waft still some degrees to the south of us; but the uniformity and harmony in the phenomena of nature, which we had observed between the 10th and 5th parallels of latitude, seemed again to decrease, and thus to prove that the line of culmination of those phenomena is not in the equator, but several degrees to the north of it. We must leave it to the natural philosopher and the astronomer to decide whether this, perhaps, may arise partly from the heavier mass of continents, from the nutation, or from the revolution of the earth round the sun, &c. It is remarkable in this respect, that the N.E. and S.E. trade winds do not cease at an equal distance from the equator. The trade winds, which are supposed to arise from the rotation of the earth round its axis, and from the current of colder air towards the warmer region between the tropics, regularly vary in their extent, according to the position of the sun. When it is in the southern torrid zone, the N.E. wind always blows towards the equator; when it is in the northern torrid zone, the S. E. wind blows nearer to, nay, even beyond it. Between the two trade winds, there are sometimes faint winds, especially from S. and S.S.W. which are more limited by the first, sometimes on the north and sometimes on the south. The boundary of the N.E. trade winds in the Atlantic

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ocean towards the equator, was stated by John Seller* so long ago as the year 1675; they cease, he says, in January, February, and March is 4°, in April in 5°, in May in 6°, in June in 8°, in July in 9°, in August in 11°, in September in 10°, in October in 8°, in November in 6°, in December in 5° north latitude, and these statements are confirmed by modern observations

Carried forward by the S. E. wind almost as rapidly as we had been before by the N. E., we sailed towards the equator. On the 28th of June, being in 2° 19′ 29″ north latitude, and 24° 21′ west longitude of Paris, we saw several tropical birds (Phaëton æthereus) and pelicans (Pelecanus aquila) hovering at a great height over the frigate. These birds can indeed repose upon the waves; but it is not usual for them, especially the last, to show themselves, except when the land is not too far distant As we were in the middle of the ocean, we naturally concluded that there must be some rocks in the neighbourhood: in tact we found such rocks marked on some of our charts, in the longitude in which we were to cross the equator. In the evening the captain thought we had already passed this danger, when about nine o'clock the man at the mast head suddenly cried, "Breakers a-head!" At this cry, all rushed in despair upon deck, and ran confusedly together; some called "Fire!" and others,

* J. Horsburgh's India Directory, p. 26.

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"Shipwreck!" The captain, however, did not lose his coolness and presence of mind, but immediately ordered the sails to be struck. The vicinity of' the supposed danger gave wings to the sailors, and the ship was speedily turned aside from the rocks. Thus we had indeed happily escaped the danger, and every one breathed more freely after a moment which had so powerfully affected us all by the image of impending destruction; however, to sail with greater security during the night, it was thought necessary to put out a small boat to examine the supposed rock. The question now was, whether any of the officers would expose himself in so small a bark to the immense agitated ocean Lieutenant Logodetti, obeying the summons of the captain, came forward; and accompanied by some sailors, provided with a compass, a lighted lantern, and some provisions, went on board the boat to proceed towards the supposed breakers. While this was passing, the moon broke forth from the clouds and shed its light on the sea, ruffled by the S.E. wind. The whole crew of the ship, which with only a few sails set, had till now sailed on another tack, looked with anxious expectation at the boat, whose course was indicated by its lantern. We were all uneasy about the fate of our companions who were exposed in a small open boat to the ocean, perhaps to a near rock; sometimes we saw the distant light vanish, then its re-appearance filled us with joy, but at length we lost sight of it

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all at once, and it seemed to have disappeared entirely. While we were indulging in the most various conjectures, the boat rowed happily through the night, constantly attentive to the supposed danger, and returned safe the next morning to the frigate, with intelligence that the fancied breakers, arose merely from the agitation and the reflection of a violent current.

Such currents, setting to the west, which probably depend on the revolution of the earth round its axis, as well as on the constant east winds, prevail from 27° west longitude of Greenwich almost the whole year through, from the equator to the fourth and fifth degree of northern latitude, and also, though less constantly, in the lowest southern latitudes. Ships bound to the south which cross the equator too far to the west, are carried by them towards Cabo de S. Roque in Brazil, and suffer a considerable loss of time, because it is very difficult to pass round that cape to the south, against the current setting to the north. Besides this current about the Cabo de S. Roque, a pretty regular one has been observed along the eastern coast of Brazil, which depends on the direction of the wind. In September, and the following months till March, winds from the N. by E. to N.E. by E. prevail; and in the months from March to September, on the other hand, those from the E. by N. to E. S. E.; and in conformity with this change of the winds, a current runs to the north

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from March to September, and to the south from September to March.* On account of these currents, many vessels bound to the southern parts of Brazil, or to Buenos Ayres, visit the stations of Pernambuco and Bahia in the winter months on the passage out, and in the summer months on the voyage home. As the land wind generally blows strong, and to a considerable distance from the coasts of Brazil, it essentially favours vessels steering southwards, and they may reckon upon a speedy voyage along the coast, if they have not too nearly approached the land in the latitude of 6° or 7°. The longitude at which the equator is crossed on these voyages, is different; it is not advisable to keep too near the African coast on account of the currents and the calms prevailing there. In the English navy, the longitudes between 18° and 23° west of Greenwich are considered the best for crossing the equator, and it is also thought best to steer more to the east, when the sun is in the north, and more to the west when it is in the south.

It was on Sunday, the 29th of June, that according to our ship's reckoning we were to cross the equator. As the sea was pretty calm, mass was celebrated on this day. The solitude of the place, the silence and grandeur of the element to which

* Sailing directions for the eastern coasts of Brazil, by John Purdy. London, 1818. 8vo. p. 2.

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the little vessel was confided, between the two hemispheres and in the middle of the vast ocean, could not fail in the moment when the transubstantiation was announced by the sound of the drum, profoundly to affect every mind, but particularly those who then reflected on the power of Providence in nature, and on the mysterious metamorphosis of all things. The day passed over quietly with a constant S.E. wind; even Neptune and his strange retinue were not allowed to excite a disturbance on board the snip, by the usual ceremony of baptising those who crossed the line for the first time. The night was bright and clear; the poles of the heavens were already resting on the horizon, and the full moon hung above our heads in glorious majesty; Vega, Arcturus, Spica, Scorpio, in which Jupiter just then shone, and the feet of the Centaur, were bright in the firmament; the southern Cross had attained a perpendicular position indicating the hour of midnight, when, according to calculation we were at the place where heaven and earth were in equilibrium, and crossing the equator steered into the southern hemisphere. With what ardent hopes, with what inexpressible feelings did we enter this other half of the world, which was to present us with an abundance of new scenes and discoveries! Yes, this moment was the most solemn and sacred in our lives. In it we saw the longings of earlier years accomplished, and, with pure joy and enthusiastic foreboding, indulged in

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the foretaste of a new world so rich in the wonders of nature.

It was not till we had passed the equator, that the constant S. E. wind began to equal in strength the N.E. wind of the northern hemisphere. Violent rains were less frequent, but in their stead insulated groups of clouds of various forms were piled up in the blue ether. The nights, on the other hand, were more serene, and the southern constellations, new to us pilgrims from the north, though far inferior in number and splendour to those of the north, shone brightly in the azure firmament Falling stars illumined the night more frequently than in the northern zone, and generally fell towards midnight in the south, and towards morning in the north-east. The temperature of the water, still more that of the air, appeared to become considerably lower than in the same northern latitude, but the moisture of the air, and the phosphorescence and gravity of the sea-water began to increase. Our frigate rapidly cut the deep blue waves of the southern ocean, which, as they dashed against the stern, fell, on cloudy days, in numerous rainbows, or in the night, filled with countless luminous animals (Noctiluca oceanica nob.), shone like sparkling fire. Here, too, as in the northern torrid zone, swarms of flying-fish flew around, and the swift tunny-fish kept pace with our vessel. The sun appearing in a glow of red behind thick mists, or the pale moon, afforded us a majestic

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prospect when they rose or sunk into the ocean. But the farther we advanced to the south, the more perceptible was the difference of the elements. In 13° 29′ south latitude, and 31° 37′ west longitude of Paris, the thermometer, at half-past seven in the morning, was in the air at 19.50° R., in the water 20°; at noon, in the air and water 20°; in the evening at half past seven, in the air 19.25°, in the water 19.75°; the hygrometer 61° to 70°; the aræometer 2.87° to 3°; the barometer 28° or 27.7° to 27.9°.

In latitude 18° 4′, and longitude 35° 20′, the warmth of the atmosphere decreased nearly one degree, and the thermometer varied between 17° and 18°. We were now in the latitude of the Abrolhos, and the appearance of several sea-fowls (the Phaëton æthereus and the Procellaria capensis) indicated the vicinity of those dangerous rocks which lie along the coast of Brazil between the 16th and 19th degrees of south latitude. The captain ordered soundings to be more frequently taken; and though no bottom was found at a less depth than seven hundred feet, he judged it prudent to keep farther off the coast during the night. The small coasting vessels which sail backwards and forwards during the whole year between Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, do not always keep to the east of that dangerous chain of shallows and cliffs, but, when the wind is not favourable to carry them out to sea, often remain very near the coast

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where they can safely pass the channel, which it twelve miles broad, between the four small rocky islands Ilhas Abrolhos. This very frequent navigation has caused the Portuguese coasters to examine a series of shallows from nineteen to fifty fathoms, which, beginning to the south of Bahia de todos os Santos, extend along the coast of the Comarca dos Ilheos from the Baixos de S. Antonio to the mouth of the Rio Grande, in the direction of S.S.E., are connected with the Abrolhos, properly so called, and stretch from their most easterly end in 18° 38′ to 40° south latitude, and 36° west longitude of Greenwich, towards the S.E. to the rocky islands of Trinidad and Martin Vas. One of the sea-faring people with whom we became acquainted at Bahia, compared the formation of the rocks of Trinidad to those of Madeira and the Canaries. He was full of the impressions which had been left upon his mind by the grandeur and boldness of the masses of rock there, which, destitute of vegetation, except at the foot, rise perpendicularly out of the ocean, but above all an immense rocky arch under which the sea breaks with great fury. It is, however, very seldom that Portuguese vessels go from the Brazilian coast as far as this longitude, and anchor near these inhospitable cliffs to take in water, or to catch turtle which are said to be very numerous there. A French ship which left Europe almost at the same time as ourselves, having become

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leaky by some negligence in stowing its cargo of oil of vitriol, took refuge on Trinidad. The crew sent toe long boat to ask assistance at Rio de Janeiro, but before it arrived they were delivered from this fearful solitude by a North American who took them on board and landed them on the Cape of Good Hope. A disagreeable though by DO means alarming circumstance occurred to us here; a servant on board carelessly emptied into the sea the vessel in which several specimens of the Proteus anguinus, which we had brought from the lake of Ziriknitz, had hitherto remained alive and unchanged, and we were thus deprived of the result of the whole observation of the continued influence of the tropical climate on the development of these enigmatical animals.

On the 10th of July, when in 20° 49′ south latitude, and 39° 24′ west longitude of Greenwich, we quitted the region of the western variation of the magnetic needle, which had regularly decreased since our departure from Europe, and entered that of the eastern. The thermometer now began to fall gradually from 18°, 17′, to 16°. On the following day we met a small vessel, the first which bad come so near us in the ocean that we could hail her. On our firing a gun and hoisting our colours, it hastened up and gave us the agreeable information that the insurrection at Pernambuco, of which we had heard at Gibraltar, had been immediately quelled, and that political tranquillity and

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order had not been at all disturbed in the rest of the kingdom. It stated its distance from the continent, to be two days sail from Cabo Frio, and steering rather more westward towards the coast, soon vanished out of our sight. The astronomical calculations, which differed only about twenty miles from the result given by the log, made us, in agreement with the statement of this vessel, on the 12th of July at noon, in 21° 44′ south latitude, and in 40° 45′ west longitude of Paris. On the evening of the 13th of July, the captain announced that we should see Cabo Frio the following morning. How ardently did we long for the moment when, after a voyage of two and forty days, we should again come in sight of a continent. The assertion of the captain proved correct; and on the 14th, in the morning, a long-extended chain of mountains, floating as it were in mist, appeared in the west The deceiving clouds were gradually dispelled, and we perceived more clearly in the remote distance, the woody chain of Cabo Frio, which was joyfully hailed, first by the man at the mast head, and then by all on board.

The day was delightfully serene and bright, and a favourable wind carried us past the lofty cape, and soon after the noble entrance of the bay of Rio de Janeiro, though still at a distance, opened to our view. Steep rocks, like portals to the harbour, washed by the waves of the sea, rise on the right and left; the southern, Pào d'açucar of

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the form of a sugar-loaf, is the well-known guide for ships at a distance. Towards noon, approaching nearer and nearer to the enchanting prospect, we came up to those colossal rocky portals and at length passed between them into a great amphitheatre, in which the mirror of the water appeared like a tranquil inland lake, and scattered flowery islands, bounded in the back ground by a woody chain of mountains, rose like a paradise full of luxuriance and magnificence. Some naval officers from the fort of Santa Cruz, by which our arrival had been announced to the city, brought us permission to sail farther in. While this business was transacting, the eyes of all feasted on a country, which, for beauty, variety, and splendour, far exceeded all the natural beauties which we had ever beheld. The banks in bright sunshine rose out of the dark blue sea; and numerous white houses, chapels, churches and forts, contrasted with their rich verdure. Rocks of grand forms rise boldly behind them, the declivities of which are clothed in all the luxuriant diversity of a tropical forest. An ambrosial perfume is diffused from these noble forests, and the foreign navigator sails delighted put the many islands covered with beautiful groves of palms. Thus new, pleasing, and sublime scenes, alternately passed before our astonished eyes, till at length the capital of the infant kingdom, illumined by the evening sun, lay extended before us; and we, having sailed past the little island das Cobras,

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cast anchor close to the city at five o'clock in the evening. A sensation, not to be described, overcame us all at the moment when the anchor struck the ground of another continent; and the thunder of the cannon, accompanied with military music hailed the desired goal of the happily accomplished voyage.

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NOTES TO CHAPTER IV.

NOTE 1.

THE Dyer's Lichen was first exported from the islands of the Archipelago to Venice, Genoa, France, and England, for the use of the dyers. Towards the commencement of the last century it was discovered in the Canary Islands, and was soon placed among the regalia of the Spanish crown. This excited the attention of the Portuguese, who collected it without restriction in the Cape de Verd Islands, Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Azores. In the year 1730, the Jesuits asked of King John V. the privilege of collecting the Hervinha secca; but the crown took the advantage into its own hands, and farmed the right of collecting it. At a later period the Lichen was ceded to the mercantile company of Gram Pará and Maranhâo; and, lastly, in the year 1790, the government again took this branch of commerce under its own care, because it had declined considerably under the bad management of the company. At present the exportation is small; but more considerable, however, from the Capo de Verd Isles. (See I. Da Silva Feijó, in the Memorias economicas da Acad. de Lisboa, vol. v. 1815, p. 143.)

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NOTE 2.

Mr. Von Humboldt (Travels, vol. i.) was the first who distinguished in the vegetation of Teneriffe five zones, one above the other: the first, that of the vine, extends from the sea-shore to the elevation of from two to three hundred toises; the second, that of the laurel, reaches from this to the height of nine hundred toises; then comes that of the pines, four hundred toises in breadth; the fourth, of the broom (Spartium nubigenum); and lastly, that of the grasses. Von Buch (on the Flora of the Canary Islands, in the Memoirs of the Berlin Academy, 1816, 1817,) in like manner distinguishes five regions of vegetation in the islands of Teneriffe, Canaria, Palma, Gomera, and Ferro; the great elevation of which above the sea implies various zones of climate. We endeavour to point out the same divisions or zones in Madeira; in which we assume, for the middle temperatures, with the exception of those well known in the lowest zone, the results of Howard's calculation, according to which the temperature decreases 1.2 cent. for every 106 toises as you recede from the surface of the earth. The four forms of vegetation to be observed in Madeira, correspond with those in the Canaries, but are of inferior breadth.

FIRST REGION.

The CANARIES: African Zone of the Cactus and Euphorbia, one thousand two hundred feet above the surface of the sea; mean temperature 21.25° to 21. 50° cent.

MADEIRA: Zone of the Tropical Plants, seven hundred feet above the surface of the sea; mean temperature 20.40° cent.

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The chief character is now determined by plants imported from hot climates, and cultivated, such as, Musa Paradisiaca, Musa sapientum, Caladium esculentum, Cactus Tuna, Opuntia, Convolvulus Batatas, Agave Americans, from America.—Physalis Peruviana, Sida carpinifolia, Abutilon, Melochia pyramidata have likewise been introduced here from the American continent.—Arundo Donax (perhaps native?). Phœnix dactylifera, Olea Europæa, Ceratonia Siliqua, Punica Granatum, Ficus Carica, brought from North Africa, or Southern Europe.

SECOND REGION.

The CANARIES: European cultivation, from one thousand two hundred to two thousand five hundred feet; mean temperature 17.50° cent.

MADEIRA: Zone of the Vine, Fruit, and Corn, from seven hundred to two thousand three hundred feet; mean temperature 17.02° cent.

The greater part of the plants living here, as well as the vine and corn, seem to have been brought from Asia and the South of Europe. (Those species belonging to the North of Europe are printed in small Roman characters; those of the South of Europe and North Africa, in Italics; and those peculiar to the Canaries and Madeira, in ITALIC SMALL CAPILALS.)

Carix muricata; Scirpus setaceus; Poa pratensis; Briza media, maxima; PHALARIS CANARIENSIS; Glyceria fluitans; Andropogon hirtum; Brachypodium pinnatum, distachyum; Agropyrum repens; Hordeum murinum; Triodia decumbens; ACHYRANTHES NIVEA; CHENOPODIUM AMBROSIOIDES: Urtica urens; Plantago major; Echium vulgare; Solanum nigrum, PSEUDOCAPSICUM; Sherardia arvensis; Sonchus oleraceus; Cripis tectorum, CORONOPIFOLIA; Scolymus maculatus; Calendula arvensis; Cichorium

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divaricatum; Centaurea Calcitrapa; Convolvulus arvensis, ulthœoides; Mentha Pulegium, rotundifolia; Stachys circinata; Prunella vulgaris; Origanum glandulosum; Amaranths Blitum; Dianthus prolifer; Arenaria verna; Cueubalus Behen; Alsine media; Oxalis corniculata; Portulaca oleracea; Geum urbanum; Rubus fruticosus; Ranunculus repens; Agrimonia Eupitorium; Valeriana Phu; Anethum Fœniculum; Raphanus sativus; Brassica orientalis; Turritis hirsuta; Geranium robartianum; Lotus corniculatus, microcarpus; Trifolium agrarium; Sedum dasyphyllum; SIDA CANARIBNSIS; Lonicera Periclymenum; BUDDLEJA GLOBOSA; Philadelphus coronarius.—From America: Fuchsia coccinea.

THIRD REGION.

CANARIA: Zone of the Woods, from two thousand five hundred to four thousand and eighty feet; mean temperature 13.70° cent.

MADEIRA: Zone of the Woods, from two thousand three hundred to three thousand feet (sometimes very rocky); mean temperature 15.06° cent.

Most of the plants peculiar to Madeira are in this zone.

Castanea vesca; LAURUS FŒTENS, INDICA; DISANDRA PROSTRATA; RUSCUS ANDROGYNUS; PHILLIS NOBLA; SEMPERVIVUM ARBOREUM, CANARIENSE, VILLOSUM; GLOBULARIA LONGIFOLIA; CLETHRA ARBOREA; MYRICA FAYA: HYPERICUM FLORIBUNDUM, Androsœmum, humifusum; JASMINUM ODORATISSIMUM; SCROPHULARTA BETONICÆFOLIA, GLABRATA; DRACOCEPHALUM CANARIENSE; MESSERSCHMIDTIA FRUTICOSA; TEUCRIUM CANARIENSE, LAVANDULA PINNATA; CHEIRANTHUS MUTABILLS; CETERACH CANARIRNSE; WOODWARDIA CANARIENSIS; DAVALLIA CANARIENSIS; Blechnum boreale; Carex divulsa; CHRYSANTHEMUM PINNATIFIDUM;

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Mentha sylvestris; Geranium rotundifolium; Melissa Calamintha.

FOURTH REGION.

CANARIA: Zone of the Canary Pine, from four thousand and eighty, to five thousand nine hundred feet, mean temperature 10° cent.

MADEIRA: Zone of Broom and Heath, from three thousand, to five thousand two hundred and fifty feet, mean temperature 10.76° cent.

Cytisus divaricatus; Spartium scoparium; Erica scoparia (which extends to the highest rocks); Pteris aquilina; Aira caryophyllacea; Piptatherum paradoxum; ECHIUM CANDICANS; SEMPERVIVUM VILLOSUM; AIZOON CANARIENSE, which, as well as the Cotyledon Umbilicus, may be seen everywhere on the rocks from the second region upwards.

NOTE 3.

We observed the following animals in the vicinity of the equator. AVES: Phaëton æthereus; Pelicanus Aquilus. PISCES: Squalus Carcharias; Gasterosteus Ductor; Echeneis Remora; Exocœtus volitans; Scomber Thynnus, Pelamis. INSECTA: Hydrometra marina nob. MOLLUSCA: Salpa connata nob, cristata, cylindrica, dipterygia nob.; Physalis pelagica; Glaucus octopterygius ventricosus, Draco nob.; Porpita nuda? Botellus pellucidus nob.; Medusæ sp. div.; Noctiluca oceanica nob.

The new Hydromatra, and the new genera and species of Mollusca, will appear in a separate treatise.

VOL. I. K

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NOTE 4.

Horsburgh, in the India Directory, has stated in the following table, the equatorial boundaries of the N.E. and S.E. trade wind between 18° and 26° west longitude from Greenwich, according to the experience of 238 ships which have sailed from England to India, or from thence to England.

Months.	The N.E. Wind lost in the Voyage Out, in Latitude		The N.E. Wind met with in the Voyage Home in Latitude		Mean Limit Of the N.E. Wind on the voyage Out and Home.	The S.E. Wind lost in the Voyage Home in Latitude		The S.E. Wind met with in the Voyage Out, in Latitude		Mean Limit of the S.E. Wind on the Voyage Out and Home.	Difference between the two mean Limits of the N.E. and S.E., in which variable Winds prevail
	Between	Meen	Between	Meen		Between	Mean	Between	Mean
January	5° — 10°n	7°n.	3° — 6°n.	4 1/2°n.	5 3/4°n.	1/2° — 4°n.	2 1/4°n.	2° — 4°n.	3°n.	2 3/4°n.	3°n.
February	5 — 10	7	2 — 7	5	6	2s. — 3	1 1/2	0 1/2 — 1	1	1 1/4	4 3/4
March	2 1/2 — 8	5 1/2	2 — 7	5	51/2	1 — 2	1	0 1/2 — 2 1/2	1 1/2	1 1/4	3 3/4
April	4 — 9	6	4 — 8	5 1/2	5 3/4	2 — 2 1/2	1	0 — 2 1/2	1 1/2	1 3/4	4 1/2
May	5 — 10	7	4 1/2 — 7	6	6 1/2	1n. — 4	2 1/2	0 — 4	3	2 3/4	3 3/4
June	7 — 13	9	7 — 12	9	9	1 — 5	3	0-5	3	3	6
July	8 1/2 — 15	12	11 — 14	12	12	1 — 6	4	1 — 5	3	3 1/2	8 1/2
August	11 — 15	13	11 — 14 1/2	13	13	3 — 5	4	1 — 4	2 1/2	3 1/4	9 3/4
September	9 — 14	11 1/2	11 — 14	12	11 3/4	2 — 4	3 1/2	1 — 3	2	3	8 3/4
October	7 1/2 — 13	10	8 1/2 — 14	10	10	2 — 5	3	1 — 5	3	3	7
November	6 — 11	9	7 — 0	7	8	3 — 4	8 1/2	3 — 5	4	3 3/4	4 1/4
December	5 — 7	6	3 — 6	5	5 1/2	1 — 4	2 1/2	1 — 41/2	4	3 1/4	2 1/4

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TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

STAY IN RIO DE JANEIRO.

ON the morning of the following day, the 15th of July, we went on shore, rowing through the busy crowd of European vessels, and little boats manned with negroes and mulattoes. Ascending the slope of a very fine molo (quay), of hewn granite, we were at once in the principal square of the city, which is formed by the royal palace and several considerable private buildings. It was with great difficulty that we made our way through the noisy crowd of black, brown, half-naked men, who, with the importunity which is peculiar to them, offered their services. Passing through several straight streets, crossing each other at right angles, we at length reached the Italian inn, at that time the only one in the capital of Brazil, where we found accom-

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modation for the present. Some days afterwards, we hired a small house in the suburb of St. Anna, which we preferred on account of its elevated situation, on the declivity of some hills, and the prospect which it afforded over Cape Corcovado. Our books, instruments, and other effects, were conveyed to our new abode on the shoulders of negroes. The officers at the custom-house made no difficulties, and gave us no trouble, when they found that we had come in the Austria frigate, and under the protection of his majesty the Emperor of Austria. In general, many circumstances appeared to combine to aid us novices in our first domestic arrangements on American ground. To our great satisfaction we soon met with the very obliging M. Von Langsdorff, the Prussian consul-general, who is well known in the literary world by his account of the voyage round the world, in which he accompanied Commodore Krusenstern. He welcomed us with the greatest cordiality; and several of our German fellow-countrymen, who had settled at Rio de Janeiro with mercantile views, endeavoured to serve us to the utmost of their power. Besides our common country, we were united with them by the interest which they felt in the ample treasures of nature with which they were so imperfectly acquainted. In justice to our own feelings we must gratefully mention the names of our worthy countrymen, Messrs. Scheiner, Hindriks, Schimmelbusch, Deusson, Fröhlich, and Dürming. We also received most friendly counsel in the regulation

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of our affairs from Messrs. Von Eschwege and Feldner, lieutenant-colonels of engineers in the service of the King of Portugal. A residence of several years in Brazil had made them both very well acquainted with the interior of the country, and the former happened to be just then at Rio de Janeiro, whither he had come on a visit from his garrison at Villa Rica. By the intervention of the Austrian minister, Baron Von Neveu, who interested himself in the success of our undertaking with the warmest zeal, and in a truly literary spirit, we soon received a royal safe conduct (portaria), which allowed us to travel through, and to examine at our pleasure the province of Rio de Janeiro, and most strongly recommended us to the assistance of the authorities, in every case where we should stand in need of it.*

If any person, considering that this is a new continent, discovered only three centuries ago, should fancy that Nature is here still entirely rude, mighty, and unconquered, he would believe, at least here in the capital of Brazil, that he was in some other part of the globe; so much has the influence of the civilisation of ancient and enlightened Europe effaced the character of an American wilderness in this point of the colony, and given it the stamp of higher cultivation. The language, manners, architecture, and the influx of the productions of the industry

* See Note 1. page 199.

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of all parts of the globe, give a European exterior to Rio de Janeiro. But the traveller is soon reminded that he is in a strange quarter of the world, by the varied crowd of negroes and mulattoes, who, as the labouring class, everywhere meet him, when he sets his foot on shore. To us this sight was less agreeable than it was striking. The degraded, brutish nature of these half-naked, unfortunate men, offends the feelings of the European, who has but just quitted the seat of polite manners and agreeable forms.

Rio de Janeiro, or properly St. Sebastiano, commonly called only Rio, lies on the shore of the great bay, which extends from the city northwards into the continent three times as far as the distance to the anchorage. It occupies the northeast part of a tongue of land, of an irregularly quadrangular shape, situated on the west bank, which stretches towards the north, and towards the south is connected with the continent. The most easterly point of this tongue of land is the Punta do Calabouço; the most northerly, opposite to which is the little Ilha das Cobras, that of the Armazem do Sal. The oldest and most important part of the city is built between these two points along the shore, in the direction of north-west to south-east, and in the form of an oblong quadrangle; the ground is, in general, level, only at the most northerly end are five hills, rather long, and so near to the sea as to leave room for only one street

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by the sea-side; towards the south and south-east tie city is commanded by several hills, the promontories of the Corcovado, a woody mountain. The more ancient, north-east part of the city is traversed by eight straight, pretty narrow, and parallel streets, and divided into squares by many others crossing them at right angles. The Campo de S. Anna, a large square, to the west of the old city, separates it from the new town. The latter, which has, for the most part, arisen since the arrival of the court, is connected by the bridge of S. Diogo over the arm of the sea called Sacco d' Alferes, with the south-western quarter, or Bairro de Mato-porcos, and, by the extensive suburb of Catumbi, with the royal palace of S. Cristovao, situated to the northwest Mato-porcos lies immediately against the lower eminences of the Corcovado, which rise southwest of the city, where this row of hills terminates at the sea. The church of Nossa Senhora da Gloria forms a distinguished object on its summit, commanding the southern part of the city. From this place, farther towards the south, detached rows of houses occupy the two semicircular bays of Catête, and Bota Fogo, and single houses lie scattered in the picturesque side-valleys, which branch out from the Corcovado, and among which the Valley of Laranjeiras is the most pleasant. The city, in its greatest extent, already measures above half a mile. The houses, which are low and narrow in proportion to their depth, are for the most built of

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blocks of granite, or in the upper story, of wood, and covered with tiles. Instead of the old latticed doors and windows, we already see everywhere complete doors, and glass windows. The gloomy projecting cabinets before the windows, closed, according to oriental custom, have made way by the king's command, for open balconies. The streets are, for the most part, paved with granite, and provided with raised pavement for the foot-passengers; but they are very sparingly lighted, and hardly more than a few hours in the night, by the lamps placed before the images of the Virgin Mary. From the regularity of the streets it is agreeable to the eye to meet with several open squares, such as those before the royal palace, before the theatre, the public promenade (passeio publico), or the Campo de S. Anna.

The hills along the north-eastern bank are partly covered with large buildings; the former college of the Jesuits, the convent of the Benedictines, on the most north-easterly hill, then the episcopal palace, and the Forte da Conceiçao, have a grand appearance, especially when seen from the sea. The residence formerly occupied by the viceroys, which, after the arrival of the court from Lisbon, was enlarged by the addition of the Carmelite convent, and fitted up for the royal family, stands in the plain, opposite to the abovementioned molo. This building is by no means in the grand style of European palaces, and its ex-

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terior seems unworthy of the monarch of so promising and rising a kingdom. In general, the style of architecture in Rio is mean, and resembling that of the old part of Lisbon; yet it seems that architecture, the works of which so immediately relieve one of the greatest wants of human life, will improve more rapidly than the other arts. The presence of the court already begins to have a favourable effect on the style of building, as is proved among other edifices, by the new Mint, and several private houses in Catête and Mato-porcos; they continue also to blow up rocks of granite with gunpowder, partly to make the city more level and connected, and partly to adorn it with new buildings. Among the churches, which altogether have neither fine paintings, nor works of sculpture, but only rich gilding, those da Candelaria, de S. Francisco, de Paula, are distinguished by their good style of architecture, and that of Nossa Senhora da Gloria, by its elevated station; but the finest and most beautiful monument of architecture of which Rio can at present boast, is the Aqueduct, which was completed in 1740; it is an imitation of the noble work of the same kind erected by John V. at Lisbon, by the lofty arches of which, spring water is brought from the Corcovado to the fountains in the city. The largest of these fountains, in the square in front of the palace, and close to the harbour, supplies the ships, and is constantly surrounded by crowds of

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sailors of all nations. Captain Cook was mistaken when he expressed doubts of the goodness of this water for long voyages; for Portuguese captains have, by way of making the experiment, taken this water to India, and brought it back to Rio de Janeiro, when it was found to be still uncorrupted. New fountains continue to be erected in the city, and during our stay, measures were taken to provide the great square of S. Anna with a fountain, and to lead a new aqueduct to the south-west part of the city. In such a hot and populous city the attention of the government is justly directed to the obtaining of an ample supply of cool water fit for drinking, but the distribution of it by uncleanly negroes, who offer it for sale in open vessels or in skins (borachios), which are often exposed for hours together to the heat of the sun, requires to be altered by the Board of Health; indeed the government would do a great service to the inhabitants by causing the water to be conveyed into many private houses.

The bay of Rio de Janeiro, one of the finest and most spacious harbours in the world, and the key to the southern part of Brazil, has been long since carefully fortified by the Portuguese. The sudden capture of the city by the French, under Duguay Trouin (1710), who imposed on it a contribution of 246,500,464 rees, perhaps first made them sensible of the necessity of defensive works. The entrance is protected principally by the fort of Santa Cruz,

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which is built on the Pico, a steep mountain on a tongue of land on the east side, and by the batteries of S. Joâo, and S. Theodosio, lying opposite to it, to the north of the Sugar-loaf. The strait formed by the two points, which is only five thousand feet broad, is also commanded by the guns of a fort on the low rocky island Ilha da Lagem, situated almost in the middle of the entrance. In the interior of the bay the most important works are the fort de Villegagnon, and that of Ilha das Cobras, both on small islands not far from the city. State criminals are confined in the latter island; in the city itself are the Forte da Conceiçao in the north-west part of it, and the batteries of Monté, in the south-east; they are not, however, in the best condition. The inlet of Bota-Fogo is covered by the lines of Praya-vermelha.*

* Here it was that Martin Alfonso de Souza, in his voyage of discovery, performed by the command of King John III., landed in January 1531, and gave the bay the name it now bears. The Praya-vermelha was formerly called for this reason, Porto de Martin Affonso. It is uncertain who it was that first visited this part of the coast of Brazil, but it appears that Joaô de Solis was the first who put in here in 1515. When Fernando de Magalhaens, with his fellow-countryman Ruy Falleiro, sailed along the whole east coast of South America, he anchored here in December 1519, and gave to the bay the name of Bahia de St. Lucia. Martin Alfonso soon left the place again, probably from fear of the numerous and warlike natives, the Tamoyos. The Portuguese were first made sensible of the importance of this place, when it was taken possession of by Nicholas Durant de Villegagnon, who was sent hither by Admiral Coligny, and erected a fort. Mem de Sà, the governor-general of Brazil, having on the 15th of March, 1560, taken and destroyed the works erected by the French, the bay came into the hands of the Portuguese, who immediately began to build the town on its present site. The aborigines are said to have called the bay on account of its narrow entrance, Nelhero-Hy, or Nithero-Hy, that is, hidden water. (Patriota, for May 1813, p. 63.; Corografia Brasilica, ii. p. 1.) Lery calls it Ganabara.

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The internal basin of Rio de Janeiro has its tides as well as the ocean; at new and full moon, high water, which rises fourteen or fifteen feet, sets in at thirty minutes past four; the ebb sometimes continues a whole day without intermission, at which time the current is the strongest on the west side of the bay: on the other hand, when the flood begins, a whirling current is remarked on the east side. The flood continues a shorter time than the ebb, and usually runs at the rate of three or four sea miles in an hour; this strong flood has more than once led the captains of ships into error, and caused them to cast anchor too close to the shore, so that when the ebb set in they suffered shipwreck, there not being a sufficient depth of water for the vessels. An English ship which arrived from Liverpool after a remarkably favorable passage during our stay, and had cast anchor quite close to the Ilha das Cobras, was wrecked in this manner in the harbour, and the greatest exertions

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of the crew of our frigate, the Austria, who were called in to assist, could save only part of the goods, because the vessel was dashed to pieces on the rocks in a few hours. The sea, when it is high, particularly at the equinoxes, fills up the sandy hollows and lagoons, in several places round the city, which are planted with rhizophora, conocarpas, and avicennia trees; thus the sandy plain between the suburb of S. Anna, where we lived, the bay of Sacco d'Alferes, and the principal street towards S. Christopher, was sometimes changed into a lake, and limited our excursions through the valley. The saltness of this sea-water is rather less than that of the ocean on the outer coasts, and for this reason, and also because too many heterogeneous impurities are mixed with it, no salt is prepared in the vicinity of Rio; the greater part of that consumed here is imported from the rich salt lagoons of Setuval. It is preferable in this hot climate to the Spanish and Sardinian, because it has less tendency to deliquescence; a small part comes to the capital from the neighbourhood of Cabo Frio.

It will be readily imagined that with the extensive trade carried on here, the traveller every where meets the bustle of active industry. The harbour, the exchange, the market-places, and the streets nearest the sea, where the principal magazines of European merchandise are situated, are constantly filled with a throng of merchants, sailors, and negroes. The various languages of the mingled

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crowd, of all colours and costumes, crossing each other in every direction, among whom the negroes carry their burden on poles; the creaking of a clumsy two-wheeled cart, drawn by oxen, in which goods are conveyed through the city; the frequent salutes of the guns of the forts, and of vessels arriving from all parts of the world; lastly, the crackling of the rockets, with which the inhabitants celebrate religious festivals, almost daily, from an early hour in the morning, all combine to compose a confused unheard-of discord, which is perfectly stunning to the stranger.

By far the greater part of the population of Rio de Janeiro, consists of Portuguese and their descendants, both whites and people of colour. American aboriginal inhabitants are scarcely ever seen here. They avoid the city as much as possible, and appear but very rarely, and by chance, like birds of passage, in the bustle which is so contrary to their habits. The nearest are said to belong to the mission of S. Lourenço, on the bay of Rio de Janeiro, from which place they bring potters' ware for sale; others sometimes come from a greater distance, from the district of Campos, in the country of the Goytacazes, or from Arêas, a little villa, on the road to S. Paulo, or from Minas Geraës, in company with the caravans of mules, which maintain a constant communication between these places and the capital. The brown watermen, in the harbour, whom many travellers have

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taken for Indians, are mulattoes of various tints. The first native American that we saw was a boy of the cannibal race of the Botocudos, in Minas Geraës; he was in the house of our friend, M. Von Langsdorff. The Conde da Barca, formerly minister of state, had, it seems, applied to the district commander of the Indians, in Minas Geraës, for an Indian scull, for our celebrated countryman, Professor Blumenbach; but the commandant not having an opportunity to obtain such a dead specimen, sent the count two living Botocudos, who had been taken in a sudden attack by his soldiers. M. Von Langsdorff obtained one of them, to whom he soon became much attached, and who served him not only as a living cabinet piece, but as a collector of objects of natural history.

Before the arrival of the king, the whole population of Rio consisted of fifty thousand souls, and the number of the blacks, and people of colour, considerably exceeded that of the white inhabitants. In the year 1817, on the other hand, the city and its dependencies contained above a hundred and ten thousand inhabitants. It may be considered as certain, that since the year 1808, four and twenty thousand Portuguese have gradually arrived here from Europe. This great afflux of Portuguese, to which must be added a considerable number of English, French, Dutch, Germans, and Italians, who, after the opening of the port, settled here, some as merchants, others as mechanics, could not fail, setting aside every other

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consideration, to effect a change in the character of the inhabitants, by wholly reversing the existing proportion of the white inhabitants to the blacks and people of colour. But it is particularly observable in the class of rich merchants in the capital, and even in the interior of the neighbouring provinces of Minas Geraës, and S. Paulo, what rapid strides civilisation and luxury, and consequently activity and industry, have made, in consequence of the vast accession of new inhabitants from Europe. Brazil has, properly speaking, no nobility; the clergy, the people in office, and the rich families in the interior, that is, land-owners and miners, possessed in a certain degree, before the arrival of the king, all the distinctions and privileges of nobility. The conferring of titles and offices by the king, drew a part of them to the capital, whence, having become acquainted with the European luxuries and mode of living, they began to exercise on the other classes of the people, an influence very different from that which they formerly had possessed. Even the more remote provinces of the infant kingdom, whose inhabitants, led by curiosity, interest, or private business, visited Rio de Janeiro, soon accustomed themselves to recognise that city as the capital, and to adopt the manners and modes of thinking, which, after the arrival of the court, struck them as European.

In general the influence of the court at Rio, upon Brazil, is in every respect incalculable. The presence of the supreme head of the state naturally

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inspired all the Brazilians, with a patriotic feeling which they had never before experienced, while in the situation of a colony they were governed by delegates, in the king's name. Brazil acquired in the eyes of every body, a new dignity: as it possessed the king, and carried on diplomatic negotiations on the other side of the ocean, it became, in a manner, included in the circle of the European powers. The king himself was made better acquainted with the advantages of the country, and the defects of the government. He profited by the former, and thereby secured the stability of all civil relations, and of property. Private credit increased; what was uncertain, partial, and dependent in the administration, made room for an independent order of things; and life and energy were infused into all public business. By this, and above all, by the opening of the port to the mercantile nations of all parts of the world, the cultivation of the soil, the welfare, the riches, the civilisation of the country, rapidly improved, together with the intercourse and increasing commerce with foreign countries. Yet it appears that, in general, the change from a dependent colony to an independent kingdom, was by no means considered, in Brazil itself, as a blessing, so much as the reaction of this event was felt as a misfortune by Portugal. Now, when experience has extended their views, and when the energies of this continent, called forth by political changes, more rapidly develop them-

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selves, the Brazilians will be sensible how quickly they have been led through various degrees of improvement, during the twelve years, in which King John VI. has resided in this kingdom.

The king soon marked his presence in the new kingdom, by the erection of the same superior tribunals and authorities, as exist in Portugal. In the year 1808, he organised the Dezembargo do Póço (Ministerial Council of the interior and Council of State), Conselho da Justiça (Ministerial Council of Justice), Conselho da Fazenda (Ministerial Council of the Finances), Junta do Commercio (Supreme Tribunal of Commerce), Meza da Consciencia (Ministerial Council of Religious Worship), the Relaçâo (Court of Appeal) of Rio de Janeiro was raised to the rank of Supplicaçâo (Supreme Court of Appeal), a general intendancy of the police for the whole kingdom was established, and also an independent police for the capital, a royal treasury, a mint, and a record office. In the year 1805, the bishopric founded in 1676 was endowed anew, and provided with a numerous chapter; lastly, in the year 1810, a Royal Military Academy was founded. The boundaries of the captanias were more accurately determined, and the necessary tribunals erected. The organisation of these several departments, as well as a more precise regulation of the sphere of action of the Governors General of the Provinces, the regulation of the jurisdictions, and the more equal collection of the

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tithes and other imposts, have been great steps in the improvement of the new kingdom; and history will recognise in the reign of John VI., a happy continuation of the beneficent influence of John III., that judicious and energetic monarch, from whose hands the colony first received form and life. The presence of the sovereign and of all the principal authorities of the state was essentially aided in its effects, on the establishment of a regular system in the new country by the great number of foreigners who, sooner or later, followed the court to Rio de Janeiro. English mechanics and ship-builders, Swedish ironworkers, German engineers, French artists, and manufacturers, were invited by the government, to animate the national industry, and diffuse useful knowledge. These efforts of the government, already, to transplant European activity and arts into the virgin soil, are the more worthy of respect, in proportion to the greatness of the difficulties which opposed them at the setting out. An important commencement towards the encouragement of industry was made with the arsenal; for which a plan, on a small scale, was indeed already prepared before the arrival of the king, but was not formally organised and put into execution till 1811. In the long row of houses on the harbour, which are used for the manufacture of articles of the marine, we now see cables made of Russian hemp, utensils forged out of Swedish iron, and sails cut out of northern cloth. The most important arti-

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cles which Brazil itself furnishes, are the excellent timber, tow, and pitch. This arsenal is, however, comparatively, more employed in working up foreign materials than the other arsenals of the country, and supplies them, while they on the other hand build many vessels. It is true that for the present, things manufactured here cost the government more than if they were procured by commerce, immediately from Europe; skilful workmen, who are for the most part Europeans, are retained only by high pay, and the blacks and mulattoes, who are yet but novices, are with difficulty accustomed to the active industry and perseverance of their masters; but these sacrifices of the government make it necessary to establish nurseries for these important professions. Thus this institution, like many others, serves as a proof of the prudent paternal care, which does not merely consider the present moment, but has in view the happiness of future generations. In this world which lies still rude and undeveloped before the regulating mind of the sovereign, the latter feels himself elevated above petty, interested opposition, and called by exalted duties to the creation of a better system for posterity.

On a more intimate acquaintance with the spirit of the Brazilian people, and with that of the society of Rio de Janeiro, the traveller, indeed, finds that these intentions of the government are, in general, not duly appreciated, and that the character of the Brazilian has been too powerfully influenced by

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a colonial administration of two hundred years' standing, for him already to apply with the same energy that distinguishes the European, to the serious occupations of industry, arts, and science, which consolidate the happiness, and the internal strength of a kingdom. Hitherto it is a taste for convenience, luxury, and the external charms of social life, which rapidly spreads here, rather than that for arts and sciences, in the proper sense of the term. While the progress of the latter has, in northern countries, been followed by the refinement of the enjoyments of life, the south, on the contrary, proceeds from the development of the pleasures of sense, and of external life, to the improvement of arts and science. Let us, therefore, not yet expect in the young capital those great influential establishments for the education and instruction of the people, which we are accustomed to see in Europe.

The library, said to contain seventy thousand volumes, which the king brought from Portugal, for the capital of Brazil, is arranged in the edifice belonging to the Terçeiros da Ordem do Carmo. The branches of history and jurisprudence are said to be the richest. We were particularly interested by a manuscript of a Flora Fluminensis, that is, of the Rio de Janeiro, which contains descriptions and beautiful drawings of many rare or unknown plants growing in the vicinity, and written by one Velloso. The public have free admission during the greater part of the day; but the want of literary occupation

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is so little felt here, that the library is not much frequented. To the same cause, and to the little inclination hitherto felt here to advance with the spirit of the sciences, it may be attributed that the only literary journal, The Patriot, which was published after the arrival of the court in Brazil, continued only a few years, though, by the variety of its contents it was calculated for extensive circulation. But a literary publication which deserves honouraable mention is Father Casal's Corografia Brasilica, printed at Rio, in two volumes; a work which, it is true, has many imperfections with respect to order precision, and correctness, especially in treating of subjects of natural history, but, as the first compendium of a general geography of Brazil, is of great use, and has been almost literally translated into English.* At present only two newspapers are published in the whole kingdom: in the capital, the Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro; and, in Bahia, a paper under the title of Idade de Ouro do Brazil. But even these few journals are not read with general interest.† The inhabitant of the interior, in particular, enjoying the lavish bounties of nature,

* Corografia Brasilica cm relaçao historico geografica do Reino do Brazil composta por luim Presbitero secular do Gram Priorado do Crato. Rio de Janeiro, 1817. 4to. Vol. 1, 2. A history of the Brazils; comprising its geography, commerce, colonisation, aboriginal inhabitants, &c. by J. Henderson. London, 1821. 4to.

† The number of journals has been much increased since Brazil declared itself independent. Trans.

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confined to the intercourse with a few distant neighbours, concerns himself very little with the events of the political world, and is satisfied with hearing the principal circumstances once a year, from the conductors of the caravans who return from the coast. In general, in the interior as well as in the sea-port towns, it is rather commercial relations than any regard to the interests of the world in general, that determine their participation in great political events. There is, however, no want of quick and accurate intelligence from Europe; the Lisbon newspapers being circulated by the Portuguese emigrants, and the London journals by the English.

The education of youth is provided for, in the capital, by many licensed academies. Persons of fortune have their children prepared by private tutors, to visit the university of Coimbra; which, from the scarcity of good teachers, is very expensive. In the Seminario de S. Joaquim, the elements of latin and church-singing (canto châo) are taught: but the best academy is the Lyceum, or Seminario de S. Jozé, where, besides Latin, Greek, French, and English, rhetoric, geography, and mathematics, likewise philosophy and divinity are taught. Most of the teachers are ecclesiastics, who have, however, now much less influence on the education of the people than formerly; particularly during the times of the Jesuits. A very useful establishment of later years is the School of Surgery (Aula de Ci-

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rurgia), which was founded in the former college of the Jesuits, on the same principles as the country surgical schools in the kingdom of Bavaria, to form practical surgeons, who are not to be found in the interior. After studying five years the young man may here be made master in surgery. The course of study is strictly prescribed*, and care is taken for the acquisition of positive knowledge, by attendance on the neighbouring military hospital. Most of the teachers in this establishment are, at the same time, practical physicians in the city, some of whom follow in their lectures the French elementary books, and some those of Cullen. Natural history, particularly botany, is taught the pupils by Fra Leandro do Sacramento, a learned Carmelite, from Pernambuco, and a disciple of the venerable Brotero. In his lectures he makes use of a small nursery of remarkable plants in the public promenade, because the botanic garden is too far from the city. The mineralogical cabinet, which is under the care of our countryman, Lieutenant-Colonel Von Eschwege, is not in a good condition, because he is generally absent from Rio de Janeiro. It consists of Baron Ohain's collection, described by Werner†, to which no very great additions have

* According to the plan laid down, they study in the first year Anatomy, Chemistry, Pharmacy; in the second, the same branches, with the addition of Physiology; in the third, Ætiology, Pathology, Therapeutics; in the fourth, Surgery, Midwifery; in the fifth they attend the Hospitals.

† Werner's description of a collection of Minerals &c. Luneberg, 1719. 8vo.

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been made, except a beautiful suite of diamonds sent by Da Camara*, and some other mineralogical curiosities of Brazil. In the building which contains this collection, there is a most insignificant beginning of a zoological cabinet, consisting of a few stuffed birds, and some cases with handsome butterflies. The Military Academy (Academia Militar Real), founded in 1810, is intended for the scientific education of those who desire to dedicate themselves from their youth to the military profession; but though provided with good masters, and especially favoured by the king, its sphere of action is very limited, for it has hardly any scholars; but in the newly established Aula do Commercio, the lectures on commerce, and also those on chemistry, are numerously attended.

Immediately after the arrival of the king, it was intended to give a university to the new monarchy. It was, however, yet undecided whether the seat of it should be at Rio de Janeiro, or at S. Paulo, which is situated in a more temperate climate. Mr. J. Garcia Stockier, son of a German consul of the Hanse Towns at Lisbon, a man of considerable literary acquirements, and a worthy member of the Lisbon academy, proposed a plan, conceived partly in the spirit of the German high schools, which, indeed, was much approved by the

* Mr. Von Eschwege has described these diamonds in the second part of his Journal of Brazil, p. 49.

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ministry, but at the same time met with so much opposition from those who wished Brazil to continue dependent on Portugal, as a colony, that the whole plan was given up; and yet nothing but the establishment of a university can rouse the slumbering energies of the country, and thus Brazil, in laudable emulation with the mother country, be one day elevated to the rank of a great kingdom. Till this shall be done, the Brazilians will be compelled, however expensive and troublesome it may be to them, to complete their education beyond the ocean, at the Portuguese university of Coimbra. This necessity, however, was attended with various advantages to the young students; especially by giving them an opportunity of making themselves acquainted with the great institutions in Europe, to bring back to their own country the knowledge to be obtained in them, and in general to acquire the universality of European education. If, however, at some future time, a university should be founded in Brazil, it would be necessary in the present state of literature, to have the first professors from Europe.

Another new institution, the Academy of Arts, is chiefly indebted for its existence to the late minister Araujo, Conde da Barca, who received almost the whole of his education in foreign countries. While Europe saw in the foundation of such an institution an apparently irrefragable proof of the rapid progress of the new state, it is evident

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upon closer examination, that it is at present by no means adapted to the wants of the people, and therefore cannot yet exert any extensive influence. Several French artists, historical and landscape painters, sculptors, engravers, and architects, and at their head Lebreton, formerly secretary to the Academy of Arts at Paris, (who however died, at his country-house, near Rio de Janeiro, soon after our arrival,) were invited from France in order by their instructions and works to awaken and to animate the disposition of the Brazilians for the arts, upon which Araujo had confidently calculated: but it could not fail soon to become evident that the fine arts cannot take root here, till the mechanical arts, which satisfy the first wants, have prepared a way for their reception; and that it is not till commerce, the activity of which is directed to external objects is finally established, that endeavours after the enjoyments and refinements of the arts, can arise in a nation. It is besides a necessary consequence of the present state of Brazil, that the inhabitant of this tropical clime everywhere surrounded by the poetical and picturesque natural beauties of his country, feels himself more disposed to the voluntarily offered enjoyments of so happy a climate, than those of art, which cannot be obtained without exertion. This circumstance points out the course which endeavours to introduce the arts and sciences into America in general take, and may serve as a hint to the sovereign, that the decoration of the

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political edifice by art, must be preceded by the consolidation of its foundations.

There is scarcely any taste here for painting and sculpture, and hence we see even in the churches, instead of real works of art, only ornaments overloaded with gold. Music, on the contrary, is cultivated with more partiality by the Brazilians, and particularly in Rio de Janeiro; and in this art they may perhaps the soonest attain a certain degree of perfection. The Brazilian, like the Portuguese, has a refined ear for agreeable modulation and regular melody, and is confirmed in it by the simple accompaniment of the voice with the guitar. The guitar (viola), here, as in the south of Europe, is the favourite instrument; a pianoforte, on the contrary, is a very rare article of furniture, met with only in the richest houses. The national songs, which are sung with the accompaniment of the guitar, are partly of Portuguese origin, and partly written in the country. By singing, and the sound of the instrument, the Brazilian is easily excited to dancing, and expresses his cheerfulness in polished society, by graceful cotillons, and in inferior company by expressive pantomimic motions, and attitudes like those of the negroes. The Italian opera is hitherto very imperfect, both as regards the singers and the orchestra. A private band of vocal and instrumental music, which the crown prince has formed for himself, of native mulattoes and negroes, speaks

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much in favour of the musical talent of the Brazilians. Don Pedro, who seems to have inherited from his ancestor Don John IV. a distinguished talent for music, sometimes leads this band himself, which, being thus encouraged, executes the pieces laid before it with great zeal. Haydn's favourite pupil, the Chevalier Neukomm was at that time composer to the royal chapel at Rio. The musical knowledge of the inhabitants was not yet ripe for his masses, which were written entirely in the style of the most celebrated German composers. The impulse which the genius of David Perez gave to the Portuguese church music (1752—1779) is past; and at present the first thing required of a mass is that it shall proceed in cheerful melodies, and that a long and pompous Gloria shall be succeeded by a short Credo. This is the style of Marcus Portugal, now the favourite composer among the Portuguese. The degree of perfection which music has attained among the higher classes at Rio, and the other sea-port towns of Brazil, entirely corresponds with the spirit in which poetry and the belles lettres are cultivated; for, in these, it is the French literature that is preferred by the superior classes in this country. The diffusion of the French language, and the importation of innumerable French books, are the more surprising, as there are only two indifferent booksellers' shops at Rio de Janeiro. Besides the publications of the day, with which the French Magasins des Modes

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supply Brazil, the works of Voltaire and Rousseau, in particular, are read with so much avidity, that several patriotic writers* have found reason to declaim against the Gallomania. This circumstance is the more remarkable, because political and mercantile interest unite the Portuguese with the English, and we might therefore naturally expect a greater inclination to the literature of England.† Even translations from the English into the Portuguese are by no means so numerous as those from the French. The language and poetry of the Germans are entirely unknown to the Brazilians; sometimes, but very rarely, we meet with an admirer of the muse of Gessner or Klopstock, with

* Thus, for example, the energetic and learned Jozé Agostinho Macedo, author of the epic poem O Oriente, in his Journal Enciclopedico, one of the best periodical publications at Lisbon.

† It was from a conviction of the superiority of English literature, that a learned Portuguese nobleman, the Viscount de St. Lourenço, undertook, a few years ago, to translate into Portuguese Pope's Essay on Man, to which he has annexed a vast mass of notes, selected from English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and other writers on the same or similar subjects. The extent of these notes may be judged of when we say that the work makes three quarto volumes. This must naturally render it less useful by limiting the number of the readers, on account of the expence, for besides its bulk, it is one of the most splendid specimens of typography of which the English press can boast, and adorned with fine plates, the first of which is an exquisite whole length portrait of Pope, from an original painting by his friend Jervas, in the possession of G. Watson Taylor, Esq. It was published in London in 1819. Trans.

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which he has been made acquainted only by French translations. This general knowledge of the French has not, however, banished the mother tongue in the higher classes of society; except the court, and those immediately belonging to it, the English and French languages are confined to the men, and are therefore seldom used in company. The fair sex, though they participate in the change which the removal of the court hither has occasioned, and are now more frequently seen in the theatre, and in the open air, have, however, on the whole, retained the same disposition which Barrow represents in his apologetic description in 1792.

The hospitable residence of Mr. Von Langsdorff was a very agreeable place of resort in the evening for many Europeans residing at Rio de Janeiro. A spirit of cheerful and animated conversation prevailed, which was enhanced by the musical talents of the lady of the house, and the co-operation of Neukomm. So great a number of naturalists, or friends of natural history, had never yet been assembled here, as just at the time of our stay. The mutual communication of the observations and feelings which the luxuriance and the peculiarity of the vegetation inspired, became doubly attractive, through the charms of the environs. Mr. Von Langsdorff inhabited a small country-house, on the declivity of the chain of hills which stretches from the city towards the south-west, and enjoyed from hence, amidst the

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fragrant shrubs of Brazil, an enchanting prospect over the city and part of the bay. Nothing can be compared to the beauty of this retreat, when the most sultry hours of the day are past, and gentle breezes, impregnated with balsamic perfumes from the neighbouring wooded mountains, cool the air. This enjoyment continues to increase as the night spreads over the land and the sea, which shines at a distance, and the city, where the noise of business has subsided, is gradually lighted. He who has not personally experienced the enchantment of tranquil moonlight nights in these happy latitudes, can never be inspired, even by the most faithful description, with those feelings which scenes of such wondrous beauty excite in the mind of the beholder. A delicate transparent mist hangs over the country, the moon shines brightly amidst heavy and singularly grouped clouds, the outlines of the objects which are illuminated by it are clear and well defined, while a magic twilight seems to remove from the eye those which are in shade. Scarce a breath of air is stirring, and the neighbouring mimosas, that have folded up their leaves to sleep, stand motionless beside the dark crowns of the manga, the jaca, and the etherial jambos*; or sometimes a sudden wind arises, and the juiceless leaves of the acajú† rustle, the richly flowered

* Mangifera indica, Artocarpus integrifolia, and Eugenia Iambos, L.

† Anacardium occidentale, L.

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grumijama and pitanga* let drop a fragrant shower of snow-white blossoms; the crowns of the majestic palms wave slowly over the silent roof which they overshade, like a symbol of peace and tranquillity. Shrill cries of the cicada, the grasshopper, and tree frog, make an incessant hum, and produce, by their monotony, a pleasing melancholy. A stream gently murmuring descends from the mountains, and the macuc†, with its almost human voice, seems to call for help from a distance. Every quarter of an hour different balsamic odours fill the air, and other flowers alternately unfold their leaves to the night, and almost overpower the senses wìth their perfume; now it is the bowers of paullinias, or the neighbouring orange grove, then the thick tufts of the eupatoria, or the bunches of the flowers of the palms‡ suddenly bursting, which disclose their blossoms, and thus maintain a constant succession of fragrance. While the silent vegetable world, illuminated by swarms of fireflies (Elater phosphoreus noctilucus), as by a thousand moving stars, charms the night by its delicious effluvia, brilliant lightnings play incessantly in the horizon, and elevate the mind in joyful ad-

* Two pretty kinds of myrtle, Myrtus Brasiliensis, Lam. and M. pedunculata, L.

† Tinamus noctivagus, Perdix guyanensis.

‡ We noticed in several palms, that the bunch of flowers, when arrived at perfection, suddenly bursts its covering, and fills the surrounding air with perfume. This is most frequently observed in the Macaraiba palm (Acrocomia sclerocarpa, nob.).

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miration to the stars, which, glowing in solemn silence in the firmament above the continent and ocean, fill the soul with a presentiment of still sublimer wonders. In the enjoyment of the peaceful and magic influence of such nights, the newly arrived European remembers with tender longings his native home, till the luxuriant scenery of the tropics has become to him a second country.

These fine nights may be enjoyed at Rio de Janeiro without any fear of those disorders, which, in many tropical countries, for instance, in Guinea, are almost inevitable consequences of the effects of the evening dew, or of the land breeze that then sets in; yet even here it is advisable not to pass in the open air those moments when, after sunset, the atmosphere is suddenly cooled, and the first dew falls. In general, the earlier hours of the morning seem to be less injurious to the health than the evening, because with the return of the sun, the suppressed perspiration is restored. Rio de Janeiro, it is true, has the reputation, though it should seem without reason, of being one of the more unhealthy cities of Brazil. The climate is hot and moist, which chiefly depends on the situation, as high and thickly wooded mountains, the narrow entrance of the bay, and the numerous islands, impede the free passage of the winds: but there are none of those very rapid changes of temperature which are so injurious to the health. Moist cold winds, which produce slight rheuma-

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tisms are, however, not uncommon. Though the marshy flats on the sea-side diffuse, during the time of the ebb, an intolerable stench, fortunately for the inhabitants of the vicinity, they do not remain uncovered by the water long enough to produce endemic fevers by their putrid exhalations. The food of the lower classes is not of a nature to engender diseases. Mandiocca and maize flour, and black beans, which are usually boiled with bacon and salt beef dried in the sun, are the chief articles of their diet; which, though coarse, and not easy of digestion, is however wholesome, when combined with exercise and the drinking of Portuguese wine, and brandy distilled from the sugarcane. Fish is not so much eaten as on the northern coasts. In hot countries, where provisions are liable to spoil more rapidly, the use of fish as food seems always to increase or decrease in the same proportion as the indolence, the poverty, and the sickly constitution of the people; thus we at least always found, during the whole of our travels, the greatest misery where the inhabitants were confined to fish for their food. The middle classes of the citizens of Rio, who have not entirely adopted the manners of Portugal, take, in proportion, little animal food, contenting themselves with the admirable fruits, and the cheese imported from Minas, which, with banians, is met with on every table. The Brazilian eats even wheaten bread but sparingly, preferring his farinha to it. The flour

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imported from North America, or from Europe, will keep five or six months. Even the numerous and delicate vegetables of Europe, all which might easily be raised here, constitute no important part of the food of the people. On the other hand, they are very fond of oranges, water-melons, and Spanish potatoes. Besides the simplicity of the Brazilian cookery, the health of the inhabitants of so hot a country is especially promoted by their praiseworthy temperance at their meals. The Brazilian eats but moderately of his few dishes, drinks chiefly water, and takes everything with the greatest regularity, following that strict order which is observable in all the phenomena of nature between the tropics. In the evening, he very prudently takes scarcely anything, at the most he drinks a cup of tea, or if he has not that, coffee, and avoids, especially at night, eating cool fruits. Only such a regimen, and conforming with the nature of the climate, preserves him from many diseases to which the stranger exposes himself, through inattention or ignorance. Above all things, therefore, the stranger should be advised to observe the same regimen as the Brazilians; neither to expose himself to the fatal effects of the sun's rays, by walking in the open air during the hottest parts of the day, when all the streets are deserted, nor to the dangerous consequences of taking cold in the night dews, and above all, not to indulge in sexual pleasures. Precaution is necessary also in

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drinking water to appease the almost insatiable thirst: we were advised to drink the water mixed with wine or brandy, but though we used this beverage with advantage, when we took little exercise, and kept in the shade, yet the violent tendency of the blood towards the head, during the journey, when we were very much exposed to the sun, particularly in the first year, soon obliged us to renounce all spirituous liquors; we therefore refreshed ourselves with the cool water of the stream without any addition, from which we never experienced any disagreeable effects, if we immediately again exposed ourselves to the heat. These remarks on regimen we cannot sufficiently recommend to the attention of travellers.

The diseases most frequent here, are chronical diarrhœas, dropsy, intermitting fevers, syphilis, and hydrocele; of all these, perhaps only the last can be considered as endemic and peculiar to the city. The physicians ascribe this disorder chiefly to the drinking of the water; but this, which is a fine spring water, rendered, it is true, warm and less agreeable by passing through so long a channel, or by the effect of the sun's heat while it is exposed to sale, can with the less reason be considered as the cause, as among the higher classes, where the disease is the most frequent, it is almost always improved by the addition of spirits. It rather should seem that imprudent and too thin clothing, getting violently over-heated and then

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taking cold, and excessive indulgence in carnal pleasures, tend not only to relax the muscles, an effect which the heat of the climate produces, independently of other causes, but likewise bring on a weakness of the nerves, and in consequence of that, the hydrocele. It is therefore chiefly remarked in the whites, the newly arrived Europeans and North Americans, in whom the abovementioned unfavourable influences produce, if not a total debility, yet a false direction of the action of the lymphatic system, and a weakness of the sexual organs. The physicians of this country prescribe as preservatives and remedies, local washings with rum and cold water, and the use of the truss. A disease which is very common in hot climates, called the Sarna, very frequently occurs here also. This malady consists in an inflammation of the glands, which ends in suppuration, with a local swelling resembling St Anthony's fire; its symptoms are chiefly heat, tension, and intolerable itching. In persons of an irritable temperament, it not unfrequently produces sympathetic swellings of the inguinal and other glands. The chief causes are not, as is often erroneously supposed, uncleanliness and woollen clothing, but overheating, checking of the perspiration, irregularity in the gastric system, and obstruction of the secretory vessels, which are acted upon by the influence of the climate. The sting of myriads of tormenting mosquitoes, which is still more intoler-

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able in gloomy damp days after great heat, contributes also to the development or increase of this disease. The cases are more rare in Rio de Janeiro, where the Sarna, after having long existed in a chronical state, changes to a generally diffused eruption, resembling the first stages of the leprosy, in which cases it is generally combined with syphilitic dyscrasy. The remedies employed against it are, internally, lemonade and slight doses of calomel, and externally, washing with very weak warm rum and water, bathing, and purgations. Chronical diarrhœas, passing into colliquation, dysentery and lientery, and also dropsy, are common at Rio de Janeiro. The diarrhœas, which are generally caused by taking cold, are often cured in the first stage by drinking warm vinegar lemonade. Diabetes is likewise observed here, but not so frequently as in cold countries; it is said to have been remarked that the negroes are far less subject to this disease than the whites and mulattoes, but the negroes suffer much more from the elephantiasis.

Rio de Janeiro has no endemic intermitting fevers; but the diseases readily assume a certain periodical character, or fever soon follows on the least disorder, in consequence of the activity of all the organic functions, and is rapidly succeeded by an entire dissolution of the juices. How much the augmentation of all external stimulants, particularly warmth and light, contributes in this

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climate to the acceleration of the animal functions, and to consequent exhaustion, we clearly found by our own experience, especially at the beginning of our residence, when the body was not yet weakened by fatigue and sickness. Even when in a state of the greatest repose, and without the influence of other stimulants, our pulse was quicker than in Europe: unfortunately this effect was changed into the opposite, when we began to grow sickly from the fatigues of our journey. This greater activity of the functions is manifested in health, as well as in sickness, by the quicker appearance of the symptoms and the more rapid progress of the disorder. It is nothing uncommon here, in Rio de Janeiro, and in the tropical countries in general, to see an individual who but a few days before was in full health, after suffering a short time from diarrhœa, cholic, fever, &c., at the point of death, and in the last stage of a putrid fever. Nothing but the speedy application of the most certain and powerful remedies can then save him; and in this respect, it may be said that the physicians here, more than in colder climates, must be not only ministri but magistri naturœ.

The croup manifests itself in this country with the same violence in its progress as in Europe. It has been particularly observed in white children. If it be true that this disease is of modern origin, and concurs to characterise the peculiar periods of the development of the human race, it is doubly

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remarkable that it is only a few years ago that it was first known, or at least first distinguished from other similar disorders in this new world, which is now frequented by many whites. Instances are mentioned in which a cure has been effected by a prompt application of dulcified mercury. Repeated experience in our own persons has convinced us, how suitable this medicine is to the climate of the tropics in general, and we therefore advise the traveller to make use of it on all occasions, where it is desired to produce a specific effect on the lymphatic system, the action of which is here checked by so many injurious influences; nay, on many occasions it serves as a very welcome prophylactic, as it checks slight disposition to disease. An excellent succedaneum for it, especially in diseases of the liver so frequent here, is sea-bathing, which acts equally on the nervous, muscular, and lymphatic systems. Rheumatism and catarrh are likewise of frequent occurrence here, where the changes of the temperature are greater than in the more northern provinces of Brazil.

The syphilis, which is so prevalent throughout the torrid zone, is not unusual at Rio de Janeiro. The ravages of this disease, which, as we afterwards convinced ourselves, is foreign to the original inhabitants of America, are not so dreadful and extensive here as they have been in colder climates, for instance, in the islands in the South Sea, but the

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disorder is much more generally diffused among the whole population. The climate, the temperament of the colonists, and above all, the introduction of the negro race as slaves, have co-operated, in a frightful manner, to make the disorder general, not only on the coast, but in the remotest parts of the interior provinces of the continent If the intensity of the venom has been lessened by being transferred to a hotter climate, the facility with which it is communicated seems to have greatly increased; on the other hand, the susceptibility is here much greater than in colder countries, partly on account of the more rapid action of the system, and partly of the debility produced by excesses, and increased by the body's being frequently overheated. The small-pox, too, which for these ten years past has appeared hardly otherwise than sporadically, does not very injuriously affect the constitutions of the inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro, because the hot climate and the relaxation of the frame favour the development of the disease. It cannot however be overlooked, that people of the Caucasian race go through this disease much more easily than the negroes, and still more than the Americans. It almost seems as if the poison of the small-pox, during the long course of its ravages, had become more assimilated to the constitution of the Europeans, than to that of the other races of mankind, whose organism is not yet equally accustomed to this far-spreading and powerful contagion. The

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Indians, who are very susceptible of imbibing the poison, bring the disease to maturity with the greatest difficulty, and frequently fall victims to it; which is attributed to the thickness and hardness of their skin. The physician, who compares many diseases in Brazil, such as the small-pox, syphilis, &c with those in other parts of the world, is led hereby to remark, that as each individual is subject, at every stage of life, to particular climacterical diseases, so whole nations, and ages, more easily receive and develop certain diseases, according to the respective state of education and civilisation.

From this account it may be inferred, that at Rio de Janeiro there are indeed dangerous diseases, but none that can be properly called endemic. Perhaps even the hydrocele is only conditionally to be considered as such. It may be easily supposed that where so many strangers, from many different climates resort, the mortality must be greater in the city than in the country; but this is not a proof of any malignant character of disease. We endeavoured, but without success, to procure lists of the deaths and burials, which would have given us some information respecting the degree of mortality usual there. In general, much remains to be effected by the future efforts of the government, for the improvement of public regulations, and laws on this subject; as well as for the cleaning of the streets, which at present is left to the care of the carrion vultures, which are protected on that

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account; and for the superintendence of the police over the sale of medicines, the practice of physic, &c.; all of which will require the serious attention of superior authority. The two chief measures which have hitherto been adopted for the preservation of the public health, are the rigorous examination of the certificates of health of ships arriving from foreign countries, and the introduction of vaccination under the direction of a physician. With respect to the latter point, children and adults are vaccinated on certain days in the year, in a public building; but the due examination of the state of the patient as suited to the operation, and of the progress and consequences of the disorder, in the patient, is hitherto very imperfect, or wholly wanting. For all such matters, it is much more necessary in an infant, thinly peopled state, to employ the influence of the clergy, than it is in Europe; until vaccination therefore is strictly enforced by measures of police, in the same manner as baptism is by the authority of the church, the country will remain exposed to the sudden and almost resistless ravages of the small-pox, and consequent depopulation.

Rio de Janeiro possesses at present, now that the hospital dos Lazaros has been removed to a neighbouring island, two large establishments for the sick, the Hospital of Mercy (Hospital da Misericordia) and the Royal Military Hospital; both situated in the old city, and not far from the sea. The

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first was founded by the charitable subscriptions of the citizens, and is under the direction of a council of administration chosen from their body. This building, consisting of two stories, receives, in four principal wards, about two hundred patients, but is capable of accommodating a greater number. The patients are separated into classes, according to their several diseases, and the women are all together in one large ward, to which strangers have no access. Among the patients are a few lunatics; but their number is extremely small in this country, where the cultivation of the intellectual faculties has not yet made any considerable progress. An establishment for poor children is also united with this hospital.

The Royal Military Hospital occupies the buildings of the ancient Jesuits' college, situated on an eminence. It is calculated for the reception of some hundred male patients, and is conducted with more order, and more attention to cleanliness, than the city hospital. The roofing of the building, with light shingles, is peculiarly adapted to so hot a climate, a free draught of air being promoted by this arrangement, as much as by the use of ventilators. In both these hospitals, the greater part of the medicines are made up according to certain customary recipes expressly introduced for them. Besides these recipes, use is also made of the Pharmacopœia of Lisbon, and partly also of those

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of London and Edinburgh. The custom of noting the commencement and the course of the disease, the diagnosis, the medicines administered, and the diet, on the table before each bed, is not very strictly observed. Each of these establishments has its own chapel and laboratory. The English have also erected a marine hospital for their seamen, on a tongue of land on the east side of the bay opposite the city, where they have the magazines for their naval stores. This hospital is attended by an English physician, under the authority of the British consulate, and German sailors are likewise admitted into it.

Near the sea lies the public promenade; it is a small garden surrounded with walls, and protected against the sea by a perpendicular quay of hewn stone. Its shady avenues of mango, jaca, or the East India bread-fruit tree, the yto, and the rose apple tree*, between which the beautiful bushes of the poinciana† are planted, are unquestionably very inviting in the evening, when the heat is allayed by the sea-breezes. Formerly, there was in this garden a breed of cochineal insects on Indian fig-trees, which were planted for that purpose along the sea-shore; but at present, the cultivation of this article, which might be brought to be a very

* Mangifera indica, Artocarpus integrifolia, Guarea trichilioides, and Eugenia Jambos, L.

† Cæsalpina pulcherrima, L.

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valuable branch of commerce, is entirely neglected throughout Brazil.*

In the vicinity of this promenade, the provision-markets afford an interesting sight to the newly arrived European. The new fish-market, situated close to the sea-side, is particularly abundant in all kinds of fish, crabs, and sea tortoises of the most singular forms. On the opposite side of this market, his attention is attracted by the screams of the parrots exposed for sale, the cries of other animals peculiar to the country, and of birds brought from other parts of the world, adorned with the gayest plumage. In the green-market, besides the kinds of cabbage, cucumbers, lettuce, leeks, and onions common in Europe, there are also vegetables of Indian and African origin. For the pigeon pea†, and several kinds of water-melons, the ginger root, &c., Brazil is indebted to the intercourse of the Portuguese with the East Indies, as well as for the excellent fruits of the jaca, the mango, and the jambos. The various kinds of red, black, and speckled beans‡, on the contrary, and the almond-

* See on this subject, Memoria sobre a Cochenilla do Brasil, por J. de Amorim Castro, in Memorias Economical da R. Academia da Lisboa, vol. ii. p. 135.

† Cytisus Cajan, L. or Cajanus flavus, Dec. called in Brazil Andu.

‡ Phaseolus derasus (Schrank Hort. Mon. t. 89.), and Dolichos Sinensis (Curtis's Botanical Magazine, t. 2232.), which plant, with small red round beans, is cultivated also by the Caffres and Hottentots, are the two commonest species.

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like mundubi bean (Arachis hypogæa), seem to have been chiefly imported from the African colonies.* Divers kinds of Spanish potatoes, and yam†, the mandiocca and Aypim roots‡, a mild and not poisonous variety of the first, and lastly, maize, maize flour, and mandiocca flour, as being the principal articles of food from the vegetable kingdom, are always to be found here in very large quantities. Fresh grass (caapim), which is grown in gardens in the neighbourhood, is brought to market as fodder for the cattle, especially for horses and mules. The Guinea grass is considered as the best for fodder; many quite different species however are known by this name in the several provinces of Brazil.§

A few days after our arrival, we were invited by one of our countrymen to attend a religious festival which is celebrated by the negroes in honour of their patroness Nossa Senhora do Rosario. A chapel on a slip of land running into the bay, not far from the royal country-seat of S. Cristovâo, to which we repaired, was filled towards the evening with a countless multitude of brown and black people, and the band of negroes from S. Cristovâo struck up a lively and almost merry strain, which was succeeded by a very pathetic sermon.

* See Note 2 page 200.

† Convolvulus Batatas, Dioscorea alata, L.

‡ Jatropha Manihot et var. L.

§ Panicum jumentorum, Pers. Paspalum stoloniferum, conjugatum, decumbens, virgatum, &c.

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Sky-rockets, crackers, serpents, and the like, were let off in front of the church, and near the calm surface of the sea, to add to the splendour of the solemnity.

Two very different feelings are excited in the observer when he beholds the children of Africa placed amidst the more exalted relations of European civilisation; on the one hand he remarks with joy the traces of humanity which gradually develop in the negro by his intercourse with the whites, while on the other hand he cannot but grieve that means so cruel, so contrary to the rights of mankind as the slave trade, were required to afford to that unhappy race, degraded even in their own native country, the first school of moral, education. These feelings affected us still more deeply when we were obliged to go to the slave-market to look for, and purchase, a young negro for ourselves. The greater part of the negro slaves who are now brought to Rio de Janeiro, come from Cabinda and Benguela. They are made prisoners in their own country by command of their chiefs, and bartered by them in exchange for European goods. Before they are delivered to the slave-merchant, the chief has them branded with a certain mark in the back or on the forehead. With no other covering than a piece of woollen stuff about the hips, they are then packed into ships, often in far too great numbers for the size of the vessel, and carried to their new destination. As soon as such

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slaves arrive at Rio de Janeiro, they are quartered in houses hired for the purpose in Vallongo-street, near the sea. There may be seen children from six years of age upwards, and adults of both sexes, of all ages. They lie about half-naked, exposed to the sun in the court-yard, or out of the houses; or are distributed in several rooms, the two sexes being kept separate. A mulatto or old negro who has acquired experience in long service, has the superintendence of the food and other necessaries for the new comers. The chief article of subsistence is mandiocca, or maize flour (Fuba), boiled in water (mingau); and, more rarely, salt meat from Rio Grande do Sul. The preparation of this simple food, which they eat out of hollow gourds, or dishes made of the calabash (Crescentia Cujete, L.), is left, as much as possible to themselves. Negroes and negresses who conduct themselves well, are rewarded with snuff or tobacco. They pass the night on straw mats with blankets to cover them. A great number of these slaves belong to the sovereign, and are brought as tribute from the African colonies. Whoever wants to buy slaves repairs to the Vallongo to make his choice, where every inspector draws up the slaves quite naked, for his examination. The purchaser endeavours to convince himself of the bodily strength and health of the negroes, partly by feeling their bodies, and partly by causing them to execute rapid motions, particularly striking out the arm with the

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fist doubled. What is most apprehended in these purchases, are hidden corporal defects, and especially the very frequent disposition to blindness. When the choice is made, the purchase money is fixed, which for a healthy male negro is here from 350 to 500 florins; the seller generally making himself answerable for any corporal defects that may be discovered within a fortnight. The purchaser then takes away his slave, whom he destines according as he wants him, to be a mechanic, a mule-driver, or a servant. The new proprietor is now absolute master of the labour of his slave and the produce of it. But if he is guilty of inhuman treatment of him, he is liable, as for other civil offences, to be punished by the police or the tribunals. The latter take care, by means expressly adopted for the purpose, to restore runaway slaves to their right owners, and punish the fugitives if they renew the attempt, by putting an iron ring round their necks. If the master will not punish his slaves himself, it is done after payment of a certain sum, by the police in the Calabonço. Here however, as well as in Brazil in general, the negroes easily become habituated to the country. This is a consequence of their careless tempers, as well as of the similarity of the climate to that of their native country, and the mildness with which they are treated in Brazil.

