THE LIBRARY OF
BROWN UNIVERSITY

THE CHURCH
COLLECTION
The Bequest of
Colonel George Earl Church
1835-1910

THE

HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

TilE

PAULO AFFONSO, KING OF THE RAPIDS, THE NIAGARA OF BRAZIL.

THE

HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL
By captain EICHAED

F.

BURTON

F.R.G.S., ETC.

Krazil is usually represented by a Tupy Woman.

VOL

11.

LOXDOX
TINSLEY BROTHERS,

18,

CATHERINE STREET, STRAND.
1869.

[All Rights of Translation

and Rcyrodudwii reserved.']

EXPLORATIONS
OF THE

HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL;
WITH

A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE GOLD AND
DIAMOND MINES.
ALSO,

CANOEING DOWN 1500 MILES OF THE GREAT RIVER SAO FRANCISCO,

FROM SABARA TO THE SEA.

BY

CAPTAIN RICHAED
F.R.G.S.,

F.

BURTON,

ETC.

VOL. IL

LONDON:
TINSLEY BROTHERS, 18, CATHERINE

ST.,

STRAND.

1869.
[All Rights of TrcmskUion

and McproductioH reserved.']

».

LONDON

:

BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WUITKFRIARS.

a(p 5 2.

i<

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER.
I.

PAGE

— SABARA TO SA2sTA LUSIA

1

.

—Adieux. — The Raft, and what
"

Departure.
Eliza.

—The

is

in

it.

—The

*
'

Brig

State of the River.

— SAXTA LUSIA TO JAGUARA

II.

11

— Hospitable Receptions.

Macahubas of the Nims.

—AT JAGUARA

III.

23

—

—

Rides about the Place.
The Vegetation. Excui-sion to Lagoa Santa.
Dr. Lund.
M. Fom-reau.
What the Word "Cachoeii-a" means.

»

—

IV.

—TO CASA BR^iXCA AXD THE CACHOEIRA DA ON9A
The Countiy House.
Ugly Rapids.

—

V.

—

.

.

—TO THE FAZEXDA DO DOM SUCCESSO
The Coroa,

38

— The Country Gentleman. —Visit to Jequitiba.

—Preparations

or Sand-bar.

56
to Visit Diamantina.

— The

Pleasures of Solitude.

VI.

—TO THE CIDADE DIAMANTIXA

72

Parauna River and Village
the Caboclos. — The Windy Rivulet. —
The SeiTra da Contagem. — Comjilete change
Country and Vege—Camillinho Vegetation. —Gouvea. —Dona Chiquinha.
Solar Eclipse. — Bandeirinha. —
of

of

tation.

'Arrival.

VII.

—AT DIAMAXTIXA

—
—The Diamond

City described.

94

.

Society.

— Populaiity

of the English in the Brazil.

in the Brazil, its discovery, &c.

— Value

of exported

Diamonds.
VIII.

—TO THE DIAMOND DIGGINGS OF THE SOUTHERN RIO DAS
PEDRAS, ALIAS THE JEQUITINHONHA

.

.

.

.

—The
— Sao Gongalo the Good
—
Machinery.
Servigo Mine described. — Expenses. —Want
—The " Lomba Mine.— The Maravilha
Plunder.— Dr.

The Ride.

Quaint Stones.

of

Girls.

of

Dajn-ell.

Mountain.

— Return to Diamantina.

"

109

CONTENTS.

vi

CHAPTER
IX.

PAGE

— THE DIAIHOND MINE AT SAO JOAO

125

—

"Le Sport. " —Different
The Brant Family.— " Duro."— Ride out.
Reach the Arraial of Sao Joao do Descoberto. ^Kinds of Deer.
Rapid Feeding. The Duro Mine.
The Barro Mine. Engage
"
Menino," the new Paddle.

—
—

X.

—

—

— NOTES ON THE DIAMOND

135

—

Diamantine Lands in the Brazil, where found.
Prospecting for
Diamonds. Concession to work,
Perfection of the Diamond.
Debated origin of the Stone. —Refraction, Tests, &c.
Where

—

—

—

—

—

Diamond grounds.- Diamond "Formagoa," 6r Stones
formed.
that accompany the Gem.
Note from M. Damour.
Shape of
Its colour.
Diamond.
Its laws.
Its weights and price.
About
" Boart." Celebrated Brazilian stones.

—

XI.

—

—

—

—

—

—FROM BOM SUCCESSO TO THE COROA DO GALLO
—

—

.

.

—

.

155

The Saco or Porto das Burriuhos. Independence Day. The Cachoeira do Picao. "
The Lajja dos Urubus. The Burity Palm.

—

—

'

'

Silent Birds.

XII.

—FROM THE COROA DO GALLO TO THE ILHA GRANDE

.

169

—

The delightful
''Cachoeira da Escaramuga " {No. 10, and final).
The Howling Montemj)erature.
Vennin.
Eclipse of the Moon.
The
keys howl, and other signs of an approaching rainy season.
Gulls, and noisy birds.
Serpents.
Jacare, or Brazilian crocodile.
Last night on the Rio das Velhas.

—

—

—

—

—

XIII.

—

—

— TO AND AT GUAICUHY

185

— The great " Meeting the Waters.
—The "
Guaicuhy described, the Manga and the
—The Serrinha and
Vi€w. — The good "Delegate
Leandro Hermeto

Landing.

Jiggers."-

of

Villa.

of Police, Sr.

its

da Silva.

XIV.

—TO THE RAPIDS OF THE PIRAPORA
What '*Pirapora " means.

199

—The name " Sao Francisco " explained.

—A new crew. —The Pirapora examined. — Diamonds." — The Storm"
yawl. — The
and the "
horse -boat
— The
wanted. —The Barqueiro,
Waterman the Rio de Sao Francisco.
—His
improvisation, and
Bull's eye. "

barca, or

or

of

poetry, his

XV.

his suj)erstitions.

—THE RIO DE SAO FRANCISCO

214

—Direction. — Length. —Magnitude. — Geology. — Glazed
—Iron Deposits. — Wealth
Valley. — The River considered
connection with
and
—
communication. — The
the Brazil
as a
Deplorable neglect
water communication. — Rivers versus
Railways. — The Rio das Velhas
the Upper Sao Fran—Estimates clearing the Rio das Velhas, by M.
Estimates
clearing the Rio da Sao Francisco by M. Half
Estimates
M. de
Martiniere. — The author's own estimates.

The system of the stream.

—

Its source.

rocks.

of

colonization,

in

line of

rivers of

generally.

of

jireferable to

for

cisco.

Liais.

for
of

eld.

la

Steam navigation on the Rio das Velhas begun by M. H. Dumont.
Steam navigation on the Rio de Sao Francisco by the councillor
Creation of new province on the
Manoel Pinto de Souza Dantas.
Sao Francisco River.
Genei'al view of the great line of communi-

—

cation.

XVI.

—

— Its benefits to the Empire.

— FROM GUAICUHY TO SAO ROMAO

237

—

—

—

Game. The Otter.
Aspects of the River.
Estrema Village.
The Cashew showers. Reach Sao Romao. Its history. Giant
fig-trees.
Actual state of the Town.
A Good Time coming.

—

—

—

—

—

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
XVII.

Vll

PAGE

— FROM

Sa:o

ROMAO TO JANUARIA

251

—

—

Steam-boat Islands.
The Uracuia River. The village As Pedras dos
Angicos.
Quixaba-trees.— The Ria Pardo.
Approach to the City
Vegetation at Village of N» S^ da Conceigao das
of Januaria.
Reach the Porto do Brejo do Salgardo.
Pedras de Marin das Cruz.

—

—

—The present
Danger

—

—

— history and present
—
—
—
—

city of Januaria.

Its

state.

—

swept away.
Reception.
Petty Larceny.
Civility of Sr. Manoel Caetano de Soiiza Silva.
Tlie Peqnizeiro.
Missionaries and Missioners.
"VTalk to the Brejo do Salgado.
Romantic legend of the people's descent.
Its actual state.
of

being

—

XVIII.

—FROM JANUARIA TO CARUNHANHA
The

2G9

— Remains

—
—
—
—

of the Red-skins.
The Hamlet and
N= S^ Da Concei9ao dos MoiTinhos. Decay and
The Manga do Amaclor settlement. The song of the
Desolation.
birds.
The Rio Verde, a Salt Stream. Tlie Carnnhanha River.
The Malhada settlement and its receivership. Lieut. Loureiro.
Visit the Villa of Carunhanha.
Don Rodrigues. Vile Night.
vile weather.

large church of

—

—

—

—

XIX.

—

—

—FROM CARUNHANHA TO SEXHOR BOM JESUS DA LAPA

.

283

A Gooseless Michaelmas. —The Liigar da Cachoeira. —The Parateca
Stream, and the disputed "Rio Ramalho. — Diamantine
out.— The Conde da Ponte. —The
—The Alligator now
Assassin Gruimaraes. — The Mountain
the Holy Cave
—The Holy Cave. —The stout-hearted
—The
Rev.
"

Deposits.

killed

of

Village.

Francisco de Freitas Soueiro.
" Catastrophist.

XX.

— The

described.
Vicar,
" Uniformitai-ian " envies the

—FROM SENHOR BOM JESUS DA LAPA TO THE ARRAIAL DO
BOM JARDIM

294

The Rio do Corrente.— The Settlement " Sitio do Mato."— The
" Bull's Eye " and Stonn. Visit to the Villa de Urubti. Urubii
will not be a Capital.

—
—
— We resume work. — Complete Change of

—

Climate and Aspect of Country.
The Settlement "Estrema."
Reach Bom Jardim. Its Rivulet and fine Diamantation. True
Itacolumite. —Bom Jardim a good Site for a City.

—

XXI.

—

—FROM THE ARRAIAL DO BOM JARDIM TO THE VILLA DA
BARRA (do RIO GRANDE)
The Carnahuba, or Wax-^Dalm.

—

308

Vintens offered to Santo Antonio.
The gull-fair.
First sight of the Arassua Range.
Big Cranes.
The Toca, or Cave of Saint Anthony. The thorns. —The villages

—

—

—

—

—

—

The leathei'-coat bird and the chameleon. Approach to the Villa de Barra do Rio Grande, a proposed capital.
The Rio Grande an important influent. The Villa described,
of the Para.

—

XXII.

—

—

THE VILLA DA BARRA (DO RIO GRANDE) TO
THE VILLA OF PILIO ARCADO

FRO:\r

— Complicated approach to Chique-Chique. — The
settlement described. — The Xique-Xique cactus. — Good mutton.
— Hire animals to
the Diamond Diggings. — The old fi'eedman.
of CarnaThe Trees and Birds. — Breeding fazendas. — The
—The servigo or diamondhuba palms. —Lakes. — Ascent of
digging " do Pintorshino. " — The Village of Santo Ignacio. — Origin
Chiqueof the Diggings, and other peculiarities. — Return-ride

The sand-dunes.

visit

gi-ove

hills.

—

Chique.
Resume navigation.
Pilao Arcado.

—The portals.— The

to

storms.

— Reach

324

CONTENTS.

viii

CHAPTEB
XXIII.

— FROM THE EX-VILLA DO PILAO ARCADO TO THE VILLA
DE SENTO SE

PAGE

342

—Ruined by private wars. — Great iron
— Bad apiaroach the Villa do Eemanso.
— The Town described. — Resume work. — The great
bend
the Rio de Sao Francisco — The Tucum
— Limestone. — An
iron
— The Minhocao
the Serrote do Tombador. —
monster worm. — The willows. — Reach the
Sento

Pilao Arcado described.

mations.

— Storms

for-

again.

to

easterly

of

jxalm.

Shells.

hill,

to"v\Ti

XXIV.

of

Se.

— FROM THE VILLA DE SENTO SE TO THE CACHOEIRA DO
SOBRADINHO AND THE VILLA DO JOAZEIRO

.

.

.

355

— Indolence of
— The Porto. —The women.
— Long delays by winds.'— Pretty Country. — Village near the Ilha
de Santa Anna. — We attack the Cachoeira do Sobradinho, the
break after 720 miles. — Our Life on the River. — Precautions

Sento S6 described.

first

for health.

XXV.

peoi)le.

— Reach the

Villa do Joazeiro.

— AT THE VILLA DO JOAZEIRO

3G9

—

The Villa has a great name undeservedly. The Villa described.
The lands about it. Present prices of articles. The vine.
Colonel Santo Se and the steamer " Presidente Dantas. "—Visited
the Ilha do Fogo.
The railways from Pernambuco and Bahia to

—

Joazeiro.

—
— Railways a failure in the

commvmication.

—

^

— Neglect water
—The Bahian Steam Navigation Comjjany and a
Brazil.

of

lateral tramway past the Rapids the true system for ex^jloiting the

Sao Francisco.

XXVI.

— FROM THE VILLA DO JOAZEIRO TO THE VILLA DA BOA
VISTA

380

General remarks on this travessia, the garden of the Sao Francisco.
The "two brothers. "—The Cachoeira Jenipapo. The Villa da
Boa Morte, anciently Capim Grosso. — Its origin. Its scanty civility. —Resume work.
Pretty approach to the Villa da Boa Vista.
The Canal proposed. Also another canal. Arrive at the Villa.
The commandant superior. Recruiting of the Conservatives.
Origin of the Villa. — Its present state described. — Engaged a new
crew, the pilot Manoel Cj^mano and the paddle "Captain Soft,"
Made new paddles for the Rapids.

—

—

—

—
—

XXVII.

—

—

—

—

— FROM THE VILLA DO BOA VISTA TO VARZEA REDONDA 393
The Rapids and the Smooths.

XXVIII.

— TO THE GREAT RAPIDS

432

— Dismissal

Varzea Redonda described.
relief.

— The muleteers

of

crew and consequent
Great Rapid of the
Pernambuco.
of

—

Itaparica.

XXIX.

— PAULO AFFONSO, KING OF THE RAPIDS

APPENDIX

.

.

.

443
459

/

THE

HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.
CHAPTER

I.

SABARA TO SAXTA LUSfA.
DEPARTURE,

— ADIEUX,— THE RAFT,
WHAT IS IN
—THE " BRIG ELIZA."
— THE STATE OF THE RIVER.

"j\Iessieurs les delicats

fajon ?

AJSTD

.

.

.

IT.

voulez-vous vous embarquer pour vivre de telle

Comme ie ne vous conseille pas."

Wednesday, ^zt^ 265^ 7, 1867.

Jean de Lerij.

—WewaU^ecl clown

to the Porto da

Ponte Grande,* where the ajojo or raft la}^
I never saw such
an okl Noah's Ai'k, with its standing aT\Tiing, a floating gipsy
*'X)al," some seven feet high and twenty-two long, and pitched
like a tent upon two hollowed logs.
The river must indeed be
safe, if this article can get down without accident.

All the notables of the place witnessed the process of embarka-

Miss Dundas broke the bottle with all possible gi^ace uj^on
my craft the " Brig Eliza," and two
Many " vivas "
pair of slippers were duly thrown at my head.
were given and returned, and all embarked for a trial-trip shall
tion.

the bows, and christened

—

I call it, -^T-tli the Royal Geographical Society, a " tentative expedition "

—of a couple of miles. When the

fifteen souls came on

board, they sunk the article some three palms, and deluged the

port platform, makmg the heachnan, or pilot, "Manoel de Assump-

Qao Vieira," very nervous

—abeady he began

to predict swamping,

''going down in a jiffey," and being dashed to pieces by the rapids.

We shot past the Pedra Grande, a quartzose rock in mid stream;
* The upper landing-place at the Ponte Pequena Quarter is called '' Porto do Gall ego,"
from a stream and an old gold washing hard by it.
VOL. II.
B

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

2

the

[chap.

i.

Camara has threatened for years to remove this obstacle

imfortunately no one here can fire a charge under water.
At the little " chnrch village" of Santo Antonio da

Roga

Grande, the animals were waiting to carry home the non-voyagers,

my wife —who was incapacitated for accompanjing me by a bad
fall

and a serious sprain

hearted escort stood
tains

—included. My hospitable and warm-

—as the setting sun sank behind the moun-

—and watched the

raft turn the last corner,

and float off into

What made me think of the Nile
story told by Mr. Curzon, of the white man paddled by dark

the far mj^sterious unknown.

Amazons adorned with barbaric gold, down the streams imfrequented by the traveller ?

I confess

to having felt an unusual

sense of loneliness as the kindly faces faded in the distance,
and, by way of " distraction," I applied my bram to the careful

examination of my conversance.

The ajojo, or, as it is called in other places, the " balsa," here
represents the

flat

boat of the Mississippi, and of the Arkansas

" chicken thieves," in the days when, according to Mr. Nolte,

men spent a month between the mouth of the Ohio and New
On the Rio das Velhas, howOrleans, and then walked back.
have become an institution, and I
am the only traveller who has yet passed down from Sahara to the

ever, it cannot yet be said to

Rapids of Paulo Afl'onso. As explorers, frontier-men, and other
"pioneers of civilization " will have to use it upon the still unknown
branches of many a stream, including the Amazons River, a
detailed description of the craft may not be without use.

The usual ajojo* is a bundle of two or three canoes, in the
The best materials
latter case the longest occupying the centre.
and light Tamboril Vinhatico, and " Cedro," or
Brazilian cedar, about one inch thick; mine were of " Peroba,t
nearly two inches deep, and consequently too heavy. We drew
two palms, approaching a foot and a half (seventeen inches) even
without cargo. There is sometimes a helm, always fixed to the
are the strong

longer or the longest boat

;

if

not, the pilot poles or paddles,

standing or sitting in the stern.

The canoes should be lashed

together by hide ropes, with an interval of six to eight inches,
not connected as mine were by iron bars joining them at both
* Or ajotijo.
In Portuguese, as in
most of the Latin languages, the circumflex
often denotes crasis, or contraction by the
omission of a letter whose sound is or is

not retained,

f A fine hard wood, formerly reserved
hy government for ship-building,

CHAP.

SABARA TO SANTA LUSIA.

I.]

3

and thus destroying all elasticity. Bound or
squared poles fastened by leather thongs to the gunwales, support
the ''soalho," or platform, which should fit tight to the sides,
stem and

stern,

otherwise the craft, when ''broaching to," may be water-logged.

This boarding of ten planks, laid horizontally, projects laterally
into coxias, trampways eight to ten mclies wide, where the men
work.*

My canoes, thirtj^-three feet four inches long, and when

joined, six feet broad, formed a solid foundation for the

standmg
was made fast by five
wooden stanchions, of which the two pair fore and the one aft,
were supported, besides being nailed, by strong iron knees, or
The tent was of rough Minas cotton, protected in the
stays.
forepart, where I slej)t, by wax-cloth from Morro Yelho
and it
was a Idnd of " pal," to throw off the ram. Facing the head,
and in the coolest place, was a tall deal writing-desk, which
rivalled the awning in catching the wind.
Behind tliis, on each
side, stood a Gii'ao,"|* or boarded bunk, for sofa and bed, raised
Amidships was the table, a locked box of
on four uprights.
provisions flanked by two stools (tamburetes). In the stern stood
the galley, a similar bench, but lined with bricks, and around it the
batterie de cuisine, ii'on kettles and pots, cups and goblets, of
awning, a somewhat risky comfort.

It

;

com-se not forgetting the invaluable frying pan.t

Two large jars

of porous earth (talhas or igacabas),§ carried the su^^ply of water,
* When the Ajojo carries merchandise,
the platform is reduced to the gangway.
Coxia also means a stall, a corridor in a
hospital, a passage in a warehouse, &c.
according to the
'h The Grirao or Jirao,
T. D. is properly a hut on piles, used as a
Sr. J. de Alencar uses it as the
granary.
"horse," or small gallows-shaped frame of
In the south it is
the Jangada-raft.
Generally in the Brazil,
called "Noque."
Girao is applied to various rude pieces of
furniture, shelves of wood or hide, a frame
work for smoking or sun-drying meat, and
so forth.

jerked meat
provisions were
4! The
(Came seca), in Pernambuco called Carne

de Ceara, in other places Came do Sertao
and Carne do Sol, when simply cut in
strips, hung in the air and sun dried, fine
coriaceous matter for pulling at with the
teeth.
Lard (Toucinho) is never wanting
and rice and beans can
in these parts
The men also received
generally be found.
a dram of rum (Cacha9a) every evening.
For my own stores I had a box -ndth a
it contained white salt and sugar
lock
;

:

—

the brown can be found everyT/here mustard and black pepper
here they cannot
be bought, while cayenne grows vrud.
I
also had tea
it is no iise to carry coffee.
The good Mr. Gordon had supplied me
with excellent salt beef in rounds, with
tongues and with bread, to relieve the
monotony of the Brazilian rusk; also, in
case of sickness, with a bottle of Cognac
and another of gin, which might take the
Finally, a few tins of
place of Pinga.
beef, sardines, and potted meats, for a
"treat," were stored in the table-box.
]Mr. James Smyth, of !Morro Yelho, gave
me a few valuable boxes of excellent Havanahs, which were highly appreciated by
my hosts. In Brazilian travel cigai-s are
soon exhausted, and it is the ciistom to pass
round the case.
generally
§ Ygacaba is a Tupy word,
The first letter had
used in these parts.
amongst the savages a dubious sound be;

—

tween

"i" (or "y") and "u."