Before the removal of the court from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, the trade of this and all the other

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cities of Brazil was strictly confined to Portugal. The daily increasing production of valuable colonial articles, and the diligent working of the goldmines in the interior of the country, had greatly augmented, during the last hundred years, the riches and consequently the wants of the Brazilians; the trade of Lisbon and Oporto therefore indemnified the mother country for the loss of the East Indies, from which it derived the first sources of its power and greatness. The intimate political and mercantile union of those two cities with the colony, was extremely favourable to the former, and the more so, because its happy situation near to the Mediterranean and the coasts of the ocean, on the route of universal commerce between Europe and the East and West Indies, made it more easy to dispose of colonial produce. The Portuguese merchants at that time, not only fixed at pleasure the prices of all the productions of Brazil, which was obliged to sell exclusively to them, but could likewise make their payments in European merchandise, and upon conditions prescribed by themselves. Thus Lisbon, at the close of the last century, had attained a degree of activity and wealth, which made it next to London, the first commercial city in the world. But after a royal decree* had founded the independence of the Brazilian com-

* The Carta Regia, by which free trade in the Brazilian ports was laid open to foreigners, is of the 18th of February, 1808.

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merce, this state of things very speedily changed. The freedom of the Brazilian commerce, which the monopoly and jealousy of the mother country had hitherto checked, and the opening of the ports to all nations is the commencement of a new era in the history of Brazil. It may be asserted, that of all the measures which the government has adopted since its removal to the colony, none has occasioned such a remarkable impulse and so great a change as this. But it has undoubtedly been more advantageous to Brazil than to Portugal. The latter, after the dissolution of the intimate union between it and its former colony, will never regain its preceding commercial splendour.

This emancipation gave occasion to manifold improvements in Brazil; the competition of the other commercial nations with the Portuguese, led to new relations. The freedom of trade gave an impulse to industry, and the produce of the country, being in demand from various quarters, grew more valuable. This again increased the want of labourers, the influx of strangers, and the importation of the negroes necessary for the cultivation of the land. Tempted by the views of an advantageous commerce, colonists from other countries arrived, and contributed to the instruction of the inhabitants, to a more accurate knowledge of the country, and to the increase of its riches. A very great alteration was hereby effected in the public

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revenue, especially since many duties of forty-eight per cent. have been reduced to twenty-four, and fifteen. The mercantile system previously subsisting between Portugal and Brazil, was particularly shaken by the treaty concluded with England*, which gave to the English flag equal, nay even greater privileges in the ports of Portugal and its possessions, than the Portuguese. An additional convention extended the freedom of the British commerce.† English merchants obtained in the Juiz Conservador a distinct tribunal for their commercial Connections with the Portuguese subjects. It was likewise intended, on occasion of the marriage of Her Imperial Highness the Archduchess Leopoldina, to establish a commercial intercourse with Austria, in Which the two states were reciprocally to favour each other; this plan was, however, never brought to maturity. Perhaps too, it might be difficult for the Austrian articles, some few excepted, to equal in cheapness the English, With which they would have to contend, and the more so ad all articles, except the Portuguese and English, pay a duty of twenty-fire per cent.

The importation of European productions and manufactures into Rio de Janeiro, extends to all Imaginable human wants. Portugal and the islands send wine, oil, flour, biscuit, salt, butter, vinegar, Stockfish, hams, sausages, olives, and preserved or

* In February 1810, at Rio de Janeiro, by Lord Strangford, on the part of England.

† See Note 3 page 200.

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dried fruits, distilled liquors, leather, medicines, coarse calicoes, hats, coarse woollens, iron ware, Bohemian glass wares, German and Dutch linens, paper (chiefly Italian), Portuguese books, musical instruments, gunpowder, pottery from Oporto, ammunition, cordage, canvass, sail-cloth, tar, pitch and other articles for the marine, steel, shoes, copper wares, &c., &c., &c. In former times, East India goods were brought here in large quantities from Lisbon, but at present they are imported direct from India. England (particularly London and Liverpool) and its colonies supply Rio de Janeiro with all articles of English manufacture, especially cotton goods of all kinds, fine cloths, porcelain and earthenware, iron, lead, copper, tin, raw and wrought, anchors, cables, gunpowder, porter, cheese, salt butter, distilled liquors, &c. From Gibraltar they receive many East India goods, and, in Portuguese ships, also Spanish wines. France imports, particularly from Havre de Grace and Brest, in these latter times, articles of luxury, trinkets, furniture, wax candle, drugs, liqueurs, pictures and prints, French books, silks, looking-glasses, hats, fine glass goods and china, dried fruits, oil, and butter. Holland sends to Rio de Janeiro beer, glass goods, linen, Geneva, which is very much used in all the tropical countries on account of its diuretic qualities, paper, &c. Austria has sent many things to Rio de Janeiro on speculation, namely, watches, pianofortes, muskets, li-

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nen, silk and half silk stuffs, velveteen, flannel, mortars, iron hoops, fishing hooks, penknives, currycombs, quicksilver, sublimate, cinnabar, vitriol, sal ammoniac, brass, lead, copper, tin, antimony, iron wire, arsenic, white and yellow wax, minium, nails, isinglass, orpiment. The other parts of Germany, which formerly carried on a very extensive trade in Bohemian glass and linen, with Spain and Portugal, have now tried the experiment of sending consignments of these goods direct to Brazil, but have especially carried on a very good trade in Nuremberg toys, and in iron and brass utensils, which are made in the shapes usual in that country. Russia and Sweden import iron, steel, copper utensils, sail-cloth, cords, ropes, and tar. North America sends to Rio de Janeiro chiefly corn, soap, spermaceti candles, biscuit, train oil, tar, leather, boards, pitch, potashes, and rude furniture. The trade with the coast of Africa furnishes but few articles, which are all but secondary to the slave trade. The number of slaves is very considerable; in the year 1817, 20,075 negroes are said to have been imported into Rio under the Portuguese flag, from the ports of Guinea and Mozambique. The articles imported from Mozambique, besides slaves, are gold dust, ivory, pepper, Colombo root, ebony, coculus indicus, sometimes also East India goods. From Angola and Benguela, they receive wax, palm oil extracted from the fruit of the Dente palm (Elœis guineen-

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sis, L.), Mundubi oil from the seeds of the Arachis hypogœa, L., ivory, sulphur, and some gum Arabic. These two latter articles, and salt, are the chief imports from the Cape de Verd Isles. The immediate trade of Rio with the East Indies, has become considerable since the arrival of the king, as several of the first mercantile houses at Lisbon settled here, and endeavoured to give more activity to their intercourse with India and China, to which they were so much nearer, which, on the other hand, caused a great deduction from the trade of Lisbon. These ships commonly touch at several English ports in India, and also at Macao, and perform their voyage in eight, ten or twelve months. Goa, and the other Portuguese possessions in the East, the importance of which has been greatly diminished by the influence of their powerful neighbours, are seldom visited on these occasions. The chief imports from those possessions are many kinds of cotton goods, which are re-exported to Portugal, and to different ports of South America. The imports from Macao are fine muslins and printed cottons, silk stuffs, porcelain, tea, Indian ink, cinnamon, pepper, and some camphor. Rio is the general staple for all the numerous small ports on the Brazilian coast, northwards to Bahia, and southwards to Monte Video, which send thither their produce for exportation to Europe, or home consumption. The quantity of provisions in particular, annually imported from all these places

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is considerable; they consist of farinha, beans, bacon, and dried or salt meat. The produce of their cattle, such as hides, ox horns, horn tips, dried and salt meat, tallow, and bacon, and rice and wheat flour, come by sea chiefly from the provinces of Rio Grande do Sul*, and S. Paulo. The latter furnishes also cheese, tanners' bark of the mangrove tree, some gum, cotton, sugar, and rum. The capitania of S. Catherine sends sole-leather, onions and garlic which thrive there admirably, dried fish, and pottery. The small harbours to the north of Rio, such as S. Joâo do Parahyba, S. Salvador, Macahé, Porto Seguro, Caravellas, Victoria, &c., supply the market of Rio with a considerable quantity of vegetables for the table, fish, and the productions of their fine forests, such as beams, planks, pipe-staves, hoops, charcoal, fuel, Brazil wood, tanners' bark, cocoa-

* The total exportation of wheat from Rio Grande de San Pedro amounted, in the year 1816, to 279,621 alqueires (70lb.); in the year 1817, to 133,359; in 1818, to 76,395. The exportation of hides from the same place was, in the year 1816, 368,909; in 1817, 238,979; in 1818,290,950. For these, and other statements, we are indebted to the kindness of our friend, Mr. F. Schimmelbusch of Solingen, who, during many years' residence in Brazil, has acquired very extensive knowledge of its commercial relations. From Chili, which, according to Bland, exports much corn, none has yet come to Rio de Janeiro. In fact, the intercourse between these two places is still very inconsiderable. During the time of our stay, a Swiss made the first speculation, by a consignment composed chiefly of German manufactures, to Valparaiso.

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nuts, also tobacco, sugar, rum, and rice. Cabo Frio sends tabs and casks made of the trunks of large fig-trees (gamelleiras), and, as well as the neighbouring island Ilha Grande, also time of calcined shells or rocks. Ilha Grande, having excellent materials, furnishes extremely good pottery. The trade with Pernambuco and Bahia is not inconsiderable. From Bahia, Rio receives tobacco, slaves, millstones, tucum (thread made of the fibres of the palm), cocoa-nuts, articles from Guinea and Europe; from Pernambuco, salt, saltpetre, and also European articles. Buenos Ayres and Monte Video supply the market of Rio de Janeiro with bides, leather, ox horns, tallow, dried salt meat, and wheat flour. This coasting trade is principally tarried on in small one or two masted ships, and keeps up a constant intercourse between the whole Brazilian coast and the capital. From the mouth of the La Plata to Rio, the voyage is generally completed in twenty-two to thirty days, from S. Catherine and Rio Grande do Sul in fifteen to six and twenty days, from Porto Seguro in eight to fifteen, from Bahia in twelve to twenty, according as the wind blows along the coast from south or north, which depends on the position of the sun. Maranhâo and Para export their productions direct without farther intercourse with Rio de Janeiro.

The trade by land, too, is very extensive between Rio and the neighbouring provinces, especially with S. Paulo and Minas, to which there are toler-

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able roads. From Rio Grande do Sul and S. Paulo many thousand oxen, horses, and mules are annually driven hither, and many of them are forwarded to the neighbouring capitanias. Minas sends its cotton, coffee, and tobacco chiefly to Rio de Janeiro; the road to which, though from some parts further than to Bahia, is more pleasant and less difficult. In the year 1820, the importation of these articles was — cotton 70,407 arrobas, coffee 20,000, and tobacco 54,281 arrobas. Besides these raw productions, and precious stones, Minas exports cheese, marmalade, brown sugar-loaves (rapadura), an enormous quantity of very coarse cottons which are used for clothing the slaves and poor shepherds in the southern provinces. The inhabitants of the remoter provinces of Goyaz and Matogrosso, who come to the capital to provide themselves with European manufactures, and convey them home by the roads through Villa Rica and Caétete, bring hardly any thing but gold in bars or dust, precious stones, and among them even diamonds, which are contraband. It is nothing uncommon to see inhabitants of the deserts (Sertoès) of Cujabá and Matogrosso, who have made a journey of three hundred miles or more by land, to lead back caravans of mules laden with articles for the consumption of the interior. The Brazilian is not to be deterred by the dangers and fatigues of a journey which often separates him eight or ten months from his family, from undertaking from time to time the manage-

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ment of his commercial affairs in person; for the more retired his native place is, the earlier he has accustomed himself to disregard long journeys from it. A man who undertakes almost weekly a journey of five or six miles* on horseback to attend mass at church, or to visit his neighbours, does not fear to travel several hundred miles, if it is necessary, to exchange the harvest of one or several years for the valuable productions of foreign countries.

The exportation of the articles of commerce, produced in the country itself, to the ports of Europe, was the first foundation of the prosperity of Rio de Janeiro. The forwarding of goods imported from Europe, to the smaller ports, and into the interior, is indeed likewise a fertile source from which the capital annually derives large sums; but it bears no proportion to the mass of colonial produce which Rio sends beyond sea. The three most important articles of agriculture are sugar, coffee, and cotton. The first is particularly cultivated in those districts of the capitania, which lie to the south and east of the mountain chain (Serra do Mar), and nearer to the sea (Beiramar), that is, in the districts of Ilha Grande, Cabo Frio and Goytacazes. The two districts of Paraiba-Nova, and Canta-Gallo, lying beyond the mountain chain, are not so favourable to the cultivation of this article, which marks, as it

* It is stated in a subsequent note, that Portuguese or Brazilian, miles 18 to a degree, ate meant: one of these may therefore be taken as equal to four English miles. Trans.

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were, the limits of the war meet and moistest parts of the country, where it grows luxuriantly. Most of the sugar plantations and manufactories (engenhos) are situated in the vicinity of the capital itself, and about Cabo Frio. It is well known that the cultivation of the sugar-cane was introduced into Rio de Janeiro, by the governor Mem de Sá, immediately after the expulsion of the French, in the year 1568, The sugar exported from the harbour of Rio de Janeiro, in 1817, amounted to 17,000 chests, or about 680,000 arrobas. It is only within these few years that coffee has been extensively cultivated in the capitania of Rio, and it has been observed that it will be equal in quality to that of Martinique and Saint Domingo, as soon as the necessary care is taken in gathering it. The coffee of Rio was formerly not liked in Europe, as they generally plucked the unripe berries, and in order to separate the seed from the external husk, they were suffered to corrupt which injured the taste, and gave the berry a white colour and unsound appearance. Within these few years the cultivation of the coffee tree, and the gathering of the crop have been improved; particularly since Dr. Lesesne, an experienced planter from Saint Domingo, who was driven from that country during the troubles, formed a great plantation in the neighbourhood of Rio, and instructed the cultivators in the most advantageous manner of treating that plant This example, and the increased demand, have caused

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the cultivation to be considerably extended; and at present Rio de Janeiro furnishes, among all the ports of Brazil, the greatest quantity of coffee, and that which is moat in request During the last years the exportation amounted, in the year 1817 to 9,567,960 pounds, in 1818 to 11,140,350, in 1819 to 8,087,220 pounds (on account of the drought), in 1820 to 14,733,540 pounds. The cotton exported from this place to Europe, particularly to London and Liverpool, is cot merely the production of the neighbourhood; a very large part of it is brought to Rio on mules from Minas, chiefly from Minas Novas. From six to eight arrobas, put into two sacks made of raw hides, are the usual burthen of each mule. The cotton tree cultivated at Rio (Gossypium barbadense, L. sometimes, but more rarely the G. herbaceum, L.) thrives very well, but is said not to furnish such durable materials as that in the higher and drier district of Minas Novas. Tobacco is principally grown in the islands in the Bay of Rio, in that of Angra dos Reys, and on the lowest coast land (Beiramar), for instance in the vicinity of Paraty; it is also brought here from the capitania of Espirito Santa. The dried and salted hides which Rio de Janeiro sends principally to England and France; are mostly brought from Rio Grande do Sul S. Paul and Minas. A view of these most important articles of exportation during the year 1817 is subjoined.*

* See Note 4. page 205.

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Besides these staple articles, Rio de Janeiro exports to Europe, tallow, otters' skins, but in very small quantities horse hair and hides ox horns horn tips and plates rum, treacle, whale oil, whalebone, ipecacuanha, rice, some cocoa and indigo, the demand for which has continued to decline, fustic-wood of a very good quality, and logwood. Pernambuco wood grows indeed in the forests of the province, but the government to which it belongs, has not had any felled for many yean, and there are now no magazines of it in the place. It may be assumed that the total value of these articles amounts yearly to 1,600,000 milrees or 2,000,000 piasters, and pays to the treasury 446,400 milrees, or 558,000 piasters export duty. The rule according to which the productions of the country generally pay duty, is at the rate of two per cent. on the market price, besides some charges in the same proportion as we mention below on coffee, sugar. &c. To the smaller ports of Brazil, Rio exports all kinds of European goods; to Pernambuco and Ceara, sometimes considerable quantities of vegetables, when a drought causes them to fail there. Of late years slaves have been exported from Rio to the northern provinces in great numbers. The west and east coast of Africa receive English and Portuguese goods from this place. Lastly, gold bars and Spanish dollars must also be considered as an export article from Rio de Janeiro. Both Portuguese and North American Indiamen often take from here, instead of goods, large sums

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in silver, which they carry to India. It is affirmed* that in some years the value of the silver exported in this manner has amounted to 500,000l nay even 800,000l. sterling.

The great difference in the value of the imports and exports in favour of Rio de Janeiro, which from the excess of the latter draws large sums in ready money from Europe, indicates at once the nature of the commercial relations between Europe and this rich though infant state. The precious metals which the rapacious eagerness of preceding centuries has snatched from the bosom of America, are now gradually returning to their native country, and either remain there or find their way to India. The admirable situation of the secure and spacious harbour, on the shores of an ocean where navigation is in general safe and practicable at all seasons, almost, as it were, at the entrance of the principal route of universal commerce; the short time in which voyages may be performed from here to Europe, the west coast of Africa, the Cape, Mozambique, India, and New Holland; the abundance of inland produce and of precious metals; and the great impulse which the presence of the court gives to the country, have already so much extended the connections of this place, that it must become at no very distant period one of the richest ports in the world. The activity of trade in the capital of Brazil, proves that the variety of productions must

* John Luccock's Notes on Rio de Janeiro, Lond. 1820, 4to. p. 595.

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at present be greater than it could be, if those accounts were true which represent Brazil as a country yet wholly uncultivated, without any traces of the beneficial influence of European industry. It is true, the colonial produce exported from the port of Rio de Janeiro is indeed not entirely grown in the province, but is partly brought from the remote districts of the interior. But a comparison of the exportation of some articles from this port, with the same from England, gives us a very favourable idea of the productiveness of this country. England is said to have shipped in the year 1817, 401,700 cwt. coffee, and used about 600,000 cwt. for home consumption. If the latter account be correct, Rio de Janeiro alone would have exported nearly double the quantity of coffee consumed in England.

Even before the arrival of the king it bad become necessary to establish a bank, on account of the great capital in circulation, to represent which the, gold and silver coin was not half sufficient, even if all the rich men of the province had contributed all their ready money. Several of the first merchants and capitalists had united, who contributed a fund in proportion to the notes issued by them under their joint guarantee. Under the management of a committee, chosen by the founders, the establishment, which was only a private undertaking prospered, and extended among the mercantile public in general the credit which it at first only enjoyed among its authors. It is probable that the

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amount of the bank-notes was increased, without any addition to the fund. In the sequel, when the institution continued to thrive, they united with the bank an insurance company, farming of the regalia of the crown, &c.; and it enjoyed in uninterrupted activity, without foreign interference, such great confidence, that many public officers placed a part of their salary in the bank, and rich land-owners in the interior of the country sent their capitals to Rio, to deposit them in the bank for their children, as the safest part of their property. When the king came to Brazil, the change of the political relations led to a new epoch for the bank. On the 12th of October, 1808, its statutes were sanctioned by the king, and the institution, under the title of Bank of Brazil, extended the sphere of its activity. The bank provided for the frequent and considerable wants both of the court and the state, sometimes on the security of valuable effects deposited in it, and sometimes on that of mortgages of the future revenue. It is reported that several foreign merchants endeavoured about this time to shake the solidity of the bank, by suddenly presenting bank-notes to a large amount; however, payment being immediately made, to which the intimate union between the royal mint and the bank, might perhaps contribute, it still maintained itself in very good credit, particularly in the mother country itself, though without any known solid guarantee, and without any close connection with any similar establishments. The late events in the year 1821,

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when the king, before his departure, took considerable sums out of the bank, for which he deposited a part of the crown diamonds, which is the sequel were taken back to Europe, and, as it is affirmed, extensive embezzlements, appear greatly to have shaken the foundations of the establishment.

The amount of the current coin at Rio cannot be precisely determined; the less so, because immense sums are sometimes exported, the withdrawing of which from circulation, is often long and generally felt. The ships bound to India and China, as we have already observed, take, for the most part, ready money, either Spanish piasters, or Portuguese gold, which suddenly causes so great a scarcity of money, that not only the value of gold rises extremely in exchange, but the interest on bills runs up to twenty or twenty-two per cent. In such conjunctures, several months frequently pass before the want of currency ceases to be felt. The operations of the mint too, which purchases Spanish dollars, and recoining them as pieces of three pataccas, issues them again 160 rees higher, appears sometimes to produce a temporary scarcity in Rio. The rate of interest usual among the merchants for open accounts, but not for bill transactions, is twelve per cent. This is in proportion to the price of daily labour, which for a hired negro is 160 to 240 rees, and for a European labourer from one to two Spanish dollars.

Neither the state of trade as we have described it, nor the custom-house duties, are disadvantage-

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ous to industry in Brazil; for though a great quantity of merchandise and manufactures is imported which might be produced in the country itself, it is rather the want of artisans and mechanics, than the competition of foreign commerce, that causes articles made in the country to be so dear. As the population increases, the activity of the interior provinces will be animated, and consequently the balance of exportation and importation will become still more favourable to Brazil. Many mechanics, chiefly French, are at present settled at Rio, who have been encouraged by the government Among the natives the mulattoes are those who show the most ingenuity and perseverance in the mechanical arts, and they are even said to manifest great taste for painting. The free negroes, of whom there is a great number in the city, do not prove such useful members of society as in the country, where they not unfrequently become able and wealthy farmers. The artisans, on the other hand, partly work with their own black slaves, who, under the strict discipline of their masters, learn, together with ability and aptness for business, also the virtue of social order. Trades and professions in general are not subject to the strict superintendence of the magistrate that is exercised in Europe. Many trades are carried on without being incorporated into guilds, and are exercised without restraint by any person who is so disposed, and yet the prices of all manufactured articles are very high. The liberty enjoyed by the owner of a

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slave to employ him in any mechanical profession that he thinks proper, is opposed to the constraint of European corporations. However, all trades which have any influence on the public health and welfare, are placed under the superintendence of the police. Bread and meat are sold by a legal assize, but the difference in the stock and the supply causes a great diversity in the prices. The European stranger is astonished at the number of gold and silver smiths and jewellers, who, like the other tradesmen, live together in one street, which calls to mind the magnificent Ruas de Ouro and de Prata of Lisbon. The workmanship of these artisans is indeed inferior to the European, but is not destitute of taste and solidity. Many trades, which are very necessary in Europe, are at present almost superfluous in the interior of this country, on account of the circumscribed wants of the inhabitants. In the capital, however, and the other towns on the coast, joiners, white-smiths, and other artisans, are numerous; but tanners, soap-boilers, and workers in steel, are scarce. There is a great demand for mechanics, to build sugar and other mills, to construct machines for working the gold mines, &c., and very high wages are given them. Hitherto no glass, china, cloth, or hat manufactories have been established in the capital; and the erection of them would hardly be advisable, in a country which can obtain the productions of European industry on such low terms, in exchange for the produce of its rich soil.

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NOTES TO CHAPTER I.

NOTE 1.

THE Portaria, which was extended in the sequel to the other capitanias, through which we travelled, was conceived in the following terms: Manda El Rey Nosso Senhor a todas as Authoridades Militares ou Civis a quem esta for apresentada, e o seu conhecimento pertencer, que se nao ponha embaraço algum à livre Jornada de Mrs. Spix e Martius, Membros d'Academia Real das Sciencias de Munich, aos quaes Sua Magestade tem concedido a permissâo necessaria para viajar e demorar-se o tempo que lhes fôr conveniente em qualquer parte dentro dos limites desta Capitania do Rio de Janeiro; E determina sua Magestade, que se lhes preste nesta sua degreçâo toda a assistencia e auxilio de que precizar, logo que o pedir. Palacio do Rio de Janeiro em 12 Septembro de 1817.

(L. S.) JOAO PAULO BEZERRA.

The king our sovereign commands all military and civil authorities, to whom these presents may be shown, or to whose knowledge they shall come, that they shall not place any obstacle in the way of Messrs. Spix and Martius, members of the. Royal Academy of Sciences at Munich, to whom His Majesty has granted the necessary license to travel within the boundaries of the province of Rio de Janeiro, and to reside wherever and as long as they think fit; His Majesty further commands, that all support and assistance of they may be in need be afforded them,

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as soon as they require it. Given at the palace the 12th of September 1817.

(L. S.) JOHN PAUL BEZERRA.

NOTE 2.

Arachis hypogœa, L. Besides the importance of this plant to the cultivator in hot countries on account of its oily seeds, it is particularly interesting to the naturalist, because it hides its flowers in the earth as soon as they run to seed. There are several other instances in the family of leguminous plants of similar appearances, by which the seed is in a manner changed into a bulb; for example, in the Vicia amphicarpus, Lathyrus amphicarpus, Trifolium subterraneum, Glycine subterranea, monoica, and hetorocarpa, Hegetsweiler (Diss. Tab. 1812.). In the two last species, the size and structure of the seeds above and under ground are very different. Something similar is observed also in the Milium amphicarpum, Pursh.

NOTE 3.

Portuguese and English Commissioners, who met at London on the 18th of December 1812, regulated many other points which were not defined with sufficient accuracy in the first act. English manufactures pay 15 per cent. ad valorem on their importation into the Portuguese customhouses. However, in many articles, the Portuguese officers are to take, not the current value, but the price fixed in the tariff (Pauta), as the standard for determining the duty; so that in consequence of the decline in the prices in proportion to the increased supply, the import duty on some articles amounts to 25 per cent. of the value. The Portuguese themselves paid, before the Royal decree of the 2d of May 1818, at the rate of 16 per cent. The

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British trade derives peculiar advantages from the stipulation then made, and which subsists in the same manner between England and Naples, that English goods, the value of which, as stated by the importer, appears to be too small, cannot be taken by the Portuguese customhouses, unless they return the duty which has been paid, and give the owner the stated value of his goods with an addition of 10 per cent.

In order to give our readers a more accurate knowledge of the principles followed by the Portuguese government in the late regulation of the customs, we will briefly state the chief points of the last decree on the subject, issued on the 2d of May 1818, which was carried into execution during our stay. In the custom-houses of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and Algarve, and in all the other Portuguese possessions, the existing import and export duties shall be paid upon all articles without exception, even if they belong to the royal family, and all exemptions and privileges of the kind are declared to be suspended for twenty years. Foreign wines may be imported, but they pay three times as much duty as the Portuguese: foreign brandy pays twice and a half as much. Every new negro (negro novo) above three years of age, who is imported into the harbours of Brazil from Africa, pays, besides the already existing duty, amounting to near 6000 rees, an additional 9600 rees, half of which is to be deposited in the bank of Rio de Janeiro, to form shares, which are intended for the foundation of colonies of white settlers. Every arroba of dried salt meat exported from the harbours of Brazil in foreign ships, is to pay 600 rees, if in Portuguese, 200 rees. Gold and silver trinkets, polished diamonds, and other precious stones, pay an export duty of 2 per cent.

All Brazilian articles of commerce, which hitherto paid no fixed duty, pay henceforward an export duty of 2 per cent., as an equivalent for what were called the consulate

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duties, which, before the trade was free, they had to pay in the custom-house of Portugal; but may then be re-exported from Portugal duty free. Brazilian articles of commerce which already pay fixed duties, are hereafter to pay them without the consulate duties. (These fixed duties are differently regulated, according to the tariffs of the several ports.) Portuguese manufactures, which enjoy no particular exemptions as national manufactures, are entiled, on importation into Brazil, to a deduction of 5 per cent. by way of bounty. Asiatic production, which hitherto paid 8 per cent. on exportation from Portugal, pay henceforth only 3 per cent. The duty on all Portuguese goods is reduced from 16 to 15 per cent. Foreign goods in Portuguese vessels receive a deduction of 5 per cent. from the duty which is generally 24 per cent. Salt, whether imported by Portuguese or foreigners, pays 800 rees per moio (20 Brezilian alqueires). Foreign vessels pay in all the custom-houses of the united kingdoms, the same tonnage, anchorage, and light-house duties, which Portuguese ships pay in the harbours of the respective nations. (In Rio the anchorage duty is one piaster per day.) Slaves and goods of every kind imported into Brazil must, if they are to be re-exported to foreign countries, first pay the duty on consumption.

The same royal decree (alvará)commands the erection of light-houses, and the formation of what are called capatacias, in the sea-ports. The latter consist of societies of proters, mostly free negroes and mulattoes, who are divided into companies, under the direction and authority of the custom-house officers, convey the goods to and from the magazines, and are responsible for them as long as they remain in their hands. In the larger commercial towns of Brazil these corporations are on the same footing as at Lisbon, where they are very numerous, and carry burthens instead of mules. Their organisation resembles that of the Hamburgh porters called Litzelbrüder.

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To the produce of the custom-houses in Brazil, which constitute an important part of the revenue, must be added the duties upon goods which are exported from one province to another. These direitos da entrada are very considerable, because they are imposed upon all goods without exception, according to the weight, on lead, iron, and other metals, as well as on the lightest stuffs, silk goods, &c. On entering the province of Minas Geraës, the arroba pays 720 rees; salt is the only exception, the duty being but 450 rees upon the arroba.* For every negro slave imported into Minas, 7800 rees are paid at the frontier custom-house (registo); on the river Paraibuna, for each head of horned cattle, mule, or horse, 2 pataccas (640 rees); for every person 1 patacca; for the countersigning of the passport 2 pataccas. Similar duties are paid at every frontier custom-house of a capitania.

But the wants of the state are farther provided for by imposts and taxes which are collected either immediately by the government, or by farmers (contractadores. These taxes are partly different in the several provinces, each of which has its own financial administration; in general, however, with some local modifications, the following are levied:—Dizimo; a tenth of all the produce of agriculture, fisheries, and cattle. —Subsidio real or nacional; duties on fresh meat, on raw and tanned hides, on sugar-cane brandy, and coarse woollens, which are manufactured in

* Till within these few yean, the importation of salt from Portugal and its colonies into Brazil, was let out to a farmer-general for the sum of 48,000 milrees per annum; the inhabitants of the coasts of Pernambuco, Cabo Frio, and Rio Grande were, however, allowed to make salt in their pits for their own consumption, but not to export it. (S. Ensaio economico sobre o commercio de Portugal por D. I. I. da Cunha de Azeredo Coutinho ediç. seg. Lisb. 1816, p. 20.) The monopolies and inland duties are said to have been abolished by the Crown Prince Don Pedro, since the departure of the king from the Brazils.

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the country. —Subsidio literario (duty for paying the salaries of scoolmasters); on every ox that is slaughtered, on sugar-cane brandy, in some provinces, as in Maranhâo, also on the sale of salt meat form the interior (there it is 320 rees on six arrobas).— Imposto paro o Banco do Brazil (tax for the bank); an impost of 12,800 rees on every merchant, bookseller, and apothecary every magazine of gold, silver, tin, pewter, and copper articles, tobacco, &c.; only the stalls of the barbers and shoemakers, whose trades are in some respects considered as the meanest, are exempted form it. A sumptuary tax on every four or two wheeled carriage (in Maranhâo it is 12,000 and 10,000 rees) is also destined for the bank. Another tax is livied on sugar-mills and distilleries; it varies in the different provinces.(In Maranhâo they pay 3200 rees for every sugar-mill (engenho de moer canna), in Bahia 4000 rees for every alembic.) — Decima; 10 per cent. on the annual revenue of houses and other real property in the cities. This tax is, however paid only on the coast and in the more populous places of the interior; the inhabitants of the Sertâo do not pay it. — Siza; a tax of 10 per cent. on the sale of houses and other real property in the city. — Meia siza; a tax of 5 per cent. on the sale of a slave who has already learnt his business (negro ladino). — Novos Direitos are a tax of 10 per cent. which persons holding places in the departments of finance and justice pay out of their annual salary. — The Sellos (stamp duties), the foros (fees for patents), and the Rendimentos da Chancellaria (chancery fees), and the revenue of the correia (the post-office), are not inconsiderable. Besides these inposts, others are levied by the magistrates in particular places, which go to the local treasury; for instance, a duty of 320 rees for each head of cattle which is exported out of the comarca of Paracatú, and another in the Villa cayteté of 80 rees for every cargo of cotton which exported.

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NOTE 4.— View of the principal articles exported from Rio de Janeiro in the year 1917.

ARTICLE.	QUANITY.	CURRENT PRICE.	TORAL VALUE OF THE ARTICLE.	EXPORT DUTY.	AMOUNT OF THE DUTY.
Sugar.	680,000 arrobas* (in17,000 chests).	Meanprice between fine white and Muscivade, 200 rees per arroba.	1,360,000,000 rees.	160 rees on every chest, and 2 per cent. on the current value.	29,920,000 rees.
Coffee.	298,999 arrobas.	2400 rees per arroba.	687,597,000,000 rees.	80 rees per arroba, and 2 per cent. on the current value.	37,671,872 rees.
Cotton.	320,000 arrobas (in 40,000 bales).	8000 rees per arroba.	2,560,000,000 rees.	100 rees per bale, and 2 per cent. on the current value.	55,200,000 rees.
Ox hides.	512,000.	1200 rees per hide.	614,000,000 rees.	20 rees per hide, and 2 per cent. on the current value.	22,528,000 rees.
Tobacco.	About 30,000 cwt.	180,000,000 rees.	20 rees per roll, and 2 per cent. On the current value.	3,960,000 rees.
Sum total.			5,401,567,600 rees.		149,279,872 rees.

* An arroba contains 32 Portuguese pounds = 301/3 Hamburgh, or 313/4 Berlin pounds. Four arrobas make a quintal = 1291/2 English pounds. Corn and salt are measured by the alqueire, one of which contains in Portugal 681 Paris cubic inches. A Brazilian alqueire is equal to 21/4 Portuguese, or about 1/4 of an English bushel. A moio of salt contains about 20 alqueires. Liquids are measured by pipas and canadas. A Brazilian canada is = 51/7 Lisbon canadas = 2 English gallons. A pipa of port is reckoned at 60 Brazilian, or 312 Lisbon canadas. A pipas of molasses, rum, or fish oil, contains from 60 to 75 canadas. The measures of length are varas, of which 5 = 6 English yards = 8 Brabant ells; and covados, of which 27 = 20 yards English, or 26§ Brabant ells.
The current coin of Brazil is different in the die and name from that in Portugal. It is calculated in rees, and the value of every piece is marked on it. There are copper coin of 10 and 20 rees; of silver of 80 and 160 rees; the single, double, and trible paracca of 320, 640, and 960 rees. The new gold coins are all of 4000 rees; there are older ones of 1000, 2000, and 3000 rees.

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CHAPTER II.

EXCURSIONS IN THE ENVIRONS OF RIO DE JANEIRO.

WE withstood the temptations of the beautiful natural scenery, which displayed itself before our windows, in all the splendour of the south, only till we had provided for the most urgent wants of our domestic arrangements. It was particularly the neighbouring mountains, clothed with thick verdure, that attracted us, and thither we accordingly undertook our first excursion. The way led still within the suburbs over that marshy level, which at new and full moon is covered by the high tide of the bay, and receives, besides the mud from the sea, all the filth of the city, such as dead animals, &c., and is therefore frequented by thousands of the carrion vulture, or urubus (Vultur Aura, L.). However disagreeable the look, and however unwholesome the exhalations from this plain may be, which, instead of high dykes and sluices, is provided only with shallow ditches to drain it, yet we stopped some time in it, our attention being engaged by many interesting objects. Wherever the sea-water had covered the ground, we found it

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pierced with innumerable holes, which serve as a retreat to the edible land-crab (Cancer Uca, L.). On the sandy bank we observed, not only several strand plants common to the tropical countries of both continents, such as Avicennia tomentosa and Rhizophora mangle, L., but also two others, natives of higher latitudes, namely, Portulaca pilosa, which is found on the coasts of Asia Minor, and Pharnaceum Cerviana which is found on the Baltic. We traversed the principal street which leads through the quarter of Mato-porcos to the royal residences, S. Cristovâo and Santa Cruz; and passing a handsome country-seat, belonging to the bishop, we ascended the first hills of the Corcovado. Scarcely were we beyond the streets and the noise of the town, when we stopped, as if enchanted, in the midst of a strange and luxuriant vegetation. Our eyes were attracted, sometimes by gaily coloured birds or splendid butterflies, sometimes by the singular forms of the insects and the nests of wasps and termites hanging from the trees, sometimes by the beautiful plants scattered in the narrow valley, and on the gently sloping hills. Surrounded by lofty airy cassias, broad-leaved, white-stemmed cecropias, thick-crowned myrtles, large-flowered bignonias, climbing tufts of the mellifluous paullinias, far-spreading tendrils of the passion-flower, and of the richly flowering hatched coronilla, above which rise the waving summits of Macaubu palms, we fancied ourselves transported

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into the gardens of the Hesperides. Passing over several streams which were turned to good account, and hills covered with young coppice wood, we at length reached the terrace of the eminence along which the spring water for the city is conducted. A delightful prospect over the bay, the verdant islands floating in it, the harbour with its crowd of masts and various flags, and the city stretched out at the foot of the most pleasant hills, the houses and steeples dazzling in the sun, was spread before our eyes. We dwelt long on the magical view of a great European city, rising here amidst the profusion of tropical vegetation. We then pursued the road along the windings the aqueduct. The channel is chiefly built of blocks of granite, but the vaulted covering, within which the naturalist finds many of the most singular phalangia, is of brick. Between the woody hills there are diversified romantic prospects into the valleys below. Sometimes you traverse open spots where a stronger light is reflected from the flowery ground, or from the shining leaves of the neighbouring high trees, sometimes you enter a cool shady bower. Here a thick wreath of paulliniæ, securidacæ, mikanias, passion-flowers, adorned with an incredible number of flowers, climb through the crowns of the celtis, the flowery rhexias and melastomas, bauhinias, delicate mimosas, shining myrtles; there, bushy nightshades, sebastanias, eupatorias, crotons, ægiphilas, and innumerable other plants, form an

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impenetrable thicket, amidst which grow immense stems of the silk cotton tree (bombax), of silverleaved cecropia, thorny Brazil wood tree, of the lecythis, with its singular fruit resembling a pitcher, slender stems of the cabbage-palm, and many other, in part still unnamed, sovereigns of the woods. The majestic sight, the repose and silence of these woods, interrupted only by the buzz of the gay humming-birds fluttering from flower to flower, and by the singular notes of unknown birds and insects, peculiarly affect the mind of the man of sensibility, who feels himself as it were regenerated in the prospect of the glorious country.

The stream, which the aqueduct conveys to the city, falls in one place in beautiful cascades over the granite rocks. Oblique-leaved begonias, slender costus, and heliconias, the red flower-stems of which shine with peculiar splendour, contrasted with the gloom of the forest, arborescent ferns and grasses, hanging bushes of vernonias, myrtles, and melastomas bending under a load of blossoms, adorn the cool spots that surround them. Large and small winged butterflies play with the rippling water; and birds of the gayest plumage contend, morning and evening, to overcome the noise of the brook by their diverse notes. This fountain is called Caryoca*, and the natives of the province

* Caryoca, properly Caryb-oca, signifies, in the language of the native Brazilians, House of the Whites, House of Stone; and was probably the name given by the Indians to the dwellings of stone which the Portuguese built, as a protection against the fiery arrows of the natives. (Ensaio economico sobre o commercio de Portugal, por Azeredo Coutinho, edit. 2. Lisb. 1815, p. 6.)

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have from it the name of Caryocas, which they give themselves with pride, but with which the inhabitants of the other provinces combine a satirical accessory meaning. Ingenious poets of Rio de Janeiro, inspired by the beauties that surround this spring, have exerted themselves to celebrate by their songs the naiad who brings so beneficial a present to their native city. When exhausted by exertion and fatigue we often refreshed ourselves here with the cool water, and, over-shadowed by the trees swarming with life, in sight of the distant sea, examined our ample booty in birds, insects, and plants. We can never forget the feelings which were excited in us here; and only the man of a tranquil mind, who feels himself happy in the enjoyment of the beauties of nature, can appreciate the extent of the bliss, which we pilgrims from the north experienced amidst such magnificent profusion. Not far from the source, the valley declines from Laranjeiras towards the suburb of Catête. The wanderer is charmed by the gay variety in which gardens, new plantations, ancient forests, and scattered country-houses alternately engage the eye. In the middle of the slope and near the road we remarked a solitary hut among the bushes.

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It belongs to Count Hogendorp, who, having been much affected by the political changes in the state of Europe, passes his days here, far from the world and from politics, in intercourse with nature, and thinks it not below his dignity to provide for his subsistence by preparing charcoal from the trees on his estate. We had been previously introduced to him, and admired the firmness and strength of mind of a man, who, retired from the ever-changing tumult of worldly affairs, felt himself happy in a confined habitation, and in view of the ocean rolling from the shores of St. Helena.

At the cascade of Caryoca the road turns aside from the aqueduct, and leads over a dry eminence covered with low trees and shrubs, to the forest which clothes the ridge of the Corcovado. The narrow steep path passes over several streams. The vegetation is uncommonly strong and luxuriant; but the higher we ascend, the large trees gradually become more rare, and the bamboos and ferns more numerous, among which is a beautiful arborescent fern fifteen feet in height.* When you have made your way through the last thicket you reach the green summit of the mountain, where single shrubs, among which is a magnificent arborescent vellosia†, offer to the eye a vegetation resembling that of the higher campos of Minas. From this

* Polypodium Corcovadense. (Raddi Synopsis silic. Bras. Bonon. 1819. 4to. p. 10. No. 76.)

† Vellosia Candida Mik. (Delect. flor. et faun. Bras. t. 7.)

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spot there is a beautiful view extending over the woods, hills, valleys, and the city, to the sea, the broad surface of which is lost in the distant horizon. Towards the south the mountain is broken, and the prospect loses itself in a steep declivity bounded by the blue bay of Bota-Fogo; and still farther, the bold masses of the Sugar-loaf Mountain close the horizon. At this elevation, of about two thousand feet, the difference in the temperature is already so sensible, that you fancy yourself transported to a colder zone. Several streams flowing from the ridge of the mountain are always some degrees colder than the water in the aqueduct, and at the approach of sunset the summit of the mountain is enveloped in clouds which gradually sink into the valley.

We ascended the top of this high mountain only once; but, on the other hand, were the more frequent in our visits to the aqueduct, the vicinity of which affords the richest collection of plants and animals. We were particularly desirous of following farther the stream of Caryoca, as in the torrid zone all animals prefer the vicinity of the springs. On one of these excursions we came to a solitary coffee plantation, which, as we afterwards learnt, belonged to the English consul, Mr. Chamberlain, who also amuses himself with entomology, and has a rich collection of the insects of the neighbourhood. Just as we arrived there, a beautiful crimson snake (Colub. venustissimus, Neuw.) with

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black and small white transverse bands, which is erroneously supposed to be venomous, had been dug up in the fields. In this moist tract we also found a seps (Caryocanus, nob.); the insects Cychrus Amica, nob.; Prionus hieroglyphicus, nob.; Biglobulus rugosus, nob.; Buprestis quatuornotata, nob.; Imatidium cornutum, nob.; and several singular slugs. From this rural retreat, which lies close on the declivity of the mountain, we had another magnificent prospect of the bay and of its beautiful verdant islands. The coffee trees were planted on the sides of the hills bounding a narrow valley, the summits of which were crowned by the Brazilian pine (Araucaria imbricata), with its dark grotesque branches extended like candelabras. In the surrounding forests, and, as we were assured, even in the neighbourhood of the plantation, there grows a kind of bark, which, since several years, has been exported under the name of Quina do Rio (Coutarea speciosa, A.?), the efficacy of which in intermitting fevers has been proved by experiments made by physicians in Portugal.* It is true, that many, especially quotidian fevers, pertinaciously resist the effects of this bark, which has much fewer antifebrile qualities than the Peruvian; it is, however, preferable to many other sorts which come to Spain from Peru mixed with the better kind. Perhaps

* Journal de Coimbra, No. 35. part i. p. 235, and No. 38, Part i. p. 92.

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this medicine would be more powerful if the bark of young trees were taken in preference, which has hitherto not been the case; the ignorant people employed to gather it having selected very thick and woody pieces, which can be pulled off without any trouble, to the finer bark of the young trees and branches. Another plant, containing a great quantity of bitter, is the Carqueja (Baccharis genestelloides, Lam.), which does not, indeed, grow here, but on the high mountains of Serra de Estrella. It is very often used by the Brazilians against intermitting fevers, and seems much to resemble, in its component parts, the Eupatorium perfoliatum*, which is frequent in North America. It, however, differs from the pure bitters by the considerable admixture of resinous and aromatic parts.

Another equally interesting excursion that we used to make was to Tijuca, a place about a mile from the city, which was formerly much frequented by the inhabitants. The way is on the high road, past the royal country-seat of S. Cristovâo, which was built after his majesty's arrival, and by improvements in the grounds has been made a very agreeable retreat. The road lies between luxuriant hedges of cactus, lantana, bougainvillia, cordia, tournefortia and mimosa lebbek, above which

* Bigelow, American Medical Botany, Boston, 1818, vol. i. p. 33.

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the aloes shoot up their lofty flowering stems. The country is level up to the foot of the mountain; only an insulated verdant conical rock in the vicinity of the royal seat is a picturesque object rising above the variegated gardens and plantations. To the west of the road, a new aqueduct conveys the water of a stream from the mountains into the city. Citizens and peasants, on foot and on horseback, and frequently two persons mounted on one beast, give great animation to the road, on which the carriages of the rich people can only go as far as S. Cristovâo. It is pleasing to see in this para, dise the traces of European industry, diligently culvated land, and beautiful country-houses. Ascending the verdant slope of the mountain, and between numerous country-seats, along a mountain stream which turned several mills, we at last reached the summit, where the fatigue of the journey was rewarded with a fine view towards the suburb of S. Cristovâo. The day was drawing to a close when we arrived, and, tired with our walk, we wished to find a lodging for the night. There was indeed a venda on the road, but it afforded only tobacco, rum, biscuit, and Minas cheese, and no accommodation; we were therefore obliged to seek refuge at the seat of a Frenchman of our acquaintance, which lay to the side of the road. The narrow path first conducted us upwards near a deep valley, and at last to the house in the middle of the wood, where we were obliged to content.

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ourselves with some roasted potatoes and a wooden bench as a bed. The stars shone with uncommon radiance; a pale light lay over the gloomy forest; the silence of this retreat was interrupted only by the murmuring of distant streams; and lost in the contemplation of this attractive scene, we cheerfully resigned ourselves to the refreshment of sleep.

Towards daybreak we proceeded towards the quarter from which we heard the sounds of the water, and just as the sun was rising, were at the declivity of a high rock, from which a crystal brook, partly dissolved into mist, fell from a height of nearly a hundred feet into the valley. The view of this sublime scene reminded us of the cascades of Naples and Tivoli, the ornaments of a similar, but far less rich and magnificent landscape. At the bottom of the valley and near the cascade stands a simple pleasant cottage, where we were welcomed by Mr. Tonay, an estimable French painter who resides with his family in this secluded spot. We parted with reluctance from this lovely place, and continued our journey south-south-west, towards the opposite declivity of the mountain. Passing over thickly wooded hills, we came to a deep valley, and at length to the foot of the Gavia, a picturesque granite rock, which rises close to the eastern banks of Lake Camorim, and by its sombre crags and woods hanging over the smooth mirror of the water, reminded us of the lonely lakes of Switzerland, and the principality of Saltzburg. The

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Camorim, called also Jacarépaguá, a brackish mere, is connected to the south with the sea, into which it brings the tribute of many mountain streams, and by which it is swelled in high tides. In the low grounds near the lake, where the thickets of mangroves* do not entirely stifle all other vegetation, grow the most beautiful marsh plants, and large bushes of ferns. Among others, we found, on the cool soil of picturesque rocks, the beautiful blue flowers of the Gloxinia speciosa, which have been brought from this place to Europe by English gardeners. Only a few wretched huts belonging to fishermen, who are all of a mixed race, lie scattered in this solitude, from which the European art of horticulture could produce a creation, infinitely rich in variety and novelty of form. This lake produces such abundance of fish, that the inhabitants of this district do not even think of obtaining the necessary subsistence by cultivating the fertile forests that surround them: they scarcely plant sufficient maize, but a considerable quantity

* The mangle or mangrove tree (Rhizophora Mangle, L.), which forms what are called manguesaës, is a low tree which grows on almost all the coasts of the ocean, particularly in America between the tropics, and is remarkable for the peculiarity that the seeds begin to shoot before they are detached from the tree, and the roots descend till they strike into the ground, and thus form a thick forest from one tree. On its stem, and under the roots is found the crab Cancer Uca, L. which is considered dangerous to eat, because it feeds on poisonous herbs.

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of Spanish potatoes, water-melons, and sugar-cane, the last of which they do not press, but merely suck out the juice. Considering this poor way of living, in a moist country where the air is not purified by a frequent change of wind, but is loaded with noxious exhalations, it is not surprising that the inhabitants are pale, weak and sickly.

As we endeavoured, on our return from this remarkable valley, to reach the plain of S. Cristovâo, we came to the other side of the mountain, to the coffee plantation of Dr. Lesesne, who has hired a large extent of land, and planted it with sixty thousand trees. According to the direction of this experienced planter, the fresh berries are planted, in preference, in the shade of other coffee trees, and the plants are taken up with the mould round them, as soon as they have attained the height of ten or twelve inches. It is said to have been observed that detaching the mould from the tender roots, checks the growth for a whole year; for trees treated in this manner, do not produce any fruit for the first thirty-two months, whereas others bear fruit in twenty months. The young trees are planted in the form of a quincunx. Many planters place the trees six feet distant from each other, but others only four, alleging as a reason that some of the trees in the ranks always die. The most luxuriant shoots in the middle of the trees are pruned away, and they are not suffered to grow more than twelve feet high, that the fruit may be more within reach,

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and the branches rather spread in breadth. When the trees are four or five years old, the produce is sufficiently considerable, and one negro is then appointed to take care of every thousand trees. While the trees are young and bear little or nothing, one negro is sufficient to keep two thousand trees in order, and to pull up the weeds. There are three gatherings, which occupy almost the whole year; at Rio de Janeiro, the first begins in the month of April. Only the entirely ripe red berries are taken, which easily part from the stalk, and the seeds are separated without difficulty from the shell. These berries are not thrown upon a heap and left to corrupt, as used generally to be done, but the whole fruit, when it is intended to proceed with particular care, is dried with the outside coat, and, besides, a kind of oil-mill is employed to take off the coat, and the naked seeds are exposed to the sun a whole month, that they may become perfectly dry. For this purpose they make floors, from about five and twenty to thirty feet square of bricks or of stamped clay, which are made convex for the rain to run off; the berries being protected against sudden showers, by portable straw roofs: about thirty arrobas may be spread on each floor. The number of negroes, each of whom can daily gather one arroba, determines therefore the number of floors required. The coffee when quite dry is kept in baskets, in a dry place, and exposed to the wind. The Brazilian planters, especially those at Rio, have the advantage over those in the Antilles, that the greater part

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of the berries become ripe in the dry season, which is the most favourable for gathering them.

We several times went by the road from the Bay of Bota-Fogo to the Lagoa de Roderigo Freitas, about a league distant, on which are the royal powder manufactory, and a nursery for foreign plants, called the Botanical Garden. This road, which runs sometimes on the slope of the granite mountain, between beautiful flowering bushes of myrtles, tournefortias, coronillas, and paullinias, on the branches of which, we for the first time saw the diamond beetle* alive, sometimes on the banks of the sea, covered with lofty ferns†, tropical grasses, and orchideæ, affords the most agreeable variety, and is much frequented, because many inhabitants of the city have country-houses in that neighbourhood. The sea-coast, it is true, furnished us with some addition to our collection of sea stars, sea hedgehogs, shells, insects, and marine plants‡; but even here we were struck with the observation, which was everywhere confirmed in the sequel of the journey, that these species of animals and plants, so common on the coasts of the northern seas, are less numerous in the torrid zone, and are more rare in Brazil, than even in the East Indies. It almost

* Curculio imperialis.

† Acrostichum aureum, abounds here.

‡ Ophiurus; Scutella sexforis Lam., quinqueforis Lam.; Echinus esculentus; Cicendela maritima nob.; Fucus Maximiliani Schrad., Opuntia L., Seaforthi Turn., sedoides Br.

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seems, as if such obscure and imperfectly organised animals are assigned rather to the colder climates, and superior forms in greater numbers to the warmer. Perhaps too, the depth of the ocean on the coast of Brazil, which is much more considerable than in the Indian seas, may be a reason that the marine animals appear more rarely.

The powder manufactory, and the dwelling-house of Senhor Joâo Gomez Abreu, colonel of the engineers, an amiable and well-informed Brazilian, from Minas-Geraës, who has the superintendence of this manufactory, and of the botanical garden, lie in a tranquil and retired spot, surrounded on the one side by wooded granite hills, and on the other by the Lake of Roderigo Freitas, which is about half a league in diameter. The abovementioned botanic garden lies behind the houses. Several fine avenues of bread-fruit trees, from the South Sea (Artocarpus incisa), the shadowy ytó (Guarea trichilioides), and mango trees, lead through the plantation, divided into regular squares, in which the most important object of cultivation is the Chinese tea plant At present there are about six thousand trees planted in rows, about three feet distant from each other. The climate appears favourable to their growth; they bloom in the months of July to September, and their seed becomes perfectly ripe. This circumstance, with the similar attempts to cultivate other Asiatic plants, in America, is another proof that the prosperity of

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plants principally depends on the similarity of the latitude. The tea is planted, plucked, and dried precisely in the same manner as in China itself. The Portuguese government has directed its particular attention to the cultivation of this plant, the produce of which, to the value of twenty millions of dollars, is annually imported from China to England. The late minister, Conde de Linhares, invited several hundred Chinese colonists, in order by their means to make the proper manner of growing and preparing tea better known. These Chinese were said not to have been any of the inhabitants of the coast, who leave their country from poverty, and go to Java and the neighbouring islands there to look for work, like the Galicians in Spain and Portugal, but people from the interior had been chosen, who were perfectly acquainted with the management of the tea plant. Most of these Chinese, however, do not now live about the botanic garden, but in the vicinity of the royal residence of Santa Cruz, except a few who are employed here under the direction of Colonel Abreu, to tend the tea plants, and gather and prepare the leaves. The leaves are plucked three times a year, and laid on gently heated kilns of clay, on which they are dried and crisped. The director of the establishment gave us samples of the different kinds, which here also are chiefly distinguished according to the season of gathering. The taste was strong, yet by no means so delicately

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aromatic as the best kinds of Chinese tea, but rather earthy and rough. This disagreeable property must, however, be no discouragement in any new branch of cultivation, for it is a natural consequence of the plants not being perfectly accustomed to the climate. Besides the tea shrub, we were shown several other plants of India, such as the cinnamon tree (Laurus cinnamomum), the clove tree (Coryophyllus aromaticus), the pepper plant (Piper nigrum), the Gnemon gneton, the the nutmeg tree (Myristica moschata), the Averrhoa carambola, the sour fruit of which has a very pleasant taste in soup, &c. Though some of them were but a few years old, yet most of these trees had already borne fruit. All these plants will become naturalised here when they have been cultivated some years longer, for the new continent appears calculated by nature to receive the productions of all climates, and to bring them to the same perfection as their own country.

The powder manufactory near the botanical garden is the only one in Brazil, except a little private establishment in Minas, which has likewise obtained a royal license. The produce of these manufactories cannot, however, boast of being so well compounded as the gunpowder imported from Europe, which is nearly prohibited here. This is in all probability occasioned partly by something not suiting the climate in the saltpetre, which is brought to Rio from the Portuguese colonies in

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the East Indies, and from the saltpetre caverns on the Rio de Francisco, and partly by the nature of the charcoal which is here employed in the composition of the gunpowder. We are not certain what charcoal they use here, but during our journey into the interior, where the obtaining of powder from the coasts is very difficult, and on account of the heavy duty on foreign powder, very expensive, several of the inhabitants assured us that they made for their own use very good powder, by the wellknown mixture with the charcoal of several kinds of corindiuva (Celtis). The inhabitants, however, are prohibited from manufacturing this powder, which is far inferior in strength to the English. The country about the lake of Roderigo Freitas, like the neighbouring suburbs of Bota Fogo and Catête, is considered to be remarkably healthy; and many of the rich inhabitants of Rio possess country-houses (chacras) on this side, in which they pass the fine season of the year. The road is therefore much frequented by passengers on horseback and in carriages. This part, where the inlets of the sea are less deep and more exposed to the wind, is freer from the torment of the musquittoes than the opposite side of the town; for instance, the quarter of S. Anna. Those troublesome and ravenous insects prefer the thick bushes of the mangrove, and the morasses which surround it, and are particularly annoying before sunrise and sunset.

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Our friend, the consul-general, Mr. Von Langsdorff, had purchased a large estate on the road from the north side of the bay to Minas Geraës, a short time before we arrived at Rio de Janeiro, and just had commenced to plant mandiocca and to build a country-house for himself with the necessary appendages. We readily accepted his invitation to view, in his company, this new creation, of the riches of which in natural curiosities, he drew a delightful picture. On account of the great traffic between the capital and the harbour of Porto de Estrella, which is visited by all travellers going to Minas, boats set out daily between 11 and 12 o'clock, as soon as the sea-breeze springs up, and arrive at Porto de Estrella in the evening; on the other hand, boats regularly depart from the latter place after sunset, sail through the night, and reach the city by daybreak. We embarked one afternoon on board one of these broadbuilt boats, which are furnished with only one sail. The wind was faint, and impelled us slowly by the bare rocks, called the Enchados, which rise out of the sea not far from the coast, and are frequented by a number of sea-eagles and sea-gulls, (Pelicanus aquilus, Cormoranus graculus, Procellaria brasiliensis,) and then by several islands covered with thick wood, which lie scattered in the bay. On the largest of these islands, Ilha do Governador, situated almost in the middle of the bay, and extending two miles from E. to W., the king has

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reserved to himself the right of the chace; it is said to be inhabited by deer and wild boars, but he has never yet paid it a visit. In countries where the hunter is exposed not only to the attacks of the beasts of prey, but also to poisonous serpents and insects, and where the thickness of the forest seldom allows him to remain on horseback, to escape by that means the venomous animals whom it is not easy to see, the chase has but few attractions. A bear which the king received as a present from Russia, is shown here as a curiosity. It was upon an island exactly resembling these, but which lies before the mouth of the bay, and is called Ilha raza, that Sir Joseph Banks, when he touched at Rio de Janeiro in the company of Captain Cook, discovered the beautiful Morœa Northiana, which has since then become the ornament of European gardens. The indefatigable Commerson, too, when Bougainville put into the harbour of Rio, botanised on these islands and the adjacent continent; we therefore here trod upon a spot which had been rendered in a manner classical by the researches of those naturalists. The traveller loves to connect his own pleasures with those of his predecessors; we were accordingly very agreeably surprised when we found on those islands among the bushes, the moræa; and in the hedges out of the town the beautiful shrub Bougainvillia brasiliensis, with its dazzling red flowers, by which Commerson immortalised the name of

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his noble commander. Nature always maintains her creations unimpaired by the influence of time, and they survive all the monuments of human greatness. It was, therefore, a very happy idea in botany to perpetuate the names and merits of distinguished enquirers, by impressing them on flowers, whose races never become extinct.

When we landed on those low islands in the Bay of Rio de Janeiro, we were astonished at the vigour and luxuriance of their vegetation, which is occasioned by their low damp situation, and the great heat. The woods, in which there are, for the most part, the same species of trees as on the continent, but among them a proportionably far greater number of palms, especially the much-esteemed cabbage-palm*, are rendered almost impenetrable by thick underwood. The rapidity with which the vegetable world here passes through its various stages, till it at length decays and rots away, is as great as the impulse by which new creations continually arise on the remains of those that have fallen to decay. Upon and near the largest trunks, which, stretched out like enormous skeletons, suddenly return to the state of vegetable earth, we saw a multitude of many-coloured fungi† spring up, an

* Euterpe edulis, nob. The young leaves (palmito) are frequently brought from these islands sad the woods of the continent to the city markets.

† Boletus sanguineus, Sw.; Trichia expansa, nob.; Stemonitis fasciculata; Sphæria deusta, serpens, Pers., &c.

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innumerable quantity of seeds shoot at the same time, and unfold themselves with incredible rapidity. The images of death and of the most vigorous life pass here in rapid succession before the eye of the wanderer. The few uncultivated spots of these fertile islands, which are clear of forests, are real marsh lands or savannahs. The grass grows extremely thick, and attains a surprising height and juiciness. Yet the inhabitants of this and the two Larger islands, Ilha grande and Marambaya, which lie in the Angra dos Reys, and appear to be of the same nature, have hitherto paid but little attention to the breeding of cattle; and have rather employed themselves in cultivating maize, indigo, sugar, and tobacco. On the shore where the sea has here and there bared the granite rocks of their covering of good mould, these islands frequently produce thick groups of aloe and of prickly cactus, the stiff leafless stems of which make a singular contrast with the varied forms of the forest. The huts of the country people are, for the most part, situated along the coast, and surrounded with plantations of Spanish potatoes and water-melons, and with acajú, guava, pisang, oranges, jessamines, and roses.

When we left Rio de Janeiro in the afternoon, we hoped that we should be able to reach the opposite coast of the bay, though at a late hour, in the evening; but when we were nearly in the middle of the bay the wind suddenly subsided, and

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deprived us of the hope of passing the night on shore. We therefore adopted the advice of our friendly and cheerful host, to accommodate ourselves as comfortably as we could on the hard benches in the cabin. He, jokingly, wished us success in the result of a fatiguing campaign, which we were now going to undertake in the new country: the uninterrupted good humour of this experienced traveller afforded us, however, a favourable opportunity of learning what was the best antidote against the disagreeable adventures which we might still encounter. The night rapidly passed away in laying plans for our operations, during our intended stay at Mandiocca, and in the rapturous praises in which our friend broke out, when he spoke of the peaceful retirement of his country-seat, and of the luxuriance and beauty of the surrounding scenery. To the great sorrow of the lazy negroes we remained awake the whole night, and encouraged them to row, as this was the only means by which we could make any progress, and even then but slowly. The night was damp and gloomy; we were several times incommoded by numerous swarms of small musquittoes, which, however, soon successively passed over. The morning began to dawn, and we at length drew near to a very low swampy tract of land, covered with mangle, avicennia, conocarpus, and other small strand trees, between which the Inhumerim, an inconsiderable river, flows into the sea. We now left the bay,

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and the canoe was lifted up by the negroes by means of long poles. We were everywhere surrounded with thick bushes, and delighted with the wondrous diversity of the most beautiful groups in the hedges by the water-side, entwined with flowering gardenia, bignonia, seriania, and echites. A great part of the shores of the bay are covered with similar amphibious plants, which extend into the country only in those places where the land scarcely rises above the level of the sea. In the same manner as the limit, from which the vegetation assumes the forest or the alpine character, has its particular representatives in the kingdom of Flora, so also is the point where the meaner plants of the sea-shore cease, and give way to the nobler species, marked by its peculiar forms. It is remarkable that the plants which grow on all the shores of the new and old world, between the tropics, (Rhizophora, Bruguiera, Conocarpus, Avicennia,) with seeds shooting while attached to the parent plant, and branches striking into the earth, seem, by their roots above and below, at once to represent in their class also the image of that rich and generous vegetation which we admire in these latitudes. In like manner as all these plants belong to the seacoast, so every principal river, the source of which determines more or less a peculiar vegetation, has a Flora of its own along its whole course, which forms one of the most important features in the physiognomy of the country through which it flows.

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Thus we found on the shores of those immense rivers, the Rio de S. Francisco, the Tocantin, the Parnaiba, the Amazons and its collateral streams, certain species which mark the particular character of their vegetable forms, and are extremely interesting to the enquirer into the geographical relations of the vegetable kingdom, because they indicate, in a certain degree, the basis of the forms of each individual Flora. Those shrubs and trees which send out roots from their branches require to come into contact with the sea, in order to attain their perfect growth, and with their far-spreading and very superficial roots appear especially to affect the swampy soil of its shores. Though their wood is very solid, and not unfrequently thick, they grow with extraordinary rapidity. The Rhizophora mangle (mangue vermelho) is distinguished by forming a very thick bark in a proportionably short time. In those places where the scarcity of wood does not make it necessary entirely to cut down the mangle trees, as, for instance, in Maranhâo, it is usual, particularly at the commencement of the rainy season, when the sap begins to flow between the wood and the bark, to tear off the latter, and use it for tanning. Wherever these trees and shrubs grow, the whole neighbourhood is converted into marshes and swamps, and serves only as an abode for the abovementioned species of crab. On the summits of these forests, growing on the shore, we saw, as we sailed along, the most beautiful

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white herons* sitting, gay-coloured halcyons watching for fish†, and within the thicket divers waterfowl‡ running about or swimming. Unluckily it is impossible to catch any of these animals as soon as they retire far into the thickets, because it would be vain to attempt to penetrate through the close bushes, or when the ebb leaves the ground visible, to venture upon it, on account of the depth of the swamp. We followed the Inhumerim about a mile up the country, till we reached the village Porto de Estrella, the low ill-built houses, or rather huts, of which form an irregular street at the confluence of the small Saracurúna with the Inhumerim.

Porto de Estrella is the common harbour between Rio de Janeiro, and the province of Minas Geraës. Long trains of mules laden with chests and packages arrive here from the interior, or return to it. The European, accustomed to the conveyance of considerable burdens in waggons, is astonished at the sight of so many cargoes divided into small parcels, which are abandoned to the discretion of the beasts, or of an unskilful driver, daily loaded and unloaded several times, either in the open air, or in exposed sheds, scarcely protected against the rain and the weather, and often carried in this manner several hundred miles. When we

* Ardea alba, candidissima, egretta.

† Alcedo torquata, bicolor, Amazona.

‡ Para jacana; Gallinula martinicensis; Scolopax paludosa Gallinula affinis, nob.; Tringa Cinclus; Vanellus cayennesis.

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beheld the confusion of the caravans, loading and unloading, we could not think without regret of the future fate of our instruments, books, and collections, which would be given up to blind chance, instead of being under our own care. The caravans (tropas), however, particularly on the better road from Saint Paul and Minas to the capital, are so well organised, that comparatively very little ride is to be apprehended. Each caravan, which may consist of twenty to fifty mules, is conducted by an Arieiro, on horseback; he gives the necessary orders for the caravan to set out, to halt, or to encamp for the night; takes care that the burdens are well balanced, and the pack-saddles (cangalhas) in good condition; repairs them when they gall, cures the sick beasts, and attends to the shoes. Under him are the drivers (toccadores), each of whom generally has to manage a division (lote) of seven mules. They go on foot, put the burdens off and on, feed and water the animals, drive them to the pasture, and cook the provisions. The Arieiro, generally a free mulatto, frequently attends to the sale and purchase of goods in the city, and acts as commissioner for the proprietor of the caravan. The drivers are for the most part negroes, who soon become accustomed to the employment, and prefer this wandering life to the labour of gold-washing, and working in the plantations. The most important article of trade brought hither by the inhabitants of Minas Geraës,

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called Mineiros, is raw cotton; but besides that, a considerable quantity of coarse cotton stuffs, for clothing for the negroes, and for exportation to Rio Grande do Sul and Buenos-Ayres, is brought hither, chiefly from the district of Sabará and S. Joâo d'El Rey; also cheese, bacon, and cakes of marmalade of quinces: many precious stones likewise come hither from the interior, and we were assured that a great contraband trade is carried on in gold dust and diamonds, though numerous police officers exercise great vigilance to prevent it.

As all the goods which are sent from Rio to Minas, Goyaz, and Mato Grosso, likewise have to go by Porto de Estrella, there is always a great deal of business going on here, and it is therefore very strange that there is not a single good dwellinghouse, or even any secure magazine for the goods. Every body must submit to take shelter in a wretched scarcely covered shed, where goods are likewise deposited. If the traveller does not carry his provisions with him, as is the usual custom, he must provide himself with what he wants from the vendas, of which there are some here, and must get his provisions dressed himself. The meal generally consists of beans, boiled with bacon, or of dried beef broiled; for dessert we have banians and cheese. The traveller sleeps upon an ox hide, or on a frame of laths fixed in the earth,

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and covered with a straw mat, or on his hammock, and no covering but his own clothing.

After our kind conductor had procured the necessary mules and horses for our journey, we left the busy village, and took the road which leads northwards from this place to Minas. We were soon in an entirely new scene; we rode through a low country, in a broad but unpaved road, between hedges of the most various kinds of shrubs in full blossom; on the left hand we had a range of mountains, covered with thick forests, and before us one connected with it, but higher; the bold projecting masses of rock, wooded only on the sides, give the landscape a character peculiarly grand. On this road, too, as formerly in the neighbourhood of the city, we met with no great plantations, which lie in the forests at a great distance from the road; but some scattered houses with gardens proved to us, that the fertility of this beautiful spot was duly appreciated. The broad valley, gently declining towards the sea, is protected from the cold winds, which come from the higher country on the river Paraiba, by the chain of the Organ Mountains (Serra dos Orgâos), and it likewise enjoys the advantage of being doubly warmed by the reflection of the rays of the sun from the mountain. In the lower grounds, the sugar-cane thrives with incredible luxuriance; and we saw a particular proof of the strength of the soil, in some stems almost a foot thick, which having been deprived of

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the branches and roots, divided into several pieces, and fixed in the ground to form a fence, had immediately taken root, and shot out new branches. They were stems of the pindaiba (Xylopia frutescens), and several crotons; this phenomenon is the more remarkable, because the pieces which were set in upside down grew as fast as the rest While the experiments of the botanical physiologer in our ungenial climates afford him, only under hard conditions, an insight into the concealed processes of vegetation; Nature in these countries voluntarily solves those problems, and thus allows him to look into her mysteries. In this point of view, it would certainly be a very important undertaking, to repeat here, upon a more extensive scale, the experiments of Hales, Duhamel, Grew, and Knight, in order to deduce from them general laws of the growth of plants.

At Piedade, a village consisting of several scattered houses and a chapel, scarcely a mile from Porto de Estrella, we issued from between the thick hedges along the road, into a verdant plain bounded by gardens, plantations, and meadows, which were just then illumined by the brilliant rays of the morning sun; while in the back ground, the massy summits of the Organ Mountains, were veiled in the gloom of a forest, which was still in shade. A solemn soothing repose was diffused over this delightful spot, which seems to have been created for the enjoyment of retired and cheerful

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contemplation of nature. The variety of the light and of the foliage of the trees, which is seen on the forests, on the slopes of the mountain, the blending of the most diverse colours, and the dark azure and transparency of the sky, impart to the landscapes of the tropical countries a charm to which even the pencil of a Salvator Rosa and a Claude cannot do justice. The road gradually rises, and when, after passing over low woody hills, we arrived, towards evening, at the foot of the mountain, our hospitable friend bid us welcome on his own domain. Mr. Von Langsdorff had but just begun to cultivate this fazenda, which is of the great extent of more than a square mile, but had been entirely neglected. A spacious shed (rancho) for the reception of the numerous caravans from Minas, a vend a, where brandy is sold, a mill for grinding maize, and a small dwelling-house for the proprietor, in the usual style of the country, were erected on the road-side. These small country-houses contain some plain rooms with latticed windows, or shutters; the roof generally projects op one side, some feet beyond the wall, and resting on some pillars, and a low wall, forms the veranda. Such buildings are commonly of lath connected together by tough creeping plants (sipó), covered with clay, and white-washed. The clayey soil may almost everywhere be made into good bricks, or, if they are considered too

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expensive, the broad leaves of several palms* make a light but tolerably secure roof. The bounty of nature supplies all the necessary materials in abundance, and only the lime is brought from Cabo Frio.

The estate of Mandiocca, of which we have given a drawing, is so called on account of the excellence of the mandiocca roots which are cultivated there. It is bounded on the north-west by a chain of mountains, traversed by several narrow dells, and covered with woods, which extend from the valley to the lofty summits of the Organ Mountain. In the midst of these great forests are the tracts (rossados) which, after burning the felled trees, are planted by the land-owners with mandiocca, maize, beans, coffee, &c. These plantations (rossas) are generally abandoned after a few harvests, and in some years are covered again with a thick brushwood (capoeir), which is particularly distinguished by the absence of large kinds of trees of a slower growth. The primeval forests, which stand as testimonies of the creative energy of the new continent, in all their original wildness, and still unprofaned by human hands, are called, in Brazil, virgin forests (mato virgem). In them, European coolness refreshes the wanderer, and at the same time the image of the most luxuriant profusion: the never-ceasing power of vegetation

* Particularly in the southern districts the species Geonoma.

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makes the trees shoot up to a majestic height; and not contented with these gigantic primeval monuments, nature calls forth upon every stem a new creation of numerous verdant flowering parasite plants. Instead of the uniform poverty of species in the forests of Europe, especially in the north, there is here an infinite diversity in the forms of stems, leaves, and blossoms. Almost every one of these sovereigns of the forest, which here stand near to each other, is distinguished in the total effect of the picture from its neighbour. While the silk-cotton tree*, partly armed with strong thorns, begins at a considerable height from the ground to spread out its thick arms, and its digitated leaves are grouped in light and airy masses, the luxuriant lecythis and the Brazilian anda† shoot out at a less height many branches profusely covered with leaves, which unite to form a verdant arcade. The jacaranda attracts the eye by the lightness of of its double-feathered leaves; the large gold-coloured flowers of this tree and the ipé‡ dazzle by their splendour, contrasted with the dark green of the foliage. The spondias§ arches its pennated leaves into light oblong forms. A very peculiar and most striking effect in the picture is that pro-

* Bombax pentandrum, Ceiba, L.

† Lecythis Ollaria, parviflora, L.; Idatimon, Aubl.; Anda brasiliensis, Raddi.

‡ Jacaranda brasiliensis, Juss.; Bignonia chrysantha, Jacq.

§ Spondias Myrobalanus, L.

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duced by the trumpet tree* among the other lofty forms of the forest. The smooth ash-grey stems rise, slightly bending, to a considerable height, and spread out at the top into verticillate branches standing at right angles, which have at the extremities large tufts of deeply lobated white leaves. The contour of the tree appears to indicate at once hardness and pliability, stiffness and elasticity, and affords the painter a subject equally interesting and difficult for the exercise of his pencil. The flowering cæsalpinia†, the airy laurel, the lofty geoffrœa‡, the soap trees with their shining leaves, the slender Barbadoes cedar, the ormosia§ with its pennated leaves; the tapia or garlic pear tree, so called from the strong smell of its bark; the maina‖, and a thousand not yet described trees are mingled confusedly together, forming groups, agreeably contrasted, by the diversity of their forms and tints. Here and there the dark crown of a Chilian fir¶ among the lighter green appears like a stranger amidst the natives of the tropics, while the towering stems of the palms, with their waving crowns, are an incomparable ornament of

* Cecropia peltata, L. palmata, W.

† Cæsalpinia brasiliensis, chinata, L.

‡ Geoffrœa inermis, Sw., racemosa, Poir. violacea, P.

§ Sapindus Saponaria, L.; Cedrela odorata, L.; Ormosia dasycarpa, coccinea, Jacks.

‖ Cratæva Tapia, L., called by the Portuguese Páo d'alha; Maina brasiliensis, Raddi.

¶ Araucaria imbricata, Pav.

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the forests, the beauty and majesty of which no language can describe. If the eye turns from the proud forms of those ancient denizens of the forest to the more humble and lower which clothe the ground with a rich verdure, it is delighted with the splendour and gay variety of the flowers. The purple blossoms of the rhexia, profuse clusters of the melastoma, myrtles and eugenia*; the delicate foliage of many rubiaceæ and ardisiæ† with their pretty flowers blended with the singularly formed leaves of the theophrasta; the conchocarpus; the reed-like dwarf palms‡; the brilliant spadix of the costus; the ragged hedges of the maranta§, from which a squamous fern rises; magnificent stiftia; thorny solana; large flowering gardenias and coutarea‖ entwined with garlands of mikania and bignonia; the far-spreading shoots

* Rhexia princeps, grandiflora, holosericea Humb.; Melastoma tomentosa, lutescens, mucronata Humb.; Myrtus splendens, disticha, lineata Sw.; Eugenia Mini, gujanensis, Cumete Aubl.

† Tetramerium occidentale G.; Nonatelia paniculata, Pagamea gujanensis; Coffea paniculata Aubl.; Duhamelia patens L., chrysantha Sw.; Ardisia tinifolia, parasitica Sw.

‡ Theophrasta longifolia Jacq.; Conchocarpus macrophyllus Mik.; Geonoma simplicifrons, pinnatifrons W., pauciflora nob.

§ Costus lævis R. P., spiralis Rosc.; Maranta gracilis, obliqua Rudge, arundinacea L.

‖ Stiftia chrysantha Mik.; Solanum violaceum, micranthum Lam., violaceum Jacq. paniculatum L., Balbisii Dun., chloranthum Spr.; Gardenia armata Sw.; Solena gracilis Rudge; Coutarea speciosa Aubl.

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of the mellifluous paullinias, of the burning dalechampias and the bauhinia with its strangely lobated leaves*; strings of the leafless milky bindweed (Lianes), which descend from the highest summits of the trees, or closely twine round the strongest trunks and gradually kill them: lastly, those parasitical plants, by which old trees are invested with the garment of youth; the grotesque species of the pothos and arum, the superb flowers of the orchideæ†, the bromelias which catch the rainwater, the tillandsia‡ hanging down like Lichen pulmonarius, and a multiplicity of strangely formed ferns§: all these admirable productions of so young a soil, combine to form a scene which alternately fills the European naturalist with delight and astonishment

When we here attempt to sketch a picture of the interior of a tropical forest we must not forget

* Mikania stipulacea Vhl., viseosa Spr., opifora nob. (Eupator crenatum Gom); Bignonia venusta Ker.; Paullinia pinnata Cururu L., meliæfolia, thalictrifolia Juss.; Dalechampia brasiliensis, ficifolia, pentaphylla, triphylla, convolvuloides Lam.; Bauhinia gujanensis Lam., aculeata L.

† Pothos crassinervia digitata Jacq., macrophylla Sw., palmata L.; Caladium lacerum, pinnatifidum, grandifolium Jacq.; Oncidium barbatum, pictum Humb., lonopsis pulchella Humb.; Neottia speciosa Sw.

‡ Bromelia Pinguin, Karatas, Acanga, iridifolia Nees et M. Tillandsis usneoides L.

§ Acrostichum calemelanos; Polypadium percussum Cav., submarginale vaceinifolium fisch.; Aspidium exaltatum Sw.; Pteris pedata L.

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to point the attention of the reader to the relative situation of each individual plant, with regard to the tendency to self-preservation. With such a fulness of life, and such a vigorous striving at development, even so rich and fertile a soil as this is not capable of furnishing the necessary nourishment in sufficient abundance; hence those gigantic trees are in a constant struggle for their own preservation, and impede each other's growth still more than the trees in our forests. Even the stems which are grown to a considerable height, and require a large supply of nutriment, feel the influence of their more powerful neighbours, are suddenly arrested in their growth by being deprived of the requisite juices, and thus become in a short time subject to the general powers of nature which lead them to a rapid dissolution. We thus see the noblest trees, after suffering an atrophy of some months' duration, eaten away by ants and other insects, seized with decay from the root to the summit, till, to the terror of the solitary inhabitants of the forest, they fall down with a tremendous crash. In general, it is remarked by the farmers, that stems which stand singly, among several others of a different kind, are more easily kept down by the latter. When at some future period a regular system of forest cultivation, which indeed has not yet been thought of in these thinly peopled woods, shall be introduced, it will be found necessary not so much to promote the

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growth of the trees close together, as to take care that they stand at a sufficient distance from each other.

But the animal kingdom, which peoples those ancient forests, is no less distinguished than the vegetable world. The naturalist, who is here for the first time, does not know whether he shall most admire the forms, hues, or voices of the animals. Except at noon, when all living creatures in the torrid zone seek shade and repose, and when a solemn silence is diffused over the scene, illumined by the dazzling beams of the sun, every hour of the day calls into action another race of animals. The morning is ushered in by the howling of the monkeys* the high and deep notes of the tree frogs and toads†, the monotonous chirp of the grasshoppers and locusts.‡ When the rising sun has dispelled the mists which preceded it, all creatures rejoice in the return of day. The wasps leave their lone nests which hang down from the branches; the ants§ issue from their dwellings, curiously built of clay with which they cover the trees, and commence their journey on the paths they have made for themselves, as is done also by

* Mycetus fuscus nob.

† Hyla boans, aurantiaca D., Faber Neuw., aspera nob.; Rana cornuta, labyrinthica nob.; Bufo agua, margaritaceus D., scaber, leucostictus, dorsalis, ornatus nob.

‡ Tettigonia Locusta, Gryllus.

§ Formica leucosoma nob., grossa, megacephala.

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the termites* which cast up the earth high and far around. The gayest butterflies, rivalling in splendour the colours of the rainbow, especially numerous Hesperiæ†, flutter from flower to flower, or seek their food on the roads‡, or collected in separate companies on the sunny sandbanks of the cool streams.§ The blue shining Menelaus, Nestor, Adonis, Laertes, the bluish white Idea, and the large Eurylochus with its ocellated wings, hover like birds between the green bushes in the moist valleys. The Feronia, with rustling wings, flies rapidly from tree to tree, while the owl‖, the largest of the moth kind, sits immovably on the trunk with outspread wings awaiting the approach of evening. Myriads of the most brilliant beetles buzz in the air, and sparkle like jewels on the fresh green of the leaves, or on the odorous flowers. ¶ Meantime agile lizards, remarkable for their form, size, and brilliant colours**, dark-coloured poisonous↓, or harmless serpents, which exceed in spleen-

* Termes fatale L.

† Hesperia Aparte, Idas, Proteus, Bixæ.

‡ Hesperia Fabius, Alcyonia, Numata P. Orythia, Doris, Flora, Læna, Psidii, Piera.

§ A. Protesilaus, Ajax, Policaon, Thoas.

‖ Noctua Strix.

¶ Entymus imperialis; Buprestis equestris, gigantea; Eumolpus nitidus; Clamys chrystallista nob. &c

** Ameiva lateristriga Cuv.; Tupinambis Monitor; Anolis violaceus nob.; Polychrus marmoratus Mer., Seps fragilis; Ophisaurus striatus nob.

↓ Bothrops Neuwiedii, leucurus nob.

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dour the enamel of the flowers*, glide out of the leaves, the hollows of the trees, and holes in the ground, and, creeping up the stems, bask in the sun, and lie in wait for insects or birds. From this moment all is life and activity. Squirrels, troops of gregarious monkeys† issue inquisitively from the interior of the woods to the plantations, and leap, whistling and chattering, from tree to tree. Gallinaceous jacus, hoccos, and pigeons‡, leave the branches and wander about on the moist ground in the woods. Other birds of the most singular forms, and of the most superb plumage§, flutter singly, or in companies, through the fragrant bushes. The green, blue, or red parrots‖, assembled on the tops of the trees, or flying towards the plantations and islands, fill the air with their screams. The toucan↓, sitting on the

* Natrix Ahœtulla, cyanea, bicarinata nob., lacertina nob., plumbea Neuw., caninana; Elaps venustissimus, formosus Neuw., lemniscatus; Leposternon microcephalus nob.; Amphisbœna fuliginosa, alba, oxyura, vermicularis nob.; Cœcilia annulata nob.

† Midas Rosalia Lin.; Cebus xanthocephalus nob.; Brachyteles macrotarsus nob.; Sciurus æstuans.

‡ Penelope Marail, cristata; Crax Alector variet. Columba frontalis.

§ Falco brasiliensis, Sparveri; Strix flammea, Huhula V.; Vultur Aura; Crotophaga Ani; Tanagra auricapilla Neuw., brasilia, Jacapa, Mississipensis; Euphone tricolor, violacea; Emberiza brasiliensis; Fringilla flaveola; Loxia grossa; Lanius undulatus, lineatus, nævius, atricapillus, Nycthemerus nob.

‖ Psittacus brasiliensis, menstruus, viridissimus nob., cruontatus Neuw., auricapillus, severus, militaris.

↓ Rhamphastos Tucanus, dicolorus; Pteroglossus Aracari Bailloni V.

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extreme branches, rattles with his large hollow bill, and in loud plaintive notes calls for rain. The busy orioles* creep out of their long, pendent, bag-shaped nests, to visit the orange trees, and their sentinels, announce with a loud screaming cry, the approach of man. The flycatchers† sitting aloof, watching for insects, dart from the trees and shrubs, and with rapid flight catch the hovering Menelaus or the shining flied as they buzz by. Meantime, the amorous thrush‡, concealed in the thicket, pours forth her joy in a strain of beautiful melody; the chattering manakins§, calling from the close bushes, sometimes here, sometimes there, in the full tones of the nightingale, amuse themselves in misleading the hunters; and the woodpecker‖ makes the distant forests resound while he picks the bark from the trees. Above all these strange voices, the metallic tones of the uraponga↓ sound from the tops of the highest trees, resembling the strokes of the hammer on the anvil, which

* Oriolus minor, niger, hœmorrhous, albirostris Az.

† Cuculus cayennensis; Galbula viridie; Trogon CuruCui, viridis; Bucco cayennansis, leucops, tenebrous Illig.; Capito melanotis T.; Muscicapa sulpurata, cayennensis, audax, virgata; Pitangua.

‡ Turdus Orpheus, bræsiliensis.

§ Pipra leucocilla, erythrocephala, strigilata Neuw., Manaouls, pareola.

‖ Picus flavicans, lineatuts robustus, Langsdorff not. Yunx minutissima; Dendrocolaptes scandens, Picus, turdinus, guttatus.

↓ Procnias ventralis et nudicollis Illig.

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appearing nearer or more remote according to the position of the songster, fill the wanderer with astonishment While thus every living creature by its actions and voice greets the splendour of the day, the delicate humming-birds*, rivalling, in beauty and lustre, diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires, hover round the brightest flowers. When the sun goes down most of the animals retire to rest; only the slender deer, the shy pecari, the timid agouti, and the tapir† still graze around; the nasua and the opossum, the cunning animals of the feline rape‡, steal through the obscurity of the wood watching for prey, till at last the howling monkeys, the sloth with a cry as of one in distress, the croaking frogs, and the chirping grasshoppers with their monotonous note, conclude the day; the cries of the macuc, the capueira, the goat-sucker§, and the bass tones of the bullfrog announce the approach of night. Myriads of luminous beetles now begin to fly about like

* Trochilus oraatus, Mango, Maugæus, leucogaster, viridissimus, mellisugus, amethystinus, hirundinaceus nob., crispus, pygmæus, brevicauda, albo-gularis, leucopygius, Helios, Mystax nob.; Grypus ruficollis nob.

† Cervus mexicanus; Cœlogenys Paca; Dasyprocta Agouty, Acuschy; Cavia aperea; Lepus brasiliensis; Tapirus americanus, var. rufa.

‡ Nasua Quasie, rufa; Didelphis cayopollin; Felis onca, discolor.

§ Bradypus tridactylus; Tinamus noctivagus Neuw.; Perdix guyaaensis; Caprimulgus albicollis.

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ignes fatui, and the blood-sucking bats* hover like phantoms in the profound darkness of the night.

Inanimate nature too presents a beautiful and sublime picture in its long-extending mountain ridges, thickly wooded to the summits. The Serra dos Orgâos, and all the parts of the same range, which, branching out in different directions, runs along the sea-coast northwards through the district of Canta-Gallo to Porto-Seguro and Bahia, and southwards to Santos, &c., consists of granite. In the forest of Mandiocca, towards the mountain, there are uncommonly large blocks of this kind of rock, which have rolled down from the summits of the mountains; their clefts afford shelter to numbers of coatis and black weasels†; and a great variety of begonia, heliconia, and drostenia grow under their shady projections. At the first sight we fancied both here and in the neighbourhood of Rio that we saw the granite, which in our own country forms the mountain chain from Passau along the frontiers of Bohemia, so extraordinary is the resemblance between that in the new world and that in the old. Among the few varieties which we had occasion to observe, one consists of much reddish or light smoke-coloured felspar, a little smoky quartz, and pretty much black small

* Vespertilio brasiliensis Geof.; Glossophaga amplexicauda Geof.

† Mustela barbara.

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foliated mica. The second is a coarse-grained granite, with predominant greyish and reddish white felspar, greyish white, and smoky quartz, and a small portion of pinchbeck-brown and black mica. It approximates the more nearly to the graphic granite, as the felspar, in many places, has the lustre of mother of pearl. The most beautiful variety is a granite with much light reddish grey felspar, small-grained smoky quartz, and imbedded in it single equi-angular six-sided prisms of pinchbeck-brown mica of a middling size. The granite about Rio de Janeiro, as is always the case in similar mountains, often consists of earthy felspar of a greyish colour, sometimes spotted of a brownish yellow by oxyd of iron, smoky quartz, and but a little black mica, and at the slightest touch crumbling to pieces. The structure of the granite gradually becomes slaty, because the smoky quartz and the black small foliated mica (not so much the smoky felspar) combine, and the rock passes into gneiss. In this granite-gneiss pretty large noble garnets are generally found imbedded, and give it a beautiful appearance. It is chiefly found near the city, for instance about the Sacco d'Alferes; but, according to the observation of our friend and countryman, Mr. Von Eschwege, appears in many places along the sea-coast, and seems, for example, in Ilha Grande, to alternate with the granular granite. The latter is often cut into square stones in Rio de Janeiro, particularly in

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Catête and Bota-Fogo, where large blocks lie exposed The negroes, who perform this work, proceed with a degree of slowness intolerable to a European, making the holes for boring with long iron rods, which they always let fall on the same spot. With respect to the formation of the mountains in these parts, the land rises along the coast either gradually, and the granite in the whole chain forms only gently rising rounded hills of unequal elevation, or immense conical mountains here and there rise immediately from the sea to a considerable height, which, however, appears never to exceed four thousand feet. They are almost everywhere covered by a pretty thick stratum of a red ferruginous clay; which however we do not venture to determine more precisely, and which, if we may believe the assurance of many of the inhabitants, contains gold. As royal ordinances prohibit washing for gold within twenty miles of the sea coast, no certain information can be obtained respecting the quantity of gold that might be found in this tract.*

* It may be proper to state that we have had no opportunity of observing the numerous substances which (according to the "Nachrichten von den K. K. Österr, Naturforschern en Brasilien," Brünn, 1820, p. 165.) occur in the granite of Rio, in addition to its usual component parts, either admixed or imbedded in and on the rifts of this rock. But though no rose-quartz, shorl, beryl, asparagus-stone, Andajusite, dichroite, titanium, sparry iron-stone, brown and yellow iron-stone, pyrites, or molybdena have been noticed by us, we yet are warranted to infer the presence of, at least, the greater part of the above minerals in the Brazilian granite, from its resemblance to that of the N.E. frontiers of Bavaria, in which we find imbedded dichroite and turmaline, veins of rose or milk quartz, and micaslate, accompanied by Andalusite.

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From Mandiocca, the road for the caravans to Minas Geraës passes between grotesque stems of the aloe (Fourcroœa gigantea, Vent.) and hedges in full blossom, through the forest, by the edge of steep precipices, and gloomy clefts thickly grown with wood to the top of the mountain, to which there is an expensive paved road, at present the only one of the kind in Brazil, nearly a mile in length. But at the end of this road there is no longer any possibility of using carriages, which could not be employed without danger on the rugged roads. In Brazil they think as little of facilitating the intercourse by means of good roads and carriages, as we do in Germany of laying down iron rail-ways; the conveyance of goods upon mules being sufficient for the wants of the inhabitants. From the summit of the mountain called Serra de Estrella, 3376 Paris feet above the level of the sea, there is a prospect of the bay with its verdant islands and the city in the back-ground. On the opposite side there is a more limited view of a hilly, very uneven, thickly wooded tract, which extends from this place along the coast to the Rio Paraiba. The mountain road on the north side first leads to

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Corrego Seco, a poor village 2260 Paris feet above the surface of the sea. We once passed the night here in the miserable public house, which gave us, in every respect, a foretaste of the difficulties of a journey into the interior. A meal consisting of the dried flour of the mandiocca root and tough beef dried in the sun, a hard bench without pillow or covering for a bed, put our patience, and ability to endure the fatigues of the expedition, to the proof. In Germany this would have been one of the finest summer nights, as the thermometer was not below 14° of Reaumur, and yet we found it almost impossible to sleep for the cold. It is a fact, as remarkable as it is generally observed, that a few months' residence in a warm climate are sufficient to give the frame an extraordinary sensibility to the gradations of warmth. It probably proceeds from the increased action of the nervous system, which is a natural consequence of the great stimulus of the light and heat. This intensity of irritation, and the vivacity of all the organic functions during the day is followed, when night sets in, by a considerable relaxation of the organic powers, so that only the coolness can brace the limbs anew. As the sun in these latitudes exercises its influence with more energy than in our country, and all nature therefore during the day is, if we may so express ourselves, more awake; so, on the other hand, as soon as it sinks below the horizon, more profound repose and deeper sleep succeed. The ani-

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mal kingdom, too, sleep here more soundly and longer than in more northern latitudes; and even the plants, by closing and drooping their flowers and leaves, announce, more than among us, a suspension of the animation awakened by the sun.

From Corrego Seco we followed the road through a high broken country, partly bounded by massy granite mountains, passed Belmonte, and at last reached the country-seat of Padre Correa, with whom we had become acquainted when he passed through Mandiocca. This worthy ecclesiastic, a native of Brazil, is a model for his neighbours, by his activity as a farmer. He has proved by planting extensive nurseries, that the colder climate of these more elevated districts is favourable to the culture of European fruits. In his plantations, figs, peaches and grapes in particular, ripen to perfection, and in such abundance, that he supplies the market at Rio, and annually gains large sums by the sale. This enterprising man has established another profitable branch of industry by the skill of his slaves, whom he treats with very great humanity, and who manufacture large quantities of Swedish iron into horse-shoes, and other articles for sale. We here met for the second time with the mountain rivulet of Piabanha, which, though pretty considerable, is not navigable, on account of its rocky bed, to its junction with the Rio Paraiba, which has its source far off in the province of S. Paulo. Passing over hills of gneiss and granite,

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which are covered with a layer of red clay, we arrived in the evening at Soumidouro, a small village with a few houses, situated in the middle of the wood, at the source of a mountain stream. We were hospitably received, and informed that we had still half a day's journey from this place to the military post (destacamento) of Paraiba; where all caravans coming from Minas Geraës, and the passports of all travelling strangers who are going into the interior of that gold district, are most strictly examined on account of the smuggling trade carried on in gold dust. To avoid this search, we advanced into the forests, which are here so unfrequented and gloomy, no farther than to a solitary fazenda, which lies at a small distance from the river Paraiba. After we had partaken of some refreshment, and obtained all the information that was desirable, both from the host, and from some of the mulattoes belonging to the customhouse on the Paraiba, who were patrolling in the neighbourhood, armed with swords and muskets, we prepared to return by the way of Soumidouro, to the country-house of Mr. Von Langsdorff.

During our stay at Mandiocca, our kind host was visited by his neighbours, who regarded with surprise, and not without jealousy, the rapid progress of his establishment. As the first attempt to turn up, with a European plough, the spots which had been cleared by burning the wood, had failed, through the awkwardness of the negroes and for

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want of oxen trained to the work, this gave them sufficient ground to prove the unfitness of European agriculture on the Brazilian soil. Many had not yet seen a plough; some would not allow the justice of the observation, that the soil gained in fertility by being loosened, and by the chemical influence of the atmosphere, because the virgin forests, the surface of which had been the same for thousands of years, afforded the most fertile land; others doubted whether the oxen, which Mr. Von Langsdorff had procured from Minas, possessed strength to bear, even for a few days, the hard labour of ploughing; some again lamented the loss of time of the negroes that must be employed. In truth, the use of the plough in these and the more northern districts which cultivate no corn, and have not yet lost their original fertility, appears less to be recommended than in the capitanias of S. Paulo, and Rio Grande do Sul. As the productions of the earth chiefly cultivated here are not sown but planted, and on that account do not require the surface of the ground to be so uniformly prepared, the negro works with the hoe much more effectually and easily than it would be possible for him to do with the plough, the use of which is besides rendered more difficult by the many roots, and the unburnt trunks remaining in the plantations. Though our friend had at present only about twenty negroes, he had not only secured the subsistence of his family by the cultiva-

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tion of maize and mandiocca, but was even able to send part of his produce to the city for sale. His greatest hope, however, was founded on the coffee plantation which he had just made. As a proof of the general fertility of his estate, he several times treated us with potatoes, which were of excellent quality. In fact, the farmer in these districts has no reason to complain of want of fertility and productiveness in the soil, if he only takes care to choose for the plantations, those spots which can be properly watered, and is sufficiently acquainted with the nature of the soil adapted to each branch of agriculture, as well as the proper seasons. The mandiocca root thrives very well in the whole province, except in low wet grounds, and does not require much care in the cultivation. The cuts (manibas) should be put into the ground when the weather is temperate, neither too cold nor too hot, and generally begin to shoot in fourteen days; in eighteen or twenty-two months, during which time the farmer endeavours above all things to check their growth upwards, by breaking out the buds, the roots have attained their full size. Each plantation usually yields three crops at the most, and is then abandoned. The maize, which generally produces two hundred fold, is planted at the commencement of the rainy season, and gathered at the end of four or five months; many kinds of beans come to maturity with still greater rapidity. Garden herbs, Spanish potatoes,

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and melons, produce through the whole year, but most abundantly, however, during the wet season. The pisaug, guava, oranges, &c., blossom in the rainy season from October to March, and produce fruit in the dry season.

In this climate, as in all others, unfavourable influences are not wanting which are hurtful to the plants. The finest orange groves frequently fall a prey to the brown ants which gnaw off the bark, or to the mole-crickets which devour the roots. The young mandiocca and sugar plantations are often invaded, stripped of their leaves, and laid waste, by similar enemies in incredible numbers, or deprived of their roots by the wasps which live under ground. But even when the crop has happily reached maturity, the owner must share it with many foreign guests. Swarms of monkeys, flocks of parrots and other birds, attack the plantations; the paca, agouti, and other kinds of wild swine, eat up the leaves, stalks, and fruits, and myriads of tenthredoes injure the crop. The planter himself; particularly if he has just arrived from Europe, and is unaccustomed to this climate, has many hard trials to undergo from tormenting animals. If he does not keep his dwelling closed, particularly in the morning, evening, and night, there are swarms of large and small musquittoes which torment him with their stings, even through the thickest clothes, and only gauze or silk, can secure him against these enemies. The earth-flies

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(pulex penetrans), which are concealed in numbers in the sand, penetrate under the nails of the hands and feet, and, by producing a blister filled with little eggs, cause the most painful sensations, which, if the sympathetic swelling of the inguinal glands is neglected, are often followed by mortification. The blister, as soon as it gives pain, must be carefully removed, and snuff rubbed into the wound. Besides these, the inhabitant often has other enemies in his house; the white-bellied ant (Cupim, Termes fatale), a great number of blattæ (Blatta orientalis), and other vermin, continually oblige him, by their destructive fury, to make new arrangements. The first cause the most terrible devastation wherever they pass in their course; for, metals excepted, they gnaw through everything, and in a few days the beams of the house are rotten, the linen, books, and all the household furniture, are destroyed. The blatta commits great destruction among the vegetables in particular, and in the night, even attacks the tips of the fingers. The injury which these animals cause to the naturalist is extremely distressing; he frequently finds his collections, which he thought quite secure, by being carefully shut up and hung against the wall, destroyed in a single night. Taught by repeated experience, we found the only safe means to be the application of Buffon's arsenic salve, wrapping the parcels in linens dipped in oil of turpentine, and depositing them in tin cases, which

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were soldered before they were sent away. Without are numberless enemies, not to mention the savage ounce, the poisonous serpents, lizards, scorpions, centipes, and spiders, which are fortunately not frequently met with, and only wound a person when provoked: the mite (acarus), called carobatos, is one of the most formidable plagues. These little animals, from the size of a poppy-seed to that of a linseed, live in societies, and crowded by hundreds in the grass and on dry leaves. As soon as the traveller touches such a plant, they very quickly penetrate through his clothes to the skin, where they eat in, particularly in the more tender parts, and cause an intolerable itching, which is increased by the inevitable rubbing, and in the end produces an inflamed blister. The securest remedy immediately to get rid of these teasing enemies is to pick them off from the akin, or if they have not already eaten too far in, to kill them by rubbing with brandy, or with tobacco infused in water, or by fumigating with tobacco over the fire. Only those who have themselves experienced this evil, so common in the torrid zone, can form an idea of the sufferings to which the naturalist, who is constantly in the open air, is exposed. Happily all these inconveniences are of such a nature that they may be greatly diminished, if not wholly removed, by a knowledge of the country, and the application of approved remedies. With the increasing population and cultivation of the country they will gra-

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dually diminish. When the inhabitants have cut down the woods, drained marshes, made roads, everywhere founded villages and towns, and thus by degrees triumphed over the rank vegetation and the noxious animals, all the elements will willingly second, and amply recompense the activity of man. But before Brazil shall have attained this period of civilisation, the uncultivated land may yet prove a grave to thousands of adventurers. Attracted by the constant beauty of the climate, the richness and the fertility of the soil, many leave their native land, to seek another home in a foreign hemisphere, and in a quite different climate. However true the suppositions are on which they found the expectations of a happy result of their enthusiastic enterprise, it is far from realising the hopes of the emigrants, especially those from the north of Europe; and how shall the inhabitant of the temperate zone, suddenly removed as a cultivator of the soil to Rio de Janeiro, or perhaps even to the shores of the Amazons, to a foreign climate, a foreign soil, a new mode of life and subsistence, surrounded by Portuguese, whose language he neither understands, nor easily learns, how shall he be happy and maintain himself in this country? And what in particular must people of the lower classes feel, without general education and aptitude for a new language, mode of life, and climate, when even strangers of superior condition, provided with every means of guarding against inconvenience, alarmed

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at the disagreeable circumstances attending the climate, complain of the few resources, the poverty and the plagues of the country, of which we have latterly heard so much? If the poor colonist who has come from a northern climate does not meet with a fellow-countryman as his guide, who, acquainted with the mode of life and the cultivation of the soil, kindly assists him in word and deed for the first few years, he is exposed to perish of hunger, even in this rich country, and from the feelings of repentance and longing after home which ensue, becomes a victim to his experiment. He, however, who has happily passed over the first trials, who has secured a settlement in the beautiful country of Brazil, and accustomed himself to the tropical climate, will most willingly acknowledge it for his second home; nay, if he has again visited Europe, he will, with increased attachment, wish himself back again; and, notwithstanding the doubts generally entertained of the habitableness of the torrid zone, will celebrate Brazil as the fairest and most glorious country on the surface of the globe.

After several days' stay at Mandiocca, we returned by the same road to the city, where we found ourselves deceived in the hope of meeting with the Portuguese squadron, which was to bring over her imperial highness the Princess Royal. This delay had considerable influence on the plan of our journey. It had probably been taken for granted at Vienna, that the whole company of

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naturalists would commence their expedition into the interior together; but as hitherto only professor Mikan and Mr. Ender were present, and resolved to wait for the remaining naturalists, no arrangement could yet be made for a joint expedition. We, on the other hand, had received by Count Von Wrbna, who, in the second month after our arrival, had brought the news that the marriage of the Princess Royal with his royal highness the crown-prince, Don Pedro, had been celebrated by proxy, orders not to prolong our journey beyond the term of two years. Penetrated by the wish to extend our travels through so unknown yet remarkable a country, as far as it should be possible in this space of time, we took the resolution to commence our journey into the interior this year, and thought that the delay in the arrival of the other naturalists should not induce us to spend our valuable time in the capital, the environs of which have been so frequently explored. Professor Mikan, on the other hand, resolved to travel round the Bay of Rio, in its whole extent, and to turn towards the plains about Cabo Frio, and in the district of Goytacazes.

Ever since our arrival in this country we had enjoyed the finest weather. But the rainy season seemed gradually approaching; the temperature became variable; fogs, thick groups of clouds, and sudden gusts of wind were more frequent; and on the 3d of October the rain fell in torrents, and coti-

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tinued without intermission for three days. From this time it rained more or less every night or afternoon, and, lastly, in November the wet season regularly set in. In this part of South America it is generally calculated to last from October to March; and the earlier or later commencement of it in the several places partly depends upon their latitude, and their natural position, whether nearer to or more remote from the coast, more or less elevated above the sea. At Rio itself, in 22° 54′ 10″ south latitude, 45° 5′ west longitude of Paris (eastern variation 4° 55′), it rains the most in February. During our stay the changes in the atmosphere were not inconsiderable, in the months of September, October, and November, the barometer, when at the highest, was 28.2, 28.30, and 28.20; at the lowest 27.76, 27.85, 27.77: mean height 27.995, 28.031, and 28.034: the thermometer in the two first months was at its highest points 22°, in the third 23.49° R.; at its lowest 15.49°, 16°, 18°; its mean height was 19.198°, 18.394°, and 20.49°: the hygrometer gradually rose from 49° to 76° and 85°, as the rainy season advanced. We did not think it advisable, considering the shortness of the time allowed us for our travels, to wait at Rio till this season was past, and though a journey during the wet months must be doubly fatiguing, we however determined to set out for the interior as soon as possible, as we considered that it was precisely with the commencement of

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the rainy season, that the animal and vegetable kingdom revive, and appear in their greatest perfection. In such an expedition to the interior, we had been preceded of late years by several travellers. Mawe, who came from Buenos Ayres to Rio de Janeiro, by way of S. Paulo, had continued from hence his journey to Tejuco, in the Diamond district; Von Eschwege, setting out from his residence. Villa Rica, had penetrated westward from the Rio de San Francisco to Rio Abaité, where he worked a lead mine; his serene highness the Prince of Neuwied was at that time travelling along the sea-coast from Rio to Bahia, with Messrs. Freyreiss and Sellow; Auguste de Saint Hilaire who had travelled a year before with Mr. Langsdorff to Villa Rica, after the latter had been obliged to return on account of business, and visited several other parts of the province of Minas, the Indian settlements of Passainha, Tejuco, and the Rio de S. Francisco, at Salgado, was just then on his return to the capital.

Considering these men as our predecessors, and on a review of all written and verbal information, it appeared to us the most advisable first to undertake a journey to the southern capitania of S. Paulo, by which we chiefly designed by degrees to accustom ourselves to the climate of hot countries, and to make ourselves at the same time acquainted with the southern temperate zone. From the province of S. Paulo we intended to travel through the interior of Minas Geraës as far as to the river San

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Francisco and to Goyaz; lastly, either to proceed from hence by the river Tocantin to Pará, or to return from the interior to Bahia and the coast, there to embark our collections for Europe, and then to penetrate again into the interior of the provinces of Piauhy and Maranhâo, and thus at length to reach Pará, the object of our wishes. On this journey, through a part of the temperate and the whole of the south torrid zone, we hoped that we should be able to take a comprehensive view of the latter, and its manifold productions, and to make interesting comparisons between the several kingdoms of nature, in different latitudes. This plan was determined upon with courage and expedition. Our friends who were acquainted with the country doubted our success in an undertaking which they likened to the flight of Icarus; but they could not lessen our own confidence, guided by which we indulged in the pleasing hope of a happy termination of our labours.

Our stay at Mandiocca, and our excursions in the environs, had made us acquainted with most of the requisites for such a journey by land. Our first care, therefore, was to procure a troop of mules, and the most necessary provisions and utensils which every traveller in this country mustabsolutely have with him, in which we profited by the advice of several Mineiros who had just come to Rio with their caravans. The first requisite, as we were told, was an Arieiro, to whom we should con-

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fide the care of the mules and the baggage. But we soon discovered that it was difficult to find a serviceable man of this kind, and still more difficult to attach him to our interest. After several fruitless attempts to procure a well-qualified person we were compelled, as the time fixed for our departure was near at hand, to confide the troop to a mulatto, who, though without sufficient guarantee, declared himself acquainted with the employment, and we gave him our negroslave and another, a free negro, as assistants. How much this involuntary arrangement would impede our journey in a strange country, and frequently place us in the most disagreeable situations, we could not at that time indeed foresee, otherwise we should willingly have purchased, with some weeks' delay, the possession of an able and well-disposed guide. This want of a confidential trustworthy guide, well acquainted with the road, was more sensibly felt by us, when our German servant, on the evening previous to our departure, declared that he would not upon any terms accompany us on such a long and dangerous expedition to the savages, but would rather remain behind among Christians.

During the preparations for our departure, Her Imperial Highness happily arrived at Rio de Janeiro on the 5th of November. What joyful feelings animated us when we saw the august princess make her glorious entry into the capital of the infant kingdom, and were witnesses of the

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transports of joy with which a happy people welcomed the first German princess to a throne of the new continent. Our long-expected colleagues, too, the Austrian naturalists, were now likewise arrived, and we hoped that we should commence our journey in their company. This wish, however, was not accomplished, because the Austrian embassy declared that our learned countrymen should remain a longer time in the province of Rio de Janeiro. We were therefore compelled to prosecute our plan of travelling into the provinces of S. Paulo, Minas Geraës, Goyaz, and Bahia alone, and on the application of the Austrian embassy, soon received from the Brazilian government the necessary passports and letters of recommendation. All the preparations for our enterprise were completed in the beginning of December, and the moment to leave the capital was now arrived. With great emotion we took leave of friends and countrymen, to whom we were united by sincere attachment and similarity of pursuits, and set out upon our journey into the interior of the country, and first to the province of S. Paulo.

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CHAPTER III.

JOURNEY FROM RIO DE JANEIRO TO THE CITT OF S. PAULO.

WE left Rio de Janeiro on the 8th of December, 1817. Several of our countrymen and friends accompanied us to the distance of half a mile* from the city. The commencement of this expedition was not calculated to inspire us with sanguine hopes. Scarcely had we turned into the broad high road of Santa Cruz, when some of our mules lay down, some dispersed among the houses and gardens, and others threw off their loads, and endeavoured to run away. The confusion increased when Mr. Dürming, the Prussian consul at Antwerp, who had arrived at Rio de Janeiro, and who then formed one of our party, was thrown from his mule, which took fright. Mr. Dürming's arm was so seriously hurt, that he was obliged to be taken back to the city. The animals always run wild in this manner at the commencement of a

* Here, and in the course of the narrative, Portuguese or Brazilian miles are always meant, eighteen of which make a degree.

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journey, till they have become used to their burdens, and to proceed in a regular train. Our countryman, Mr. Von Eschwege, who had already made many excursions in this country, was the only one who did not regard it; but we, being novices, were filled with uneasiness and alarm. The latter increased when we perceived that one of the mules, whose load was also very valuable, did not make its appearance. It had run back into the city, with its cargo, where it would probably have soon found another master, if the Arieiro had not been so fortunate as to discover it at last in the harbour, already in the hands of strangers, and to bring it back to us. Fatigued by the troublesome search, and riding backwards and forwards, we were obliged, though scarcely a league from the city, to halt near the royal country-seat of S. Cristovâo, in order to collect the scattered mules and drivers. After we had passed the greatest part of the day here in anxious expectation, we at length set out again with our caravan in good order, crossed the side roads leading to Canta-Gallo and Minas, and at sunset, reached Campinho, a fazenda, with a venda attached to it, situated about three leagues from Rio, where the necessary provisions for the passing caravans are sold. Such shops are met with on the greater part of the road from Rio de Janeiro to S. Paulo, and to the principal places in Minas Geraës, and as the plantations lie in the moist tracts, or in the forests far from the road, these are

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very often the only places which put a traveller in mind of Europe, and of European accommodations. The road runs in a direction of S.S.W. through low land, into which the sea, at high water, penetrates pretty far in some places. By the side of the road stood several low palms, in full bloom, and filled the air with a smell like spermaceti.* We lay down to rest for the night on ox hides, which during the day were spread over the cargoes of the mules, but were now laid on the ground in the entry, which was sparingly lighted by a lamp. The mules having been fed with maize, in bags hung to their heads, and led to drink in the next pool, were sent to pasture. For this purpose, both here and on the whole road to S. Paulo, they use either free open spots, or places that are fenced in. In order that the animals may not run away, and be immediately found the next day, travellers generally prefer putting them into enclosures, which are let on very reasonable terms. When the meadow is not fenced in, it is usual to secure the beasts, by tying ropes to their fore feet. Meantime, our people collected wood and water, and prepared the frugal meal, consisting of dried beans, bacon, and dry beef. The night was starry, but the firmament was darker than in our European zone. The thermo-

* In the East Indies the pollen of the cacao palm is used as an aphrodisiacum. The component parts which Fourcroy found in the date palm, (Annales du Mus. i. p. 417.) certainly indicate the animal nature of this substance.

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meter stood at 14.60° Reaumur, during the greatest part of the night; a temperature which, together with the hard bed on the cold stone floor, was enough to put us in mind of Spanish inns. At daybreak we continued our journey over low land, but did not reach the royal country-seat of Santa Cruz, which is five leagues and a half from Campinho, because our Arieiro insisted on making the first day's journey short, in order to accustom the animals by degrees, and without injury, to travelling. We therefore passed the night in the Venda O Santissimo, where the old proprietor, an Italian by birth, related to us how he had come to Rio, on board a French ship, which had been sent on a voyage of discovery into the South Sea, from which he had deserted and afterwards settled in the country. Thus we unexpectedly met with one of the companions of Bougainville, who utter this long separation from Europe, had not only forgotten the language of his country, but even European manners.

On our way hither we remarked a tract of ground, consisting of dry granite sand. The low, but very pleasant wood* which covers it, resembles, by its bright green foliage, our laurel groves, but is

* Schinus Aroeira, terebinthifolia Raddi; Pohlana (Langsdorffia Leandr.)instrumentaria nob.; Spixia heteranthera Leandr.; Byrsonima nitidissima Humb.; Sapium ilicifolium W.; Alsodea Physiphora nob.; Petrea racemosa Nees.; Solena grandiflora; Serianæ, Paulliniæ sp. &c.

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characterised on the other hand, as a production of the tropical climates, by the variety of the forms of its far-spreading garlands of flowers. We saw in the ravines some boulders, and rolled pieces of greenstone, which lie scattered on the granite ground. On the morning of the 10th of December, having traversed only well-watered meadows, we arrived at Santa Cruz, and were received in the most friendly manner, by our countryman. Lieutenant-colonel Feldner, who happened to be then on the spot. This little place with a population of a few hundred inhabitants, and which only a short time before had received from the king the title and privilege of a town, is situated on a flat sandy eminence, entirely surrounded by a marshy plain, and consists, with the exception of the royal palace, of nothing but wretched clay huts. The principal building, formerly the property of the Jesuits' college at Rio de Janeiro, and at present belonging to the crown-prince, Don Pedro d'Alcantara, to whom it was given by his father, contains the necessary accommodation for the royal family and is surrounded by some dependent buildings. Notwithstanding very extensive pasture grounds, an extraordinary stock of cattle consisting of several thousand head, a number of nearly a thousand negro slaves, who are designed for this estate, and notwithstanding the predilection of the court for this seat, this rich domain is still in the same neglected state in which Mawe found and described it several

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years ago. They have not yet succeeded to make a dairy in the European manner, and the king. who possesses in his very neighbourhood one of the finest herds of cows, must content himself with Irish salt butter, which has performed a voyage of severl months. The advantages which such an establishment would produce for the cultivation for the whole province, if it were arranged so as to serve as a model, are beyond calculation. The greatest part of the cattle bred here, are derived from such as were imported long ago from Portugal, but no care has been taken to improve them, by bringing others from Rio Grande do Sul, where, in a state of perfect freedom, they attain an extraordinary size and strength. These cattle, therefore, are in general smaller and worse-looking than those which we see grazing, half-wild, in the pastures of S. Paulo, or driven in great herds from Rio Grande to the north. They are for the most part of a dark brown colour, the horns but slightly bent and not large. It is certain that the cows, in hot climates, give less milk than in ours, and it is therefore entirely left to the calves, who suck for a long time. Even European cows here gradually lose their milk; a fact which is probably to be explained only by the predominant action of the cutaneous system and increased perspiration.

In order to improve the estate of Santa Cruz, the late minister, Conde de Linhares, assigned dwellings to a part of the Chinese colonists, who

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had been brought to thin country. Only a few of them were now there, most of them having gone into the city, to carry about for sale, little articles of Chinese manufacture, particularly cotton and fire-works; sickness and regret for their native country had carried off many of them, and dislike to their situation induced others to disperse. Those who still live here, have made round their low huts, which are kept very neat inside, little plantations, which they adorn with coffee and their favourite flower, the jessamine. It is well known, that the Chinese in their own country, follow agriculture with great skill and care, and are even well acquainted with the art of horticulture. We were, therefore, surprised at this place, where a considerable number of Chinese had been settled for the purposes of agriculture, to find so few traces of their labours. The botanic garden or nursery, on the declivity of a hill, almost resembles a desolate wilderness; and the kitchen garden near the palace, being situated in a lower and moister spot, is indeed more thriving but not better attended to. They showed us a branch of grumijama (Myrtus brasiliensis), which, after it had attained a considerable height, had been taken in the Chinese manner, as a layer from the parent stock. The Chinese employ a very ingenious method for this purpose, which is particularly adapted to hot countries where the vegetation is stronger than among us. The method is this; the

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branch intended for a layer, which is generally several inches thick, is wrapt in a straw band, in which horse dung is laid, and which is five or six times as thick as the branch. A circular incision, down to the wood, is made below the band, and water is made to fail upon it, from a considerable height, through a vessel with very small holes generally a cocoa-nut shell, The branch soon puts forth filaments, and in a short time has such a strong bunch of roots, that in about two months, the wood may be sawed through, and the young tree planted in the ground, when it immediately begins to blossom, and bears, as a separate individual, the fruits which it promised as a branch. The Chinese also show knowledge which corresponds with our notions of the growth of trees in this particular, that in order to procure plants that will sooner come to maturity, they prefer the upper and thinner branches, but to have better and more productive layers, they choose the stronger branches, nearer to the ground.

The physiognomy of the Chinese colonists was particularly interesting to us, and was in the sequel still more so, because we thought we could perceive in them the fundamental lines, which are remarked in the Indians. The figure of the Chinese is, indeed, rather more slender, the forehead broader, the lips thinner and more alike, and the features in general more delicate and mild than those of the American who lives in woods; yet the small, not oblong, but roundish, angular, rather pointed head,

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the broad crown, the prominent sinus frontales, the low forehead, the pointed and projecting cheekbones, the oblique position of the small narrow eyes, the blunt, proportionably small, broad, flat nose, the thinness of the hair on the chin and the other parts of the body, the long smooth black hair of the head, the yellowish or bright reddish tint of the skin, are all characteristics common to the physiognomy of both races. The mistrustful, cunning, and, as it is said, often thievish character, and the expression of a mean way of thinking, and mechanical disposition, appear, in both, in the same manner. In comparing the Mongol physiognomy with the American, the observer has opportunity enough to find traces of the series of developments through which the Eastern Asiatic had to pass, under the influence of the climate, in order, at length, to be transformed into an American. In these anthropological investigations, we arrive at the remarkable result, that certain characteristics, which constitute the principal difference of the races, do not easily pass into others, whereas those which depend only upon more or less, gradually vanish or degenerate, through a series of different gradations. In this respect the difference of the negroes is peculiarly striking, who, in various particulars, especially the complexion, the hair, the conformation of the skull, the proportions of the countenance, and of the whole body, differ more from all other races than from each other. The

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negro races of the South Sea, and the Indian Archipelago, who, for the most part, are derived from a mixture of various races, who, at so great a distance from their native country, must experience considerable modification of the Ethiopic character, yet still indicate, in every respect, their African descent, rather than a nearer affinity with the other races. On the other hand, the physiognomical characteristics of the Mongol, Caucasian, Malay, and American races, blend with each other through so many shades, that we are involuntarily led to presume a common fundamental type for all these, in opposition to the Ethiopic, which perhaps is most strikingly marked in the Mongol, and to which the abovementioned various conformations must perhaps be referred at so many forms of development occasioned by climate, as has been already asserted by a very distinguished writer on Universal History. Whether such a change, proceeding from the aboriginal inhabitants of Upper Asia, has really produced the actually existing four chief varieties of the Mongol as the oldest, then the American, the Malay, and Caucasian, would be one of the most important and interesting investigations for the study of anthropology, as well as the history of the revolutions of the earth in general.

Lieutenant-colonel Feldner had been already several months at Santa Cruz, to direct the manufactory of charcoal, which had been established there for his majesty's account, and particularly for the

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use of the court at Rio do Janeiro. Though he was on a royal estate, and employed in his majesty's service, he was obliged to content himself with a miserable clay hut, and with scanty fare. We willingly shared both with our worthy friend; our conversation about our native country, and many agreeable recollections, made us forget every privation. We roamed, in his company, about the environs of Santa Cruz, consisting chiefly of marshy pasture land, interrupted by single low spots of wood, where we saw, for the first time, the long-legged stork (Jaburú) stalking about in great numbers. The lapwing (Vanellus cayennensis) hovered over our heads with uniform note, and spur-winged water-hens (Parra Jacana) ran about in flocks. We were not permitted to go in chase of them, as this is prohibited within a league from Santa Cruz. On another opportunity, we extended our excursion to Sabati, where we found an ophisaurus almost a foot and a half long, on the sandy downs, and between the hairy mimosa bushes. There are in this neighbourhood many soap trees (Sapindus Saponaria), the fruit of which is brought to the city in large quantities. The poorer class use them instead of soap; the finer, which is mostly imported from North America, is one of the expensive articles of housekeeping. In many years, one of these trees, which are generally about the size of our nut trees, produces several bushels of this fruit, which contains a great quantity of sa-

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ponaceous matter. There are here many species of still higher trees, which are used, for burning into charcoal. These manufactories are managed in exactly the same manner as in Europe, principally in the driest months from July to September, and are very profitable on account of the scarcity of firewood for the use of the city. They now begin to be carried on with activity, since Mr. Feldner has proved, by examining the coal mines near Bahia, that very little is to be expected from them.

From our want of experience in the mode of travelling in this country, we had taken with us from Rio much superfluous baggage, and now found it necessary to lighten the burden of our mules. Having accordingly selected whatever could be dispensed with, and left behind, we set out from Santa Cruz on the 11th of December, and were accompanied part of the way by our friend. A very good road leads S.W., almost in a straight line, to a bridge, where a barrier was erected to examine travellers in the interior of the provinces of Rio and S. Paulo, but particularly to prevent a contraband trade with gold dust, from the interior to the coast. The country is an open level, watered by numerous pools and streams, and is bounded to the south and west by the Serra do Mar, which runs along the sea-coast at different distances, and here sends out a branch nearly in a direction from west to east, which, under the name of Serra da Ilha Grande, extends to the bay of

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Angra dos Reys, and the prolongation of which forms the nucleus of Ilha Grande.

We passed the night of the 12th of December at Taguahy*, a large sugar manufactory, the environs of which are adorned with an incredible variety of vegetation. A small church upon the eminence, commands the valley. Not far from it there is a large lake, which is frequented by waterfowl of manifold species. We here observed, for the first time, a kind of woodpecker (Picus garrulus, nob.), which is found only in districts, resembling the campos, and precedes the traveller with a loud screaming cry. On the following morning, when we had our mules loaded, we had another unhappy proof of the difficulty of conveyance in this country. A mule which had to carry the tin cylinder, containing the barometer tubes, suddenly became shy, run into the neighbouring wood, and could not be retaken till it had thrown off its load and broken all the instruments. This loss was the more distressing to us, as it could not be repaired during the whole journey till we reached S. Paulo, whither we had luckily sent some barometer tubes by water. The natural sciences have

* Taguahy derives its name from the Brazilian words Tauà, yellow, and Hy, water. In the southern provinces, it is observable among the many modifications of the Lingua geral, that the numerous vowels are divided by the insertions of consonants between them. Thus Taguâ is made out of Taua; Jaguareté out of Jauareté, the ounce, &c.

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hitherto met with little encouragement, even in the principal cities of Brazil, the barometers and other instruments which are here and there net with are, accordingly, considered as invaluable by the few persons who amuse themselves with meteorological observations.

At the foot of the mountain which we had now to ascend, was the house of a Dutch planter. While a person went into the wood to look for him, and our caravan went forward, we had an opportunity of collecting an abundance of plants, and of the most beautiful insects, particularly the cetonia. This planter, whose name was Dufles, cultivates the sugar-cane and coffee with great success in which he ii much favoured by the moisture of the valley, and the sunny situation of the mountain. Fortunately, we did not stay here very long, and soon overtook our mules, which we found in great confusion on the clayey soil, which was full of deep holes. Most of them had thrown off their burdens, or stuck fast in the pits. We were therefore obliged to make fascines, to fill up the holes, and to give the animals a firm footing. After excessive exertions, we at length reached the summit of the mountain, where a fine view ever the plains of Santa Cruz made us forget our labours. With various feelings, we here took our last farewell of the sea-coast, and bent our way into the interior. The mountain consists of granite of a pretty fine grain, and reddish co-

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lour, which sometimes passes into gneiss, and is covered with a thick forest The steep road turns in the mountains from south to west, and leads through several agreeably watered valleys, but lonesome and gloomy from want of cultivation, to a miserable village in the midst of the mountains, which might afford a very attractive residence for a naturalist, because its environs have an endless variety of beautiful vegetation, and interesting animals. Myrtles, rubiaceæ, scitaminese, and orchideæ, constitute the principal feature in the physiognomy of these woods, which, like those of the Serra de Estrella, are at an elevation of 2500, to 3000 feet above the level of the sea. Before we reached the Fazenda S. Rosa, where we intended to rest for the night, we passed a royal farm, which is a dependency of that at Santa Cruz, and is chiefly employed for the purposes of felling tine wood (Madeiras reaës or de ley), which work is performed by the king's slaves. The progress of the journey became more and more inconvenient and dangerous, on account of the steepness of the mountain, the frequent hills and clay pits, which obliged us to make a considerable circuit. The narrow valleys, covered with thick forests, contract on all sides, and a cool and clear brook sometimes flows through them. Profound solitude reigned here, and, with the exception of a few wretched clay huts, or spots lately cleared of the wood, the traveller meets with nothing which reminds him of the

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influence of man on these majestic scenes of savage nature. As we descended from the steep eminence, and issued from the dark gloom of the forest, we perceived the little hamlet, Villa de S. Joâo Marcos, and afterwards a solitary but handsome fazenda in the valley. The newly cleared grounds are soon covered, especially on eminences exposed to the sun, with an incredibly thick vesture of a kind of brake (Pteris caudata), which, by spreading its tough roots in the ground, becomes a very troublesome weed, and very difficult to be extirpated. The inclination of this plant always to grow upon land that has just been made fit for tillage, is worthy of attention in the history of the diffusion of plants. In the latitude through which we now travelled, we observed several other plants grow immediately after the clearing away of the wood: among these were Phytolacca decandra and icosandra, Scoparia dulcis, Solanum decurrens, and some species of the same genus, Gronovia scandens, Phlomis officinalis, nob., and several kinds of hyptis. In North America, the thick plantations of ferns are used to make potashes, because they contain so much alkali; but, in Brazil, no attempt has yet been made to employ, for this purpose, the ferns, and those immense quantities of wood yearly felled; because they consider the ashes left after burning: the wood, as necessary to manure the soil.

At Retiro, a miserable fazenda, lying sideways from S. Marcos, in a narrow swampy valley, sur-

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rounded by woody mountains, we passed the first night in the open air. The uraponga had ceased his strangely sounding notes, the swarms of grasshoppers commenced, as night set in, their monotonous chirp, at intervals interrupted by the notes of a large frog, resembling a drum, the lament of the capueira, and the dull cry of the goat-sucker. Affected by the constantly returning impressions, we felt ourselves in a strange and solemn mood in the lonely wilderness, which was farther increased when the firmament, with all the splendour of the southern constellations, beamed on the dark forest, and millions of shining beetles fluttered in luminous circles through the hedges, till at length a heavy rain veiled all in darkness. The woody ridge of mountains through which we had hitherto travelled is the highest part of that branch of the Serra do Mar, which, in general about three thousand feet high, runs towards the sea-coast from the principal chain, which runs to the north. The next mountains over which we passed are lower, and rise at longer intervals. The road is sometimes cut very deep in the soil, which consists of red clay, is very narrow, and when two troops of mules meet, as it often happens, dangerous. This kind of road is, however, welcome in luxuriant forests, because the confining all travellers to one narrow path, prevents it from being quickly overgrown, as would otherwise happen. Paved roads and bridges are, of course, to be found no-

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where in these solitudes, though the ground in the neighbourhood of the numerous streams, is quite swampy, especially in the rainy season. We first observed in these woods the notes of a greyish brown bird, probably a thrush, which frequents the bushes and ground in damp low woods, and sings with numerous repetitions through the musical scale, from H¹ to A² (of the German scale), so regularly, that not a single note is wanting. It commonly sings each note four or five times over, and then proceeds imperceptibly to the following quarter tone. It is usual to deny to the songsters of the American forests all melody and expression, and to allow them no pre-eminence but splendour of plumage. But if in general the pretty natives of the torrid zone are more distinguished by the beauty of their colours, than by fulness and power of note, and seem inferior to our nightingale in clearness and melodiousness of tone, yet this little bird, among others, is a proof that they are at least not destitute of the principles of melody. How far the musical improvement of man has already had an influence on the notes of birds, remains an interesting subject for physiological investigation. It is at least conceivable that when the almost inarticulate tones of a degenerate race of men, no longer resounds in the woods of Brazil, many of the feathered songsters will also produce more refined melodies. Besides the birds of the forest, the attention of the zoologist is claimed by

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the serpents, particularly the beautifully coloured ahaetulla, which is seen darting across the road, or killed by the passing caravan. A lichen*, which by its splendid rose-colour is a real ornament to the stems, grows here on trees, especially in moist places. The beauty and the peculiar brilliancy of this plant, have induced Mr. Tonay to use it for dying; and Vauquelin†, who examined it by the name of cochenille végétale, observes that the red colour contained in it, has much resemblance with the orseille (dyers' lichen), is less lively and brilliant, and in smaller quantity, but may be advantageously employed in dying silk and wool, but not so well for cotton. In the main valley, between the ranges of mountains we had already passed, and the following, flows the Pirahy (Fish River), the water of which is pretty clear, though its bed is sandy sad marshy. As there is neither a bridge nor ferry, the mules had to be unloaded, and swim through, and the luggage carried over on the shoulders of our people. In the deepest place, a narrow plank (pinguéla) had formerly been laid for foot passengers; but it had been unfortunately carried away by the water, so that Mr. Ender, crossing over on horseback, got entangled, to our terror, in a deep hole, from which he did not extricate himself without great danger.

* Spiloma roseum, Raddi. (Mem. di Fis. Soc. Ital. vol. xviii. p. 349. t. 2.)

† Mémoires du Muséum,. Année 3me, p. 145.

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At the Fazenda das Negros, four leagues from Retiro, we met with an unpleasant accident, one of our people being bitten by a bird-spider. Though these animals are universally proscribed as poisonous, yet the wound, after having been burnt over hot coals, was not attended with serious consequences. The numerous slaves of the fazenda were celebrating a festival, which continued from sunset till late in the night, with dancing, singing, and noisy music. The din of their atabaque, a kind of drum, and the canza, a thick tube with iron bars across, on which they produce a jarring sound, by passing over it backwards and forwards with a stick, disturbed us as much as the torrents of rain, which, driven by the high wind from all quarters under our shed, frequently obliged us suddenly to lie down in another place. With this night we began to experience the inconveniences of a journey during the season of the rains, which henceforward continued uninterruptedly not only in the night, but even in the afternoon. Surrounded by wooded mountains, which were covered every morning low down with thick fog, we soon perceived a considerable increase in the moisture of the atmosphere. The whalebone hygrometer, which in the preceding months had been more elastic, was now very often 60° and 65°, and in the evening and morning more than 70°. The wet season that now set in appeared to be welcome to the inhabitants themselves; for the places where the woods had

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been burnt during the late dry months, were now used for the new plantations. We, on the contrary, were of course greatly incommoded by the rain, which came down all night in streams, or in fine mist, and by the cold which accompanied it. Our baggage suffered considerably by the sudden increase of damp, and among our collections, the insects and plants in particular, were covered with a yellowish mould*, the formation of which no care can prevent We hoped, indeed, that after crossing the second chain of mountains which stretches from N.W. to S.E. towards the sea, we should find a more favourable climate; but in this we were deceived, for we had continued rainy weather for several weeks. The roads, which are mostly heavy clayey soil, became nearly impassable, and the swelling of the rapid torrents, through which the drivers had often to carry the baggage on their backs, greatly delayed our progress.

This second chain of mountains, from the most northern valleys of which two of the chief sources of the Paraiba, namely, the Paratininga and the smaller Rio Turbo, flow, consists, like the first, entirely of granite, which, here and there adopting a scaly structure, passes into gneiss.

In several places of the Freguezia of Bananal, which leans on a hill, the mountain masses showed

* It was the same Eurotium herbariorum Link, which, among us also, makes its appearance in our herbals in damp weather.

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a direction in hours 3 and 4 of the miner's compass, and an inclination of about 30°. The granite consists here of much grey and silvery mica, white quartz, and white or reddish felspar. These parts, though only thinly peopled, seem to be more diligently cultivated than all those through which we had hitherto travelled. We saw here and there very extensive plantations of maize, the most important production in these mountains, which here yields from fifty to sixty fold. Several European colonists have attempted, in the colder regions of these mountains, to grow fax, which has been attended with great success; but it is not probable that this plant will be very extensively cultivated, considering the abundance of cotton, and the little demand for linens, which at present are not much used by the Brazilians. On a considerable eminence behind Bananal we observed an evident transition of the gneiss into mica slate, which has its direction in hour 3. We found on the road casual fragments of a compact brown iron-stone, which passes into drused hematite. To the south of Bananal, several other chains of mountains, which are almost parallel to each other, and all thickly wooded, run from the west towards the ocean. We passed, in two days' journey, the first of these, the outlines of which are more rounded, and of more agreeable form, having between them some light valleys, with pools and rich meadows. We everywhere observed the same species of rock,

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namely, a pretty coarse-grained granite, with much grey and silvery mica. Several colonists have settled in the valleys by the side of small streams, and their extensive plantations of Turkish wheat give the first appearance of culture to those lonely tracts. The third mountain ridge, Morro Formoza, resembles by its bolder forms, larger and irregular masses, the mountains round about Rio, and constitutes the frontier of the provinces of Rio and S. Paulo. Along the road, which runs south-westward through the mountains with many windings, there is exposed in many places granite, with large foliated very ferruginous mica, and in it small veins of disintegrated red iron-atone, the direction of which is in hour 2 of the miner's compass, in very considerable angles of inclination; likewise very large pieces of compact brown iron ore, and large masses of hard white quartz occur here and there. From the Morro Formoza, which forms the limit of the territory, and divides the rivers in this eastern branch of the Serra do Mar, the road gradually declines through low mountains, which are more open and agreeable, and where population and culture increase. The richness of the scenery indemnified us for the fatigues which the bad roads and the frequent showers of rain occasioned; in particular, these parts seemed to be the resort of the most beautiful butterflies, which, with their gay shining wings,

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sported by thousands about the mountain streams illumined by the sun.

On the third day, after we had left Bananal, and passed the river, and the little place Barreiro, we reached S. Anna das Arêas, a pretty considerable town, which had lately been raised by the king to the rank of a villa. The government endeavours, in general, to favour the union of several colonists by conferring such titles and the privileges connected with them; in which it is actuated by the double principle, that by living closer together the colonists gain in civilisation, and regard for their duties as citizens; and the state, by the increased facility in the administration, the collection of the taxes, and the regulation of the militia. In every country which, with a great extent, possesses but a small population, it is certainly more to the interest of the government to improve some parts by augmenting the population, and encouraging industry, and raising them to the necessary degree of social and civil relations, than to suffer the mass of inhabitants to scatter themselves over the whole face of the country, and allow each individual to lead a life, which, being remote from all protection and all observance of the laws, without the beneficent influence of society, cannot promote morality, the social virtues, nor cultivation. The tendency of the measures of the Portuguese government has, in this respect, a resemblance to the system of military colonisation in Russia, though

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the latter, as a warlike establishment, has an entirely different object The Villa das Arêas, which has arisen within these five and thirty years in this thickly wooded mountain, out of the settlement of a few poor colonists, cannot, of course, yet present a picture of high prosperity. The low houses, built of slight laths, simply interwoven with twigs, and plastered with clay, and the little church which is constructed in the same manner, seem very ephemeral; so that these dwellings appear to be erected merely as temporary places of refuge for wanderers. We entirely miss the appearance of comfort and of solidity, calculated for long duration, which distinguishes European dwellings, though it must be owned that this is not entirely unsuitable to a climate, in which the inhabitants, whose settlement is so unfixed, are so little in need of a durable abode. We found by far the greater part of all the towns in the interior of Brazil lute this place, and the rarity of a well-built and comfortable house frequently excited regret for the conveniences and cleanliness of our native land. In the neighbourhood of Arêas, there is still a considerable village of Indians, who are the remains of the numerous tribes which, previously to the occupation of the Serra do Mar by the Paulistas, inhabited the whole of the extensive forests of this chain, and are now either extinct, or mixed with negroes and mulattoes, live in a state of half civilisation among the colonists. They are still distinguished by the

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indolence, and the almost untameable obstinacy of their forefathers, and have but little intercourse with the colonists, whose plantations and cattle frequently suffer from the predatory attacks of these troublesome neighbours. The inhabitants call these Indians by the name of Capoculos, thereby distinguishing them from those who are wholly savage and uncivilised (Gentios, Bugres, Indios bravos). It is probable that these remaining Indians, who dwell along the coast, belong to several tribes whose names are partly lost, because the Portuguese did not distinguish them from each other, but bestowed on them the common name of Coroados or Shorn, because they used to cut off the hair from the middle of the crown, and wore only a circle of hair round the forehead.* The chief abode of the Coroados, is at present on the banks of the Rio da Pomba, a side branch of the Paraiba; and as the Indians generally make their

* Hietorians mention in the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, and along the coasts of that place, southward to S. Paulo, the Tamoyòs, a very warlike nation, allied with the French under Villegagnon against the Portuguese; also the Carijos or Guaràs, in the forests of the whole Serra do Mar, also extended very fax to the south. On the north coast of the Bay of Rio, and in the plains of Cabo Frio, dwelt the Goytacazes of the latter, the Corografia Brasilica (II. P. 45.) mentions three hordes, namely, the Goytaca-Guassú, Goytaca-Moppis, and the Goytaca-Jacoretò. Westward of these, and to the south, behind Serra do Mar, nearly as far as to S. Paulo, was the abode of the Goyanazes, who bore an affinity to the Goytacazes.

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migrations along the rivers, it seems that they originally spread from the interior to the sea. Those who live together in the Aides de Valença, not far from the road of Rio to Villa Rica, between the rivers Paraiba and Rio Preto, are remains of the same nation. This place was but a few years ago, the only one in the province of Rio de Janeiro, in which a considerable number, both of converted and unconverted Indians resided. The situation of the establishment, favoured the inclination of these children of nature, to return from time to time to the great primeval forests on the Paraiba, and farther northward, towards Minas Geraës, whence they, however, always returned to the ecclesiastics of the mission. The introduction of a Swiss colony into Rio de Janeiro, which took place soon after we left that city, and the command of the government that those Indians should clear the forests for the new comers, is sated to be the cause that a great part of them have lately for ever abandoned the village.

The capitâo môr in Arêas, delighted at the appearance of several strangers of the nation of his crown-princess, and from such a remote country, offered us, in a very friendly manner, when we paused through, his services in forwarding our effects; because his experienced eye soon discovered the bad condition of out mules, which, by the neglect of our unskilful Arieiro, had become almost unserviceable; but as the latter assured us that we did not

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want the assistance of strangers; and that the mules, though a little galled by the saddles, were in perfectly good condition, we continued our journey. The road leads constantly southward, through several narrow valleys, thickly covered with wood, which are intersected by some rivulets, flowing southward to the Paraiba. The mountain consists of a gneiss, in part much decomposed, upon which there are beds of slaty clay iron-stone, which is in strata, and the direction of which is in hours 3 and 4 of the miner's compass. From the highest point of the mountain, we saw behind us three parallel chains, piled up in immense steps, but before us only the lower Serra do Paraiba At sunset we had descended from the high mountain, and reached some poor huts in the deep bottom of the valley of Tacasava, near a rapid stream, which runs into the Paraiba. Several caravans had already encamped here, who were conveying fowls to Rio for sale. The disproportion of the wants of a great city, and the scanty produce of the environs, which are for the most part still uncultivated, makes it necessary to bring supplies from very remote districts. The industrious Paulistas, therefore, carry their live stock from a distance of about a hundred leagues, to the market at Rio, where they dispose of them to great advantage. The neighbourhood of these feathered travellers, caused us this time a sleepless night. We observed, on this occasion, that the

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note of these fowls, which are of European origin, is simple, harsh, or shrill tone, which gradually becomes weaker and lower, is rougher and more disagreeable than ours. These fowls are confined in large baskets, made of the pliant stalks and shoots of several kinds of paullinia, and the troughs for them are made of thick stems (Taguara) of arborescent grasses (Bambusa).

On the following morning, when we were going from Tacasava, we found that the capitâo môr of Arêas had but too justly appreciated the bad condition of our mules. The animals had been so much galled by the saddles, which our unskilful Arieiro did not know how to fit on them, that they were now incapable of any other service, and compelled us to halt. The swelling which the animals get from the roughness of the saddle, or the unequal balance of the burden, is often so malignant that it mortifies and occasions death; the greatest care was therefore necessary not to run the risk of losing the whole troop. The leader, it is true, laid the whole blame on the thick fogs during the night, the heavy morning dew, and, above all, on the light of the moon, which made the animals' wounds worse; for these are the principal elements in the theory of diseases of the common people: but we would not leave the cure, as he proposed, to the beams of the sun, and so the day was spent in the disagreeable veterinary occupation of burning, scarifying, washing the wounds with a decoction of tobacco, and

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bleeding; in which the Arieiros of the other troops that were halting at the name place goodnaturedly afforded their advice and assistance. In the morning the thermometer stood at 15° in the shade; at noon at 28°, and in the neighbouring river at 20° R. In the evening we saw a magnificent convoy pass by. It was a caravan of the bishop of New Cordova, who, being driven from his residence by the political revolutions in the Spanish colonies, was travelling with a Portuguese escort from Monte-Video to Rio de Janeiro, where he intended to embark on his return to Europe.. He had been already four months upon the road to traverse 11° of latitude. By sea he might have returned to Europe in less time. It was not till the evening of the following day that we received fresh mules, which the obliging capitâo môr of Arêas sent after us. We now resolved, in order to redeem the time we had lost, immediately to continue our journey by moonlight, which, however, we soon had reason to repent. We were still in the village when one of the new animals threw off his load in the middle of a stream and ran off, which occasioned another and still more disagreeable delay. With much difficulty we gathered the scattered parts of the botanical collections. At last we recovered every thing but a bottle of flowers preserved in spirits of wine; but even this was afterwards found by the owner of the venda, delivered to our friend Mr. Ender, on his return from S. Paulo to Rio, and

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through him arrived safe at Munich. We mention this little circumstance with pleasure, as a proof of that good fortune which attended all our collections of natural history, which, though exposed to innumerable hazards and dangers, have all, without exception, reached their final destination; a success which few travellers can boast. Travelling by night in the tropical countries is extremely agreeable, especially from the coolness which refreshes the traveller after the parching heat of the day. The landscape, too, appears in new and often striking forms, which excite in a peculiar manner the fancy of the European, by the uncertainty of their outlines. Only, travelling by night is not good for the animals, because they prefer resting from midnight till the morning. During the last few days we had descended lower and lower out of the narrow valleys of the mountains, and now sometimes saw in the moonlight, to the right, before, and on the side of us, the summits of a part of the Serra Mantiqueira, which runs from Minas southward, behind the Serra do Mar. Their bluish outlines formed a magic back-ground to the landscape, in which wood and open spots alternated. The lofty trees of the forests through which we passed were veiled in black shadow, and many strange and never before heard nightly voices resounded; all united to excite in us sensations equally singular and uncommon. The conduct of the troop by night requires double attention in the driver, that

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none of the animals may conceal itself in the bushes and remain behind. Our attendants, lively Paulistas, did not fail to encourage each other by calling and singing; they joked on the possibility of some venomous serpent lying in the road, till the oldest of them, with an air of importance, assured them that this was impossible; because he kept all dangerous vermin at a distance by a daily prayer to St Thomas. The chance of meeting with poisonous serpents, which come out to look for prey during the night, and prefer the lighter road to the bushes, is certainly no inconsiderable danger for those who travel during the night, more especially where the little schiraraca (Bothrops leucurus, nob.) is very common. A few days before, while resting on a hollow tree, during the noonday heat, we had lain upon one of these venomous serpents; fortunately it was caught in time, and put into spirits of wine. At Malada, consisting of a few poor huts, we asked in vain for a night's lodging, for the common people in Brazil do not sit up late at night, except on occasion of their festivals (funçoës). At Silveira, two leagues from Tacasava, a similar halting-place for caravans, we at last met with a fenced-in feeding place (pasto feixado) for the cattle, and a roomy rancho, in which we hung up our hammocks.

We were, it is true, still among the mountains, but the rounder summits are more detached; and as, instead of the gloomy forest, they are covered

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with cheerful plantations of maize, mandiocca, and sugar-cane in more extensive spots, make an agreeable impression on the traveller, who involuntarily feels himself constrained and oppressed by the silent uniformity of the woods. We accordingly breathed more freely when, on the following day, still proceeding in the direction to south-west, we at length reached the last summit of this chain, which belongs to the Serra do Mar, and a deep and pleasant valley extended before us. This valley is bounded to the west, at the distance of about two miles, by a part of the Serra do Mantiqueira, the general direction of which, at this point, is from S.W. to N.K. From thence it appears like a long uninterrupted ridge, without steep declivities and ravines, but marked by agreeably picturesque outlines, with many gently rising eminences, some of which are covered with thick wood, and others with green pastures. The valley itself, which we at length entered, after having passed the huts of Pajol and the river Iripariba, which falls into the Paraiba, extends between the last extremities of the Serra do Mar and those of the Mantiqueira above mentioned, to the south; the Paraiba, after issuing from the narrow valleys of the first chain of mountains, flows in it towards the north, and takes at Jacarehy a direction quite contrary to that which it had before; its banks are partly covered with low wood and partly with rich pastures.

About noon we passed a place where a side road

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branches out, which leads to Minas, and is hence called Mineiro, and reached, at last, Lorena, otherwise called Guaypacaré, a village consisting of about forty houses, and of no importance, notwithstanding its fertile environs, and the great intercourse between the provinces of S. Paulo and Minas Geraës. The road from S. Paulo to Minas passes here in two points, called Porto da Caxoeira and Porto do Meyra, across the Paraiba, which flows half a quarter of a league from the villa. The chief articles of trade from S. Paulo to Minas are mules, horses, salt, dry meat, iron goods, and all other manufactures which go from the coast to the interior. At present, however, Minas is almost entirely supplied by Rio and Bahia, and the importation from Santos is inconsiderable; and of still less importance is that from Angra dos Reyes and Parati, in the province of Rio de Janeiro, which are the nearest to the entrance of Minas. Minas sends principally coarse cotton goods to S. Paulo. As we proceeded farther into the fertile valley, to the south of Lorena, which was magically illumined by the setting sun, we observed remarkable changes in the vegetation. The savage character of the forests disappeared, and the open, unconfined, mild nature of the plains (compos) was gradually more apparent the farther we advanced. Instead of the thick and high mountain woods, we had now before us plains and gently rising hills, which are covered with scattered

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bushes and extensive tracts of verdure. The singularly formed brown flowers of the Jarinha (Aristolochia ringens) and a white Ipomœa (Ipomœa Krusensternii, Ledeb.), two gigantic flowers, climb over the hedges, which consist of several splendid specimens of the family of melastroma, myrtles, and euphorbia. The Ambrosia artemisiœfolia, a strand plant of Virginia and Carolina, is found in several thick bushes on the shores of the Paraiba. The plain, though partly very swampy, is one of the most fruitful districts of S. Paulo. Tobacco thrives particularly well, and the cultivation of it is the chief occupation of the inhabitants of Lorena and of the village of Guaratinguetá, two leagued distant, where we passed the night. As the moisture and warmth are favourable to the separation of each specific substance on the leaves of the tobacco, on which their goodness chiefly depends, the tobacco cultivated along the sea-coast, and in the warmer valley of the Paraiba, known by the name of tobacco da marinha, is preferred to the more indifferent sorts of the mountain tobacco, which is called tobacco da serra acima. But the tobacco of the island of Saint Sesbastiâo is preferred in the country to all others, and is likewise exported from the province as snuff. The mode of treating the leaves, which are gathered several times in the year, is very simple. After they have been dried in the air they are laid together in bundles, or twisted in large rolls, which are one of

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the most important articles of barter employed by the Guinea ships in the stave-trade.

Guaratinguetá is situated in an extensive savannah near the river Paraiba, opposite some projections of the Serra do Mantiqucira, on a pleasant hill, surrounded with banana and orange trees. The Indian name of the village gives a favourable specimen of the talent for observation possessed by the aboriginal inhabitants; for this long word signifies the place where the sun turns back. In fact, the tropic of Capricorn is scarcely a degree south of the villa, which pleases by its simple and cheerful appearance and some traces of a superior mode of life. Since our departure from Rio this was the first place where we saw any glass windows, which in Brazil, always indicate prosperity, and, in the interior, even luxury. On the other hand, the traveller is surprised at the want of all regularity and order in the exercise of trades. Here, as almost everywhere in the interior except the more populous places, very few trades are exercised by guilds and corporations. On the other hand, it cannot be said that the trades are free, for the trades themselves are for the most part wanting. Only the rich land-holders are able to give due employment to mechanics, and the poor man supplies all wants of this kind by his own ability. The former generally have, among their own slaves, all those mechanics who are necessary for domestic purposes. An obvious consequence of this is that

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the public superintendence over trades by the police is rendered more difficult We, therefore, could not be surprised, that in a place containing some thousand inhabitants we were obliged to be content with a frugal meal on an armadillo* which we had shot by the way. The flesh of this animal has, indeed, an agreeable taste, resembling fowl, but is very fat.

The road goes from the villa, always south-west, through the valley of the Paraiba. To the left of us lay a pleasant well-cultivated chain of hills planted with beans, maize, mandiocca roots, and tobacco. On the right, the broad valley extends to the chain of Serra do Mantiqueira, and bearing scarcely any traces of culture, is covered with thick low bushes of myrtles, cujawas, &c. a dreary and desolate prospect. Only the hope that thousands of happy people will one day inhabit this highly gifted country can cheer the mind of the traveller. After proceeding a mile we reached the shrine of Nossa Senhora Apparecida, a chapel situated on an eminence, with a few houses about h. We had brought letters from Rio for the capitâo môr of Guarantingtuetá, who resides here. He received us with visible pleasure, and treated us with everything that his house afforded. The cordial reception offered to a stranger, the busy haste with which all the inmates of the house are

* Tatú, Dasypus septemcinetus.

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eager to wait upon him, excite an agreeable sensation in the mind of the European traveller. Accustomed, in foreign countries, to purchase everything which is not offered gratis, he fancies himself transported to the patriarchal customs of oriental antiquity, when the name of a guest gave, as it were, a legal claim to such a kind welcome, and was more than an apology for the disturbance which it caused in the family. The first thing shown us here was the chapel. It was erected about seventy years ago, a long period in this country; it is partly built of stone, and adorned with gilding, bad paintings in fresco, and some in oil. The wonder-working image of the Virgin attracts many pilgrims from the whole province, and from Minis. We met many of these pilgrims when we proceeded on our journey on Christmas-eve. Every body here, women as well as men, travels on mules or on horseback; frequently the man takes the woman behind him on the same saddle. The dress of these planters is quite adapted to their local situation: a brown beaver hat with a very broad brim, which serves, at the same time, as a protection against the sun and the rain; a long very wide blue frock (poncho), with a hole at the top for the head; jacket and trowsers, of dark calico; high unblacked boots, fastened below the knee with a leathern strap and buckle; a long knife with a silver handle, which serves as a defence, and sticks either in the boot at the knee, or in the girdle, and

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is used at meals as well as on other occasions, are the chief characteristics of a travelling Paulista. The women wear long wide surtouts of cloth, and round hats. All those that passed us upon mules showed themselves to be admirable riders, especially in the speed with which they endeavoured to avoid the thunder-storms which threatened them on all sides. Our slowly moving train, on the contrary, was obliged to suffer three heavy showers to pass over it, and came, just as it was getting dark, to a wretched shed with a venda, called As Taibas, where we could scarcely find room for our baggage, which was soaked through. It rained impetuously the whole night; and the frogs of the neighbouring marshes, being quite in their element, croaked in tiresome unison. Though the place was anything but agreeable, yet, as it secured us from the fury of the elements, we soon became cheerful and in good spirits. Recalling pleasing recollections, we compared the sufferings of this Christmas-eve in Brazil, with the pleasures with which it is usually accompanied in civilised Europe, and even contrived to see them in an agreeable light.

Between Nossa Senhora Apparecida and As Taibas large blocks of a pretty fine-grained red granite, resembling that on Serra do Mar, stand out. They are considerably rounded off by attrition, and put us in mind of the masses of rock which are found here and there in the north of Germany, in the valley of the Po in Italy, between

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the principal chain of the Alps and Mount Jura in Switzerland, &c. It is probable that a great part of the valley, through which the Paraiba now flows, was connected with the sea, and that these rocks derived their present form and situation from violent overflowings and currents of that element. There are, besides, many traces in the valley of the Paraiba that it has often changed its bed.