Hence

the Portuguese wi-ote it in various ways, as
" ira " or "ora," honey, and una for yg,
una, a dark stream.

B 2

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

4

[chap.

i.

which was renewed every night, and allowed to stand for a day.
The President of Sao Paulo advised me not to drink liquid from
the stream, hut all on board did so, and so did I.

INIr.

Gordon

had taken care to provide the raft with a stout boat-hook, with
an anchor in the bows, a standing wonder to the riverines, who
had never heard of Anacharsis the Scythian, and with strong
English ropes for *' cordelling"*

—these are of the greatest con-

sequence when swinging round the rapids.

The crew numbers three,! old Vieira and his sons, who are
Two stand in the
to receive, besides food, 5 $000 per day.|
bows with poles, which they prefer, as being easier to use than
paddles.
The former, called varas, and when large, varegoes, are
stout elastic cuttings of the supple Peroba or Parahybuna wood,
They are
fifteen to twenty feet long, by two inches in diameter.
shod with iron (ferrao), and, when not, the ends must be sharpened
before shooting a rapid.
The points are of various lands, the
" Ponta de diamante " is a long pyramid, with a ring band the
;

" Pe de Cabra " is cloven-footed, and the " Gongo " has, in addition,

by whilst the Forquilha, which rarely
comes into use, is a hooked pole, that arrests the course by catcha boat-hook to hold on

ing trees.

The paddles

;

(remos), used in deeper waters, are

and vary in shape every few hundred miles here
they are straight and flattened spatulse. The next set will have
handles four feet long, ending in a blunt lozenge one foot broad
its rowlock will be a lashing of hide rove through a hole in the
gunwale. This article has no leverage. At the junction of the
two streams I found fine elastic paddles of the veined and yellow
They were
taipoca wood, which not a little resembled our ash.
six feet in length, and broadest at the lower end, which was
rounded so as to present a clean sm-face when used as a pole
against bank or tree, or ended with trimmed beams of a heavy
Cactus, which sinks in water like lead, and which is capable of
doing very hard work.
The men were mere land-lubbers, quite unlike those of the S.
artless articles,

;

They feel, or afiect to feel, nervous at every obstacle.
They have been rowing all theii' lives, and yet they know not how

Francisco.

* Locally called

'VSirga."

+ For the up trip six men are necessary,
and the work of one day down stream takes
three.

t I carried Brazilian bank-notes, taking

tliey were new and of small
between 10 $000 and 1$000 besides these, a small bag of coppers and of
silver pieces for especial occasions, was in
store.
Total, 1:500 $000.

care

that

values,

:

—
CHAP.

SABARA to SANTA LUSIA.

I.]

5

to back water ; curious to say, this is everywhere the case

down
They pull with all their might for a few minutes, when
the river is rapid, so as to incui^ all possible risk
and, when the
almost
lie
upon
dead, they
then- oars and lazily allow
water is
stream.

;

themselves to be floated down.

Thus, during the working day,

between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., very little way is made.
They have
no system, nor will they learn any it is needless to suggest
placing rollers under the canoes or stamping upon the platform
when we ground; they never saw such things done, and they
don't care to see them.
All have the appetites of Abyssinians,
and suck sugar-cane like their '' Indian " ancestry they might
;

;

take for motto,

Au boire je prens grant plaisir,

A viande frieiclie et nouvelle:
Quand a table me voy servir
Lion esprit se reiiouvelle.

They are energetic only in performing upon the cow-horn, the
bozina de chifre, derived from the ancient savages;* with this

they announce

arrival, salute those

on the banks, and generally

enjoy the noise.

My sole attendant is a Morro Velho boy, named " Agostinho,"
lent to

me by Mr. Gordon.

He knows something of the river, of

gold washing, of diamond digging, and of rough cookery.

Despite

occasional attacks of dipsomania, he proved very useful, and at

Rio de Janeiro he was returned into store vdih all the honours.
*'
Negra," the mastiff, -v^ild eyed as an ounce, becomes very
She
savage when tied up, and barks as if under a waggon tilt.
is the terror of those who see her for the first time, and she will
prove useful

—in these parts

all

men travel with fierce dogs.

I

have two passengers on board.

One is a certam Antonio Casi-

* The Tupys called it "Mamia," and
formed it of two pieces of wood joined togeFerreira,
ther with thread and resins.

the Upper Amazons the horn is made of two
pieces of thin hollowed wood, joined togegether by a lashing of twine and coated
they are blunderbuss-shaped,
with wax
four feet long, with a red mouth-piece, and
The Indians use
a deep mellow sound.
them to fiighten away the monsters of
the deep, and, like Africans, to show
by their noise that they come as friends.
My men also enjoy the use of the " banduiTa," or small viola, a wire-guitar, and
the Marimbao, a Jew's, or rather Jaw's
harp the name is distinctly Portuguese
Angolan,

the last century, says of these
played in the forepart of the canoes whilst travelling in the
interior, they serve to summon the Indians
before starting from the places where the
According to
embarcations are moored. "
Prince Max. (ii. 179), the Botucudos (whom
he will call '' Botocoudys,") termed it
coimtchoun-cocann, and made it out of the
tail of the great armadillo (Dasypus gigas,
Cuv. ).
The more civilized Coroados used
horns to call one another in the forest. On
WT.'iting in

rude trumpets that,

'

'

:

:

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

6

[chap.

i.

miro Pinto, popularly called '' Onga ;" by profession a fogueteiro,
he asked for brandy at once, and the pilot,
or rocket-maker
;

pointing to

liis

fiery face, exclaimed,

*'

Cliupa muito," lie sucks

monkey) much. We presently landed at a breeding estate,
where his son, the capataz,* or overseer, looks after some 2000
The other was a Southemer-mimigTant, Mr. Hock this
head.
old pilgrim-father had brought with him a party of twenty souls,
''
Sprat " of
all had been spiiited away by the indefatigable
Sahara, and lilie Rachel, he declines to be just now comHis present idea is to make a railway on condition of
forted.
receiving alternate sections of sixty square miles, or thirty on
both sides of the line. In the United States, where the contrac(tlie

;

.

tors were satisfied with gi'ants ten times less, the world predicted

theu' ruin ; but the new lots attracted settlers, and paid remark-

would willingly see this sj^stem adopted in the
Empire, which now suffers from paying seven per cent, interest
upon vast sums extravagantly laid out. Mr. Hock accompanied
ably well.

I

me as far as Jaguar a.
river line is officially twenty

Between Sahara and Jaguara the

between forty-four
and seventy-seven metres, and the average! slope 0™*4135 per
This distance, about -|-th of the whole length, was
kilometre.
leagues, 1,118,490

the breadth

metres,

is

000 $ 000, and this figure will be useful
The stream is deeply encased
in estimating the total requii'ed.
the reaches are short, and we seem to run at the bluffs, where
partially cleared out for 6

:

high ribs come down to the bed, and cut the bottom into very
small bends.

As usual in the smaller Brazilian rivers, there is

hardly any breadth of valley in places it is a mere ledge, hardly
The banks,!
to be called " dale " or ''level" at the hill-foot.
;

often perpendicular, are of gravel, sand, or dark puggy clay, and

The
between October and January they are deeply flooded.
pilots speak of 16 to 20 i^alms rise, and of small baj^ous, more often
The
flood-lagoons than filtration-lagoons, formed in the flats.
* Formerly called Amo or Vaqueiro

;

lie

receives a certain projiortion of the stock

and has complete command over
the " Campeiros " or "M090S," who are
mostly youngsters.
+ Of course the current greatly varies,
and in some jdaces the water is almost still.
According to M. Liais, the river at Sabara
stands in the dry season 695 metres above
sea-level, and at the confluence it is 432 "3
as pay,

The distance between the two
metres.
places is 666,080 metres, or 361*28 miles,
or 120 '43 geograj^hical leagues, and thus
'3941 per kilomethe general declivity is
The slope of the Upper Sao Francisco,
between the Paraopeba River and the Rapids
tre.

of Pirapora averages 0""'4890.

J Here called Barrancos or Barreiras do
the classical Ribas or Ribeiras not

rio,

being used.

CHAP.

SABARA TO SANTA LUSIA.

I.]

7

bottom is of coarse pebbles and finer arenaceous matter, mthont
mud, except where deposited by influents at this season there
are many shoal-islets or sand-bars, and bed-islets in mid stream.
We find a few rivers but no " Cachoeii'as," or rapids, properly
so called. The most troublesome featiu'e is the shallow (raseii'a) ;*
at places where the bed broadens we ground with unpleasant
regularity, and om- crew has to tumble in.
This part abounds in
snags, locally called ^' tocos," meaimig tree trunks; the "saw^^er"
is unknown, but there are galheu'os (pronomiced gayj-eros), trees
Sometimes they appear
with upright and projecting branches.
;

like poles, placed to stake the channel.

The tortuous bed, never

showing a mile ahead, prevents anything like waves, though the
wind is in our teeth, and it will long contmue so. "NMiere there
is much depth, the water boils upt and spreads out, sometimes
the effect of a floor uneven with pit holes, and of the mid stream
flowing faster than the surface or the bottom, where it is retarded
by friction.
At this time we see the worst of the Old Squaws' River. The
*'
Solde Augusto" is proverbially bad, especial^ between two and
four P.M.
Heavy morning mists enforce idleness, and will last
till the openmg of the wet season, in September to October.
There is a minimum of water and a maximum of contrary wind,
sometimes, but rarely, chopping round to the south, and blow-

when the regular current ceases this is
case during the rains. I
On the other hand it is the

ing with strong flows

not the
*'

;

Moon of Flowers;" the

is miknown

poor second growth

— virgin

—teems with the Flor de Quaresma, with

its

forest

bunches

of purple beauty, and the hill tops are feathered bj^ the tall Licorim and the Guariroba palms.

After about tliree hoiu's we passed the Pedi-a do Moinho, the

onty really bad shoal, made worse by rocks on the left hand the
first sight of human habitation was a little farm near the Lagoa da
;

Fazenda do Barao (de Sahara), a flood-fed pool. Opposite it, on
a narrow step of poor ground, was the baronial manor-house with
* j\I. Liais proposes to narrow the stream
artificially, between Sahara and Ro^a Grrande

especially.

But we came

do'WTi

easily in

the worst month, dra^^-ing, when loaded, at
least 20 inches.
" 'Sta fervendo," the men exclaim.
+
This must not be confounded with our
popular term "boiling water," that is,

when the wind

forces the waves one way
and the tide checks them the other, thus
making them lose their run, rise, dance,
and bubble into points,
t Dnring the rains there is least wind,
and it does not always accompany even
thunder and lightning,

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

8

a queer green portico,

lil^e

[chap.

Mtoni, near Zanzibar City.

i.

Then

came sundry breeding fazendas and Retiros,* which sell fat and
good jerked meat for 3$000 to 3$ 500 per 321bs. The cattle,
numerous but degenerate, stand in the water or bask upon the
sunny sand, and the horses gathering upon the grassy hill sides,
In rare places there are patches
stare snorting at our awning.
(canaviaes) t of stunted sugar-cane.

Near the house of Jose Correa, where the river forks to east
and west, inclosing a hilly island, we found the " Barque JaguShe was loaded with the enormous secular logs for Morro
ara."
Velho. This large flat craft, 105 feet long by 24 feet broad, and
24 inches in depth (pontal), built of the hard Vinhatico and
Canella woods, with ribs of Pau d'Arco, and iron-plated bottom,
The weight is 32,000 lbs., of which
is triangular fore and aft.
Unloaded she draws four inches, and
the greatest part is metal.
increases one inch per four tons

;

she carries seventy-two tons

down the channel, twenty-two inches deep, betw^een Macahubas
and Jaguara, and she makes Sahara in twelve daj^s from the
two or three. Evidently a steam-tug
will be a success here, without expending much money upon the
latter place, retm^ning in

river bed.

" You'll never reach Trahiras " cried the people on board the
barque, deriding the " Eliza." And indeed we seemed likely to
!

waste much time.

However, if we crept on slowly, it was surely,
and the Morro da Cruz of Sahara, which early in the day was a tall
bluff to the west, presently gave us a parting look from the southAs evening approached the weather waxed cool and
south-west.
clear, and the excessive

ness ;

evaporation gave the idea of great dry-

my books curled up, it was hardly possible to write, and it

reminded me of the Persian Gulf, where water-colom^s cannot be
The
used because the moisture is absorbed from the brush.
a tall ridge about a
first view of Santa Lusia was very pleasing
mile from the stream, was capped with two double -towered
churches, divided by fine large whitewashed houses and rich
;

vegetation, with palms straggling down to the water.

* The E-etiro (dim. Retirozinlio) here
means a small breeding estate, where the
absentee landlord establishes a capataz.
f The desinences " -al " and "-edo,"
(jjlural "-aes" and "-edos,"as Clival or
Olivedo, coiTespond in Portuguese with the

and the Tupy " -tyba " or
"-tuba," e.g. Indaia-tyba, a place where
the Indaid palm abounds Uba-tuba, a site
It must
whero the Uba reed is plentiful.
not be confounded with -xiba, or -uva, a
Latin -etum,

;

tree.

—

—

CHAP.

sabaeA to SAXTA LUSIA.

'

I.]

-

9

I landed at the '' Porto

de Praia de Vicente Eico," above the
bridge, and ascended a hill lined by hovels, with torn calico for

wmdow glass

;

the path showed remnants of a slippery grass-grown

The " Hotel," kept in the Paia Du^eita by a "Doctor "

Calcada.

Joaqiiim de Silva Torres, had broken

back, and attendance

its

might be defined as the power of clapping hands and ejaculatmg
" Pst " ad libitum. On the other hand, the bill was a mere
trifle.

A walk up town led to two churches, the Ptosario and the
Matriz, the latter with

its

I left my two letters

steps in ruins.

of introduction, and heard no

more of them for some time

recipients, of course, could not call before the next noon.

—the
The

Baroneza de Santa Lusia, who has a large house in the main
street, with a front all windows, was an mvalid
the venerable
lady is the widow of Sr. Manoel Pdbeu'o Yianna, who founded the
" S. Joao de Deus de Santa Lusia," a hospital for sick paupers.
He died before the work was finished, and his relict masiiificently dowered it with a house, fm'niture, and £'3000.
The gold diggings which built Santa Lusia were of two kinds,
Cascalho and " Om'o de Barba," Gold of the Beard. The river
floods deposited particles upon the bank, the sods were cut* and
the grass was shaved off to be panned, hence the pictm-esque
:

popular term.

Hard ''Marumbe"

iron

stone

still

abounds.

The Mimicipality, which in 1864 contained 22,980 inhabitants,
1915 voters, and 48 electors, might be rich with an improved
system of agriculture.
The land supplies sugar in quantities,
a little coffee and "mantimento," rice and manioc, beans and
millet,

the Eicinus plant, whose oil

is chiefly used for lamps,
sweet potatoes (Convolvulus edulis),f and the Cara-tuber, together

* After

catching

the

deposit

of

two

in

a

by preference, large deep
whose proportions the root is

light soil

yeai-s the sods are sliced off one finger thick,

holes,

and 2 to 3 inches deep are taken up after five
Lower do-mi stream I saw the
cakes heaped on the bank.
t ]VI. Renaidt, who has made an especial
study of the Cara and the Convolvulus

supposed to fit itself
these are filled
with dried grass to support the cuttings,
which are covered up ^dth a little earth.
The root is cooked like the potato, and
is eaten with or without sugar or sweet
meats
its flour enters into cakes and
puddings
1. The ordinaiy Card (D.
sativa) produces a spheroidal tuber, at times attaining
the weight of 30 lbs.
2. The Cara de dedos, or palmatcd (D.
Dodecaneura), resembles in shape a man's
hand.

years* rest.

edalis, has obliged me with the following
information
The Caras belong to the family of the
Dioscoreacere, created from that of the
Asparaginte, and the genus Dioscorea bul:

bifera.

There are six known species, of which

except No. 6, have a fecula superior to
that of the potato.
The cultivator opeu.g,
all,

to

;

;

:

—

"

'

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

10

with small timber; while the river

[chap.

exceedingly rich in

is

1.

fish,

which finds its way to Morro Vellio. To judge from the streets,
prostitution is the most thriving trade
but all assured me that
it was outdone by Cruvello, a city further north, and ten leagues
to the west of the main artery.
Both of these are '* churchtowns," visited by the planters on Sundays and holidays.
The little Arraial became on July 8, 1842, the site of the acting
Presidency and here on August 20 of the same year, ended the
revolutionary movement.
The intrusive President kindly disappeared at night, and the then good genius of the Conservative
party. General Barao (now Marquez) de Caxias attacked the
insurgents.
The fight raged around the bridge, beginning with
early morning
the field was still doubtful at 3 p.m., when the
;

;

:

8th Battalion of Regulars

occupied the highest point of the

and put the enemy to hopeless flight. The chiefs, Srs.
Ottoni, Jose Pedro, Padre Brito, Joaquim Gualberto and others,
were made prisoners of state, and since that day, to them disastrous, the Ultra-Liberals have ever been called ''Lusias."*
St. Lucy or Luiz, I may remind jou, is the patroness
of
the bhnd, and generally holds in her hand an eye apparently
village,

gouged.
3.

Cara Cobra (D. hyperfolia), supposed

to resemble a serpent.
4.

Cara Mimoso

triloba);

(D.

its

small

roots produce a fine fecula.
5. Cara Tinga (D. alba) grows wild in the

Capoeirasof Minas, and is the least esteemed.
The spheroidal root is a little bigger than
an ostrich's egg, the skin is white, and
covered with small asperities, and boiling

water softens it but little it is cooked
under ashes, and is eaten when a quill can
be thrust into it.
6. Cara do Ar (D. Peperifolia).
This
species also produces climbers, sometimes
12 to 13 feet long, and as many as 40 fruits,
weighing 1 lb. in shape a rhomboidal tetra;

the potato, and it would save much surface
by demanding very little ground.
There is also a "Cara do Mato," the
tuberculous roots of a wild Cara much
eaten by the Indians.
The Caras, like the true yams and the
sweet potato, have often been confounded
with the Topinambours (vol. i. chap. 8^*,
because all are tuberous roots, and were
imported from America.
The sweet potato belongs to the family
Convolvulacese, and to the genus Convolvulus
edulis.
Of this j^lant there are four well-

known species
1.

:

Convolvulus edulis.

2.

C. tuberosus.

die after fruiting,

3.

C. esculentus.

and I'eappear next year. This tuber is reproduced from the frviit, and yields within
the first twelve months
whereas the other
five kinds are propagated by cuttings of the
stalk, to which are attached some of the
fibrous roots of the climber.
This Cara do
Ar has no maladies nor enemies, and it
would be a boon to Europe. It requires

4.

C. varius (Martins).

,

hedi'on.

The climbers

;

once planted it lasts for many
can be crowded without injury,
and it wants only a somewhat tall support.
A single stem yields ten times more than
little care,

seasons,

it

" Lusia " was opposed to Saquarema,
which some travellers call "Sagoarema.
It is a village and a water on the seaboard
near Rio de Janeiro, and being the headquarters of the "old Tory" party, esj^ecially the families of Torres (Itaborahy) and
Soares de Souza (Uruguay), it became a
noted name.
The term " Cascudo," somewhat similar, is taken from the Rio Cascudo, between Minas and S. Paulo.
*

' *

'

CHAPTER IT.
SANTA LUSIA TO JAGUARA.
MACAH^BAS OF THE NUNS. — HOSPITABLE EECEPTIONS.
Que se a abundancia a industria se combina
Cessando a inercia, que mil lucres tolhe,
Houvera no algodao, que alii se topa
Roupa com que vestir-se toda a Europa.
{Caramuru, 7, 48.)

—

The morning was delicious, and the face of natui*e
was calm as if it could show no other expression. The swordlike rays of the sun, radiating from the unseen centre before it
arose in its sj)lendour, soon dispersed the thin mists that slept
tranquil upon the cool river-bed.
We shot the Ponte Grande
de Santa Lusia, leading through Lagoa Santa, distant three
leagues, to Cruvello and the "backwoods."
It was the usual
August 8

:

long crooked

affair,

with twelve trusses or trestles in the water

and many outside, showing that the floods are here extensive
an older erection has disappeared. The gu'ders are rarely raised
high enough, and an exceptional inmidation sweeps them away,
leaving bare poles bristling in the bed, and dangerous piles under
water.
These must be removed before the stream can be safely
:

navigated.

About two miles below Santa Lusia the water becomes deeper,
and the country changes. The right or eastern side is rough
and hilly, with heights hugging the bed. Near the other bank
the land is more level, and the soil shows a better complexion,
On the uplands,
b}^ which both sugar-cane and timber profit.
extending to ten miles, the superficial formation is of four kinds.

The

best

is

the

rich

ferruginous

chocolate-brown

alluvium,

based upon a mountain limestone, blue streaked with pm-e snowy
lines ;

the

second

calcareous matter.

is

the

The

red

soft

soil

underlaid

by the same

black alluvial loam,

considered

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

12

[chap.

ii.

A 1 in the Mississippi Valley, is here the third; and the worst
is

the white sun-scorched ground without

are saltpetre caves, and the produce

is

ii'on.

On hoth sides

prepared at the mouths

by a simple process which we shall presently see.

I heard vague

reports of salt- diggings, which probably refer to the Salinas about
the Paracatu River described by old travellers.