On Christmas-day we continued our journey in the direction from S. S. W. to Pendamhongaba, five leagues from Guarantinguetá. The three streams of Parapitinga, Agoa Preta, and Ribeirâo da Villa, were so much swelled, that our collections ran great risk in the passage over them. The rain continued without ceasing to pour down in torrents; and the whole valley was almost always enveloped in thick fog. We had, therefore, neither inclination nor opportunity accurately to examine this woody and well-watered district. Travelling in tropical countries during the rainy season, besides many other inconveniences and dangers, has the double vexation, that the traveller finds great difficulty in observing the environs; and his books, instruments, and collections, can hardly be preserved from spoiling, by the greatest care and attention. Pendamhongaba consists of some rows of low huts lying scattered upon a hill, and does not appear to be in a thriving condition. The capitâo môr of the place received with great politeness his guests, who were wet through, and

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afterwards invited us to view the church, which is only half finished, and loaded with tasteless wooden ornaments. It was handsomely lighted up, and adorned with a manger, in which the infant Christ lay. There was something affecting in this emblematical custom in this place, because we dwelt with pleasure on the idea that the doctrine of salvation had found its way into these lonely, beautifully wild tracts. Since we had descended from the mountains into the valley, the physiognomy of the landscape had changed more and more, and the difference in its character became more independent and unmixed, the farther we removed from the dark primeval forests of the Serra do Mar. From this place the road lay in the broad valley of the Paraiba, over low hills, which, in the beginning, we found covered with all kinds of dwarf bushes and single trees; but farther on it became opener, and clothed with grasses and herbs, or with long rows of ananas. Herds of mules and horned cattle were grazing in these pleasant tracts. The Brazilian distinguishes the two principal forms in the physiognomy of the vegetable world, wood and plain, by the names of Matto and Campo; but they have many other names for the numerous varieties of the latter, which determine, more or less, the local character of the landscape. The greater part of the valley of the Paraiba is covered with pastures (compos), which descend from the eminences, and are but seldom broken by low

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woods. Though these meadows do not charm the eye with the fresh and pleasing verdure of our northern pastures, they astonish the observer by the gay variety and novelty of their vegetable forms. On the hard soil, generally a stiff red clay, mixed with fragments of quartz, there are detached rank bushes of greyish green hairy grasses, at greater or less intervals from each other: between them grow an infinitude of the prettiest herbaceous rubiaceæ, malpighia, apocynesæ, and compositæ, of the greatest variety of colour, and flowers of elegant forms.* In places where among these humble children of Flora a more luxuriant vegetation appears, there are single thick-barked trees†, which seldom rise above fifteen or twenty feet in

* Declieuxia satureoides, spergulæfolia, myricoides, œnanthoides, cordigera, mollis nob.: Hamulia, Rhexiæ et Melastomæ herbaceæ et Banisteria sp. plur.; Gaudichaudia tuberosa, triphylla, marginata; Croton fulvum, antisiphiliticum nob.; Wedelia longifolia, sessilifolia, cordifolia; Lippia bracteosa; Calystegia campestris; Bignonia micrantha; Cnemidostachys myrtilloides, herbacea (Tragia corniculala Vahl.); Echites campestris, velutina; Oxypetalum flavum, erectum; Bailleria graveolens; Vernonia grandiflora, rosmarinifolia nob.; Kleinia Porophyllum W.; Molina sessiliflora Vahl.; Bidens asperula; Eryngium Lingua Tucani; Celastrus cymosus; Hedera ternata; Hydrophylax valerianoides; Sauvagesia ovata; Clitoria angustifolia; Mimosa hirsutissima; Sweetia nitida nob.

† The most important trees of these campos are — Laplacea parviflora nob. (Pâo de S. Jozé). Gomphia, Malpighia, Spixia (Leandri), Ternstrœmia, Marcgrafia, Rapanea, Vochisia, Quales, Salventia, Solanum, Byrsonima dasyantha, mycrophylla H., Erythroxylon havanense Jacq., Clethra tinifolia Sw., species of Clusia, Havettia, Panax, Melastoma, Rhexia, Myrtus, Psidium, Schinus, Annona, &c.

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height, have far-spreading crooked branches, dry pale-green leaves, and form a low, light grove, in which the form of each individual is easily distinguished. This latter kind of wood is called in Brazil, Tabuleiro, and when the trees grow so close together that their branches touch, Tabuleiro coperto. Besides the single trees, rich-flowering myrtles, creeping banisteria, bushy erythroxylon, several kinds of the well-tasted guava (Psidium), grow here and there in thick groves (Carrasco, Feixado), from among which a grotesque cactus now and then rises. This latter form, which is so peculiarly characteristic of America, is here less frequent than in the sultry deserts of Pernambuco, Ceará, and Caracas. Almost all the productions of the vegetable kingdom which we saw here were new to us; and our attention was constantly excited by these elegant forms of the campos, which strongly contrast with the massy and juicy natives of the forest, and rather resemble the delicate plants of the northern Alpine meadows.

Taubaté, which we reached late in the evening, is situated on a flat hill, three miles to the S. E. of Pendamhongaba. The eminence commands a view of a great part of the plain, through which little groves and bushes are scattered. The Franciscan convent, on the left of the road, surrounded by some rows of majestic palms, makes a favourable impression, and excites in the traveller the hope of finding a considerable place. In fact, Taubaté,

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which consists of one long principal street, with huts built closely together on each side, and some bystreets, is one of the most important towns in the whole province. In age it rivals the capital. At the time when the thirst of gold incited a number of Paulistas to undertake dangerous and adventurous excursions through Minas and Goyaz, the inhabitants of Taubaté distinguished themselves.* On this account a government establishment for refining gold was founded here. The inhabitants of Taubaté (Taubaténos), however, were thereby engaged in violent competition and implacable feud with the neighbouring Paulistas (Piratininganos), so that whenever the two parties met in their excursions sanguinary contests always ensued. This enmity is said still to continue in silence, though the inhabitants of Taubaté have now entirely renounced the occupation of gold-washing in other provinces, and follow agriculture and breeding of cattle in their own country, which is quite destitute of that precious metal. The women manufacture mats out of a large aristida and other species of grass growing in the neighbourhood, which are sent to Rio for sale.

We halted one day at Taubaté, in order to dry our effects, which were quite soaked through. The house, which an inhabitant of the village shared with us, was but ill calculated to afford us comfort-

* Antonio Rodriguez, one of the first discoverers of the gold mines at Minas (1693) was a native of Tsubaté.

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able shelter. The houses in general are seldom above one story high; the walls are almost in all cases of thin rafters or laths, interwoven with twigs, plastered with loam, and covered with a white clay (tabatinga), which is found here and there on the banks of the rivers; the roof is carelessly covered with pantiles or shingles, rarely with maize straw, and the wall has in it one or two wooden latticed windows. The interior corresponds with the light construction and scanty materials. The entrance, which is generally half or entirely closed by a latticed door, leads directly into the largest room in the house, which being without boards, and often with unwhitewashed walls, resembles a barn. This division serves for the habitation of the family. Store-rooms, and in some cases a sideroom for guests, occupy the remainder of the front of the building. The back part contains the apartments for the wife and the rest of the family, who, according to the Portuguese fashion, must immediately withdraw on the entrance of strangers. From this we enter the veranda, which generally runs along the whole length of the building, and opens into the court-yard. A similar veranda is sometimes annexed to the front of the house. The kitchen and servants' apartments, generally miserable sheds, lie opposite the house, at the further end of the court. The furniture of these houses is confined to the most necessary articles; often they have no more than a few wooden benches and

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chairs, a table, a large chest, a bed, consisting of a straw mat, or an ox hide on boards, supported by four pegs (giráo). Instead of beds, the Brazilians almost always make use of the woven or braided hammocks (marqueiras), the best and most durable of which are manufactured, in the provinces of S. Paulo and Minas, of white or coloured cotton threads. The traveller nowhere meets with any wells, and must therefore be satisfied with rain, spring, or river water, for every purpose. The inhabitants of Taubaté have the appearance of more prosperity and refinement than those of the other small places through which we had before travelled; which is perhaps owing to their more lively intercourse with Rio de Janeiro and S. Paulo. A few vines also are cultivated here, the fruit of which was just ripe, and of an agreeable flavour.

Southwards of Taubaté the road extends through the valley of the Paraiba, over several woody and moist hills, which are covered with beautiful ferns, melastomas, and aroideæ, which thrive in wet situations. The low plain is likewise rich in the finest plants and insects: among others, we found here the Cerambyx longimanus; of birds, a new long-tailed brown Tyrannus, and the Cuculus Guira. After two days' journey through verdant plains alternating with low woods, in which we passed the vendas of Campo grande, Sahida do Campo, Paranangaba, and the small village of S. Jozé, we came to the villa of Jacarehy (which

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means, in the Lingua Geral, Crocodile river), where we allowed ourselves some refreshment. We here fell in again with the Paraiba, which makes a great bend, and, instead of proceeding further to the south, in its original direction, turns to the north. All the individuals of the party were carried over in a boat, but the mules were obliged to swim. In order to show them the direction they ought to take, one of them was led by a rope from the boat, and the others encouraged to follow by a constant noise and cry from the accompanying boats.

The Paraiba was at this time swelled by the frequent rains to the breadth of a hundred and seventy feet, and was very rapid. The navigation on this river is still very unimportant, probably because it has many considerable cataracts, chiefly in its lower part, or because the trade in its neighbourhood is still trifling, and the inhabitants, from want of bridges, cannot easily convey their produce. The part of it between Aldea da Escada and Pendamhongaba is that upon which there is the greatest traffic.

Among the inhabitants of this place we observed an endemic swelling of the glands of the neck in such a high degree as is perhaps nowhere to be found in Europe. Frequently the whole neck is covered with the great swelling, which gives a horrid appearance to these people, who are for the most part mulattoes, and have, independent of this, no very agreeable features. But in this country

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they seem to regard this swelling rather as a particular beauty than as a deformity; for we often saw the women adorn this enormous goitre with gold or silver ornaments, and, as it were, displaying it, while they sat before their house doors with a tobacoo-pipe in the hand, or a reel to wind cotton. We have annexed a drawing of one of these women in her national costume. Negroes, mulattoes, descendants of whites and Indians (mamelucos), which form the greater part of its population, are peculiarly subject to this disorder; among the whites the women have it more commonly than the men. The causes of this deformity seem to be quite the same here as in other countries. For it does not occur in the high, colder, and airy mountainous districts, but in the low valley of the Paraiba, which is often covered with thick fogs. The reason of this is, that the direction of the two chains of mountains from S. to N. does not allow a free issue to the exhalations and vapours: the same mists which during the day rise from the river and the neighbouring marshes, which are partly covered with thick woods, fall again into the valley at night; the warmth is at the same time considerable; and the water of the river, which is often very muddy, impure, and lukewarm, must supply the place of spring water. Their habitations, too, are uncleanly, damp, and windy. The raw flour of maize, which is here more frequently used than that of mandiocca, and is, though more nourishing,

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more difficult of digestion, and eating much pork, may likewise contribute to the development of this disease: perhaps excess in sexual enjoyments may be considered as one cause of the goitre, as it is at Rio of the sarcocele and hydrocele. It is true, we do not here see the melancholy appearances of idiocy which are so frequently combined in Europe endemically with the goitre; yet the look of the persons who have the disorder in a high degree is not merely drowsiness and want of energy, but even stupidity, in the strict sense of the expression. It is customary to apply, at the commencement of the disease, poultices of warm gourds, the patient at the same time drinking water which has stood for several days upon the pounded mass of large ant-hills. The component parts of the ant-hills, which are from five to six feet high, in the construction of which the insect makes use of a peculiar animal slime as a cement, certainly seem capable of counteracting the causes which produce the goitre. Perhaps, too, the acid of ants may have a beneficial influence on the relaxed nerves of the patient, as well as on the debility of the lymphatic system. The negroes here, as in Africa, make much use of mucilaginous substances: they use, for instance, Gum Arabic against the goitre with good success; a mode of treatment which seems to point at the origin of this disease as proceeding from the diet.

In the course of our journey from Jacarehy,

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we met many Spanish fugitives belonging to the suite of the Bishop of Cordova. These victims of the political parties in Buenos Ayres, were received by the Paulistas with the most sincere commiseration, and humanely provided for during their long journey. The sending of troops from S. Paulo, to the Island of Saint Catharine, and from thence to Monte Video, had attracted the attention of the Paulistas to the political events in the south, and they thought by a hospitable reception of those fugitives, to establish the claims of their countrymen, now in that quarter, to equally good treatment. The Portuguese expedition to Monte Video had fallen heavily on the Paulistas, for not only troops of the line were sent upon it, but even a regiment of the militia, which occasioned a sensible chasm in the labouring class, and was attended with very lamentable consequences to many families.* As a great part of the militia perished in S. Catharina, and still more on the continent in the garrison of Monte Video, partly in battle, partly from longing for home, dysentery and other diseases the consequence of unusual hardship, a general discontent at this military

* We were informed that on the whole twelve thousand men, of whom four thousand were Paulistas, carried on the war in Monte Video. This war, the necessity of which was affirmed by the minister Da Barca, but denied by many has, however, proved in latter times advantageous to Brazil, by giving it a natural boundary in the river La Plata.

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expedition was excited in the whole province. The Paulista, it is true, is distinguished above most of the inhabitants of Brazil for obedience to the government; but the greatest dissatisfaction could not fail to be produced by a war, which in the eyes of the multitude was not carried on for urgent reasons, but rather in compliance with the opinions of a few, and to which the farmer, who till then had never been used to war, remained wholly indifferent, till he was roused on finding that it required the sacrifice of the lives and domestic happiness of many of his fellow-countrymen. Accordingly a great part of the militia deserted before they marched away, and fled sometimes with their whole families, either into the remote wildernesses of the capitania of S. Paulo, or to Minas Geraës, where they settled, and from which province, though demanded back, they were not given up, according to the privileges enjoyed by each capitania.

In Aldea da Escada, a small village, three miles to the south of Jacarehy, which lies near a formerly numerous, but now abandoned, convent of Carmelites, at the foot of a gneiss mountain, and close to the Paraiba, we had the pleasure of meeting with a very sensible country priest, who was at the head of a mission for the Indians residing in that vicinity. He observed to us, that the sphere of his activity was daily lessened, in consequence of the royal mandate which has abolished the restraint of the missions over the Indians, and given them a

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perfect equality of rights with the other free natives. This ordinance has so far an unfavourable effect in all places where there are Indians under the superintendence or tutelage of Portuguese, because the former now withdraw more and more into the solitary forests. The mission had at present only sixty Indians under it, the rest had already dispersed throughout the province. They are not the remains of a single nation, but a mixture of several which possessed this country before it was occupied by the Portuguese, Their physiognomy was not very agreeable. The general characteristics of the race, gloomy stupidity, and reserve, which is especially indicated in the unsteady dark look, and the shy behaviour of the American, is increased on the first step towards reflection, by the constraint of civilisation to which he is wholly unused, and the intercourse with negroes, mestizoes, and Portuguese, to the most melancholy image of internal discontent and abasement. The manner in which they are treated by many of the present landholders contributes, indeed, to this moral and physical degeneracy. Neither national features, nor voluntary bodily mutilations nor peculiar manners and customs of these poor remains of the ancient inhabitants, enable us to infer to what race they originally belonged. The language, too, of the Indians of this mission seems not be simple, but composed of several dialects, and to have adopted

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many words in particular from the Guaranis. It seems probable, from the accounts of historians.* that the tribe of the Goyanazes lived here, a, well as in the plain of Piratininga, or S. Paulos These latter are said to have been distinguished from their neighbours, the Tamoyós, and Cariós, by their custom of living in caves under ground, and not slaughtering the enemies whom they took prisoners, but treating them as slaves; and like the tribe of Goytacazes, who lived farther to the north, to have been a handsome, robust, warlike, and docile race. If the Indians now living at Aldea do Escada, in the neighbouring forests of the Mantiqueira, and Serra do Mar, were remains of those Goytacazes, this gradual degeneracy of the form and physiognomy of the aboriginal inhabitants, to the degree of deformity and ugliness for which they are now remarkable, as a consequence of an intercourse for a few centuries with white men, is a very singular phenomenon. It is difficult to imagine, that that warlike and enterprising nation should have been reduced, in this short period, to so small a number of individuals, and to such a state of degeneracy and insignificance, as to be rather an object of pity, than of historical interest. On the contrary, it is more probable that these Indians are remains of the less numerous and weaker nation of the Cariós and Guarúa, who

* Southey's History of Brazil, vol. i. p. 34.

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were enemies to the Goyanazes; other remnants of whom are said still to dwell under the name of the Sacurùs, in the Serra dos Orgâos.* Perhaps the Cariós have been mixed with some descendants of the Tamoyós, those savage and warlike cannibals, of whom the Portuguese, who first settled in the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, drew the darkest picture, and against whom Don Antonio Salema, in the year 1572, undertook the last war of extermination.†

The people of the American continent have to show, in their earlier history, migrations similar to those by which the inhabitants of the high regions of middle Asia came to Europe. The researches of a celebrated traveller, seem to have placed it beyond all doubt, that the direction of these migrations on the whole was from north to south. We, too, shall have occasion, in the course of this narrative, to mention several facts which confirm this supposition. But, besides the great and general migrations, there have been several partial ones in different directions, and the arrival of the Europeans on the coast of Brazil, probably caused several of the more powerful tribes to retire from the coast, farther into the interior, so

* Father Casal (Corograf. Bras. ii. p. 46.) states, that the name Guarú, or Guarulho, is used collectively by several nations. But his accounts, as far as regards the Indian tribes, are very little to be depended upon.

† Southey's History of Brazil, vol. i. p. 312.

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that only the weaker hordes, who thought they should be more secure by joining with the Portuguese and settling among them, remained in their ancient abodes. The Tupinambazes, the most important of all the nations which the Europeans found upon the coast, confirm this view by their extensive migration, and their gradual falling back from the coasts of Bahia and Pernambuco, to Maranhâo, Pará, and along the river Amazons, upwards as far as the mouth of the Madeira, where we saw the last remnant that the continued wars have left, in the village of Tupinambarána (now Villa Nova).

We passed the night in Tarumá, a solitary rancho in a plain bounded by forests, because we were too late to reach the village of Mogy das Cruces. In this part we met with several families of the people called Cafusos, who are a mixture of blacks and Indians. Their external appearance is one of the strangest that a European can meet with. They are slender and muscular, in particular the muscles of the breast and arms are very strong; the feet, on the contrary, in proportion, weaker. Their colour is a dark copper, or coffee brown. Their features, on the whole, have more of the Ethiopic than of the American race. The countenance is oval, the cheek-bones high, but not so broad as in the Indians; the nose broad and flattened, but neither turned up nor much bent; the mouth broad, with thick but equal lips, which,

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as well as the lower jaw, project but little; the black eyes have a more open and freer look than in the Indians, yet are still a little oblique, if not standing so much inward as in them, on the other hand, not turned outwards at in the Ethiopians. But what gives these mestizoes a peculiarly striking appearance is the excessively long hair of the head, which, especially at the end, is half curled and rises almost perpendicularly from the forehead to the height of a foot, or a foot and a half, thus forming a prodigious and very ugly kind of peruke. This strange head of hair, which, at first sight, seems more artificial than natural, and almost puts one in mind of the plica polonicu, is not a disease, but merely a consequence of their mixed descent and the mean between the wool of the negro and the long stiff hair of the American. This natural peruke is often so high that the wearers must stoop low to go in and out of the usual doors of their huts; the thick hair is, besides, so entangled that all idea of combing it is out of the question. This conformation of the hair gives the Cafusos a resemblance with the Papuas in New Guinea; and we, therefore, thought it interesting to give the representation of a woman of that race in her peculiar costume.

The low mountains at Aldea da Escada are the last branches of the Serra do Mar. A small insignificant row of hillocks here unites the promontory of this chain with that of the Mantiqueira. The ve-

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getation is exceedingly rich and luxuriant, and combines the forms of the mountain forests with the more delicate ones of the campos and the swamps. Large plumerias, echites, and other full-flowered apocyneæ, splendid hamelias, and high rhexias, covered with magnificent purple flowers, give to this district, in some parts, the appearance of a fairy land. At the time we passed through them, however, these plains seemed to be poor in animals, particularly insects. The mountain consists of gneiss, sometimes with much black shorl. Before we reached Mogy das Cruces, a small village about two miles from Tarumá, we saw, in many places, a reddish sandstone, which alternates with layers of clay. We gradually descended considerably, and at the bottom came to the river Tieté, the dark brown water of which flows here much more slowly than farther to the north-west, where it has many falls, till its junction with the Rio Paraná. At Mogy we were received with much cordiality and kindness by the capitâo. These good people entertained ideas of the Germans similar to those that the Greeks formerly had of the Hyperboreans. They were therefore interested, not only by the distance of our northern country, but by our external appearance. The female part of the family examined our dress with the simplicity and grace peculiar to the Paulistas, praising the fairness of our complexions, which is much admired here. A workman belonging to this family had been bitten a

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few days before by a venomous serpent (schiraraca) and died of the wound. A vial of eau de luce, which we left in this hospitable house as a remedy against similar accidents, obtained us blessings from the whole family. The country about Mogy is already pretty well cultivated; but the want of labourers, which has been partly caused by the march of the militia to the south, seems to be at present very sensibly felt.

On the last day of the year, after we had passed a wood, and a desolate tract of meadow ground which was for the most part swampy, and a pretty country-house, called Caza Pintada, three leagues and a half from the capital, we beheld before us, from the eminence of Nossa Senhora da Penha, the city of S. Paulo, standing upon a hill in a plain, which is partly covered with bushes or groves. Several large buildings give it, on this side, a very grand appearance; the most remarkable are — the residence of the governor, formerly the Jesuits' college; the Carmelite convent; and the episcopal palace. When we arrived in the city, we found, by the kind attention of one of our countrymen, a house ready for our reception, and fitted up as well as circumstances permitted. Mr. Daniel Peter Müller, Lieut.-colonel in the Royal Portuguese Engineers, whose father was at first clergyman of the Protestant German congregation, and afterwards secretary to the Society of Sciences at Lisbon, has retained, though brought up in Por-

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tugal from his earliest youth, the most affectionate regard for his original countrymen, and received us with a German cordiality and friendship which could not fail immediately to inspire us with the sincerest esteem and gratitude, —sentiments which we feel peculiar pleasure in being able thus publicly to acknowledge.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

[page 328]

LONDON:
Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode,
New-Street-Square.

[Volume 2: page i]

TRAVELS

IN

BRAZIL.

VOL. II.

[page ii]

LONDON:
Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode,
New-Street-Square.

[page break]

[frontispiece]

[page iii]

TRAVELS

IN

BRAZIL,

IN THE YEARS

1817—1820.

UNDERTAKEN BY COMMAND OF

HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF BAVARIA.

BY

DR. JOH. BAPT. VON SPIX,
AND DR. C. F. PHIL. VON MARTIUS,

KNIGHTS OF THE ROYAL BAVARIAN ORDER OF CIVIL MERIT,
AND MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF
SCIENCES AT MUNICH, &c. &c.

VOLUME THE SECOND.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR

LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN,

PATERMOSTER-ROW.

1824

[page iv]

[page v]

CONTENTS

OF

THE SECOND VOLUME.

BOOK III.

CHAPTER I.

Stay in the city of S. Paulo. Page 1—40.

Topography of the city. — Historical character of the Paulistas. —Population. — Public Institutions. — Theatre. — Popular Poetry. — Manufactory of arms. — Breeding of silk-worms and cochineal insects. — Trade — Importation. — Exportation. — Manufactures of the capitania. — Weather. — Climate. — Natural productions. — Geognostical characteristics. — Diseases in the city. — Municipal and military constitution. — Official lists of the population. — Agricultural produce and commerce of the capitania.

CHAPTER II.

Journey from the city of S. Paulo, to the Iron Foundry at Ypanema. Page 41—102.

Journey by way of Cutis, S. Roque and Sorocaba to S. Joâo de Ypanema. — Royal iron foundry. — Iron

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mountain of Araasojava. — Diseases. — Remarkable magnetic influence of the European over mulattoes and negroes. — Superiority of the European to the black and coloured races of mankind. —Villa de Porto Feliz. — Navigation on the river Tieté to Matto-grosso. — Indians on the Paraguay. — Breed of cattle and mules. — Agriculture in the capitania. — Indians of S. Paulo. —NOTE: — Native medicinal plants.

CHAPTER III.

Journey from S. Joâo de Ypanema, to Villa Rica.

Page 103—176.

Journey by way of Sorocaba to the chief market for mules and by way of Ytú to Jundiahy. — Re-organisation of the caravan. — S. Joâo de Atibaya. —Camanducaya. — Registo Real. — Entrance into Minas Geraës. — The dance called Baducca. — Dangerous passage of the rivers Mandú and Servo. — S. Anna de Sapucahy. — First gold mines — Paper currency in Minas Geraës. — Flight of our negro. — S. Barbara. — Villa de Campanha. — Increase of luxury in the gold countries. — Rio Verde.— Poisonous serpents. — Cure of the bite of serpents. — Rio do Peixe. — Corrego dos Pinheiros. — Songs of the native poet Gonzaga. — High mountains of Capivary. — Passage at the waterfall of the Rio Grande, the main branch of the Rio de la Plata. — Course of that river. — Rio dos Mortos. — Morro de Bom Fim. — Villa de S. Joâo d'El Rey, its trade and environs. — Serra Lenheiro and de S. Jozé. — Unsuccessful attempt to cultivate corn. — Passage of the Rio Paraöpeba. — Morro da Solidade. — Chapada. — Animals in the campos. — Morro de Gravier. — Capâo — Lana.— NOTES: — Mine of the yellow topazes.— Occurrence of the euklases. — Description of the yellow topazes and their formation.

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BOOK IV.

CHAPTER I.

Stay in the city of Villa Rica. Page 177—206.

Topography of the city. — Population — Trade. — Climate. — Diseases. — Occurrence of almost all metals in Minas Geraës. — Ribeirao do Oiro Preto.—Gold mines in the Morro of Villa Rica. — The various methods of gold-washing. — The gold smelting house. — Gold bars. — Annual amount of gold. — Population of Minas Geraës. — Indians of the Province. — Description of the formation of iron-stone flötz, quartz- and iron mica-slate, and clay-slate. — Comparison with similar formations in Bavaria.

CHAPTER II.

Journey from Villa Rica to the Coroados Indians on the Rio Xipoto. Page 207—266.

The city of Mariana. — Bishoprics In Brazil. — Passage of the projection of the Itacolumi and of the Rio Mainarde. — Junction of the Rio Turvo and the Rio Piranga near S. Anna dos Ferros. — Boundary of the campos. — Entrance into the primeval forests.— Beginning of the granite formation of the Serra de S. Geraldo.— First appearance of an Indian family in the forest. — Arrival at the Presidio of S. Joâo Baptista.— Office of the Portuguese directors of the Indians. —The ipecacuanha. — The pot tree. — Arrival at the fazenda of Guidowald on the Serra de Onca. — Arrival of a horde of Coropos. — Domestic arrangements

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of the Coroados. — Preparation of their beverage called Virù. — Drinking feast of the Coroados. — Dances and singing of the Puris by night. — The bodily make, temperament, and intellectual capacity of the Indians. — Propensity to witchcraft. — The sorcerers or pajés. — Leaders in war. — Marriage, birth, burial. — Recognition not of a good, but rather of an evil principle. — Language.—Daily occupations. — Want of all social forms and of Religion. — Departure from the presidio with a young Indian. — False alarm; meeting with Indians in the forest. — Return to Villa Rica.

CHAPTER III.

Excursions in the environs of Villa Rica.

Page 267—300.

Ascent of the mountain Itacolumi; measurement of the mountain.— Its flora. — Journey to the iron foundry at de Prata. — Gold mine at Congonhas do Campo. — Chromate of lead in the mine of Cujabeira. — Journey to Antonio Pereira. — Iron foundry there. — Inficionado on the mountain Caraça. — Mine belonging to the guards môr, Senhor Innocenzio. — Ascent of the Caraça mountain. — Hospital of Nossa Senhora Mai dos Homems. — Return to Inficionado, and thence by way of Bento Rodriguez to Villa Rica. — Preparations for the departure to the diamond districts. — NOTES: — On the heavy spar at Antonio Pereira. — On chromate of lead, vauquelinite; gold-crystals, kyanite and rhaëticite.

BRAZILIAN POPULAR SONGS. Page 297.

[page 1]

TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

BOOK III.

CHAPTER I.

STAY IN THE CITY OF S. PAULO.

AT the time of our arrival, the province of S. Paulo was governed by a triumvirate, the Conde da Palma having lately left it to assume the government of Bahia, and his successor, the Baron Von Oeinhausen, the son of a German, formerly governor of Matto-grosso, not having yet arrived. According to ancient usage in these cases, the province is governed by the superior ecclesiastical, civil, and military authorities. The president of this council was Don Mattheus, a venerable old man eighty years of age, who was born in Madeira, and had received his education in France. The other members were the Brigadier of Santos and

VOL. II. B

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the Ouvidor of S. Paulo. We were very politely received by these gentlemen, and had, at the same time, the pleasure of meeting with our countrymen, Prince Taxis, Count Wrbna, and Count Palfy, who had been here above a week. These noblemen having had no reason to stop by the way, had travelled from Rio in a shorter time; and when we arrived, were on the point of returning to that city. We therefore could enjoy only for a short period, the satisfaction of examining the curiosities of the oldest city of Brazil in their company; a noble thirst of knowledge attracted them into the interior of the country; and the parting from them was the more painful to us, as our friend Mr. Thomas Ender, the landscape-painter, with whom we had lived in the same house in Rio, was to accompany them back to the capital.

The city of S. Paulo is situated on an eminence in the extensive plain of Piratininga. The style of architecture indicates by the frequent latticed balconies which have not disappeared here as in Rio, that it is above a century old; the streets, however, are very broad, light, and cleanly, and the houses mostly two stories high. They seldom build here with bricks, and still less with stone, but usually raise the walls of two rows of strong posts or wicker work, between which clay is rammed (casas de taïpa), a method which much resembles what is called the pisé in France. The residence of the governor, formerly the Jesuits'

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college, is built in a good style, but is now much out of repair; the episcopal palace, and the convent of the Carmelites, are large and stately edifices; the cathedral and some other churches are spacious, though the ornaments are not in good taste, but in other respects the style of architecture is very plain and ordinary. There are in the city, three monasteries, the Franciscan, Carmelite, and Benedictine; two nunneries, and two hospitals. Lieutenant-colonel Müller has erected, out of the city, a wooden circus for bull-fights as it seems, in a very good style, and has done a great service by throwing three stone bridges over the two streams Tamandatahy and Inhagabahy which unite below the town.

In the annals of Brazil, S. Paulo is highly interesting beyond all the other cities in a historical point of view. It was here that the pious Jesuit fathers, Nobrega and Anchieta, in 1552, exerted themselves to convert to Christianity a peaceable tribe of Goyanazes under their cacique, Tebireça; and after many severe trials, which obtained them the title of wonder-working benefactors, with the assistance of Portuguese colonists from S. Vicente, where there had been a factory ever since 1527, they founded the first settlement of ecclesiastics in the interior of Brazil. Many circumstances, and above all, the temperate climate and the good-natured phlegmatic character of the Indians who mingled with the Europeans, favoured the speedy

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progress of this colony; before a century had elapsed, we find the Paulistas already engaged in daring enterprises. Sometimes, after the mother country had become subject to Spain, inflamed with zeal for Portuguese independence and freedom, they boldly carried the war into distant Spanish provinces; sometimes, impelled by thirst for gold, they explored in all directions the wildernesses of the interior, and by their fortunate discoveries, exercised a decisive influence over the whole colony, and even the mother country itself.

The consequence of these events was on the one hand, a freer development of civil relations; and, on the other hand, internal family feuds arising from it, very nearly resembling those in the little republics of Italy in the middle ages, and a rancorous external contest, particularly with the rival colony of Taubaté; and thus, in the period of a hundred and fifty years, we see all the elements of history gradually unfolded. In this respect S. Paulo is distinguished above all other cities of Brazil, and here, more than in any other place, we find the present connected with the past. The Paulista is sensible of this, and says; not without pride, that his native city has a history of its own, which, though it goes only a few centuries back, is intimately connected with that of his neighbours. It is this circumstance especially, which ought to soften and correct the judgment which people are used to pass to the disadvantage of the cha-

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racter of the Paulistas. The accounts of earlier historians describe the Paulistas as a lawless tribe, resisting every legitimate constraint of custom and moral feeling, who for that very reason had renounced the dominion of Portugal, and formed a separate republic. This opinion was caused also by the reports of the Jesuits, who certainly had good grounds at that time to be discontented with the conduct of the Paulistas. Subsequently to the year 1629*, the latter frequently made incursions into the Indian colonies of the Jesuits in Paraguay, and with incredible cruelty, carried off all the natives as slaves. These plundering excursions, as well as their enterprises in search of gold to Minus, Goyaz, and Cujabá, gave to the character of the Paulistas of that time, a selfish rudeness and insensibility, and inspired them with a disregard for all relations consecrated by law and humanity, which naturally drew upon them the severest reprobation of the fathers, who were animated with enthusiastic zeal for the welfare of mankind.

This rude character is, however, now softened, and the Paulista enjoys, throughout Brazil, the reputation of great frankness, undaunted courage, and a romantic love of adventures and dangers. It is true, that in conjunction with these commendable qualities, a propensity to anger and

* Southey's History of Brail. ii p. 300.

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revenge, pride, and stubbornness have remained in his character, and he is therefore feared by his neighbours: the stranger, however, sees in his haughty manner, only earnestness and an independent spirit; in his good-natured frankness and hospitality, an amiable feature; in his industry, the activity that marks the inhabitants of a temperate zone; and has less occasion than his neighbours to become acquainted with his faults. The only excuse for his pride is, that he can boast of having a claim, through the actions of his forefathers, to this new continent, which the settlers from Europe cannot adduce. There is no manner of doubt that the first comers contracted frequent marriages with the neighbouring Indians; and the complexion and physiognomy of the people indicate this mixture here, more than in the other cities of Brazil, for instance, in Maranhâo and Bahia. Many whites have, however, at all times settled here.

The capitania of S. Paulo, formerly called S. Vicente, was resorted to by many Spaniards; for example, after the unfortunate result of the expedition of the Adelantado Don Pedro de Mendoza, in Paraguay (in 1538—1546), and, subsequently, at the commencement of the eighteenth century, traces of whom are still preserved in several Spanish family names. Many families of Paulistas have preserved themselves without any mixture with the Indians, and these are as white, nay even whiter than the purer descendants of the Euro-

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peans in the northern provinces of Brazil. The mamelukes of various degrees, have coffee-coloured, bright yellow, or nearly white complexions; but the brood round face with high cheek-bones, the small black eyes, and a certain unsteadiness of look, betray, more or less, the Indian origin. In general, the principal characteristics of the Paulistas are a lofty, at the same time broad make, strongly marked features, expressive of a bold independent spirit, hazel eyes (they are very rarely blue) full of fire and ardour, thick black smooth hair, muscular make, firmness, and vivacity in their motions. They are justly considered as the strongest, most healthy and active inhabitants of Brazil. The strength with which they tame unbroke horses, and catch the wild cattle by means of the noose, is as surprising as the ease with which they endure continued labour and fatigue, hunger and thirst, cold and heat, wet, and privations of all kinds. In their expeditions on the inland rivers to Cujabá and Matto-grosao, they display now, as formerly, the greatest boldness and perseverance in dangers and hardships of every description; and an unconquerable love of travelling still impels them to leave their country. We accordingly find all over Brazil more single colonists from S. Paulo than from any other province. This roaming kind of life they have probably inherited from their ancestors. On the whole, the Paulistas may be said to have a melancholy disposition inclining to

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Choleric. They characterise thereby in some degree, in a moral view, the zone which they inhabit; for the nearer we approach the equator, the more decidedly do we find the choleric, irritable character expressed.

The women of S. Paulo have the same simplicity as the men. The tone of society is jovial and unaffected, animated by ready and cheerful pleasantry. They have been unjustly accused of giddiness. If the spirit of conversation is strongly contrasted with the refined manners of their European relatives, among whom a jealous etiquette prohibits the unrestrained expression of feeling; their artless liveliness does not excite surprise, in s province where a free and simple mode of thinking has been retained, more than in any other part of Brazil. The women of S. Paulo are of tall and slender, though not delicate make, graceful in their motions, and have in the features of their well-formed countenances an agreeable mixture of cheerfulness and frankness. Their complexion too, is not so pale as that of most of the Brazilian women, and they are on that account reckoned to be the handsomest women of Brazil.* Reflection and a disposition to subtile investigations, are said to characterise the Paulistas; and, in fact, they

* A popular proverb describing the character of several provinces, extols the women of S. Paulo above all others. It says at Bahia are to be praised Elles nâo Ellas, in Pernambuco Ellas nâo Elles, in S. Paulo Ellas e Ellas.

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and the Pernambucans, can produce the greatest number of inventive geniuses and men of learning among the Brazilians. The study of divinity was formerly much promoted by the Jesuits, in whose college many men of distinguished merit were brought up. The Roman classics are diligently studied at the gymnasium, if we may call by that name the establishment for the education of young men. The study of philosophy, which was formerly taught here as in most of the schools of Brazil, according to an ancient system founded upon Brucker's Institutiones, has lately taken a new turn, since the Kantean philosophy has been rendered accessible to the Brazilian student by Viller's translation.* Antonio Ildefonso Ferreira, the second professor of philosophy, whom, after our departure from S. Paulo, we met with at the house of his father at Ypanema, had made himself pretty well acquainted with the system of the northern philosopher, and we were very agreeably surprised at finding the terms and ideas of the German school naturalised on American ground. Thus the more temperate southern zone of the new continent, in consequence of the rapid progress of civilisation, adopts not only the practical branches of study and knowledge, but even the more abstract lucubrations of pure science. The

* Which however, in truth, is but a poor exposition of the system of the German philosopher. Trans.

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diffusion of pure philosophy has been more speedy for some centuries from one hemisphere to another, than it was formerly from Egypt to Greece, and from Greece to Rome. The only library of the city, besides that of the Carmelites, belongs to the venerable bishop, who, although very tar advanced in years, still takes a lively interest in scientific subjects, and showed it to us himself with an expression of great pleasure. It contains a great number of historical and canonical works, and ancient classics, and materially contributes to the instruction of young ecclesiastics, who study several years at the theological seminary, till they have received ordination, in conferring which, they are said not to be so strict here as in Rio, Pernambuco, and other places.

The population of the city of S. Paulo, according to the latest accounts, including the dependent parishes amounts to above 30,000 souls, of which the half are whites, or such as are called so, and the other blacks, or people of colour. The whole population of the capitania of S. Paulo by the latest official accounts annexed at the end of this chapter*, was, in the year 1808, 200,478; in the year 1814, 211,928; and in the year 1815, 215,021 souls. The table of population shows very striking results with regard to the proportion of the births. In general, one birth is reckoned for twenty-eight

* See Note I. page 32.

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individuals; and the highest known proportion is said to be that of 1:22.7 in fifteen villages about Paris, and 1:23.5 in thirty-nine Dutch villages; but here there is one birth to twenty-one individuals. The mortality is to the population as one to forty-six, a proportion which is smaller, though not in so remarkable a degree as in the country among us. The black slaves have very few children, which is not entirely explained by the proportion of the female to the male slaves (16:22). One cause maybe, that the male slaves, being almost always employed in the labours of agriculture, and tending the cattle, pass the greater part of the year alone in the remote charcaras and fazendas de criar gado, whereas the female slaves are employed in household services. As we found it impossible to obtain an authentic account of the number of negro slaves annually imported into the capitania, we do not venture precisely to state the progression in the increase of this part of the population. So much, however is certain, that very few provinces of Brazil, for instance, Rio Grande do Sul and Rio Negro, receive a smaller number of slaves from Africa; the others, on the contrary, many more. It is said to have been observed, that the cold mountain air, and still more the cool nights, which are usual in a great part of the province, are injurious to the health of several of the negro tribes who have been accustomed to a warmer climate. Those who come from the high mountain pastures to the

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west of Benguela, are said to become the most easily used to the climate.

The taste for European luxuries has by no means made so much progress among the inhabitants of S. Paulo as with the more opulent citizens of Bahia, Pernambuco, and Maranhâo. Convenience and cleanliness are more attended to than elegance and splendour in their household arrangements; and instead of the light North American furniture and French looking-glasses, which are seen in the other provinces, we found in the parlours (sala) only a row of heavy chairs, venerable for their antiquity, and a small glass which, from its Nürenberg frame, the German recognises for a countryman. Instead of large glass lamps and wax tapers, a brass lamp stands upon the table, in which they usually burn castor oil. In the tone of society too, we equally remarked the proportionably smaller influence of Europe. Cards are much less frequently called in as a resource than in the other capitanias, but the louder is the conversation, which alternates with singing and dancing.

During our stay, a bull fight was given in the circus. They procure the bulls from the south of the province, particularly from Curitiba, where they have remained sufficiently wild from roaming at large in the extensive pastures. On this occasion, the animals did not seem to be very courageous, and the matadoros (mostly people of colour) were inferior in address and spirit to their Spanish

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colleagues. This diversion is besides foreign to the Portuguese character, and in a country where nature arms so many powerful enemies against man, the people see, with double regret, this useful domestic animal devoted to such a cruel sport. At that time there were also theatrical entertainments at S. Paulo. In the theatre, which is built in a modern style, we saw the French opera of the Deserter performed in the Portuguese language. The representation was worthy of those times when the theatrical car of Thespis first passed through the streets of Athens. The actors, all blacks or mulattoes, were of that class to whom Ulpian gives "levis notæ maculam." The principal actor, a barber, deeply affected his fellow-citizens. We could not be surprised that the music resembled a chaos of elementary sounds, because, except their favourite guitar to accompany the voice, scarcely any instrument was properly played. The taste of the Paulista for singing, is more cultivated. Mr. Dankwart, a Swedish captain who has settled here, introduced us one evening to a party, where we were entertained with music, which gave us a very favourable opinion of the musical talent of the women of S. Paulo. Their singing is very simple and unaffected, and with the compass of their not very powerful voices, which are a high tenor, is entirely in the spirit of pastoral poetry. The national songs are of Portuguese or Brazilian origin. The latter are superior to the former from

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the natural style of the text and the melody; they are perfectly in the popular taste, and sometimes indicate a truly lyrical talent in the poets, most of whom are anonymous. Slighted love, the torments of jealousy, and the pangs of absence, are the subjects of their muse; and a poetical allusion to nature gives to these effusions a peculiar relief, which appears the more pleasing and true to a European, the more he feels himself placed in a poetical mood by the riches and tranquil enjoyment which nature breathes around.

The whole province of S. Paulo is a land peculiarly adapted for the breeding of cattle. It possesses the most extensive plains, on which all kinds of cattle, but particularly oxen, horses, and mules, thrive exceedingly well. If we reckon that of the 17,500 square miles which the capitania contains, only 5000, or two seventh parts of the whole surface, are covered with wood, and 12,500 square miles with meadows and pastures, there would be for a family of five persons 116/1000 of a square mile of wood which may be used for agriculture, and 292/1000 of a square mile of pasture proper for cattle. As soon as the province shall be more peopled, particularly in the interior, the productions of agriculture and of the herds will be brought to a suitable proportion; at present, especially along the coast, and in places which are adapted to the sugar-cane and other colonial articles, where the population is the most numerous, the produce of

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agriculture is almost as four to one. If we calculate according to the annexed official, table*, the whole amount of agricultural produce in the year 1814 at 1,005,764,440 rees, only 178,678,800 rees were derived from the cattle. In proportion to the population of S. Paulo, the quantity of colonial articles is much less than in the more northern provinces, for cotton and coffee do not thrive very well in this latitude, and sugar but indifferently. It is true, that in the official lists in 1808, no less than 458 sugar-mills are enumerated, and 601 apparatus for distilling brandy from the sugar-cane; but many of those mills prepare only as much sugar or treacle as the owners require for their own use, and the stills of several fazendas are so inconsiderable that they cannot make more than a few measures of rum. Such small stills are met with in most of the 190 fazendas, which are chiefly grazing farms (fazendas de criar), as necessary domestic utensils, so far as their situation permits the cultivation of the sugar-cane. Half of the productions of the capitania are required for home consumption, the other is exported by water as well as by land. Colonial articles, properly so called, as coffee, sugar, tobacco, rum, some cotton, copaiva oil, hides, horns and horn tips, tallow, &c., go either directly, or by way of Rio de Janeiro, to Europe. The man-

* See Note 2. page 34.

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diocca is seldom cultivated here, but maize to a great extent The inhabitants of this province conceive the mandiocca flour to be unwholesome, as those of the northern capitanias do maize flour. Much maize and other provisions are sent to Rio for the consumption of that city; sugar and rum to Rio Grande do Sul, Monte Video, and Buenos Ayres; and to Pernambuco, Ceara, Maranhâo, particularly, meat dried in the sun or salted (passoca). Besides foreign articles, Goyaz and Matto-grosso receive, also, salt and iron from S. Paulo.

Santos is the only harbour of the province which has a direct intercourse with Oporto, Lisbon, and the Portuguese islands; though it is only twelve leagues distant from the capital of S. Paulo, it is as much cut off from it by the high and steep chain of the Serra do Mar, which extends from the Morro Formoza along the coast to the south, as if it were fifty miles from it. The way over the Cubatâo, so this part of the mountain is called, is stated to rise in some points more than three thousand feet above the level of the sea, is extremely steep, and only passable for mules. Though it was greatly improved by the governor-general, Franca e Horta, it still does not allow the productions of the country to be exported otherwise than divided into small burdens, and the imported articles must be introduced in the same manner. Great expense and labour are required to bring to the capital

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merely a bell or some heavy cannon. The two other seaports of the province, Paranagua and Cananea, are both inconsiderable; the former is fifty-eight leagues, and the other sixty-seven leagues, from S. Paulo. They supply the district of Curitiba, which is properly the meadow-land of the province, with the necessaries which they obtain by sea from Santos, Rio, or the ports on the northern coast, whither they repair with large barks and schooners. Their export trade is even more limited than that of Santos to flour, hides, dried meat, and matte, or Paraguay tea. The latter is an article of daily use among the people of the southern part of this province, as also in Rio Grande do Sul, and in the countries on the Rio de la Plata. It is prepared out of the dried and pulverised leaves of a shrub (Cassine Gongonha, nob.) the infusion of which they usually suck through a small tube, to which a little strainer is fastened. From this sketch of the trade of S. Paulo, which we farther illustrate by the annexed tables*, it appears that the proportion of pecuniary wealth must be much smaller here than in the northern provinces, where an extensive and profitable trade has brought in its train a propensity to extravagance and luxury. Even in the capital there is almost a scarcity of current coin, to which the inhabitant of the province is still more indifferent, because, living in

* See Note 3., &c. p. 35.

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patriarchal simplicity, he is a stranger to many European wants, and considers himself as richer in the produce of his great herds, than by the introduction of European money and European luxuries.

The state of the manufactures in S. Paulo, perfectly corresponds with that of trade. The domestic manufacture of coarse woollens, for the clothing of the country people, and common white beaver hats, are the only ones known here. The wealthiest graziers tan a considerable part of the hides themselves, or salt them raw for exportation. As in Rio de Janeiro, they use for tanning, the bark of the Rhizophora Mangle. The necessary workmen are on the spot, though not always very skilful or regularly trained. A few months before our arrival, a government manufactory for arms, which had before been established at Rio de Janeiro, was transferred hither and placed under the superintendence of Lieutenant-colonel Müller. The eight working masters were all Germans, and had been brought several years before from the manufactory at Potsdam. They had under their direction some mulattoes and negroes, whom they represented as docile and clever, but on account of their laziness and inattention, the very antipodes of German ability. One of our fowling-pieces which had become unserviceable on the way, in an engagement with a large serpent, was very well repaired by a black workman. They in general use English steel, or such as is made here on the spot, from Soracaba iron. The

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articles manufactured here are indeed very good, but they cost the government as much as European arms, from the want of demand and the small number of workmen, by a judicious employment of whom the business might be properly organised. The establishment is, however, useful and important as a school for the national industry.

The bishop, Don Mattheus de Abreu Pereira, amuses himself in his garden in breeding silkworms, which easily multiply and produce an extremely beautiful thread. As the mulberry tree comes to great perfection in this climate, it may be confidently expected that the culture of silk will be carried on with great success. There is besides in this country another species of silkworm, which is found in abundance on a laurel-like shrub, particularly in Maranhâo and Pará. This worm, whose thread promises a much more brilliant silk than that of Europe, has never yet been employed, although it might be with great facility. But what might become a still more profitable branch of cultivation, is the cochineal; for the Cactus coccinellifer, with the insect peculiar to it, is found in many parts of the province of S. Paulo, particularly in sunny meadows. But the aversion of the inhabitants to undertaking laborious work, while they can gather other rich gifts of nature without trouble, may for the present check, the propagation of the cochineal plant.

The environs of S. Paulo are beautiful, and of a

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more rural description than those of Rio. Instead of the sublime prospect of the sea and stupendous mountains which rise there in picturesque forms, the stranger has here an extensive view of a country where alternate hilts and valleys, light woods, and pleasant pastures present all the softer charms of nature. Added to the happy climate, the beauty of the scenery has perhaps given the Paulistas a turn for laying out gardens, of which there are several very pretty ones in the vicinity of the city.

Besides the native fruits, the gujava, guabiroba, grumbijama, jabuticaba, acaju, &c.; they cultivate also water-melons, oranges, figs, and other European fruits. Quinces, cherries, peaches, and several kinds of apple thrive particularly well. Successful trials have also been made with walnuts and chestnuts; the vine and the olive on the other hand seem to disdain their new country, or not yet to have been treated in a proper manner. The grapes which we tasted had an acid flavour; perhaps the soil is too strong and moist for the vine. The olive hardly ever bears fruit, perhaps because the season for its ripening falls exactly in the wet months. European kitchen herbs grow admirably; the onions of S. Paulo, like those of S. Catherine, are celebrated for their size and abundance. Though the difference of the seasons ht very sensible here, and manifests itself in the development of the flowers and the maturing of the fruits, yet it seems to have no influence on the formation of the

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wood. Here, as immediately under the line, the wood is of the greatest compactness and without any traces of rings marking the age.

The geognostic nature of the country in the neighbourhood of the city offers but little variety. The predominant formation is a sand iron-stone, and in which there are often fragments of a white quartz, partly round, partly angular, and which is therefore a kind of breccia. At an inconsiderable depth this rock rests on the gneiss-like granite, rarely basking out, and with which the streets of the city are partly paved. Between and over it, are several layers of lithomarge of a brick and brownish red, ochre yellow, and lavender blue, just as they are seen here and there along the road from Rio; for instance at Paranangaba. These fossils belong to a very extended formation, which we again met with in many places in Minas Geraës, and which everywhere contains gold. The metal is disseminated in larger or smaller grains through the mass, particularly of the ferruginous cement. These gold mines were formerly much worked, not only in the immediate vicinity, but particularly in the mountains of Jaraguá, two miles to the south of this town. According to Mawe's statement, the poor collect the gold, which after heavy rains is washed out of the pavement of the streets. The smelting house of S. Paulo used to furnish a considerable quantity of gold, but this establishment is now broken up, and the little metal found here

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must be carried to one of the smelting houses in Minas. The Paulistas have lost their inclination for mining, or rather, it seems that that part of the inhabitants who felt an attachment to that precarious occupation, have gradually emigrated to the richer provinces of Minas, Goyaz, and Mattogrosso. Those who remained, happy enough to forget the metallic riches under their feet, dedicate themselves exclusively to the more secure employments of agriculture and the tending of cattle.

The climate of S. Paulo is one of the most agreeable in the world. Both the situation, it being almost under the tropic of Capricorn, which is distant from it only a mile and a half to the north, as well as its elevation of twelve hundred feet above the surface of the sea, at Santos, give the city all the charms of a tropical climate without any considerable inconvenience from the heat. During our stay the thermometer fluctuated between 15° and 18° R., and the hygrometer between 67° and 70°. According to the account which we obtained from our countryman, Mr. Müller, and some other inhabitants, the mean temperature of the year is from 22° to 23° of the centigrade thermometer. The difference of the temperature during the winter (May to September) and the summer, or rainy months (October to April), is more considerable than in the provinces lying farther northward. Hoar frost is not uncommon during

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the cold Season, though not in the immediate vicinity of the city, yet in the higher parts of the country; but the cold never becomes so intense and continued as to make it necessary to put up stoves in addition to the chafing-dish which are in general use. On the large plains which extend to the west and south of the capital, the winds are observed regularly to blow from a certain quarter, according to the position of the sun. Thus, when it is in the northern signs of the zodiac, S.S.W. and S.E. winds prevail: when it returns to the south, the winds are less constant. The rainy season commences along the coast, as in Rio de Janeiro, with the months of October or November, and continues till April; the most rain falls in January. In this month, when we resided in the city, we often saw in the morning the neighbouring hills covered with a thick and very cold fog, which did not disperse till towards the hour of noon, when the sun broke through it. In the interior of the country, in the Sertôes, the wet season sets in later. At the beginning it rains only in the night, then in the afternoon also, and lastly, alternately by day and night, and sometimes very heavily for several days, and even weeks, without intermission.

At the time that the united Portuguese and Spanish commission of demarcation, which determined the frontiers of the dominions of the two kingdoms, and the southern division of which on

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the Portuguese side, had its head-quarters here, the geographical position of this city was accurately determined by Oliveira Barbosa to be as follows: 33° 24′ 30″ longitude from Ferro, and 23° 33′ 30″ south latitude (48° 59′ 25″ west longitude of Paris, and 23° 33′ 10″ south latitude, according to the Board of Longitude). Observations on the variation of the magnetic needle were made both here and in other parts of the province, several of the results of which were communicated to us at Rio by General da Franca e Horta, formerly governor of the capitania. In the year 1788 the variation at S. Paulo was 7° 15′ N.E. We are indebted to the Jesuits for the first observations of this kind, as well as the first determinations of latitude.*

The character of diseases at S. Paulo is remarkably different from that at Rio, which may arise from the difference both in the constitution of the inhabitants and in the climate. We found here, more frequently than in the northern provinces, disposition to rheumatism and inflammation, especially of the eyes, breast and throat, and in consequence of them pulmonary and tracæal consumptions, blennorhœa of the eye-lids, &c. Gastric

* According to these observations the variation is at Itanhaím 7° 25′ at Santos 6° 50′ at Ubatúba 6° 30′; at S. Sebastiâo and in Villa Bella da Princesa 6° 45′; at S. Vicente 6° 50′; at Cananea 7° 57′; Guaratybe 8° 30′: at Iguape 7° 30′; at Paranaguá 8° 8′.

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diseases, on the other hand, are not so common, and that weakness of the organs of digestion as well as heartburn, which appears to increase together with the heat, and becomes almost the general habit in the inhabitants of countries lying nearer to the equator, is wanting here. Diseases of the liver are not very rare; they seem to have their chief foundation in the melancholy or choleric temperament of the Paulistas, and, probably, the mixture with the Indian race is not without its influence; for it is very singular that the constitution of the aboriginal American so greatly promotes diseases of the liver and the spleen. We frequently see in them a callosity and enlargement of these organs, or stagnation of their powers, and though we may consider the neglect of their bodily sufferings as one cause of the malignity which these disorders often acquire, yet the specific modifications of the action which the system of the vessels, the liver, and the skin, assume in the Indian race, may likewise have a considerable share in the peculiar character of diseases as they appear in them and their descendants. The cutaneous system suffers less here than in the northern provinces; hence we see fewer pimples, chronic eruptions, and sarna. Intermitting fevers, too, are rare at S. Paulo, and when they do occur, they frequently proceed from catarrh and rheumatism, which are induced by the inferior degree of warmth, and the rapid changes in the temperature. Goitres, of which we

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have already spoken as an endemic disease in the neigbourhood of the Paraiba, are not common in the city, nor do they attain the monstrous size which they acquire in that country. Besides inflammation, dropsy is very general; the tropical climate seems, indeed, particularly to favour the issue of inflammations by dropsy.

The capitania of S. Paulo, formed, under the reign of King John V. (1710), out of that of S. Amaro and part of that of S. Vicente*, was formerly divided into two circles (comarcas), namely, into that of S. Paulo, with the capital of the same name, and that of Paranaguá or Curitiba. The population increasing, the comarca of Ytú (Hytú), the capital of which is the little town of Ytú, was separated from the comarca of S. Paulo about ten years ago. In the southern circle, the seat of the authorities has been transferred from Paranaguá to Curitiba, which is situated further inland. The chief magistrate of every comarca is the ouvidor. Except in the district in which the governor resides, he is at the head not only of the judicial department, but also of the administration, and has the first voice next to the governor in the board of finances (Junta da Real Fazenda). In affairs relative to the exchequer, the chief judge (Juiz de Fôra) is associated with him as fiscal for the crown. In the city of S. Paulo, and in the

* Cazal. Corografia Brasilica, i. p. 200.

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several towns of the province, there is a municipality exactly as there is in Portugal, the peculiar office of which is to manage all affairs relative to the civil administration of the town. The members of this tribunal are chosen by the citizens out of their own body; it consists of a judge (Juiz da Camara), several assessors (Vereadores), a secretary (Escribáo da Camara), and a treasurer (Thezoureiro). On important occasions, the juiz de fôra attends the sittings of the chamber. He is likewise in most towns the president of the board for the administration of the affairs of orphans (Juiz dos Orfâos). The direction of the charitable institutions is in the hands of the municipality. A similar arrangement prevails in all parts of Brazil. In the year 1808, the capitania of S. Paulo, with the population of 200,478 souls, had 418 ecclesiastics, of whom 331 were regular, residing in fifteen convents, the remaining 87 were secular. There were two convents of nuns, in which there were 53 persons. This proportion has not augmented since that time, and the government does not seem disposed to favour the restraints of the cloister, which are so prejudicial to the population. On the other hand, it has very carefully promoted the organisation of the armed force in the province. The troops of the line consist of one regiment of dragoons and one of infantry, which are distributed along the coasts and in the capital, and some points in the interior, especially at the frontier

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custom-houses, and as detachments against the savage Indians. The males of the remaining population who are able to bear arms, serve either in the regular militia (milicias), of which there are three regiments of cavalry and eight of infantry, or in the local militia (ordenanzas). The militia are bound to perform military service, not only within the limits of the capitania, but in case of need to go beyond the frontiers. The local militia must not leave the place of their abode. It includes, with the exception of the public officers, every male from the age of sixteen to sixty who is not already enrolled in the troops of the line or the regular militia.

This local militia constitutes the real defence of the whole nation, and is chiefly employed in maintaining internal order. Like the regular militia, it is called together to exercise from time to time, but its chief use is to keep up a certain military order in the people, and to execute with energy the resolutions of the civil magistrates, which they would never be able to do of themselves in a country so thinly peopled. The capitania of S. Paulo has 157 companies of local militia. The chief officers of these troops are the capitâos môrs, as it were colonels, and communicate directly with the government upon many affairs, for instance, those of the internal police. The highest officers of the regular militia are called Colonels (Coroneis). The jurisdiction of these officers is entirely distinct.

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The regular militia may be tried by a court-martial, even for offences which are not of a military nature, which they themselves generally prefer, to the proceedings of the civil tribunals. The local militia, on the other hand, are subject to the civil courts. It certainly was the intention of the government in establishing the local militia, that they should serve to awaken and maintain a warlike spirit among the mass of the people; hitherto, however, they do not seem to have effected this purpose, and in point of fact, the confidence of the individual in his arms, and the assurance of being able to use them with advantage in his own concerns, has been more promoted than the patriotic feeling of being able to employ them with success when his country is in danger. The militia of S. Paulo, however, enjoy the reputation of a military public spirit, which they have also confirmed in the late enterprise against Buenos Ayres. Both these establishments, of the regular and local militia are particularly to be recommended in a young and poor country, because they are managed by their own resources. The officers of these two corps receive no pay from the state, with the exception of the majors of the militia, who are always officers of the line, and direct the military manœuvres.

The capitania of S. Paulo is not able to meet the expenses of the administration out of its own taxes, but requires an annual addition 60,000,000

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of rees. Since the arrival of the king, who with paternal care wished to introduce throughout the whole country a more strict and prompt administration of justice, a more uniform collection of the taxes, a more extensive, and therefore more expensive national education, the disbursements of the province have been increased, but the revenues, the most important sources of which are the export duties on colonial produce, and the tax upon trades, have not been augmented in the same proportion. The Portuguese government has experienced the same result in many other places, which seems to indicate that the proper and happy organisation of an infant country, rather depends on the increase of the population, than on that of its trade and its internal riches. There is perhaps no province of Brazil, in which such solid and promising foundations for the prosperity of its future inhabitants have been laid as here, where the nature of the soil and the climate offer inexhaustible resources of wealth. If the Swiss colony, the establishment of which in Canta-Gallo, has cost great sums without a suitable result, had been placed in S. Paulo, in the cool plains, which are peculiarly adapted for the breeding of cattle, it would most certainly have prospered; but the intention of the government speedily to recover its expenses by the receipt of export duties on the colonial articles raised by the settlers, appears to have opposed the promotion of a slow but certain

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and profitable cultivation of the country by the breeding of cattle.

A very useful establishment, which likewise originated with the settlement of the court at Rio, is a regular post from S. Paulo to the capital, by means of messengers on horseback or on foot, who duly deliver within a fortnight, the sealed bags of letters which are intrusted to them by the royal post-office. Since a Portuguese corps has been stationed in the more southern parts of Brazil, a regular post has been established between S. Paulo and Monte Video.

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NOTES 1.—List of the Population of the Capitania of Saint Paul, in the Year 1815.

PLACES.	Parishes.	Houses.	WHITES.		BLACKS.				MULATTOES.				Total.	Births.	Marriages.	Deaths.
					Free.		Slaves.		Free.		Slaves.
			Males.	Females.	Males.	Females.	Males.	Females.	Males.	Females.	Males.	Females.
Comarcs de S. Paulo.
Founded in the Year
Cidade de S. Paulo, 1560*	12	4142	5822	6452	360	485	2215	2158	2659	3580	749	833	25313	703	262	569
Villa de S. Vicente 1531	1	100	83	107	40	40	97	91	50	60	25	16	609	31	1	14
Santos 1546	1	689	647	704	101	161	1662	618	562	779	180	219	5133	215	67	205
Itanhaem 1561	2	195	162	143	6	7	22	9	252	321	104	99	1125	48	6	25
Mogi das Cruces 1611	4	1445	2118	2419	47	43	559	500	704	920	174	221	7705	259	92	123
Paranaiba 1625	4	1081	1343	1606	58	79	696	650	772	1047	176	182	6609	377	121	148
S. Sebastiâo 1636	1	575	845	892	22	29	609	453	302	369	151	179	3851	194	42	98
Uhatuba 1638	1	507	977	1049	9	19	257	227	121	140	55	65	2919	164	32	71
Taubaté 1640	2	1819	2815	3701	19	35	709	642	402	601	173	196	9293	271	140	126
Guaratinguetá 1651	1	966	1807	2174	23	30	829	649	256	373	184	175	6500	777	62	298
Jacarehy 1653	2	1262	1360	1296	12	25	428	352	1283	1501	29	48	6334	304	122	106
Jundiahy 1656	1	849	906	897	39	33	668	497	824	1025	84	88	5061	144	52	91
Pendamonhangaba 1713	1	759	1444	1539	23	26	637	445	251	263	112	119	4859	155	62	52
S. Jozé 1767	1	589	854	965	7	8	62	48	322	410	68	66	2810	118	98	45
Athibaya 1779	2	1521	2338	2409	60	56	560	456	646	731	275	271	7802	242	51	54
S. Luiz de Paraitinga 1778	1	504	1126	1164	1	4	506	254	170	211	51	57	3544	133	50	51
Cunha 1785	1	372	606	585	12	21	775	425	209	213	103	90	3039	45	10	51
Lorena 1788	4	1847	3417	3593	83	89	1577	1019	969	1002	190	197	12136	676	167	313
Nova Braganca 1797	1	1842	3311	3621	5	4	308	290	664	1040	212	198	9853	288	57	74
Villa bella da Princesa 1806	1	399	610	697	11	12	612	444	136	195	70	62	2854	118	14	72
In one city and 19 towns (villas), Total	44	21463	32591	36013	938	1026	13297	10223	11754	14781	3165	3318	127349	5152	1568	2586

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Comarca de Parannaguá & Curitiba.
Curitiba 1645	3	1783	2589	2925	82	132	540	554	1192	614	244	250	9122	492	180	121
Paranaguá 1640	1	1058	1858	1967	174	188	357	327	249	292	177	212	5801	406	106	182
Cananea 1587	1	242	273	275	65	76	228	223	152	201	41	58	1592	50	18	26
Iguape 16—	2	939	1906	1850	416	462	687	433	107	106	292	283	6542	251	181	164
Guaratuba 1771	1	110	62	71	0	1	40	46	10	3	199	231	663	11	8	1
Lages 1774	1	116	240	275	23	37	54	41	159	167	25	14	1035	94	10	8
Castro 1781	1	682	1319	1450	27	50	429	363	365	463	167	198	4831	171	44	26
Antonina 1797	2	662	419	424	164	129	212	199	1021	1092	92	152	3904	218	27	95
Villa nova do Principe 1806	1	408	778	788	15	18	123	124	222	191	47	45	2351	148	20	36
In nine towns, total	13	6000	9444	10025	966	193	2670	2310	3477	3129	1284	1443	35841	1841	594	659
Commarca de you
Ytú 1654	1	807	1454	1622	51	88	1867	1047	257	364	142	145	7037	502	189	318
Soracaba 1670	1	2011	3120	3760	41	44	934	736	546	763	210	237	10391	588	128	395
Itapeva 1769	1	472	615	556	18	6	94	83	522	558	26	34	2415	115	22	18
Mogi Mirim 1769	5	1912	3891	4006	33	37	891	583	746	785	152	175	11299	782	185	181
Apiahy 1770	1	201	145	152	87	82	247	170	231	252	88	88	1537	58	27	55
Itapeteninga 1770	2	892	1032	1140	10	13	197	149	1299	1456	40	54	5390	354	116	167
S. Carlos 1797	1	711	858	902	1	3	1185	625	904	878	36	9	5401	380	178	161
Porto-felis 1797	3	1108	1943	1934	65	84	1532	882	744	839	158	180	8361	339	113	146
In eight towns, total	15	8304	12958	14072	306	357	6950	4275	5249	5895	847	922	51831	3113	958	1391
In one city and 36 towns, Total Amount	72	35767	54993	60110	2210	2656	22917	16808	20480	23805	5296	5746	215021	10106	3120	4636

Population in the Year 1808, 200,478.—In the Year 1813, 209,219.—In the Year 1814, 211,928.

* City since 1712.

VOL. II. D.

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Note 2.

List of the Productions of the Agriculture and Cattle, in the Capitania of S. Paulo, in the Year 1814.

Article.	Quantity.	Current Price.	Value of the whole Article.
Sugar	122,993 arrobas.	Middling Moscovade 1600 rees. 1280 ditto. Per arroba.	98,394,400 rees 78,775,520 ditto.
Brandy	2521 pipes.	40,000 rees, per pipe.	100,840,000 ditto.
Castor oil	179 canadas.	5200 ditto, per canada.	930,800 ditto.
Wheat flour	5050 arrobas.	960 ditto, per arroba.	4,848,000 ditto.
Mandiocca flour	111,460 alqueires.	560 ditto, per alqueire.	62,417,600 ditto.
Maise	723,989 ditto.	240 ditto, per ditto.	173,757,360 ditto.
Beans	59,166 ditto.	480 ditto, per ditto.	28,399,680 ditto.
Rice	120,860 ditto.	960 ditto, per ditto.	116,025,600 ditto.
Bacon	24,376 arrobas.	1280 ditto, per ditto.	500,000 ditto.
Tobacco	9596 ditto	2000 ditto, per ditto, from the sea-coast (Marinha) 960 ditto per ditto, from the mountains (Serra Acima).	9,596,000 ditto. 4,606,080 ditto.
Indigo	128 pounds.	760 ditto, per pound.	97,280 ditto.
Cotton	54,222 arrobas.	1600 ditto, per ditto.	86,755,200 ditto.
Coffee	4,867 ditto.	2200 ditto, per ditto.	10,707,400 ditto.
Pigs	16,545 head.	2000 ditto, per head.	33,090,000 ditto.
Oxen, yound	17,933 ditto.	2000 ditto, per ditto.	35,866,000 ditto.
Horses, not broke	5,330 ditto.	4000 ditto, per ditto.	21,320,000 ditto.
Mules, not broke	7,504 ditto.	7000 ditto, per ditto.	52,528,000 ditto.
Rams and Sheep	1249 ditto.	1280 ditto, per ditto.	1,598,720 ditto.
Leather	1300 pieces	720 ditto, per piece.	936,000 ditto.
Sundries			3,074,800 ditto.
		Total	1,003,764,440 ditto.,

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NOTE 3.—Exporation from the Capitania of S. Paulo, 1807.

Articles.	Measure.	Exportation by Sea.		Exportation by Land.		Total Exportation.
		Total.	Val. In Rees.	Total.	Val. In Rees.	Total.	Wth in Rees.
Sugar	Arrobas	162,110	228,575,100	21,550	19,520,000	183,660	248,095,100
Ro	pipes	233	7,922,000	57	1,710,000	290	9,632,000
Coffee	arrobas	2,184	7,644,000	620	1,860,000	2,804	9,504,000
Rice	alqueires	45,927	75,517,770	—	—	45,927	75,517,770
Mandiocca flour	Do.	7,825	4,538,500	—	—	7,825	4,538,500
Wheat flour	do.	2,008	2,610,400	—	—	2,008	2,610,400
Wheat	do.	188	214,320	—	—	188	214,320
Maise	do.	—	—	2,000	800,000	2,000	800,000
Maise leaves	do.	1,056	369,600	—	—	1,056	369,60
Bacon	arrobas	4,395	4,614,750	24,500	24,500,00	28,895	29,114,750
Lord	do.	1,820	2,912,000	—	—	1,820	2,912,000
Calves	—	—	—	6,200	24,800,000	6,200	24,800,000
Figs	—	—	—	2,100	6,720,000	2,100	6,720,000
Fowls	—	—	—	12,300	1,476,000	13,300	1,476,000
Ox hides	—	6,600	9,900,000	—	—	6,600	9,900,000
Half tanned do.	—	593	519,700	—	—	593	519,700
Wine leather	pieces	200	150,000	—	—	200	150,000
Indigo	arrobas	126	2,318,400	—	—	126	2,318,400
Starch flour	do.	232	185,000	—	—	232	185,000
Saltpetre	do.	32	640,000	—	—	32	640,000
Tobacco	Do.	666	1,065,600	10,710	10,712,000	11,376	11,777,600
Ropes and cords	pieces	10,680	4,165,200	—	—	10,680	4,165,200
Timber	do.	—	9,010,980	—	—	—	9,010,980
Cotton stuffs	do.	256	3,584,000	704	10,164,000	950	13,748,000
Cotton yarin	Arrobas	240	1,702,000	—	—	240	1,702,000
Train oil	pipes	76	5,836,800	—	—	76	5,836,800
Whalebone	pieces	2,850	—	—	—	2,850	—
Males	head	—	—	390	3,315,000	390	3,315,000
Horses	do.	—	—	1,010	7,070,000	1,010	7,070,000
Sandries	—	—	7,691,300	—	1,775,000	—	9,466,300
Total	—	—	381,687,420	—	114,422,000	—	496,109,420

To Lisbon was exported in	5 ships	a value of	63,298,000 rees.
—Oporto, ditto	5 do.	do.	75,313,410 do.
—Madeira, ditto	1 do.	do.	13,513,600 do.
—Rio de Janeiro, ditto	45 vessels	do.	87,066,600 do.
—Bahis, ditto	4 do	do.	12,067,450 do.
—Pernambuco, ditto	6 do.	do.	9,360,890 do.
—Rio Grande, ditto	19 do.	do.	117,197,170 do.
—Rio de S. Francisco, do.	5 do.	do.	2,577,420
—paraty, ditto	2 do.	do.	519,900 do.
—Ilha Grande, ditto	2 do.	do.	388,710 do.
—S. Catharina, ditto	1 do.	do.	388,710 do.
By land was sent to Rio de Janeiro		do.	103,776,000 do.
the Province of Minas Geraës		do.	2,685,000 do.
Rio Grande		do.	5,086,000 do.
Goyaz		do.	2,875,000 do.

D 2

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NOTE 4. —Exportation from the Province of

Articles.	1801. In 2 Ships to Lisbon.		1802. In 2 Ships to Lisbon.		1803. In 3 Ships to Lisbon.
	Total.	Value in Rees.	Total.	Value in Rees.	Total.	Value in Rees.
Sugar (arrobas)	13,359	19,141,200	39,760	60,015,500	39,470	60,171,400
Rum (pipes)	—	—	12	480,000	36	1,440,000
Coffee (arrobas)	182	396,000	116	230,400	675	1,625,000
Rice (alqueires)	60	79,500	396	537,600	818	2,018,000
Mandiocca flour (alqueires)	—	—	120	84,000	270	189,000
Wheat flour (alqueires)	—	—	—	—	—	—
Salt meat (casks)	—	—	—	—	—	—
Lard (arrobas)	—	—	—	—	—	—
Hides	297	298,400	480	480,000	5620	8,938,240
Tanned hides	—	—	—	—	50	75,000
Half tanned ox hides	—	—	—	—	—	—
Fine leather (pieces)	—	—	—	—	—	—
Indigo (arrobas)	—	—	—	—	—	—
Peruvian bark (arrobas)	—	—	—	—	—	—
Starch flour (arrobas)	—	—	—	—	—	—
Saltpetre (arrobas)	—	—	—	—	—	—
Wood	—	280,000	—	128,000	—	100,000
Cotton (arrobas)	160	640,000	—	—	13	78,000
Tallow	—	—	—	—	—	—
Horn tips	—	—	—	—	—	—
Sundries	—	400,000	—	600,000	—	1,648,000
Total	—	21,235,100	—	66,555,000	—	76,282,640

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S. Paulo to Europe, in the years 1801—1807

1804. In 4 Ships to Lisbon and Oporto.		1805. In 4 ships to Lisbon, 2 to Oporto, 1 to Figueire, and 1 to Madeira.		1806. In 3 Ships to Lisbon, and 4 to Oporto.		1807. In 5 ships to Lisbon, 4 to Oporto, and 1 to Madeira.
Total.	Value in Rees.	Total.	Value in Rees.	Total.	Value in Rees.	Total.	Value in Rees.
65,533	141,944,480	93,924	196,254,200	59,600	103,227,200	58,210	86,732,900
46	2,300,000	53	2363,800	16	576,000	40	1,400,000
1,243	3,725,270	954	3,749,220	1,060	4,240,000	1,270	4,895,850
9,543	19,000,1110	14,694	33,208,440	23,420	39,298,760	25,010	45,618,240
450	270,000	4,330	2,781,700	650	416,000	1,720	1,062,400
—	—	—	—	—	—	594	816,000
—	—	—	—	—	—	555	3,552,000
176	281,600	247	350,000	1,510	2,416,200	1,580	2,528,000
8,686	17,372,000	15,277	26,543,790	17,962	33,948,180	30,673	52,389,480
600	960,000	—	—	1,000	1,000,000	—	—
—	—	1,133	913,000	269	269,000	200	150,000
46	1,029,000	9	216,000	155	3,915,300	126	2,319,030
—	—	—	—	—	—	706	15,786,160
620	508,680	1,134	1,213,380	220	221,400	232	185,600
84	1,680,000	58	1,160,000	24	480,000	32	640,000
—	351,000	—	557,750	—	300,000	—	1,408,000
10	60,000	44	140,800	20	102,400	—	—
—	—	210	268,800	705	1,408,500	1,540	3,141,600
2,300	69,000	3,910	181,500	1,730	309,200	24,500	931,090
—	418,000	—	3,916,160	—	2,940,000	—	5,124,800
—	194,041,140	—	273,930,540	—	195,460,140	—	229,020,060

D 3

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NOTE 5.

Trade of the Capitania of S. Paulo in 1813.

Exports.		Imports.
Article.	Quantity.	Article.	Quantity.
Sugar	578,657 arrobas.	Wine	3,445 pipes.
Brandy	1,214 Pipes.	Portuguese brandy	521/2 ditto.
Train oil	180 ditto.	Vinegar	27 ditto.
Wheat flour	6,044 arrobas.	Olive oil	5 ditto.
Maize	23,758 alq.	Beer	1,957 bottles.
Beans	6,739 ditto.	Wares	1,113 bales.
Rice	38,518 ditto.	Hats	200 chests.
Bacon	19,990 arrobas.	Powder	44 arrobas.
Preserves	142 ditto.	Lead	353 cwt.
Cheese	344 dozen.	Iron	1,080 ditto.
Paraguay tea	963 alq.	Steel	130 arrobas.
Tobacco	7,018 arrobas.	Copper	549 ditto.
Coffee	9,223 ditto.	Iron goods	158 chests.
Indigo	3 ditto.	Pottery and glass	379 ditto.
Hides	1,074.	Slaves	656.
Lime	18 moios.	Salt	37,669 alq.
Starch flour	24 alq.	Stockfish	149 cwt.
Raw cotton	1,224 arrobas.	Olives	54 barrels.
Cotton stuffs	66 pieces.	Hams	3 arrobas.
Striped cotton stuffs	4,634 ditto.	Fish	185 ditto.
Cables of imbé	40.	Salt meat	4,447 ditto.
Pigs	11,263 head.	Butter	412 ditto.
Oxen	1,402 ditto.	Tea	74 ditto.
Timber for 4,604,060 value in rees.		Tallow	52 ditto.
Sundries for 1,006,300 ditto.		Wax	858 ditto.
		Drugs and spices for	7,612,980 rees.
		Sundries for	23,946,120 do.
Of which exported to		Of which exported to
Lisbon for	2,635,200 rees.	Oporto for	53,270,900 rees.
Oporto for	49,907,600 do.	Rio de Janeiro for	646,584,928 do
Rio de Janeiro for	536,006,600 do.	Bahia for	24,362,560 do.
Bahia for	13,042,880 do.	Pernambuco for	15,500,800 do.
Pernambuco for	5,085,000 do.	Rio Grande for	6,604,800 do.
Rio Grande for	34,420,880 do.	Cabo verde for	9,033,600 do.
Rio da Prata for	25,844,680 do.	Cotinquiba for	6,876,760 do.
		Rio da Prata for	3,870,680 do.
Total exportation	666,942,840 rees.	Total importation	766,105,028 rees.

* The imbé of the southern provinces is manufactured out of the stems of several kinds of paullinias, and, on account of its toughness, is peculiarly adapted for ships.

[page] 39

NOTE 6.

Produce, Exports, and Consumption of the Island of S. Catharine in 1812.

Produce.	Measure.	Number.	Consumption.	Exportation.	Value of Exports in Rees.
Brandy	pipes	63,241	11,915	51,326	3,292,000
Cotton	cwt.	2,250	1,513	737	4,716,800
Leeks	bushels	16,506	4,884	11,622	1,859,520
Rice	cwt.	18,723	5,532	13,191	24,326,720
Sugar	do.	712	332	380	2,188,800
Ropes of imbé large	rolls(doz.)	141	14	127	254,000
Ropes of imbé small	Do.	235	11	224	224,000
Coffee	cwt.	12,592	8,836	3,756	33,052,800
Hemp	Do.	5	—	5	39,000
Hides	—	35,900	13,000	22,900	29,312,000
Broad beans	Alqueires	327	160	167	80,160
Mandiocca flour	do.	388,361	160,230	228,131	127,753,360
Beans	do.	9,832	6,640	3,192	1,276,800
Starch flour	cwt.	18	—	18	64,800
Gravata thread*	arrobas.	118	97	21	84,000
Flax	cwt.	1,798	277	1,521	—
Boards	dozens	2,553	241	2,312	5,086,400
Mundubi beans	alqueries	872	321	551	33,600
Maize	Do.	16,968	7,847	9,121	2,189,040
Salt fish	arrobas	377	151	226	1,130,000
Salt fish	bundles	9,985	6,465	3,520	7,040,000
Onions	bushels	10,472	4,525	5,947	1,189,400
Barley	alqueires	20	15	5	5000
Molasses	pipes	7,118	2,992	4,126	1,435,000
Tobacco	cwt.	165	14	151	724,800
Wheat	alqueires	3,365	2,618	747	821,700
Total					248,476,700

In the same year there arrived at S. Catharine's

Large ships	5	sailed	5.
Brigs	32		39.
Smacks	63		58.
Boats	38		39.
Yachts	12		11.
Total	150	152	ships.

* The threads out of the leaves of several species of pine-apples (Bromelia) are prepared in the same manner as from the leaves of the american aloe in sicily.

D 4

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NOTE 7.

Population of the Island of S. Catharing in the year 1813.*

Males.					Females.
Free.			Slaves.	Total.	Free.			Slaves.	Total.	Grand total.
Whites.	Negroes. And Mulattoes.	Together.			Whites.	Blacks And Mulattoes.	Together.
11,495	312	11,807	4905	16,712	13,311	353	13,664	2573	16,337	33,049

* According to the list in the journal O Patriota of June, 1814, p. 99.

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[page] 41

CHAPTER II.

JOURNEY FROM THE CITY OF S. PAULO TO THE IRON-FOUNDRY OF YPANEMA.

DURING the time of our stay at S. Paulo, the rainy season had set in with great regularity. It rained almost without interruption throughout the night, and in the day-time the sky was obscured after mid day with thick clouds, which suddenly descended in torrents of rain, after which the heavens again resumed for a short time their beautiful transparent azure; the air at this time was seldom very sultry; nay, we found in the night such a rapid change in the temperature, that we were obliged to provide ourselves with warmer covering. The present season was extremely unfavourable to our wish of becoming acquainted with the natural curiosities of the country, for whenever we ventured to extend our excursions beyond the immediate neighbourhood of the city, we always returned home wet through. The vegetable world began, it is true, to shoot forth with renovated vigour, but the animals showed themselves in smaller numbers. We resolved, there-

[page] 42

fore, to shorten our stay in the city, which was at all events tiresome for naturalists, and to repair to the iron foundry of S. Joâo Ypanema, about twenty leagues distant; the beautiful environs of which, together with the abundance of plants and animals to be found there, had been described to us in very attractive colours by Lieutenant-colonel Varnhagen, the director of the establishment, whom we had met with at Rio de Janeiro. The government provided us with letters of recommendation to the resident authorities, and our active countryman Mr. Müller procured us, as tropeiro, a Paulista, who bore a good character as a guide for caravans. Our mules, having been brought back to S. Paulo, from the pasture to which they had been driven during our stay, we departed on the 9th of January, 1818, from this city, which the cordial frankness and hospitality of its inhabitants had given us so much reason to remember with sentiments of gratitude.

The road to Ypanema leads S.S.W., over a hilly and partly cultivated country. To the right lay the mountain of Jaraguá, belonging to General Da Franca e Horta in Rio, who had invited us to spend some days there, to examine the formation, and the former gold-washing, which he has again begun to work. This mountain forms one of the most southern branches of the Serra do Mantiqueira, which, after running for more than fifty miles to the north, disappears in this latitude. The earth washed for gold in this place is a ferru-

[page] 43

ginous sandstone conglomerate, in which the metal appears sometimes in grains, and sometimes in little scales. From Jacarehy, a small place, the road gradually ascends. The country consists of hills pleasingly grouped, and alternating with narrow valleys. The eminences are covered with a greyish green high grass, between which there are scattered bushes of myrtles, melastomas, rhexias, &c.; the more fertile valleys, on the contrary, are covered with low wood. At Cutia, a parish five leagues from S. Paulo, we left our company, in order to reach Ypanema as soon as possible. We were very near having reason to repent of this step, because, as we learnt afterwards, some of our people were said to have expressed an intention to open our trunks, and decamp with the plunder. We took this as a warning never more to separate from our caravan during our tour. The country through which we rode continued to become more mountainous and woody; the road was indeed broad, and tolerably well beaten by the numerous herds of mules, often amounting to nearly a thousand head, which pass through here from the province of Rio Grande do Sul, yet all at once we got out of it, and lost ourselves in the thicket. The silence of this forest, which was only now and then interrupted by the loud note of the uraponga, makes a very melancholy impression on the traveller who has gone astray, as he fears at every step to wander farther from his destination. After

[page] 44

riding about in the woods for several hours, we at length met in a side-path with a very friendly person, who with great readiness conducted us back to the main road, which was at a considerable distance. He was the priest of S. Roque (the place which we intended to reach to-day), and was going to visit his estate in the evening. In other countries the peaceful preacher of the Gospel would hardly be recognised in the costume of a Paulista, consisting of a wide cloak (poncho), a broadbrimmed white beaver hat, and a sabre at his side. In this country it is however necessary to travel in this manner, because in the solitary paths through the forest, you may sometimes meet an ounce, or a venomous serpent, or a thievish runaway slave.

At S. Roque, an inconsiderable village, the Cabo das Ordenanças, as the principal person of the place, immediately took care to accommodate us in a small ruined hut, treated us with a frugal meal, and, at last, procured us a frame (girâo) of laths bound together to sleep upon. The prevailing rock in this neighbourhood is a yellowish coarse-grained sandstone, which alternates here and there with layers of brown iron-stone. On the road, casual fragments of red iron-stone frequently occur. In general, the extensive appearance of iron, though only in fragments, is more remarkable the farther you proceed from the granite to the sandstone formation; on declivities octahedral crystals of magnetic ironstone are sometimes found quite detached. On

[page] 45

the following day we had again to pass through low but thick woods, in which we caught the little atlas (A. Aurora), and a new beetle of the species Lamprima, with very much bent mandibles anteriorly bifurcated. Towards evening we issued from the wood; and, after passing high campos covered with luxuriant grass, reached the Villa de Sorocaba. This pretty place lies on the inconsiderable river of the same name, which flows into the Tieté to the west of it, and over which there is a wooden bridge. Some German workmen had long been expected here for the neighbouring iron-foundry of Ypanema, and the people immediately overwhelmed us on our arrival, with questions respecting their coming, their ability, and the method of working the metal in Germany. So evident a mark of interest in a royal establishment inspired us with a favourable opinion of the civil character of the people of Sorocaba. In fact, we learnt afterwards that they everywhere enjoyed the reputation of trust-worthiness, and honesty, wherever they appear with herds of unbroken mules, the sale of which is their most important branch of traffic. The capitâo môr immediately regaled us with ripe grapes; while eating which the question occurred to us—why this fruit produces, in this country, so little saccharine matter, while the ananas, in the province of S. Paulo, are so remarkably sweet and well-tasted? Perhaps this circumstance arises from the soil containing too little lime, being rather

[page] 46

clay or granite; and from the vine not being yet sufficiently naturalised. The reason is, that laws formerly existed prohibiting the cultivation of the vine in this country, in order to prevent injury to the Portuguese trade. It is now freely permitted, but there are few persons who avail themselves of the liberty. We rested in Sorocaba only till the cool of the evening, in order to set out for the ironfoundry of S. Joâo de Ypanema, which is about two leagues distant. The road to this little place, which we reached at sunset, passes over campos with low hills covered with short grass, and scattered dwarf trees, and in the bottoms there is here and there low wood. It is situated on an amphitheatrical eminence on the banks of the river Ypanema, which here spreads out into a lake; beautiful plains form the foreground, and the iron-mountain of Araasojava (Guarasojava) covered with a dark wood which, on the north-west side, descends into the valley, makes the background of the landscape. The neatly white-washed houses, which lie scattered along the hill, at the foot of which stand the extensive buildings of the manufactory, and the expression of noisy activity and industry, which reign here, seem to transport the European into some manufactory in a beautiful wild district of his own country.

We had been recommended by the amiable Colonel Toledo, at S. Paulo, to Signor Francisco Xavier Ferreira, the accountant of the establishment.

[page] 47

The hospitality of this worthy Paulista, and the natural good-nature with which his numerous family welcomed us strangers, rendered our stay at Ypanema one of the most agreeable parts of our journey, upon which we never reflect without pleasure. Our host gave up to us a small house near the manufactory, where we had room enough to arrange, air, and dry our collections. He himself resided in a farm upon an eminence, about ten minutes walk from the place, but had several horses kept ready saddled the whole day, near to us, to facilitate our excursions. Our residence with this friendly unaffected family would have been very agreeable to us from the first, had we not been uneasy about the delay of our caravan, which was to have joined us on the evening of our arrival. Three days passed in anxious expectation, and it was not till we had sent a tropeiro with fresh animals, that our mules arrived on the fifth day in the most deplorable condition. A free negro, who came from Rio de Janeiro with our troop, as tropeiro, and who was born in this part of the country, treacherously ran away as soon as he found himself in his native place. This event inspired us with invincible distrust of all people of his colour, which opinion was of considerable service to us on many similar occasions. We must, therefore, recommend to travellers in the interior of Brazil to take the greatest care in the choice of their servants; the less they

[page] 48

depend, in this respect, upon natives, the more agreeably and securely will they travel.

The whole village of Ypanema owes its origin to the vast repositories of magnetic iron-stone in the mountain of Araasojava, the treasures of which have indeed been long known, but were not regularly worked according to the true principles of mining till after the arrival of the king. The enterprising minister, Conde de Linhares, brought hither, in the year 1810, a company of Swedish miners, who began by erecting a wooden workshop on the banks of the Ypanema, in which they had two small furnaces. At present there are still three Swedish master-workmen, who have increased the annual produce of the manufactory built by them to four thousand arrobas. In the smelting and other operations the Swedish method is followed. The want of a high furnace, as well as the difficulty of transporting the metal in large masses, and the demand for ready-made articles, induced the managers to have the greater part of the metal that is obtained immediately manufactured into horseshoes, nails, locks, &c. The Swedish workmen have endeavoured to instruct negroes and mulattoes so as to qualify them to be useful assistants, and are very well satisfied with their practical ability; but their idleness and irregularity are a continual cause of dissatisfaction to those good people who, even in the abundance and freedom from care which

[page] 49

they enjoy in this southern climate, cannot forget their own country, and are filled with the most painful longing after their native land, at the thought that, like their already deceased companions they will one day lie in unconsecrated ground. Under the government of the Conde da Palma, an enlightened promoter of the manufactories, a plan was made for a new and more durable iron-foundry, and the execution of it was confided to our countryman. Lieutenant-colonel Varnhagen. This handsome and extensive edifice, the expenses of which amounted to 300,000 crusados, was just completed when we arrived at Ypanema, but they had not yet begun the operation of smelting in it, because they waited for the founders necessary for the management of a high furnace, who were expected from Germany. The buildings of the new manufactory are constructed, with taste and solidity, of yellow sandstone, which is found in the neighbourhood. There are two high, and several other furnaces; the bellows are worked by water. Very well contrived and spacious magazines for keeping the coals and the ready-manufactured articles are erected near to the main building, which receives the necessary water from the Rio Ypanema by means of a bricked canal provided with sluices. There is also an hospital for the sick workmen belonging to the establishment, which is attended by two surgeons. At the time of our visit doubts were still entertained

VOL. II. E

[page] 50

whether the sandstone here was proof against fire, because they had not yet attempted to smelt. A difficulty which will oppose the extending of the manufactory is the want of proper wood for fuel; for though the low valleys, the banks of the streams, and the iron mountain of Araasojava itself, are covered with wood, it is probable that this will soon be exhausted if the manufactory continues to work to a great extent. The directors have, it is true, made the regulation, that every inhabitant of these parts must furnish a quantity of charcoal in proportion to the extent of the land cultivated by him; but this means, without the due planting of new woods, and a judicious management of those which already exist, cannot prevent a future scarcity of fuel. By plantations of the paraüna (perhaps an acacia?), a kind of wood which produces a very good charcoal, they would prevent the necessity of employing many different kinds of charcoal; which, by an unequal communication of carbon to the iron in the process of smelting, probably make it of unequal density, and consequently brittle in some places. The ore appears to be good, and contains partly ninety per cent.; yet we frequently heard complaints in Brazil that the iron extracted from it was too brittle, and that many instruments made of it were not durable. When the best method of treating the ore, especially in the operation of refining, is discovered, and the exportation facilitated by making a good road or canal to the coast, Ypa-

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nema, with its incredible abundance in iron ore, will be able to supply, not only Brazil, but all the rest of the American continent, with that metal.

The mountain which produces this extraordinary quantity of ore, rises behind the place, a quarter of a mile to the west, and extends, as a rather insulated mountain ridge, a league in length, from south to north. The elevation above the Ypanema is about 1000 feet It is almost every where covered with thick woods, from which, in the morning and evening, the noisy howls of the brown monkey (Mycetes fuscus*) are heard. We ascended it, taking the narrow road through the bushes, by which the mules bring the ore to the manufactory. After we had gone winding up the mountain for a short way through thick wood, we found ourselves all at once before some gigantic rocks of magnetic iron-stone, which rise almost perpendicularly to the height of forty feet and more. Around them, partly upon, and partly under, the surface of the ground, which is a very rich mould, lie innumerable loose pieces, from the size of a fist to considerable blocks. The surface of the masses of rock is almost everywhere flat and even, with slight depressions and cavities, and has a crust of imperfectly oxydated iron-stone, which is some lines thick. We did not observe that the great masses caused any motion in a suspended needle, but small pieces,

* Spix: Simiarum et Vespertilionum brasiliensium species novœ, &c. Monachii, 1823. fol. tab. xxx.

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especially when just struck off, had a considerable effect on it The mass of this magnetic iron-stone is either quite compact or traversed by veins of red ochre. This iron-stone appears to be in immediate contact with a yellow quartzy sandstone, with an argillaceous cement; at least, the latter is seen in several places at the foot of the mountain, as well as in Ypanema itself. A dirty lavender-blue primitive clay-slate, tinged brown in the rifts, which runs from cast to west, lies on the top of the mountain, here and there, over the iron. Upon the Morro de Araasojava, and probably in veins of the magnetic iron-stone, there is a porous quartzstone, of a light brown colour, the cavities in which are covered with a bluish white calcedony, with a crystallised surface.

The forests, which stand more luxuriant and thicker in the hollow than in the higher parts, are uncommonly rich in the most various kinds of wood. In the company of a farmer of the neighbourhood, we collected, in one day, a hundred and twenty different kinds, among which, there was in proportion a great number of very hard and durable species, fit for the construction of buildings and ships.* We were very much struck with the facility with which our guide, after viewing the

* The most valuable woods of that country are, Sebastiâo d' Arruda, Coracâo do Negro, both chiefly used for fine furniture on account of their red grain; Jacarandà-tun, an excellent kind of mahogany; Masaranduva, Cabiuna, Perova, Paraüna, Jequetivá, Cedro, &c.

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stem and the bark of each species, told us not only the name current in the country, but also stated the use, the time of flowering and the kind of fruit. An uninterrupted intercourse with nature, sharpens the senses of these uneducated people to such a correct notion of natural distinctions, that they mostly excel, in this respect, the learned European, who has fewer opportunities of contemplating nature. The sertanejo (a countryman) of S. Paulo distinguishes several kindred forms of laurel trees, which he intends to fell for domestic purposes, on a comparison of their leaves, with a certainty that would do honour to a botanist. He is equally distinguished by an accurate acquaintance with the medical plants of his country. The female inhabitants of this province in particular, have the reputation of great skill in the practice of the medical profession. Almost in all the houses, one or other of the women takes upon her the office of curadeira, which is not disputed with her by any real physicians or surgeons, for at the time that we travelled through the capitania of S. Paulo, there was no regular physician either in the city or in the country. It is an error, to suppose that this practical knowledge of the medical virtues of natural substances, has chiefly descended to the present inhabitants, by tradition, from the American aborigines. A long intercourse with the Indians has convinced us, that the indolence

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of these unhappy people, hinders them from investigating the healing virtues of plants. Superstition and indifference to life, and insensibility to the sufferings of their fellow-creatures, prevent the Indians from making use of the beneficent gifts of nature which everywhere surround them, and which their senses, quick in simple observation, would readily discover if they took any lively interest in them. The greatest merit in discovering and making use of healing plants, as well as the finding of the gold mines, is therefore due to the Paulistas. Their active minds and their curiosity, excited by the bounty of nature, pursued, with the acuteness peculiar to Europeans, the discoveries which occurred to them by chance, or very seldom by information obtained from the aboriginal inhabitants.

In this branch of research, the human mind everywhere takes advantage of the indications of nature, and from the physical character of objects from the smell, colour, from the similarity of certain forms with parts of the human body, draws analogical conclusions respecting their internal virtues and their effects as medicines. Thus the Paulista, endowed with a lively sensibility to nature, saw in every deep red colour a reference to the blood, in the yellow to the gall and liver: to the Urupé (Boletus sanguineus), which is of the colour of red lead, suddenly appears on decayed trees, and frequently continues only a month, he ascribed peculiar properties for checking hemor-

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rhage; in the yellow wood of the bùtua (Abuta rufescens) he saw a hint of its efficacy against diseases of the liver; in the testicle-shaped root of the contrayerva (Dorstenia brasiliensis) and the heart-shaped leaves of the Coracâo de Jesus (Mikania officinalis, nob.) an indication of strengthening and cordial qualities; and considered the large bright flowers of the Gomphrena officinalis, nob. as an expression of many excellent qualities of the root, which he therefore distinguished by the significant name of Paratudo (good for everything). We might mention several other similar natural productions, which the Paulista, having judged to be efficacious from their external appearance, tried, in a very rude empirical manner it is true, and applied them more and more frequently against diseases. Among this little people of colonists, who were left only to their own simplicity and the natural riches which surround them, medicine began with mere practical experience and popular traditions, and assumed the same character which it bore in Europe in the middle ages; and as testimonies of which, we still find in several Pharmacopœias of old date, elks' claws, the scincus officinalis, &c. The scientific physician must here make use of the simple accounts and experience of the country people, to extend the knowledge of medicine, as Hippocrates formerly used the votive tables in the temples. Wounds in particular, and external

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disorders of the most various kinds, sire here treated with a degree of success which is often astonishing. Both the rapidity with which in hot countries all organic processes go on, and the frequently almost too bold interference of the half-taught physician, by desperate remedies and by excessive doses, may likewise be among the causes of the success of many modes of treatment which in Europe would be condemned as hazardous. The circumstance too, that most of these domestic remedies are taken immediately from their living state for medical purposes, is of great importance, and, perhaps, too little attended to in Europe, where the state of civil society keeps us at a greater distance from nature. The European medicines from the vegetable kingdom have lost most of their virtues before they have reached this country, and the Brazilian physicians therefore substitute, without hesitation, the native productions for many that come from abroad. Only for a few remedies, for example, Iceland moss, the squilla, aconite, digitalis, opium, which latter, however, seems frequently not to act favourably, sufficient substitutes are not yet known here.*

We had been only a few days at Ypanema, when the report of the arrival of two foreign physicians had spread far and wide through these lonely regions, and patients came from all quarters, who

* See Note 1. page 90.

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asked our advice and medicines. Our host, too, a man full of patriotic sentiments, thought it his duty to turn the presence of his guests to the advantage of his friends and neighbours, and introduced to us a great number of patients. In the space of a fortnight, which we spent here, we distributed above five hundred prescriptions to the crowd of applicants, which half emptied our little medicine chest. By far the greater part of the diseases which we here observed, were of syphilitic origin, or united with syphilitic dyscrasy. The forms under which this polymorphous disease appears, are of the greatest diversity, particularly as regards the cutaneous system, and several of them have perhaps not yet been observed in Europe. In general the character of disease here is inflammatory, and modified by the choleric, melancholy temperament of the Paulista. Under this head must be classed the extremely numerous cases of inflammation of the eyes; of erysipelas, combined with liver complaints; of acute dropsies, particularly anasarca; of hydrothorax, the consequences of pneumonic complaints, which appear sometimes simple and sometimes complicated with gastric affect tons difficult to be recognised; of apoplexies preceded by cataract, &c. In no part of Brazil are there so many melancholy and hysterical patients as here. Hydrophobia has been already observed though rarely. In mentioning the circumstances tending to produce diseases in this part of Brazil, we must

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particularly notice the diet which differs essentially from that in the northern provinces. Instead of mandiocca, they use almost exclusively a coarsely ground maize flour: it is brought to table in little baskets, as bread is in Europe, and it is only when the guests require it that farinha de pâo (mandiocca) is brought in its stead. They very rarely bake it into bread or cakes. Besides this, Canjica which is also made of maize, and which is never wanting at the dessert, is likewise a national dish of the Paulista. The grains of maize, cleared of the husks by a hammer, driven by means of water, in the hollowed trunk of a tree, are boiled with water or milk, and then sweetened with sugar or treacle. This dish, of the invention of which the Paulistas are not a little proud, is well-tasted, but, on account of the heat of the climate, difficult of digestion. We often hear in this province the expression: "if we had not been the first who discovered the gold mines, we should have done sufficient service to the country by the canjica, and the hammocks, which last we first copied from the Indians."

The simple inhabitants of this country, had not yet heard anything of animal magnetism, and listened with some incredulity to our accounts of this mode of cure, which in their opinion, was of a magical nature. If we had proposed the cure by magnetism, for hysterical women, their hurbands would certainly not have been indifferent to

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the execution of this project; but another opportunity presented itself for making such an experiment. A young negro slave, who had lost the use of his right arm, by suddenly taking cold, was brought to us by his master, to examine the nature of his disease. After we had sufficiently enquired into all the circumstances we decided that the application of magnetism to the right arm, would be the most suitable method. One of us, therefore, made him stretch out his arm upon a table, and had begun to magnetise only a few minutes, when the attention of the spectators was attracted by a considerable motion of all the muscles of the patient's arm. The operator hereby encouraged, redoubled his exertions; and when a short time afterwards, he called to the negro, in a voice of command, "Rise! lift up your arm!" the patient, still half in doubt, raised his arm, and as he was able to perform all the motions without difficulty, a scene took place which was worthy of the pencil of a master; the astonishment of the persons present, and their terror at this act of conjuration, the respectful triumph of our host, the joy of the slave, and the gratitude of his master, formed altogether a very animated picture. We did not remain long enough at Ypanema, to learn whether our black patient continued to feel the benefit of the operation; but at all events, we could not but be surprised at the rapidity with which a single manipulation had acted upon him.

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This experiment appeared to us to confirm the notion, to which the physiologist is led by many other circumstances, that the European excels the black and other coloured races in intensity of nervous vitality, and is specifically superior to the other races both in body and mind (dass der Europäer an Intensität des Nervenlebens die gefarbten Menschen übertreffe, und auf eine ganz specifische Weise, sowohl somatisch als pyschisch die übrigen Racen beherrsche). It has been already observed by several ingenious writers, that the individual races, though similarly organised, are, however, more or less qualified in various respects, and that a superior conformation of the intellectual organs and powers indemnifies the European, for instance, for the absence of inferior and lower faculties. If, for example, the man of the Caucasian race is inferior to the negro in mobility and productiveness, to the American in firmness and robustness of make, in muscular strength, in ability to endure fatigue, and in longevity, and both to him and to the Mongol in acuteness of the senses, he however excels them all in personal beauty, in symmetry, proportion, and carriage, and in regard to the moral, free, independent, universal development of the intellectual faculties. It is that beautiful harmony of all the individual powers, which is only produced and maintained by the preponderance of what is noblest in man, which more accurately establishes his dignity, than the pre-eminent, and

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perhaps excessive perfection of single inferior organs. It is the result of this beautifully constituted and more perfect unity of the human powers, that must be considered as true humanity, which is inseparable from the idea of freedom. Freedom, founded on a lively moral consciousness, and developed by the glories of religion and genuine science, has impressed upon the European the stamp of elevation and dignity, which have hitherto almost unconsciously conducted him victorious through all parts of the globe; which have protected him among the rude children of nature, even where unlicensed presumption has succeeded to the first simplicity, and everywhere defend him with the shield of veneration and awe. We ourselves had opportunities, during a longer residence among the Indians, of proving the superiority which the nature of the whites exercises over them. This race, as well as the Ethiopic, and their mixed descendants, manifest a secret awe of a white man, so that a look from him, nay his bare appearance, terrifies them; and one white, in silence, commands hundreds of them. This is still more the case with the blacks, who, though prompt to act, have no real solid courage, and are therefore, as it were, mentally subdued and constrained by the innate superiority, and the firm resolution, of the white man.

After we had explored the immediate environs of Ypanema, we extended our excursions to more distant parts. It appeared to us to be

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of particular importance to visit the town of Villa do Porto Feliz, on the Rio Tieté, where various information was to be obtained, respecting the trade between S. Paulo and Matto-grosso, which is carried on from that place. The distance from Ypanema to Villa do Porto Feliz is five leagues and a half. The road leads generally in a north-west direction, over hilly campos, and through low woody tracts, where we did not meet with a single house. The capitâo môr, who had been made acquainted with our arrival by our obliging host and companion, received us with great hospitality, and readily showed us every thing remarkable in the place, which consists of a few huts, lying on the eminence. The Rio Tieté, formerly called Anhembí, flows on the west side, at the foot of the village. The water is of the same disagreeable dark brown colour as in the neighbourhood of S. Paulo. At this place, having been joined by several small rivers, among which are the Rio dos Pinheiros, the Jundiahy, and the Capibarí, it has already acquired a considerable mass of water, so as to be from twelve to fifteen fathoms broad, and it runs southward, between rocky banks, covered with thick forests. Close to the port, which is nothing more than a creek, cleared of wood and stones, and at present showing no sign of trade and business, except a few boats drawn on shore, a rocky wall rises to the height of forty or fifty feet, which, in the Lingua Geral, is called

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Arara-ita-guaba, i e, the place where the araras eat stones, and formerly had given the same name to the town. These rocks consist of the same stone, belonging to the sandstone formation, which is found about Ypanema. Its surface is covered with a fine yellowish grey marl, containing here and there imbedded fragments of sandstone; which marl is also found in other places, for example, on the hills of the town, exhibiting an efflorescent white salt, probably alum. It is said to have been observed, that after the end of the rainy season the araras and other birds flock hither from all the neighbouring country, to rub off with their bills, and lick up, the saline efflorescence of the stone. We could not be witnesses of this singular scene; on the contrary, the whole country, which was in itself so melancholy, from the dark waters of the river, appeared as if dead. The licking of the ground by animals in the hotter part of Brazil, where the surface of the earth, in extensive tracts, produces salt, and particularly saltpetre, is however, of very ordinary occurrence, to which we shall revert in the sequel. Not far from the town several large rolled pieces of greenstone are visible in loam; lime also is said to be found in the neighbourhood.

It was from Porto Feliz that the Paulistas set out upon their first expedition to explore the interior of the Sertôes, lying to the west. Thirst of gold, and love of adventures excited them, so far back

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as the end of the seventeenth century, to follow the course of the Tieté. After they had happily passed its numerous falls they came into the Paraná, and from that into the Rio Pardo, up which they then sailed. The crystal water of the Rio Sanguexuga, one of the principal sources of the Rio Pardo, seemed to promise them ample success in their search for gold. They explored the country; washed the earth, in hopes of finding that precious metal; and passing the limit of the waters of the Serra de Camapuâo, reached the sources of the Embotatay, which they descended till they at last entered the broad stream of the Paraguay. In the marshy and unhealthy tracts they at first, indeed, found no gold; but the report of the riches of the neighbourhood, particularly towards the west, the exaggerated accounts of the treasures which the expeditions of the Spaniards — among others that of Cabeza de Vaca, and that of the enterprising Portuguese, Aleyxo Garcia — had met with in these countries; lastly, their usual inclination to attack the less powerful and scattered Indian tribes, and to carry away the prisoners as slaves, were sufficient reasons to induce several Paulistas to undertake this tedious and dangerous voyage. Antonio Pires de Campos took, in the year 1718, the same route, and discovered the gold mines of Cujabá, while he was endeavouring to procure prisoners of the Indian tribe of the Cuchipos. In a few years so great a number of gold-washers flocked to this new

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Eldorado, that several villages quickly arose, and a brisk intercourse commenced between this colony and the mother country. The way down the Tieté, &c, was, at first, the only one known, and all necessaries were conveyed by it to the interior. Considering the immense treasures which the mines yielded at that time, (it is said that 400 arrobas of gold were found at Cujabá in the first month after its discovery,*) it was very natural that the adventurers should not think of any kind of work which did not immediately satisfy their thirst of gold. They even neglected to cultivate a sufficient quantity of maize and mandiocca, and the colony, therefore, long remained absolutely dependent upon S. Paulo for its supplies; nay, there was frequently a scarcity of provisions, which, as well as all other necessaries, could not be obtained but at enormous prices.†

The colony was entirely surrounded by hostile Indian tribes. The Payagoâs dwelling on the banks of the Paraguay, and of the Pantanaës or the

* Corografia Brasilica, i p. 250.

† In the year 1731 the first brandy was distilled at Cujabá, from sugar-cane planted there; a frasco (some quarts) cost at first ten octaves of gold. The alqueire of maize coal six, of beans, ten; a pound of salt meal, or bacon, two; a plate of salt, four; a fowl, a pound of sugar, or a shirt, six octaves of gold. The daily pay of a gold-washer in some parts, for instance, at Chapada de Francisco Xavier, was still two octaves in 1736. The innumerable quantity of rats, in the first years alter the foundation of the colony, made a cat one of the most important domestic animals, and the first two were sold foe a pound of gold. Corogr. Bras., i. p. 255.

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marsh of the Xarayes, which is annually overflowed by the banks of that river, during the rainy season, were a numerous nation, skilled in navigation, and very dangerous to the convoys of the colony, especially when they crossed the Pantanaës. The Guaycurús, an equally numerous and well-mounted tribe, who resided in the grassy plains between the rivers Embotatay and S. Lourenzo, attacked the colonists in the settlements and mines; and having procured themselves some boats, they even pursued the vessels of the Paulistas whenever they got sight of them. The latter, therefore, gave up the navigation of the Rio Embotatay (Imbótetei), which was chiefly disturbed by the Payagoâs, and followed the course of the Tacoary, which falls into the Paraguay more to the north; and this route was, in the sequel, universally taken. For the same reason, after the year 1723, the boats of the Paulistas sailed together from the harbour of Porto Feliz, at high water, after the rainy season (in the months of February and March), in order to convey to Cujabá the most important necessaries, provisions, ammunition, and tools for working the mines. Such flotillas often consisted of more than a hundred canoes, accompanied by a military escort. Yet, even these considerable expeditions were attacked, in the first years, by the warlike Indians; and only the increasing population of the gold district was able to keep them gradually in awe. The discovery and the working of the rich gold mines

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of Villa Bella (1735) augmented the number of the colonists. In the year 1736 a way by land was opened from Goyaz, the mines of which had been discovered twelve years before, and 1500 persons left the gold mines at this place in order to enrich themselves more speedily in Matto-grosso; at a later period the journey from Cujabá to the river of the Amazons, and to Pará (in the year 1742, by Manoel de Lima, on the rivers Guaporé and Madeira, and in the year 1744 by Joâo de Souza on the Arinos and Tapajoz), proved the possibility of in immediate connection between Matto-grosso and Pará. The way down the rivers from Porto Feliz continued, however, to be much the most frequented. Even Don Antonio Rolim de Moura, the first governor of Matto-grosso, went by this way to the new province (1751). It was only when the population of Goyaz increased that the way by land was more used, and that on the Tieté gradually abandoned; so that at present no more than from six to ten boats go annually from Porto Feliz to Cujabá.

The capitâo môr of Porto Feliz had, in former years, made some journeys thither himself, and gave us a most discouraging description of the fatigues and dangers to which travellers are exposed. The vessels (canoas) which are employed on this voyage are made, like the barks in the lakes of Upper Bavaria, of a single trunk of the iberóva or ximboúva; they are from fifty to sixty feet long, five

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feet and a half broad, three to four feet deep, and can carry a cargo of 400 arrobas, besides the necessary provisions. They are generally made in the beautiful forests on the Rio Piracicaba, which falls into the Tieté about eleven miles to the north-west of Porto Feliz. They are commonly manned by eight persons who, as the narrow vessel will not admit of sails, use only short oars and long poles. The navigation on the Tieté is very tedious on account of its extraordinary windings; unhealthy, from the thick fogs which rise a few hours after sunset; and dangerous, from the numerous waterfalls which must be passed. Though the mouth of the Tieté is only five and forty leagues in a straight line from Porto Feliz, the boatmen estimate the route which they are obliged to take, at one hundred and thirty leagues. The river is full of violent currents, rocks, and waterfalls, thirteen of which cannot be passed without landing half the cargo. The waterfalls of Avanhandavussú and Itapure, the latter of which is only seven leagues above the junction of the Tieté with the Paraná, are still more dangerous; the stream falls, in both places, thirty feet, and it is therefore necessary entirely to unload the boat, and to forward it by land. When the travellers have reached the Paraná, that river, the great waterfall of which, Urubú-Punga, is three miles further to the north, conveys them, as soon as the dangerous current of lupiá is passed, without hazard, to the mouth of the Rio Pardo, where they

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generally arrive on the fifth flay. The Paraná rolls its immense mass of waters slowly and majestically along in a broad bed, and is said to be even here half a league across. The navigation on it is agreeable, but dangerous when a high wind arises, by which tremendously high waves are dashed against the shallow boats. The eastern bank is generally high and the western low, and both are of white sand covered with woods. The latter cease when the travellers leave this main stream and proceed up the Rio Pardo, which descends through an extensive country covered with grass, with great impetuosity and considerable fall, interrupted by two and thirty cataracts. The navigation on this river is extremely difficult, so that it often requires two months to pass the eighty leagues of its course. In the harbour of Sangue-xuga the boats are unloaded and conveyed on four-wheeled cars drawn by oxen, two miles and a half to the harbour of Camapuâo. Here the travellers meet with the first settlement of inhabitants in this wilderness (sertâo), where they may purchase what provisions they want, such as maize, bacon, beans, and dried salt meat. The fazenda of Camapuâo lies exactly half way on this fatiguing route, and is often a place of refuge for the crew, who are frequently all attacked with malignant fevers, caused by incessant hardships, and the damp foggy climate they have travelled through. The government has placed a detachment of soldiers here, whose business it is to

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protect the fazenda against the attacks of the neighbouring Cujapós, and to assist travellers in conveying their effects over the isthmus.

From this fazenda, the boats proceed down the shallow little river Camapuâo with only half their cargo, till they reach the deeper Rio Cochim. On this river, which winds between steep cliffs and rocks, they have again to pass two and twenty rapids and falls, some of which make it necessary entirely to unload the boat; others, to take out half the cargo. From the Cochim they come into the Tacoary, a considerable river, which is generally about seventy fathoms broad, and has only two falls, the second of which, Belliago, is the last of the hundred and thirteen which the boats have to pass from Porto Feliz to Cujabá. This river comes down with numerous windings through pleasant grassy plains, into the lowlands, towards the Paraguay, and empties itself by many mouths into the main stream. In former times it was frequently visited by the Payagoâs Indians, who came from the lower Paraguay to attack travellers. In order to be able to make an effectual defence, all the canoes which undertake the voyage at the same time, usually assemble in the harbour of Pouzo Alegre, from which they proceed, under the direction of an admiral, chosen from their own body. All travellers agree in the praise of these countries, where they say that the stranger is constantly apprised by an abundance of new and remarkable

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objects. According to their accounts, these islands and the banks of the river are inhabited by innumerable flocks of birds; the shoals of fish in this river, which come from the Paraguay, are incredible. Palms of singular forms stand upon the banks, alternating with a beautiful vegetation of aromatic grasses and shrubs. The scenery is said to be still more remarkable and pleasing when the travellers have arrived in the canals, between the Pantanaës themselves; thousands of ducks and water-hens rise in the air on the approach of the boats; storks of immense size wade the boundless swamps, and divide the sovereignty over the waters with the terrible crocodiles; sometimes they sail for leagues together between thick plantations of rice, which here grows spontaneously; and thus this solitary tract, which is but seldom animated by a canoe of the Guaycurús engaged in fishing, recalls to mind the plantations and agriculture of Europe. The diversity and grandeur of the scenery announce the vicinity of a great river, and after four or five days journey the navigators reach the Paraguay, which, at this place, is almost a league in breadth, even in the dry season, but during the rains overflows the Pantanaës, and spreads into a vast lake above a hundred square leagues in extent. The navigation, though against the stream, is easy here, and the voyage to the mouth of the Rio de S. Lourenzo or dos Porrudos, is generally made in eight days; from this they at length reach the Rio Cujabá, and in ten days'

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tail up that river, come to the Villa de Cujabá. The whole voyage occupies from four to five months. While the trade upon the Tieté still flourished, arms, cloth, cottons and white calicoes, glass-ware and pottery, salt, and all other European articles, went by this way to Cujabá and Matto-grosso. The returns consisted in copaiva oil, pichurim beans, tamarinds, resinous gums, wax, guarana, gold-dust, and skins, particularly of the Brazilian otters and ounces. The articles imported by so long and dangerous a route, were at first very dear; but by degrees the prices declined, till they bore a due proportion to those on the coast; especially after the route by land caused the two ways by water, from Porto Feliz on the Tieté, and from Para on the Tocantins and the Araguaya, to be abandoned. The Villa de Cujabá, which, on account of its more healthy climate, exceeds in population and prosperity the Villa Bella, now the Cidade de Matto-grosso, and is chosen by the governor for his residence during one half of the year, is the principal place in the province for the trade, by land, as well as on the rivers.

The Indian tribes, who at first attacked travellers on the river, have now retired for the most part into more distant regions, or have adopted more peaceable dispositions, and come to the river only from time to time, in order to trade with the boats that sail along it. In exchange for European articles, they offer honey, wax, copal, and the

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fruit of several species of palm. They are principally Cayapós who visit the canoes on their way from the Tieté into the Tacoary, and Guaycurús who show themselves on the rest of the voyage. The Cayapós, also called Caipos, are the most powerful nation in the province of Goyaz: they possess the wildernesses between the western bank of the Paraná and the Paraguay, and around the sources of the Araguaya, and the streams which join it at the commencement of its course, and sometimes extend their excursions further to the north and south. The Guaycurús or Quaicurús, called also Cavalleiros by the Portuguese, inhabit the plains on the two banks of the Paraguay, which are for the most part open and covered with grass, namely, on the east side between the rivers Tacoary and Ipaní, and on the west side to the Serra de Albuquerque.* They are the most numerous and most powerful nation in Matto-grosso, and formidable to all their neighbours. The chief object of their frequent wars, is to make prisoners, whom they carry off as slaves, and keep in very rigorous servitude. There is perhaps no tribe of the South American Indians, among whom the state of

* We mention some of the characteristics of the life of the Guaycurús, in which we follow partly oral communications, and partly the accounts of this nation, given in the Journal O Patriota (July, &c. 1813.), which were written by Major R. F. de Almeida Serra, of the Engineers, and have bean copied word for word by Cazal.

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slavery is so distinctly marked, as among them. Captivity and birth are the two causes which condemn an individual to slavery. Both of these imply a certain difference of caste, which is maintained with great rigour. The slave or his descendant can never contract a marriage with a free person, because he would profane it by such a union. He is condemned to menial occupations, and is not allowed to accompany his master in war. We were informed that among the Guaycurús, there is no means by which their slaves can be made free. The great superiority of the nation over most of their neighbours, has induced many of the latter voluntarily to become their vassals. Thus there are among them Indians of the nations of the Goaxis, Guanâs, Guatós, Gayvábas, Bororós, Ooroâs Cayapós, Xiquitos, and Xamococós; for they are constantly at variance with all these different tribes, and almost always conquer them, because the possession of horses likewise gives them a great superiority. In former times, they made prisoners only of the youthful portion of their enemies, massacreing all the adults; but their manners have now become milder in this respect. They, however, never were cannibals, and the greater part of the tribe which dwells on the eastern banks of the Paraguay, has been, since the year 1791, in alliance with the Portuguese, whose friendship they sought by an embassy, and which is also secured to them by written con-

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ventions; but this is not the case with the rest of the nation, for those of the Guaycurús Indians who possess the extensive unknown lands to the west of the river, have no intercourse whatever with the Portuguese. Among the savage Guaycurús, there are several tribes, such as the Lingoâs, the Cambâs and the Xiriquanhos, the last of whom sometimes even make hostile expeditions against the Spaniards of the province of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. They make use of bows and arrows, a club from two to three feet long, and a lance from twelve to fifteen feet long, which they arm with an iron point. They almost always make their expeditions on horseback, using instead of a bridle, a single cord made of the fibres of the ananas leaves. They wear a bandage round the body, which holds their club on the right side, and their hunting-knife on the left, and by drawing which very tight they preserve themselves, like many other Indian tribes, against the sensations of hunger, to which they are frequently exposed on such expeditions. They guide the horse with the left hand, and carry in the right the bow and arrows or the lance. In their wars with the other Indians and the Paulistas, who engage them by land, they are said to have a custom of driving together large herds of wild horses and oxen, and to let them loose upon the enemy, who being thrown into disorder by this attack, are the less able to make any resistance to them.

The use of the horse among these Indians is as

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old as the time of their first acquaintance with the Europeans, and it seems that these animals first became known to them on their excursions towards the Spanish possessions of Assumcâo, in which part they had increased with incredible rapidity. Though they are so used to horses, they are not very good riders, and do not venture to tame and break the wild animals, except in the water, where they have less to fear from their restiveness, and are less in danger of falling. Hunting, fishing, and looking for fruits in the woods, are, next to war, the chief occupations of the men. The business of the women is to prepare the flour from the roots of the mandiocca plants, which those who live in Aldeas have begun to cultivate, and the manufacture of cotton stuffs, pottery, and other utensils. Their basket-work of fibres, which they chiefly make of some kinds of palm, are said to excel in beauty and strength those of most of the other Indians. It is probably in consequence of the European civilisation, which has already exercised its influence, in many respects, over this tribe, that the women wear an apron, and a large square piece of striped cotton stuff which serves as a cloak. The men, on the contrary, are quite naked, except the abovementioned narrow bandage round the loins, which is of coloured cotton, and often adorned with glass beads. The face and often the neck and breast of the adult Guaycurús, are disfigured by tattooing, in the shape of diamonds; in the underlip they wear a piece of reed several

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inches long. The hair upon the temples and thence round the head is shorn, like that of the Franciscans. Among them too, the Payés, who are met with in all the Indian tribes in Brazil, and are called in their language Vünägenetó, are greatly respected. These latter are physicians, conjurers, and exorcists of the evil principle, which they call Nanigogigó. Their cures of the sick are very simple, and consist principally in fumigating or in sucking the part affected, on which the Payé spits into a pit, as if he would give back the evil principle which he has sucked out, to the earth and bury it. The Guaycurús differ from most of the Indians of South America, in not burying their dead near the abode of each individual, but in common burying grounds. The accounts of the number of this tribe are in general exaggerated. It is certain, that the whole nation does not at present consist of more than twelve thousand persons, and this number daily diminishes from the unnatural custom of the women, who till they have attained the thirtieth year, procure abortion, to free themselves from the privations of pregnancy, and the trouble of bringing up children.

The third powerful nation, the Payagoâs, who at the time of the discovery of the country were particularly formidable to the Paulistas by their fleets, are now rare in the waters of Upper Paraguay, i. e. above the narrow part of the river, at the mountains Feixe dos Morros. As constant rivals and enemies of the Guaycurús, they did not

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unite with them, till the occupation of their country by the Portuguese; and have hitherto proved the implacable enemies of the latter, menacing them sometimes with open hostility, sometimes by well-contrived surprises and robberies, in which they never spared the vanquished. When they separated in the year 1778, from their allies, the Guaycurús, they disdained to remain in a country, which they could no longer dispute with foreigners, and withdrew to the Lower Paraguay, near Assumcâo, when they submitted to the Spaniards. Unsettled and fugitive, faithless, cowardly, and cruel, despised by the powerful Indian tribes, and feared by the weaker, they act exactly the same part in the waters of the Paraguay, as the Múras in the Madeira and the river of the Amazons, in describing whom we shall return to them. Besides the Cayapós and the Guaycurús, travellers by those rivers hear also of the Icquatôs Indians as inhabitants of Matto-grosso.

Our experienced host at Porto Feliz, had just received orders from the government at S. Paulo, to prepare several large canoes, to convey ammunition down the Tieté to Cujabá. As for a long period, all military stores had been sent to Matto-grosso by way of Minas and Goyaz, this method, surprised the inhabitants, who puzzled themselves with conjectures, respecting the object of these consignments. Some imagined that they were destined for Paraguay, to be sent to the Portuguese, who were at war with Buenos Ayres; others

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thought of an expedition against the eastern province of Chill. In a country, cut off from the neighbouring states, nay, even from the capital, where political events are seldom heard of, every military movement, however trifling, produces general fear and alarm.

At Porto Feliz, the bad construction of the low houses, the walls of which are often covered with a saline efflorescence, the nearness of the woods and of the rivers, which are frequently covered with thick fogs, cause goitres, intermitting fevers, dropsy, and catarrhs, which are almost endemic. We found the grown up persons bloated; and the children of our host, and some neighbours were suffering from a malignant hooping cough (Tosse comprida), which we were told not unfrequently ends in consumption. But the same causes which prove injurious to the animal economy, greatly promote the growth of plants. Maize and rice thrive in perfection, and generally produce two hundred and fifty fold. Rice is sown in the hollows, and particularly not far from the rivers, by rows in tufts. On our return from Porto Feliz to Ypanema, we met with a marshy spot in the wood, which was thickly grown with the Canna indica, an agreeable discovery, because it removed all doubts respecting the original country of this universally spread elegant plant.* In all these low woods, we observed numbers of a beautiful black crane with a purple

* Rob. Brown, in Tuckey's expedition to explore the river Zaire, p. 477., likewise considers is as American.

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neck (Corvina rubricollis, Vieill.), and three species of pies, azure blue and white coloured (Corvus cyanopogno, Neuw.); parrots, as well as monkeys, became scarcer in this latitude, which may be chiefly owing to the proportionably less heat of the climate. From the Rio Ypanema, the grassy plains, interrupted by a little wood, extend southward to Curitiba, and into the capitania of S. Pedro, which is similar in the nature of the soil, its elevation above the sea, and vegetation, and is adapted to the same purposes of rural economy. In the whole of this extensive part of South America, they follow, in general, the same system of farming which Azara describes as practised in the pampas of Buenos Ayres.

The breeding of cattle is the principal occupation of the inhabitants. Every landholder possesses, according to the extent of his farm, from several hundred to two thousand, nay, even forty thousand head of cattle. They generally reckon from three to four thousand head on an estate which has two square miles of good pasture. All these roam at liberty in a wild state. But every fanner keeps besides, as many tame draught oxen and cows as he requires for the purposes of agriculture, and for milk, which is partly made into cheese. The attendance on the wild cattle gives but very little trouble, all that is required is to brand them with the mark of the owner, to castrate the bulls, and to catch the animals intended to be slaughtered. From four to six servants, under the direction of a

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chief cowherd, perform all these services; they prevent the herds from straying beyond the boundaries, and defend them against the attacks of the ounces, wolves, and wild dogs. These people are almost always on horseback, as their office compels them to ride twenty miles or more in a day; every year the whole herd is collected, at different times, in a place in a high situation, and sometimes fenced in; on this occasion, the mark of the owner is branded on the hind-quarter of the beasts one year old, of which they reckon a thousand annually for a herd of five or six thousand; those two years old are castrated in a very rough manner; and those of four years old and more are selected for slaughter. The catching of these latter, a frequently troublesome and dangerous employment, is executed here as in the pampas of Buenos Ayres, by means of long leathern nooses, which the farmers' servants manage with incredible dexterity. The tame cattle are kept in the vicinity of the fazenda, run free in the meadows duing the day, and are only shut up in an enclosure at night. The flesh of the tame cattle, is preferred to that of the wild, because from their undisturbed and more quiet way of life, they grow fat sooner, and with less fodder. The pasture being so good, their milk is excellent, but a cow gives only a third part of the quantity that good milch cows give in Europe. The hide is always the most valuable part of the cattle; it is stripped off, stretched upon

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the ground by means of short pegs, a little salted and dried in the sun. The flesh cut into thin strips, rubbed with salt, and dried in the air, is an important article of exportation, from the harbours of S. Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul, to the cities in the north, particularly to Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Pernambuco, and Maranhâo, where, under the names of Carne seca do Sertâo, Passoca or Carne charqueda, it constitutes an essential part of the subsistence of all the Brazilians, but especially of the negro slaves.

Besides the breeding of oxen, that of horses and mules likewise occupies several farmers in the capitania of Paulo; but is carried on upon a far more extensive scale in Rio grande do Sul; for it may be taken as a fact, that from forty to fifty thousand horses and mules are annually exported from that province to the north of Brazil. The horses of S. Paulo are of a middling size, of slender make, and if they are attended with care, acquire a pleasing and elegant carriage, and become excellent racers. During our stay, a horse-dealer came from Curitiba to Ypanema, when several horses were daily caught out of the herd, and tamed according to the fashion of the country. In general, twenty or thirty of these wild animals herd together, and hardly ever separate. It took some hours before the servants could drive a number of them together in to a corner, and by means of their nooses catch some of them. The animals so taken, sometimes trembling with

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fear, sometimes full of impetuous fury, endeavour by the strangest contortions, and the most desperate leaps to defend themselves against the riders. When the latter have at length succeeded in holding an animal fast, by the ears and lips, with a pair of tongs, in putting a halter over his head, and a sheep-skin by way of saddle on his back, one of the servants mounts him, and endeavours to overcome the obstinacy of the horse by means of the whip. After many violent motions and leaps, it is at length so far subdued, that it runs furiously away with its rider, and after a long course, it in some degree yields to the bridle. After being thus humbled, it stands still with its head hanging down, on which all the others separate from it. The next day the same exercise is repeated; and in a few days more the horse is broken and fit for riding. The common Paulistas, and particularly the Piâos (the herdsman's servants), make use of a very small flat wooden saddle, which is often not even covered with leather; their stirrups are so small that they will only admit the great toe. The spurs are fastened to the naked heel. The dress of the Piâo consists of a short jacket, narrow trowsers, and a flat round hat fastened with a strap, altogether of brown leather, made of deer or capivara hides, and is very well adapted to protect him against the thorny hedges through which he must force his way when pursuing wild animals.

The horses are driven together from time to time,

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in the same manner as the homed cattle, partly to show the farmers of the tithes (contractadores) the annual increase of their herds, partly to brand the animals in the first year, and to castrate them in the second. The wild horses are most frequently of a brown colour, very rarely white or piebald, and by their disproportionably short thick heads, and small stature, generally betray their extra European breed. The mules are here handsomer made animals than the horses; they are commonly equal in size to our European horses; their colours are black, brown, fallow, or striped like a zebra. They are preferable to the horses, especially on long journeys, because they can better endure hunger and thirst; and carry with greater security heavier burdens, on an average eight arrobas. At every farm in this part of the country, some common asses are also kept, but this race of animals is by no means so much esteemed here as in the Rio Grande do Sul and in Buenos Ayres, for which reason we had no opportunity of making more particular observations, which we must therefore leave to future travellers in these countries.

We have already mentioned, that in consequence of the general custom throughout Brazil, of using for tillage only places in the woods after the trees have been felled and burnt, agriculture has not been extended so much as it deserves, particularly in the province of S. Paulo, which has such extensive campos. The mandiocca root does not thrive;

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and soon rots in the heavy, clayey, and colder soil of the low grounds that are covered with wood; maize, on the other hand, everywhere produces in abundance large and mealy grain. The soil and climate of this country are peculiarly adapted to the pine-apple; the plants often grow wild, covering extensive spots of ground, and in some plantations about the fazendas, the fruit attains an extraordinary size and delicious flavour. They very frequently make part of the dessert, either fresh or preserved in sugar, and a very pleasant and wholesome wine is made of them. A light and agreeable wine is also prepared from the fruits of the jabuticaba (Myrtus cauliflora, nob.), which the settlers have taken from the woods on the Tieté and Paraiba, and cultivated in their gardens, and which is one of the best fruits in the country. Our host boasted of his skill in the art of making American wine, and our repast was generally concluded with some glasses of his manufacture. Besides all the members of the happy and patriarchal family, every neighbour or stranger of their acquaintance, who happened to pass that way, partook of the meal. The dinner consisted of simple, but abundant dishes, with boiled beef or pork, a roasted joint of the cavy or the armadillo, &c., which the sons of the family had brought from the woods, then the favourite dish canjica, lastly, a great variety of preserved fruits, which in Europe would be articles of the highest luxury. Sometimes, just

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before the cheerful company broke up, a guest rose to compliment by some extempore verses one of the company, and particularly the ladies, and the whole party then broke out into the praise of the poet, and of those whom his elegant address had celebrated.

Senhor Ferreira proposed to us to accompany his wife on a journey to Curitiba, where she had to make some domestic arrangements in a fazenda belonging to him. This plan offered us many temptations. The southern part of the province of S. Paulo is for the most part mountainous along the coast; it was formerly diligently worked for the sake of the gold, and offered us an opportunity for the most interesting researches, no less than the part situated farther to the west, which, according to the accounts of the Paulistas, possesses in a high degree all the beauties of the campos. The abundance and variety of the plants, which are besides much more easily gathered and preserved than in the woods; and the number of huge beasts of prey, particularly of the family of the ounces, of which we were told; and lastly, the salubrity of the climate would probably have induced us to extend our journey still farther to the south, into countries hitherto unknown and unvisited by any European traveller; but we feared that we should have too little time left to examine the proper mine country, and the capitania of Bahia, or that we should miss the best season of the year.

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Besides these reasons we were chiefly induced by the wish speedily to become acquainted with the original inhabitants of Brazil, a wish which we could not easily gratify on a journey to the former countries: for the Indians, who possessed this district before the occupation of S. Vicente and S. Paulo by the Portuguese, have all disappeared, except a few whom we met with in the mission of Aldea da Escada, or who live in the parishes of Pinheiros, S. Miguel, Itapearica, and Carapicuyba, (in S. Paulo,) of S. Joâo de Peruibe (in Itanhaem), or lastly, of Tocoaquecetúba (belonging to Mogy das Cruces); and the savage nations who dwell between the Tieté and the more northern Rio Grande, as well as the Camés in the plains of Guarapuáva on the Rio Curitiba, are in very small numbers, and engaged in continual excursions through the forests, where they very unwillingly meet the more powerful Cajapos coming from Goyaz. It will not appear surprising that the number of the aborigines is so inconsiderable, when it is remembered what dreadful ravages the diseases introduced by the Europeans have always made among them. Even when Anchieta and Nobrega exerted themselves with such paternal care, and so much judgment, to promote civilisation among the Indians on the Piratininga, an epidemical small-pox suddenly carried off two-thirds of the population.* Soon after this,

* Southey's History of Brazil, vol. i. p.294.

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famine, the system of slavery practised with increased cruelty, similar contagious diseases returning from time to time, and the destructive germs of other disorders, which came in the train of the foreign settlers, were powerful causes to extirpate the population of these countries, which was never considerable. Excursions against the Indians, who roam about in the north-western part of the capitania, to make slaves of them for the service of the fazendas are now strictly prohibited by the government, and are no more undertaken; the Paulista is still used to distinguish this unhappy race, whom he calls Bugres, with an accessory notion of contemptibleness and lawlessness, from the tame or civilised Indians (Indios mansos). Those fugitive bands, on the other hand are kept at a distance from the descendants of their oppressors, by invincible aversion, and will, perhaps, become quite extinct in a few centuries.

During the fortnight that we remained at Ypanema, the weather was more favourable for our occupations than we had reason to expect. It rained almost every day it is true, but the violence of the showers continued but a few minutes. The air was remarkably more dry than at S. Paula This circumstance we partly attributed to the land-wind which prevailed, and which the signal-flag, erected in front of the house according to the custom of the country, showed to be south-west. Some days too were very sultry, those especially

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when it did not begin to rain till the evening, during a thunder-storm. But even on these days, we could not perceive any change in our electrometer; the thermometer varied between 12° and 20° Reaumur; the mornings and evenings were usually cool. The vegetable world, revived by the rain, began gradually to put forth, and the trees, in the campos in particular, began to be covered with flowers. The number of animals to be found at this season, was in proportion small. The only monkey we saw, was the brown howling monkey; and of the mammalia, the long-nosed tapir, the agouti, the little armadillo, the papamel, and the forest deer; of birds, hardly any parrots, but toucans, and several kinds of red-necked and blue ravens (Coracina scutata, Temmink; Corvus cyanoleucos, cyanopogon Neuw., decristatus nob.); of insects, many large beetles (Copris), which live at a considerable depth under ground. As we advanced from this place towards the north, we could not avoid observing that the diversity in the animal as well as in the vegetable kingdom increases towards the equator. Before we departed from this place we sent all the collections we had hitherto made, in chests, by way of S. Paulo and Santos, to Rio de Janeiro; and on the 10th of January, 1818, left the pleasant Ypanema, our kind host, and the honest Swedes, whom, being from the north of Europe, we almost considered as our countrymen.

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NOTE TO CHAPTER II.

THE following plants are generally known in the capitania of S. Paulo on account of their uses:—

1. AYAPÁNA. Even L'Heritier, who has described it as Eupatorium Ayapana, (Willd. sp. 3. 1769.) recommends it as a very powerful antidote against the bite of venomous serpents and malignant insects. The mode of applying it is this:—A quantity of the leaves bruised, which is to be frequently changed, is laid on the scarified wound, and some spoonfuls of the expressed juice are from time to time administered to the patient, till he is found to be free from the symptoms, particularly the dreadful anxiety.

2. ERVA DA COBRA. Mikania opifera, Mart. (Glabra, caule angulato scandente, foliis lato-ovatis acuminatis, cordatis, repando-dentatis vel subintegrrimis, adultis obtusiusculis, floribus corymboso-paniculatis.) Allied to M. scandens. The expressed juice is used externally and internally; the bruised herb, moistened with oil, is applied as a poultice to wounds caused by the bite of venomous serpents. It is said to effect a crisis, especially by promotion of urine. See on this subject, Gomez, in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Lisbon, 1812. ii. p. 23 where this plant is described as Eupatorium crenatum. The family of the compositœ has many species which seem to

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act as specifics against the bile of serpents, and it deserves, on that account, to be more accurately examined. We ill here mention only the Mikania Guaco, described by Humboldt, resembling our plant, the Prenanthes serpentaria Punch; Liatris scariosa and squarrosa, W.; and Milleria contrayerva, L.

3. MIL HOMEMS, Aristolochia ringens, Sw.; Aristolochia grandiflora, Gomez, loc. cit. p. 64. tab. 6. The root, which has a very penetrating, disagreeable smell, like that of rue, and a strong, bitter, aromatic taste, produces almost entirely the same effects as the Virginia snake-root (A. serpentaria). It a very frequently used in the country against ulcers, paralytic affections of the extremities, dyspepsy, impotentia virilis, in nervous and intermitting fevers, especially those in which a predominant disorder of the pituitous membrane, or the whole lymphatic system has been observed, and, lastly, against the bites of serpents. According to Gomez, lot. cit. the powdered root is given in doses of a scruple, from four to six times a day; the decoction is ordered in doses of four to six ounces, and the juice expressed from the leaves, of one to two drams daily.

4. JAKRINHA. Aristiolochia macroura, Gomez, loc. cit. p. 77. tab. 4. The root and the herb itself surpass in strength of smell and taste the preceding kind of birthwort, and are applied in the same manner.

5. CAIAPIA*, incorrectly called Carapia in the language of the Brasilians, in Portuguese, Contrayerva. Dorstenia brasiliensis L. (not Dorstenia Contrayerba, as generally supposed). The tuberous root is used like the Serpentaria against nervous fevers and general debility, as well as against the bite of serpents, and when quite fresh, is said to operate

* From Caá folium and Capyà testiculus, from the resemblance of the root to the latter.

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more powerfully than that, but more speedily to lose its virtue. Sometimes also it serves as a gentle emetic. This plant is frequently confounded with other species of dorstenia, all which, however, are inferior to it in salutary virtue. It is not to be doubted that the Contrayerva of the chemists' shops would always have retained the reputation it once enjoyed, if, instead of the weaker Mexican and West Indian species, this Brasilian kind had become an article of commerce. It grows in strong clayey soils, in the mountainous parts of S. Paulo and Minas, whereas the other species prefer the shade of moist woods, and rich mould. In this plant, as is the case with several in Europe, which grow both on low grounds and on eminences; it is observed that those from the mountains are more powerful.

6. JABORANDI. Piper reticulatum, L. The roots (and in a less degree the ripe catkins) are used as stimulants on account of their aromatic pungent qualities. The root is a very powerful Sialagogum (promoting salivation), and often cures nervous tooth-ach. The leaves bruised are applied with success to the bite of serpents.

7. PARATUDO. Gomphrena officinalis, Mart. (Hirsutissima, caule adscendente folioso, foliis ovatis acutiusculis mucronatis, floralibus approximatis in involucrum polyphyllum, capitulis hemisphœricis terminalibus, bractearum carina dentatocristata, calyce basi lanato bracteas œquante. Bragantia Vandelli, p. 50. ed Roem.) The deep red shining flowers which this plant bears at the end of the low sulk, render it one of the most splendid ornaments of the plains The thick club root is used by the peasants as a universal remedy against general debility, dyspepsy, cramp in the stomach, intermitting fevers, diarrhœa, &c. In the family of the amaranths, to which it belongs, the appearance of so salutary a plant is remarkable, as very few species of that family possess medicinal virtues.

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8. CASCA D'ANTA. Drymis Winteri, L. The bark of this plant deserves the first place among the aromatic tonic remedies of this country. In S. Paulo, Minas Geraës and Goyaz, the tree is not uncommon in moist places in the campos; but the bark is not jet become an article of commerce.

9. SCITAMINIAS of various kinds have been introduced from India into the gardens of the Portuguese, and almost all of them are used in medicine. The Amomum Cardomomum, L. and the Alpinia nutans, Rosc., among others, are called pacová; their roots and unripe fruits, on account of their aromatic properties, are employed as stimulants in addition to other medicines; the genuine ginger, too. Zingiber officinale, Rosc., and the Curcuma longa, L. are here and there cultivated.

10. PERIPAROBA, in Rio de Janeiro and S. Paulo; CAAPEBA, in Minas Geraës Piper umbellatum, L. The roots of this fine species of pepper have a distinguished place among the domestic remedies of these parts; and a has been used with great effect in obstructions of the abdominal organs, which, together with general debility, are a frequent consequence of intermitting fevers. It increases the activity of the lymphatic system in particular, produces a speedy effect, and promotes all the secretions. The leaves are often proscribed as tea, for swellings of the glands. The fruit of the Piper peltatum, which resembles it, and is also called Caa-peba, i. e. broad-leaf, is likewise used as a decoction, and is a powerful diuretic.

11. ORELHA D'ONÇA. Several kinds of Croton, low hairy shrubs which grow on the elevated grassy plains, furnish in their roots a good substitute for the Senega. They stimulate and promote the secretions especially of the pituitous membranes. They are administered with success in atonic catarrhs, asthma, and even in phtuisis tuberculosa.

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12. RAIZ DE PIPI, or of Guinea. Petiveria tetrandia, Gomez, loc. cit. p. 17. A decoction of the whole plant is used in repeated warm baths and lotions, it being considered very efficacious in defective contractibility of the muscles, or total paralysis of the extremities, especially when originating in cold.

13. FUMOBRAVO or SUASSUAYA Agerati species. Several female practitioners (Curadeiras) praise the decoction of this plant as a surprising remedy in inflammatory catarrhs, and affections of the chest. The fresh juice expressed from it, when cleared of the fecula contained in it, is said to act as a lithontripticon.

14. CARACHICHU or ERVA MOIRA. Solanum nigrum, L. The bruised herb is applied either in warm cataplasms, or in baths, in painful wounds, and in general, in inflammatory cases, with a predominant excitement of the nervous system. This is oue of the few plants, which, since the settlement of the Europeans have become naturalised, and have spread over the whole of the new continent

15. TREPOERAVA, or Trapuerava. Tradescantia diuretica, Mart. (Caule erecto glabro, foliis ovato-lanoeolatis acuminatis serrulato-ciliatis, subtus Pubescentibus, vaginis ventricosis hirsutis longe ciliatis, pedunculis geminis terminalibus umbellatomultifloris.) The stalks and leaves are used in baths, as a mollifying and saponaceous remedy, in rheumatic pains in the muscles, obstructions of the abdominal functions by cold, &c.; and in spasmodic retention of urine.

16. ASAPEIXE is the name here given to the Böhmeria caudata, Sw. A decoction of its leaves in baths, it prescribed in hemorrhoidal complaints, and is said to produce extraordinary effects. In the northern parts of Brazil, where that plant does not grow, they use, instead of it, several kinds of Böhmeria and of Urtica. The family of the Urticacœ seem, from the favourable results of the general use made of them, to be very useful in disorders affecting

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the port vein, perhaps from the combination of viscous, sharp, and alkaline parts in their stalks and leaves.

17. COKDÁO DO FRADE. Phlomis nepetifolia, L. The entire plant is used in baths against rheumatic complaints.

18. JURIPEBA. Solanum paniculatum, L. The juice of the bruised leaves and unripe fruit is much esteemed, as a powerful remedy in obstructions of the bowels, especially of the liver, and in catarrhus vesicæ. Several other kinds of solanum are used in similar diseases. When applied fresh, they generally act very favourably in cleansing and healing wounds and ulcers.

19. A kind of SOLANUM which Velloso, in his manuscript of the Flora Fluminensis calls Solanum cernuum. The decoction of the flowers and leaves is a powerful sudorific, and is spoken of as very serviceable in syphilis, gonor. invet., &c.

20. DOURADINHA DO CAMPO. The leaves of the Palicourea Speciosa, Humb., which by their yellow colour have obtained for the plant the name of Gold Shrub, are highly spoken of here as an antisyphiliticum, and the disorder being so common, are much used. The decoction, which in large dotes proves a real poison, acts especially by an increased action of the skin and kidneys; and the digestion is not injured by moderate doses. The Douradinha is especially used in the forms of the disease most prevalent here.

21. ERVA MULAR or CURRALEIRA. Croton antisyphiliticum, Mart. (Suffruticosum, erectum pilis stellatis hispido-scabrum subpulverulentum, foliis lato-lanceolatis, basi cuneatis, inœqualiter duplico-serratis, capsulis hispidis.) The leaves of this new species produce the same effects as those of the preceding plant, but in a much higher degree. The decoction acts as a powerful stimulant on the nervous system, as well as on all the secretions. Applied in the form of a cataplasm, it is considered as the best means to disperse

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buboes, and other glandular swellings. It is said also to have been of very great benefit in while swellings.

22. Another species of the same genus, Croton fulvum, Mart. (Suffruticosum, caule ramisque fulvo-hispidis, foliis subsessilibus ovato-ellipticis basi rotundatis brevissime mucronatis supra piloso-scabris, subtus stellato-tomentosis, junioribus fulvis subintegerrimis, floris sessilibus in spicis axillaribus terminatibusque.) furnishes, in its roots, a powerful remedy of the same nature as the preceding. It is used in decoctions.

23. COTÓ-COTÓ. The virtues of these leaves are still greater than those of the preceding. A tincture of them is efficacious not only in lues inveterata, but also in other dyscrasies, and in general weakness of digestion, especially against flatulence.

24. CAROBA. Bignonia antisyphilitica, Mart. (Caule arboreo, foliis inferioribus duplicato-pinnatis, superioribus digitato-quinatis, foliolis ovatis longe acuminatis glabris, paniculis florum viridium dichotomis, calycibus inflatis, leguminibus linearibus planis.) The bark of the younger branches of this tree is considered as one of the most powerful remedies against syphilitic swellings, which are of a malignant character. The decoction is chiefly used, and also the bark dried and pounded, externally.

25. RAIZ DA CHINA BRANCA E RUBRA, also Japicànga, or Inhapécánga, is the name here given to the woody, often knotty root of Smilax glauca, Mart (Caule flexuoso-torto angulato aculeato glauco, foliis lato-ovatis utrinque rotundatis tri- vel quinque-nerviis medio nervo aculeatis spinulosa-dentatis glaucis, umbellis breviter pedunculatis axillaribus.) The Brazilians consider it as a specific against syphilis; but besides this it is much recommended for gout and chronical cutaneous eruptions. In using this remedy, it is taken for granted that the patient will submit to drink an enormous quantity.

26. SASSAFRAZ. Laurus sassafras, L. It is found pretty frequently in the forests of the province of S. Paulo, and is

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used by the colonists as a purifier of the blood, and likewise as a diuretic and sudorific, particularly in decoction.

27. The root of the Cissampelos Pareira, L., which is sometimes called by the general name of CAA-PEBA, and sometimes Bútua, is used by them in the same manner. The genuine Bútua (Abuta rufescens, Aubl.) is not found in these parts of Brazil.

28. CARQUEJA DOLCE e AMARGA are two allied species of Baccharis genistelloides, Lam., and venosa, Pers. On account of the considerable quantity of bitter extractive matter which they contain, and which is combined with a specific aroma, they are particularly useful in all intermitting fevers, and for all disorders in which artemisia is employed in Europe. Both the extract and the decoction are used. It is particularly serviceable in chronical diseases of horses, which are very fond of this herb.

29. CORAÇAO DE JESU. Mikania officinalis, Mart. (Glabra, caule subsimplici erecto, foliis subtriangulari-ovatis, sinu grosso cordatis, latere dentatis, antice integerrimis, decussatis, cernuis, paniculis corymbosis terminalibus.) The leaves of this beautiful plant have a beneficial mixture of bitter, mucilaginous, and aromatic ingredients, and are therefore used, with great success, like Peruvian bark and cascarille. It is said to be particularly efficacious both in remitting fevers and weakness of the stomach. It is taken both in decoction and extract.

30. GAJAMARIÓBA, Cassia occidentalis and falcata, L. and FEDEGOZO, Cassia hirsuta, L., are extremely common plants, which grow everywhere near human habitations, and spread rapidly. The root greatly stimulates the lymphatic system, and is therefore very beneficial in obstructions and weakness of the stomach, and incipient dropsy, against which disease it is used as a diuretic. The seeds roasted, like coffee, and used in similar cases, are said

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to have nearly the same effects as coffee made of roasted acorns.

31. URGEVÁO, or JARBÁO Verbena jamaicensis, L., is used against fevers just as the common vervain to Europe; but particularly the fresh leaves bruised, are applied outwardly to ulcers.

32. BARBASCO. Instead of the European kinds of Verbascum (not found here), they use the leaves and blossoms of the Budleya connata, which have emollient, and at the same time gently astringent qualities.

33. In the same manner they use, instead of the European mallow, the flowers of the Sida carpinifolia, L., and several allied species.

34. The leaves of several species of Bauhinia, which, on account of its resemblance to the hoof of an ox, is called UNHA DE BOY, are employed when mucilaginous remedies are required.

35. GUIÁBO, or GUIMGOMBÓ, seems to have been introduced by the negroes from Africa. It is Hibiscus esculentus, L. The young fruit, which contains much vegetable mucilage and an agreeable acid, is frequenly eaten boiled, but the leaves are used as softening cataplasms.

36. CARAPIXO DA CALCADA. Triumfetta Lappula and semitriloba, L. The mucilaginous, and at the same time astringent, properties of the leaves and fruit of this shrub, which grows everywhere, especially on the road-side sod in the vicinity of dwellings, render it serviceable in injections in gonor. invet.

37. BASOURINHA or VACOURINHA. Scaparia dulcis, L. The herb contains mucilaginous matter, and the expressed juice is chiefly employed in cooling purges.

38. CARURÚ and CARURÚ VERMELHO, Amaranthus viridis and melancholicus, L., as well as the Phytolacca decandra, L., are used for emollient cataplasms. These plants

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are very common, particularly where the woods have been cleared and cultivated.

39. ERVA DE ANDOURINHA. Euphorbia Linearis, Retz., and hypericifolia, L. The milky juice of this little plant is used in ulceribus syphiliticis partium teneriorum. It is singular that there is a notion throughout Brazil, that this juice dropped into a fresh wound in the apple of the eye, immediately effects a cure. We were often assured, that this experiment had been tried with success upon fowls.

40. JATAHY or JATEHY, also Copal, in Minas Geraës JATOBÁ, is the resin of the Hymenœa Courbaril, L. It is used, not only for various kinds of varnish, but also against tedious coughs, weakness of the lungs, spitting of blood, and incipient phthisis pulmonalis. The curadores have a method of mixing it with sugar and rum, so as to make a very agreeable emulsion, or syrup.

41. Great use is made in domestic medicine, both against wounds and syphilitic disorders, of the copaiva balsam, which the Paulistas obtain from two different species of CUPAIVA. Copaifera Langsdorffii, Desf., and C. coriacea, Mart. (Foliis bi- vel tri-jugis, foliolis ellipticis emarginatis coriaceis reticulato-venosis utrinque glabris subtus glaucescentibus, floribus paniculatis.)

42. ERVA POMBINHA. Phyllanthus Niruri, L., and Ph. microphillus, Mart. (Suffruticosus, glaber, remosissimus, ramis pinnœformibus, foliolis alternis obovato-orbicularibus subtus glaucis, pedunculis solitariis geminisve superporibus masculis, inferioribus fœmineis.) Both kinds are said to be specific against diabetes. They particularly use the decoction of the bruised herb and seed.

43. Jatropha Curcas, L. It produces the PINHÔES DE PURGA, one of the strongest drastica. In a fresh state one seed is sufficient for a good dose. They often occasion a violent vomiting, for which reason the seeds of the following tree are preferred: —

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44. ANDA-AÇU, INDAYAÇU, PURGA DE GENTIO, in Rio and S. Paulo; Cocco or PURGA. DOS PAULISTAS, FRUTTA D'ARARA, in Minas Geraës. Johannesia Princeps, Velloso and Gomez, Memor. de Lisboa, 1812, p. 5., t. l. Anda brasiliensis, Raddi, quarante piante del Brasile, p. 25.; Mart. Amoen. Bot. Monac t. i. Two or three seeds of this large tree, which Piso knew and described, prepared as an emulsion, act as a very powerful and safe purgative; they seldom excite vomiting. It has been found extremely efficacious in weakness of the lymphatic system, and particularly in general dropsy.

45. GONGONHA, in S. Paulo and Minas Geraës; YAPON, MATTE, YERVA DE PALOS, on the Rio Paraguay. This herb produces the Paraguay tea, which deserves to be reckoned among the officinal plants as a diuretic. According to our examination it is a nondescript species, Cassine Gongonha, Mart. (Ramulis teretibus foliis oblongis basi rotundatis apice breviter acuminatis marginatis remote serratis, racemis axillaribus parce ramosis, floribus sessilibus.)

46. Myrtus cauliflora, Mart. (Trunco ramisque excorticantibus florigeris, foliis lanceolatis longe acuminatis, basi acutis glaberrimis, floribus congestis, baccis globosis violaceopurpurascentibus.) The JABUTICABA is one of the most agreeable fruits in Brazil, and the taste will be improved by further culture. A very good wine, syrup, &c., are made of it. The JABUTICABEIRA grows principally in the provinces of Rio de Janeiro, S. Paulo, and Minas Geraës.