After the first hour we reached the Fazenda da Carreira
Compridar * of the Fonseca family it supplies provisions and
:

Restilo or rum.

The lands extend far up the

hills,

and the

"Engenho " or sugar house is on a ledge near the stream, which
It was working when we sped by, and
loops to the south-east.

me

the music reminded

Sindh, Egj-pt, Arabia
gestion of the Past

pleasantly of certain water-wheels

in

—in these lands of the Future any sug-

is

a god- send.

Establishments with water-

I)ower motors pay 40 $000 per annum, those driven by bullocks
half that sum, and upon the produce of both there is, when
entering towns, an octroi of 0$320 per barrel of thirty bottles.
It will be better for the people when circumstances admit of a

much heavier taxation.
This part of the river shows many contrivances for exploiting
a far more valuable industr}^, the vast shoals of fish which haunt

The usual weir (Gamboa or Curral, not Camboa

the waters.

accompanied by the Jequi or Jiqui, a conical
crate of wild cane, bound with cipos two feet long, and attached
The Grozeira is a system of thin poles,
to stakes (estacadas).
apart,
and connected by Uianas, to which
planted five to six feet

and Coral)

is

hooks and lines are fastened. The Chiqueii'o or hog-stye is a
tall roofless closet of cane, some two feet in diameter, and affixed
it has a perpendicular trap- door, which falls when
to the bank
Another self-acting machine, a
the fish pulls at a corn-cob.
favourite because a trouble-saver, is the " Linha douradeira,"
a hollow bamboo with cotton line, hook, and earth-worm
(minhoca).
The Girao is a perch on four piles, often planted
at the head of a sand bank, and the man who exerts himself upon
He will, howit with his cana or rod must be hungry indeed.
ever, find a single take sufficient for the day and its appetite,
and the rest of the twenty-three hours and fifty-five minutes may
:

* "Of the long quarry;" it is said that
white lime is here found.
I shall mention
only the principal Fazendas which struck my

attention
Liais.

;

a complete

list

is

given by M.

;

CHAP.

SANTA LUSIA TO JAGUAR A.

II.]

13

be expended in doing nothing. I can liardly persuade niy crew
to throw a hand-line overboard when we anchor
the pretence is
;

that the}^ have brought no hoe for digging out earthworms.

But

they can catch half-a-dozen sprat-lilve "piabas " or ''piaus "* by

heaving up a calabash full of water, and by throwing it upon the
bank; or they can shoot a bird or rob a nest, which will do
equally well for bait.

A fish-gullet best fits the hook, and will

but they do not approve of this " new-fan oied
Salt is here wanting, but sunshine is not, and two
fashion."
days will extract all moisture from the fish-meat when cut thin
not come

off,

and hung

m the an*.

potted with \TLQegar

For long journe^^s these can be fried and
and spices. The flavom' is preserved by

game when quite fresh from the water; it can be
"warmed up" when wanted; fish-soup is invaluable, but it re-

frying the

many ingredients for a traveller to succeed in making
As a rule the people reject the scaly fish, because
it enjoyable.
quires too

they say the spines are dangerous.

Those who visit these streams should be provided with fishinotackle, with the largest fresh-water hooks, and with the stoutest
running gear, or the '' cats," sometimes weigliing upwards of a
hundred pomids, will sm^prise them. On the other hand guns
are useless.

The crew generally carry theii' shooting irons, the

locks guarded as in Africa by a sheath of monkey's skin ; but
little game appears upon the banks ; it was confined to a water-

hog, a smgie small deer, doves, and at rare intervals, a few
Penelopes. Wild fowl, especially ducks (Marecas, called by the

aborigmes Jerere or lerere), were sometimes seen, and cranes
were heard screammg from the bayous within the River Valley

much marsh-walking
and nothing else to do. In the Brazil those streams which, like
the Tiete and the Paranapanema of the Sao Paulo Province
ignore the white man, even the squatter, and can be reached only
after a week of much travellmg from the coast, afford magnificent
not so those where the gun is well known.
sport
Sportsmen
to get at these places, however, reqrdres

;

* The Piaii is a small fish, which has
given its name to the vast Province of
Gardner mentions the Piau
Piauhy.
branco, one of the Salmonidte, one to two
It is taken
feet long, wdth large scales.
with the hook, and is held to be good eating.
On the Rio das Velhas the bait is a bola of
manioc flour. By night the Piau used to

jump into the tender canoe the light slate;

back and white belly reminded
my companion of the " silverside. " "We
heard of the Piau certia, a large species
some white, others dark, and of the Piau
de Capim, a sea-fish which feeds on
coloiu-ed

grass,

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

14

[chap.

ii.

do well to bear tliis in mind; tapii's,
ounces, and anacondas are still found near the sea-board, but they

visiting the Brazil

will

are exceedingly wild

and troublesome

to

seek out, whilst the

climate is bad and the walking is detestable.
Another hour carried us to the Port and Fazendaof the Capitao

Frederico Dolabella, w^iere we sighted the first cotton-plantation,
and right well it looked. It is mostly herbaceous, the seed having
lately been introduced; but still lingers the Brazilian ''kidney-

This, after some years, becomes a tree fifteen feet high,
and thick as a man's leg, with large luxuriant foliage, red yellow
cotton."

blossoms, and bearing a strong medium-staple lint, that covers
This is the " Gossypium
moderate-sized and naked black seeds.

—

arboreum," of which travellers in this Empire speak the more
exact limit the term to the ''purple-blossomed, green-seeded,

There is a mine of
neolected wealth in cotton and fish, and the more we see of it
The hills were clothed with thin
the richer we shall find it.
short- staiDled, small cotton tree of India."*

brown-gTey grass, looking, in places, as if they were frosty with
hoar, and they were profusely tasseUed with noble Macahubas or
Coqueii'o palms.

The snags and "branchers" were bad as those of yesterday,
lost an hour by grounding at the Volta dos Pinhoes, a
" broad " and a bend in the river. Then we ran at the " Penedo,"

and we

mass of bare stone, protruding from the trees
a little below it
w^hich straggled over it from base to summit
a pile of wood
the
two
was another hill, all forest, and between
On the right was the Rio Vermellio, a
aAvaited the " barque."
a tall fronting

;

stream coming from the Arraial da Lapa, east of Sahara,
and allowing unloaded canoes to ascend it for a league, f Presently another bend showed certain white lines between the

little

river fringe of trees, and a hill fronting west; this was the "Ma"
of the Friaresses.

cahubas das Freiras

—

" or gap in the clay bank, here
Before making fast to a " porto
from Lagoa
called a Port, I gave a passage across to a traveller
Santa. He wore a cow-skin hat, shaped lilve the Petasos of
* So says Major R. Trevo'r Clarke.
the cotton has more lint than usual
lbs will give 500 lbs. of cleaned

;

Here
1200
fibre,

Alabama 1500 would be reThe people usually replant the

whereas in

quired.
shrub in its fourth year.
t Thus all my informants.

it

metres.

_
_

M.

"Rio de Macahubas," and makes
a stream of some consequence, with a
contingent of 20 metres per second, which
makes the Rio das Velhas of " great importance," and gives it a debit of 62
calls it

Liais

CHAP.

SANTA LUSIA TO JAGUAR A.

II.]

Mercury, a wliite shirt streaked mtli indigo
lingering

15

—an old

st^de still

—a paletot of Minas cotton, and deer-skin riding-boots

built to reach the thighs, but falling below the calf as if he stood

in his carpet bags.

heaps, by a

An impm^e path, winding past cascalho-

and through offals of pig-sties, leads to
of the Recolhimento or Recluse House.
On both

dii'ty i)ond,

the high site

and attached to, the church, are long double-storied
wings of whitewashed j)ise, based upon the usual fine blue limestone, and all the windows are jealously latticed and barred.
To the left is the Vicar's house, and at a lower level rise clay
and thatch huts, inhabited by slaves and jDorkers, fowls and
sides of,

All appears exceedingly foul, but the

turkej^s.

people declare

that with godliness, but without cleanUness, they live to a great
age.

As there was no Yenda we went to the Tropeu'o's Ranch, and
surlilj^ received b}" the housekeeper.
This chattel of the
" Recolhimento " was making pots, of course without wheel,

were
out

of a grey, iron-coloured

before we declared our names.

she refused to give coffee

clay ;

Such is the

effect

of a single

party of highly Protestant emigTants visiting so highly Catholic

my card and letter to the Rev. Padre
Lana, whose first cousin had been so kind to me at Itacolumi
I at once sent

a place.

of Ouro Preto.
at once called

This amiable Mineiro, educated

at the Caraca,

upon us, ordered dinner, and carried us off to see

the Hons.

The "Madre Regente," or Reverend Mother, rather a pretty
person, received us at the door, kissed the Padre's hand, and

way to

and gold with
which
had nothing
frescoed ceiling.
We visited the dormitories,
new, and from the windows we could see the inner square, which
may not be visited without an order from the Bishop and his
The galleries are long the rooms, large and aiiy,
coadjutors.
reminded me, in their rougimess of mihewed beams, of a Goanese
led the

the

little

college-chapel, white

;

establishment which I desciibed nearly a score of years ago.
The lecture " sala " showed a black board for '' c^^ihering,"

some old maps, and creditable specimens of caligraphy, emThe Infirmary contained one
broidery, and artificial flowers.
The thii'ty-six reverend women
sister and four invalid girls.
are dressed in white veils, and petticoats with black scapulars in
front, and over all a blue capa or cloak.

The twenty-five edu-

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

16

"

;

[chap.

ii.

candas or pupils f(3llowed giggling in the steps of Galatea, concorning whom it is written,
Et f ugit ad salices, sed se cupit ante videri.

The grounds consist of six acres walled in, and producing an
abundance of well-watered "green meat;" here, however, the

brown scummy river, ugly to look at but tasteless, is generally
used

;

indeed, below Jaguara the people prefer

The

Corregos.

it td^

that of the

vegetables, especially the salad, are excellent

the vine, which at Sahara as at Barbacena bears fruit twice a
year, is a failure.

For the

tune in the Brazil I saw the

fii'st

the
palm (Cocos butjTacea) not wholly neglected
fruit-pulp makes good tallow for lamps, and the kernel gives a
medicmal oil;* besides which the "cabbage" is by no means

Coqueu'o

;

despicable.

We then visited the church N^ S^ da Conceigao, and found
the Santissimo exposed and the nuns singing behind the grated
choir-cage, which, as usual, fronts the Seat of Honour or

High

Altar.
At the " Speak-House," where a grille allowed us to
address the unseen inmates, and where an upright barrel with

a stave or two knocked out, pivots in and out their

wants,

we were allowed

to take the Livro

das

Entradas

begins with an interesting paper dated July 18, 173-.
collating

with the

it

Claustro

Franciscano

humble
;

it

After

(Frei Apollinario,

Lisboa Occidental, mdccxl.), and lastly with the Relatorio of the
Vice-Director General, the Chantre Jose Ribeiro Bhering (Ouro
Preto,

1852), I compiled the following account of the oldest

religious house in Minas.

About 1710 two brothers, Manoel and Felis da Costa Soares,
" godly men and of a goodly house " in those days the " vulgar "

—

colonist would hardly have dared to be better than his neighbours

— came here from Pernambuco, in search of lands, bringing
and a widowed daughter. On August 12, 1714,
they began to build a secular house, which "had no meum and
tuum." This " Convento Vellio " lay south of the present site,
and its rums still show in the thin palmetum. Felis met on
sisters, nieces,

*

St.

Hil.

(I.

ii.

378),

says that this

palm tree is very remarkable.
Car, s'il
existe nne foule de s^mences oleagineuses,
* '

I'olivier

ar))ro

est,

dont

a
le

ma connaissance,
p^ricarpe ait ete

le

seul

signale

comme foxirnissant de I'liiiile."
Yet he miist often have seen the Elteis
gninecnsis, the Dende of the Brazil, and
perhaps he had eaten " j)alm- oil -chop.
jiisqu'ici

SAXTA LUSIA TO JAGUAllA.

cH.i.r. IT.]

17

the banks of the Rio das Yellias a hermit, habited in a garb then
strange to liim, but which he presently found to be that of " N""

S^ da Conceicao

—

Monte Alegre

de

;

" the recluse mysteriously

—

was a vision and
the laic, being unmarried, resumed the garb minus only the hat.
Thus arose in the " Sitio de Mocaubas," the first convent of
the Eecolhidas, dedicated to the " Immaculate Mother of God."
The " Seraphic Order," then in lusty youth, came to its aid,
and soon raised for it by alms 60,000 crusados, say £60,000 of
disappeared

perhaps, said Padre Lana,

it

—

this our day.

The
Mother

Sister

—a

Catharina de Jesus became the

first

Reverend

fact about wliich there is some confusion in the Livro

das Entradas

—and died in 1717. She was followed by Felis on

Oct. 11, 1737.

The

old convent sufi'ered from a torrent,

and

completed Dec. 25, 1745. D. Fr.
Manoel da Cruz made it a branch Third Order of St. Francis,
and it became a Mosteiro on Sept. 23, 1789. According to the
" Relatorio," a rule was given to it bj^ Padre Antonio Affonso de
the

present building was

Moraes Torres, Superior of the Caraca.*
The Recolhimento receives nothing from the Government, but,
as ^ill appear, much land has been left to it
it lives by agriculture and cattle breeding, and it no longer works the once rich
muring estate. Of late years the revenues have been simplified
by conversion into Government Bonds. Its object is to give
the ''usual instruction required by the mother of a family," and
in 1851 a sister and a pupil w^ere sent to learn, from the Soem"s
of Marianna, a better system of instruction and house manage;

ment. The h}^oercritical declare it to be a kmd of ''bush "-school,
and the confessor had never heard of the Bull Unigenitus. The
name of Professor Agassiz, who had been repeatedl}^ quoted by

Empke, was utterly unknown to him. How
of men ignore, we may ask, such persons as

every journal in the

many millions

Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon, the great Triad, the mighty

Avatars of humanity ?

Padre Lana accompanied us to the Venda, where we sat down
to a long conversation.
Here we found a weak old woman,
* Even until very lately, throughout the
Brazil pious women have collected together
in houses, and have cohabited for devotional
purposes.
priests,

The

foreign

ultra-montane

who are here flocking like eagles to
VOL.

ir.

the battle-field, reprehended the harmless

and often beneficial practice, and forced
upon these sisterhoods the "rules" of
Europe, which are often nothing else but a
mere system of old Asiatic asceticism.
C

"

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

18

who had worked at the Moito Vellio mine
but will not
treated

^'
:

—the

[chap.

sisters will let,

asked her how
— " I Inever
said the poor
catched
she had been

sell their slaves.

nunca

apanhei "

tj.

it "

We bade an unwilling adieu to the excellent

nanny-goat voice.

pajdng him a " visita de
Medico," in the Brazil not so complimentary as our ''angels'
visits."
Mr. Hock, who complained that he had been stiffly
treated by a former vicar, that found him to be a ''herege,"
asked me, with Aj'-merican gravity, if I really thought that the

who complained

Padre,

''

I was

that

sisters " were chaste ; it is curious to see

how these men, so

jealous of their countrywomen's honour, find " libertinism " ever}^-

" What a sad

where.

(triste) race they seem to be," quoth
Padre Lana on his side, as he looked at the old man champing
in melancholy silence, behind his thin drawn-down lips, a huge

quid.

The moon and stars were unusually bright, and the night was
and cool. Before dawn in the next morning
I was aroused by the moan of the dove and the small piping of
the Saracura commonly called the Saracula (Mr. Bates Serracura, Gallinula Cayennensis)
crane, that useful enemy of cockdelightfully clear

—

roaches

—

the cry of the Siriema or serpent bird, wdiich resembles
the whining of pups, and the gabbling of bubbly-jocks mingled
;

Land and water were obscured by a thick white fog,*
but the Eliza was not a Ehine steamer to be stopped by it. The
curiously.

pilots

consider

it

a sign of a

still

day, and presently it lifted,

showing a wondrously high vault, stretched with cirrus in long
curved brushes, f
Friday, August 9.

—AVe

out at 7 a.m., and presently ran

set

down to '' Coqueiros," a fine site for a house, a dwarf level at
the mouth of a gap between two hills, one grass}^ the other
feathered and forested with palms.
influent appears in reaches

To-day the effect of a large

somewdiat longer, there

is

less

of

dead drift-wood lining the banks, and the bed now begins to
show "Bemansos," still places in deep pools. We grounded
but three times, and only once our men were obliged to '' tumble
in."
The stream is admirably embanked, the bottoms are more
extensive, while the lands, higher and drier, are of superior
* Pqnilarly known as NeLIina or Novoega; tins latter is probably an imported word,
otten applied to a dark place where

the sun

" Catas Altas de Noroega.
f Generally known as Rabo de Grallo—

is little seen, e. g.

cock's tail.

CHAP. II.]

SAXTA LUSIA TO JAGUARA.

19

Women washing upon the margin no
we disembarked, and some asked with
The negroes
a scream if we were makmg a " planta " (map).
were loading corn-cobs upon carts "s\ith plank floors, fenced
round the top with square wattles fom' feet high sometimes this
woven work sloped backwards from a high front, like the
There is a scarcelj^ perclassical biga and the car of triumph.
ceptible rapid called "das Alprecatas," * near the mouth of the
Upper Pdbeii'ao de Taquarussu, whose jxllow and shallow waters
head some eight leagues away. Near this place are settled a Mr.
and Mrs. John Wood, whom I failed to find.
Near the Taquarussu influent the bed, which has formed a
quality and less desert.

longer ran away unless

;

neck, narrows, leaving a broad sandbank to the west

;

this in-

creases the swiftness of the stream from two to four knots,! and

the sharp tmm and shallow water make the boatmen rejoice when

they have passed it.

Huge blocks of stratified sandstone (lapa)

are tilted up at a shallow angle towards the river, forming giooni}'

caverns, recesses and natural piers, wliich continue till near the
ruinous " Fazenda do Mandim " of the Mandim or Snorter,

—

t

The last time that I heard the song of the fish was in the port of
S. Paulo de Loanda.

Then the hills fall, and the low cultivable sides are those of
an English water, whilst Campo-ground appears in the distance
ahead.

Fields of the liveliest colour, tellmg the richness of the

sugar-cane, contrast with the darker gTeens and wintry browns

;

the Uba § or arrow-reed, with lanceolate fan-shaped leaves and
whitish flowers, here grows twenty feet high, and forms impene*

The Alparcatas or Alpargdtas sandals.

Liais calls the large sand-bar above
f
the Taquarassn " Proa-Grrande, " doubtless a
jVI.

misprint for Coroa-Grrande.
X The Mandim (M. Liais -writes Mandin),
called Roncador or Snorter, from its gninting noise, especially in the hot afternoons
before rain, was kno-^ii to the Tupys as
Mandue or ?.[andube. Some of the pilots
declare that the noise is produced by friction of the head upon the canoe bottom. It
is one of the Sihuidfe, and resembles the
Mississippi "cat."
The usual length is
from 18 inches to 2 feet, the yellow-brown
skin,

with dark round spots,

is

scaleless,

the long barbacels give it the Anglo-American name, and the three dorsal fins are
dangerous.
It keeps near the bottom,
bites voraciously, and, as it has few bones,

the white meat is tolerable eating, at least
There are many
the otters find it so.

Mandim-assu M. Amarello M.
M. Capadelho M. Esquentado,
&c., and M. Halfeld remarks (Rel. 215)
varieties

Armado

:

;

;

;

;

that "all these qualities are diminishing."
"Roncador" is the name given to several
fish, especially on the south of the Villa da
Yittoria. (Prince ]\Iax. ii. 157.)
§ Grynerium parvifolium, Mart. , Yuba,
orArundo sagittaria(because the Indians used

and Saccharum Uba of St.
who (III. i. 18) says that Luccock is
wrong to write "Uva." Yet Uva. is pre-

it) of the System,

Hil.,

ferred

by old authors. In S. Paulo it is
from the Tupy iiy'ba, an arrow,

called Uba,

The ^lineiros know it as " canna brava,
wild sugar-cane,

c 2

'
'

or

"

"

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

20

[chai-.

ii.

This Calamus seems ahnost independent of
climate, and enjoys the coast-levels as well as the Highlands of
the Brazil. Another narrow, where the drift-sticks hanging to
trable thickets.

mark a flood rise of at least fourteen feet, leads to the
Lapa de Stalactite."
first of the curious formations called
Here the limestone rocks on the left were hung in front with

the trees

*'

long tongue-shaped lappets of thin stone, which have a strange
effect.

The next interesting point is the Ponte de Dona Ignacia.
Since M. Liais wrote, the tall weed-grown bridge has opened a
central gap of 30 feet, and people cross by the normal ferry, an
" ajojo " of four canoes, with railed platform, worked by a chain

and pulley.

Opposite the large white Fazenda and distiller}^, now

belonging to

Lieut. -Col. Luiz Nogueira Barbosa da Silva, was

steamer that appeared upon these waters, or
indeed upon any of the island lines of the Brazil. M. William

wrecked the

first

Kopke,* who came out as interpreter to the Cocaes Gold Mining
Company, and who obtained a concession to navigate by steam
the Rio de Sao Francisco, had the energy and enterprise to build
her at Sahara in 1833-4. Like Captain Fitzgerald, of Larkhana
who, by-the-b3^e, blew himself up M. Kopke was
in Sindh
obliged to make the greater part of his own engine, and sometimes to use wood where metal was wanted. The experiment was
the steamer here went down
so far successful, but no farther

—

—

—

''snagged."

On the right bank, a little below this place, is an Olho de Agua,
or pool, which they say communicates by a " sinker," t with a lake

on the other side of the river. Bits of wood have been thrown in
of course these
and have been recognized on re-appearance
;

natural tunnels are possible in a limestone countr3\
*

M. Kopke

(or

Kopque ?) wliom

tlie

"negociaute Hambiirghese,
losing liis steamer, rigged up a boat and
visited the Paracatu River.
His brother,
Dr. Henry Kopke, is still at Petropolis.
After the first concessionist, whose permission to navigate the Rio des Velhas was decreed Aug. 26, 1834, and was extended to the
Sao Francisco November 14, 1834,M.Tarte, a
decree

calls

Belgian engineer, applied for the same exclusive privilege, but did not obtain it.

The first steam-shiij that ever plied in
the Brazil was built in 1819 at Bahia, by
Sr. Felisberto (jomes Caldeira Brant Pontes,

Presently

afterwards Marquess of Barbacena.
Slie
ran to tlie then Villa of Cachoeira, and was
wrecked by a storm upon tlie Monserrato
beach.
In 1822 a steamer was sent from
Rio de Janeiro to Santos, carrying a deputation of distingiiished men, and the Desembargador Joao Evangelista de Faria Souza
Lobato.
They persuaded the patriotic Jose
Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva to accompany
them, and returned to the capital on January 16, 1822, a week after the Prince
Regent had declared that he would not
leave the Brazil.

f Popiilarly called the

* *

Sumidouro.

"

SANTA LUSIA TO JAGUxVRA.

CHAP. II.]

21

the sun set, the cokl made us gather round the galley- fii-e, and

the moon rose with low, uncertam light.

The crew, not having

seen the bed during the last foiu* years, became veiy nervous as

we swung round the Cachoeii'a de Jacii, with its swift deep current imimiging upon the right bank of the narrow bed.
I felt
that a stick or a stone might spoil

allowed them to

make fast at the

''

my whole journe}^, and I
Porto do Bebedor."* AVe
the house of Sr. Antonio

up the steep bank to
Loiu'enco, and were admitted to the strangers' room, as soon as
the key would tm*n, by the daughter of the house. D. Conrada,
still in her teens, w^as the mother of three children and the
widow of a tropeii'o she made coffee, warmed oiu' beef, and sat
chatting with us till we slept
a rare and recordable incident of
hodiernal Brazilian travel in the Far West.
August 10. The morning was mistless, and we set oif early.
After nearly two hours we saw on the left bank a large and much
decaj^ed square of white-washed and red-tiled building, backed
by a neat chiu'ch the Fazenda de Jaguara.f At the " port
scrambled

:

—

—

—

* The " drinker ;" a drain, not a drainer.
+ Some explain Jaguara to be the name
of the well-known ounce—puma or S. American lion.
Othei-s explain it by Jahu or

Jau-guara.

The

"Jahu-fish

(is

here)

abundant."
Jaguara, corrupted Jaguar, lagoar, and
is properly "Ja," we, us, and
"guara," an eater, a devourer (of us),
and was applied by the indigenes to all
man-eating beasts.
Doubtless in the eaidy
days of colonisation, when these large cats
knew nothing of the gun, they were dangerous enough.
At present their corn-age
seems to have cooled, and the ]Matador de
Oncas -tueur d'onces once so celebrated
in the Brazil, finds a large slice of his occupation gone.
]\Iany travellers have seen
nothing of this king of the cats, except the
I have
places Avhere it sharpens its claws.
had experience of one live specimen, and
The people stiU fear
that too by night.
them, especially at night, and have many
They
traditional tales of their misdeeds.
are still very dangerous to dogs, monkeys,
after which they climb, to the Capyi^ara, an
esj)ecial favourite,
and to the young of
black cattle. There are four large varieties

so forth,

—

—

of these Felidte

:

The Onca gucuaranna,

or gucurana,
(Mr.
Bates
Sassu-arana, or the false
deer"), v.-hence the barbarously corrupted
"Cougouar," derived throuarh the " (jrua1.

'

'

zouara" of Azara.
It is variously termed
FeKs Onga, or brasiliensis, or concolor,
It is
the last term being the best name.
I have seen a brownone of the biggest.
red skin 5ft. Sin. long, not including the
The
tail, yet it is the least dangerous.
range of this puma, or red lion, a^jpears to
extend throughout the tropical and temi»erate zones of the New World. It is evidently
the "painter" (panthei") of the United
States.

Cangouassu or Cangussu, the largest
yviih. smaller rounded spots of a
lighter colour, on a dark brown-red skin.
Prince Max. informs us (iii. 1-38) that in Bahia it is applied to a small animal whose
pelage is marked with small blacker spots.
3. The On^a ijintada (painted ounce), also
2.

variety,

called the Jaguarete (true or great eater).

This "Felis discolor" is a very beautiful
animal, especially when the M'hite field of
In
its maculfe has a light pink blush.
shape much resembling the " cheetah," or
himting leopard of Hindostan, it is the
it does great damage to
most dreaded
cattle
it worries and destroys far more
than it needs, and after gorging itself with
blood, it retiu-ns at leisure to eat the flesh.
4. The "Tigre," or On^a Preta, is the
black Jaguar, a rare animal now in the
Brazil, but still found, I am told, on the
As a
banks of the Upper Paraguay River.
variety it probably resembles the black
;

;

22

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

[chap. ii.

where the Eibeii-ao cle Jagiiara falls in, I was met by Dr. Quintiliano Jose da Silva, ex-President of Minas, and now here officially as Treasury Judge (Juiz dos Feitos da Fazenda Nacional).

He led me up to the house, introduced me to the mistress, D.
Francisca dos Santos Dumont, the daughter of our host at Ouro
Preto, showed me to the strangers' room, and lavished all the
hospitable attentions in wdiich his countrjanen are such adepts.
leopard of the Niger Yalley and the dark
spots upon a sable skin render it peculiarly
;

interesting.
I have seen good collections of these skins
Here, however, as
on the Rio das Velhas.
elsewhere, they are expensive, and are soon
bought up for local iise.
All classes covet

them for saddle-cloths, pistol holsters, tra-

veiling bags,

and even hunting caps.

Of

course the spotted ounce is preferred ; and,
as a rule, the skins are as thoroughly spoiled
as if they had been handled by negroes,
They are ruthlessly deprived of head, legs,
and often of tail. En revanche the leather is
well and carefully tanned,

—

CHAPTER

III.

AT JAGUARA.

—

—

RIDES ABOUT THE PLACE. THE VEGETATION. EXCURSIOX TO LAGoA SAXTA.
DR. LUXD. M. FOURREAU. WHAT THE WORD " CACHOEIRA " MEAXS.

—

—

A distant clearness in the liill,
A secret sweetness in the stream.
Canning.

At this liospitable

house I spent five pleasant days, wliilst
another crew was being engaged, and arrangements for \\\\ reaching Diamantina were being completed.
"Jaguara" has, in its
day, caused no little sensation in the Province, and the following
are the heads of information touching the ^'extincto vinculo"

the ''cut-off entail."

Half a centuiy ago, a certain Colonel Antonio de Abreu Guimaraes amassed a large fortune with 750 slaves, and still more by
forgetting to pa}' the Government dues on diamonds exported
from Diamantina and other places. He held an enormous property of 36 square leagues (427,504 acres), which was afterwards
divided into seven great estates.
The first was Jaguara, containing 1000 alqueii'es, (each
square acres) this was lately
bought, without the 200 slaves, b}'^ M. Dumont's father-in-law,
for 12 contos, 1200/.
The next was the Mocambo, actual^
belonging to Colonel Francisco de Paulo Fonseca Vianna. Then
came the Bebida, including Casa Branca, Saco das Egoas, and
Saco da Yida. It once contained four square leagues, now it is
reduced to 1300 or 1350 alqueii'es, and it is to be sold for 3000?.
30,000/. with a total of 170 slaves:—we shall visit it down stream.
Number 4 was the Pviacho of Joao Paulo Cotta then ranked the
Pindah3'ba, now Ponte Nova, including the Taboca, formerly the
X^roperty of Antonio Jose Lobo and Domingo Jose Lobo, nephews
of the Abreu, and afterwards purchased by Colonel Domingo
Diniz Couto. No. 6 was the Brejo of Francisco Fernandez

6x2

:

;

24

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

Machado and

his

brother; and lastly,

the

''

[chap. hi.

Mello " was the

nucleus of the estate.

The old contrabandist, who had also farmed with exceptional
success the ruinous ro3'al tithes, presently went to Lisbon, re-

pented liim of his sins, and was ordered by his confessor to build
a church to N^ S* da Conceigao
furthermore, by way of fire;

was directed to

escape, he

tie

up (vincular) the greater part of

his enormous estate for the benefit of religious houses.

He wrote

from Portugal to his brother, Francisco Martins de Abreu, with
all directions to carry out his orders, and the latter, much against
his will, was compelled to sign all necessary documents by the
authorities of Sahara, who met him, they say, on the road, and
led him into an adjoining cave.
The old man died in the Convento da Cartuxa at Lisbon, some declare miserabty poor, others
represent in miserly wealth, of which he had droj^ped but a small
portion.

The revenue of this vast estate w^as divided into five portions,
of wliich three were made over to the Misericordia of Sahara, one
was given to the Eecolhimento of Macahubas, and the fifth part
was distributed amongst the relations of the mortgager, the
famihes of Abreu and Lobo. The Governmental administration
w^as placed under a Junta, or Commission, who levied the rents,
and paid them through the Juiz dos Feitos Provincial, into the
Treasury.

Provincial

It

is

needless

to say that the revenue

declined; it gradually fell to 4 $800 per annum.
Decree No. 306,
of Oct. 14, 1843, " extinguished " the mortgage, and permitted

the sale of the property.
tell me,

some 40,000L

still being

Since that time

it

has fetched, they

The seventh estate, called the Mello, is

surveyed for sale,* and this accounts for the presence

of the high officials at Jaguara.

Dr. Quintiliano kindly rode with me about the estate.
There
is a garden close to the stream, on a fine ledge of rich, red-

brown clay (macape), which might be extended for many acres.
My companion was emphatic upon the immense fertility and
salubrity of the place, f and truly, as the spring was setting in.
The Mello contained 63 sesmarias (here
generally half a square league).
Of these
10 were measured in 1865; 38 in 1866;
and 1.5 in 1867 leaving 63 for survey. It
has })een bought since I left the river by
the Provincial Gfovernment for the benefit
;

of the American settlers,

f Another estate, Pao de Cheiro, some
three leagues down the river, and belonging
to 7 or 8 proprietors, is held to be a sanitarium.

CUAP.

AT JAGUARA.

III.]

25

and the bii'ds were making love, and the trees were weaving their
new coats of many colours, the microcosm looked enchanting.
He showed me some dry sticks, which a few days before he had
the ground ^\ith ashes of decayed wood, and upon
planted
turned a tiny stream all had budded the effect of
had
which he
The tenethe subjacent limestone, the finest natural manure.
ments are in poor condition the low, long walls, and the hollow

m

;

:

:

"Hishan" of the Ai^abs these, however, are
The out-houses are in a still more
white- washed and tiled.
tattered state
the owner cares more for the exploitation of the
Pdo das Yelhas * than for agriculture or horticulture. The only
squares suggest the

;

;

part tolerably well preserved is a detached building, the Casa da

the little church had been
congregation was mainly the " Sanharo," I

Junta,t where the Commissioners met
lately repaii'ed, but its

;

a fierce species of wasp, dangerous to other honey-makers.

Our next visit was to the lakelets and to the vast limestone formations on the north-west of the estate.

We passed a red digging,

an open cut from which much gold had been taken by the ancients.
Thence we issued upon a praii'ie of " spotty soil," here rich and
red, there white with gravel.

No lack of good grazing ground,

and the cattle on the estate had, I was told, been worth 4000/.
The vegetation was that of the Campos about Barbacena, the
trees were hard gnarled Barbatimao, Pataro, Geao de Gallo,
Piqui, Tingui,§ and Sicupira.
Besides these, I remarked the
Sambahj^ba (Curatella Sambaiba, also written Sambaiiva), with
valueless fruit, a rough leaf used for brushing cloth, and astrmgent bark, good for tanning and for dressing wounds it has the
Another
effect of iodine in resolving chronic inflammations.
common tree was the Cagaitera (Eugenia dysenterica), an ugly
name, but a pretty growth, with white flowers and milk-producing
leafage
the Cagaita, or berry, is a strong drastic. Here grows
;

:

* I obtained a copy of a map siu'vey of
the Rio das Velhas by M. Henrique DiimoDt,
dated October 186J:. It agreed Avell with
the kbours of ]\L Liais.
+ 1 found the Casa da Junta (B. P. 208^ "SO,

therm. 72°) = 1807 feet above sea-level.
Pelissher's aneroid gave (29 '46, therm.
6i°) = 51:3 feet. Mr. Gordon's observation
(29 "14, therm. 74°) = 553 feet. AH these
observations are cui-iously under-estimated.
The river is here about 646 metres above
sea-level (2120 feet), or 49 metres lower

than at Sahara,

J It resembles the PelopaEus lunatns
described by Azara and Prince ^lax. (i. 139).
The latter makes it attach its pyriform nest
to trees as well as houses,
§ This must not be confounded with the
Tingi, Tingy, Tingui, or Tiniury daPraya, a
kind of lliana (Jacquinia obovata), which,
like the Paullinias, is used for intoxicating
fish.
The branches are cut, bruised, tied
in bundles, and thrown into water whose
course has been arrested by a dam.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

26

[chap. hi.

Acaju or Caju, wliicli we call Cashew
(Anacardiumoccidentale,Lmn.; Cassuvium, Jussieu) amongst the

in abundance the stunted

:

aborigines it was a growth of great importance,* they numbered
then- 3^ears by it, they kept the nuts to remind them of their age,

The
and they made of it their most valued Cauim or wine.
Goanese extract from it a neat brandy; here it, is mostly made
into sherbets, and strangers have burnt their lips by eating the
dark reniform kernel that grows outside the bitter gum called
by the Tupys Acaju- Cica (for " icica," resin), is used b}^ bookIn the lower sites there is a kind
binders, and keeps off worms.
of salsaparilla (Salsa do Campo and do Matto), which appears on
:

The root is large and white

ant-hills under the trees.

;

the yellow

being preferred in Europe and the United States ; the people
declare that it should be drunk with milk, to disguise its acridity,

and use it much, but with care, avoiding it for instance in the middle
of the day.
The garden-grown salsaparilla is all cut at this
season, and the shops here ask 2 $000 per lb. of the dry old twigs
sent from Eio de Janeu-o.
The only birds were the Siriema,t that hunted the serpents
from our path; its favourite ''big brother" the Ema (ostrich)
which never gave a shot under 200 yards, and the pretty little
Tiriba

paroquet,

with

cuneiform

Mart.),! which shrieked as

it

tail

i^assed

(Psittacus

cruentatus,

The

us like an arrow.

" Campeu'os," or herdsmen, wild as the Somal, were pictm'esque
in their leather wide-awakes, sitting loosely upon ragged nags

huge spurs armed their naked heels, and
the wooden box stirruj)s which the cistus renders necessary in
Portuguese Algarves, defended their toes. They were wiry and

with wild equipments

well-grown

men

;

;

here

it

is

remarked that even the slave-boys

* They called ''Acaju acai piracoba"
Avhat the Brazilians term Chuvas de Cajii,
which fall in August to September, and

which injure the inflorescence of the AnaSonthey (i. 181) confounds the
"Caju" with the "Anati" (Olli moquilia,

cavdium.

convert the quarters into week?.
+ The Cariama of Marcgraf.

Prince

Max. (iii. 115) describes it as an " oiseau
ddfiant," but I have seen it tame enough,
especially as the people do not molest
It is

easily domesticated.

it.

My friend Sr.

a Chrysobalan), a "Madeira reservada," or

Antonio da Lacerda, jun., of Bahia, has or

hard-wood forest tree, of which there are
many species, some bearing a fruit that
yields an intoxicating drink.
The altorigines began their years with the
heliacal rising of the Pleiades. Their months
were called, like the moon, "Jacy," from
"ya," we, or our, and "cy," mother.
Like most savages, they had not learned to

had a specimen. It flies for short distances,
the wings being feeble, the l)ody heavy, and
down where there are no
it may be

nm

trees,

t Described by Prince Max.

(i.

103),

who was reminded of the "Croupion" (P.
crythrogaster) of the Berlin Museum.

;

CHAP.

III.

AT JAGUAR A.

J

27

wlio are mounted in earl}' life, are much taller

and stronger than
This may partly be owing to their
those bred in the house.
abundant diet of milk and cheese, farinha, and sun-dried meat.
Here and there were scattered the huts of ''aggregados," squatters
who are permitted to Hve upon theFazenda, but who do not acquii'e
by residence any right to the soil.
The lakelets are of little importance they are the Lagoa Seca,
then dry; the Lagoa dos Porcos, where i^orkers are bred and cut
up; the Lagoa de Dentro, which oyerflows, and leayes after retreat
a thick, short-piled carpet of soft sweet grass, and the Lagoa de
Aldea, so called from an Indian settlement, which has now disappeared.
These pools, fed by rain- drainage, and somethnes by
:

they are
sprmgs, are scattered eyerj'where oyer the country
"
"
Trahh-a fish.*
natural yivaria, producing in abmidance the
:

Presently crossing a waye of ground, we entered a small Mata

The low-lying soil
Mutamba or Motamba tree

or patch of dwarf forest in the Bebida estate.

we

by the
(Guaxuma ulmifolia),f which bears an emoUient gelatino- sacchaThe leguminous Angico
rine fruit, and whose gum refines sugar.
(Acacia Angico), delicately feathered, whose bark abounds in
tannm, is also a good sign.
My attention was called to the
Macela do Campo, whose yellow flowers, resembling immortelles,
are used to stuff pillows
to the Fruta Cheh'osa (one of the Anacardiaceffi), with a large "baga " or berry, now green and milky
as

fine,

is

told

are

;

and to the Almecegueira (Icica or Icicariba Amyris, Aublet), with
sweet-smellmg wood, and perfumed resin used for a yariet}^ of
technologic purposes. +
I could

not but observe

how abundant was

the

antefibrile

Formulary quotes 15 species, several of them
resembling those of Peru. In the denser growths was the Quina
element

:

the

* Grardner writes

Traira (Pi'ince Max.
and describes it as " rather slender."
I found it short and thick, like a
doubled John Dory.
It extends all down
the river, and has several varieties, Trahiraassit, T. -mirim, and so forth.
The flesh is

Tiipys knew it as Ibixuma.

J In Portuguese Almecega is gum mas-

Trai'ra),

good, but too spiny to be eaten with pleasure.
Its dark back, ugly mouth,^ and
rat s teeth make the people cal it Pau de
JNegro— negro wood and refuse to touch it.
1
4.1,
m,
XI
-D- V,
1,
1
The rr
Trahira, Ti
like the Piabanha and the
'
1
-4.1,
4.1
T)riau, IS commonly met with
the rivers
/-^
4-1
11
4.ij-i
tnat ftall
into 4.U
the Atlantic
Ocean.
4.1
J. Tir .'
u
A
1
1
Mutamba
is
aa Angola
word;
the
T

—

•

J.

•

t.

m
•

•

4.

•

•

tic

(Amyris)

;

hence the Brazilian tree is

named.

" ^ almecega que se usa no quebranto.
,,

^^ ^^^^.^ ^^^^^ f^^ -^^^^ 1^^^^,^,^..

^,^^
^^-^

^

,,

^^

Caramuni (7, 51).

^.^^

.^^j^

On the coast

^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^,^^^

.
^
v i ^ .+„ „iixr ^^^,. ;r,+«-,.r,ni
every«^here applied externally tor internal
IS
^
•,

^.

i
, + ,,.„c„T,ric.^f^,^iT
as hernias, ruptures, and so forth,
luiunes,
„J
.

.

.

t

The v.-ord
...

' •

" ^i,/„;^„n,. -rr^^^-^c,
u
m i
classically means
"Quebranto
4-

,.