47. Polygala Poaya, Mart. (Perennis, radice subannulata, glabra, caulibus quinquangularibus subsimplicibus erectis, foliis sparsis ovata-lanceolatis acutis trinerviis subsessilibus, floribus terminalibus laxe racemosis cristatis. Akin to the Polygala Timoutou, Aubl., which is different radice annua, foliis inferioribus ternis, racemis florum densis.) The root of this plant, which is called POAYA in S. Paulo, is an excellent emetic, the effects and dose of which, when fresh, are almost the

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same as the genuine ipecacuanha. See Mart. Spec. Mat. Med. Brasil Diss. I., in the Memoirs of the Academy of Munich, 1825.

48. Several species of Cactus, FIGUEIRA DA INDIA, JAMACARÚ, are used in domestic medicine, the juice being administered in bilious fevers; and cataplasms of the fresh stalks and fruit, bruised, applied to ulcers.

49. CRISTA DE GALLO, Heliotropium curassavicun, L.; PICÂO, Bidens leucantha, W. and graveolens, Mart. (foliis decupatus oblongo-lanceolatis crenato-serratis, basi cuneata integerrimis, reticulato-venosis, floribus longepedunculatis subpaniculatis); likewise FBDECOZO, Cassia hirsuta, L.; and, lastly, Spilanthis brasiliensis, L., are pounded together to a pap, and laid fresh on malignant ulcers, or scirrhus pectoris.

50. Perdicium brasiliense, L. The decoction of the roots, which have a strong smell, is considered as a good remedy for excessive menses.

51. SIPO JOBATA. The seeds of a climbing plant, which bears large berries, and is perhaps akin to the Feuillaea, which are known by the name of Castanhos do Sobotá, are given pounded, in doses of two or three drams, in dyspepsy and weakness of the organs of digestion.

52. SIPÓ DE CHUMBO. Cuscuta umbellata, H.; Ç. race- Mart. (floribus pedunculitis cymoso-raecmos, et corollis calyce duplo longioribus pentandris fauce squamis ciliatis clausa), and miniata Mart. (racemis pedunculatis sex- ad octo-floris, corollis fauce squamis ciliatis clausa, genitalibus inclusis). The juice of the fresh plant is prescribed in sub-inflammatory complaints, hoarseness, spitting of blood. The powder of the dried plant is strewed on fresh wounds, the healing of which it is said much to promote.

53. Psidium Guajava, Raddi, di alcune specie di Pero indiano, p. 4. Of the fruit of the cultivated variety (Psidium pyriferum, L.), and still more of the rough and sour fruit of

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the wild (Psidium pomiferum, L.), they make with sugar a cooling and rather astringent conserve. The berries of other species of Psidium, which grow plentifully on the campos of S. Paulo, and are distinguished by the name of GUABIROBA, are used in a similar manner. The young bark and leaves are used as astringents, the latter also for medicinal baths, which are very customary in BraziL.

54. ACAJÚ. Anacardium occidentale, L. The gum of this tree, which in its properties almost entirely agrees with the gum arabic, but is rather more astringent, is used in Brasil in the same manner. The bookbinders in the principal towns sometimes wash the books with a solution of it, which is said to keep off the moths and ants. The fresh acid juice of the flower-stalks is used in lemonade; wine and vinegar too are made of it by fermentation. The sympathetic effect is remarkable, which the nut, borne about the person, has upon chronical inflammations in the eyes, especially such as are of a scrophulous nature.

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CHAPTER III.

JOURNEY FROM S. JOÂO DE YPANEMA TO VILLA RICA.

THE plan which we had Laid down for the prosecution of our journey, was to reach Villa Rica by the end of the rainy season, and then during the dry months to make excursions in various directions through the sertâo of Minas Geraës during the dry season. The road leads first to Ytú, but we previously paid another visit to Villa de Sorocaba, where the capitâo môr had already prepared a house for us, because he hoped that we should pass some weeks there, and benefit the neighbourhood by giving medical advice. We could not however accept his invitation, though our presence would have been more advantageous to the place, as the only surgeon was ill. We were introduced to this patient; he was a mulatto, a gloomy hypochondriac, whom a few applications of magnetism threw into convulsions, and then into a sound sleep. Alter we had prescribed the medical treatment necessary for him, we immediately set about purchasing the mules of which we were in want. These animals may be obtained of superior quality, and on the most

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reasonable terms, at Sorocaba, because a great trade in them is carried on from this place to the north of Brazil. It is calculated that above thirty thousand mules are annually brought from Rio Grande do Sul, through Sorocaba; a tribute from one thousand two hundred and eighty to two thousand rees for each is paid to the crown, on its entrance into the new capitania. This duty is one of the most lucrative for the government, because it is repeated with certain modifications on the frontiers of every province. The price of these animals, which is from twelve to five and twenty piastres, is hereby doubled and tripled by the time they get from this place to the northern capitanias of Bahia, Pernambuco, and Ceara, to which droves are sometimes led through the interior of Minas, particularly along the Rio de S. Francisco. Mules from Spanish America, which are much handsomer, taller and stronger, are but seldom seen in Brazil, their importation being prohibited. A traveller who intends to proceed from Rio to visit the interior of the country, will do best to go by sea to Santos, and then come to this place where he may in the shortest time and with the least expense, collect his troop of mules, and every requisite for his journey.

From Sorocaba to the little town of Ytú, which is six leagues distant, the road, which is very fatiguing, leads N.W. over hilly land, alternately covered with bushes and grass. The mountain Araasojava overlooks the neighbourhood, in which

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a sandstone, similar to that at Ypanema, baskets out in several places. Except two small hamlets of inconsiderable houses in a beautiful, open, and flowery plain, there are scarcely any traces of human cultivation; for the forests, in the cleared parts of which the plantations of the inhabitants are situated, are at a distance from the road, in the hollows and valleys. We were assured that in these forests the tree grew which produces the Peruvian balsam (Myroxylum peruiferum L.) and which is called Capriúna or Casca de Ytú. We were not so fortunate as to obtain a sight of it. The Villa de Ytú, the capital of the comarca of the same name, and the residence of an ouvidor with whom we had become acquainted at Ypanema, is situated at the foot of a hilly and pleasant country, and consists of several rows of small and regularly built houses. Some streets are paved with slabs of a bluish grey compact limestone, six feet in length, which is said to be quarried in the neighbourhood.

From Ytú we advanced N.W. by the side of beautiful thick woods, and enjoyed a delightful view of the valley of the Tieté, which is now entirely cleared of the forests, and planted with sugar-cane, beans, maize, &c. The vine, too, thrives here as well as in Sorocaba. About a quarter of a league from Ytú, we passed a wooden bridge over the Tieté which makes its first considerable fall not much farther down. From this place the road ascended into the mountain, which here, too, con-

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sists of a coarse-grained granite with reddish felspar quartz, and a little mica. Large detached pieces of rock, rounded off by the water, lay upon the road and scattered through the forest. The higher we ascended the more desolate and gloomy did the way become; at the height of about one thousand eight hundred feet above the level of the sea, we again met with those extensive and thick plots of bamboos (Taguara) which on the granite wooded mountains of this region occupy the land between the forests and the campos, and are the chief features in the physiognomy of such countries. The vegetation particularly resembles that of the higher points of the Serra do Mar, towards which the, mountain chain extends, as a communicating branch to the Serra do Mantiqueira. We were just in the most savage and solitary part of the mountain when several thunder-storms came up, which the wind drove with such fury that they resembled a furious hurricane. Wet through and through, and exhausted with fatigue, we reached at nightfall some miserable huts, called Jacaré, in the middle of a rude plain covered with bushes. As the country became more lonely and wild the difficulties of the journey appeared also to increase. The next morning we discovered that several mules, though they were tied together with ropes, had run away from the pasture, and when we at length found them, the Arrieiro, whom we had brought with us from Rio de Janeiro, was missing.

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Tired with the hardships of such a journey, he had decamped, and carried with him everything of value that he could find. In this critical situation we had no resource left but to perform the necessary business of the tropeiros ourselves, and to continue our journey with the rest of the drivers. After advancing five leagues farther, we reached the village of Jundiáhy, wet through by the rain, which had not ceased during our march through the woody mountain.

The Villa de Jundiáhy*, a small place on a low hill, derives all its importance from its favourable situation for the inland trade. All the tropas which come from the capitania of S. Paulo to Minas Geraëa, Goyas, Matto-grosso and Cujabá, are organised here for this long expedition. The inhabitants possess large herds of mules, which perform this journey several times a year. The manufacture of pack-saddles (cangalhas), saddles, shoes, and everything necessary for the equipment of the tropas; and the incessant arrival and departure of large caravans, give the place an appearance of activity and prosperity, and justly acquire it the name of a land port (porto seco). Paved roads lead from this place to the above-named provinces. The journey to Villa Boa de Goyaz is completed in one month, to Cujabá in

* The name belongs to the Lingua Geral: Jundiá a small fish, Hy the water, the river.

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two months. The chief articles exported to S. Paulo, which is ten leagues distant, and to Santos, are mandiocca roots and flour, maize, and sugar, and the returns consist of salt, iron goods, and European manufactures of all kinds (fazenda secca) to be employed in the inland trade. In the environs of this villa, hills alternate with moist valleys, woods with open campos, where many powerful medicinal plants are found. Among others we were shown the Poaya (Polygala Poaya, nob.), the roots of which are universally employed in the country instead of the genuine ipecacuanha, and almost in the same doses. There is also a sort of Peruvian bark, which is taken from a moderately sized tree with large leaves; it has considerable bitterness, but very little aroma, and is often sent to Rio de Janeiro.

We were obliged to the activity of the capitâo môr of Jundiáhy for procuring us a new Arrieiro, who immediately repaired the pack-saddles, and on the evening of the following day, conducted us two leagues forward on the road to Minas. The way gradually ascends from a swampy tract, covered with thick bushes. Farther towards the north we came to an extensive mountain plain (campo largo) which was adorned with a rich diversity of beautiful mountain plants.* Two

* Among the bushes of the Paspalus chrysostachyos, Schrad. which characterise the campos, there are many Wedelias, Gaudichaudias, Büttneria, Cnemidostachys, Palicureæ, Declieuxias, Escobedia scabrifolia, Eryngium lingua Tucani nob.,&c.

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higher mountain ridges which run parallel from north to south, of picturesque forms, something resembling our lower Alps, partly covered with wood or young brushwood (Capoeira) skirt the plain. The highest point over which the road passes is the Morro de Catetuva; from which we descended into a broader valley, overgrown with young wood, which is bounded on the east by the Parapixinga, a pretty high wooded mountain of rough outlines. About the poor village of S. Joâo de Atibaya, the country becomes broader. We met here with a pupil of the surgical school of Rio de Janeiro, who observed to us with much naïveté, that the inhabitants of this country were not at all worthy of having a surgeon among them, because they were so seldom ill. In fact these healthy districts are peopled by a robust race of men, and only the syphilis makes great progress among them, chiefly for want of proper treatment. Northwards of S. Joâo de Atibaya, several chains of mountains run almost parallel to each other The rock is a kind of granite, and the extensive growth of the brake (Pteris caudata) which is unfavourable to agriculture, indicates the want of active cultivators. Boa Vista, the highest part of the mountain which we ascended, may be

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about 2500 feet in height. From this there is a delightful view over a neighbouring valley, at the bottom of which stands a solitary chapel. The Morro de Lopo, almost everywhere covered with sombre woods, and at least 3000 feet high, commands the whole range of mountains. It was formerly the abode of numerous American wolves (Lupus mexicanus); these animals seem now to live more in Minas Geraës, where we also saw them for the first time. The road meanders in various turnings through the mountains, the valleys of which become narrower the higher you ascend. The chief formation is still granite, in which there occur beds of hornblende rock. Except a few wretched huts inhabited by mamelukes and other people of colour, there are no traces of men in this solitary tract. The araucarias which grow on the declivities of the mountain, harmonise with the sombre character of the landscape. Their straight and lofty stems do not branch out till a great height from the ground, and the boughs thickly covered with acerose leaves, unite in a broad, dark green, pyramidal crown. These majestic trees always standing distinct and only touching with their crowns, form long avenues with a flat roof, which are inhabited by flocks of green parrots (Psittacus œstivus). The araucaria is the only tree of the natural family of the protea, which we met with during our whole journey;

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they appear, indeed, to be more rare in the southern hemisphere than in the northern.

After two short stages from Atibaya we reached the frontier of the capitania of S. Paulo, where a custom-house is erected at the foot of the mountain, at which the passports of travellers are examined, the royal import duties on goods and slaves are levied, and persons stationed to prevent the contraband trade of gold dust and diamonds. The import duty on a new negro had lately been raised so that the owner had to pay 10,000 rees (ten dollars); a similar tax is paid at the frontier of every capitania, which is a proof that this extensive kingdom is not yet properly organised as one consistent whole. We were treated with great politeness; and, in deference to the recommendation of the portaria, every service was offered. Here, as every where in Brazil, it is customary not to countersign the passports when, like ours, they contain a special order of the king, a custom which is advantageous to the traveller, because it leaves him at the liberty to choose or to alter his route. The frontier is formed by high mountains, which are, for the most part, covered with thick wood, through which only a few by-roads, impassable a great part of the year, lead to Minas. Subordinate layers of sienite are here and there contained in the granite, which consists of reddish quartz, felspar and small foliated black mica. After we had passed the Morro Grande by a dangerous road, we

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came to a level plain at the foot of the prolongation of the Lopo mountain, which here rises picturesquely in four hills, where we reached the first place in Minas Geräes, the Arrayal de Camanducaya. The few inhabitants immediately hastened out to meet us, but contented themselves with gazing at us and detaining us by useless questions. In the great rancho, which we here first met with, according to the custom of Minas, we expected to repose after the fatigues of our journey, but found ourselves greatly disappointed; for, just as we were going to retire for the night, we were assailed by such an incredible number of fleas, that in Europe they would have been considered as a natural curiosity.

To the north of Camanducaya, after passing Rosetta and Campiuh, we again arrived between ragged mountain chains, which are covered with campos, run from north to south, and form side valleys towards the west. The rock is generally a reddish granite. We could not expect to make a closer examination of the country, for since we had quitted Jundiàhy we were incessantly attended by all the evils of the rainy season. We travelled almost constantly enveloped in thick fog; the temperature was low; for several days together the thermometer, morning and evening, was 14° R., and it hardly rose a few degrees higher at noon. The numerous mountain streams had overflowed their banks to a great distance, the roads were

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broken up by them, the bridges carried away, and the low grounds suddenly converted into lakes. A traveller who has never had to endure, out of Europe, similar struggles with weather and roads, and at the same time with anxiety for the conveyance of valuable effects, can scarcely form an idea of the hardships of such an enterprise. Exposed from morning to night to torrents of rain, we were obliged to direct our whole attention to the guidance of the mules, which could scarcely proceed in the bottomless roads; we were forced either to wade or to swim through the overflowed mountain streams which we had to pass. If in the evening we at length met with an open shed, or a dilapidated hut, we had to spend the greater part of the night in drying our wet clothes, in taking our collections out of the chests and again exposing them to the air. Often we had not even the comfort of resting ourselves round the fire, because the wet wood emitted more smoke than flame. In this gloomy wilderness we met with but a few huts, chiefly inhabited by mulattoes, and, besides milk and black beans, no kind of provision was to be expected.

This unfavourable weather, before the commencement of which the inhabitants are engaged in planting or sowing, and by which they are prevented from pursuing any occupation out of doors, from hunting and travelling, seemed to be an invitation to them to enjoy entertainments at home.

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The Brazilian is of a lively disposition, and fond of pleasure. Almost everywhere, when we arrived in the evening, we were saluted with the sound of the guitar (viola), accompanied by singing or dancing. At Estiva, a solitary farm-house, with fine extensive campos bounded in the distance by mountains, the inhabitants were dancing the baducca; they scarcely learnt the arrival of foreign travellers when they invited us to be witnesses of their festival. The baducca is danced by one man and one woman, who, snapping their fingers with the most extravagant motions and attitudes, dance sometimes towards and sometimes from each other. The principal charm of this dance, in the opinion of the Brazilians, consists in rotations and contortions of the hips, in which they are almost as expert as the East Indian jugglers. It sometimes lasts for several hours together without interruption, alternately accompanied with the monotonous notes of the guitar, or with extempore singing; or popular songs, the words of which are in character with its rudeness; the male dancers are sometimes dressed in women's clothes. Notwithstanding its indecency, this dance is common throughout Brazil, and the property of the lower classes, who cannot be induced, even by ecclesiastical prohibitions, to give it up. It seems to be of Ethiopic origin, and introduced into Brazil by the negro slaves, where, like many of their customs, it has become naturalised.

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On the following day, as it rained incessantly, and we were enveloped in thick fog, we could not advance more than four leagues on the muddy road, and thought ourselves happy to meet at nightfall with an abandoned hamlet, of which we took possession after having expelled the bats. Our guide thought it dangerous to proceed any further because the river Mandú was so swelled by the rains that the passage over it could not be effected except by daylight. The environs of our night's quarters showed traces of former cultivation, though now run wild. Single guava and calabash trees (Psidium pomiferum, and Crescentia Cujete, L.), loaded with fruit, stood round it, and the gourd (Cucurbita Lagenaria, L.) had entwined so as to form high hedges.

The following morning, when, after passing several swelled mountain streams, we descended into the valley of the Rio Mandú, we found that this river, which is at other times inconsiderable, had overflowed its banks to the extent of above a quarter of a league, carrying down with it, in its turbid waters, whole trees and little islands composed of bushes of myrtles, sebastianias and chomelias which it had rooted up along its banks. After having shouted a long time, a small boat rowed by two mulattoes at length appeared, which was not large enough to contain a sixth part of our baggage. We ourselves rode with great danger a quarter of a league farther through the overflowed meadows

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which, besides, were full of holes, and had the beasts of burden driven after us till we reached a spot rising above the water, where the boat waited for us, and where the people and the baggage were successively embarked. The mules were then all fastened to a long rope, one behind another, and driven into the river, where they swam after the boat, the people in which endeavoured, by continual calling, to encourage them. All reached the other bank in safety, and we soon after had the satisfaction of seeing the baggage also landed without receiving any damage. We had the more reason to congratulate ourselves on escaping this danger, for we learnt upon our arrival, that a caravan which had crossed the preceding day had lost some animals.

The village of Mandú, situated in a low country almost entirely covered with wood, was founded five and twenty years ago by a capitâo, its position being favourable for the trade from Taubaté and Quarantinguetá to Minas. By this route, the Paulistas import European goods, and take, in return, cheese, marmalade, tobacco, and some coarse cottons. The Caldas da Rainha, a warm sulphureous spring, which is two days' journey to the west of this place, and has lately become very famous, likewise contributes to the number of persons who visit this hamlet, which consists only of a few poor clay huts. On the following day, we experienced similar difficulties in crossing to the

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north of Mandú, similar overflowings caused by the rising of the Rio Servo. The woody tracts were inundated to the depth of four to six feet, and the road, which was also under water, was gullied into deep holes. As it was necessary to lead every mule through separately, we were unable to proceed on this day more than three leagues, at the end of which we reached the pleasant hill on which stands S. Vicente, a small place consisting of a few houses. But here we were first assailed by a new torment, namely, the tick (Acarus), an ugly, flat, brownish insect with a sharp proboscis, of which there are several kinds, some not bigger than the point of a needle (Carabato miudo), and others considerably larger; the latter, by continual sucking horses and horned cattle, often attain half the size of a hazel nut. The inhabitants erroneously consider both the large and small to be of the same species, differing only in age. They generally cling unseen in thousands to the blades of grass, and, at the slightest touch, attach themselves to the traveller, and give him inexpressible uneasiness by the violent itching which they create.

To the north of Rio Servo, and about two miles from Mandú, we perceived the first traces of gold-washing. The rock is a quartzy, white or whitish green mica-slate, which here and there shows a dip from S.W. to N.E., and upon it lies a considerable mass of red heavy loam, from which the metal is washed. The mica-slate, in which there are

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beds of quartz with black common shorl, seems to lie upon sienite, which, in some points, chiefly in deep valleys and declivities, is detached and exposed to view. The greater part of this tract is covered with wood, which surrounds the new plantations of maize, mandiocca, and a little sugar-cane. The other branches of agriculture are neglected, because the inhabitants can purchase almost everything they require with the gold which they procure by washing.

At S. Anna de Sapucahy, two leagues to the north of S. Vicente, we found the gold-washing (Lavras) of more considerable extent. At a distance they resembled skilfully erected fortifications. Trenches several feet deep and broad, were dug upon terraced declivities for the purpose of conducting the rain water into the opened sides of the red loam. The washed loam was here and there thrown together in high heaps, or covered large tracts of land, through which artificial furrows were drawn. The whole presented a melancholy picture of wild desolation, in which even the roads are not spared; and a view of it is the more painful to the traveller, since at the first place where he sees gold obtained, he finds, instead of hard money, paper currency and all the misery which it produces. In the capitania of Minas Geraës, in the place of the smaller current coin of 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, and 320 rees, there have been circulated for about fifteen years, printed notes which are

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worth, according to the standard, a vintem of gold (371/2 and not 20 rees), and are issued by the four gold smelting houses in the capitania. The object of this measure was partly to remedy the real scarcity of copper coin, and it was partly an advantage to the government to get into its possession in exchange for such notes, the smallest quantities of gold dust which were current as small coin. The injury which this measure did to private credit and morality, was soon doubled by the appearance of a great quantity of forged paper. The slovenly execution of these notes greatly facilitated the forging of them, which the hatred of the inhabitants immediately ascribed to the English. The province is now deluged with these notes, and suffers the more from it, because the amount is not diminished either by being exchanged by the smelting houses, or by being disposed of in other provinces.

The river Sapucahy*, which flows through these countries before it unites with the Rio Grande, opposed, towards the evening, invincible obstacles to our progress; at several places where we attempted to pass through it, the bridge having been carried away, it was so deep and violent, that it was with the utmost difficulty we saved the first mule that was driven in. We therefore gave up our purpose of reaching the fazenda on the oppo-

* Sapucaya pitcher tree, Hy water, river.

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site side that day, and encamped in the open air in a valley surrounded by low woods. A fine damp fog, which fell during the whole night, and constantly threatened, to extinguish our fire, benumbed us with cold. Our situation was rendered still more disagreeable in the morning, by missing our negro slave. The fatiguing march through a country almost everywhere overflowed had excited disaffection in the young negro, who did not know how to appreciate our kind treatment of him, and embraced the first favourable opportunity to abscond, which new negroes frequently do. As we could discover no traces of him, we pursued our journey to the fazenda of S. Barbara, which we had intended to reach on the preceding day, there to take the necessary measures for discovering the fugitive. We were received with true German hospitality, and the owner of the estate, Jozé Antonio Almeida, sargente môr e administrador da real fazenda, who did not return home till the evening from a visit to remote plantations, made us easy respecting the fate of our fugitive. In the province of Minas Geraës, as well as in several other capitanias, where the number of negro slaves in the interior renders double care necessary, there is a particular corps called capitâes do matto, who are chiefly mulattoes or other people of colour, whose business it is to pursue every fugitive slave and bring him back to his owner, or the proper

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authorities. It is only runaway slaves, who have an accurate knowledge of the country, and retire to a great distance, that sometimes escape the vigilance of this police; we were therefore assured, that as our negro was rude and inexperienced (negro bruto), we might depend upon his being soon discovered. In fact, he was brought to us on the following day from a neighbouring fazenda; in the reception we gave him, we followed the advice of our host, treating him, according to the custom of this place, very kindly, instead of using harsh language, endeavouring to obliterate the remembrance of his flight, and giving him a full glass of brandy. Long experience has taught the Brazilians, that this beverage and complete amnesty have better effect on the temper of new negroes than any chastisement.

The immediate environs of S. Barbara are low woods, and fine grass plains and moors, which are frequented by snipes, goatsuckers, and a kind of owl, and produces a great number of beautiful myrtles, rhexias, melastoma, and labiated flowers. The Sapucahy, the banks of which are overgrown with bushes of inga and sebastiania, meanders sometimes through the plain, and sometimes between low mountain forests, and abounds in fish; gigantic serpents, a small kind of caiman, and Brazilian otters are frequent in it. We saw in the woods many of the trees from which the

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gum anime is obtained (Hymenœa Courbaril, L.).* They are here called Jatobá or Jatai. Between the bark and the wood of this tree, which in its growth resembles the elm, there are in proportion but a few interstices filled with fluid gum; the far greater part of it is found under the principal roots, when they are bared of the earth, which, in general, cannot be done, without felling the tree. Under old trees, pale yellow round cakes, weighing from six to eight pounds, are sometimes found, which have been formed by the gradual filtering of the liquid gum. The purity and colour of this substance, principally depends on the nature of the earth in which these cakes are found, for the brown mould or moor soil imparts to them certain ingredients, which are not found in the dry, clayey, or sandy soil. The finest part of the gum, however, is that which exuding from the bark chiefly in the dry season, in the months of September and October, is collected by the inhabitants in the form of drops, and melted over the fire. The formation of those large masses of gum between the roots, seems to throw some light on the origin of amber, as it is very conceivable that this vegetable substance may have been portly accumulated in the ground, in a similar manner, under the trees which produced it, before it was received and rounded

* We met with several kinds of hymenæa, all of which produce gum.

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by the sea. Insects too, particularly ants, are also found in the pieces of the Jatai gum, as in amber. The Cayapós, and other Indian tribes on the Rio Grande, on the banks of which the hymenæa forms extensive woods, form this gum into ornaments, shaped like a club or a spindle, which they wear in holes, bored in the nose and underlip. Of the thick bark of the tree they make small canoes, which, on account of their lightness, are peculiarly adapted for land carriage from one river to another. Many lofty crotons also grow on the banks of the Sapucahy. A red resinous matter is obtained from them, which the inhabitants call dragon's blood, and use for dying.

In the extensive fazenda of S. Barbara, we found the principles of a prudent and well-calculated system of agriculture carried into practice, which have been but lately acted upon in this province, since the produce of the gold mines has begun to decline. In former times, gold-washing was the only source of the riches of Minas, and the landowners even neglected to cultivate what was necessary for the subsistence of their slaves, who were occupied exclusively in that employment. The gradual diminution of the amount of gold procured, has, at length, induced them to turn their attention to their fruitful lands. Our host, it is true, still delivered annually about a thousand crusadoes in gold, as royal tribute, but the chief source of profit was his maize, farinha, beans and

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some sugar-cane. His stores of the first of these were immense, and filled several large barns (Pajol) up the very roof. The sugar-cane is pressed in a small mill, belonging to the fazenda, is used partly to make rum and treacle, and sold to the neighbours. The ashes of dried bean-stalks, from which the beans are threshed with long poles on a dry floor before the house, are employed in making soap, which is, however, very impure, and never becomes hard. Attention is paid too to the breeding of horned cattle. A herd of six hundred supplies the whole establishment with meat, milk, cheese, and leather. Thus the most important wants are provided for by the produce of the fazenda, which is very favourable, not only to the prosperity, but also to the moral character of the inhabitants. This is especially evident in the situation of the slaves, who, under such circumstances are healthy and cheerful, and live with their masters on a truly patriarchal footing.

When we had crossed the Sapucahy in boats, and paid a few pence toll for each mule, we arrived over two woody mountains, into a beautiful valley, which is formed on the left, by the Serra de S. Gonzalo, and on the right by the Serra de Paciencia. Both are covered with fine forests, and are distinguished by outlines closely resembling those of our lower Alps. The country through which we passed, lies high, and the vegetation of the plains has an Alpine character; the extensive hills are

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clothed with bushy grey-green grasses, numerous lysianthias, declieuxias, büttnerias, escobedias, and small-leaved apocynum, but the low grounds with small bushy trees. The rock is chiefly light yellow granite, with small scaly black mica, on which the red auriferous loam lies. The village of S. Gonzalo, which is three leagues north-north-east from S. Barbara, possessed above thirty years ago, very considerable gold-washings, and enjoyed great prosperity, the instability of which is testified by several handsome but half-decayed buildings. Most of the inhabitants, however, still obtain from two to four thousand crusadoes from their mines, which is a great advantage to them, provided they do not at the same time neglect agriculture. Along the road from S. Gonzalo to Villa da Campanha, we met everywhere with indications of the principal occupation of gold-washing; the trenches in particular, by which the water required is led from the highest parts of the country, are often of surprising extent, and run for leagues along the declivities of the mountains. Here, too, the mountains consist of granite, which not unfrequently passes into gneiss, and the felspar of which is almost entirely decomposed into kaolin. We often saw great tracts entirely decomposed into loam of a white or bright violet colour; for the felspar has the first colour, as the chief ingredient of the rock of this country in general, and it gradually acquires the latter by

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decomposition. The mica is of a silver colour, or greenish; the mass of the quartz is proportionably small; here and there veins of quartz traverse the rock in manifold directions, and these always abound in disseminated gold. The Mineiros, however, do not look for and follow them, except when the surrounding rock is so entirely disintegrated, that it yields the profit they seek, without being worked according to the proper rules of the art of mining.

The Villa Campanha, or properly Villa da Princesa da Beira, which we reached early in the day it being only four leagues to the north-west of S. Gonzalo, is situated on a high hill, and is, next to Villa de S. Joâo d' El Rey, the most important and populous place in the comarca do Rio das Mortes. The gold mines in the neighbourhood, some of which have been worked only a few years, are among the richest that are now worked, and have diffused great opulence among the inhabitants, among whom we became acquainted with our countryman, Mr. Stockier, brother to the governor of the Azores. There are here many pretty houses of two stories which have glass windows, one of the most expensive articles of domestic comfort in the interior of Brazil. But it appeared to us that luxury and corruption of morals kept equal pace with the progress of riches and commerce. As physicians we had especially occasion to remark the incredible extent of syphilis, and its incalculably

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fatal consequences to the health and morals of the inhabitants. Not only does the universality of the contagion most seriously tend to diminish the population, but the unblushing openness with which it is spoken of destroys all moral feeling, and violates, in particular, the rights of the female sex, who are not allowed any influence over the sentiments of the men, and in the formation of happy marriages. This melancholy state of things, which is the darkest side in the picture of the Brazilian character, is rendered still worse by the numbers of imported negro slaves and of concubines (mulheres da cama), to which state the mixed descendants of both races in particular degrade themselves. As the manual labour of gold-washing is performed entirely by slaves, the perverseness of the whites disdains, as dishonourable, every similar employment, even those of agriculture and tending cattle, in consequence there are so many idlers that they are usually distinguished as a separate class, under the name of Vadios. The traveller, therefore, sees here with the splendour of the greatest opulence, all the images of human misery, poverty, and degradation. The inhabitants, whose wants even their rich and teeming soil cannot satisfy are always instituting invidious comparisons between their country and the northern districts of Minas, which they describe to strangers as the true Eldorado, where, with the enjoyment of greater riches, European

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manners, civilisation and luxury are already introduced, and to which they are much inferior.

We left Villa de Campanha the next morning, having first parted with our troublesome fugitive, that we might not run the risk of again losing him, to the Juiz de Fosa, who had just lost several negroes by a fall of earth in his mines. From this time (the 14th of February) the rainy season in this latitude seemed to be quite over. This circircumstance and the confidence we could repose in our honest guide, a Paulista of Jundiáhy, who relieved us from all care about the mules, the procuring of the supplies, and the proper packing of our chests, enhanced the pleasure of the journey through this country, which appeared to become more beautiful and interesting at every step we advanced.

It is usual in Minas to complete the day's journey without halting. We therefore travelled every day from six or seven in the morning to two or three o'clock in the afternoon, when we unloaded at a rancho, or more rarely in the open fields, where only water was to be had. The mules were fed with maize and after being carefully examined to see whether they were in good condition, were driven to the pasture; the same meal was prepared as in the morning, with the addition of the birds and monkeys we had shot upon the way; and our baggage was arranged in such a manner to be best

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protected against the rain according to the local circumstances. If there was reason to fear a visit from the ounces during the night, the camp was surrounded on all sides with watch-fires, and care taken, during the day, to procure a sufficient supply of wood. During our march we had had opportunities to collect observations on the country we had passed through, and on the plants, minerals, &c., found in the vicinity of the road. After the caravan was encamped we employed the remainder of the day, for similar purposes, in excursions in the neighbourhood; and the hours of twilight and the beginning of the night were spent in writing notes in the journals, in preparing, drying, and packing our collections. This simple mode of life had its peculiar charms, which were increased by reciprocal participation of the pleasures arising from our discoveries, or by conversations in which we often called to mind our distant European friends. Lastly, music, too, made a part of our daily amusement; for we never lay down to rest till the violin of one of the travellers had played some artless Brazilian popular airs, succeeded by German melodies, which combined the agreeable sensations of the present with the remembrances of our native Land.

Our first encampment after Villa de Carapanha was in the Arraial do Rio Verde, a small village situate in a beautiful green plain bounded by woods, on the rivulet Rio Verde which is half

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as broad as the Paraiba river, and flows from hence to join the Sapucahy, and across which there is a tolerably good wooden bridge. The bridge gate was not closed during the night, and several of our mules, as is the custom of those animals, had returned back by the way they came, for which reason we could not immediately pursue our journey the following morning. It happened to be a holiday, and about a hundred of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood assembled in the church to hear mass. This edifice, like most of the country churches in Minas, is small, and built only of clay and wood, without steeple, organ, or internal ornaments. The want of all these things gives to the service a simplicity which, as well as the presence of all the members of the families, even the youngest, imparts to this religious assembly, in a country so backward in civilisation, an affecting character resembling the first Christian meetings.

To the north of Arraial do Rio Verde we crossed pleasant plains covered with lively verdure, and in the bottoms with thick bushes. Numerous apes called Miriki or Mono (Brachyteles Hypoxanthus*), which inhabit the neighbouring forests, uttered their loud and discordant cry: yet we did not succeed in getting near to the noisy troop, for at the slightest motion that they perceived in the bushes, they immediately fled with dreadful

* Spix, Sim. Bras. fol. tab. xxvii.

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clamours. Another curiosity which the zoologist met with on this road, was one of the most poisonous serpents of the country, called Urutú, which is two feet long, of a dark colour, with brownish stripes, and has the mark of a skull upon its head. Like all the other species which are notorious for their poison, for example, the surucucú*, the jararacuçu, also called the schiraraca†, and the jararaca-mirim or de rabo branco‡ J, it lives chiefly in forests, on damp dark places on the ground, under stones or rotten wood, and its bite is said to occasion almost certain death. Nothing terrifies the Brazilians so much as the fatal bite of these animals, which being so numerous are very frequently met with. The few surgeons in the interior of the country almost entirely decline prescribing for the bite of serpents, and rather leave it to the people called curadores, who use a mysterious mode of cure, and for this reason possess the confidence of the common people in a higher degree than the physicians, though they cannot always boast of success. Shooting pains in the limbs, irresistible lassitude, giddiness, vomitings, pains in the eyes and temples, burning in the back, blindness, bleeding at the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears; sometimes, but not always, violent salivation, swelling of the face, insensibility, mortal weak-

* Bothrops Surucucú, nob.

† Bothrops Neuwiedii, nob.

‡ Bothrops leucurus, nob. (Spix, Serpent. Bras. 4to tab. xxii. xxiii.)

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ness, anxiety, fear of death, tremblings and convulsions succeed, if the poison takes its full effect, in the space of a few hours; and the patient expires within four and twenty hours after the bite of the rattle-snake, and in a still shorter time after that of the Jararaca-mirim, with the most dreadful convulsions and sometimes with symptoms of hydrophobia, so that the curador who often lives at a distance comes too late, though no time has been lost in sending for him. If the venom has not been so powerful, and the curador therefore finds it possible to effect something, he generally begins by sucking the wound, causes the patient to be conveyed into a dark chamber, carefully guarded against every draught of air, and administers to him himself a great quantity of decoctions of certain herbs and roots internally, and poultices of the same medicines on the wound. One of the most efficacious and commonly used remedies, are the leaves and roots of a rubiacea(Chiococco anguifuga, Mart.*), which is known in the country by the name of Raiz preta or de Cobra, and, in its external qualities, especially in the pungent, penetrating, and disagreeable smell, much resembles the Senega and Valerian. The patient must drink great quantities of the decoction; and the poultices of the fresh-bruised leaves and roots are frequently re-

* C. foliis ovatis acuminatis glabris, racemis paniculatis axillaribus foliosis. (Vide Von Eschwege's journal of Brazil, Part I. p. 225.)

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peated, alternately with those of several other plants, for instance, the lóco (Plumbago scandens, L.), which draws blisters, the picâo (Bidens graveolens, nob. and leucantha, W.), the erva de S. Anna (Kuhnia arguta, H.), and the Spilanthes brasiliensis. If the use of the Raiz preta produces considerable evacuations, hopes are entertained of the cure, and violent perspiration is considered as a particularly favourable sign. The same remedies are then administered without intermission for several days together, till the patient, though very weak, gradually recovers his former features, which, at the beginning, are almost always disfigured like those of a corpse. For some days after the bite, the curador does not quit the bed of the patient for a moment. When he is seized with a shuddering or weakness, he rubs him with spirits, or endeavours to recover him by breathing on him, or by fumigation with aromatic herbs. The curadores affirm that the cure cannot be pronounced complete in less than sixty days after the bite; for that till that time the patient is still in danger of dying, if not suddenly in the abovementioned fearful attacks, yet of a slow nervous fever. They forbid him during this time to be near a woman who has just recovered from sickness, to remain out of bed longer than while the sun is up, or to take any animal food but such as is very delicate. The proceedings of the curador are always accompanied with a certain degree of quackery, and several circumstances prove that the

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method is properly derived from the negroes and Indians; and, in fact, the art is chiefly practised by old free negroes and mamelukes. Women on the other hand, who otherwise have the first place in the surgery of the Brazilians, but very rarely undertake to cure the bite of serpents; and a mulatto assured us that they were not qualified to do so till they were fifty years old, because till that age, as he expressed himself, they are themselves poisonous. We met with many persons who had been saved from imminent death after the bite of venomous serpents; they however always remained weak, and were troubled for life with swelled and ulcerated legs.

The Rio do Peixe, which is less than its neighbour, the Rio Verde, flows also into the Rio Grande, and passes near the Fazenda S. Fé, comes down from the side branches of the Mantiqueira, and is said to have formerly yielded much gold. The few houses which we saw in its vicinity, by no means indicated the opulence of the owners; yet the inhabitants of this beautiful and healthy country, which is commanded by the romantic summits of the Mantiqueira, appear to find the gratification of their wishes in the produce of their numerous herds. The agreeable coolness and repose which we enjoyed here reminded us of the pastures of our native Alps, and we advanced with increasing pleasure, and more lively interest, the nearer we approached the centre of Minas.

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To the north, four miles beyond the Rio do Peixe, near a solitary chapel called Campo Bello, where we found a great number of loose garnets of the size of a hazel nut, the road to the Villa de S. Joâo do Principe divides into two branches; the western goes more into the valley by way of Boa Vista, Brambinho, and the Arraial das Lavras de Funil, it is more populous and rather longer; the eastern leads through the mountains along unfrequented by-paths. We preferred the latter, because we were unwilling to descend from this serene region, where we could indulge without interruption in those cheerful feelings which on mountains, as it were, reanimate the soul of the traveller. The friendly, truly patriarchal reception which we met with on the summit of this lonely rock in a solitary farm, the Fazenda do Corrego dos Pinheiros, was in perfect unison with our feelings. They seemed to be here much accustomed to the society of their neighbours, and every one whom the owner had given permission to unload was considered as a guest, without having anything to pay for beyond the maize for his mules; this hospitality and friendly disposition is met with in a great part of Minas.

We had scarcely entered it when a thunderstorm arose with such extraordinary fury, that we had double reason to congratulate ourselves on having found an asylum under so hospitable a roof. It was a sudden storm, such as very rarely occurs

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in the temperate zone. In a quarter of an hour the whole turmoil of the elements had subsided, and the slopes of the valley, from which the rain pouned down in torrents were in a few minutes dried by the sun. The host's numerous sons meantime exerted themselves to entertain as by singing their simple popular songs, which they accompanied with the guitar. The most celebrated post of Minas is Gonzaga, formerly ouvidor of S. Joâo d'El Rey; but having, at the beginning of the French revolution, taken part in a seditious tumult, he was banished to Angola, where he died. Besides the songs of this poet, which have been published under the title of "Marilia de Dirceo," numbers of others are current in the mouths of the people, which afford equal proof of the delicacy of the muse of the unfortunate poet. Such is the little song "No regaço, &c." which we here caught as it was sung to us. When Brazil shall have one day a literature of its own, Gonzaga will have the glory of having attempted, the first sna oreontec tones of the lyre on the banks of the pastoral Rio Grande, and of tbe romantic Jequi-tinhonha.

On the Corrego dos Pinheiros, which resembles a Tyrolese Alpine summit, a new formation of rock commences. The hitherto prevalent granite and gneiss is succeeded by that form of the mica or rather quartzy slate, which is generally called elastic sandstone, and thin layers of winch are in

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the direction of hour 8 of the miner's compass, and have an inclination of 60° to 70°. In the valley below we first met with a similar blue talc-like quartz-slate. Being overtaken by a storm on the following day near the Capella de S. Antonio, we took shelter in the Fazenda de Parapitinga, half a league from the Corrego dos Pinheiros. It lies at the foot of the Serra Branca, a high mountain of mica-slate, the bold outlines of which had formed for some days the boundary of our prospect. From this place, we ascended that mountain, over the ridge of which the road led for several mites. The extensive view which we enjoyed from it afforded us an opportunity of forming a just notion of the principal mountains of this district. On our left we had the mountain of Capivary, on our right the Serra de Ingahy, both of which run parallel with the Serra Branca, from S.S.W. and S.W. to N.N.E. and N.E., and all branch out, almost in right angles, from the Serra de Mantequeira, the main stem of the mountains in Minas. These mountain chains, most of them covered to the very summit with pleasant campos, have a level, far-extended ridge, from which, side branches stretch into the valleys, and connect the single chains. Here are no frightful clefts or gigantic rocky summits, rent into threatening forms; the eye, on the contrary, reposes in the view of not very deep valleys, and of beautifully rounded hills, adorned with pastures, down the gentle slopes of which clear streams here and there descend. The traveller does not have most with the impressions

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of those sublime and rugged high Alps of Europe, nor on the other hand, those of a meaner nature; but the character of these landscapes combines grandeur with simplicity and softness, and these are among the most delightful which we met with between the tropics. As the broad tops of the sarcophagus-formed mountains, rise almost to an equal height (between three and four thousand feet), and the valleys, shaped like a trough, are not very deep, this whole part of the mountains might be called an undulating plateau, in which the Serra de Mantiqueira is gradually lost on the western side. The Serra das Lettras, which has excited the interest of the common people by strange dendritic figures of the white flexible quartz (or Gelenk quartz), which is frequently eaten away, lies but a few miles from this place, and belongs entirely to the same formation. In places, for instance near the huts called Capivary, at the foot of the serra of the same name, we found on this quartzy mica-slate, a much decomposed clay-slate, of a carnation or greenish colour containing garnets, and the direction of this clay-slate was more south (i. e. S.W. or S.S.W.) than that of the mica-slate. The mica or quartz slate is white or yellowish, of a fine granular structure, and appears to be incumbent, sometimes upon granite and sometimes on a lilaccoloured granite-gneiss, in which there are garnets and black shorl. We had frequently seen such gneiss standing out near Villa de Campanha and on the Rio Verde. All this part of the mountain is

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less rich in gold than the northern tracts. But, on the other hand, Flora has more lavishly endowed it with a diversity of flowers. The rhexias, in particular, are a great ornament. There is an endless variety of species, all low shrubs; the numerous, thin, profusely-leaved stalks, are covered with beautiful red and violet-coloured blossoms. Stately stems of blue vellosias and gay barbacenias*, the representatives of the liliaceous plants, principally adorn the stony eminences. Of the family of the gentians, there are many species of lisianthus, which call to mind the equality of the diffusion of certain families, through very remote countries.

At the bottom of the valley, we crossed the little river Ingahy, which, as well as the Capivary which joins it, carries the tribute of its waters to the Rio Grande. The solitary spot was just then animated by numerous caravans, conveying bacon from the interior of Minas to Rio de Janeiro, and which had encamped in the valley. This branch of trade is carried on, chiefly from the country about Pitangui, to a great extent with the capital, which it partly indemnifies for the want of fresh butter. We had scarcely reached a rancho near these strangers, and had the baggage piled up round us, when we were invited by the inhabitant of the only hut in the valley, to share his dwell-

* Vellosia aloœfolia (Mart. nov, gen. tab. 7.), Barbacenia tomentosa (Ibid. tab. 11.).

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ing with him. His unanswerable argument, that the roof a Portuguese soldier was preferable to any encampment in the open air, were it even in Paradise, could not fail to induce us to accept his offer. The old man, who had served forty years in the line, and had taken part in many an incursion (entrada) against the Cajapós Indians in Goyaz, and the Puris in Minas, was a model of loyalty, and thought himself happy to be able, in this solitary country, to exercise the police out of pure love for his king and country. Several of the leaders of the caravans encamped here laboured under chronical diarrhœa from rheumatic causes, against which they had in vain tried the guarana; this is a paste of the fruit of a hitherto nondescript plant*, and the general remedy used by travellers, who are connected with Goyaz and Matto-grosso, against similar attacks, dysentery, &c, of which we shall have occasion to speak at length, in the course of our narrative.

The road to S. Joâo d'EI Rey, goes N.N.E. obliquely over the mountain of Capivary, the N.W. declivity of which is much less steep than the southeastern. On that side near to a chapel, granite occurs with yellowish felspar, black mica, and white quartz, instead of the white quartz-slate, which is always much decomposed. In a deep narrow part of the valley, we came to the Rio Grande, the

* Paullinia sorbilis. Mart.

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source of which is not far off to the S.E. in the mountain of Juruóca. The stream, which at this place is not more than five toises in breadth, is confined in a high rocky bed, surrounded by the most pleasant campos and hills, and here forms a very considerable cataract, the thundering noise of which re-echoes in the valley. Immediately above the cataract is a wooden bridge, which is in constant danger of hilling in the fury of the torrent. At this place, called Ponte Nova, which must be passed on the way from S. Paulo to the principal places of Minas and Goyaz, a frontier customhouse has been erected, in the neighbourhood of which a few settlers have established themselves. The frequent frauds upon the customs, and particularly the exportation of gold dust and diamonds from Minas, seem to have given occasion to this precaution. When at some future time, with the increase of the population, the commerce of Minas and Goyaz shall become more considerable, this point may become important as the staple place of the navigation of the Rio Grande. From this place you may not only proceed on the great river towards the south, namely to Paraguay and thence to Buenos Ayres, but it is possible, by means of the rivers which fall into it on the north, to reach, within a few miles, Villa Boa, the capital of Goyaz. The branches of the Rio Grande, which descend from the north, namely from the Montes Pyreneos, and the neighbouring Serras de S. Martha and Es-

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calvado, are not yet sufficiently known; however, the voyage undertaken by Captain José Pinto in the year 1816, from Villa Boa, to find a way by water to S. Paulo, has so far cleared up the geography of those countries, that a communication between the principal sources of the Rio Grande and the streams of Goyaz may now be anticipated. For, if a person embarks in the harbour of Anicuns, twelve leagues from Villa Boa, the capital of Goyaz, on the Rio dos Boys, the rapid stream of the Rio Turvo and the Rio de Pasmados, into which it falls, will bring him in a short time into the Rio Paranahyba. Three leagues below the junction of those rivers with the latter, the boats have a great waterfall to pass, as far as which the wandering Cajapós Indians who dwell on the lower Paraná, sometimes extend their incursions. The junction of the Paranahyba with the Rio Grande, from which the stream takes the name of Paraná, is stated by Captain Pinto to be only twenty leagues from that cataract, and the navigation up the Rio Grande, as far as Ponto Nova, to be indeed difficult, on account of the strong current, but not interrupted. The almost boundless extent of the inland rivers, and the numerous collateral streams, hold out the most favourable prospect for the inland trade of these fruitful countries.

While the naturalist is highly interested in considering the geography of the Rio Grande and its collateral streams, on which he contemplates the

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probability of a future extensive inland trade, he is especially attracted by the nature of the country through which it flows. The whole system of the rivers, which it and its collateral, the Paranahyba, receive during the whole of their extensive course, descends from mountains which are distinguished, above many others, as much by their height and extent, as by their especially belonging to that formation which contains such immense quantities of gold. On the east, the picturesque Serra Mantiqueira forms the principal boundary; towards the north-east the Serra Negra, Da Canastra, Da Marcella and Dos Cristaës, constitute the boundary between it and the Rio de S. Francisco. On the north side the principal mountains of Goyaz, namely, the Montes Pyreneos, and their branches, divide the great valleys of the Araguaya and the Tocantins from that of the Rio Grande. All these mountains, which are chiefly composed of quartzy mica-slate, contain on both their declivities the richest stores of that metal. They form the principal stem of all the Brazilian mountains of the interior, and in them arise three mighty streams, the Tocantins, the Rio de S. Francisco, and the Paraná, which flow in three very different directions to the sea. The country through which the latter flows, which extends from 17° to 28° S. latitude, and from the meridian of S. Joâo d'El Rey (47° 53′ W. of Paris) to that of Buenos Ayres (60° 51′ 15″ W. of Paris), and comprehends a great part of the capitanias of

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Minas Geraës, S. Paulo and Paraná, has nearly the same physical character through this great extent. Only the north-eastern tract, from which the river rises, and the eastern boundary, are traversed by those mountains, among which we had hitherto travelled, and the nature and formation of which we have attempted to describe. Farther to the west the land is either level, or broken only by gently rising hills and insulated mountain ridges, through which, for the most part, that quartzy micaslate (flexible quartz) is diffused, constantly accompanied by iron, platina, and gold. On the east side, the river is joined by several considerable streams, the Tieté, Paranapanema, and the Iguaçu or Curtiba, all of which have a rapid course frequently interrupted by cataracts; the Rio Pardo, which rises in the mountains of Camapuâo, is the only considerable collateral stream on the west side. The low lands, and particularly the banks of those rivers, are covered with thick, but not very high forests; the other, and by far the greater part, of the surface, is overgrown with bushes and grey-green hairy grasses, and forms those boundless plains; the pasture of numerous herds of cattle, to which the inhabitants on account of their uniformity and extent have given the name of Campos Geraës. Among the bushes, which here and there occupy great tracts in these plains, the matte or gongonha shrub (Cassine Gongonha, Mart.), the dwarf acajú (Anacardium humile, Mart.), and innumer-

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able species of malpighia, myrtles, and guava (psidium), are the predominant and characteristic forms.

The rocks, according to the accounts which we were able to obtain, resemble, in the greater part of this tract, what we had ourselves observed on our road; namely, primitive, i. e. mica-slate or granite. Lime is said to be very rare; for which reason the inhabitants of the province of Paraná use, in erecting walls, a kind of clay (tabatinga) which forms strata here and there by the side of the rivers, and which is burnt white in the fire. In the character of its climate too, this whole river district has the greatest uniformity; as the elevation above the level of the sea, in the most northern and mountainous part, makes up for the greater distance of the southern part from the equator. Neither the heat nor the cold are excessive in this healthy district; but hoar-frost is not unfrequent upon the mountains during the cold months (from May to October). The mean heat of the year appears to be rather below than above 15° or 16° Reaumur's thermometer. The difference between the temperature of the water and the air, as well as that by day and by night, is proportionably greater than in the lower latitudes. Thunder-storms generally come from the N. and N.W., and the prevailing wind, during the cold season, S.W. and W. The cultivation of the sugar-cane succeeds in the low grounds near the rivers, but is not extensive; very few attempts have hitherto been

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made in coffee planting; on the other hand, maize and several kinds of beans, and, in the more southern parts of the country, wheat, corn, and flax, produce a plentiful crop. Fruits of Caucasian origin, particularly apples and peaches, thrive, as well as all European vegetables.

A traveller who goes from S. Paulo to Villa Rica, will easily perceive, on accurate observation, that the general appearance of the country gradually changes when he has passed the boundary, from which the waters flow southwards to the Rio Grande, and northwards to the Rio de S. Francisco. While the Rio Grande, with the thundering noise of its fall, here takes leave, as it were, of its native mountains, to flow to the lower countries towards the west, it at the same time prepares the wanderer for grander scenes of nature, which await him as he advances farther to the north. The mountains become more lofty and more steep; the valleys deeper; massive rocks, on the summits or in the vale, more frequently interrupt the verdant slopes and plains; the streams flow with a more rapid course; sometimes he finds himself on elevated spots which command a sublime prospect of manifold insulated mountain tops and profound valleys, sometimes he is enclosed between steep and threatening walls of rock. All objects assume more and more the features of a romantic or Alpine country. We advanced north-east from the passage of the Rio Grande, upon hills which form a con-

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necting branch between the Serra de Capivary and Serra de Viruna, and have many loose fragments of iron-stone, among which is hematite, lying on their surface. The country is poetically rural, but lonely and desolate. The great and extensive forests which run along the declivities of the valleys, and bound the feeding places of the several fazendas, are almost the only indications that the land is inhabited, as the farms are, for the most part, concealed in side valleys. At one of these fazendas, called Vittoria, where we passed the night, is a large rancho built of stone. The arrangement of these houses is similar to that of the caravanseries in Persia and India. Every traveller has a claim to the use of them, for which he gives nothing to the owner, except that he usually pays him a trifle for every mule which is put for the night in the enclosed pasture.

From this place the road leads N.N.E. over several rounded mountains, either wholly bare or sparingly covered with some compósite flowers, rhexias, and grasses, and which connect the main branches of the Serra Mantiqueira that run from S.E. and N.W. A short distance before we reach the last of these high mountains. Morro de Bom-fim, we passed the Rio das Mortes, which winds through the pretty broad swampy valley with its black waters, and having received some tributary streams, joint the Rio Grande twenty miles from S. Joâo d'EI Rey. It was in this val-

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ley that the Paulistas once, quarrelling from lust of gold, destroyed each other in a sanguinary contest, from which the river has derived its name. The Morro de Bom-fim is very steep, and therefore very difficult of ascent for beasts of burthen; it consists of strata of flexible quartz, and on its bare, broad, long-extended ridges, has an abund-ance of fragments of quartz. From its summit there is a noble prospect over the whole valley of the river; and as soon as we descend at the other end of it, of the Villa de S. Joâo d'El Rey, formerly Villa do Rio das Mortes, which lies at the foot of the bare mountain Lenheiro, only half a mile from the river from which it derived its former name. The many mountains by which this little town is surrounded, the numerous dazzling white houses, and the little river Tijuco which flows through the middle of it, and is often nearly dry, give it a pleasant romantic appearance. A great number of country houses, scattered on the declivity, lead to the solid stone bridge, which is thrown over the abovementioned river, and unites a part of the town lying along the eminence with the larger portion in the plain. The stranger, especially after such long privations on a journey in the interior, is rejoiced to find himself in a little commercial town. Paved streets, stately churches, adorned with native paintings, shops well stored with all European articles of manufacture and luxury, various work-shops, &c., announce the

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thriving state of the place, which, on account of its inland trade, is one of the most lively in Brazil. The Villa de S. Joâo d'El Rey, so called after King John V., is, like Villa Rica, Villa do Principe, Sabará, and lately, Paracatú, one of the capitals of the five comarcas in the capitania of Minas Geraës; namely, of the comarca das Mortes, which is about fifty miles in diameter. The town itself has a population of 6000 inhabitants, only one third of whom are whites, a supreme judge (Ouvidor), a gold-smelting house (Casa de fundiçâo do oiro) a Latin school, an hospital, a house of correction, where for the most part murderers are confined, several chapels, and four churches, among which, the handsome metropolitan church is distinguished. Though the environs of the town are very mountainous and bare, and seem also to be thinly peopled, yet in the clefts of the mountains and the valleys many fazendas are scattered, which furnish the necessary supplies of maize, mandiocca, beans, oranges, tobacco, and likewise a small quantity of sugar-cane and cotton, above all, cheese, cattle in abundance, swine, mules, and, together with the streams that are full of fish, provide them with sufficiency of food.

In former times, the chief occupation of this people was searching for gold. They obtained it partly by washing in the stream, partly out of some shallow trenches (calderoês) which are cut

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principally in the massy parts of the quartz veins of the mountain Lenheiro, which consists of white elastic quartz. The fruits of this labour having now become uncertain and trifling, less regard is paid to it; and only the poorer people now continue to wash gold dust from the gravel of the stream, in order, by the sale of it, to provide the most urgent necessaries for their subsistence. The greater part of the gold dust which is melted into bars by the smelting house here, comes from the Villa de Campanha, and the neighbouring S. Jozé; in both which places it is washed from the loam which abounds there. Instead of the gold mines, it is now the inland trade which daily increases the prosperity of this little town; we were told that the comarca was formerly indebted 40,000 crusadoes to Rio de Janeiro, but that since the arrival of the king it had not only discharged this old debt, but had put out to interest there a large capital of its own. What a brisk trade is carried on here appears from the fact, that four constantly employed caravans, each of fifty mules, annually go backwards and forwards to the capital, conveying thither, bacon, cheese, some cottons, beaver hats, horned cattle, mules, fowls, and gold bars, for sale; and bring back, in return, European goods, chiefly Portuguese and English, such as calicoes, handkerchiefs, lace, iron-ware, wine, porter, liqueurs, &c. Here, as everywhere in Minas Geraës, the rich people are very obliging to strangers,

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especially when they bring letters of recommendation from their acquaintance. However sigular it appears, it is yet certain and observed by every traveller, that the inhabitants of Minas are entirely different both in character and person from those of the other capitanias, and particularly from the Paulistas. The Mineiro has in general a slender lean figure, narrow breast, long neck, oblong face, black lively eyes, and black hair on the head and breast; he has naturally a noble pride, and something very delicate, obliging, and sensible in his outward behaviour; he is very temperate and seems particularly to be fond of a romantic way of life. In all these features, he much more resembles the lively Pernambucan, than the gloomy Paulista. Like the former, he seems to have a certain predilection for foreign productions and dress. Like the Englishman, the Mineiro is very fond of clean linen and white garments, particularly on holidays. His usual national costume differs from that of the Paulista. It generally consists of a short jacket of calico or black velveteen, a white waistcoat with gold buttons, the smallclothes of velvet or velveteen, long boots of undyed leather, which are fastened above the knees with buckles, and a beaver hat with a broad brim, serves at the same time instead of a parasol; the sword, and often the musket, together with the umbrella, are his inseparable companions whenever he goes any distance from home.

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Their journeys, however short, are never made but on mules. Their stirrups and bits are of silver, and the handle of the great knife, which sticks in the boot below the knee, is of the same metal. In these excursions the women are always carried in litters, either by mules or negroes, or dressed in a long blue pelisse and round hat, sit in a kind of arm chair fastened upon a mule. Their dress, except the head, which is only protected by a parasol, is in the French fashion, the borders of their white robes are frequently ornamented with embroidered or printed flowers, and gallant verses.

We did not stay long at S. Joâo d'El Rey, because we expected that everything relative to the gold-washing, and the geognostic particulars of the mines might be examined with more advantage at the capital, Villa Rica.

The road from this place leads towards the N.E., on the western declivity of the Serra do S. Jozé, which, on the whole, has a barren appearance, and takes its direction from S.W., to N.E. Beyond this mountain stands the little town of S. Jozé, which has nothing particularly remarkable, except its principal church, which is the handsomest in all Minas. Some of the inhabitants in this valley have planted European fruits in their gardens with great success, they have likewise made trials of oats, barley, and rye; the latter species of corn seems however not to thrive so well, running up

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into stalk, rather than forming ears, which, besides, ripen at different times, or bring the grain suddenly to maturity so that it falls to the ground. On this side of the mountain, along the road, no trace of agriculture was to be seen, but all the campos lay dry and desolate as far as to the fazenda of Canduahy, three miles from S. Joâo, and to the place called Lagoa Doirado, which is at the same distance, in the vicinity of which there are several gold-washings, that were formerly very rich. It happened to be a fair or holiday. Some booths had cottons, calicoes, hats, iron-ware, gunpowder, &c., for sale; the negroes who were present formed groups, and played their miserable music on a wooden instrument with some twisted silk strings, accompanied by two sticks, which, by being rubbed together, produce a grating sound. The neighbours by degrees arrived upon mules, to go to mass; but they seemed to be more interested by the purchase of the goods offered for sale, to supply their domestic wants, than by the common amusements. After divine service was over, we continued our journey, and to our great joy, got out of the dry campos, which were much exposed to the sun, into a low forest, some miles in length. As soon as we had passed this, we found ourselves in a romantic spot. The campos, diversified by grass, shrubs, and some small trees, sometimes rising in hills, through which narrow valleys wind, sometimes covered with fragments of rocks, resembling ruins, became more and

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more beautiful and striking. After two days' march by the chapel de S. Eustachio, and the fazenda de Camaboâo, we passed the river Paraöpeba by a wooden bridge. From this rivér the labourers have washed a great deal of iron-sand, which they call tin-sand, and which, on an accurate analysis, we found to contain admixed chromium and manganese. Senhor Da Camara, the intendant of the diamond district, had the goodness, when we were at Tijuco, to give us a considerable quantity of it. On our left hand lay the mountains of Camaboâo, then the Serra Negra, which forms the boundary between the comarcas of Rio das Mortes, and of Sabará. On this tract the granite in several places stands out, and the white quartz or talc-like mica-slate, in the direction of S.W., is incumbent on it. A small species of palm* was often scattered on the road-side; it was just then in flower, and bees of various species hovered about it.

We left the small hut, which had received us at the Ponte do Paraöpeba, before daybreak, in order to avoid the heat of noon. The country about us continued to assume a character of grandeur, which reminded us of the Alps of our native country. All nature was reanimated; we rode with feelings of pleasure through the morning mist, and breathed a delicate cool air, filled with the fragrance of the pretty Alpine flowers, spangled with dew, which

* Cocos flexuosa, Mart. Palm. Bras. fol. t. 82.

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were just opening their blossoms in the grass at our feet. Rhexias, melastomas, declieuxias, lisianthus, composites, &c, of the most diversified forms, stood all round us. We had ascended to a considerable height up the side branches of the Serra de Congonhas, which rose to the west in beautiful outlines, when the fog gradually sunk under us, and the varied tops of the mountains, reddened by the first beams of the sun, appeared above the grey ocean of vapour. A number of anús-brancos uttered their shrill notes in the campos nearest to us. This morning offered us a delightful pleasure; we here enjoyed a sunrise like that upon our Alps, but rendered more beautiful by the luxuriance and charms of the tropical nature. From the highest point of the mountain the way led us down into a deep and narrow valley, in which we crossed the little river Congonhas, which flows from that place westward to the Paraöpeba. A much steeper mountain, the Morro de Solidade, rose directly across our road, which the mules ascended with great difficulty, by a narrow slippery path. From its summit, a magnificent prospect lay before us of an extensive country, intersected by high and low mountains, covered, for the most part, with pastures, but here and there with dark forests; the Arraial das Congonhas do Campo, surrounded with its red lavras, lay solitary at our feet. The basis of this massy mountain is the same granular quartzy mica-slate which we have already frequently mentioned;

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incumbent upon it to a great thickness is a very fine mica, approaching talc-slate, of a white, bluish-yellowish-greenish, grey, or brownish colour. The direction of this rock, which occurs in strata of very different thickness, is on the whole from S.E. to N.W., i.e. contrary to what we observed on the whole in the principal mountain. The luster of its strata, which are alternately of the thickness of half an inch and less, to that of a foot, but seldom more, on the rifts, gives this fossil extraordinary beauty, and when the bare parts of the mountain are illumined by the sun they dazzle the eye, like the castles of steel or crystal in the poem of Ariosto. Large veins of a white or bluish while quartz, of a glassy fracture and lustre, traverse the rock in various directions. Considerable masses of it are also found scattered on the surface. In many places, there appears, over the mica layers of greenish or yellowish grey colour, that particular modification of mica-slate, which Mr. Von Eschwege* has called iron mica-slate. It forms layers of different thickness upon it. Brown ironstone also lies here and there, especially in loose pieces, scattered on the surface. According to the analogy of its appearance on the mountain of Villa Rica, its layers seem to be the uppermost strata in this formation; in and upon them we observed magnetic iron-stone crystals; and these are

* Journal of Brazil, Part II. Geognost. Gemälde Von Brasilien, Weim. 1822, 8vo. p. 21.

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octahedrons from the size of a pea to that of half an inch.

The farm in which we passed the night is situated on the highest part of this mountainous country, which, on account of its flat ridge, is called Chapada. By this word they distinguish, in Brazil, and particularly in the more southern provinces, every elevated plain or plateau. Though they are seldom of considerable extent, yet they so strikingly differ from the narrower mountain ridges, which generally terminate in sharper summits, or groups of rocks, that the term has become universal in the mouths of the people. In the Lingua Geral, these elevated plains are called Ita-beba, i. e. flat mountains. A great part of the Termo of Minas Novas, and the province of Goyaz, consists of such chapadas, which are there characterised also by a peculiar vegetation.

A few weeks before our arrival at the Fazenda da Chapada, the owner had entertained Mr. Von Eschwege, on his return from Rio de Janeiro to his residence at Villa Rica, and was very friendly and good-humoured, when he learned that we were his countrymen. During the night we passed in a closed room, we experienced a very great difference in the temperature; Reaumur's thermometer fell to 11°, though during the day, and in the shade, it had risen to 20° and 21°. This proportion of the temperature prevails almost universally in the higher parts of Minas Geraës, and

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particularly during the dry months. Between Chapada and the Fazenda Jozé Correa, which is only three leagues from it to the N.N.E., where we passed the night, the formation of the mountain is exactly the same as we had observed the day before. Beyond the picturesquely situated farms, Rodeio, rises the Serra de Oiro Branco, higher and steeper than Da Solidade, taking the direction of E.S.E. to W.N.W. Its nucleus also consists of white quartzy mica-slate, upon which thick layers of variegated mica, divisible into large plates, are incumbent. In the valley formed by this mountain, which is watered by several crystal streams, the iron formation is very evident in many places. Large masses, similar in their direction and stratification, consist of a bed of red brown iron-stone, and even of a rich iron mica-slate; the octahedrons of magnetic iron-stone lie in great abundance detached along the road. The iron mica-slate is observed, especially in the neighbourhood of a greenish grey mica, and is easily decomposed. As the layers of the latter are subordinate to the granular quartzy mica-slate, and alternate with the iron mica-slate, it is not uncommon to find pieces in which these three rocks appear together.

The road over these beautiful mountains continues to ascend, and unfolds to the eyes of the traveller, at every step, new and interesting objects. Manifold views of the valleys, in which the scattered farms become more numerous the nearer

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you approach Villa Rica, alternate with each other; but we were particularly surprised, as we were ascending the steep Morro de Gravier, a continuation of Sexra do Oiro Branco, at seeing some arborescent lilies, the thick naked stems of which, divided in the manner of a fork in a few branches ending in a tuft of long leaves, and being frequently scorched on the surface by burning of the meadows, are some of the most singular forms in the vegetable kingdom. The two species which have these forms, barbacenia and vellosia*, are called in the country, Canella d'Ema, and, on account of the resin they contain, are much used for fuel, wood being very scarce. They appear to thrive only on quartzy mica-slate, and are considered by the inhabitants as a characteristic mark of the abundance of a country in gold and diamonds. They are most frequently met with here at an elevation of from 2000 to 4000 feet, always accompanied by a variety of the prettiest shrubby rhexias, eriocaulon, and xyris.

How different are the feelings of the traveller when he passes from the dark low forests into the free and open tracts! On these serene and tranquil heights the noisy inhabitants of the wood are mute: we no longer hear the howling of herds of monkeys, the incessant screams of innumerable parrots orioles, and toucans, the far-sounding ham-

* See Martius, Nov. Genera Plant. Bras. 4to. Vol. i. p. 14.

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mering of the wood-peckers, the metallic notes of the uraponga, the full tones of manakins, the cry of the hoccos, jacus, &c The more numerous are the humming-birds*, buzzing like bees round the flowering shrubs; gay butterflies fluttering over the rippling streams; numerous wasps flying in and out of their long nests hanging suspended to the trees; and large hornets (morimbondos) hovering over the ground, which is undermined to a great extent with their cells. The red-capped and hooded fly-catcher†, the barbudos‡ (the barbets)§, little sparrow-hawks‖, the rusty red or spotted caboré (Brazilian owl)¶, bask on the shrubs during e heat of noon, and watch, concealed among the branches, for the small birds and insects which fly by; the tinamus walks slowly among the pineapple plants, the enapupés and nambús in the grass**; single toucans†† seeking berries, hop among the branches; the purple tanagers‡‡ follow each other in amorous pursuit from tree to tree; the caracar᧧ and the caracarí flying about the roads quite

* Trochilus superciliosus, albus, maculatus, Mangœus, mellivorus, viridis, forficatus.

† Muscicapa coronata, Eremita nob.

‡ The Portuguese names in the text are printed in Italica.

§ Bucco Tamatia L., fuscus Lath., Barbican Tem.

‖ Falco Sparverius, aurantius.

¶ Strii ferruginea, palustris.

** Tinamus brasiliensis, variegatus, &c.

†† Ramphastos dicolorus.

‡‡ Tanagra Jacapa.

§§ Falco brasiliensis, Polyborus vulgaris Veill.

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tame, to settle upon the backs of the mules or oxen; small wood-peckers* silently creep up the trees and look in the bark for insects; the rusty thrush, called Joâo de Barros†, fearlessly fixes its oven-shaped nest quite low between the branches; the siskin-like creeper‡slips imperceptibly from its nest, (which, like that of the pigeons, is built of twigs, and hangs down from the branches to the length of several feet,) to add a new division to it for thís year; the Câoha§, sitting still on the tops of the trees, looks down after the serpents basking on the roads, which, even though poisonous, constitute its food, and sometimes, when it sees people approaching, it sets up a cry of distress, resembling a human voice. It is very rarely that the tranquillity of the place is interrupted, when garrulous orioles‖ (Papa arroz), little parrots and parroquets (Maracanás, Maritâcas, Jandaiás), coming in flocks from the maize and cotton plantations in the neighbouring wood, alight upon the single trees on the campos, and with terrible cries appear still to contend for the booty; or bands of restless hooded cuckoos¶, crowded together upon the branches, defend, with a noisy croaking, their common nest,

* Picus campestris nob., flavifrons Veill.

† Turdus Figulus, nob.

‡ Anabates rufifrons, Neuw.

§ Falco cachinans, Cuv.

‖ Oriolus minor, L.

¶ Cuculus Guira.

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which is full of green-speckled eggs. Alarmed by this noise, or by passing travellers, numerous families of little pigeons (Rolas)*, often no bigger than a sparrow, fly from bush to bush; the larger pigeons (Amarzoga and Troquase)†, seeking singly among the bushes for food, hasten alarmed to the summits of the neighbouring wood, where their brilliant plumage shines in the sun; numerous flocks of little monkeys‡ run whistling and hissing to the recesses of the forest; the cavies§. running about on the tops of the mountains, hastily secrete themselves under loose stones; the American ostriches (Emas)‖, which herd in families, gallop it the slightest noise, like horses through the bushes, and over hills and valleys, accompanied by their young; the dicholopus (Siriemas)¶ which pursues serpents, flies, sometimes sinking into the grass, sometimes rising into the trees, or rapidly climbing the summits of the hills, where it sends forth its loud deceitful cry, resembling that of the bustard; the terrified armadillo (Tatú Canastra, Peba, Bola)** runs fearfully about to look for a hiding place, or, when the danger presses, sinks into its armour; the ant-eater (Tamanduá, Bandeira,

* Columba passerina, minuta Lath., squamosa Tom.

† C. frontalis Tem., leucoptera. &c.

‡ Jacchus penicillatus (Spix, Sim. Bras. tab. xxvi.)

§ Cavia rupestris.

‖ Rhea americana.

¶ Dicholopus cristatus, Hoff.

** Dasypus giganteus, septemcinctus, tricinctus.

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mirim)* runs heavily through the plain, and, in case of need, lying on its back, threatens its pursuers with its sharp claws. Far from all noise, the slender deer†, the black tapir or a pecari‡, feed on the skirts of the forest. Elevated above all this, the red-headed vulture (Urubú)§ soars in the higher regions; the dangerous rattle-snake (Cascaoel)‖ hidden in the grasses, excites terror by its rattle; the gigantic snake¶ sports suspended from the tree with its head upon the ground; and the crocodile**, resembling the trunk of a tree, basks in the sun on the banks of the pools. After all this has passed during the day before the eyes of the traveller, the approach of night, with the chirping of the grasshoppers, the monotonous cry of the goat-sucker (Joâo corta pâo)††, the barking of the prowling wolf‡‡, and of the shy fox§§, or the roaring of the ounces‖‖, complete the singular picture of the animal kingdom in these peaceful plains.

* Myrmecophaga jubata, tetradactyla, tridactyla.

† Cervus campestris, longicaudatus (Catingheiro), tenuicornis (Galheiro) nob.

‡ Tapir major, minor (Sapateira, Xurés); Dicotyles Tajarza L., lbiatus Cuv., brevipes nob.

§ Cathartes ruficollis. (Query, the Turkey buzzard, Catesby?)

‖ Crotalus cascavella. (Spix, Serp. Bras. tab. xxiv.)

¶ Boa constrictor.

** Jacaretinga moschatus; Crocodilus fissipes nob. (Spix lacertæ Bras., tab. i. and ii.)

†† Caprimulgus albicollis, cayennensis.

‡‡ Lupus mexicanus, Cuv.

§§ Vulpes campestris, nob.

‖‖ Felis brasiliensis, Onça. concolor.

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From the Morro de Grivier the descent is but inconsiderable to reach the beautiful Fazenda Capâo, and a quarter of a league farther to the farm of Lana. This is the district in which the well-known Brazilian topazes are found. The basis of the rock is flexible quartz; yet it is seldom in its usual form, but more frequently in the variety called by Eschwege, iron mica-slate. Incumbent on it are immense layers of a modified mica, which might be denominated earthy talc. They form low rounded hills, in which those precious stones are found in three different places, but chiefly near the two abovementioned farms. Immediately behind the Fazenda Lana there is a hill which, on one side, for a considerable breadth and to a height of sixty feet, is so softened by rains, and by water conducted upon it by art, that it is like a marsh, and without changing its position in parts, sinks lower all together. We found the owner and his slaves just then busy in looking for topazes. The soil is thrown up into long heaps with shovels, and washed by means of water conducted over it into a narrow channel, with some wooden lattices fixed in it, so that only the more solid parts remain behind, which are then broken with hoes and with the hands in search of topazes. These harder parts of the decomposed formation are the fragments of white quartz, often quite friable, sometimes mingled with detached rock-crystals, and are often accompanied with a white or brown ferruginous porcelain earth.

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The latter, which is here called Massa branca, is the surest indication of the presence of topazes, which lie loose and scattered in it as well as (though more rarely) among the broken and decomposed quartz. The workmen give the name of Malacacheta to the fine softened mica of a yellow and pinchbeck-brown earth, which one is tempted to call earthy talc. Topazes are found in it, but less frequently than in the broken remains of veins; and they have been observed, not only in the softened parts of the formation, but, as for instance at Capâo, also in that which is still solid. The vein of quartz, filled with porcelain earth, and containing the topazes, commonly runs between rifts of earthy talc, which is distinguished by its colour and compactness from that lying near it, and is called Formaçâo. The quartz vein, which, on account of the mobility of the whole mass, does not always preserve the same direction, but at the time of our visit ran from north to south, is from one inch to a foot and a half or more in thickness, and is carefully followed by the workmen. It frequently widens into large nest-like expansions, which present nothing but sterile broken quartz without topazes. The latter are also found, but very seldom, combined with the quartz rock or rock-crystal, in general broken at one extremity; we were never able to find, even in the mine, any with crystals terminated by planes at both extremities. The topaz miners have a custom very un-

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favourable to the crystallographer, which is to endeavour to prepare each stone for cutting by knocking off the impure particles with the hammer or entirely dividing pieces which have flaws.

The size of the stones is very various; the workmen affirmed that pieces have been found as large as a fist. The natural colour is manifold, sometimes greyish, sometimes bright yellow, and sometimes a mean between this and carnation of different shades, very rarely dark red. The stones which are found in the malacacheta are said to be the lightest. The inhabitants understand how to give to the topazes an artificial, particularly rose colour, by means of heat. The number of topazes annually found here is very considerable, and may amount to about fifty or sixty arrobas; this quantity, however, is not always pure and fit for polishing; on the contrary, a great part of them are of so imperperfect a colour and full of flaws, that they are thrown away as useless. The octavo (a gold weight) of the inferior sort of the stones fit for cutting, is sold at 320 rees; of the best, at 2000 rees. Remarkably large beautiful and brilliant stones are sold upon the spot from twenty to thirty piasters. The greater part of these topazes is exported from this place to Rio de Janeiro, a smaller portion to Bahia, and in both places so great a quantity has been accumulated within a few years, that the prices there are lower than at the mine itself. Together with the topaz, the euklase is also found

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here, and has attracted the attention of the Mineiros since mineralogists have enquired after it. This stone in general is scarce, and is more frequent in the mine of Capâo than in that of Lana.

Leaving Lana, we proceeded through narrow ravines, past rugged declivities, and steep mountain walls, and came to a place where the view, which had hitherto been confined, suddenly expanded, and showed a labyrinth of mountains and valleys running into each other. The Itacolumi, covered at its base with dark forests, and with its bare rocky summit, towering above all its neighbours, commands the whole country. A singular variety of light and shade, from the most brilliant sunshine to the deepest gloom, was spread over the landscape, the sombre and sublime character of which would afford a subject worthy of the pencil of a Salvator Rosa, or a Gaspar Poussin. Nature, by her profound silence, seemed to harmonise with the frame of mind into which we were thrown by the contemplation of this grand scene. The mountains grew steeper as we ascended, and we at last reached Trepui, a much-frequented venda, a mile from Villa Rica, where the caravans coming from or going to that place are generally re-organised. Here we, too, halted, partly to prepare ourselves for our entry into the villa, and partly to examine the rivulet flowing from the next hill into the valley below, and which contains cinnabar. We, in fact, found several small rounded grains of cinnabar mingled with

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many fragments, and even octahedral crystals of titaniferous iron. After everything had been arranged, we ascended the last promontories of Itacolumi, from which we enjoyed the inexpressible pleasure of seeing close before us part of the longwished-for town of Villa Rica. Mr. Von Eschwege, who resides here as colonel of the engineers, and director of the gold works, had previously had the kindness to hire apartments in the inn, As Cabaças, at the entrance of the town, where we could immediately dispose of our baggage. Full of joy, we rode down the mountain, and, on the 28th of February, being just one month after our departure from Ypanema, arrived safe in the capital of the mining country.

NOTE TO CHAPTER III.

IN the friable matrix of the yellow topazes, which has a greasy feel, we found, on accurate examination, the following fossils:—

1. Small-scaly lithomarge, yellowish and pinchbeck-brown, in places pearl-grey and silver-white; in the longitudinal fracture shining a little, and like mother-of-pearl; in the transverse fracture, faintly glimmering; very fine and greasy to the touch; slightly adhering together in roundish

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pieces; soiling; adhering but little to the tongue; not remarkably heavy, but almost light. This scaly lithomarge, which, on account of its very greasy feel, we might be induced to call "earthy talc" (which, however, cannot be recognised by us till the presence of magnesia in it is proved), is certainly nothing more than a modification of mica, which, in its usual state, appears hard and foliated, but here very soft and scaly. Small pieces of crystallised quartz, rock-crystals, and topazes are found embedded in it.

2. This soft mass further consists of little round pieces of a snow-white friable lithomarge, which is faintly glimmering between, line scaly and pulverulent soils, adheres to the tongue, is fine and greasy to tin- touch, and light. In it there is ironglance, crystallised in small six-sided tables, and topazes in still greater proportion.

3. This lithomarge in the form of small blunt-edged pieces often adopts a yellowish, then a light, and, at last, a very dark brown colour, being entirely impregnated with iron-ochre. There are in it still more little six-sided tables of ironglance than in the white lithomarge.

It is remarkable that the topaz, the euklase, and the quartz crystals in this formation are always found detached, and very often in fragments; but it would be a great mistake to infer from this, that the abovementioned fossils are in a secondary repository. If we compare the occurrence of the softened mass of mica (or lithomarge) at Capâo and Lana, with the more solid, though still pretty soft, varieties of mica, at Jozé Correa and Chapada, to the south of the former places, and of the Morro, near Villa Rica, we must be convinced, that both are quite similar in their origin and age, and have only undergone a modification with respect to their greater or less solidity. As we believe dial every considerable repository of porcelain earth, on and in gneiss and granite, is an original formation, so we are convinced that this repository of mica (if we may use this expression)

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must be considered as such a one, and, consequently, not essentially differing from the usual formation of the mica-slate.

Notwithstanding all that has been said, for some years past, respecting the occurrence of topazes in Brazil, there always has remained, on nearer examination, great uncertainty and doubt. Mr. Von Eschwcge, in Baron Von Moll's Annals, vol. iii. No. 3., says — "Chlorite-slates are generally the lower ranges of the higher sandstone mountains, and in them they dig for topazes in the country round Villa Rica; topazes are found in them only irregularly, here and there in nests and kidneys of lithomarge, fine white sand, rock-crystal, all which lie loose and promiscuously aggregated, partly crystallised, partly in irregular sharp-edged pieces; sometimes the topazes are imbedded in rock-crystal…… The manner in which the topazes are obtained is with bread hoes, as the chlorite-sate is quite decomposed and forms fullers'-earth, &c. "In the Journal of Brazil, the same gentleman remarks: — "The Morro Deos te Livre consists of sand-stone and chlorite-slate……From this place to Capâo de Cane, the principal species of rock is clay-slate, here and there forming a passage into chlorite-slate. This latter forms smaller mountains, often much decomposed and ferruginous, passes into fullers'-earth, and is then the matrix of the yellow topazes, which are frequently found in it in nests, with lithomarge. The chief mine is at Capâo. All the topazes found there have the peculiarity that they are broken; not a single crystal is found growing to another rock; even the rock-crystal, which occurs with them, is also broken; sometimes it is seen growing together with a topaz. The topazes, as well as the rock-crystal, show, in the fracture, a great freshness, as if they were but just broken, and lie in nests confusedly mixed together, surrounded with lithomarge. It is extremely difficult to form a hypothesis in what manner they came into the regularly stratified

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chlorite-slate. In order to make a still greater confusion of ideas, we have only to put the questions — Where was the matrix from which they were separated? What power could that be which so broke to pieces the matrix and themselves, that not one stone remained connected with another, but each appears wholly insulated? If they were rent from another place and here brought together again, how comes it that lithomarge, as it were, prepared a bed for them in which they were deposited, as in their original situation?" In Gilbert's Annalen der Physik, vol. i. p. 4., M. Von Eschwege again says, that in the chlorite-slate, topazes are enveloped in lithomarge; nay, in his latest geognostic description of Brazil, where he himself says, that he has formerly written various things on these subjects with which he is not now quite satisfied, he still observes:— "That talc and chlorite-slate appear inseparable; where the rock is entirely decomposed into fullers'-earth they find, in nests or groups, enveloped in lithomarge, the beautiful yellow topazes, and also the rare euklase; and often, in large fine six-sided tables of crystallised ironglance, with crystallised talc, rock-crystals with topazes immersed in them, or topaz-crystals with rock-crystals immersed, also cyanite, &c."

John Mawe, in his Travels in Brazil, has described the occurrence of topazes very differently, and, in our opinion, more correctly. According to his observations, the topazes are found at Capâo in narrow veins in a clay-slate passing into mica-slate. He thought that they were no longer in their original repository; that the crystal had but one acumination, and consisted of fragments; some were, indeed, grown together with quartz, but even the quartz itself appeared but in fragments. The topazes were enveloped in friable earthy talc and large crystals of ironglance, &c.

If our observations on the occurrence of the topazes are compared with the preceding remarks, it appears that they are found neither in chlorite-slate nor in a fuller's-

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earth, produced by the decomposition of this chlorite-slate, or fine while sand, but in a greasy mica, modified into lithomarge, which may be called scaly lithomarge, and in friable lithomarge, partly pure and partly mixed with much red ochre, which is accompanied with quartz and porcelain earth. Mawe has comprehended both the varieties, under the name of soft earthy talc, for which they certainly may be taken.

Mr. Von Eachwege himself has adduced the most solid reasons against the assertion of a secondary repository. On such a supposition we must assume a flötz chlorite-slate, and even regularly stratified; besides, we do not find the matrix from which the topazes may have been detached; neither is it to be conceived how, under such circumstances, they could be enveloped in the lithomarge, as in an original repository. We may add, that this is the more difficult to be explained, when we consider that both on the topazes and euklase evident impressions of very fine scales of lithomarge are to be seen, which may seem sufficiently to prove the simultaneous formation.

Lastly, if we must absolutely explain the origin of so many fragments of topazes, euklase, and quartz, the hypothesis of Mr. Zinken appears to be the most probable, according to which, these minerals have been formed in their original repository, but that a subsequent inundation penetrating into the friable mass of mica, loosened it, and hereupon the little cavities which arose at the formation of the separate crystals, collapsed, and fractured the crystals of topaz and euklase, which always have innumerable rents and fissures. Besides the occurrence of the topazes in the scaly and crumbly lithomarge, which evidently owes its origin to mica, has a great analogy with the origin of the emerald in mica, or mica-slate, in the valley of Heubach, in the principality of Saltzburgh.

Mr. Frischholtz says, in Baron Von Moll's new Annals, vol. iv. No. 3., "That mica, separates from the gneiss.

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and forms veins several feet thick. Emeralds are seldom found in gneiss, but always in mica: when this latter is soft, and almost unctuous to the touch, the emeralds contained in it are larger, of a more beautiful green, perfectly formed, and the lateral planes clear of the matrix. They ore never found massive, but the crystals disseminated, and confusedly aggregated in the mica, very rarely embedded in quartz; in the latter case they are greenish white, or even white, as the quartz itself."

These emerald crystals too are full of impressions of the surrounding mica, like the topaz and the euklase; so that the original repository of the latter appears to be the less liable to any farther doubt.

If, in addition to this origin of the emerald, we farther consider that the pycnite, which is the nearest allied to the topaz in its component parts, likewise occurs in mica; if we attend to the occurrence of the topazes in the topaz rock and lithomarge at Auerbach, in Saxony, we shall find their repository and that of the euklase in Brazil, which is akin to the emerald, little or not at all varying from that known in Germany, and thus have another proof that in this respect also the inorganic new world is conformable to the old. Even the modified mica, the scaly lithomarge, or Mr. Mawe's earthy talc, is met with in Bavaria, namely, in the country from Waltershoff to Pullenreuth, for an extent of two leagues, so nearly resembling that from the district of Capâo, that it is often very difficult to distinguish them. Only the mode of occurring is different; while, if the latter is to be regarded as a considerable bed, the former, according to Mr. Von Flurl's Description of Mountains, p. 424. sometimes forms a flötz stratum of great extent, and three fathoms thick, in which lies a compact and fibrous brown iron-stone, and in conjunction with this even a kind of talc-like, or micaceous iron-stone, which is rather allied to mica. Several flötz deposits of this modified mica, or earthy talc, are described by Dr. Reuss, in his Orographie des

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Böhmischcn Mittelgebirges, p. 122. and 146., in which the red garnets are found embedded.

We have already mentioned the principal colours of the topazes found in Brazil. Those in our possession, which are for the most part crystallised, are, 1st. four-sided prisms, with cylindrical, convex, lateral planes; and, 2dly. eightsided prisms, in which the lateral planes, meeting in a very obtuse angle, may be clearly observed. In the first case the prisms are acuminated by four planes, set on the lateral planes; in the latter, the solid angles of the nearly rectangular lateral edges are more or less truncated, so that the acumination appears of six planes. The lateral planes of the crystals are longitudinally striated, though, in some of them this striation is hardly perceptible. The terminating planes are rough, but some of them are so evidently notched on the acuminating edges, which may be considered as a continuation of the nearly rectangular lateral edges, that it is impossible not to perceive the origin of the crystal out of many small ones, each of which had a tendency to form its own distinct acumination. In this aggregation of several small crystals into one, we must probably seek the cause of the striated lateral planes, and the rough terminating planes. The remaining marks are common to them all, only in some dark yellow pieces, small scales of ironglance, perhaps little six-aided tables, are embedded, and seem thereby to allow the inference that the topazes have a deeper colour in proportion as the surrounding lithomarge is more ferruginous.

The euklase, which, in common with the emerald, occurs in the modified mica, or scaly lithomarge (which contains no magnesia, like chlorite and talc), is in the specimens of a light mountain-green colour. The rarity of a complete crystal will long be a hindrance to an accurate description of it. The best defined crystal before us is a four-sided oblique prism (according to the measurement of Mr. Fuchs, in Landshut.) of 115° and 65°, broken at one end,

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and bevilled at the other, by planes obliquely set on the acute lateral edges, so that the edges of bevilment form with the obtuse lateral edge an angle of 133°, and the bevilled planes meet under one of 106°. At the upper corner of the bevilment, there are four other small planes, which make a kind of acumination; two of these planes are smooth, the two others clearly notched, and show, as in the topazes, that the crystal is composed of several small ones. The lateral planes are longitudinally striated, and curved towards the obtuse lateral edge, so that the crystal has a reed-shaped appearance. The striation of the lateral planes most probably arose from the accumulation of the abovementioned smaller crystals, which formed several little planes, that are divided by furrows, whence the angles of the lateral edges can only be measured at the sharp edge.

In the pieces of euklase in our possession, we observed only one cleavage, namely, in the direction of the short diagonal of the terminal planes, or across the acute lateral edges, and which is in the highest degree perfect. The transverse fracture appears conchoidal. Some lateral and terminal planes of the crystals are rough, with numerous small impressions caused by the scales of the lithomarge, as in the emerald and topaz, and thus leave no room to doubt that this latter is their matrix.

We have observed above, that with the topazes and euklases, there occur also quartz and rock-crystals of different sizes; we will here particularise only two of the former and two of the latter, which are deposited in the Brazilian museum at Munich.

A piece of greyish white transparent quartz, has no regular shape, but the whole surface is full of impressions, which are frequently deep, occasioned by topaz crystals. Two fragments of the latter, of a light and dark yellow colour, still grow together with it.

The second piece of quartz is a six-sided prism, acuminated at both ends with six planes, crystallised, large, pellucid,

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semitransparent, and with many impressions, some of them very deep, one of which, measured diagonally, is nearly an inch broad; it may be asserted with the more confidence that they proceed from topaz crystals, as small fragments of such are still adhering to some of them. The surface of this quartz crystal is rough, probably from the impressions of the scaly lithomarge. Four crystals of rutile, of middling size, are grown together with it.

One rock-crystal is greyish white, at one end acuminated with six planes, at the other, having many impressions, which have been the more certainly caused by silvery mother of pearl colour mica scales, as such are grown together with it, not superficially only, but in the mass stellarly aggregated. The other remarkable piece of rock-crystal is a large fragment, with two opposite broad lateral planes. The surface is partly smooth, partly with many impressions, the origin of which is shown by some small tables of ironglance growing together with it. On this crystal, three small topazes grow superficially, and several small ironglance crystals in the interior.

For the above remarks on the topaz formation, as well as for the subsequent ones, on the several formations about Villa Rica, we are obliged to Chevalier V. Wagner, director of mines, who has had the goodness to determine all the minerals collected by us in Brazil, and to communicate to us the geognostical decisions resulting from the examination of them, and comparisons with the mode of occurring in Germany.

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TRAVELS IN BRAZIL.

BOOK IV.

CHAPTER I.

STAY IN THE CITY OF VILLA RICA.

VILLA RICA, the capital of the province of Minas Geraës, the residence of the governor-general and of the ouvidor of the Comarca Oiro Preto, is built on two hills of the eastern declivity of the mountain of the same name, on the Oiro Preto, subsequently called Do Carmo, which is the boundary between the lofty Itacolumi and the Morro de Villa Rica. The streets leading from that part of the city situated in the valley Do Oiro Preto, to that lying upon the hills, are all paved, provided with fourteen wells, and connected by four stone bridges; among which, the new one in the valley, erected by Mr. Von Eschwege, is the

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handsomest; the principal street runs half a league along the slope of the Morro. The houses are built of stone, two stories high, covered with tiles, the greater part are white-washed, and, though not very striking in their external appearance, are convenient, and adapted to the elevated situation of the town. The most remarkable of the public buildings are ten chapels, two considerable parish churches, the exchequer, the theatre, where plays are acted by an itinerant company, the Latin school, the town-house, with the prison, most of the inmates of which are murderers, whose crimes have originated in robbery or intrigue; but above all, the castle, the residence of the governor, which is defended by some cannon, and situated on the highest projection of the hill, commands part of the city and the marketplace, and enjoys a fine prospect over the whole country.

This place, though hidden in a narrow defile and surrounded by mountains and unfruitful stony campos, was always a favourite spot, to which not only Paulistas, but even Portuguese, frequently resorted in great numbers. The population of all Minas is now stated at half a million, and that of the city at 8500 souls. In the latter, the number of Portuguese from Europe, is proportionably great. The men capable of bearing arms are divided into two regiments of auxiliary cavalry (militia), fourteen companies of local

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militia of whites, seven of mulattoes, and four of free negroes.* Almost all kinds of trades are carried on here, the principal of which are the saddlers, tinmen, and blacksmiths; there are likewise manufactories of gunpowder, beaver hats, and pottery. No other town in the interior of Brazil has such a brisk trade as Villa Rica. There are roads from this place by way of S. Joâo d'El Rey to S. Paulo; by Minas Novas to Bahia; by S. Româo, Tejuco, Malhada, to Paracutú, Goyaz, and Matto grosso; but none of these is so much frequented by caravans passing backwards and forwards, as that leading to Rio de Janeiro, which is seventy miles distant. Almost every week large convoys set out with the productions of the country, cotton, hides, marmalade, cheese, precious stones, gold bars, &c., and bring in exchange from the capital, salt, wine, calicoes, handkerchiefs, hams, looking-glasses, iron-ware, and new negroes to be employed in the gold-washing, &c. The trade with the more remote districts of the interior, is not, indeed, so great as that of S. Paulo and Rio, which is carried on even ás far as (??oyaz and Matto-grosso, yet it extends even beyond the Rio de S. Francisco, almost over the whole capitania, and supplies it not only with the European articles purchased at Rio de Janeiro, but also with the produce of the environs; for in-

* See Note 1. page 198

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stance, iron goods, beaver hats, pottery, cheese, maize, beans, marmalade, pork, and bacon, which is used instead of, butter and lard, and is a staple article in the trade of the province.

The climate of this capitania on account of its elevated situation, is very temperate, and favourable to European fruits. During our residence in Villa Rica, the thermometer varied very much; in the morning before sunrise it was at 12° R., at noon at 23°, in the evening at 16°, and at midnight at 14°, The barometer rose and fell between 23 and 25.50; the whalebone hygrometer varied from 55° to 70°.* The weather was very pleasant, but often cooled by sudden thunderstorms. During the cold months, June and July, the plantations are sometimes injured by night frosts; thus, in the year before our arrival, a considerable part of the crop of banians, sugar-cane, and coffee was frozen. The winds blow from various directions, and are never accompanied by great heat, but frequently thick fogs, which often envelope the summits of the neighbouring mountains. The heat is accordingly less through

* Mr. Von Eschwege (V. Molla's new Annals of Mining, vol. iii. No. 3. p. 338.) observes, that Fahrenheit's thermometer in the heat of summer, never rose above 82° in the shade at noon, and in the winter, never fell below 54°. His barometer fluctuated between 26.564 and 26 090 (English). He observed at Rio de Janeiro, a magnetic inclination of 28° 44′ 30″ S., and 21 vertical oscillations in a minute; at Villa Rica, he found the inclination to be 29° 31′, the oscillations in a minute 20.8.

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the whole year, and the air more salutary than in the other provinces. The prevailing diseases are mostly catarrh and rheumatism; inflammations of the throat and lungs, violent cholic, and acute rheumatism are the most frequent. The negroes are observed to be particularly subject to elephantiasis and a peculiar kind of leprosy (Mal de S. Lazaro) of which we shall have occasion to speak in the course of our narrative.

Agriculture is not carried on to any considerable extent in the greater part of this mountainous capitania for want of woods, and because the stony soil in the unfruitful campos is entirely exposed to the heat of the sun; but, on the other hand, the province possesses other treasures. Almost every kind of metal is found here: ironstone, which produces ninety per cent., is met with almost everywhere, and it constitutes, in a manner, the chief component part of long chains; lead is found beyond the Rio de S. Francisco in Abaité; copper in S. Domingos, near Fanado in Minas Novas; chrome and manganese in Paraöpeba; platina, near Gaspar Soares and in other rivers; quicksilver, arsenic, bismuth, antimony, and red-lead ore, about Villa Rica; diamonds, in Tejuco and Abaité; yellow, blue, and white topazes grass and bluish green aqua-marines, red and green tourmalines, chrysoberyls, garnets, and amethysts, principally in Minas Novas. But what has chiefly contributed to the great influx of

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settlers, and to the rapid population of this capitania, particularly of the capital, is the great abundance of gold which has been obtained for above a century.*

The gold is found in the country about Villa Rica in the form of powder and fine dust, or in larger or smaller folia, in crystals, particularly in octahedrons and tetrahedrons, in dendritical form, lastly, though more rarely, in whole lumps. There is an instance of a massy piece which weighed sixteen pounds; in colour, it is yellow, black, or whitish, according to the different proportions of the chemical and mechanical admixture of platina, iron, and other metals. Hitherto it has been washed out of streams and rivers, from the clayey surface of the soil, or out of stamped auriferous quartz veins, or iron-stone flötz. It is related that this metal has even been found in heaps, under the roots of plants pulled out of the ground, whither it had been accidentally washed by the rains. We first of all saw here the gold-washing in the Ribeirâo de Oiro Preto, in which, as the rivers are not private property, some negroes were almost constantly employed. No free men, except blacks, follow this occupation, and they only when they happen to want money to supply their wants, and particularly brandy. The gold-washers (faiscadores) are dressed in a leathern jacket, with a round bowl

* See Note 2. page 199.

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cut out of the wood of the fig-tree (gamelleira), from a foot and a half to two feet in diameter, and a foot deep, (gamella, panella, patea,) and a leather bag fixed before them. They generally select those places in which the river is not rapid, where it makes a bend, and has deep holes. They first remove the large stones, and upper layers of sand, with their feet or their gamella, and then take up a bowl full from the deeper and older gravel of the river (cascalho virgem). They continue to shake, wash, and strike off the stones and sand at the top, till the heavy gold dust appears pure at the bottom of the vessel, on which a little water is thrown in with the hand, and the gold at length put into the leathern bag. This mode of gold-washing is here called mergulhar, diving. Every bowl of cascalho, the washing of which requires about a quarter of an hour, generally yields from one to two vintems*, and a man may gain in this manner, several florins in a day. They sometimes wash the cascalho upon a platform (canoa), erected on the spot.

Having now reached the celebrated centre of the gold country, we ardently wished soon to visit the mines themselves. Our friend, Mr. Von Eschwege, kindly met our wishes, and conducted us to the eastern declivity of the Morro de Villa Rica, which has hitherto yielded the greatest abundance. From the southern hill of the moun-

* A Vintem is 1 7/20d.

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tain (As cabeças), we passed through several gardens ornamented with fuchsia, near to the Hospicio de Jerusalem, and by the side of a deep trench to a naked ravine, irregularly rent, and full of masses of rock, which had fallen down, presenting a picture of wild desolation. How great was our astonishment, when our friend signified to us that this was the rich gold mine of Villa Rica. The mine in which we then were belonged to Colonel Velozo, and is one of the oldest and most productive. Sieves and raw ox hides were placed at certain distances, in trenches full of water, conducted from the summit; the first serve to stop the coarser sand, and the latter to catch the gold dust in the hair, which stands erect. Here and there we also saw detached trenches (mondeos), in which the auriferous mud or sand collects. As soon as the rainy season commences, these simple preparations are put in motion. The water which is led into the trenches, washes the gold out of the stones, and brings it either into the trenches, or between the hair of the hides; the gold is then washed out of the mud in those receptacles, by negro slaves, who sit there stripped to the waist on wooden benches, with their bowls; and the gold caught by the ox hides, washed in tubs made for the purpose, and beaten out. The former possessors always had their mine worked by several hundred slaves, and derived immense profit from it; at present, however, it seems to be much

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impoverished, so that but few gold-washers are employed in it, and the work mostly left to free negroes for a daily payment of a patacca. This manner of obtaining gold from a public mine, is called Minerar a talha aberta.

After we had inspected all the operations of this mine, or rather trench, by which only the coarser part of the metal is obtained, and the rest carried to the rivers, and thus the real formation of the gold injudiciously covered or destroyed, we proceeded to examine the geognostic particulars of the Morro de Villa Rica. This mountain runs in the direction from W. to E. along the valley of the Ribeirâo do Oiro Preto, to the village of Passagem, an extent of nearly two leagues, and seems, as the formation on both banks in the bottom of the valley proves, to have been formerly connected with the lofty Itacolumi, but to have been subsequently separated from it by the power of the waters; it is covered here and there with low wood, and to the very summits with grass and bushes; its ridge is pretty even, and the mountain on the side towards the city less steep. The superstructure*, an iron-stone flötz, which is called in this country Tapanho-acanga† (or simply Canga), is

* See Note 3. page 200.

† Tapanho-acanga signifies (not in one of the African languages, but in the Lingua Geral,) a negro's head, from the resemblance of which to the stone, which is often encrusted on the surface as hæmatite, the name is derived.

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pretty uniformly diffused over a great part of the surface of the Morro de Villa Rica, covers the older formations to the depth of from three to twenty feet, and being so easily worked, has peculiarly undergone considerable changes, through the operations of the Mineiros. The flötz formation consists of a clay, coloured red, more or less, by oxyde of iron, but principally of lithomarge. The colour of the latter is brick and carnation, inclining to reddish brown, in many places spotted with lavender-blue, and ochreyellow, and seems to be mixed with much yellow earth. In this mass there is a great quantity of blunt-cornered pieces of compact* brown ironstone, some small, others large, even to the size of a foot and more. The brown iron-stone contains many small drused cavities, filled with brownish red iron-ochre; it is often grown together with greyish white quartz, which on the surface is frequently reddish grey. There are also seen in this flötz formation truncated pieces of common ironglance of compact fracture, passing into imperfectly conchoidal pieces of magnetic iron-stone, mica-slate, detached nodules of quartz, rarely fragments of topazes, one of which is preserved in the collection in Munich. The gold is

* Though the whole flötz stratum is penetrated with an iron-ochre, almost deep red, we met with no iron-stone, but of a brown streak.

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the most abundant in this formation, and either in very small grains and crystals nidulating in the layers of clay and lithomarge, or as a coating on brown iron-stone, or embedded in it in folia. This formation is prevalent, not only here and in general in Minas Geraës, where they pretend that diamonds have been found in it*, but also occurs in several parts of the capitanias of S. Paulo, Goyaz, and Bahia, where it is everywhere supposed to contain gold.

Below this iron-stone flötz lies, in most mines of the Mono de Villa Rica, that modification of the mica-slate which† Mr. Von Eschwege calls iron mica-slate. It is a mica-slate in which the mica is replaced next to the abovementioned layer of iron-stone, by brown iron-stone, but otherwise entirely by specular iron-ore. This kind of rock is found here, as in many places in Minas, in great varieties of colour, compactness, and gravity. It is most frequently steel-grey in old fractural surface, sometimes yellowish brown or brick-coloured, according to the degree of oxydation of the metal. Here and there, when it has a considerable quan-

* The piece of an iron-stone breccia, in which diamonds are imbedded, and which Link (Travels in Portugal, 1801, vol. i. page 248.) saw in the collection of the Marquis d'Angeja, and which is now in the possession of Mr. Heuland, in London, as well as some similar pieces found in the Sertâo des Rio de S. Francisco, mentioned by V. Eschwege (Geognostisches Gemälde von Brasilien, p. 43.), belong to this formation.

† See Note 4. page 201.

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tity of white quartz, it appears grainy and striped. These thin strata alternate sometimes with others of decomposed and crumbly quartz. The stone often contains so much iron, that it may be smelted to advantage.* A considerable quantity of gold is disseminated throughout this mica-slate, and in particular abundance in the quartz veins which traverse it. At the base of the mountain, and about four to five hundred feet up it, there are, in several places layers of mica (Von Eschwege's talc and chlorite-slate), in large tables, sometimes of an even, sometimes of a conchoidal fracture, which are perfectly similar to those that occur at Capâo and Lana. No gold has been observed in them. This kind of mica-slate is not everywhere uniformly incumbent on the Morro, and in many places it is entirely wanting, and then that kind of mica-slate immediately appears, which constitutes the greater part of the mountain, namely, the quartzy, granular mica-slate, or what is called elastic quartz, which we are inclined to designate by the name of quartz-slate.† The texture of this kind of rock is most evidently slaty on the whole Morro, and where the upper layers of the

* This is the case, for instance, in the iron-foundry of Antonio Pereira on the Serra de Carassa, and near Gaspar Soares. There are, besides, in many places in Minas large strata of a mica-slate, which, by the iron-coloured mica which it contains, and by a similar structure, greatly resembles the mica-slate containing specular iron-ore.

† See Note 5. page 202.

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mould and iron-stone flötz are wanting, there appear, as of the mica-slate containing ironglance, large smooth planes (Lages), for example, above the city near the palace. The strata are often only one or a few lines or inches thick, and have some elasticity, for which reason it has obtained the name of elastic quartz. Sometimes there is a transition of this form of mica-slate into that incumbent on it, containing specular iron-ore. The gold peculiar to this rock is found in veins (filoês) or nests (panellas) of white quartz, and sometimes in incredible quantity. Hence on the road from Villa Rica to Passagem, we see many cavities hewn in the rock, which show the construction of these exposed veins and nests, from which thousands of crusadoes have been extracted. This very massive formation of the quartzy mica-slate, is incumbent on clay-slate, which, according to its appearance, where it stands out in the lowest parts of the valley of Oiro Preto, seems to form the basis of the Morro, and to rest on gneiss, which is found basking out at Caxoeira, two leagues from Villa Rica. The kind of rocks here described, are not uniformly spread over the Morro de Villa Rica, but have different thicknesses, their general direction is in hour 3 of the miner's compass, and their inclination in an angle from 50° to 70° to the east.

After we had examined the geognostical nature of the surface of the mountain, Mr. Von Eschwege led us into an adit which had been commenced

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some years before, and lately prosecuted by him, where we became acquainted with a formation of gold which we had not previously seen, namely, the carvoeira.* This is a friable, rough-feeling, greasy mass of greyish green colour, which consists of a very fine-grained quartz, and a smoky grey mica, with earthy grey manganese ore, and probably forms a layer several feet thick, between the planes of separation of the quartzy mica-slate, and the clay-slate lying under it. It generally contains a considerable quantity of gold, and had therefore been washed with particular care by the Mineiros, who had dug the adit into the morro. Yet they had left so much metal in the earth which they had washed, that Mr. Von Eschwege found it worth his while to wash it again with that which he dug up afresh. For this purpose, he had constructed a vessel moved horizontally by a water wheel, in which the gold was to be separated from the finest particles mixed with it, but he subsequently found this machine not quite answerable to his expectation, from the difficulty of separating the gold dust from the specular iron-ore (esmeril), brown stone, antimony, and arsenic. A perfect separation can probably never be obtained without amalgamation; but this method is at present almost wholly unknown in Brazil, where the general deficiency in the proper management of the metal, fully corresponds with the defective manner of

* See Note 6. page 204.

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working the mines. The Mineiro fancies he has done enough if he opens a mountain with an open mine (talha aberta), or digs shallow trenches in the course of the auriferous quartz veins and nests (trabalhar por minas), and leaves what remains to be done to the ore he has procured, partly to the force of the water, and partly to the skill of the negro, who generally works with the hammer instead of the stamping mill, and with the bowl instead of platform and troughs, or amalgamation. We saw stamping mills and platforms nowhere but in the mine belonging to Padre Freitas, at Congonhas de Sahara.

According to a very rigorous law, all the gold obtained in this manner must be brought to the royal smelting house, there to be melted. In former times, gold dust was current instead of money, but this is now prohibited, and only certain owners of vendas (vendeiros) in the city, where brandy is sold, are permitted to accept small quantities of it in lieu of coin, chiefly from negroes in payment for brandy, and which they must immediately deliver to the smelting house.

In order to make ourselves acquainted with the mode of smelting the gold, we took advantage of the permission granted by the governor; and visited the laboratory of subterraneous wealth which is in the ground story of the palace, and in which eighteen persons are employed, of whom the escrivâo contador receives the highest salary, namely, 3000

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crusadoes. All the gold dust brought from the Comarca do Oiro Preto, comes first into the weighing room, where the escrivâo da receita weighs it, and separates the fifth part from it as due to the king, and the escrivâo da conferencia enters in the lists, the quantity of each owner without and with the deduction. The parts belonging to the king are thrown together, mixed, and melted into large bars, but the four parts belonging to private individuals into single smaller bars. For this purpose, the gold dust is put into a crucible of proportionate size, and as soon as it begins to melt, it is kept there for some time with sublimate of mercury. When it appears to be perfectly melted, the metal is poured into a square iron mould, furnished with handles, in which it cools. These moulds are of very different sizes, containing from ten octaves to an arroba of gold. The various combinations of the gold to be melted, with iron antimony, manganese, or arsenic, determines the time necessary to melt it. Gold which is more difficult to melt is mixed with a greater proportion of sublimate; this is particularly the case with that with which much iron is mingled. The workmen, by long experience, generally know the quantity of the addition which the gold of each mine requires. Very pure gold is perfectly melted in three hours. The colour of the gold smelted here, is of very different hues, from the most beautiful gold yellow, to reddish copper colour, bright yel-

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low, and even grey yellow. They preserve a specimen of every shade, and showed us several hundreds. The gold bar, when cut, comes into the hands of the assayer (ensayador), who determines the weight and fineness, by the trial with sublimate. For this purpose, he takes a piece from one end of the bar, and in difficult cases from both. In bars from well-known mines, the trial is made only with the touchstone, for which they have on copper pins the specimens from sixteen to four-and-twenty carats (quilates), each of which is divided into eight equal parts. The purest gold which is smelted here, is of three-and-twenty carats and seven eighths. The mines of Villa Rica generally produce gold from twenty to twenty-three carats, those of Sabará and Congonhas de Sabará on the other hand, from eighteen to nineteen carats. That from the Rio das Velhas near Sabará, gives from nineteen to twenty. The gold of Cocaës and Inficionado is very pure, though not of a very fine yellow, but often pale or copper-coloured. When the weight and fineness, and, consequently, the value of the bar are determined and entered in the list, the Brazilian and Portuguese arms, the number of the list, the mark of the smelting house, the date of the year, and the degree of fineness are stamped upon it, and a printed ticket is given with the bar, which, besides ail the above particulars, states the value in rees, the weight which the proprietor gave in gold dust,

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and how much was deducted for the king. Without this instrument, signed by the officers of the smelting house, the bar, which is returned to the owner, cannot legally pass instead of coin. It is strictly prohibited to export it from the province of Minas without notice, because the royal mints are to re-purchase the barn for their nominal value in ready money. But as an agio of ten per cent. is offered for the bars, even on the coasts of Brazil, this species of fraud is very common.

A correct idea of the great quantity of gold which has been delivered from the smelting houses at Minas, may be best formed by considering the immense works of King John V., the aqueduct of Lisbon, and the convent of Mafra, the expenses of which were entirely defrayed by the royal fifth of the Brazilian gold. It was, however, only in the first half of the last century that the produce was so great; the patriotic Portuguese, therefore, regrets to see riches buried in those costly monuments, which as they did not return in the sequel, might have been employed with more advantage to the nation in building a navy, At the end of the last century from seventy to eighty arrobas of gold were annually smelted in Villa Rica; but now, hardly more than forty. The whole of the royal fifth amounted, in the year 1758, to one hundred and eighteen arrobas; and up to the year to 1812, above six thousand eight hundred and ninety-five arrobas, that is eighty, five millions of crusadoes; at present,

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scarcely more than four-and-twenty arrobas. For the purposes of smelting, sixty arrobas of corrosive sublimate of mercury are annually purchased from Europe, of which the arroba coats sixty thousand rees. Even the vessels of graphite, in which the ore is smelted, are manufactured in Europe, though this material abounds near Barreiras, in Minas Novas. Attempts have been made to manufacture such crucibles in Mesquita, near Villa Rica, but they could not bear a white heat. In consideration, it is supposed, of the metallic treasures of this country and the possibility of appropriating them, a prohibition was issued, under the administration of Pombal, of the foundation of convents, or a permanent residence of monks in the whole province of Minas Geraës, a prohibition which is even now strictly enforced.

The Indians formerly possessed all these rich parts of the province, but were soon expelled, almost everywhere, by the colonists in their search of gold. Those who are still in Minas Geraës, have gradually retired into the impenetrable forests which cover the Serra do Mar, which runs along the sea-coast, extending inland to the breadth of thirty to fifty miles. These are the tribes of the Coroados, Coropós, Puris, Botocudos (Aimorés), Macuanis, Malalis, Panhámes, Ménhams, Paraibas (Goytaeazes?). On the western side of the capitania, beyond the Rio de S. Francisco, detached wandering troops of Cayapos are sometimes seen. These

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tribes, excepting a part of the Botocudos and Cayapos, have all recognised the authority of the Portuguese, and are kept in awe, or governed by several military poets stationed by the government on the borders of the forests. To this end all the countries inhabited by the Indians are divided into seven districts, each of which is under a commandant, who is generally an officer or serjeant of the regiment of dragoons of Minas. The most troublesome Indians, and the most dangerous to the Mineiros, are the cannibal Botocudos, who chiefly reside on the banks of the lower parts of the Rio Doce. But, as it has been found of late years that the navigation of this river, the sources of which, and of the upper collateral rivers, rise in the capitania near Villa Rica, might be very useful, a society was formed for the purpose of rendering the Rio Doce navigable, and for the civilisation of the Indians residing upon it (Junta da Conquista e Civiliziçâo dos Indios, do Commercio e Navegaçâo do Rio Doce). These endeavours have hitherto been successful, several Indian tribes having gradually begun to trade with the Portuguese. We had already heard a great deal of these children of the forest, and our desire to see one tribe of them in their own abode became more urgent. As we were now only four or six days' journey distant from the nearest Indian tribes of the Coroados, Puris, and Coropós, we resolved to proceed in search of them to the Rio Xipotó, an arm of the Rio da Pomba. Our friend, Mr. Von Eschwege,

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had some years before paid them a visit, in company with Mr. Freireiss; and our present expedition was peculiarly favoured by the circumstance, that the officer appointed to subdue and civilise those Indians, Mr. Guido Marlier, a Frenchman by birth, who had formerly served in the regiment of Condé, was just then in Villa Rica for the recovery of his health; unfortunately he died soon after. This worthy man who had himself made many observations on these Indians, took pleasure to give us the most necessary information respecting the manner of behaving towards them, and the road to his residence, the Presidio de S. Joâo Baptista, sent one of his people to accompany us thither, and gave us written orders to the servants of his house, and the soldiers of the post, to promote our wishes in every particular.

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NOTES TO CHAPTER I.

NOTE 1.

Population of Minas Gerals, in the Year 1808.*

Corouas.	FRKK PEOPLE.			SLAVES.			TOTAL.
	Males.	Females	Total.	Males.	Females	Total.
Whites	54,157	52,527	106,684	—	—	—	106,684
Mulattoes	64,406	65,250	129,656	7,857	7,880	15,727	145,393
Negroes	23,286	24,651	47,937	86,849	46,186	133,035	180,972
Total	141,849	142,428	284,277	94,706	54,066	148,772	433,049

By a late though not authenticated statement, for the communication of which we are indebted to Marshal Felisberto Caldeira Brant Pontes, of Bahia, there were reckoned in Minas Geraës, in the year 1820, 456,675 free, and 165,210 slaves; in all 621,885 inhabitants. The comarca of Oiro Preto or Villa Rica, contained, according to Mr. Von Eachwege (loc. cit.), in the year 1813, 72,209 inhabitants, though, according to a list quoted by him, it had, in 1776, 78,618, that is 6,409 more. Mr. Von Eachwege justly cinsiders the decrease of the gold-washing, and the consequent diminution in the number of negro slaves imported, as the cause of this circumstance; which, however, must not be understood of the whole of Minas Geraës, as the comarca

* According to Mr. Von Eachwege's Journal of Bruit, vol i p. 209.

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of Oiro Preto is precisely the richest in gold mines, but the poorest in fruitful land, and was therefore abandoned by many farmers. With double the population, Minas has three and a half times as many negro slaves and nine times as many free negroes as S. Paulo.

NOTE 2.

The first discoverer of Minas Geraës appears to have been Sebastiâo Tourinho, of Porto Seguro, who, in the year 1573, sailed up the river Doce and returned to the coast along the Jequetinhonha. He was followed by Ant. Dias Adorno and Marcos d'Azcredo for the purpose of seeking the emeralds and sapphires (aqua-marines, green tourmalines, and blue topazes?). But this country became more accurately and quickly known in the latter part of the seventeenth century by means of the journeys by land, which were undertaken by the Paulistas, not to carry away the Indians as slaves, but to collect gold. Ant. Rodriguez, of Taubaté, in 1693, traversed the eastern part of the province; Bueno, Miguel d'Almeida, in 1694, and Manoel Garcia, in 1695, the districts of S. Joâo d'El Rey, Sabará, and Villa Rica. The Serro Frio was discovered by Arzâo and Antonio Soares, perhaps twenty years before. The quantity of gold which these adventurers brought home induced great numbers of native Brazilians, as well as Portuguese, to emigrate to this new Eldorado. The land was soon peopled; Villa Rica and Mariana were declared villa, in 1711; S. Joâo d'El Rey and Sahará, in the year 1712; and Villa do Principe, in the year 1714. Since the year 1720 Minas has been a separate capitania, independent of S. Paulo, to which it had before belonged; and in the same year it received a superintendant of the gold-washings. Lourenço d'Almeida, the first governor-general, already found the country a little peopled, and divided into four comarcas. In the year 1818, Villa Rica was declared the capital of Minas, in the same manner as Villa Boa of

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Goyax, and Villa Bella or Matto-grosso. (See Corogrsfia Brasilica, vol. i. p. 356, and Southey's History of Brazil, vol i p. 312.)

NOTE 3.

Mr. Von Eschwage (Geognostisches Gemälde von Brasilian, 1828, p. 15.) observes—" Unless I reckon as such some patches of sandstone, the flöta formation is entirely. wanting in the interior of Brazil; on the other hand, the formation of the alluvial rocks acts an important part, which, partly in a solid, partly in a loose form, do not so much cover high mountains as fill up valleys. To the first belongs the iron-atone conglomerate, entirely unknown to the old world, and for which I retain the name given it in the country, tapanho-acanga." To this we must observe, that the numerous and various fossils in our possession from this flötz formation evidently prove that the tapanho-acanga is an iron-stone flötz, which belongs to the quadersandstein formation*, which is known to every geologist in the old world. In the circle of the Regen and Upper Maine, in the kingdom of Bavaria, this iron-stone formation occurs in tracts, miles in length and breadth, and is incumbent sometimes on primitive, and sometimes on flötz mountains. In the vicinity of Amberg the main fiötz mass consists in day, partly of a grey and yellowish colour, partly tinged more or less red by iron-ochre, of yellow earth, of tuberous pieces of hardened lithomarge, coloured clay, &c., in which are found irregular, generally tuberous, pieces of clay, and of compact, fibrous, brown iron-stone, rarely black iron-stone with grey manganese-ore, and still more seldom wavellite between clay iron-stone. The roof is quadersandstein, which is traversed in various directions by what is called sand iron-stone; the base is the same

* This German word is retained for want of an English synonym. Trans.

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sandstone, but mostly the Jura or shell limestone, which we consider the last member of the first formation, primitive clay-slate, and limestone. At Bodenwehr, the principal mass is a thick day flötz, in which there is more clay iron-stone than brown iron-stone. In the base, which, as well as the roof, is quadersandstein, there is also magnetic iron-stone, partly disseminated, partly in reniform pieces, in a variety of clay iron-stone mingled with green earth. On the Schindelloh, near Pullenreuth, on the eastern foot of the Fichtel mountain, there is frequently, instead of the clay, what is called earthy talc of a greyish white, yellow, and red colour, according to its mixture with oxyde of iron. In the cavities of the iron, greyish white amethyst, which often passes into chalcedony, is found on the brown hæmatite; sometimes, too, green iron-earth is observed on tuberous horn-stone. Who does not here recognise the identity of the iron-stone flötz in Bavaria with that in Brazil, though in the former there are no topazes, no gold, and no pieces of ironglance; and the yellow earth, and the lumps of hardened lithomarge, and the coloured clay, as well as the earthy talc, supply the place of the lithomarge which is so frequent and so variously modified in Brazil? The parallel between these two formations becomes more complete by the discovery of wavellite in the iron-stone flötz near Villa Rica (Von Eschwege's Gemälde, p. 31), which has been confirmed to us by the verbal communications of Dr. Pohl.

NOTE 4.

We consider Mr. Von Eschwege's iron mica-slate to be no more an independent kind of rock than the tapanho-acanga. In many parts of Bavaria, for instance, the Fichtelberg, and at Floss, there is granite in which iron-mica supplies the place of the common mica; but no geologist has ever thought of taking it for a distinct kind of rock. It forms layers and partly also Stilckgebirge which belong to the common granite, and are to be considered as

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subordinate in it. A similar modification of granite occurs also in Brazil, namely, in the Serra do Mar, in the province of S. Paulo (according to Varnbagen's observation in Eachwege's Journal, vol. ii. p.241.), and in several places of the capitania of Bahia.

NOTE 5.

The quartzy, granular mica-slate, elastic quartz, flexible sandstone, or quartz-slate of the Morro de Villa Rica, consists of a greyish and reddish white, not unfrequently smoky grey, fine and very fine-grained quartz; and of a silvery white, more or less dark, pearl-grey, seldom pinch-beck-brown, very delicate scaly mica, which is sometimes tinged red by oxyde of iron on the rifts. The quartz sometimes loses its granular structure, and forms narrow strata of compact splintery fracture; in the same manner the silvery mica often accumulates on the rifts in undulating strata, often half an inch thick, and has in that case a remarkable mother of pearl lustre. Mr. Von Eschwege (Gemälde, p. 17.) says of this mica-slate, that it a composed of quartz, talc, and chlorite, of slaty structure, but in a geognostical view is different from mica-slate, and at such deserved to be classed as a separate kind of rock, which he calls Itacolumite. After an accurate examination of a great number of pieces of very different colours, which are preserved as well in the Brazilian museum at Munich, as in other collections, we are entitled to conclude that this rock neither belongs to the sandstone, where Mr. Etchwege classed it in his earlier publications, nor consists, besides quartz, of talc and chlorite; for we have never observed the latter ingredients. The supposed talc is merely a modified mica, which contains nothing less than a predominant talc-earth, and what are called chlorite scales are partly silvery, partly pearl-grey mica scales, which are sometimes tinged red by oxyde of iron. We have not observed,

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in any single piece, the true chlorite, which is always distinguished by its decidedly green colour, and the considerable proportion of talc earth and iron, and forms indeed subordinate layers, as well as a component part of the veins and beds of ore in mica-slate, but no immediate constituent part. Vauquelin, in vol lvi. p. 59. of the Journal de Phys. (Scherer's Journal de Chem. No. xxviii p. 189.) has analysed a piece of white chlorite, from what place is not known, and finding it to contain 56 parts silex, 18 argillaceous earth, 6 alkali, 3 lime, 4 iron, and 5 loss, be perceived that this fossil was not chlorite, and called it Margariton, on account of its mother of pearl lustre. As the undulating mica accumulated on the rifts of the mica-slate in our possession, to the thickness of half an inch, exactly coincides with that described by Vauquelin, this may furnish an additional reason to affirm that Mr. Von Eschwege's "silky shining scales" (loc. cit. p. 17.) are not talc, and much less chlorite.* The mica-slate, formerly known under the name of flexible sandstone, is distinguished from the common only as the greyish white quartz is the chief constituent, and has a grannlar structure, whereas the quartz of the mica-slate of the old world is mostly of a compact structure. We however find in Europe varieties of the mica-slate, which resemble the Brazilian. Thus for instance, in Gaetein, in Anlaufthale, in the province of Saltzburg, there occurs in narrow subordinate beds in common mica-slate, a variety, the quartz of which is also granular, and the mica, fine scaly, and so like the Brazilian in colour, that it might be supposed this variety of the mica-slate had been taken from Mount Itacolumi. Strictly speaking, Mr.

* See Von Eschwags's Accounts of Portugal, published by Zinken, who (p. 234.) has made well founded objections against the denomination, chlorite, and confirmed them by its fusibility by the blow—pipe, but erroneously called the fossil, talc.

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Eschwege's itacolumite, on account of its texture, stratification, bed, and formation, should be called quartz-slate, in analogy with other rocks of a slaty structure, or, if we will not expressly indicate the texture, quartz-rock; whereby we cannot suppress the remark, that the topaz, beryl, shorl, and horn rocks, may the more properly be classed with this formation as the topaz, beryl, shorl, &c., may be considered as not essential parts, as in other rocks in which they are found.

We had long since written our ideas on the occurrence of the elastic quartz, when we received the second number of the accounts of the Austrian naturalists in Brazil, and Baron Von Humboldt's Geognostical Essay on the Superposition of Rocks in both Hemispheres. We were rejoiced to see in the former (p. 81.) that Dr. Pohl called the elastic quartz likewise quartz-slate; but his opinion that this rock is of recent formation, and doubtless of alluvial origin, agrees even less than the supposition before brought forward by Mr. Von Eschwege, that it is sandstone, with the true relative age of it, so that we presume that our respected fellow-traveller has already corrected his opinion. We have found the opinion of Baron Von Humboldt entirely coincident, and confirming our own, for (p. 94. of the German edition) he directly classes it as quartz-rock. We cannot but feel highly obliged to this great geologist for having by his determination thrown light upon this subject.

NOTE 6.

The clay-slate which we remarked in the mine of Mr. Von Eschwege, is of a cream-colour, inclining to brownish yellow, and consists merely of small scales of mica, which are soft to the touch, and easily crumble. This is probably Mr. Von Eschwege's transition into talc-slate, to which, however, it does not belong, but rather to mica-slate. This

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clay-slate is sometimes of a dirty greenish grey, and is traversed by narrow strata of a compact brown iron-atone, parallel to the slaty texture of the rock. This brown iron-stone is often grown together with greyish white quartz, which is full of little drused cavities, and gives reason to suppose that quartz veins traverse the clay-slate. Gold in small scales is embedded in the brown iron-stone. A clay-slate, quite resembling this, is found in Bavaria, near Leonhardsberg, next to Waldsassen. In it there are likewise veins of quartz, with brown iron-stone, the specimens of which perfectly agree with those of Villa Rica. Only these veins, like all the fossils hitherto compared with those of Brazil, contain no trace of gold. The carvoeira itself, which we brought from the abovementioned mine, shows many differences with respect to its component parts. Sometimes the proportion of manganese is greater, and the colour of the mass then assumes a blackish green colour. Slender layers of brown iron-stone, which is often already decomposed into yellow ochre, and of quartz, which appears embedded in rounded grains, sometimes traverse the mass. Small grains of pure gold, and very small acicular crystals of noble shorl, occur in this mixture. Lastly, the mass sometimes migrates into earthy, ferruginous, grey manganese-ore, which however is always mixed with very fine quartz grains. In this formation it contains many cavities, which are partly covered, partly filled with a silver-white talc. In this earthy grey manganese-ore there are pieces of a greyish white quartz, embedded with irregular crystals of noble shorl. The latter of a dark leek-green and black colour, in small and very small capillary crystals, is sometimes so intimately blended with the very fine-grained friable quartz, which makes a part of the mass, that the latter appears massive, and resembles shorl-rock. It forms single, as it seems, mostly truncated, pieces, in which, again, what is called

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unctuous quartz, with very small short crystals, is embedded. The pearly mica is particularly beautiful on this bed. It is of an emerald-green colour, through which the pearl-grey shines in many places, of a strong lustre, and very bright mother of pearl hue. On the piece now before us, there are small dark leek-green transparent crystals of electric shorl, in various directions, in which, besides very smail grains and particles of pure gold, greyish white apatites crystallised are embedded in the low six-sided prisms, truncated at both ends. The crystals are small, and the rifts of the pearly mica are not unfrequently covered with brown oxyde of iron. Quartz seems to be a constituent part of this auriferous bed. It is of a smoky grey colour, which is tinged reddish grey, by oxyde of iron. In this quartz are also embedded acicular crystals of a dark green electric short. It is partly full of little drused cavities, which are covered with a dirty apple-green, probably caused by copper nickel. This quartz also contains arsenical pyrites, as it seems in blunt-edged pieces, surrounded by brown oxyde of iron, in which native gold is embedded in very small cubes. It has a silvery colour, approximating to tin, and no particular marks of distinction. Mr. Von Eschwege (p. 20.) observes, that on this bed iron pyrites and antimony also grow, on which, as these fossils did not fall under our observation, we have the less reason to make any remark, as their appearance cannot be disputed on geognostical principles.

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CHAPTER II.

JOURNEY FROM VILLA RICA TO THE COROADOS INDIANS ON THE RIO XIPOTÓ.

ON the 31st of March we left Villa Rica, taking with us only one mule and a driver, because on such excursions it is advisable to have as little baggage as possible. The morning was cool, and the fog sinking on the mountains, gave us reason to expect a fine day. We ascended by a broad road over the rocks, and which was partly paved, through the northern part of the town, and over a steep projection of the Morro, whence we had a fine prospect of the majestic Itacolumi, which commands the whole surrounding country. In the deep valley, formed by the declivities of this mountain and of the Morro, flows the auriferous Ribeirâo do Oiro Preto or do Carmo, through verdant meadows and between romantic broken rocks. Very near to Villa Rica we passed a spring which is enclosed; it is chalybeate, and is said to possess very salutary properties. Not far from this we also remarked several of the pits in the quartzy slate, which we have mentioned before, and which formerly

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produced so much gold, but have not been worked any farther. The road led us along the Morro into a beautifully romantic landscape, by the side of flowery slopes, adorned with masses of rock resembling magnificent ruins. Many small houses stand on the road-side, and the numerous travellers passing backwards and forwards, give this country an appearance of prosperity and European activity. Past the little hamlet Tacoaral, the road was winding, becoming steeper and steeper as it descended, till about a league from Villa Rica, we reached in the valley the larger village of Passagem, the inhabitants of which chiefly subsist by the cultivation and sale of provisions for the capital. The gold mines of this place, especially those in the Morro do S. Antonio, where a chapel, ex voto, was erected to that Saint, were formerly very productive, but are now nearly abandoned. At the bottom of the village we crossed over, by a small stone bridge, to the right bank of the Ribeirâo do Carmo, the waters of which diffuse a refreshing coolness in the narrow valley, and then by numerous windings ascended a mountain, from the summit of which we beheld the Cidade de Mariana, in the flat valley filled with rolled pieces of rock, brought down by the Ribeirâo do Carmo.

This town, containing 4800 inhabitants, consists of small cleanly houses, built in pretty regular and broad streets, and makes an agreeable impression on the traveller. Since the year 1745, it has been a

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city and the residence of the bishop and the chapter of Minas Geraës; but since the neighbouring mines, particularly on the Morro de S. Anna, have. become less productive, it seems to have greatly declined in prosperity, and to be neglected out of jealousy, by the neighbouring civil authorities, in Villa Rica, which is the reason that the new cathedral church is not finished. There are here a Carmelite and a Franciscan convent and a Theological seminary, at which most of the clergymen in Minas are educated. The bishop had resided in a spacious house at the bottom of the valley, but had died a short time before our arrival. We heard much of his library, which was said to contain many works on Natural History, and likewise his museum, in which there are some rich specimens of gold. In a kitchen-garden, he had a nursery of European fruit trees, which thrive very well here. The diocese of the bishop of Minas, whose fixed revenue is stated at 16,000 crusadoes, but is perhaps twice as much, does not extend over the whole capitania of Minas, because several of the most northern districts belong to the archbishopric of Bahia.* We here became acquainted with Dr. L. J. de Godoy Torres, who has resided for many years at Mariana, as physician to the district He described the climate of Mariana as warmer, and therefore less healthy than Villa Rica.

* See Note, p.267.

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A difference in the character of the diseases must certainly be caused by the great difference in the elevation above the sea (Mariana, according to the calculation of our friend, Mr. Eschwege, Journ. vol. i. p. 37. lies 3981/2 toises above the level of the sea, which is 2311/2 lower than Villa Rica), and the confined situation. Among the prevalent diseases, Dr. Godoy mentioned erysipelas, dropsy, slow fevers, diarrhœa, and ischias nervosa; syphilis is no less common here than in the rest of Minis.

The sun had not yet risen on the following morning, and all lay buried in profound sleep, when we left our miserable lodging, and continued our journey towards the N. E., over a steep mountain, which forms the eastern wall of the valley near the city. It is a projection of the Itacolumi, which is very near, and consists of crumbling iron mica-slate, and granular mica-slate, with scattered layers and nests of mica, in which garnets and octahedrons of magnetic iron-stone are embedded. When we had arrived at the summit of this mountain, we saw some single chains joining the Itacolumi, irregularly crossing each other, and for the most part covered with woods, between which there are deep and dark valleys; a gloomy picture, which was rendered Mill more melancholy by the loneliness of the surrounding scene, and the numerous crosses on the way, erected as monuments for those who have been murdered by fugitive negroes. There are only a few plantations, but

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great tracts of forests, which have been cleared, but, being since abandoned by the farmers, are now covered with thick brushwood of the Sambamjaba (Pteris caudata). In the midst of this solitude we met with a farm called Ourives, in the vicinity of which gold is washed for. The formation here is of a yellowish brown, fine and often ferruginous clay-slate; which contains nests and veins of auriferous quartz. Incumbent upon it is a red, unctuous clay, sometimes of considerable thickness, with which are mingled many fragments of white quartz. These countries, however, are not so rich by the metals which they produce, as by their fertility, and it is to be expected, that the business of mining will entirely yield to that of agriculture. Maize bears in the first year 400 fold; a harvest of 200 is but moderate, and of 100 bad.

The prospect became gradually more and more confined; we passed on the edge of thickly wooded, frightfully deep precipices, and found ourselves removed at once from light plains, into the profound obscurity of the forests. Thick interlacings of climbing plants, wreaths of flowers, glowing in the greatest diversity of colours, connect the gigantic trees, between which, scaly stems of ferns form majestic dark green cool avenues, through which the traveller passes in silent meditation, sometimes only disturbed by the screams of the parrots, the hammering of the woodpeckers, or the howling of the monkeys, Except some

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trenches by the side of the road, which conduct the water for gold-washing, there is nothing in this solitude to put one in mind of the vicinity of the labours of man. We enjoyed, with delight, the cool shade of the forest, which offered us abundance of treasures, that were doubly agreeable to us after we had been so long in the compos. After a journey of two leagues, we at length descended into a luxuriant valley watered by the Rio Mainarde, which flows into the Rio Doce. This river was so much swelled, that it threatened to carry away the decayed and trembliug bridge, and we had reason to congratulate ourselves on having reached the opposite bank, where we found good accommodation in the lonely venda belonging to Padre Manoel. On the western side, the valley is bounded by a steep declivity, on the eastern are rocky hills, adorned with ferns and gay flowers, over which a footpath conducted us to a gold-washing. The clay containing the gold was thrown up into heaps, and many negro slaves were employed in washing it Gold-washing is become so customary in Minas, that even the most unprejudiced landowner believes that he must at least employ some slaves in it The weekly wages of a workman are reckoned at 600 rees.

Our road on the following day led over a mountainous country, close to deep ravines, wildly overgrown with shrubs and ferns, shadowed with thick wood, till we at length descended into a solitary

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valley, and reached the fazendas of Oiro Fino, and those of Dos Cristaës, and of Coronel Texeira. Numerous trenches by the side of the way, hollowed slopes, and heaps of rolled stones and clay, bore testimony to the zeal with which the people here wash for gold. The principal works are those belonging to an ecclesiastic, who has not only the clay which is dug up, but also the boulders of the stream, washed. In the latter we observed besides quartz and mica-slate, hornblende and gneiss. We passed the night at the house of another ecclesiastic, to whom we had letters. Our youthful host, whom we found surrounded by many half-white women and children, and whose library was limited to Ovidius de Arte Amandi, seemed to us a worthy counterpart to the hermit in the Decameron.

The weather was very gloomy on the following day, and we hastened past several handsome farmhouses upon hills between which the Ribeirâo do Bacalhâo winds. Large rhexias (quaresima) covered with purple flowers adorned the hill from which we descended, towards evening, into the villages. Anna do Ferros formerly called Barra do Bacalhâo. At this place, the Ribeirâo do Bacalhâo, and, soon after, the Rio Turbo, join the Rio Piranga, which runs to the N. E. and joins the Ribeirâo do Carmo, after which the two united rivers take the name of the Rio Doce. The village consists of a few houses, which are chiefly inhabited by mulattoes and negroes. Even in this remote spot we found traces

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of European manners and civilisation; the vends was furnished not only with some of the most necessary provisions, such as bacon, sugar, brandy, maize, flour, but also with cottons, lace, iron-wares, and similar articles. In the evening, the captain of the place, a Portuguese, as a special mark of attention brought us some fresh bread, which he had had baked for us of wheat flour. The gold washed in the Rio Piranga is so fine, that it often forms a thin skin floating on the water, and therefore cannot well be separated, except by amalgamation. In performing this operation, they expose the amalgam in an open crucible to the fire, and catch the volatilised mercury in a pisang leaf, formed into the shape of a cornet.

The succeeding day we passed near to the Vends das duaa Irmâs, the sandy gravel ground at the union of the Rio Turbo and the Rio Piranga, and rode into a mountainous and woody country. Damp clouds and fogs frequently veiled the summits of the forests (Matto dos Puris) round us, and reminded us of the autumnal season in our own country. Towards evening we reached an elevated and pleasant valley, and found a night's lodging in a fazenda in the Capella de S. Rita. A much more fatiguing journey awaited us the next day; we had scarcely traversed the well-watered valley when we stood before the entrance of a forest, into which the sun appeared never to have penetrated. The gneiss and granite formation, which here basks out

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in several places, with the character of the vegetation reminded us still more than before, that we had passed again from the Alpine district of mica and clay-slate, and from the open campos, into the region of the Serra do Mar. The path grew so narrow that one mule could scarcely go behind the other; the forest became gloomy as the Inferno of Dante; and the way, growing narrower and steeper, led in mazy windings on the edge of deep precipices, traversed by impetuous torrents, and here and there bordered with detached rocks. The horrors with which this savage solitude filled our souls, was enhanced by the apprehension of an attack of wild animals or hostile Indians, which occupied our imaginations with the most gloomy ideas and melancholy forbodings. Our joy therefore was inexpressible when we reached the other side of the mountain of the Serra de S. Geraldo, and saw the glimmer of daylight gradually penetrate. Alter we had conquered a part of the way which descended precipitously and resembled a ravine, we overlooked a forest of prodigious extent, bounded towards the S. W. by the Serra da Onça, which is likewise covered with wood. We had scarcely descended into the wide plain between these two mountain chains, which chiefly consist of gneiss, and are about 2500 feet high, when we were surprised by seeing in the narrow path two human figures. They were both naked and their jet black hair hung over their shoulders. They crept along with short

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step and necks contracted, looking sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left; the man went first, carrying a bow and arrow in his left hand, and had a bundle of arrows hanging over his shoulders. The woman, with the older children followed him, and carried on her back a basket made of palm leaves, which was fastened by a band to her forehead, and contained the domestic utensils, their provisions, such as maize, mandiocca, Spanish potatoes, an earthen pot, &c. Upon it sat a little child, a few months old, which had its arms around its mother's neck. Scarcely bad we perceived each other, when they hurried into the forest and disappeared.

When we had reached the first fazenda in the plain, we met with several of these Indians, some with, and some without weapons, who appeared to live upon good terms with the mulattoes and negroes here. We went up to them and saluted them in a friendly manner; they however turned aside silent and distrustful, but at length accepted the glass beads, knives, and other presents which were offered them. Even the brown and black inhabitants seemed not pleased with our arrival, so much did they participate with the Indians in the savageness and rudeness of the place. We therefore found ourselves very uncomfortably situated in this company, and passed a sleepless night, not without apprehensions of a surprise, in a barn which did not afford either us or our effects sufficient protection

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from the rain which poured down in torrents. A thick fog still covered the high trees of the forests, when we set out on the following morning, for the Presidio de S. Joâo Baptista, the intended termination of our journey, which we reached at noon. This little spot, consisting of about thirty houses, entirely surrounded by thick forests, or, where these were cut down, by fruitful plantations was the head-quarters of Mr. Marlier, at that time director-general of the Indians; we found here two soldiers, who had already received directions to accompany and protect us in our excursions through the woods, and on our visits to the Indians. Under the director-general there are several directors, who are considerable landowners, each having respectively the superintendence of the settlements (aldeas) nearest to him.

The principles upon which these directors and the cabos subordinate to them are to promote the civilisation of the Indians, do honour to the government In general, the directors are to be in the character of guardians to the Indians collected in villages (Indios aldeados). Their chief duty is to settle the Indians who submit, in villages; to induce them, by prudent measures, to cultivate the land assigned to them as their property; and, in general, to afford them advice and assistance in the state of society which is new to them. To preserve these new vassals, to overcome their innate love of a wandering life, and to accustom

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them to a permanent settlement, the government has provided that the newly settled Indians shall not only be exempt from all taxes for the feat tea years, but also receive gratuitously from the director, for the first years, a certain quantity of maize-flour, maize, and agricultural instruments, such as knives, hoes, and axes. According to the law given by King Sebastian, confirmed by Joseph I., and now generally prevalent in Brazil, which declares all native Indiana exempt from slavery, and free citizens, the director-general, as well as the respective directors, are commissioned to secure the Indians against the frequent hateful encroachments of the neighbouring colonists; and, in general, to take care that they enjoy the protection of the law as free citizens; but that, on the other hand, their faults be noticed and punished by the magistrates. Though positive laws secure to the directors a certain share of the gain of the Indians, those in Minas Geraës get nothing of this kind, because the Indians settled here have not yet been prevailed upon, after many years' trial, to cultivate more than the mandiocca and maize which are absolutely necessary. The advantage of the director, therefore, is only that by mildness and liberality he can engage his new neighbours to assist him in his own business, in felling the woods, planting or gathering the medicinal roots, &c., receiving, as compensation for their labour, their subsistence, or low wages.

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The director of the nearest aldeas of the Coroados does not live in the Presidio de S. Joâo Baptists, though he has a house here, but in his plantation (rossa), about a league distant, from which he came on the following day to visit us. This custom of residing for the greater part of the year in a remote country-seat, at a distance from the more populous places, prevails throughout Brazil. It has the most injurious consequences on morality and domestic happiness, because the man and wife frequently live separate for months together, which gives occasion to many irregularities. The director informed us that there were at present only a few Coroados in the neighbouring aldeas, and that most of them were gone to the stream of Buhahé, ahout twelve leagues to the east, where they were gathering ipecacuanha. In order, however, to gratify our wish, closely to observe some Indians, he invited those who were still on the spot, to come to our lodging, making them many promises. Several came, and sat down in the entrance of the house, where we treated them with brandy. They were all very sullen, silent and distrustful, probably because they were afraid that we should take them away for military service. They were not to be diverted either by friendly treatment, presents, or music; but thought only of means to escape into their forests. In fact, all of them successively disappeared; we were therefore obliged to defer our observations on these chil-

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dren of nature till our arrival at Guidowald, the fazenda of the director-general, which lies about five leagues to the south of S. Joâo, in the middle of the Indian villages, and employed the time of our stay here in excursions in the neighbouring forests. These intricate woods, in the interior of which almost eternal darkness prevails, are calculated to fill the soul with awe and terror; we never ventured to penetrate into them without being accompanied by soldiers, or at least being well-armed and keeping close together. Even near to the rossas there is danger, and the traveller has to defend himself from furious dogs that keep watch, almost as much as from the wild beasts of the forest A great number of the most remarkable insects, and especially beautiful beetles, butterflies, new birds, and several rare quadrupeds, such as the tamanduá-bixuna, rewarded the researches of the zoologist. These forests, though detrimental by their constant humidity to the preservation of the plants, are extremely important to the botanist by their richness, particularly in numerous medicinal plants. The genuine ipecacuanha root (Poaija) is found here in pretty large quantities; it belongs to a low shrub (Cephaëlis Ipecacuanha, Rich.) which grows, and always in groups, on the greater part of the Serra do Mar, from Rio de Janeiro to the north, as far as the capitania of Bahia, in damp shady places in the woods. Now, in the month of April, the plant had berries nearly

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ripe. The gathering of the roots is performed by Indians, and by the negro slaves of the neighbouring landowners during the whole year, but principally immediately after the rainy season, for then the ground being soft, it is more easy to pull up the roots. The Indians do not pay any kind of attention to the propagation of the plant, but pluck up, without distinction, all the roots they can find; so that after a time this valuable medicine may become scarce, unless they take care to raise the plant from seed. The roots, being plucked up, are tied in bundles, dried in the sun, and disposed of to the neighbouring landholders or to dealers in roots, who come from Rio de Janeiro, and from the campos of Goytacazes. The price in the forest is very trifling, about two hundred rees per pound; the Indians, however, do not take money, but only goods in exchange, such as brandy, iron-ware, cotton handkerchiefs, &c. We were assured that the savages had learnt the use of the ipecacuanha from the irara, a kind of martin, which is accustomed, they say, when it has drank too much of the impure or brackish water of several streams and pools, to chew the leaves and the root, and thereby excite vomiting. But this is, perhaps, one of the many unfounded traditions which the Portuguese have adopted, without examination, from the Indians. Here, and in general in Brazil, the ipecacuanha is taken in a cold infusion which has stood twelve hours, and the dose is usually larger

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than in Europe, because the root contains more aqueous parts. Besides the ipecacuanha, the woods of S. Joâo Baptista contain many other valuable medicinal roots, such as anda-açu, the bicuiba (Myristica officinalis, Mart), the piriguaja, bútua, salsa, raiz preta (chiococca anguifuga*, Mart.); the use of which is introduced among the Portuguese no less than among the Indians. One of the greatest ornaments is the sapacáya, or pot-tree (Lecythis Ollaria, L.); its immense stem is above a hundred feet high, and spreads into a majestic and vaulted crown, which is extremely beautiful in the spring when the rose-coloured leaves shoot out, and in the flowering season, by the large white blossoms. The nuts, which have a thick shell, are of the size of a child's head, with a lid which is loose all round, and which at length, when the weight of the fruit turns it downwards, separates, and lets the seed fall out In a high wind it is dangerous to remain in the woods on account of these heavy nuts falling from so great a height The seeds are collected in great quantities by the Indiana, who are extremely fond of them, and either eat them raw, or preserve them roasted and pounded, in pots, and the shells themselves are used as drinking cups. The inhabitants of the

* Respecting the Brazilian ipecacuanha, see Martini's Specimen Materiæ Medicæ Brasiliensis, Dissert. I. in the Memoirs of the Academy of Munich, 1823.

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presidio, and particularly the priest, who, like most of his parishioners, was of a brown complexion, did their utmost to make our residence in this wilderness agreeable and useful; they daily brought us some animals or plants which they thought worthy of our attention. On these occasions we could not sufficiently admire the accurate practical knowledge which the inhabitants of this retired spot had acquired in their intercourse with nature; they were able to distinguish almost every animal, every tree, every plant of the forest, by its peculiar name, and to give a particular account of the properties of many of them.

On the 10th of April, we left the presidio, and, accompanied by a soldier, set out for the Fazenda Guidowald. The road, though cut with rather more care, scarcely seemed to indicate that we were approaching the residence of the director-general; on the contrary, we sometimes had difficulty in passing without injury over the deep ditches and holes. A dark forest covered us and the most singular notes of various animals were heard in the distance. The magical solitude and the wonderful luxuriance of the forest, kept our mind balanced as it were between the feelings of fear and joy. We beheld with astonishment on the summits of the trees, many birds of the gayest plumage, and bright garlands of the most beautiful climbing plants and parasites; but we ware obliged

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to content ourselves with admiring them at the unattainable height at which they were placed.

Towards noon we were near the Aldea do Morro Grande, where several families of the Coroados reside, and by the advice of our soldier we entered a side path leading to them, having left our mules and arms at the neighbouring fazenda of a white colonist. Nothing but confidence in the experience of our guide, could have induced us to proceed in the narrow and intricate path, till we at length came out of a thicket to a rather lighter spot by the side of a stream, in which we perceived a naked Indian woman, painted with all kinds of figures of a dark blue colour. She was employed in pouring water over herself, and on our appearance she was as much astonished as we. Her black shining hair hung like a cloak over her reddish brown shoulders, and various drawings and figures difficult to be explained, ornamented her face and breast. On the cheek she had a circle and over that two strokes; under the nose several marks resembling an M; from the corners of the mouth to the middle of the cheek were two parallel lines, and below them on both sides many straight stripes; below and between her breasts there were some connected segments of circles, and down her arms the figure of a snake was depicted. This beauty wore no ornaments, except a necklace of monkeys' teeth. Scarcely had she

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recovered from the surprise occasioned by our appearance, when she hastened with all speed back to her hut. We observed that on the information given by her of our arrival, most of the Indians threw themselves into their hammocks, or hid themselves in their huts, and some others fled into the neighbouring wood.

When we reached the huts, no female was to be seen, except a few old women; the men lay silent, motionless, and with their backs turned to us, in their hammocks. Our military guide went first into their habitations, saluted the savages, and gave them to understand, as well as his knowledge of their language would permit, that we had come from a very distant country to visit them, and to employ ourselves in collecting birds, butterflies, and plants. This declaration seemed to make but little impression upon them, they swung, as before, silent in their hammocks, and looked at us only by stealth. Even good words and presents had no effect upon them; on our asking for a draught of water, one of them turned his head, and pouting out his mouth, and with gestures indicating impatience, pointed to the neighbouring stream.

During this mute intercourse, we had time to observe the domestic arrangement of this people. Their huts were built upon the bare ground, supported by four corner posts, twelve or fifteen feet high, and were from thirty to forty feet long. The walls made of thin laths connected by wicker-

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work, and sometimes plastered with clay, had on both sides openings the height of a man, with movable doors of palm leaves; the roof was made of palm leaves and maize straw, the hut was closed on the windward side; or where the sides were entirely open, the roof extended much further and lower down. In every hut there were, in different parts of the floor, hearths for the several families residing in it. Some families had huts resembling tents, entirely made of palm leaves. There was no other issue left for the smoke than through the roof and the doors. Hammocks made of cotton cords, which at once supplied the place of tables, beds, and chairs, were suspended to the posts round the huts, about a foot from the ground; they are the chief article of furniture, and often serve the man, the woman, and the child as their common bed. Some earthen pots; baskets made of palm leaves, filled with Spanish potatoes, maize, mandiocca roots, and other fruits of the forest; drinking vessels (cujas), dishes with orlean and genipapo colours; a hollowed trunk of a tree, for pounding maize, constituted the whole of their household furniture. The arms of the men, bows and arrows, lean against the walls. In the hut of the chief hangs an ox horn, the tip of which a cut off, which he uses to announce to the neighbours the arrival of a white man, or any other event, or to summon them to festivals and wars. The Maracá, a longish gourd shell, filled with

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maize, fastened to a handle, with which in their dancing, they make a rattling as with castanets; some tufts or wreaths of coloured feathers, to adorn their heads and arms on festal occasions, complete their simple furniture; many beautiful, and hitherto unknown parrots; several species of wood-hens, particularly the pretty Jacú (Penelope Marail, leucoptera); tortoises and monkeys running about at liberty, seemed to be reckoned part of the family. Our wish to possess the rarest of these birds, which our soldier seconded by urgent representations, remained unfulfilled till he caught the animals, and held them to the owner in one hand, and a tempting present in the other. After long hesitation, the Indian seized the present, and thus by a kind of tacit agreement, we remained in possession of our prize.

The Indians who had fled into the woods and into the huts, which, as in all the aldeas, stand at a great distance from each other, made their appearance again, but still continued to look at us only by stealth. An old woman, however, returned to her work, and diligently pounded maize in the hollow stem of a tree; another worked with a piece of wood upon an unfinished hammock; the younger women looked inquisitively from behind the stems of the neighbouring palms; they were either quite naked, or had a piece of white cotton stuff round their waists; some of them wore round their necks glass beads;

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others, strings of red and black seeds, (of Canna glauca, Abrus precatorius and Ormosia coccinea, Jacks.) or of monkeys' or ounces' teeth. The little children are carried about by their mothers, fastened to their backs. Even these infants were already ornamented with red and dark blue stripes and spots, particularly in the face, for the tenderness of the mothers exercises itself in this painting* as soon as they awake from sleep. The Indians of this district, however, like most of the tribes in the south of Brazil, generally use only colours that may be taken off again, and the custom of tatooing is of more frequent occurrence among the people on the river of the Amazons.

After we had treated our silent hosts with various presents, which were received without say expression of gratitude, we returned to the fazenda, to fetch our arms and mules. Some of the Indians, tempted by the presents, followed us thither, and were again regaled with brandy and maize-flour. Among them was an old Indian, who was distinguished by a pretty thick beard, accompanied

* The Indians dye black with the fruit of the Genipapo (Genipa americana); bluish black with a hitherto nondescript Cissus: tinctoria, caule articulato subtetragono, foliis ovatis cordatis subquinqueangularibus acutis remote mucronato-serratis utrinque glabriusculis, pedunculis axillaribus solitariis umbelliferis, umbellœ, rediis quatuor ad sex dichotomis; red with the seeds of the Urucú plant (Bixa Orellana), or with red ferruginous lithomarge, of which there are layers on the sides of the rivers.

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by his wife. The Indian women, we were told, showed more attachment to the negroes than to their own Indian husbands. Runaway negroes, therefore, frequently appear in the woods as the cicisbei of the Indian women, and are passionately sought by them. The contrary is the case with the Indian men, who consider the negresses as below their dignity, and despise them. After taking leave with rather more cordiality, we parted from our guests and rode through a thick forest to Guidowald, where we arrived before sunset.