.

fascmatio,
^^^'^
•

,

,,^i

-i
eve.
the evil

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

28

[chap. hi.

and with it the " Poor man's
Quinine," a tree with bitter bark and sweet fruit, called by manj^
names. Pan Pereira (Geissospermum Vellozii), Uba-assii, Pau
do Mato (Cliincliona Remigiana)

;

Pan de pente (comb-wood), Camara de bibro (for
bobbins), Camara do Mato, Canudo Amargoso or Pinguaciba.*
There is also an abundance of the Cha de Pedreste, or de frade
(Lantana Pseudo-thea).
The giants of the forest are there,
Forquilha,

especially the Jatobaf

(H3'men?ea, whose leaves are in pairs),

which in August yields a wine, said to be very pectoral it bears
gum anime (Jutay Cica), a good pottery varnish, and a copal
used by the Indians in making their labrets and other ornaments
;

the flowers are enjoyed by the deer, especially that called Mateiro,

and the long chestnut-coloured pods that strew the ground suppl}'
a

of insipid taste, which serves, however,

flour

in

times of

The most beautiful growth is the Ipe Amarello, or Pan

famine.

bowdarque " (Bois d'arc, a Bignonia), a tall thin trunk,
as yet without leaves, which will appear after inflorescence
its
trumpet-shaped blossoms, in tufts of j^ellow gold, would make the
laburnum look dull and pale.t
Presently we came to the foot of the Pedreiras, where the land
wants water, a fatal objection in the present state of things. This
is a lump of naked, fine black-blue and stratified limestone,
weathered so as to resemble basalt from afar it runs from north
d'Ai'co,

''

;

:

to south, when it joins the forested

Serra d'Aldea, also a calca-

reous formation, large enough to supply the Province for centu-

The outcrop is marked with stride and holes of dull, dead

ries.

white, from which spring trees, and especially Cactus, whose figs
* System

95-97).
In the Campos
Chinchonacete, Qiiina do
Campo (C. Vellozii?) with dark and spotted
leaves, and a sweet fruit upon which birds
feed.
St. Hil. (III. i.
229) mentions a
Quina do Campo or de Mendanha, which he
found to he a Stryclmos Pseudo-quina.
The other common sjiecies is the Quina da
Serra (C. ferruginea).
Camara is the local
name of a plant called in Portugal "Maimequer;" bibro (from "volvere") is

are

the

(p.

several

"fusus."

t This fine feathery forest tree, which
prefers the dry woodlands, has many other
Tupy names, for instance, Jatahy (Jutahi
and Jutahi-Sica (Mr. Bates, i. 83), Jetahy,
Jetaiba,
Abati-timbaby,
Jatai-uva
(or
uba).
According to Sr. J. de Alencar " Jatoba"

is

derived

from

Jetahi,

the tree.

" ol)a," a leaf, and "a," augmentative,
alluding to the dense and beautifully domed
The hark was used to make the
foliage.
The wine must
native "uba," or coracle.
be drawn before the young leaves aj^pear.
+ Of the Bignonias there are many kinds,
Ipeiina, whoso heart supplied the
c.(/.,
Ipchardest and best material for bows
roxo with mauve and purple blossoms
Ipe-tabaco, so called because the heai't conthe Bigtains a fine powder of light green
nonia cordacea (Sellow), with blossoms of
;

;

;

tender yellow Ipe-branco, Avith large white
On the coast the young foliage
blossoms.
of In-own and burnished tinge, curiously
contrasting with its neighbours, is put forth.
In
in early spring, at the end of August.
;

these Highlands it is later,

CHAP.

AT JAGUAR A.

III.]

29

To the west of these " Bald Knobs," I

are here appreciated.

was told, flows a broad stream, arismg near the hill-summit, a
common feature in Kentuck}- and other limestone countries.
After runnmg 300 yards it disappears into an underground pasMy "American"*
sage, from which it presently emerges.
informant told me that it could work any amount of machinery.
Hereabouts are caves which yield saltpetre, and where Dr. Lund
made some of his greatest discoveries.
On our waj^ back we passed by the Lagoa Grande, the largest
a
of the pools; around it was a Campo Novo
''new," that is
a newly fii-ed prairie the bright green grass started up from
betw^een the stones, which are supposed to defend it by i)reserving the moisture.
Here also were fair slopes of graceful
rounded forms, where the plough can act perfectly. From the
rising ground we saw to the north the long Hne of the Cipo
Eange, limestone forested with Mato Dentro.
To the northeast was the box-lilve apex of the Serra do Baldim (pronounced
Bardim), and to the south-south-east the quoin-shaped and
cloud-crowned head of our old friend the Piedade near Cuiaba.
My next excursion was to the Lagoa Santa, in company with
Sr. Jose Rodriguez Duarte, whose amiable family we had met
at Ouro Preto.
The path was southerly, hugging the left bank
of the Old Squaws' Paver.
From the uplands before 8 a.m., the
Valley appeared a serpentine of dense white mist, cHnging to and
curling up along the wooded bed
a suggestive spectacle, which

—

;

:

never loses

Presently we passed the rich fish-pool,

its interest.

Lagoa do Corrego Seco

;

its village

of four houses boasted of an

Inspeitor

de

Quarteriio,

This pool

is

said to be connected by a tunnel with the Ollio

humblest of police authorities,
facetiously called Juiz de Paz.
x\fter a total of an hour we
crossed the southern limit of the Jaguara estate, and at six
miles for head-quarters we sighted the " Sumidouro " or Smker. f
the

To the west lay the village, lazily
creeping up the wild slope, and much resembhng a scatter of
de Agua on the right bank.
termitaria.

* Americano in the Brazil always means
a citizen of tlie United States.
+ The place alluded to by Southey, iii.
48.
"From his (Fernando Diaz) head
quarters at the Sumidouro (or Swallow, as
those places are called whei-e a river sinks

lie explored
The feature
the Sei-ra of Sahara Bussu. "
reminds us of the subterranean river which
is supposed to run under the good city of
Tours,

into a subterraneous cliannel)

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

30

[chap. hi.

The next feature was the " Qumta do Sumidouro,"

a one-

it
streeted Tillage with a brand-new chapel, N'^ S^ do Eosario
is mainly the work of an Italian, the Rev. Padre Eafaelle
;

him are half true,
has been left to live by a kind of mii-acle. Here men still remember a tragical episode in the eventful career of Fernando
Dias Paes Leme, one of the most adventurous of the Paulista
Speranza, who,

explorers.

if

half the tales told about

He was then seeking for " green stones " or emeralds,

near a pestilential water known as the Vepabussii or Great Lake,

and the hardships caused many of his Ped-skin auxiliaries to
They were prompted by one of his illegitimate sons, to
revolt.
whom he was greatly attached. When the mutiny was quelled,
the father took the first opportunity of asking the 3'outh what
I)enalty was deserved by a man who had dared to rebel against
the king's majesty.

He should be hanged," said the son.
" Thou hast pronounced thy own doom " rejDlied the father,

'•

!

who, stern as the first consul of Pome, ordered the sentence at
once to be carried into effect.* The old man died a few da3^s
afterwards, '' Ynhouzzled, disappointed, vnnaneld," on his

way

from the Lagoa Santa to Sahara.
Sr. Leite, an intelligent store-keeper at the Quinta, which is
about half a mile from the Piver, assured me that the ground
had lately been subject to shocks, which were most frequent
about full moon he seemed to fear for it the fate of Mendon9a.
In this limestone region I could detect no sign of igneous action,
plutonic or volcanic
but the earthquake at Alexandria, and
another which I witnessed at Accra on the Gold Coast, prove
that sedimentary formations are b}^ no means exempt from the
;

;

visitations of Ennosigaeus.

The rest of the road was over wild and picturesque Campo,
where

the

valuable.

bright

little

Presently, after

Pibeirao
3'""^

30'"

Jacques will some day be
= 12 miles, topping a long

we saw below us a shallow basin, with a church and a
scatter of white and brown houses
the town of Lagoa Santa.
The streets were formed by the '' compound " vv\alls tile-coped,

hill,

—

:

and protected by a few inches of taipa or pise, resting on a layer
* Soutliey (iii. 49) recounts the story
nearly in the same words. St. Hil. (I. ii. 189)
places the scene of the " Octagenarian's"
adventure in the Province of Porto >Seguro,

that the " Vupabussu" was
afterwards called
"Lagoa Encantada,"
because it could not he found,
niul declares

CHAP.

AT JAGUAR A.

III.]

31

of ruslies, wliicli projects on both sides and defends the lower

mud.

AVe rode up to the square,
"Praca de N^ S^ da Saude, so called from the Matriz, to the
east of which is a fine fig-tree being rapidly devoured by the

part of the x^erpendicular

Bird Herb" (a Polygonea ?). The place, now so quiet and
Successful at Queluz (Juh^ 27, 1842),
sleej)y, has seen wild times.
the insui'gents retu*ed to the Capao de Lana, and, after a week,
*'

when the " Oligarchy" rendered this position untenable, the}^ retreated and entrenched themselves in the Arraial da Lagoa Santa.
An ambuscade of forty men wounded the lo3'alist colonel, Manuel
Antonio Pacheco, afterwards Barao de Sahara, and repulsed his
750 men. The attack was renewed, the Kevolutionists fought
stoutly, and an aunt of Adrianno Jose de Moura assisted them
by serving out ammunition on the 6th August, however, they
were obliged to take to the bush. The conduct of the late Baron
was praised, even by his enemies he was one of few who treated
;

;

the captm-ed with kindness.

We rode up to some horse-posts (estacas) opposite a door,
over which was inscribed F. F., and, having heard of a French

The house was opened by a verj^ Enghslilooldng dame, who proved to have been born at Malta we asked
to see M. Francois Fom-reau, and we were told to dismount.
hotel,

we knocked.

;

After shaking hands and exchanging salutations in the *' language
of Racine and Corneille," we ordered breakfast unceremoniously

enough; the host joined us, and we enjoyed an excellent soupe
and bouilli, not often eaten outside French walls. An old sousthe
officier of the 16'"^ Leger, he had been taken prisoner
Russian Campaign, and the result was that he, a tres joli garcon,
His
set up a cii'cus, and had travelled all about Western Asia.

m

three

stalwart sons,

including "Bibi," were

still

conducting

his daughter, a pretty ecuyere and

the business at Diamantina ;
married, as " Pedrinho " proved, lived with her parents.

The

good old soldier had bought considerable property at Lagoa
Santa, he lusted to escape from it, but he did not see the way
out.
He was by no means one of that wretched race, which
belongs to France or to England, not to the world. We passed
the night with wine and jollity, and when I suggested the
I am sorry to
''addition," M. Fourreau laughed in my face.
say that Madame did lilvewise

On arrival we sent

;

yet I left them with regret.

our cards to Dr. Lund, the illustrious

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BKAZIL.

32

[ciiAr.

in.

Dane, tlie hermit of science, who had spent a portion of his life
I was most anxious to ask
in the hone-caves of Minas Geraes.
"
"
sub-fossil man," as opposed
fossil man," or
him ahout the
The term has been
to the ''primeval" or "prehistoric man."
prematurely decided to be
designated

"a misnomer, since

of all things the

is

most

desired, the

after, but perhaps the least likely to be found."

of Cuvier

!

I was also desirous to

the thing so

most sought

Still the influence

know if the incisor teeth of

the fossils had naturally oval upper surfaces (not worn down),

and of longer antero-posterior diameter than transverse. Dr. Lund
has for years been prevented by consumptive tendencies from
he has bought a house in the square
living out of the Brazil
of Lagoa Santa, and, as might be expected, he has become bedridden by rheumatism. He is said to live chiefly on CaparosaWe perforce
ptisane,* which combines theine with cafl'eine.
accredit others with our own feelings, and I felt sad when picturing to myself the fate of so great a traveller, doomed to end
his days without a relation by his side, in the social gloom of
;

obliging secretary,

M. Fred. Wm. Behrens, the savan's
came over with many excuses and prayers

that we would wait

till

this gorgeous wilderness.

out success.

the next morning.

We did so, but with-

I suspect that our failure was caused by the nervous

fear of strangers, which often aff'ects

even strong

men after a

long residence in the Brazil, and indeed in the Tropics generally.
Having heard many cimous lake tales f about what proved to

be on inspection a vulgar feature, I spoke to M. Behrens, who
led me to his employer's lust-haus on the holy lake, launched
*

" Caparosa"

is

primarily our copperas

(sulphate of iron), also applied to verdigris,
and the shrubby tree got the name on acIt is
count of the tender blue-green leaf.
knowTi at once by the ci:t or torn part of
Acthe twig turning dark and tarnished.
cording to the System it contains tannic
acid with a solution of iron, which may be
made into ink, and which supplies a black
The abuse of its ptisane has, I was
dye.

been already fatal to some who have
The
followed the example of Dr. Lund.
celebrated Paullinia Sorbites, better known
as Guarand (from the Tupy Guarana-uva)
also combines theine and caffeine.
t These lake superstitions are common
in the Brazil.
La Condamine, Humboldt,
and others speak of the Lagoa Dourada.
Henderson mentions that of the Lagoa Feia.

told,

Prince Max. records tlie fables of the Taipe,
and heard of other traditions on the banks
of the Rio dos Ilheos and the IMucury. The
Parima or Parimo Lake of Guiana is equal y
Connected with lakes of
rich in legends.
golden sands was the city of Beni, Griio
Pard,, Grrao Pairiri or Paititi, alias El Dorado,
wliose streets were paved with the precious
metal, and where the Emperor of the Musus,
the great Paititi or gilded king of the Spaniards, was smeared with oil as lie rose in
the morning, and covered with gold dust
blown at him by his courtiers through long
Castelnau (vol. xi. 41) relates
reeds.
This
those of the Boldivian " Opabusti. "
word, like Southey's Vepabussii, is a corruption of Ypabussti, ypaba in the Lingua
Brasilica meaning a lake.

§

CHAP.

"

AT JAGUAR A.

III.]

3;J

The piles and poles
the boat, and struck out with the paddle.
which have been said to denote pfalbauten or crannoges, were
probably an old palisading now flooded. The length is about
one and a half miles from south-west to north-east bending east,
wdiere a sangrador or drain, some eight to nine miles long, dis-

Eio das Yelhas, near the Fazenda called of
Dona Ignacia.* The southern side had gTeatty shrunk, and we
saw at once what causes the "bubbling surface." Here, during
the rains, is a Cabeceira or head stream, one of the many feeders
chai'ges it into the

from the basin-sides, which gently rise to grassy Campo ground.
On the opposite margin of the little reservoir rises a pretty bit
The
of cockney forest, which has been pierced with toy paths.
lake is said to be filling up, and the greatest depth in the centre

The sides are overgrown with a fine pithy
rush (j unco), of which mats are made; this is one of the local
is

three fathoms.

industries ; the others are fishing and rude pottery, glazed with

The poor almost live upon the Trahira, the
Curumatfio, t and the dreadful Piranha. I The vegetation around

yellow^ and green.

is stunted ;

we are still in the lands of the plantain and the pine,

but the Araucaria

is

short and ricketty, evidently finding the air

too hot to breathe.

The Holy Lake was originally called Ypabussii (Yupubussu),
it owes its pretentious name to superstitions
or Lagoa Grande
;

^ Jlr.

Gerber's map makes it heartlying north and south, v,-ith the
apex to the south, and he drains it h y a
The
greatly exaggerated "Rio Fidalgo."

shaped,

latter is the name of

an estate belonging to
the heirs of the late Cirurgiuo M6r, Serafini
Moreira de Carvalho.
t The name of this fish, one of the Salmonidfe, is variously ^^Titten by authors. Prince

Max.,Crumatam^Pizarro,CorimataandCurmatan St. Hil.,'also Curmatan Gardner,
;

;

Halfeld, Cumata or Curimata,
and the Almanak, Cummata— the latter
two neglecting the nasal sound which it
certainly has.
I hesitate whether to wTite
Curumatao or Gurumatao, the first conso-

Cunmiatam

;

This fish
nant being doubtfully sounded.
it leaps like our
is about two feet long
salmon, with its silvery scales glancing in
the sun, and it must be caught in drag-nets,
There is also a
as it will not bite at bait.
salt-water fish of this name, soft and full
The savages shoot it with arof spines.
rows (Prince Max. ii. 137), Mr. Bates (ii.
140), "Caught with hook and line, baited
with pieces of banana, several Curimata
;

VOL. II.

(Aiiodus amazonum), a most delicious fish,
which, next to the Tucamare and the Pes*
cada, is most esteemed hy the natives.
t The well-known Scissar fish, Piranha
Our authors
in Tupy meaning scissars.
call

it

''devil

fish."

Cixvier

named

it

Serra Salmo Piraya, and unconsciously sanctioned the vulgar Mineiro and Paulista corruption of Piranlia to Piray^-a (so Canayya
Tlie fish is common in the
for Canalha).
Upper Uruguay and the Paraguay, as well
Those that I saw
as in the Sao Francisco.
were from one foot to eighteen inches long
by about ten inches deep, flat but short and
tliick.
The carnivorous fish swims vertically, and is supposed to turn on one side
the serrated teeth bend
when it bites
backwards they easily tear off the flesh,
and a shoal will, they say, in ten minutes
I found
reduce a bullock to a skeleton.
the meat dry, full of spines, and with poor
flavour.
On the Lower Sao Francisco the
;

;

people refuse to cat it.
§

The Lagoa Santa provedlto be 2228

feet above sea-level (^B..P. 20-8° 'l, therm.
76°).

O

—

—
THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

34

[chap. hi.

which have now died out. In ancient days people made of it a
Pool of Bethesda, and a Dr. Cialli, in 1749, found that its waters
The tale which Henderson recontained medicinal properties.
being filmed over with a silvery pellicle
They preserved, however,
like mercury, was unknown to all.
upon
a
time,"
a woman used to be seen
the tradition that, "once
counts about

its surf\ice

hovering over the centre, whilst a silver cross arose from the

Many a hardy fellow, doubtless in a pitiable state of

depths.

nervousness,

paddled to make a prize of a precious metal, and

was sunk by a mysterious whirlpool, when, as the Arabs say, he
passed without loss of time from water to fire. The spirit was
exorcised a common process in Hibernian legends by some
hoi}' man, whose name has fallen into unmerited forgetfulness.
Similarly in the Manitoulin Islands of Lake Huron, the Manitou
(popularly and erroneously translated *' Great Spirit " ) forbade
his children to seek for gold the ore was supposed to be found in
heaps, but no canoe could reach the spot before being overwhelmed by a tempest. All these have vanished

—

—

;

:

The intelligible forms of ancient poets.
Die alten Fabel-wesen sind niclit melir.

and humanity is no longer sorely tempted upon the Holy Lake.
Disappointed, to Jaguara Ave returned, and I found it difficult
to tear myself away from the pleasant society of my new friends.
Dr. Quintiliano and Sr. Duarto. I little thought at the time that
the latter was so near his end he had been treated for ulceration
the wound was healed, but when he returned to Ouro
of the leg
:

;

Preto he died suddenly.
Brazilian travel.

Hospitality

is

the greatest delay in

It is the old stjde of Colonial greeting ;

you

may do what you like, you may stay for a month, but not for a
and practices of Europe are unknown.* At length, however, I found a pilot, Chico (i. c, Francisco) Diniz de Amorim, who had a farm near the Petiro das
lie was described to me as very "fearful" (medroso),
Freiras
meaning skilful and prudent. The others were Joaquim, the son
of Antonio Correa, overseer of Casa Branca: a useless shockday, and the churlish precepts

:

* The Basquo proverb says,

Arraina eta aiToza

Heren cgunac carazes, campova cleragoza,
" i-'^lsh ami guests after tlie tliinl <lnv stink, nnd must ho east out of the house."

CHAP.

AT JAGXJARA.

III.]

35

I presentl}- bought for 40 g 000, a Idnd of
" Igara,"* a tender-canoe, and used to send him ahead to exi:»kn'e

head, unable to work.
the Rapids.

The third was Joao Pereu'a, of the Rio de Jaboti-

catuba, a freedman of the hite Padre Antonio

:

he was the hardest

crews, but as fierce and full of fight as a

worker of mj^

five

thorough-bred

mastift'.

We got on well together

;

I

did not,

however, engage him for the Rio de Silo Francisco, lest his
readiness with his shooting-iron might get me into trouble.

These men were

to receive

returning to then- homes

:

5 $000 per diem, and 2 $000 whilst

they asked a couple of days to prepare,

and they caused no unnecessary delay. Usually, every excuse is
offered, the favourite one, both here, on the Rio de Sao Francisco, and on the Amazons, being that the wife is about to grow
another olive branch.

As far as Jaguara, the River has shown us mere broken waters
(Quebradas), tide-rips (Maretas),
" Correntezas," '' Corradeiras," or

and
''

runs,

properly

called

Corredeiras," and''pontas

d'agua," when the stream swings swift around the points.
traveller,

however, will hear them denominated Cachoeira,f a

generic term,
schnelle,

King

The

equally applied to the smallest ripple or Strom-

caused

b}^

a sunken tree, and to the Paulo Affonso,

The word, therefore, Avill be used for convewithout attaching to it any importance. To a certain

of Rapids.

nience,

extent it is coiTect, the difference of levels in most of the rapids
is unimportant,

and we shall not find a fall or drop (Salto) till we

reach the Silo Francisco.

The little perpendicular steps in the

Cachoeira, or Correnteza, are called Corridas and Corred6cas,t
and especialh" occur in the scatters of rocks, known as 'Tai-

corruption of Itaipaba. §
On the other
"
Canal is the fair-way through the Cachoeira.

paba,
*'

a

* This

is the Tupy word from "yg,"
and "jara," lord. My "Lord of
the Water" was of Mandim or Peroba

v/ater,

wood, twenty-five feet long, with average
breadth of nineteen inches. As usual here,
and the same is the case on the Mississippi,
in defiance of all the rules of disjilacement,

the dug-out was made leek-shaped, bulging
at the bows, with a head larger than the
body, under the raftsmanlike idea that
this facilitates progress. We can only compare them with the "plough bows" and
the "short bluflF ships" which are now
figuring in our naval estimates.
f Also written Caxoeira, which has the

same pronuuciatiou.
in part with the

hand,

the

The word con'esponds

Raudales of the Orinoco,
" aba-nheendaba," which

Tupy it is
means equally a rapid (Cachoeira) or a cataIn

I'act (Cascata or Catadupa).
In parts of
the Brazil, especially the Province of Sfto
Panlo, Cachoeira means a rivulet, without
conveying the idea of raiiids.
Cachoeira
is a classical Portuguese word, scil. Cachaocira, a place
abounding in "cachoes,"
plural of cachao, derived by Constantio

from Coctio, boiling (water),
+ This is also a classical
used in a limited sense.
§ The word is Tupy,

Avord, locally

"Ita-ipa" meau^

D 2

The

river

skirts

breaks through a range which projects

into

it

or

that

cause rapids.

other:
a

''

[chap. hi.

a place where the

Caclioeii-a

hill,

or

HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

TttE

36

its

x^roper is

Generall}^

it

a

rocks

extends from one side to the

diminutive form is the "Camboinha," a *'Carreira,"

Corredor."