This farm was built by the commandant, close to some of the villages of the Indians who were to be civilised, in order to have them always under his eye. It is situated in a confined, thickly wooded country, on the western declivity of the Serra da Onça, a part of the Serra do Mar. The Rio Xipotó, a river only six fathoms broad, which rises not far from this place, and then joins the Rio da Pomba, flows near the fazenda, to the north, and divides it from the settlement of the Indians on the other side. The predominant kind of rock in this country is gneiss, or gneiss-granite, over which are thick beds of red clay. It is said, indeed, that traces of gold have been found here, yet the streams bring nothing down with them but little fragments of quartz, rock-crystal, and splinters of amethysts. When the wood is felled and cultivated, it produces plentiful crops of maize, mandiocca, beans, and likewise cotton. We had

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been only a few hours at Guidowald, when we saw a horde of Coropós, who were come to exchange dried ipecacuanha roots at captain Marlier's, for cottons and iron wares. As soon as they heard that strangers were present, they crept, scattered round about the house, and peeped in to see what was passing. This tribe of Coropós consists at present of hardly 300 individuals, who dwell in many small aldeas along the shores of the Rio da Pomba. They are on good terms with the Portuguese, whom they have acknowledged as their masters since 1767, and appear to be the most civilised among the Indians of Minas Geraës. Those whom we saw here were all of a middling stature, with broad shoulders, large jaws, very lean, particularly in the calves, and had a very disagreeable mongol countenance. They were almost entirely naked; some of the women, as soon as they saw us, put on short cotton aprons, which they carried with them wrapped up in palm leaves. In spite of all our endeavours, we found it impossible to examine their language, as well on account of their invincible reserve in our presence, as for want of a skilful interpreter. Among the few words which we drew from them, we were struck by "Handu" (in German Handtuch), by which they designate a pocket-handkerchief and "Ja" by which they, like the Germans, express an affirmative. After these Indians had disposed of their ipecacuanha, and been fed by the people

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of the farm, they retired in the evening to the woods.

The nearest huts of the Coroados (Aldea do Cipriano) were only a few hundred paces from Guidowald. We visited them in the evening, and found the tent-shaped huts, which were made of palm leaves, quite empty, except here and there an old person. The inhabitants, fearing that we were come to take them away for soldiers, had fled over the Rio Xipotó to their neighbours in the woods. It was not till they had convinced themselves of our peaceable intentions by their spies, that they gradually returned. A young Coroado, whom Captain Marlier had taken into his house and polished a little, was particularly instrumental in gaining us the confidence of these savages, and we were by degrees surrounded by a great number of them, who assembled in Guidowald with and without arms. By several trifling presents, among which painted soldiers made of lead were the most agreeable, we gained their attachment, and our soldier, on his promise to treat them with mandiocca, maize and brandy, received an assurance that they would come on the following day in great numbers, to execute a festive dance in our presence. At the approach of night, they departed unperceived. Some of them slept in the barn, and others in the neighbouring huts, from which they returned early in the morning to make preparations for the festival. These con-

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sisted in preparing an intoxicating liquor (Eivir, Virú, Vinhassa of the Portuguese) from a decoction of maize. We went, as it by chance, to the place chosen for the meeting, to witness the manner in which they prepared this beverage, and found there several women employed; some were pounding the grain in a hollow trunk of a tree, others put the maize into an unburnt earthen vessel, which was several feet high, narrow below, and broad above, in which it was boiled with a great quantity of water. On our entrance they ran away, but seeing that we looked at them in a friendly manner, they returned to their employment. One old woman, and several young ones, took the coarsely ground and boiled flour out of the pot with their hands, chewed it, and then put it in the pot again. By this mode of treatment, the decoction begins to ferment, and becomes intoxicating.*

While we were looking at these not very inviting operations, one of us saw a small serpent creep out

* It is remarkable that this node of preparing a fermented liquor out of maize, mandiocca flour or bananas, is found among the various Indian tribes of America, and seems peculiar to this race. Wafer found it among the Indians on the isthmus of Darien. (Voy. de Dampier. Amst. 1705. p. 228.) They there call this beverage Chichach-capah; in Potosi, where the Benedictine monk, George Ruiz of Augsburg, according to the manuscript accounts sent to his convent, also found it, Chicha. The same custom likewise prevails in Cayenne, Surinam, and on the coast of the Amazons.

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of the ground, which, on account of the thickness of its tail, is here called the two-headed serpent, Cobra de duas cabeças (Cæcilia annulata, nob.).* The Indians dread it as venomous, and fled, terrified at the naturalist, who had seized it by the head, and playing with it, carried it towards them. Nothing could have inspired the simple people with greater respect for us; from this time they looked upon us with the same awe as they feel for their Pajés (their magicians, priests, and physicians); a feeling which we readily maintained among them.

Towards evening, we heard the sound of the ox-horn echo in the woods. Our guests gradually slipped in at the back door, quite softly; and in a short time, the barn, into which the liquor had been brought, was filled with a great number of Indians. By degrees, those residing at a greater distance arrived in single troops, each with his whole family, and with bag and baggage, as if they were going to migrate; the men who had not yet secreted their bows and arrows in the neighbouring woods, hid them here; the women put down their baskets, took the children on their shoulders, and looked for the drinking cup (cuja). Without conversing with each other, each member of the family examined the surrounding company with an unsteady look; the men approached each

* Spix, Serpent. Bras. tab. xxvi. fig. 1.

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other, and saluted their neighbours, at most, by pouting out their lips, and a scarcely audible nasal tone. In the middle of the assembly, and nearest to the pot, stood the chief, who, by his strength, cunning, and courage, had obtained some command over them, and had received from Marlier the title of captain. In his right hand he held the maracá, the abovementioned castanet, which they call Gringcrina*, and rattled with it, beating time with his right foot. Rather walking than dancing, he advanced slowly, with his body bent forwards, round the pot, towards which his eyes were constantly turned. The dance, the measure of which was in triple time, was accompanied by him with a low monotonous singing, which was more strongly marked when he stamped with his foot. The oftener the song was repeated, the more solemn and animated was the expression of his voice and features. All the rest stood motionless round the pot, stared at him without speaking, and only now and then, when the words of the dancer, which seemed to be extempore, moved them, they broke out into immoderate cries. After this measured circular dance, by which, probably, it was intended to conjure and keep off evil spirits, the leader approached the pot, took from the hand of his neighbour the drinking vessel which he held ready,

* We did not find any traces among the Indians of the oracles of the Maracá, mentioned in the accounts of earlier travelers.

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gravely dipped it into the pot, and took a sip. The rattling of the gringcrina, and the monotonous singing began again; the leader then half emptied the cup, and presented it to the others; every one then helped himself at pleasure out of the pot, and the dance and the monotonous music became general, and more and more noisy the longer the cup went round. We, too, had a full cuja presented to us, and though filled with disgust, we were obliged to follow the advice of our guide to empty it, in order not to give the Indians any reason for distrust. The beverage resembles in taste our malt liquor, and when taken in a large quantity is intoxicating, an effect which was but too manifest towards the end of the feast, by their leaping and noisy singing of "Hy! ha ha!" Hopes had been given us that we should see on this occasion the dances of the Coroados; but towards evening, after their stomachs and heads were full, one party slipped away after the other, as if by previous agreement.

The day after our arrival at Guidowald, a horde of Puris had shown themselves, who rove about in this neighbourhood. They crept timidly about the houses, but at length took courage to enter, and after we had made them some little presents, they appeared to acquire confidence, and not to be unwilling to remain with us. It was easy to observe that they were ruder, but therefore less mistrustful than the Coroados, who had been longer subject to

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the Portuguese. During the drinking feast they had remained concealed in the neighbouring wood; but having been invited by our guide, after it was over, they came, though late in the night, after all the Coroados had retired to their huts, and being encouraged by presents, showed themselves ready to dance. They were quite naked. Some women had drawings resembling serpents on their arms, and other figures of black and red colours on their faces. From native modesty they hid themselves behind the men, or walked stooping. We gave them pins, narrow ribbons, leaden soldiers and horsemen. They tied the latter to strings which they suspended round their necks. On this occasion we had an opportunity of pitying the ignorance of this people. After they had received this present with eager looks, and examined it a long time, they felt the head, mouth, and feet of the horses, and those of the leaden soldiers, and seemed desirous of convincing themselves, by repeated examination and feeling, whether they were animate or inanimate. When they had been made familiar, and treated with plentiful draughts of brandy, of which, like all Indians, they are passionately fond, they began their dance by night, on an open spot not far from the fazenda of Guidowald. If the compact low stature, the brown red colour, the jet black hair hanging down in disorder, the disagreeable form of their broad angular countenances, the small oblique unsteady blinking eyes, and lastly the tripping short

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light walk of these savages, had excited in us the most sorrowful feelings at the debasement of humanity in them, these were farther increased by the melancholy expression of their festivity in the darkness of the night. The men placed themselves close together in a line, and behind them the women also in a line. The male children, sometimes two or three, took hold of each other and of the fathers round the waist, as the female children did their mothers. In this position, they begin their melancholy "Hán—jo—há—ha—há."*

The song and the dance were repeated several times, and the two rows moved slowly forward in a measured triple time. In the first three steps they put the left foot forward and bent the left side; at the first and third step they stamped with the left foot, and at the second with the right; in the following three steps they advanced the right foot at the first and last, bending on the right side. In this manner they advanced a little alternately in short steps. As soon as the song was concluded, they ran back in disorder as if in flight; first the women with their daughters, and then the men with their sons. After this they placed themselves in the same order as before, and the scene was repeated. A negro who had lived a long time among the

* It is remarkable that the melodies which Lery noted above 200 years ago among the Indians, in the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, very much resemble those observed by us. (See Lery, Hist. Nav. in Brazil, Geneva, 1594.)

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Paris explained to us the words sung to this dance as a lamentation, the subject of which was that they had attempted to pluck a flower from a tree, but had fallen down. No interpretation of this melancholy scene could have appeared to us more appropriate, than that of the loss of Paradise. The longer the Puris continued their dance, the more lively did they become, and the louder were their voices. They afterwards began to change the mélodies for some others, and the dance gradually assumed a different character. The women begin to twist their hips, and to shove alternately before and behind, but the men only before; the latter, particularly animated by the singing, leaped out of their places to the bystanders, whom they saluted with a push in the stomach. One of us on this occasion received such a violent shove, that he was obliged to withdraw, half-fainting, from this testimony of joy; upon which our soldier took care to return the push in his stead, as the etiquette required. This dance, the pantomime of which seems much to resemble the Ethiopian Baducca, has perhaps been introduced by the negroes among the Americans.

All the Indians of the tribes of the Puris, Coropos and Coroados, whom we saw here, had an extraordinary resemblance in make and countenance; and their individual features, probably from want of civilisation, have more of the general physiognomy of the race, than is now the case in the

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other tribes. The Indians are of a short or middle stature; the men from four to five feet high, and the women a little above four; all of a robust broad compact make. It is very seldom that some of a taller and more slender shape are seen among them. The breast is broad; the neck short and thick; the female breast not so pendent as in the negresses; the belly very prominent; the pudenda much smaller than in the negro. The extremities are short; the legs far from full; and the calves, in particular, thin; the arms round and muscular. The foot is narrow behind and very broad before; the great toe parted from the others; the hands are almost always cold, the fingers proportionably thin; the nails, which they constantly bite, are very short. The colour of the skin is a darker or lighter copper, differing a little according to the age, occupation, and health of the individual. Infants are of a yellowish white, like mulattoes; sick persons become of a brownish yellow colour; it is very rare to find among them, albinos, or any that are dark spotted. On the whole, their colour is darker in proportion as they are stronger and more active. On the lower part of the body, and the legs, and arms, the red brown colour sometimes changes to a blacker shade; in the joints it is paler or whitish. The Indian, properly speaking, cannot blush, and the "Erubescit, salva res est," cannot be applied to this unpolished race. It was only after long intercourse with the whites, and after receiving

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some education, that we perceived in the Indians, a change of colour, expressive of the emotions of the mind. Their akin is very fine, soft, shining, and, when exposed to the sun, inclined to perspiration. Their long, coarse, stiff) and glossy black hair, hangs down thick and in a disorderly manner. The beard of the men is in general thin, but we saw some men with thick beards. The crown of the head and the cheek bones are broad, corresponding with the breadth of the breast. The forehead is low, the temple projecting, narrow above and falling very much back. The back part of the head by no means hangs so low as in the negro, whose skull is, indeed, narrow, and much more oblong than that of the Indian. The countenance is broad and angular, and projects much less than in the negro, but more than in the Calmuck or the European. The ears are small, neatly made, rather turned outwards, not pierced and disfigured by heavy bodies; the eyes, small and dark brown, placed sideways, the inner corner turned towards the nose; the eyebrows, thin and very high in the middle; the nose is short, slightly depressed above, broad below, but not so spread as in the negro; the nostrils, wide, standing very little out; the lips by no means so thick and swollen as in the negro, the upper, not the lower, projects a little, or both are alike; the mouth is smaller and more closed than in the negro. The teeth are very white; the front teeth very broad and even; the eye-teeth project.

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In general, the make of the Indian is robust, broad, and short, whereas that of the negro is tall and, slender; thus it approaches nearer to that of the other races, especially that of the Chinese and Calmucks, though the latter have lighter complexions, and better formed features. We did not meet with, any deformed persona or cripples among the Indians, for which reason some persons believe that they put them to death immediately after their birth.

The temperament of the Indian is almost wholly undeveloped, and appears as phlegm. All the powers of the soul, nay, even the more, refined pleasures of the senses, seem to be in. a state of lethargy. Without reflection on the whole of the creation, or the causes and internal connection of things, they live with their faculties directed, only to self-preservation. They scarcely distinguish the past and the future, and hence they never provide for the following day. Strangers to complaisance, gratitude, friendship, humility, ambition, and, in general, to all delicate and noble emotions which adorn human society; obtuse, reserved, sunk in indifference to, every thing, the. Indian employs nothing but his naturally acute senses, his, cunning, and his retentive memory, and that only in war or hunting, his chief occupations. Cold and indolent in his domestic relations, he follows mere animal instinct more than tender attachment and his love to his wife shows itself only in cruel

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jealousy, which, with revenge, is the only passion that can rouse his stunted soul from its moody indifference. The men seem to have no sense of modesty; only the naked women, wheu they are in the presence of strangers, appear to show it, by the manner of their walking. Insensible to the pleasures of the palate, particularly inclined to animal food, the Indian is in general abstemious, following only the calls of nature, without regard to time, and often fasting to suit his convenience; but he drinks to excess of his Vinhassa, or of brandy when he can procure it. Still and docile in the service of the whites; unremittingly persevering in the work assigned him; not to be excited by any treatment to anger, though he may to long cherished revenge; he is born, as the colonists are used to say, only to be commanded. Neither thievish nor deceitful, having no eagerness after any thing that does not relate to the wants of the stomach, he keeps always isolated and separate from the family. However carefully attended by the colonists in sickness, or, in general, loaded with benefits, he feels, during his convalesence, only the greater longing for his wandering life; and, almost incapable of gratitude, flies, even without any particular inducement, back to his gloomy forests.*

* An Indian of the tribe of the Coroados was brought up by the whites, and so far educated that he was ordained priest, and read mass; but all at once he renounced his new profession, threw aside his habit, and fled naked into the woods to his old way of life.

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By no means inclined to conversation, he sleeps during a part of the day; plays, when not occupied in the chase, with his domestic animals; or sits gazing intently without thought, sometimes frightened, as in a dream, by fanciful images. Chained to the present, he hardly ever raises his eyes to the starry firmament. Yet he is actuated by a certain awe of some constellations, as of every thing that indicates a spiritual connection of things. His chief attention, however, is not directed to the sun, but to the moon; according to which he calculates time, and from which he is used to deduce good and evil. As all that is good passes without notice by him, and only what is disagreeable makes an impression on him; he acknowledges no cause of good, or no God, but only an evil principle, which meets him sometimes in the form of a lizard; of a man with stag's feet; of a crocodile, or an ounce; sometimes transforms itself into a swamp, &c., leads him astray, vexes him, brings him into difficulty and danger, and even kills him.

They ascribe a direct intercourse with the demons to their pajé, who is acquainted with many powerful herbs, appears to be at the same time their priest and physician, and contrives to maintain his credit among them by all kinds of conjuring tricks. In extraordinary cases he is applied to for his advice, which he gives after consulting the demons; for which purpose he generally chooses

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a dark tempestuous night.* Certain animal, far instance, a kind of goat-sucker, and the screaming kinds of vulture, caracarai and caoha, are messengers from the dead to the pajé, and therefore highly respected by every body. The Indian also wears round his neck strings of the eye-teeth of ounces and of monkeys, of certain roots, fruits, shells, and stones, which he thinks will protect him against the attacks of wild beasts and against diseases. The pajé administers many medicines, which are often prepared with magical ceremonies, practises a kind of exorcism by fumigation, and maintains the fear of the Indians for spirits by superstitious customs and narratives; but the misfortunes, sickness, and death of the neighbours are often ascribed to his sorceries, and he then atones for his practices with his life. The pajé however, has as little influence over the will of the multitude as any other, for they live without any bond of social union, neither under a republican nor a patriarchal form of government. Even family ties are very loose among them: it is very seldom that the head

* A Portuguese of the presidio of S. Joâo Baptista told us, that he was once an unobserved witness in a forest, of an assembly of the Coroados, who wished to learn, through their pajé, where they should hunt. The old man went alone into the thicket, speaking in a loud and pathetic tone, falling down several times. Whenever the wind rustled through the trees a piercing whistle was heard, by which the pajé affirmed he was made acquainted with the spot appointed by the demon.

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of the family troubles himself about his descendants, and adjusts their disputes. There is no regular precedency between the old and the young; for age appears to enjoy no respect among them. We often saw children and young men behave with the greatest impropriety in the presence of their parents; help themselves to the food before the parents had taken any, occupy the best place at the fire-side, pertly give their opinions, quarrel, &c., without any persons seeming to notice it. The influence of the Portuguese has distinguished the most sensible among them, who are flattered by being called capitâo, and with exercising a kind of supremacy over the rest. When they carry on war, their leader is the best hunter, he who has killed the greatest number of enemies, ounces, &c., and has the greatest share of cunning. At home his commands are not attended to, or individuals follow him at pleasure, because he takes the trouble of thinking for them, or proposes something advantageous, such as a more productive hunting-place, an exchange of goods with the whites, &c. Every body commands at home according to his own pleasure; several families often live in one hut, but quite distinct and independent of each other. They mutually respect their property, have, in general, their meat and drink in common, and seldom have any disputes on this subject; jealousy, however, frequently leads to quarrels, in which the parties concerned fight, without the rest taking any

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part: for the most part, the poor slavish woman pays dearly for her fault.

The Indians live in irregular monogamy or polygamy. Each takes as many wives as he has a mind, or as he can and will support, and dismisses them when he pleases, and they then look for another husband; it frequently happens, however, that a man has only one wife after another. Their marriages are entered upon early, and are not very fruitful. We met with some mothers, twenty years of age, who had already four children, but we seldom saw more than four children in a family. There is no solemnity in the celebration of their marriages, the only ceremony being the presentation of game or fruit, by the suitor, to the parents of his bride, by which he tacitly engages to support the wife by the chase. We have never observed any indications of an equivocal connection between fathers and daughters, brothers and sisters; but the vice of sodomy is practised by certain tribes of the Indians.

While the man is solely occupied with the chase, war, and making his arms, all the cares of the domestic concerns fall on the women. They plant and collect the harvest, if this species of cultivation has been introduced among them; look in the woods for Spanish potatoes and fruit for the family, and provide the requisite earthen-ware utensils and basket-work. The women are on the whole the slaves of the men, and in their wandering ex-

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cursions load themselves with everything necessary, like beasts of burden; nay, even fetch from the forest the game killed by the man. As soon as the woman is evidently pregnant, or has been delivered, the man withdraws. A strict regimen is observed before the birth; the man and the woman refrain for a time from the flesh of certain animals, and live chiefly on fish and fruits. When the moment of birth approaches, the woman goes into the forest, where she is delivered alone, concealed from the light of the moon, generally without any assistance: the navel string is torn, or bitten in two with the teeth. Immediately after her delivery, she goes into the stream, washes herself and the child, and then attends to her household employments as before. Some time after the child and the mother are fumigated, from the mouth of the pajé, with a kind of tobacco (petum); on which occasions the neighbours often assemble for the purpose of drinking vinhassa, and of tumultuous dancing. Infants at the breast are carefully protected against the moon, which is said to produce sicknesses. The mother often keeps them at the breast till they are between four and five years of age, the child grows up, loved instinctively by the mother, not at all by the father, and with little care being taken of it. As long as it is unable to walk, it is carried about by the mother on her back, and sleeps between the parents in the hammock; afterwards it takes its own way, lies in the

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ashes before the fire, or in a hammock of its own, and soon shows itself able to fetch the larvæ of insects and fruits from the forest. Thus left to themselves, the children grow up: the boy soon follows his father to the chase, learns to use the bow and arrow, exercises himself in making strings of the fibres of palm leaves (tucum*), imitates, by loosely intertwining the cords, all kinds of animals, fish, serpents, &c, and amuses himself with the bodoque, a kind of sling, from which they discharge bullets of clay, to kill small birds. The women begin to menstruate early, but sparingly. The period generally continues regularly for three days, but is said to cease before they have attained an advanced age. The males marry at the age of fifteen to eighteen; the girls from ten to twelve. Marriage is not a remarkable period in their life; and these Indians, who do not, like those on the river of the Amazons, celebrate by particular festivals the time when the youths as well as the maidens become marriageable, have but few divisions in their life. Only she birth and death give occasion to particular ceremonies; their festivals are kept without regard to the season of the year. Ocoasion is principally taken from the ripening of the fruit. It is very common for several families to quit their abodes, and settle where new fruits are ripening, or where the chase is more produc-

* Especially of the Tucuma palm (Astrocaryum vulgare, Mart.) and others of the same genus. (See Palm. Bras. Pl. 58—64.)

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tive. After a successful campaign, their victories are celebrated by noisy dances and songs; and the Coroados are accustomed to pierce with arrows the limbs of their enemies, the Puris, when any of them fall into their power, and to pass them from hand to hand at their drinking feasts to suck them.

The Indians are seldom sick, and generally live to an advanced age, which, however, is very seldom indicated by grey hair. They frequently come to an untimely end by violence or accident Their most common complaints are inflammations of the eyes and of the bowels; diseases of the liver, diarrhœa, dysentery, and ague, which are chiefly caused by their mode of life in the damp foggy woods. The Portuguese ascribe the inflammations of the eyes to their eating the flesh of the tapir. No trace of syphilis, small-pox, or measles is met with among those Indians who have no intercourse with the Europeans; but when introduced among them, these disorders very rapidly spread, and soon carry them off. Their best remedies are repose and strict regimen. When they are seized by any disease, they make a fire near their hammock, in which they lay themselves down quietly, and pass several days fasting. If the danger increases, the pajé is called in. He tries fumigations, rubbing with certain herbs, or with saliva; kneading, breathing, and spitting on the part affected. They bear the pain of wounds with incredible insensibility; and, when it is necessary, they do not

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hesitate to lose a large quantity of blood, or to cut off a limb. They are acquainted with venesection, which they perform on the arm, by discharging at the vein, from a small bow, a little arrow headed with a small crystal. They perform scarification with a sharp splinter of reed, or with a pebble ground to a fine edge.

When an Indian dies he is buried in the hut, which, if he was an adult, is abandoned, and another built in its stead. The body, in a squatting attitude, is put in a large pot, or wrapped in bass or old cotton stuff, and placed in the ground, which they then tread hard with their feet, amidst cries and lamentations. They lay the arms of the deceased for a time on his grave, likewise food and game, and repeat the lamentation for the dead twice a day; and either cut their hair very short or let it grow very long, and the women are said to paint their whole bodies black. Long after death, if they accidentally come near the place where one of their people is buried, they celebrate his memory by lamentation. Among the Puris, a kind of funeral discourse is said to be held: the soul of the departed is now, according to their notions, in a pleasant wood, full of sapucaja trees and game, where it is happy in the company of all the deceased. What notion the Indians have of the nature of the soul, cannot possibly be discovered without long intercourse with them, and entering into their way of thinking; but it appeared certain

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to me, that they believe in its existence after death. Thus, from a sort of fear of spirits, they leave the huts in which they have buried their relations; give food to the corpse, as it were, to subsist upon by the way; and avoid disturbing the repository of the dead, for fear they should appear to them and torment them.* The general belief in an evil principle, which is announced by a positive term in all the languages of the Indians, may be considered as a proof that they distinguish, however obscurely, between what is spiritual and what is corporeal in nature. We shall have occasion to speak more particularly on this subject in the course of our narrative, and to show that the idea of the metempsychosis generally prevails among them.

Abandoned by tradition, history, or historical documents, the enquirer has nothing left him but to observe the external form of these people, their customs, and especially their language, in order, from those particulars, to determine physically and psychologically their rank among the other races, and the general degree of their civilisation. We, therefore, took great pains in investigating the languages of the tribes living about the presidio. But unfortunately the Indian is so unaccustomed to exercise his intellectual faculties, that it is very difficult to obtain satisfactory information from him. Scarcely

* A Coroado told us that one of his wives, who had died a short time before, had often appeared to him in the night, but constantly avoided his embrace.

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has one begun to question him about his language, when he grows impatient, complains of head-ache, and shows that he is unable to bear this exertion. The great number of different languages which we meet with among the American Indians, is extremely remarkable; for they cannot properly be referred as dialects to certain original languages, because they have very few synonymous radical words*, and in general differ so widely from each other, that it frequently happens that Indians of different tribes do not understand each other, and must converse together by signs as well as the Europeans who have any intercourse with them. Their languages extend only to the denomination of the objects immediately surrounding them, and often express the predominant quality of things by imitative sounds (onomatopœia). They distinguish with great precision the internal and external parts of the body,

* We have collected vecabularies of the following nations, which we shall publish in the appendix of the fourth volume. Coroados, Coropós, Puris, Botocudos, Macuanis. Penhams (Panhems or Panhámis), in Minas Geraës; Machacalis, Capoxós. Cataxos, Comanaxós on the frontier of Porto-Seguro, Bahia, and Minas; Cariris. Sabujás, Camacaëns, Masacarás in Bahia; Getcóa in Piauhi; Apogenicrans, Pimenteiras and Purecamecráns in Maranhâo; Múras. Mundrucús, Uainumás. Manaxóa, Canna-mirim, Passéa, Jurí-Tocana-Tapuüja, Juri-Tabóca-Tapuüja, Culinos, Catuquinas. Uairuçú, Campevas, Marauás, Araquaxús, Cauixánas, Manatés, Maxurúnas, Tocú-nas, Manáes, Baréa, Cariays in Pará and Rio Negro; and lastly wepoe sess the vocabularies of the Lingua Geral of Brazil (that of the Tuptnambás) and that of the Inoes.

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the various animals and plants: and the affinity of such natural objects to each other is frequently indicated in a very expressive manner in the words themselves; thus, for instance, the Indian names of monkeys and palms were guides to us in examining the genera and species, for almost every species has its particular Indian name. But it would be in vain to seek among them words for the abstract ideas of plant, animal, and the still more abstract notions colour, tone, sex, species, &c., such a generalisation of ideas is found among them only in the frequently used infinitive of the verbs to walk, to eat, to drink, to dance, to see, to hear, &c. They have no conception of the general powers and laws of nature, and therefore cannot express them in words. That the stars are suspended without support in the heavens, and circle in the ether, and that the sun is any thing else than a great fire, has probably never occurred to any Indian; none of them has ever thought that besides the Sun, the Moon, the Great Bear, and Orion, there were other constellations; that the fixed stars are different from the planets, and the latter from their satellites. Still less have they any words for soul, spirit, and the like, or at the most very indefinite and insufficient terms. The word tupán or tupána, which is met with as the name for God among several of the tribes that are a little more civilised, and by which the Coroados designate the sugar-cane, and other nations the pisang fruit, is justly considered by

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many persons as not originally Indian, but, as well as the idea of God itself in opposition to the demoniacal principle, the devil, was first communicated to the Indians by the missionaries. In general, as they are wholly destitute of all religious notions, and all ideas of revelation, all the terms appropriate to those subjects must be taken from the language of the missionaries, or new made according to the analogy of the Indian language.

Even the denominations of objects that are within the reach of their senses, are sometimes so remote from them, that it is difficult to get them from them. For instance, if we wish to learn from an Indian the word earth, we must first point to the water, and then, as a contrast to it, stamp on the ground, in order to give him a striking notion of the meaning of the question. To the question, what the air is called, though we very frequently repeated it, and took the greatest pains to make it intelligible to them, no Indian ever gave us an answer, though they would tell us how the wind was called. For light, they point to the sun by day or to the fire on the hearth. Of substantives, they have, at most, only the names of concrete objects, such as mountain, valley, forest, water, river, &c. It may easily be conceived that they want terms for objects, with which they have been made acquainted by the Portuguese, for instance, king, general, white man, table, chair, hat, handkerchief, glass, clothes, horse, ox, sheep, pig, &c. By degrees they

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adopt the Portuguese name, which they change more or less. Thus they call the horse (cavallo) cavarrú, the key (chave) shavi, the clergyman (vigario) uare, &c. To the ox they give the name of one of the animals of their own country, the tapir, tapira. Their pronouns are quite simple, limited to I, thou, we, mine and thine. Of course there is no such thing as declensions and conjugations, and still leas a regular construction of the sentences. They always speak in the infinitive, with, or mostly without, pronouns or substantives. The accent, which is chiefly on the second syllable, the slowness or quickness of pronunciation, certain signs with the hand, the mouth, or other gestures, are necessary to complete the sense of the sentence. If the Indian, for instance, means to say, "I will go into the wood,", he says, "Wood-go," pushing out his mouth, to indicate the quarter which he intends to visit In respect to numbers too, their language is very imperfect. They generally count only by the joints of the fingers, consequently only to three. Every greater number they express by the word "many." Their calculation of time is equally simple, merely according to the returning season of the ripening of the fruits, or according to the phases of the moon, of which latter, however, they can express in words only the appearance, without any reference to the causes. It is worthy of the particular attention of the philologer, that with this simplicity of lan-

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guage, certain sounds resemble or coincide in a degree with the words of European languages; for instance, the Coropó words handu and ja, which we have already mentioned, with the German handtuch and ja; Boëman, wife, with the English woman; or the eivir, viru of the Coroados, with beer; the mangé, eating, and nyé, nose, with the French manger and nez. The pronunciation of the Indians is mostly guttural, and particularly nasal, for which reason they show greater aptitude for learning Spanish, Portuguese, &c. than German, English, &c.

We visited the aldeas of the Coroados at all hours, and by this means acquired a lively idea of the daily mode of life of these uneducated savages. As soon as the first rays of the sun beam on the hut of the Indian, he awakes, rises immediately, and goes to the door, where he generally spends some time, in rubbing and stretching his limbs, and then goes into the wood for a few minutes. Returning into the hut, he looks for the still live embers of the fire of the day before, or lights it afresh by means of two dry sticks, one of which he sets upon the other, twirling it like a mill till it kindles, and then he adds dry grass or straw. All the male inhabitants then take part in the business; some drag wood out of the forest, others heap up the fire, between several large stones, and all of them then seat themselves around it, in a squatting attitude. Without looking at, or speaking to each

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other, they often remain for hours together in this position, solely engaged in keeping in the fire, or roasting Spanish potatoes, bananas, ears of maize, &c. in the ashes, for breakfast. A tame monkey, or some other of their numerous domestic animals, with which they play, serves to amuse them. The first employment of the women, on leaving their hammocks, is to paint themselves and their children, on which each goes to her particular domestic occupation, stripping the threads from the palm leaves, manufacturing nets, making earthen vessels, rubbing mandiocca, and pounding the maize, from which they make by fermentation a cooling beverage (catimboeira). Others go to their little plantations to fetch maize, mandiocca, and beans, or into the wood to look for wild fruits and roots. When the men have finished their frugal breakfast, they prepare their bows, arrows, slings, lances, &c. The first are cut with stone axes out of the red wood of several siliquose trees, or out of the black wood of some prickly palms (Brexaüva) of the species Astrocaryum, and polished with the angular bamboo cane, or with iron knives, which they have obtained by barter: the arrows themselves are made of a reed (Tacuara da Frecha, Gräúng of the Coroados, Saccharum sagittarum, Aubl.?). It is not till the sun is high and the heat considerable, that the Indian delights to bathe himself, and then goes between nine and ten to the chase, generally accompanied

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by his wife. On these occasions he takes the narrow, almost imperceptible foot-paths, or goes directly across the forest. If the object of his journey is distant, he breaks branches of the shrubs as he goes along, which he leaves hanging, or scatters in the path, in order the more easily to find his way back. The man carries his arms in his right hand, and a short knife, if he has been able to obtain one, tied to a string round his neck; his wife follows empty-handed, or with a bag, braided of strings, containing some provisions They walk through the thicket with their body bent forwards, in short steps, constantly bending and stooping, and look attentively to all sides. At the least noise, they stand still or hide them selves. If they observe a wild animal, the Indian draws nearer with extreme caution, with his bow bent, and at length discharges the arrow with unerring aim. The woman generally looks for the game and the arrow in the bushes. Their arrows are of different forms, according to the size of the animal, and sometimes barbed; we never saw any poisoned arrows among these Indians. Birds, which they desire to possess as domestic animals, are caught by means of a noose fixed to the end of a very long pole. The Indian steals cautiously up or silently climbs the trees, and holds the noose before the animals so long and so dexterously, that it at length is taken in it. They were not acquainted with the art of angling before the settle-

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meat of the Portuguese, till which time they killed fish with arrows or long harpoons. When they have taken some small animals or one large one, their hunting is over for that day, and the woman carries home the game in the bag which is fastened to her forehead by baas (embira, generally of Cecropia peltata). The cooking of the dinner, as well as keeping is the fire is the business of the men. Pigs are singed; other hairy animals are spitted with the skin and hair on and put to the fire; birds are slightly plucked, and then drawn. The body is spitted on sticks, either whole or in pieces, roasted at the fire or put into the pot with water. If the Indian intends to preserve a part of the flash, it is laid over the fine in muquém, i. e. a kind of wicker-work, and exposed to the heat and smoke, till it becomes as dry as wood. As a particular delicacy, they also roast the entrails, after having draws them over sticks. Salt is not used in their simple cookery. The Indian prefers coast meat, especially when very fresh, to boiled. The tapir, monkeys pigs, armadilloes, pacas, and agoutis are his favourite dishes; but he readily eats coati, deer, birds, turtles and fish, and in case of need, contents himself with serpents, toads, and larvæ of large insects roasted. They generally dine after the chase about four o'clock. The inhabitants of the hut, or any neighoour or individual of the same tribe, who happens to be present, takes part in the meal; every one with-

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out regard to precedency pulls off a piece of the meat, and squats down with it, at a distance from the fire and apart from the rest, either in a corner of the hut, or under a tree. Above all things, they feed their dogs and hens, which they have received from the colonists and greatly value, and then begin to pull off the flesh, lengthwise, to eat it themselves. Their seasoning is generally a berry of the Malaguetta, a variety of the Capsicum frutescens. The wife places the vessel of mandiocca flour near the fire, and each takes a handful of it, which he throws into his mouth with the same dexterity as the colonists. When the meal is over, a member of the family fetches a vessel of water from a neighbouring brook, out of which every one drinks at pleasure. The Indian is fond of rocking himself, or sleeping in his hammock immediately after dinner. Besides dinner he has no regular meal, but eats at times fruit, bananas, water-melons, &c, which he cultivates in the vicinity of the aldea, or often steals from the neighbouring plantations of the colonists. If they have a drinking feast, they begin before sunset to drink the vinhassa, and continue with noisy singing and dancing till towards daybreak, after which they sleep in their nets, half intoxicated, till the morning. He who cultivates most maize and has the greatest store of it, is the host for the inhabitants of the neighbouring aldeas, and at every feast they fix the time and place

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for the following. It is said to have been observed, that the Coroados generally choose Saturday for this festival. It is common, also, to deliberate at these meetings on their quarrels and military expeditions against a neighbouring race, or common hunting parties.

Thus the Indian passes months and years in hunting, war, noisy feasts, and mechanical household employments, in a rude, dull way of life, without being conscious that human nature has any higher vocation. Though he gradually begins to have some kind of intercourse with the masters of the country, he is unacquainted with social virtues. When he is near the colonists be depends more upon their industry than upon his own, and when he is in want, robs their plantations or steals their cattle. The clergy, and the Portuguese, in general, in S. Joâo Baptista, take great pains to propagate Christianity among them; but even the better informed Coroados and Coropos, have hitherto no notion of the essence of Christianity, and at the most, take part in the external ceremonies, and even that not constantly. It is true, that it is nothing uncommon for these people to come to church to be married, or bring their children to be christened; but, they are merely induced by the ceremony, at which they gaze with astonishment, without betraying any emotion of the mind, or reflection. In this they are very different from the negroes, who are very fond

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of imitating the ceremonies and functions of the clergy. This want of civilisation must unhappily be excused by the character of the people who surround them. For the colonists who have settled in the neighbourhood of the Indians, are partly people who are not able to live in the more populous parts, and whom the solitude of the woods serves as a protection from the pursuits of justice. The Indian, who is constantly oppressed by covetousness and self-interest, lives among the colonists only with fear, hatred, and distrust. The civilisation of the Indian hat hitherto been impeded also by the custom of making use of one nation to combat another, as the Coroados, for instance, wore employed against the Puris, and by the cruelty of the military detachments, which extended to the Puris the war of extermination which was permitted by the laws against the Botocudos. However, the humane activity and kind treatment adopted by Captain Marlier, have had a very favourable effect, especially on the Coroados. This nation inhabits the country through which the Rio Xipotó flows, and which is called after them Rio Xipotó dos Coroados, and between the two chains of the Serra da Onça and the Serra de S. Geraldo. Their number is estimated at above two thousand, but many have been carried off of late years by diseases, particularly dysentery. Their enemies, the Puris, who, except a small part living on the

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Rio Pardo and Rio Paraiba, do not yet recognise the dominion of the Portuguese, are more numerous, and may, probably, amount to about four thousand. They inhabit the eastern declivity of the Serra da Onça, and the forests on the north of the Paraiba, and extend their excursions as far as the Rio Doce, where they sometimes engage in quarrels with the cannibal Botocudos dwelling there.

Though we had gained in a short time the confidence of the Coroados, and could reside among them without fear; we began to feel a wish to leave this gloomy abode, where we felt in a manner as if we were surrounded by lunatics. Our collections were already enriched with the natural curiosities of the adjacent country, and by the kindness of the director, we also obtained a skeleton of a Coroado lately killed in battle, and which, as an important article, we most carefully concealed from the superstitious savages. As the directors sometimes send Indians to the more populous places, that the account which they give on their return, may have a favourable effect on their countrymen; the director in the presidio here, proposed that we should take some Indians with us to Villa Rica, as attendants. On the evening of our departure, he therefore brought two young Coroados to our residence, and encouraged them to accompany us by giving them brandy, and by holding out the prospect of returning home with the rank of capi-

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tân, with a handsome dress. It was laughable to see what an impression, a brilliant uniform made upon these simple people. One of them was dressed up in it, with a gold-laced hat, and the looking-glass held before him. Astonished and proud he gazed sometimes on himself, and sometimes on his image, and felt the new coat and the looking-glass on all sides; though he could not explain this magic image, a feeling of complacency and pride seemed to triumph over all his doubts. From this moment his resolution was taken, and he was happy to accompany us. He soon grew used to us, remained with us a great part of the journey, and received from us, for his attachment, the name of Custodio.

On the 17th of April, we left Guidowald; the fear that the Indians would obtain information of the skeleton which we had taken with us, and make a hostile attack upon us, accelerated our resolution and our steps, to return from these dark forests into the cheerful campos. We had already proceeded a good distance from the Presidio de S. Joâo Baptists, when we suddenly met in the thickest part of the wood, a body of thirty or forty Indians, who were marching in single troops, men, women, and children, with bag and baggage, in order, as we learnt in the sequel, to attend a drinking feast, a few leagues to the south. Scarcely had they perceived us when they immediately halted, looked at us irresolutely, and then hid themselves singly behind trees, the men with their

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bows and arrows in their hands. Alarmed at this sudden appearance, we at first feared that an attack was intended; but as they hesitated to attack us, we laid our arms on the ground, and went towards them with friendly countenances, making signs to them, that we had laid down our arms, and would do them no harm. As soon as we got up to the nearest of the first troop, we clapped him on the shoulder, again pointed to our fowling pieces lying at a distance, showed them our plants and animals, and gave them to understand that these were our only occupation, and they might therefore quietly pursue their way.

One of them, who had already seen us at the fazenda of Guidowald, became, on this, more familiar, and appeared to confirm to his comrades, in a few words, the truth of our statement, and so we parted on good terms. We met with another adventure before we reached the Serra de S. Gereldo, or Serra de S. Jozé. In a thick coppice, we passed an Indian hut, from which an old naked woman, who, as Custodio afterwards told us, was his relation, spoke a few words to him. She asked him with concern, whither he was going, and whether he was carried away by force; but when he joyfully answered, that he was going to see the great capitâo, and would soon return himself as capitâo, she smiled, and took leave of him.

After this we rapidly crossed the mountain, and proceeded in the direction of N.W. to the little Arraial de S. Jozé Barboza, where we intended

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to pass the night. On the following day, the road still led through thick forests to Sitio, a considerable sugar manufactory, where they chiefly make loaves of brown sugar (rapadura), which is generally taken in the interior with water. In the little village of Santa Rita we had at length passed through every danger, and could congratulate ourselves on travelling again in pleasant campos, and among more human countenances. Near Oiro Fino, we turned into the road, which we had taken on our journey hither, and, on the 21st of April, returned safely, by way of Mariana, to Villa Rica.

NOTE TO CHAPTER II.

THE first bishopric in Bruit was founded al Bahia in the year 1522, and rained to the rank of an archbishopric in the year 1667. The bishoprics of Rio de Janeiro and Pernambuco, which were founded at a later period, at also those of Angola and S. Thomé, in Africa, were placed under it as suffragans. The bishopric of Maranhâo, from which, under John V., the bishopric of Pará was separated and made independent of it, remained under the anchbishopric of Lisbon, on account of the difficulty of the navigation between Maranhâo and Bahia. In the year 1744 the new bishoprics of Mariana and S. Paulo, and the two extensive prelacies of Goyaz and Matto-grosso, were detached from the diocese of Rio de Janeiro.

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CHAPTER III.

EXCURSIONS IN THE ENVIRONS OF VILLA RICA.

THE Itacolumi is the highest summit of the Serra do Oiro Preto, the southern declivities of which form, with the Morro de Villa Rica, the narrow valley in which the city is situated. To ascend this mountain, we crossed the Ribeirâo do Oiro Preto, at eight o'clock in the morning, and reached the summit at noon. The road leads upwards, through pleasant green slopes, and sometimes through low woods. The level part of the mountain gradually extended, and we were on a wide, gently rising plain, at the back of which is the last summit of the mountain. The slope is covered with campos, and scattered bushes, and here and there the ravines and hollows are occupied by a thick forest of low trees, with very luxuriant foliage. These little woods, which in this part of the country are called Capoés (corrupted from the ward Caapoâo, island, in the Lingua Geral), as it were, wood islands, are a peculiar feature in the scenery of the campos, and for the most part con-

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sist of plants, which are found only in them.* Towards the summit, immense masses of rock, and rifts of the whitish quartz-slate stand out between the grassy spots. A prodigious block is particularly remarkable, which has separated from the summit, and hangs below it rather obliquely, and is plainly seen from Villa Rica.†

About noon we were at the foot of the highest conical summit, which is partly covered with grass and low bushes, and partly showing a bare wall of rock; we left the mules on which we had been able to ride conveniently so far, to graze in the barren campos, and ascended the last part of the mountain. From the summit we enjoyed a grand and extensive prospect over all the surrounding mountain chains, which are commanded by the colossal Itacolumi, the highest mountain of the comarca of Oiro Preto, as the nucleus of a great system of mountains. The steep iron-stone mountain of Itaubira, with its two picos‡, one of which

* To these belong several kinds of the species Laurus, Vochisia. Annona Uvaria, Xylopia, Myrtus, lngs, Weimannia, Styrax. Bauhinia, Coccoloba, Chiococca, Amajovea, Chomelia, Sapium. Gymnanthes, Spixia entwined with Paullinias and Echiles. Botanising is often impossible here, on account of the swampy soil, or dangerous from the resort of large serpents.

† This rock has given rise to the Indian name of Ita (stone), and Columi (little son), as if it were the son of the principal summit.

‡ According to Von Eachwege's measurement, this mountain is 4895 feet above the surface of the sea.

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resembles an enormous tower; the mountain of Coche d'Agoa, those of Lavras Novas, the Serra do Carassa, and many others lay extended at our feet They appeared all of the same character as Itacolumi, namely, as long extending ridges with flat tops, and with verdant summits, here and there steep, without any considerable bare walls of rock.

The sky was cloudy: the barometer, at one o'clock in the afternoon, was at 23, 6.75, the thermometer 16° R.; whereas in Villa Rica the barometer was 25, 2, and the thermometer 22° R.*

At this elevation profound silence and repose reigned all around, uninterrupted by the motion or cry of a bird; even the noisy grasshoppers do not penetrate here with their monotonous notes. A simple modest vegetation enjoys the Alpine coolness of this tract.† The mountain

* According to the simple formula of De Luc, this gives for the top of Itacolumi an elevation of 4618. and for Villa Rica of 2948 Paris feet. Mr. Von Eachwege assigns to Itacolumi a height of 5710 feel English (5355 Paris), and to the palace of Villa Rica, which is certainly much more elevated than our dwelling, 3760 English (3526.88 Paris) feet.

† Of the plants growing on Itacolumi we will mention the following: Barbacenia tricolor, bicolor, tomentosa, luzulæfolia, ensifolia; Vellosia abietina, taxifolia; Psyllocarpua ericoides, laricoides (Mart. Gen. Nov, Bras. pl. 28.), thymbroides, asparagoides; Galium brasiliense; Morinda obtusifolia Declieuxia rubioides, lysimachioides, cordigera, saturejoides, vincoides, nob.; Coccocypsilum pilosum; Oxypetalum foliosum, erectum, strictum; Ditasse mucronata (lb. pl. 31.), retusa, obcordata, linearis; Lisianthus pulcherrimus, inflatus, pendulus nob., fistulosus Lam., cœrulescens Aubl.,; Exacum brachiatum; Phyllanthus erythroxyloides, fastigiatus; Cnemidostachys myrtilloides. glandulosa, salicifolia, linearis, glauca nob., Sauvagesia erecta, L.; Lavradia montana (lb. pl. 23.); Plectanthera floribunda (lb. pl. 26.); Eaterhazia montans, alpestris, campestris; Angelonia lobelioides nob., salicariæfolia Humb.; Gloxinia viridiflora; Gessneria tuberosa nob.; Glautheria odorata Humb., alpina, eriophylla; Gaylussacia acicularis; Vitis Idæa, crenulata, nitida, reticulata. Escalonia bicolor, glandulosa; Vochista elliptica, rotundifolia nob.; Trigonia sericea, Humb.; Abatia tomentosa; Hirtella ciliata nob., glandulosa Spreng.; Lühea paniculata, nob.; Cluaia flava, L.; Ternströmia clusiæfolia, Humb.; Davilla brasiliana, D. C.

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itself consists of white quartz-slate, which is traversed with more or less numerous scales of mica. Towards the centre of the mountain, the rock becomes of a coarser grain. The mica-slate, containing specular iron, and its concomitant, the pure mica, stratified in large tables, form beds in the lower parts of the mountain, which run in the direction from E. to W. in hour 7 of the miner's compass. At the foot of the mountain, for instance, at the gunpowder manufactory, the iron-stone stratum appears, in which there are nests of iron pyrites and crystals of ironglance. Lastly, a brown thin foliated clay-slate forms the solid basis of this mountain. Several rivulets, which flow into the Ribeirâo do Oiro Preto, descend from the ridge of the mountain. In a retired valley there is a spring containing oxyde of iron, which, from its yellow

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colour, united with perfect transparency, has obtained the name of Corrego do Vinho, or wine-spring.

Before we left Europe our attention had been directed to the chromate of lead, which was said to be found in Brazil. On enquiry, we learnt that it was to be met with near Congonhas do Campo. As this fossil has hitherto been observed only here and at Beresof, on the Ural, in Siberia, we considered it important to investigate the manner of its occurrence on the spot. We chose the road by way of Capâo, where we had an opportunity of confirming our previous researches into the formation of the topazes there. From this place we rode westwards over a beautiful hilly tract of campos, richly diversified, but destitute of inhabitants, for we met with only two small fazendas, Laranjal and Pires. Thick beds of mica-slate, containing iron-glance, or the crust of the iron-stone flötz, stand out here as the upper formation, resting on clay or quartz-slate. In the two former there is an extraordinary number of octahedrons of magnetic iron-stone and crystals of iron-pyrites, which are transformed into iron-stone; more recent iron-pyrites, and large tables of ironglance lie scattered on the road. At noon we reached the iron-foundry of De Prata, which is five leagues to the west of Capâo. This establishment, founded by our countryman Von Eschwege, under the auspices of the late governor-general, Conde de Palma, on

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the plan of a society of shareholders, produces annually about a thousand arrobas of forged iron, the greater part of which is manufactured on the spot. The ore is a rich ironglance, but particularly magnetic iron-stone, the very thick beds of which stand out near the foundry.

The director of the manufactory accompanied us on the following day to the mine of Senhor Romualdo Jozé Monteiro de Barros, which was situated a league and a half to the south-south-east, and was the object of our journey. Here we were received by the proprietor, a colonel of the militia, with a liberal hospitality peculiar to the Mineiros. After dinner, he conducted us to his mine, the formation of which is not that of the mica-slate containing ironglance, or that of the tapanhoacanga, but a cream-coloured clay-slate, traversed by auriferous veins of quartz. The principal vein extends from north to south, and is from one to twelve inches thick. The metal is disseminated in the friable quartz, which is covered on its rifts with an earthy coat containing manganese, in such small particles that they frequently cannot be distinguished by the naked eye. The vein is in some places uncommonly rich in this metal. From a piece of quartz of the size of a fist, which was broken off with the hammer, a negro obtained by washing, in our presence, a visible quantity of very fine gold dust, worth a hundred rees. The clay-slate too, which is frequently coated on the rifts

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by black dendritic manganese, contains gold; but in this mine they work only the quartz veins (veas, filoës). To uncover the latter, the owner has had the mountain washed away in many places by means of a strong current of water, and thereby made so many steep ravines in the already soft rock, that be can scarcely continue to work the veins farther, without danger of their falling in. It would have been more advisable to commence a regular work, with adits and shafts lined with planks. The gold obtained here is generally two-and-twenty carats fine.

In the evening we visited the mine called Cujabeira, now abandoned, where the chromate of lead was discovered. It is in a field scarcely a league from the fazenda of Senhor Monteiro, in a low hill of clay, which, on the whole, runs from N.N.W. to S.S.E. We in vain searched among the débris to find a few tolerably large pieces of this scarce fossil, till the colonel conducted us to a small adit which he had just opened. Here we had the pleasure of observing the red lead-ore in a vein of friable greyish white granular quartz, among pretty much disintegrated, white, scaly lithomarge, of the thickness of a few inches to a foot, running from north to south. The quartz, which forms the matrix, is here and there of a lemon colour, and traversed with brown oxyde of iron. The crystals of the chromate of lead are small and very small, and seldom show well-defined terminal planes.

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They form rather oblique four-sided prisms, with sharp beviled ends, and agree in the chief characteristics with the Siberian. The more precise determinations of the crystals, among which there are probably most of the varieties described by Hauy, must be reserved for a future occasion. In the vicinity of the red crystals, there is not unfrequently an earthy coat of yellowish green lead-ore, which we oftener found in reniform pieces on the débris among numerous magnetic iron-stone octahedrons. As the fossil is so very scarce, we thought it would be interesting to collect a great number of specimens, in which we succeeded during our two days' stay, but with much difficulty on account of the crumbly nature of the quartz, and of the scaly lithomarge.

Senhor Monteiro wished very much to take us to Capella de Mattozinhos near Congonhas do Campo, which the Mineiros admire as a masterpiece of architecture; but he at length gave credit to our assurance, that we had seen similar works in Europe, and the following morning at daybreak, led us back into the road to Villa Rica, where we with regret took leave of this hospitable man. We then proceeded to Chapada, which we had already visited on our journey hither from S. Joâo d'El Rey, and hoped to reach our old quarters at Lana, but night overtaking us on the road, we solicited admission at a neighbouring fazenda, where, though the door of the court-yard was

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already shut, and our knocking disturbed the family in their sleep, we were received and treated, because we were strangers, with the most cordial hospitality. On the following day, we crossed the high and steep Serra de Deos te Livre, or da Solidade. The masses of greyish and greenish white mica, which are here incumbent on the quartz-slate, are of very fine texture, and decomposed by the rain and atmosphere into a very fine powder, which, as a high wind just then arose, involved the adjacent country in dust. We travelled at the bottom, of the valley between this mountain and the branches of the Congononhas do Campo, where the iron-stone flötz, or what is called the iron mica-slate appears here and there over the quartz-slate, reached the Morro de Gravier, adorned with grotesque lily trees (Vellosia), and at length returned to Villa Rica.

Some days after this excursion, we set out for the village of Antonio Pereira, which lay five leagues to the north, in order to examine the condition of our mules, most of which had been sent thither to pasture during our stay at Villa Rica, After we had passed the stony ridge of the Morro de Villa Rica, where we saw lily trees and beautifully coloured lisianthus on the road, we passed, a league from the city, over the Rio das Velhas, which is here still an inconsiderable stream, and continuing on the whole in a north-west course, flows by Sahará, and joins, at S. Româo, the Rio de

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S. Francisco. Much gold twenty-two carats fine was formerly obtained by washing the iron-stone flötz on the land belonging to a large fazenda on the road, built in the style of a cloister. In general, the whole Serra de Antonio Pereira agrees in its component parts, and the nature of its strata with the auriferous Morro de Villa Rica; for it likewise consists of white quartz-slate with strata of mica-slate containing ironglance, and a far-spread mantle of stratified red iron-stone.

Among the plants which grow on this mountain*, and seem peculiar to the iron-stone flötz formation, we observed in great abundance the soft grass (Capim mellado†) which is common in Minas Geraës, and is a favourite food of the horses and mules on account of its tenderness, and the oily down which covers it, but makes them short-winded if taken for too great a length of time. The gold mines of Antonio Pereira were very productive a few years ago; thus one Mineiro with a shaft sixty feet deep, gained in two months 24,000 crusadoes; but as the work was undertaken without science or care, the earth suddenly fell in

* Laurus erythropus; Bauhinia (ferruginea; Abatia tomentosa, nob.; Byrsonima nitidissima, Humb.; Banisteria versicolor; Vanillosma firmum; Lisianthus pulcherrimus, Phyllanthus robustus; Mikania glauca, nob., several rhexiæ, palicureæ, and gualteriæ

† Tristegis glutinosa, Nees. (Agrosis glutinosa, Fisch.; Suardia picta, Schrank.)

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and buried fourteen workmen, and the water getting in, made it impossible to work the mine any farther. In the pleasant valley not far from the village, a very compact light grey calcareous stone stands out in large masses, and extends pretty far up the mountain. In this, probably primitive, limestone, which sometimes shows on its rifts a mammillated coating of sulphur, there is a cavern with stalactites, which has been transformed into a Capella de Nossa Senhora da Lapa.*

North-west of Antonio Pereira, Mr. Eschwege has established a small iron-foundry, which is directed by a German overseer. This establishment manufactures the mica-slate containing ironglance, which here forms considerable strata on and in the white quartz-slate, and of which large blocks lie scattered here and there on the surface. It is not unfrequently covered with stratified red iron-stone. The rock is very rich, yielding from sixty to eighty per cent, and this place could supply all Minas with iron; but as many landholders prepare what iron they require for their own use, and there are besides several small furnaces in different parts of the capitania, at times, also, large importations from Rio de Janeiro, the daily produce is limited to one or two arrobas, which are immediately manufactured into hatchets, axes, knife-blades, horseshoes, nails, and pickaxes. The arroba of un-

* See Note 1. page 291.

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wrought iron costs here and in the neighbourhood, 1800 rees. Our friend Von Eschwege, frequently complained of the difficulties of establishing manufactory in this country, and assigned as a chief cause, the aversion of the lower classes to follow any fixed employment.

From the iron-foundry, we went to the Arraial de Bento Rodriguez, lying about two leagues and a half to the N.K. The country is mountainous, and the surface, for the most part covered with the formation of the auriferous stratified iron-stone, announced the industry of the gold-washers by numerous trenches and open mines. We were the more surprised to see in this village, as in many others, but few traces of the comfort of the inhabitants. The houses are ruinous, miserable withinside, and the inhabitants look very wretched. Everything indicates that the prosperity of this district is past, and nothing remains but scattered fragments of its former opulence. The sun had already set, and the darkness of the tropical night enveloped us, when we had to pass a very rough and therefore dangerous ground, to reach the large village of Inficionado, where we proposed staying for the night. We found a great number of the inhabitants assembled under the illuminated images of the Virgin to say their Ave. This custom of the mother country is practised every evening in Brazil with zeal, and an almost theatrical solemnity; the mulattoes, who in general are very

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voluble in their speech, and have good lungs, take upon them the office of the clerk or priest. Inficionado is the birth-place of Father Duraô, author of the poem Caramurú, which celebrates the discovery of Brazil.*

At daybreak the following morning, we left this place, which is gradually impoverished as the mines are neglected, and set out for the Serra do Caraça. We were informed by a stone-merchant, whom we had known at Rio de Janeiro, and who, as we afterwards learnt, was hastening from the diamond district pursued by police officers, that it was advisable to pass the night at the house of the guarda môr, Innocenzio, on the north-western declivity of the mountain, and to ascend it on the following day. The mountains of the Serra do Caraça lay to our left; it extends to the length of nearly three leagues, in the direction of north to south, and towers above all its neighbours with its bold rugged outlines. We went round several of its steep declivities, and at length got sight of the fazenda of the guarda môr, which stands on a projection, resembling at a distance a magnificent fort, and commands all the adjacent country. When we arrived in the spacious court-yard, the master of the house cordially bid us welcome; and, after he had shown us the beautiful prospect

* Curamurú, poema epico do descubrimento da Bahia, composta por Fr. José de S. Rita Duraó. Lisboa, 1781. 8vo.

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of the Arraial de Catas Altas, which lay at our feet, of the Serra de Itaberava, which is rich in amethysts, and of the distant Itambé, conducted us to an entrance-hall, the walls of which were hung with geographical and historical maps. A globe and several books informed us that the owner amused himself with scientific pursuits (the guarda môres are the surveyors and appraisers of the estates, particularly the mines).

There was a solemnity in the manner of our host, a venerable old man, which involuntarily reminded us of the quakers. In fact, he belonged to the sect of the Sebastianistas, who expect the return of King Don Sebastian, who was slain in the battle of Alcazar against the Moors, and with him the most glorious epoch of the Portuguese monarchy. The followers of this sect, who are distinguished by their industry, frugality, and benevolence, are more numerous in Brazil, and particularly in Minas Geraës, than even in the mother country. Senhor Innocenzio, endeavoured to convince us out of a great number of manuscript prophecies, of the approaching happiness of Brazil; we assured him, without, however, hoping the return of Don Sebastian, that Brazil was advancing to the period of its greatest prosperity.

After the frugal meal, the guarda môr conducted us to his lavra, immediately behind his house. This gold mine has been worked for these eighty years, formerly by a great number of

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negroes, but now only by eighty. On the white quartz-slate, which forms the main part of the whole mountain, there is here a thick layer of ferruginous, or iron mica-slate, which is bare to the height of thirty or forty fathoms, resembling steep steel-grey walls. This rock consists of a fine-grained, smoky grey quartz, and steel-grey, small-grained ironglance, which supplies the place of the common mica. It is generally thin, seldom in layers a foot thick, often when the proportion of quartz is considerable, almost crumbling, and coated at the rifts, with yellowish brown iron-ochre; here and there a large foliated massive ironglance, generally undulating, occurs in it. The iron mica-slate runs in hour 22 of the miner's compass, from north to south, and dips in angles of from 50° to 80° to the east. It may contain from 50 to 70 per cent. of iron, according as it is more or less separated from the quartz. We observe transitions into pure ironglance, but still more frequently into quartz-slate, which constitutes the chief formation, and to which it is only subordinate as a thick layer. Towards the summits of the mountain, this formation is covered by the iron-stone flötz, which we have already described at Villa Rica, in which large pieces of quartz are embedded. The greatest and richest pieces of iron-ore, which cannot be broken in the gold-washing, are carried by the negroes on their heads, out of the mine, and piled up at the foot of

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the mountain, near the house, in a high wall, which would be sufficient to employ the greatest smelting house for several years. The gold is of a proper gold-yellow colour, and occurs between the iron mica-slate, in fine grains, which show many single planes of crystallisation, and are sometimes so grown together, that they form long, thin, reed-like rows, touching one another, several inches long. In the stratified iron-stone, and in the quartz, gold is likewise met with, but still more on the rifts of the massive ironglance. In the rainy season, an impetuous stream falls from the upper part of the mountain, into the hindermost ravine, which forms the bed of the iron mica-slate, brings with it the particles of gold separated from the stratified iron-stone on the top of the mountain, and likewise washes the deposit of the crumbling iron mica-slate. Part of it is conducted into a pond below the fazenda, and the precious metal washed out with the bowl. The gold here acquires a very bright yellow colour in smelting, probably from the considerable mixture of manganese, arsenic, and antimony, perhaps, too, of a little platina; at least, our host affirmed that he had already obtained this metal.*

After we had attended a solemn mass, in the beautiful private chapel of the worthy Sebastianista, in the company of his neighbours, he sent a

* See Note 2. page 292.

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mulatto, well-acquainted with the way, to attend us to the Hospicio da Mâi dos Homens, in the upper part of the mountain, and took leave of us with cordial benedictions. The road led up the west side of the mountain, over grassy slopes, interacted by numerous trenches. The landscape gradually became more bare and rugged; numerous plants of singular forms grew on the lonely, rocky path; gloomy wooded hills and ravines alternated with smiling pastures; or dazzling white rocks, and streams rushing between thick enclosures of ferns, Aroideœ, and Orchideœ, invited to repose. At length, proceeding by a narrow path through thick low wood, we came to an elevated valley, closed like an amphitheatre, in which the cheerful building of the Hospicio struck our view. All nature here breathes content, and an inexpressible feeling of tranquillity and calm pleasure fills the mind of the traveller.

We ascended a flight of broad stone steps to the convent, which, even at a distance, seems to announce, through the crown of waving palms which overshadow it, that here is a secure retreat for the unhappy, a peaceful asylum for him who is weary of life. No place on earth is more calculated to disengage the mind from worldly inclinations and cares, than this secluded abode of pious contemplation. The traveller more willingly indulges in the agreeable impressions which the place excites, because they are very rare in a country so thinly

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peopled, and where the arts are in so low a state. The Hospicio de Nossa Senhora Mâi dos Homens stands as the triumph of the persevering piety of a single man, who, in 1771, commenced the building with charitable donations, and, by degrees, adorned the church with paintings, carving, gold, silver, and precious stones. The venerable hermit, a native of Portugal, and above a century old, was still alive. He was much rejoiced at having been visited in this solitude by Europeans. As he was no longer able to direct the assistance of other brethren, none of whom were here at the time, it was confided to an administrator sent by the government. They received us with much cordiality, and we were surprised to find clean beds, table-linen, and other conveniences in abundance. The establishment has already acquired some property by pious donations; eight negro slaves cultivate the land in the vicinity, or attend to the horned cattle which thrive here admirably. The butter made here excels in taste and sweetness that of the Swiss Alps. In the neighbourhood of the convent there are several kinds of European fruit trees, such as cherries, quinces, apples, chestnuts, and olives; but these last, notwithstanding the cool and elevated situation of the places, bear no fruit.

The treasures of this beautiful mountain valley keep the naturalist in a continued transport. The forms of the plants here are incredibly diversified

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and beautiful. The members of the families of the melastoma, the crotons, malpighias, the cornflowers, and thick-stemmed large-flowering lilies are particularly numerous, and characteristic of this and other quartz-slate rocks. In the swampy pastures, and on the grassy margin of a deep pool enclosed by rich-flowering shrubs, there are the strangest forms of hydroctylons, droseras, andromedas, gaultherias, utricularias, sauvagesias, ericaulons, &c. On the first day, we gathered near a hundred kinds of plants before unknown to us; and though mountainous districts are always poor in animals, our collection of the species cerambyx, buprestis, particularly the Buprestis tricolor, semistriatus nob., and humming-birds of the most various kinds, was very ample. In the evening, when returning from our excursions, a new pleasure awaited us, when, from the terrace before the convent, we saw the bright disk of the moon rise above the mountain, or the serene sky gradually illuminated with the constellations of the southern firmament. The call of the vesper bell in the romantically beautiful mountain valley awakened in our souls a mixture of the most soothing sensations, uniting the recollection of our distant country with the enjoyment of the beauties which surrounded us.

We reluctantly quitted this paradise after a stay of two days, and ascended the chief peak of the mountain in order to descend on the east side to Inficionado. This road, too, offered, at every step,

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new objects and new attractions. We proceeded by the side of a transparent stream through a cool side valley enclosed by steep rocks, till we came to an opening between them, and reached an elevated terrace covered with vellosia, which afforded us a last view of the lonely monastery. From this place the road became steeper as we descended, so that we did not think it prudent to remain on our mules. The taller trees and shrubs gradually ceased, and we had to make our way with much difficulty through low bushes. In the white quartz-slate, large spots of which were often bare, we observed narrow veins and fragments of a compact shining quartz, in which kyanite and rhaëticite occur, and here and there casual pieces of common shorl.*

On several parts of the mountain we heard the noise of subterraneous waters, which penetrate between the crevices and clefts of the rock, and at last issue out below, in cool streams. From the top of the mountain, we saw the rocky summit of the Itacolumi in the S. E.; and in the E. and N. E., several low mountain chains, through which the Rio Percicaba and the Rio de S. Barbara flow to join the Rio Doce. On the eastern side, the declivity of the Serra do Caraça is so steep, and the narrow path covered with so many loose fragments of rock, that the descent into the valley is extremely dangerous. We at length happily reached Inficio-

* See Note 3. page 293.

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nado, where our people were impatiently expecting us. Immediately at the foot of the Serra do Caraça (in Cata Preta), we visited several other mines, formerly very rich, in which the metal obtained from the stones by stamping, is remarkable for its grey yellow colour, and when properly smelted, may be purified to the fineness of three-and-twenty carats. The same evening, we set out for the Arraial de Bento Rodriguez, and passed the night in a rancho, where we again enjoyed a prospect of the beautiful Caraças mountain. The rancho was full of Mineiros from Minas Novas, who were going to Rio with cotton, and gave us a very lively image of the wandering caravans. Gold is everywhere found about Bento Rodriguez in red clay, which is incumbent on quartz-slate. As the mode of working these mines did not differ from those we had already seen, we did not delay to take the main road which leads to the city of Mariana, three leagues to the south of Bento Rodriguez, to return to Villa Rica, where we happily arrived on the 28th of April.

Our collections had been considerably augmented since we sent away the cases from Sorocaba, and it was necessary, before we proceeded farther on our journey, to send them to Rio de Janeiro, which was the next coast town. The governor-general, Manoel Conde de Portugal e Castro, who had already had the kindness to countersign our passports for the diamond district, and to give us

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letters of recommendation, acquired fresh claims to our gratitude, by promising to address our collections to the King of Brazil, to be forwarded to his majesty the King of Bavaria. We thus enjoyed the advantage, that our chests would not be subject at the frontier custom-houses to be opened and examined, to the great injury of our collections. It was not without profound emotion that we left this romantic country, and the kind and hospitable inhabitants of Villa Rica, to proceed from the land of gold to that of diamonds.

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NOTES TO CHAPTER III.

MR. VON ESCHWEGE gave the first account of the occurrence of the chromate of lead in Brazil, in Baron Von Moll's Annals of Mining, vol. iii. No. 3. Mr. Zinken gate more particulars respecting it in Eschwege's Account of Portugal and its Colonies. Mr. Eschwege lately mentioned this fossil in his Geognostisches Gemälde von Brasilien. Referring, for the sake of brevity, to the works just mentioned, we add the following observations:—

The numerous specimens lying before us show the chromate of lead of aurora and hyacinth red of different shades. It is generally crystallised, and that in small, and very small, four-sided rather oblique prisms, which, for the most part, are indiscriminately heaped and grown together. This chromate of lead is found on a fine-grained greenish white quartz, to which the oxyde of chromium has not unfrequently imparted a reddish, yellowish, and greenish colour. Next to the crystals of red lead there is an earthy covering of a lemon and orange colour, passing into siskin-green, which appears to have originated in decomposed red lead-ore. Besides this green lead-ore, we found, particularly on the débris of the mine of Cujabeira, a lead-ore in detached pieces, from a quarter to an inch in diameter, botryoidal and small reniform, diverging from siskin into olive green, and sometimes into blackish green. Externally, this fossil is dull, occasionally soils; internally, it is of a faint, but almost metallic lustre. Most of the pieces show curved-

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foliated, distinct concretions, which seldom allow a fresh fracture, which is uneven, and almost imperceptibly flatconchoidal. The colour on them is a mean between the brown and blue lead-ore, but shows a yellow tinge passing into siskin-green.

Some specimens have cellular and small drused cavities, which are filled either with massive or crystallised red lead-ore, of which also massive pieces are found mingled among them. According to the investigation of two chemists it appears that this green lead-ore, exposed with borax to the blow-pipe upon charcoal, gave a sea-green glass; with alkali, a deep yellow salt; and with silver, a crimson deposit. Treated with ammoniac there was a blue solution, from which metallic copper was immediately precipitated on a steel watch-spring. Hence, it appears that this fossil consists of oxyde of lead, and of copper, and of chromic acid, and consequently belongs to that which occurs, together with the red lead-ore, at Beresof, in Siberia, which was first determined by Mr. Hausmann, analysed by Berzelius, and which is now called vauquelinite.

The rock, in which the granular quartz, which contains the crystals of the chromate of lead, forms veins, is a clay-slate which owes its origin to mica. The predominant colour of it, in the pieces now before us, is bluish and yellowish grey, which, however, next to the quartz veins, becomes light grey, nay, almost pure white. It consists of small scales of mica, more or leas adhering to each other, which are soft to the touch, and very friable (resembling the earthy talc). Oxyde of iron and chromium give it, particularly near the veins, a brownish cream and orange yellow. In some places the pearly mica appears in great lustre while the rest of the mass shines only faintly. Compact and loose brown iron-stone, probably originating in pyrites, accompanies the red crystals. As well in the roof as in the base of the quartz veins, the mica scales assume the cha-

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racter of the scaly and earthy lithomarge in which the topazes are round in Capâo and Lana. Though generally white, it is often tinged yellowish and greenish by oxyde of chromium, sometimes it alternates in thin strata with the granular quartz, and approaches the quartz-slate incumbent on this clay-slate. This scaly and earthy lithomarge, together with the friable granular quartz, has given occasion to the notion, that chromate of lead was found in Brazil in soap-stone, in pot-stone, in scaly talc, and in sandstone, and led Mr. Zinken to take the pulverulent coat (earthy lithomarge), which he had remarked, for kaolin. On the whole, we found that the mode of occurring, as well of the red as of the green chromate of lead, at Cujabeira, perfectly coincides with that at Beresof, on the Ural, in Siberia, which grows in quartz veins in the talc rock, mixed with grains of quartz, or, as Pallas expresses himself, on veins of shattered and droned quartz, in a white and yellow brown, soft, rather fibrous* and micaceous clay-rock. The resemblance of the lithomarge of Cujabeira to that of Capâo, in which the topazes are found, appears the more worthy of remark, because Pallas mentions, that topazes are likewise found single and collected, in drused cavities, at Beresof, in Siberia, in the gold veins.

NOTE 1.

At Antonio Pereira, heavy spar likewise occurs, which is of a greyish while colour, in pieces of a fine and coarse grain, is easily separated, very transparent, and, as Mr. Zinken justly observes (in the account of Portugal and its colonies, p. 26.), bears the same relation to the scaly heavy spar as coccolite does to augite.

* In the original, fadenhaft, fibrous or stringy; but I am unacquainted with the mineralogical meaning of the term. Trans.

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NOTE 2.

In the mine of the guarda môr, Innocenzio, on the Serra de Caraça, and particularly in the diamond district, gold crystals are not uncommon, and several were shown to us which may altogether be referred to two original forms. They are either octahedrons, partly perfect, partly blunted at the corners, or at the corners and edges, and partly tetrahedrons, the edges of which sometimes appear truncated. Twin crystals, or similar conjunctions of single crystals, are sometimes observed. In general, gold is found in Brazil of all the colours and forms hitherto known. The first are bright yellow, brass and greyish yellow, in which last the alloy of silver is so considerable, that the gold-dust acquires a brownish tarnish by oxydation. It is affirmed that platina is sometimes mixed with it, but we ourselves could never ascertain it. With respect to the forms, the loose, roundish, or flat grains are the most frequent, but other configurations are also met with. It is washed out of the sand of several rivers, in particles scarcely visible to the naked eye, among which we observed quartz-sand, partly pure, partly mixed with much mica and lime; we have before us some gold-dust said to be from the capitania of Saint Paulo, which contains also magnetic iron-stone, with grains of cinnabar.

The tapanho-acanga, or the iron-stone flötz, subordinate to the quadersandstein formation, is the secondary bed of the gold, in which its abundance in all forms is astonishing; whereas in Europe this iron-stone formation, considered as a whole, and in its separate members, is very extensive, for instance, in the kingdom of Bavaria, as we have already observed, without containing any traces of gold. In the quartz strata, and beds of the clay-slate, and of the quartz and iron mica-slate, the gold is particularly beautiful, dendritically and reticularly knitted, and aggregated in rows.

18

[page] 293

From what is called the black gold formation, in which arsenical pyrites, and iron-stone containing manganese occur, we received, besides other forms of gold, also small crystals in cubes. But the most beautiful form of gold is that in iron mica-slate, particularly in the largefoliated, generally undulated curved, in which pieces weighing several ounces are often found. It cannot but be observed, that in Brazil the gold occurs in such abundance with iron-mica, whereas, for example, at Fichtelberg, in Bavaria, where iron-mica is frequent in quartz, no trace is to be found of it. But in general the crystallisations of gold seem to be more frequent in the primitive than in the flötz mountains (we have not had an opportunity of observing the transition formation).

NOTE 3.

The kyanite and rhaëticite of the Serra do Caraça is generally bluish grey, passing into light azure, but seldom pure, mostly dirty. We found some beautiful rhaeticite in the Morro de Villa Rica, where however it did not appear in veins, but only in solid pieces of compact quartz. It has there a silver and milk-white colour, passing into peach-blossom, a decided mother of pearl lustre, and is long- narrow- and rather curved-radiated. The common shorl, of which we found casual pieces on this mountain, appears in small, middling-sized crystals, growing close to and over one another, and therefore indistinct. As the superficies of these casual pieces is covered with a red clay, we conclude that it belongs to the formation of the tapanho-acanga. Mr. Von Eschwege mentions also an auriferous shorl rock between his iron mica-slate and the quartz-slate.

U 3

[page 294]

[page 295]

SPECIMEN

OF

BRAZILIAN POPULAR SONGS.

No. 1. From S. Paulo.

I.

A caso sāo estes
Os sitios formosos,
Aonde passava
Os annos gostosos?
Sāo estes os prados
Aonde brincava,
Em quanto pastava,
O gordo rebanho,
Que Alceo me deixou?
Sāo estes, &c.
Sāo estes; mas eu,
O mesmo nāo sou,
Marilia, tu chamas?
Espera, que eu vou.

II.

Da quelle penhasco,
Hum rio cahia,
Ao som do susurro,
Que vezes dormia?
Agora nāo cobrem
Espumas, nevadas,
As pedras quebradas;
Parece que o rio,
O curso voltou.
Sāo estes, &c.

[page] 296

III.

Meus versos alegre
Aqui repetia:
O E'co as palavras
Tres vezes dicia.
Se chamo por elle,
Jà nāo me responde;
Parece se esconde,
Cansado de dar-me,
Os aia, que Ihe dou.
Sāo estes etc.

IV.

Aqui hum regato
Corria sereno,
Por margens cobertas
De flores e feno:
A'esquerda se erguia,
Hunt bosque fechado,
E o tempo apressado,
Que nada respeita,
Jà tudo mudou.
Sāo estes etc.

V.

Mas como discorro?
Acaso podia
Jà tudo mudar-se.
No espaço de hum dia?
Existem as fontes,
E os feixos copados;
Dāo flores os prados,
E corre a cascada,
Que nunca seccou,
Sāo estes etc.

[page] 297

VI.

Minha alma, que tinha.
Liberta a vontade,
Agora jà sente
Amor, e saudade.
Os sitios formosos,
Que jà me agradàrāo,
Ah! nâo se mudàrāo;
Mudarāo-se os olhos,
De triste que estou.
Sāo estes etc.

BY GONZAGA.

No. 2. From S. Paulo.

Qual sara o feliz dia
Em que veja satisfeitas
Doces amanteis promesas
Pela minha Ionia.

No. 3. From Minas and Bahia.

Pracer igual ao que eu sinto
No mundo nâo havera
Quando me vejo nos braços
Da minha amante Yayá
O que instantes, Amor nos da,
Meu doce bem, minha Yaya!

No. 4. From Bahia.

Foi-se Jozino e deixou me
Foi-se com elle o pracer
Eu que cantava ao lado
Hoje me sinto morrer,
Amor que pode nâo quer valer,
Nâo ha remedio se nâo morrer.

[page] 298

No. 5. From S. Paulo.

I.

Escuta formoza Marcia
Tristes ais do teu pastor,
Sâo ais qu'a dar-lhe ensinou
O Tiranño Deos Amor.

II.

Eu nem suspirar sabia,
Antes de te conhecer,
Mas depois qu'vi teus olhos,
Sei suspirar, sei morrer.

No. 6. From Minas and Goyaz.

Huma Mulata bonita
Nâo careça rezar
Basta o mimo que tem
Para sua alma salvar
Mulata se eu podia
Formar altar,
N'elle te collocarià.
Para o povo te adorar.

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

LONDON:
Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode,
New-Street-Square.