The upper

being mostty limestone, the obstruction
of loose stuff

(j^odras

Rio das Velhas

strata in the
is

often a narrow^ wall

movedicas) through which

a few Irish-

men with picks would open a wa}" in twenty-four hours

;

once

opened, the water laden with sand and gravel would not allow
it

to close.

Before this

is

attempted, I should advise, however,

the use of the diving-bell, or helmet, in each deep pool (fundao)

which precedes the break. These basins where the w^ater slackens
(remansbs, pocos, aguas paradas), and which

close above the
cradles where the gold *
lie

huge flumes and
and diamonds washed down to the river-bed will be found to
have settled, whilst the rock-bars crossing the stream must preserve the deposited matter from being swept awa}- during the floods.
In the Rio de Sao Francisco the Cachoeii'a is much more serious,
because formed either of the hardest sandstone or of lumpy
granite, whose crest numbers feet when here we have inches.
The Cachoeira, like the '' Pongo," or "Mai Paso" of the
Upper Amazon, is nearly alwaj^s found at the mouth of a trirapids,

are

in fact

butary, a river, or a corrego or stream wdiich brings down mud,

" creek-sand," and gravel.

It causes inundations

by arresting

the flow, and these floods would be easily remedied, whilst the

stream would not be injured by additional velocity. In rare
places it may be necessary to canalize across a neck of ground,
but the Brazil is not yet prepared for such expenses. t On the
Rio das Velhas there are generally houses near the Cachoeiras,
but, as a rule, in the dangerous parts the people know^ nothing of

the river a league above or below their doors
for fishing, crossing, and paying short visits,

:

they use canoes

but they travel by

the roads along the banks. +
It is translated " Guriug a stony reef.
or "Pedragullio," coarse gravel.
Castelnau (i. 424 and elsewhere) mentions
upon the Tocantins River the "Eutaipava,"
probably a peculiar way of spelling.
* Two attempts have been made to turn
the bed of the Rio das Velhas
one was
bcloAv Santa Lusia, and the other was above
Jaguara.
The success was partial, the
precious metal was found in quantities,

giilho "

;

Imt

after

an

enormous

expenditure

of

human labour, the floods came down and
the stream
course.

returned

violently to

its

old

At ju'esent the people cannot reach

the liottom of the bed, and coffer-dams,
dragging machines, and diving bells are
equally unknoM-n to them.
+ Upon this subject I shall offer some
obsciwations in Chapter 15.
In the Brazil, as in British India,
:}:

"

CHAP.

AT JAGUAR A.

III.]

37

The bad " Cachoeiras " on the Rio das Yelhas number ten,
and all will require more or less work before a tug can be employed upon the river. They are "wild rapids," Cachoeiras
brabas (bravas), the others being ''meia braba "

There is no rule for passing them.

or tame.
raft

must cvee]} down the

sides

and"mansa,"
Sometimes the

at other tunes the pilot must

;

make for the apex of the triangle, whose base is up-stream, and
whose arms are formed by jumping water. In many of the tidebroken line, containing a space smooth
which shows the deep bed. The rock or snag, on the
other hand, is known by the triangular ripple, with the base
down stream. The paddles should be taken in, and the raft
rips there is a double

as

oil,

must be pointed down with poles (sobre vara)

:

if

the

men are

lazy the}" will spare themselves this trouble, and they will pro-

bably come to

grief.

Where

the

cui'rent

is

very rapid,

it

is

advisable to diminish the pace by dropping down stern foremost.*
''

Cordelling," stern foremost by a rope from the bows, is mostly

confined to the tail-end of islands, where there

is

a gate in the

rocks through which the raft that would otherwise be swept down

by the current, must pass.

Of

course, the seasons

make the

some of them which are

the rapids f
during
the
floods,
formidable
are safe when the dries
greatest

difference in

;

set

in.

Generally they are most dreaded in the winter weather, when
I passed

them

:

during the inundations between December and

March, a small steamer might i)ass over many of them without
knowing that they are there. The boatmen swim like ducks,
A stranger without a lifedespite which many are drowned.

would have little chance of escape it is therefore advisable
to prepare for accidents by attacldng dangerous i^laces eii
belt

;

chemise.
water communication, wliicli sliould liave
been first undertaken, has been left to the
last.
I sliall have more to say upon this

*' cle

corrida.

descida)

Liais Avas on the Rio das Velhas
between April 10, 1862, and July 3, 1862.
His head pilot was one Clemeute Pereira
of Tabatinga, in the Vinculo do Mello.

" de bunda," more prettily " de poppa;"
opposed to the normal way " de bica " or

Hence the names of the Cachoeiras, and
other featiire.s, which are not all correct.

subject.

*

Commonly

called

(virar

or

f JM.

—

CHAPTER IV.
TO CASA BRANCA AND THE CACHOEIEA DA ONgA.
THE COUNTRY HOUSE.

—THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. —VISIT TO JEQUITIBA.
UGLY RAPIDS.
echo do Rio que o trovao Simula,

E lento »e prolong-a reboando,
Domingos Jose Gongalves de Magalhaes.

Friday, August 16, 1867.

—After a week

at Jaguara, I packed

up 111}^ chattels b,y an effort of the will, and, accompanied to the
*'

Porto "

b}' n\y kind

hosts, embarked.

We parted with many

hopes to meet again, and with long wavings of the hat

:

I fomid myself, once more, like Violante in the pantry

— alone.

M. Liais records in May from Jaguara downwards,

present^
a constant

depth of two metres, and no danger of grounding except from carelessness

:

was not my experience.

this, however,

Dm'ing the ten

We passed the bar of

miles of to-day there was little to observe.

the Rio Jaboticatuba,* and we shot through a broken bridge and

by a ferry raft with chain and pulle^', belonging to the Fazenda
de Santa Anna of Sr. Antonio Martms de Almeida. After another bend we sighted on the left a square of white and brown
houses with turreted entrance and private chapel. This place,
the head-quarters of the Casa Branca estate, lies below a iDlantain-

The land

covered hill rising above the wild growth of the banks.
is of rich limestone,

with a wealth of water

;

is rich in

cotton and

and rice, haricots and the castor-plant it breeds
horses and mules, black cattle, and pigs
and on the river's
banks large granular gold in rusty quartz looking like iron is still
sugar, maize

;

;

'"

The name is that of a fiuit, somewhat

like the common Jaboticaba (Eugenia CVui-

}mt the tree is taller, the bark has
a diflerent appearance, and tlie berries do
not grow so low along the trunk.
Canoes
ascend the stream for five leagues it heads
liflora)

;

;

in the Serra do Cipo, and is navigable for
the smallest craft to the Ribeiruo de Abaixo,
distant some twelve leagues. Further down
is the Corrego da Palma, whose
bend, a
little below the mouth, is called the Roto da

Palma.

;

CHAP, IV.]

TO CASA BRANCA AND THE CACHOEIPtA DA OX^A.

washed.

The four square leagues may be bought for 300 000 S 000,

30

:

or less.

A small pai-tj' of Anglo-Americans met me on the bank and introduced me to the owner, Sr. Manoel Francisco (de Abreu GuimaHe was a fine, handsome, middle-aged man, Portuguese
raes).
by bu-th about eighteen years ago he inherited half the estate of
his uncle, Major Joao Lopes de Abreu.
The manor house was
in the normal style, fronted by a deep verandah, from which the
owner can prospect the distillery, the mill, vdiose wheel informs
;

us that sugar is the staple growth and the other offices. At the
end of the verandah is the Chapel of N^ S^ do Carmo, with her
;

escutcheon of three gilt stars upon a wooden shield pamted blue
here there is chaunting on Sunday evenings.

negro quarters

are, as usual, ground-floor lodgings

square, which

is

generally provided with a

;

The Senzallas or

tall

within the

central

wooden

cross and a raised wooden stage for drving sugar and maize
the
tenements are locked at night, and, in order to prevent disputes,
;

the celibataires are separated from those of the married blacks.

These Fazendas are isolated villages on a small scale.
They
supply the neighbom'hood with its simple wants, dry beef, pork,
and lard, flom- of manioc and of maize,* sugar and spiiits, tobacco
and oil; coarse cloth and cotton thread; cofi'ee, and various teas
of Caparosa and orange-leaf. They import only iron to be turned
salt, wine, and beer, cigars, butter, porcelain,
into horse-shoes
drugs, and other '' notions."
There is generally a smithy, a
carpenter's shed, a shoemaker's shop, a piggery, where during
the last month the beasts are taken from the foulest food, and an
ample poultry yard.
The life of the planter is easily told. He rises at dawn, and his
;

* ''Farinha deiMillio" sliould be steeped
(molhado) for 24 hours; the manipuktion
is delicate, and especially the water must lie
flowing, or the floiu- turns sour, and acIt
quires a nauseous taste (farinha podre).
is then pounded (socado) in the stamps
the dough
(pilao) and sifted (penerado)
(massa) is toasted by slow degrees, otherwise it will be injured, in large pans of
tile stone or metal (Furnos de cobre, &c.)
Travellers
fixed in masonry over the fire.
have used these articles for drying skins
and plants. This farinha is best when
The people ignore the
eaten with milk.
corn bread of the United States. In making
manioc-farinha, the bag in which the raw
;

raspings were strained (tapety or tapiti, in
French colonies "la Couleiivi'e ") is supplied by placing palm-leaves above and
below the massa when in the press (prensa)
the sediment of the juice that comes from
the mass is called tipioca (our tapioca), and
the liquid is thrown away.
The Indians,
like the Dahomans, prepared a much roasted
and hard meal, which they called ouy-entan,
and the Portuguese know as "Farinha de
guerra" (Prince IMax. i. 116).
In the
Brazilian forests there is a poisonous species
called mandioca brava
in Europeans it
produces fatal vomitings, but the wild
people are said to eat it after keeping it
;

for a day.

'

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

40

[chap. tv.

and wash-hand basm with ewer,
After strolHng about the mill, which often

slave-valet brings liim coffee

both of sohd silver.*

begins work at 2 a.m., and riding over the estate to see that the
hands are not idling, he returns between 9 and 11 with his famil}^,

and if a bachelor with his head men, to breakfast. The sunny
hours are passed either in a siesta, aided by a glass of English ale
in reading
there is often nothing English in it but the name
The dinner is between
the newspapers, or in receiving visits.
sometimes later it is invariably followed by
3 P.M. and 4 p.m.
Often there is another relay of coffee before
coffee and tobacco.
sitting down to tea, biscuits and butter or conserves, and the day
ends with chat in some cool place. The monotony of this Vida
de Trade Friar's life is broken by an occasional visit to a
neighbour, or to the nearest country town. Almost all are excellent sportsmen, good riders, and ver}^ fond of shooting and

—

—

—

;

—

—

They are also doctors, great at administering salsapa-

fishing.

and other simples, and at prescribing diet. In Gardner's
time Buchan's "Domestic Medicine," translated into Portunow the Formulary of Chernoviz must
guese, was the book
have made a little fortune it is part of the furnitm'e, as was
" Guillim " in the country-houses of our grandfathers. Homoeopathy f throughout the Brazil is in high favour, and generally
preferred to the " old school " and the ''regular mode of practice."
The choice is the result, I presume, of easy action upon the high
nervous temperament of the race, and the chemist who deals in
the similia sbnillhus, makes more money than his brother the
rilla

;

;

allopath.

We A\ill now visit the Engenho, or sugar-house, the simplest
In the more civilized establishments a
light wheel works by a cogged axle, the two h'on or iron-banded
expression of a mill.
cylinders

* This

placed horizontally. J

the custom of Turkey,
On the Rio das Velhas
metal is preferred to the more frangible
material; for everywhere in the Brazil
negroes break -whatever they handle.
+ The establisher of homoeoimthy in the
Brazil, who corresponds with Dr. Samuel
Gregg in New England, was Dr. B. Mure,
a Frenchman, a most active and energetic
proselytiser, who worked the press with
unwearied energy,
"You and I are the
only men who love homoeopathy for its own
Egjrpt,

is

still

and Persia.

The

old

three

perpendicular

sake," Hahnemann said to him.
He died
I believe on the Red Sea, riding his favourite hobby-horse towards and for the benefit
of India.
The " Institute Homeoijatico do
Brasil " jniblished his "PraticaElementar,"

and it has reached several editions.
''Engenho de ferro deitado," opposed
Ij:

to the ancient

called

system of upright cylinders

"Engenho de pan empe. "

When

not worked by a water-wheel, a long lever
is carried round the walk by cattle,

TO CASA BRA^X'A AXD THE CACHOEIRA DA OXQA.

CHAP. IV.]

41

and a hopper sometimes protects
in these daj'S the slaves' hands from mutilation.
There is
an utter absence of Em-opean chemical science and of modern
machinerj': the vacuum-pan, the " subsider," and the "steam
Even the simple use of bone
evaporator," are equally unknown.
black and lime, to remove the albumen and the acetic acid of
The ripe stalk should be
the sugar, have not been adopted.
is
often
piled
in the yard for days, and
ground as soon as cut it
the outside skin, hacked b}' the awkward
the accidental rents
black, acidify the juice by admitting the au*.
The caldo or
garapa* is run right into the pans, which often are not thoroughl}'
rollers

are waxing obsolete ;

:

m

cleaned

;

it

is

down in coppers exposed to atmo-

slowl}" boiled

spheric action, and the laziness

of the boilerman prevents

his

skimming the juice with care. Hence, in this Land of the Cane,
those who prefer loaf sugar must send for it to Europe.!

The "American" party consisted of nine souls, including

a

and three young childi'en, white-headed, blue-eyed, redcheeked rogues, always blessed with health, restlessness, and
accidents
they are extreme contrasts to the slow, dull, whitybrowns of the land, and here the southern " cross " is uncommonly strong. They had been Hving for some four weeks in a
house assigned by the host, and during that time their united
wife

;

* The word is, I believe, ludian
it
properly means Caouy, or wine of sugarand it extends far.
cane, or wild honey
It is simply the fresh cane-juice, which
the people are fond of drinking after the
:

:

Indian fashion, wanii

;

to

me it is much

more agreeable cold.

Garapa is a favourite
beverage with Tx-opeiros, and it stands on
the shelves of every Yenda, together with
Capillaire and other mixtures.

For cattle,
and especially for horses, it is an admirable
fattening food.
+ The following is the rude system in
this part of the Brazil.
The canes are
gi'ound by the rollers, and the juice (caldo
or garapa, the Spanish huarapo) flows into
the boiling coppers (caldeiras)
of these
there are usually three, worked by a single
negro.
The trash (baga9o, in French bagasse) is still rich
it is good for animals,
especially pigs, it would supply fuel for a
steam engine, and it is excellent manure,
returning silex and saccharine matter to
Now it is generally piled in a
the soil.
heap and left to decay. From the coppers
the juice passes to the cooler (resfriadeira),
where feculences and impurities subside,
:

:

and the "caldo" crystallizes. It is then
placed in vats (formas) whose bottoms, half
the breadth of the tops, are pierced with
holes, and are pro\'ided ^vdth bungs. These
troughs are covered with brick-clay, never
animal charcoal
when the molasses (melado) has drained out, the sugar is dried in
the open air, raked about by negro boys,
and allowed to become thoroughly imjiure.
Finally, it is stored in the sugar chamber
(Caixao de assucar).
For distillation the molasses from the
troughs is led by channels (bicas) to a large
canoe-shaped wooden cistern (coche).
It is
then mixed with the scum from the boilers,
and reduced to about 11° Reaumur, in the
:

tank, for alcoholic fermentation (tanque de
azedar).
It is then carried to the still
(alambique), an old-fashioned and rarely
cleaned machine like a retort. This usually
receives three feeds (alambicadas) in the
twelve hoiirs
work being rax-ely done at
night.
Finally the spirit is poured into a
square wooden bin containing some 500
kegs this "tanqiie de Restilo " when hoilowed out of a single log is called " Paiol."
:

:

THE HIGHLAIs^DS OF THE BRAZIL.

42

[chap. iv.

—

26 $000 sa}^ 30/.
per annum. A wonderful infirmity of purpose seemed to affect
them the only reasonable cause of delay was a wish to try
the effect of a rainy season before squatting in the new Alabama.
Some liked the place, because it is above the difficult rapids, and
*WencIa

bill," food iiicliided,

had been

onl}^

;

connected by land and water with Sahara the market, a sine
qua non here. Others abused it they held [it unfit for the
plough, and objected to the Brazilian style of spontaneous proit is

;

duction, where the land is uncleaned, where the only implement
is

a bill-hook at the end of a long handle used to lop off the

sprouts of the young wood springing from undecayed roots, and
They naturally
where gathering is the only work and care.

enough objected to plant in the same field cotton and corn, beans
and Palma-Christi, the sole rude succedaneum for a rotation of
crops now known in the Brazil.

15 $000
tracts

The best lands are here sold at

—40 $000 per alqueire of 6 x 2 square

may be purchased

for

acres,

and large

To work profitably,

much less.

—

however, they requii'e stock and fifteen black hands the latter at
The
present a very expensive article, rangmg from 501. to 100?.
production per acre is of cleaned cotton, one bale of 500 lbs., worth

40 bushels of corn fetch from 40 $000 to
80 $000, and the same is the price of an equal quantity of beans
a minimum of 200 $000

;

and ricinus seed.* The acre also produces 100 lbs. of tobacco,
worth 60 $000, and the price will be raised by proper treatment.
Not being over-burdened with money, the colonists must rely
mainly upon tune-purchases. I heard afterwards that they had

One of
bought a raft, and descended the river to Tralm-as.
them, Mr. Davidson of Tennessee, volunteered to accompany me
as adjutant-general I liked the man, and gave him a passage to
;

the Rapids of Paulo Affonso.
The host was a bachelor, and the evening of my arrival was
a "pagoda," however, not
ushered in by music and dancmg
;

a "fandango," nor the peculiar Congo style of saltation known as
I could not enjoy it, the sun had been overthe " batuque." t

my principal sufferpowerful, and the breeze had been too cool
ings were from cramps in the fingers, here, apparently, a common
:

* This mamona-oil sells at 1 $ 200 per
The
alqueire—nearly 8 imperial gallons.
Southerners are familiar with the plant,
hut they rarely hurn the oil, as is done in

tliis

part of the Brazil,

f Not l)atucca, as it is written hy Prince
Max.

—
CHAP. IV.]

TO CAS A BRANCA AND THE CACHOEIEA DA ONCA.

43

had arrived on Frida}', but the host wouhl not
give me leave to depart before Monday, and then, also, not till
My raft was plentifully sui)plied by him with
after breakfast.
fine ''Restilo," or rather *' Lavado," whose exceeding strength
provoked the wonder and admii'ation of the river. A single wineglass of this spirit before turning-in, especially when the wind
and rain rushed under the raft-awning, was a protection against
Thus, Peter Pindar
ague.
complaint.

I

:

my friend, the power of death defy ?
Pray keep your inside wet, your outside dry."

" Would you,

I found also a six-months' provision of fine, white, clayed Papa-

accompanied me

9x6x2 inches.

Sr. Manoel Francisco
"
Eliza," embraced me, and wished me
to the

duras sugar bricks,

the best of voyages ; I parted from him with regret.

August 19.

—After two hours we passed on the right bank the

Paracatu influent,* a buttress of caverned rock ending a hill

was the

fii'st

of three picturesque

;

it

composed of calcareous

clift's

blocks, tufted with trees, and separated by shallow green hollows.

In front the distances were charmingly painted by the pink-blue
us twenty-three days
ail* of the Brazilian spring, which lasted
the gauzy, filmy sky
longer, till we reached the Eio Pardo
blurred the outlines of the vegetation and rendered mirrory the
surface of the stream.
The timber was small, the tallest growths
being the Jatoba and the Angico Acacia ; the most spreading was
;

the Gamelleira or wild fig, that kindly gift of Nature, with dense,
cool, dark-green foliage,

widely-extending boughs.

and

*'

beard of wood"! garnishmg its

Clearings extended from the water to

making brown patches of dead vegetation and
oranges and bananas showed where the dwelling places lurk.
There was the usual beautiful variety of hue and foim, so attracThe mauve Quaresma,
tive to all wdio have an " eye for trees."
the chrysoprase of the J^oung sugar, and the fan-shaped Arrowcane (uba),t here 14 to 15 feet high, tasselHng the long, smooth
reaches, and a hundred tints of leek-green, gold-green, darkthe hill-sides,

;

green, spinach-green, brown-green,
* TLis must not he confounded with the
Paracatu influent of the true Sao Francisco.
The word thus written means good (catu)
others hold it to be a corstream (para)
ruption of Pira-catu, good fish (pira or
;

pink-green,

and red-green,

pyra).

+ Barba de Pau or Tillandsia.
J " Uira " is also in Tuj)y a
aiTOW, and Uira9aba, a quiver,

shaft or

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

44

[chap. iv.

contrasted with the white flowerets of the Assa-peixe branco, with
the silver-lined leaves

and with the coppery
foliage of the Copah3^ha.*
Here rose a tall skeleton, blasted by
lightning, or slain by the annual fires there a nude form enjoyed
the disrobing of the dry season before assuming the impermeable
of the rains
there a panached palm rose bending and rustling
in the wind.
Now the trees shot boughs horizontally over the
stream and curled up or put forth secondary branches towards
of the Sloth-tree,

;

;

the

light;

rampant,

orchids were rare,

but the llianas were as usual

and pendulous birds'-nests occupied the best places.

There half-cut trunks bent then* heads into the water, whilst
others, inclining down the river in the teeth of the wind, showed
the force of the floods. Masses of vegetation rolled bulging down
the bank.
"We especially remark the massive digitations of the
Castor-plant, and the Taboca Cabelluda (hairy bamboo), a
graceful, maidenly shape, but armed with angry thorns cockspurshaped, and disposed in threes.
The Hibiscus, 10 to 12 feet
high, here known as the

Mangui or Mangue,f will long attract

the eye by its j^ellow cotton-like blossoms,

b}' the

3'oung cordi-

form leaves with velvety lustrous green, and by the dead infoliation washed with faint vermilion, looking from

aftxr

like spangles

of red.

Below Paracatu is the P090 feio, or " ugly well," where a rock
projecting from the left bank caused the little whiids and regurgitations here called, from theii* shapes,

" panellas de agua," or

Three hours carried us down to Pau de Cheu'o, I
thus long had it taken to coast this part of our friend's grounds.
water-pipkins.

The estate, belonging to half-a-dozen owners, is estimated at 200
alqueires, and may, they told us, be bought for 8 to 10 contos of
reis.

A Californian who lately Adsited it, declared that he could

make 2 $ 000 per diem by panning the gold which hes unworked
in the banks. Then we came to the Lapa, the longest and tallest
limestone blufl' on the river.

This ''rupes prsecelsa sub auras"
broken into a thousand cracks and holes, whilst the cavern is
fronted b}^ the most corpulent of stalactites.
Here the Calcaire
is based upon an iron-stone grit, which stains the banks with
is

* The Copaliyba, also written Copaiva, Copauba (Copaifera officinalis, copaier, "capivi " tree) will l»e mentioned in Chap. C.
t Arruda calls this Malvacea Gruachnma

(Guaxuma) do Mangue (Hibiscus liernaniljucensis).

X Literally " perfumed wood," a Laurinea.

TO CASA BRANCA AND THE CACHOEIRA DA OXgA.

45

iridescent water and rests upon sand, evidently the old bed.

In

CHAP. IV.]

many parts the slopes are frosted over with a curious incrustation,
which lasted to the mouth of the Eio das Yelhas.
The crew
declared that

it

was the efflorescence of arsenical pyrites from

We dissolved it in boiling water, strained it

Morro Velho.

and made a hardish cake of uncrystallized
matter like impure sugar the taste was that of alum and saltpetre. The latter, as in Kentucky, often overlies a whitish-yellow,
arenaceous soil, whose pores act as strainers.
The rest of the
surface was a rich soil some six feet deep, or double what satisfies
the farmer on the fertile Mississippi.
Now the currents are becoming rapids, and the bed is studded
through

flannel,

;

with islets of calcareous stone, dangerous during half-flood.

At
Palma* M. Dumont's navigation at j^i'esent ends.
Four huts stand at the Bari'a de Pau Grosso, justh' so called

the Porto da

from the huge timber of its banks. It is said to head near
the Rotulo f estate, which was bought from a certain Marquez
(P. N.) of Sahara by the English Company at Cocaes, who
intended

it

to supply then- miners with provisions.

Fazenda extended over a

The smwey

and cost some 1400/.
The overseer under the General Manager, Mr. J. Pennycook
Brown, is a Mr. Broadliurst, whose father, together with a sonin-law, Manuel Simplicio, bought from Sr. Bonifacio Torres part
of the estate called " Cana do Reino."
Mr. Broadluu'st the
elder brought out English machinery for carding, spinning, and
weavmg cotton he was afterwards drowned in the Cipo Eiver,
which runs out of a dip in the mountain. The same happened
to two or three other Englishmen
an accident charitably attributed to the superior excellence of the rum. The Fazenda do
Eotulo has fine red and black soils, based on limestones, and in
two places saltpetre has been worked. It is to be sold for
50 000 S 000, but it has the disadvantage of being far from water
On the other hand, it is some six leagues long by two
carriage.
broad, and it would support a little settlement of forty families.
At 5.10 p.:m. we idty came to anchor off a sand-bank, the Praia
da Cancancao t it is backed by land bare of grass, and a few huts
of this

j'ear,

;

—

:

:

* Or Porto das Palmas.
it i.s
+ Rotulo means a roll or label
generally corrupted to "Rochclo."
"
J "Of the nettle (Jatrophaurens). The
;

wild men, -who were well acquainted ^vitl^
had given names to the medicinal
growths of their forests, used this j^lant in
local phlebotomy.
They sM-itched with it

and

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

46

We slept on board the

[chap. iv.

and
were pleasantly sminised to find no insects. The night was
still as the grave, and at times curious sounds from water, earth,
and air reminded me of those described by wanderers in the
Amazonian forests the work of some night-bird or beast, or fall
At midnight, tall
of heavy fruit, or the plashing of hungry fish.
distinct pillars of white mist, silvered by the moon, formed a
are on the other side.

^'

Coffin,"

—

majestic colonnade slowly progressing down stream.

the hot

humid air of the Kiver Valley was clear

At 4 a.m.

before sunrise,

;

however, a cold draught swept from the Serra Grande or do

EspinhaQo on the east,* and condensed the vapour into a thick
fog.
During the day the breeze chops round to the north,
forming a head- wind which refrigerates the surface stream the
The evenings are
fish will bite at midnight but not at noon.
;

mild, serene, delightful.

—

August 20. We resolved to set out betimes, but the vapours
kept us at anchor till long after sun-rise, and we had reckoned

The country now assumes a type

without (including) om* host.

which

will last.

In the

offing is a grass}^ table-land

or ridge

either with one or two distances, bristled with a few trees, and
rising high above the avenue of bush

the stream flows.
split

and

through which

forest,

After a couple of hours we paddled under a

bridge which had been carried away in 1858

:

like that of

Casa Branca it should have been raised at least 50 instead of
32 feet (10.30 metres), a fair allowance for extraordinar}" floods.
The site is, as usual, badly chosen instead of being divided into
two a little lower down, it runs like a causeway right across a
branch channel formed by inundations on the left bank.
The
original cost had been 2:800^000, and the lioles made for plantAn engineer
ing the piers had yielded 4 400 $ 000 of gold.
instead of 60/.
and the owner
offered to repair it for 6007.
;

:

—

—

therefore prefers a raft.

Just below
Jequitiba

;

t

it,

to

" larboard,"

here

is

a lakelet draining into the

the part aftcctcd, and when sufficient iuflannnation Avas produced, they made a
great number of incisions witli a stone or a
knife, a style of cupping more barbarous
even than the African.
^ This corresponds with the south-east
wind that blows at sunrise on the lower

is

the pretty

little

village

of

main channel

Mississippi.

+ Or

Grequitiha, a magnificent forest
(Couratari legalis, Mart.
Pyxidaria
macrocarpa, Schott. ). The colossus is often
180 feet high, and its spreading shade
would slielter a small caravan.

tree

;

TO CASA BRANCA AND THE CACHOEIRA DA ONCA.

CHAP. IV.]

4/

Opposite we sighted the Fazenda do Jequitiba, a
belonging
to Colonel, better known to the people
sugar estate

further down.

as Ca2)itao

Domingos Diniz Couto.

It

was impossible

to

pass

and the visit led to the expected result a room was shown,
breakfast was ordered, and with difficulty I extracted a promise
after the early meal.
for dismissal on the next day
One cannot
liim,

;

—

sympathise with the Northron's estimate of Brazilian hospitality.
Besides the fact that the guest has obligations as well as the
host, I always find in the Fazenda sufficient intelligence, especially on local matters, to make up for lost time.

At Jequitiba I
was asked about the murder of the Baron yon der Decken; at
Jaguara my name was shown to me in the " Eevue des Deux
Mondes," a publication which, not havmg been salaried, persistently abuses the Brazil, and consoles the Brazilians by its gross
ignorance of the subject which it maltreats.*
Colonel Dommgos has a fine taste for good soil people wonder
that he still works at adding acres to acres, but the process has
now become part of his existence. He has some forty square
leagues of land, and trayellmg down-stream for three daj^s we
shall pass his estate.
Besides this Fazenda he owns the Ponte
Noya on the Barra de Jequitiba, about six miles distant, the
Paiol with 100 head of negroes, the Bom Successo with
upwards of 300, and the Laranjeii-as, He will sell any or all of
them, and from 1 pair to 500 paii- of hands he begged me to
pubhsh this sporting offer, wdiich I accordingly do.
We spent a pleasant day, and were yisited by M. Bruno yon
;

;

German engineer, married, and settled near Ouro
he is now suryeymg the Mello estate. A small Portu-

Sperling,

Preto

;

a

guese landholder told me that he had heard of coal in the neigh-

bourhood, but exact information was not to be obtained.

As the

Colonel was suffering from cataract he sent Sr. Antonio Justmo
de Oliyeira, his Idnd and ciyil admmistrador, to show us his fine

The place would be a Paradise with a steamer passing
by it once a month. The gardens, sloping down to the stream,
grounds.

giye a pretty yiew of the little Arraial on the opposite side, with
its

chapel, backed

many

by pink-blue

acres were planted

^^'ith

* I refer especially to the "Review's"
upon the Brazilo-Paraguayan war.
Either it knows the truth, and conceals, or
articles

hills in the far

a

distance.

The

few roses, cockscombs, and

rather travesties it; or it ignores facts, and
sliouhl seek information.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

48

other flowers

the fruit trees were mangos,

;

figs,

[chap. iv.

Avocado pears

(Abacutis, Persea gratissima), and large Cuyetes or gourd trees

(Crescentia Cujete)

;

the rest was sugar* and bananas.

There

was a noble row of Jaboticabeiras (the well-known Eugenia cauliand
fiora) with cupped or rounded summits, dense foliage,
smooth myrtaceous bark, ever^^iere studded along bole and
bough with small yellow-white flower-tassels and young berries,
In Sao Paulo the tree bears fruit
little larger than a pin's head.
only once a year in early summer, October and November here
I had looked forward to the myrtle
it is continually productive.
season as one does to the strawberries in England and the cherthe tree, however, is not found on the Lower Sao
ries in France
Francisco a great disappointment. Its fruit is one of the most
delicate, in size a little larger than the biggest gooseberry, with a
:

;

—

tough coriaceous skin
flavour is lost

Brazilian

that of the

like

The

grape.

when the Jaboticaba is brought to market

;

the

proper thing is to eat it off the trunk a tree may be hired at Sao
Paulo for 10 $000 per annum, and " andar ii Jaboticaba " t en
;

famille is a very pleasant picnic.

August 21.

—Having

offered

some parting advice to our host

some ophthalmist at Eio de Janeiro, before
couching became too late, we set out at 7 a.m., much condoled
The river was beautiful its grassy bluff seemed to bar
with.
the course, and the irregular lay of the heights told us what was
coming. At 1.40 p.m. our troubles began, they were to last for
Our awning nearly came to grief at a sharp volta or
five days.
bend I a little below the Barra do Diamante. Twenty minutes
The Saco
afterwards we came to the Saco da Anta or d'Anta.
"
Horseshoe bend " of
or Reviravolta here corresponds wdtli the
the stream makes a sharp turn, at
the North American rivers
times running almost parallel with itself, and the land on its
convexity becomes a quasi-peninsula with a narrow neck.
touching a

visit to

;

;

* I

have rarely seen

certainly none in the
Cayana quality, and

finer

Brazil.

the

KUgar-cane,
It

stalks

is

the

when

are 10 feet long by 1^ inch in diaSuch is the effect of the Ma9ai)e
meter.
ciit

soil.

" To go to Jaboticaba."
f
X Usually i>ronounced in Minas and Sao
Paulo "Yorta." The confusion of the r
and I are as common as in China, and

I

have lieard a " University man " and a

Depnty call the Estrella da
Alva (the morning star) Estrera da Ai-\'a.
As has been said, many of the "Indians"
Provincial

cannot

I.
Moreover, in
asserted that /, r,
This, however, cerand I arc wanting.
tainly does not appear in the Lingoa Geral,
which ignores f?, /, Ii, I, and,-:,

Tupy it

articulate
is

the

iiopularly

t

TO CAS A BRAXCA AXD THE CACHOEIRA DA OXgA.

CHAP. IV.]

Here a grassy bluff on the
the stream

;

the

tall

rock

right

falls into

bank fends

off and

49

loops

the bed, throwing over a

the
ridge which causes the water to break nearly right across
material is lamellar shale, porous, and full of holes it might
;

;

The current, as we

easily be removed by a small steam-hammer.

can see, swings to the left, having a large sand-bank to the right,

bends in the latter dkection under a tall bank and disappears ;*
Chico Diniz went down in the
the com'se is from west to east.
tender carrying our damageable goods, and cut away some
branches dangerous to the awning. We then floated along
the bank to port under pole, and stern foremost, an occupation

which cost us eight minutes, and the preparations for it half-anhour.

After the " Tapir's bend" we at once came to the Funil
as in

Sao Paulo, pronounced Funi.

—

This name

—

—here,

entonnoii', or

on the Brazilian
funnel
in land formations means
rivers it is usually applied to rapids breaking across the head of
Here an
a long, straight reach that ends in a vanishing pomt.
a defile;

eyot or sand-bank, covered with gravel and pebbles, bisected the

upper entrance, and the course was from west to east. We
bumped down the island's right side, hugging it to escape bad
then we poled over,
rocks on the river's bank to starboard
alwaj'S a delicate oi)eration, to the proper left side, avoided the
" brush," and made fast. Bag and box were sent down the left
branch uxthe tender, wdiich ascertained that the rock-bed was now
;

Perforce we again bumped across

too much exposed for the raft.

the stream below the heavy central break to the right bank, where
canoes, plantains, and abut denoted the Fazenda do Funil.
At 5 P.M. we prej)ared our dormida (bivouac) on the Praia do
Funil, a dry sand-bank to the

the hearth, and
w^here.

I

tliis

left.

The first step was building

did not take long, fuel being found every-

observed that,

contrary to

the

African habit,

my

people preferred the small fire, which was the practice with the
" Indians," who, to warm their naked bodies even in the wigwam,

and to defend themselves against wild beasts, used to make then*

The

total windings

are south-southnorth-east, north,
at last the general direction, north-

five on the right and fom- on the left.

This

east,

obstacle would severely try the engines of a

M. Liais, who descended the Rio
west.
das Velhas, where the river must have been
somewhat fuller, shows nine detached rocks,

tug going up-stream.
t ^M. Liais shows a clear way between
the sand-bank on the left and three lumps
of rock dotted along the right bed.

east,

and

south-east,

VOL.

II.

E

)

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

50

[chap. IV.

women keep wood burning all night.* Came Seca and fish, when
any is caught, are skewered and planted by the blaze. The next
operation is to make Angu, that almost universal dish porridge,
hasty-pudding, stirabout, polenta, mush, and the ugali of Unyam;

Fuba or maize meal is thrown Httle by little into boiling
water and moved with a stick, or it will be lumpy it should be
The favourite national
eaten as soon as the whole is wetted, f

wezi.

:

dish, feijao floatmg in lard,l is kept upon the fire all night so as

be ready for the dawn-breakfast. The men pass the evenmg
chatting and smoking till ready for sleep, when they spread their
mats and hide well in the smoke -drift, and no wonder that they
to

so often suffer from Cadeira or lumbago.

The air was delightfully pure, and I sat for some time hstening
"
to the voice of an old friend. " Pst

—the blow— Whip-poor*'

This Caprimulgus begins to be vocal with the crepussomewhat lilve certain owls, especially the Strix Aluco of

Will."
cule,

Em'ope,§ and his loud and remarkable cry will extend, with
His mancertain intervals, all down the Rio de Sao Francisco.
* Like Africans, they used to light fires
side of newly made graves, not to
frighten away evil spirits or the devil (according to travellers), bnt for the personal comfort of the defunct.

by the

t Another form is called Mingau (not
it is
Mingant, as Prince Max. i, 116)
made of manioc, farinha in water, and
sometimes with a little cinnamon. A third
preparation is termed Cariman, derived from
running
Caric to run, and Mani Manioc,
"
manioc. " In old authors we find " mingan
or "lonker," potage or thick "bouillie,"
made with salt, pepper, and manioc-meal.
Yves d'Evreux mentions a Norman interThe Pirao is
preter named David Mingan.
farinha mixed with hot water, or better
it is a fastill, with broth of fish or fowl
voui'ite accompaniment with fish.
Popular writers inform us that fatty
and carbon-producing substances, so neces;

'

'

;

Ij:

sary to the inhabitants of the Arctic regions,
lose their use as we approach the Equator,
and are supplanted by fruits, rice, and
This is by no means
similar light food.
The Italian consumes a quantity
the case.

which would make an Englishman
sick. The Hindu swallows at a meal nearly
a tumbler full of Ghi or melted butter, and

of oil

few,

if any, Northrons can eat his greasy
sweetmeats with impunity.
The naked
negro, panting near the Line, saturates his
food with palm oil, and even at Bahia in

the Brazil, where the " coloured cuss from
Africay " is comfortably clothed, where he
can buy meat in abundance and obtain any
quantity of ardent spirits, the oily and
spicy caruru and vatapa (j)alm-oil chop, &c.
Near the Equator,
are eaten by all classes.
the damp heat has much the same efi'ect
upon diet as the cold of high latitudes ;
strong difi"usible stimulants, port, sheriy,
and stout are better than thin claret and
French wines, and meat is much more digestible than vegetables.
Practice is worth
all the theories or rather the hypotheses of
pseudo -theorists, and the habit of one writer
copying from the other without an attempt
at independent inquiry traditionalises a
variety of error.
§ Prince Max. mentions sundry other
Engoulevens.
There is a larger species
than the common Whip-poor-will, which
calls Ibiyaou, and he (i. 267)
Bacouraou.
Another (described i. 370) is
the Caprimulgus a^thereus, which soai-s
high in the air like a bird of prey. A third
is the Mandalua (C. grandis), white mixed
with brown
and its sharp whistlings fill
the forest.
The German ornithologist described for the first time (iii. 91) the Curyangu, a day-bird which flies during the
light, and mixes with horses and black
cattle in the ])asture and the Caprimulgus

Marcgraf

:

;

leucopterus (iii. 178), whose beak
that of C. grandis.

is

like

"

CHAP. IV.]

TO CAS A BRANCA AND THE CACHOEIEA DA ONgA.

51

we observed, resemble those of tlie N. American
species, and we often saw by day a pair nestling in the sand.
The Portuguese call the bird '' John cut Wood," and it is a curious
commentary upon the ''ding-dong" theory that one race hears

ners, as far as

" Pst—Whip-poor-Will " and the other " Joao CortaPau." By
mentally repeating the words I could produce either sound, but
the Latin version seems j^referable.

August 22.

—We were aroused

or Curyangu (not Criango)

bii'd

at an early horn- by the Corvanoii

(Caprimulgus diurnus, the Na-

cunda of Azara), which seemed to say, " How well ye w^oke "
This goat-sucker has a musk-colom-ed coat, with white spots and
bars on the wings. I often disturbed a quiet pair nestlmg by day
!

in the shade of rock crevices ; the flight was that of oui* night-

and it was always short and low. We set out at 6 a.m.
somewhat prematurely, and the " smokes " obscm'ing the riversurface, nearly caused an accident
a tree on the left bank, wliich
could have been cut in ten minutes, drove us amongst the stones
of a " rush."

jars,

;

At 8 A.M. we shot the Saco do Barreiro (de Gado)* the Bend
These places abound on the Eios
das Velhas and de Sao Francisco the banks of red, grey, yellow,
or dull brown clay are burrowed with lines of holes by the
tongues of beasts and the beaks of bii'ds, which usually visit them
As in the United States, the lick is often
in early morning.
and the practice must be compared with the
name,
only
by
saline
In parts the
earth-eating disease of Africans in the New World.
breeders mix salt with the clay and tlu^ow it upon the stream-side

of the Salt-Lick (of Cattle).

;

to i)roduce an artificial glaisiere, but as a rule it is not considered
sufficient to lay
*

down salt, as the lick requii'es a peculiar sort

Liais calls it "Caclioeira do Pao
Here the stream runs from south
to noi-th, and is faced by three low blue

M.

Seco."
hills.

We easily descended in four minutes,

crossing from right to left,

and thus avoid-

ing the breaks on both sides.
According to Azara (i. 55) the "Indians,"
who ignored the use of pure salt, supplied
it by the saline "barro," which they devoured in abundance. Prince Max. remarks
" La glaise du Bresil n'a pas le
(ii. 257)
gout salin, et je n'ai rencontre chez les habitans indigenes de ce pays aucun mets sale.
A cui'ious commentary upon the supposed
It must, hownecessity of the condiment.
ever, be observed that the Tupys were
:

eminently carnivorous, and thus they found
This of course
would not be the case with "vegetarians.'
Earth eating is not unknowTi to the Brazilians.
I have shown that in Africa, as

their salt in their meat.

amongst the Ottomac Indians, whom Humboldt describes as intrepid geophagi,_ it
is eaten in large quantities without doing
injury.
I cannot, therefore, with St. Hil.,
hold that the Ottomacs are the sole excepHe detion to the fatality of geophagism.
clares that the Brazilians prefer the clay of
this is also the case in
the termitaria
;

Unyamwezi,

where

it

is

called

earth."

E 2

'
'

sw^eet

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

[chap. iv.

After two unimportant features,* we

drew near the

52

of clay.

Maquine Rapids, which have a very had name. No one could
explain the word our pilot " guessed " that it was that of a huge
*'
ki'aken " like the " worms " of '' strange dragons of vast magnitude " which haunted England in the "good old" days. It is
;

called the ''Maquine Pequena," to distinguish it from a creek lower

down the river.
The first symptom was a fragmentary ledge on hoth banks,
dark friable lunestone tilted uj) at an angle of 40° this is called
We made fast to the left bank near
the Cabeceiras do Maquine.
;

up a gently sloping hill. Here we
could look down the straight reach, some 400 yards long about
600 feet of smooth water separate the Ui)per from the Lower
Rapids, which are considered to be the worse.
They are formed
by the bluff end of a short range, whose general course is to the
north-east, but which bends to the north-north-east, throwing the
stream from its main direction to north-east 25°. The limestone
base forms an oblique ridge from north-west to south-east, where
the water breaks right across, and even at this season only one
a fine cotton-field that runs

;

rock appeared well above the surface.

The friable limestone,

and stratified, is easily broken with the hand
before
approaching the narrow wall there is a fundao or hollow at least
ten feet deep, and thus nature would keep open the narrowest
split

;

road.

After reconnoitering, we embarked with the " trem " or luggage in the tender, which now drew 4 5 inches. Apparently

—

there was a fair way on the right, but it is not shown in the Plan,

and the

pilots

always prefer the

left.

We went to port of a

and, safely crossmg the broken water, we
made for the half-way house, a sand-bank on the starboard side
fronting the smooth that divides the Rapids.
Hence we watched
the "great ole barque" take her lumbering way; after two or

^central rock-knob,

three chancy swings and half broachings-to she obeyed the pole,
and came down gallantly.!
Having rested till noon, we prepared to attack the Maquine
The Cachoeiras das duas Barras and
das Cabras.
t M. Liais's plan shows a clear way in
the midstream, and two main obstructions.
The upper break is of two blocks of stones,
with the thalweg in the centre. Then after

come three detached rockand ojjposite them a
corresponding formation, but smaller and
more broken.
In this section there are
two stones, which must be removed from
the

smooth,

piers on the right,

the thalweg.

"

CHAP. IV.]

TO CASA BRANCA AND THE CACHOEIRA DA OXgA.

53

Abaixo or Lower Rapids. Fortunately, I left my books on board
AVe went to the left, grounded on the rock ridge,
tlie ''Eliza."
which slants like the upper formation, and were whirled round
against the trees

I could

;

save

only

my journals,

somewhat

modest and uninvidious comparison, Csesar,
Camoens and Mad. Andre (de la Mediocrite). Reaching the left
bank we viewed from the feathery shade of a charming Jatoba the
doings of the ark. A second portage had been made, each occupying some two hours, and, thus relieved, she slid safely down in
her usual playful elephantine way. But she was assisted by
certain moradores of the neighbouring hamlet of Maquine Pequeno, Jose Luiz de Oliveira, who, accompanied by his two
cousins, stripped, and lent a hand in lifting the "Eliza" at a
They would take no reward, but a glass of our
critical moment.
fine cohobated Lavado and a few cigars seemed to content them.
After shooting this "Long Sault," the line, "barring" the
easily avoided scatter of sunken rocks Q^edras mortas), should
have been safe, but it was not so. M}^ men had worked well,
but they had di-unk still better. They dashed upon a limestone
They then bumped hea^dly and unnecesrib near the left bank.
sarily in two places
the tender was almost lost, and I felt by no
means comfortable as we approached the Cachoeu-a da Onca.
Probably from these adventitious circumstances, the Ounce Rapids
like,

to institute a

;

have left with me a more unpleasant impression than all the other
combined difficulties of the Rio das Yelhas. *
After about two miles we turned to south-south-east and
entered a gorge already gloomy at 4 p.m.
crying

!

" 'Sta gritando," it

said the men, giving anxious ear to the roar.

is

Advancing

swiftly for a few yards we saw the Cachoeii'a, breaking across with

dangerous projecting rocks.

We poled down the left side, and

by opening too much to starboard we struck heavily upon the
stones, and the water spouted up between the planl^s of the platHaving escaped this shock, we crossed the stream to a
form.
smooth on the right and prospected it. The result was a sternI

went down entirely by the

left ; tlie

however, evidently runs at the
middle of the bed, and this, when opened,
In the Upper
will give a clear passage.
Maquine the detached rock or rocks must
be knocked away, and in the lower the wall
must be pierced. It would, I think, be
easy here to work a large hammer, not by
stream,

steam but by water power,
* Yet the Plan shows only a stone pier,
and two hard heads on the right, faced by
five scattered rocks which may easily be
removed. The danger is from the detached
stone upon which the current breaks immediately below the upper " gate.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

54

presentation, and

we slipped down in

[chap. iv.

eight minutes, narrowly

shaving to port a dark laminated stone, dij^ping 50°, which was
angrily throwing

off the

and upon which the current

waters,

broke.

The crew was tired and out of condition

;

I resolved to avoid,

by an early halt, the risk of a bad accident. We found on the
left, opposite a clump of five huts called Jatoba, a few j^ards of
sand under a precipitous bank of yellow clay the men termed
;

the place

Praia da Cachoeira da

On^a.

The day had been

wearying work, we had nearly boxed the compass.

An angry mass of purple-brown cloud hung in the western sky;
my men, hoping that the stream would be swollen, prayed for
which at this season sometimes lasts three or four daj^s.
At night the view was suggestive. On our right was the ominous
growl and the lurid flashing of the Ounce Rapid from the left or
down-stream came the rattling babble of the Coroa braba, the

rain,

:

" Fierce Sandbar," whilst the sky was red with the last gleam of
day, and flashed with the frequent prairie-fu^e.*

In front flowed
the further waters were scolloped
with the black reflections of the trees, which rose high where the
Little Bear should have been.
And this desert stream will presently become a highway of
nations, an artery suppl3dng the life-blood of commerce to the
world.
The sand-bank upon which we lay may be the landingplace of some wealthy town.
The " Ounce Rapid " and the
the stream, dark steely blue

;

"Fierce Sandbar" will be silenced for ever.
And the busy
hum of man will deaden the only sounds which now fall upon our
ears,

the ba^dng of the

Guara

wolf, f

and the tiny bark of

the little brown bush rabbit.

* St. Hil.

(III.

i.

202) declares that in

Western Minas cultivators fire the grass
only during the moon's wane (dans son decours).

t The word is G-u-^ra-a, a great eater,
voracious.
**G" is the relative,

very

"u" is to eat, and -ara (in Hindostani
" wala ") is the verbal desinence. Guara
(an eater) is intensified by the post positive
a.
The name is of the animal here called
wild dog or Brazilian wolf (lobo), the old
Ursus carnivorus being very well calculated
to mislead
the Aguara-guazu of Azara,
and the Canis mexicanus of Cuvier. I have
seen closely but a single specimen, which
;

mucli resembled the French wolf, except
that the coat was redder.
This carnivor
especially favours the lands where forest
and prairie meet or mix.
I have never
heard of its attacking man but, on the
other hand, there are no snows to make it
;

ravenous.

There is also a swamp -bird called Guara
or Gara (an Ibis), a word derived from ig,

and ara, a parrot or parroquet
"water-parrot," from its fine pink-red

water,

:

colour.

As a desinence, guara means lord or
master e.g. pyguara, a guide, literally lord
of the path or foot (py).
;

;

CHAP. TV.]

TO CASA BRANCA AND THE CACHOEIilA DA ON^A.

55

We are taught to dwell far too much upon what has been
upon the apxri, the proem, the first canto of the grand Epos of
Humanity we are too indifferent about what is to be, in the days
when the whole poem shall be unfolded. Rightly understood,
there is nothing more interesting than travel in these New
Worlds. They are emphatically the Lands of Promise, the *' expression of the Infinite," and the scenes where the dead Past
;

shall be buried in the presence of that nobler state to which we

must now look in the far Futm'e.

—

;

CHAPTER y.
TO THE FAZENDA DO BOM SUCCESSO.
THE C0R6A, or sand-bar.

—

PREPARATIONS TO VISIT DIAMANTINA.— THE
PLEASURES OF SOLITUDE,

The day is placid in its going
To a ling'ring sweetness bound,
Like a river in its flowing
Wordsworth.

Before setting out it will be necessary to describe the *' Coroa"*
feature, of which a neat specimen awaits us.

The "crown"

the ''sand-bar" of North American rivers,
an island in the stream, but very unhke our " holm," inch or
Qjoi.

is

It is mostty,

as

we have observed

of

Cachoeira,

the

at the mouth of some little stream where the influx of fresh water

slackens the flow, and it is often built upon detached stones or

upon rock-ridges. The current swings to either side, leaving in the
centre a bald convexity like the shaven pole of a Coroado Indian,

and of all sizes, from yards to acres.
it,

The water is shallow above
deep below, on both flanks, and in the baylets and concavities

When the formation

where fish live to plunge and cattle to bask.
is

very low the drift wood floats over it

are mostly found at the sides, and snags
ally about the head or up-stream.

even treble

;

it is

;

otherwise, tree-trunks

must be feared, especi-

Often the Coroa is double, or

always elongated down stream by the current

never circular as in lake formations, and the edges are either flat
with the water, or stand up in dwarf precipices.

The surface is pebbly and gravelly
* Pronounced C'roa
it
is the Latin
Corona, certainly not to be wintten with
Prince Max. "Corroa."
The feature is
;

opposed to Praia, a

*'

sandbank, " attached

to the side.

The Tupys called the former

Iby

"Coroa de Areia," opposed

cui'

09U,

— of

all sizes,

from an inch

with them Cua
was the river plain (varzea) where liable to
inundation, and '' Coara, " literally a hole,
was a little bay (enseada) or river port,
where canoes can be made fast.
to the latter Iby cui' praia

;

TO THE FAZENDA DO BOM SUCCESSO.

CHAP, v.]

to a foot

;

these

scatters

57

come from the banks, and are brought

The material is mostly of quartz in its pro-

dowii by the floods.

tean forms, jasper, touchstone, pingas d'agua (Quartzum nobile),
crystallized, stratified, and almost always red or rusty with iron.

There

is

an abundance of sandstone, limestone, and chlo-

also

rite, wliich may or may not contain gold,* together with bits of

" canga "

or

country.

In places the sand

the ankle.

ferruginous conglomerate, the
is

gift

of the

upper

very loose, adixdtting the foot to

In the hollows where rain sinks there are large flakes

of mud three to fom' inches dee^), and wherever the waters extend,

show a coat of indm-ated slime,
whose base may be either cascallio (rolled gravel), soft sand,
These Coroas pure and simple are haunted by
or hard mud.
gulls and terns, hawks and kingfishers, ducks and herons, plovers,
sandpipers, and other bkds which will be mentioned.
A scattered vegetation of stunted trees and verdigris-coloured
grasses and shi'ubs, forms, generally beginning with the end down
stream, and thus the sand-bar becomes wooded.
The t}^ical growth is the Ai'aga guava, with comparatively small
tliin leaves, and an exaggerated strength of wood, self-adapted
to its locality.
Another common shrub is the Ai'iuda, also called
" Alecrim da Coroa " the leafage is smaller than that of the
Psidium, the stem and branches are as stout and tough, and it is
bent down stream by the force of the inundations this plant also
appears upon the sands.
In places the water-sides are edged
with a sedgy grass, whose blades average a finger and a half in
the pebbles in the dry season

;

;

breadth.

It is

used for stuffing pack-saddles.

Uj)on the Pdo

das Velhas we shall not find the osier-like and broom-like growths

which we
Pemanso.

observed in the Pdo

first

de

Sao Francisco below

The sand-bar first forms under water, when it is called Ai^ao,
or " big sand

"

and where the annual floods
are not too violent it presently becomes an " Illiota " or islet; a
" Carapuca " if cap-shaped
and if large, an " Ilha " or island.
;

it

rises b}^ degrees,

;

Many of them, like the Mississippi tow-head, are partly timbered,
the wooded portion up-stream, the sandy below, or vice versa.

The feature is then permanent, and the figs and mimosas bind the
*

From some, for instance the CorSa da gallinJia, gold has been taken

deep into the sand.

;

the people dig

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

58

soil like the '^ cuttun woods " of the United States.

Pardo we

[chap. v.

Passing the Eio

shall see another complication, where blocks of blue

limestone, thinly grown with sturdy shrubbery, cumber the sur-

and lower down on the Sao Francisco, a combination of tall
rock, timber, and sandflat.
M. Liais advises these obstructions to be removed by " draguface,

With

age."

diffidence I

differ

from him

;

but would not the

obstacles upon which they are formed themselves require drag-

ging ?

A single rock will, like a stick in the sandy desert, pro-

duce an accumulation
to be in

same causes continue
operation, and doubtless every flood would renew the
of matter ;

the

effects.

August 23, 1867.

— The warm morning tempted us again

out at 6.30 A.M., half-an-hour too early.

to set

The course was from

east to west, and we found our babbling friend the Coroa braba

a complicated

affaii'

of stone and sand-bar.

On the left was a

rock, then gravel, then another rock ; to starboard rose the sand-

upon whose dexter

we

no time in grounding
heavily.
We poled off with difficulty, and I did not like the
look of things.
Luckily we met a ragged youth, puntmg a dugout towards the village, and, for a consideration, Herculano
Teixeii^a de Queiroz was persuaded to accompany us.
He
landed, and presently returned a smart young waterman, in white
shirt and pants, with straw hat, and the inevitable bone-handled
sheath-knife strapped round his waist.
After about three-quarters of an hour the "Eliza's" head was
bar,

side

lost

turned to the north-east, thus describing a long horse-shoe with a
very narrow heel. In places the river is to the land route, 3:1, not

an unusual ratio
in others, 5:1.
Before us rose the tall blue
broken wall of the Serra do Baldim, the "Baldoino" of M. Liais,
which bore north-east of Jaguara it is said to contain deposits of
alum, like those which we found on the Sao Francisco. Half-anhour afterwards we passed the Cachoeira dos Paulistas, whose ledge
does not run right across the Plan makes it part of the " banks
of Cafundo." * It became evident that the rapids were now waxing
less laborious and far more dangerous, with deeper water and
;

;

;

—

This is apparently Ca fundao here
a deep place fundao where the pole
does not reach.
Near the right bank there
is a sand-bar
on the left, and a little up-

—

(is)

;

—

stream, is a hard gravelly sand-bank flanked
by two rock-piers, one above, the other

below it.

"

CHAP, v.]

TO THE FAZENDA DO BOM SUCCESSO.

narrow cliannels,

likely to

jam the raft.

—
59

We hugged the right

point and then made the mid-stream, steering for the apex of a

smooth equilateral

triangle strongly defined

or ripple broken against stocks or stones

the clearway.

Then came a complicated obstacle

by borders of foam

—here the usual guide to

—a bold

bluff of ferruginous

stone to port deflected the steamer to starboard, almost from

Avoiding two sand-bars and two rock
ledges, we went to the right, and nearly romided the Coroa
going with the sun from south-east via east and north-east to
north-west. A couple of rock-piers in our way made us cross to
the left, and bendmg to the north we found a break formed by
north-east to south-east.

—

This " Cachoeh-a da Barra do

detached lumps of limestone.

Engenho de Manuel

da Paixao " was an affau* of eight minutes ;

the deviations are risky, and, before a steamer can ply, the bed

must be cleared of rocks, after which the current -will dispose of
the sand and gravel.
After ending some four miles, where a voice could be heard
across the neck of the loop, we saw ahead fine cotton-fields m full
bloom, and a tier-like succession of gently swelling hills in far
perspective.
A field of plantains on the left bank, and foiu'
huts, of which at least one was a Venda, told us that, contrary
to prophecy, we had reached S*^ Anna de Trahiras.

This place

on the highway of the Tropas, travelKng between the Provincial Caj^ital and Diamantina *
it became a parish in 1859,
and it is now under the vast municipality of Curvello. In 1864
is

;

the population was computed at 4298.

I was told 12,000, which,

as usual, doubles the i^robable number.

Here were two ferries, one with
kind of company, the other with a

from Morro Velho

;

a chain and belonging to a
civilised

wke-rope, procm^ed

the latter was the property of Sr. Joao Gon-

had an introductory letter. He met
us on the bank, and showed me a tree marked by the water ten to
^alvez Moreira, to whom I

On this
twelve jeavs ago, 40 feet above the present stream level.
occasion the floods swept the riverine valley to the foot of the
people were taken by canoes out of their
In average years the inundation rises for a few

Campo hills, and
thatched roofs.

* The distances are by land, 25 miles
from Diamantina, 21 from Sabard, 24 fi'om
Morro Yelho, 9^ leagues (24 by water)

from Casa Branca, 6 leagues (by the river
20) from Jequitiba, and 44 ^to our present
destination,

" Bom Successo.

—
THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

CO

days to the ferry chain.

If foreign

[chap. v.

railway engineers in the

more or less to these exceptional deluges, recurring with a somewhat vague periodicity, had
taken the advice of the natives, and had built their bridges and
drains accordingly, they would have saved themselves much
trouble and theii- employers more expense.
We walked to the village on the right bank the ground was
somewhat stony, pebbly and poor.
It was rich in the low shrub
with a leaf like the Mimosa, known to the Tupys as Tareroqui,
Brazil, which is everywhere subject

;

to the Brazilians as Fidegoso (Cassia occidentalis, sericea, etc).
The '' stinkard's " root is a powerful drastic, homoeopaths infuse

and employ it as quinine
the beans are
coffee, as maize is in the United States.
The village main square on the highest ground has two chapels
Santa Anna and the Rosario, a few young i:>alms and some
Vendas, especially the double store of Sr. Totto {i. e., Antonhico or
Antonio) Rodrigues Lima, and the apothecary's shop of the
Professor of Fu'st Letters, who, though his father was named
Custodio Amancio, has preferred to term himself " Emmanuel
it

in spirits of wine

;

sometimes made mto

Confucius of Zoroaster."

The

houses

may number 200

300 within church-bell
sound
all are one-storied, and mostly of the meanest.
The
"
only thing that seems to flourish is the goat
the
Cabrito " is
or

;

;

here, unusually in Minas

kind

guide

and Sao Paulo, favourite food.

Our

us about to the several Prud'hommes, who
invited us to pass the day.
Sr. Antonio Gomez de Oliveii'a, a
led

Domingos, asked us to breakfast, and gave
us some good English stout.
His house was the neatest in the
place, a long building fronted by a bit of shrubbery
of course it

relation of Colonel

;

contained a shop.

Our temporary pilot had done work enough, and we
invite two others, but without the least chance of

sent to

an answer for

three days.

Chico Diniz politely intimated his utter despair,
and we returned to the ferry. Sr. Moreira enticed us to his
home on the other side, and whilst he despatched a peremptory
message, introduced us to his wife, and showed us the garden, in
whose oranges and cabbages he took no little pride here the
;

an improvement upon that where the village lies. He
spoke warmly, evidently not believing a word, about the coming
Steam Navigation; to him the Cachoeii^as were insuperable,

soil is

"

CHAP, v.]

TO THE FAZENDA DO BOM SUCCESSO.

61

and when we spoke of cutting away the obstacles we talked manifest Greek.

In 1853 a Government engineer had spent six months at
the people remembered his fusees
the rapids above Trahiras
;

all agreed,
and mule-loads of tin cylinders for mine-charges
removed
had
not
a
he
single
difficulty, and most men
however, that
opined that he had left the place worse than when he found it.
At last, worn out by delay, we bade a friendly au 7'evoir to our
host, and we quitted Trahiras, satisfied that if the opening of
the Ptio das Yelhas be abandoned to men who receive public pay,
and to those who live upon passing mule-troops, the splendid
stream will remain long closed.
AVe set out shortly after noon, and the day was a succession of
sand-bars and rapids, T\ith rocks on the right, on the left, and
The first serious feature was the
in the central thalweg.*
Eibeirao da Onca, a rapid on the left of a triple '' Coroa " it is so
called from a little green-set rivulet up which canoes go for several
miles.
Presently we came to a place where four men were loitering we offered to pay for pilotage, but they refused. They did
;

;

;

not object, however, to assist us in cordelling down the Cachoeu'a

da Barra do Ribeirao dos Geraes, alias Cachoeira dos Geraes (do
Lamego).f "Whilst they held the tow-rope we hugged the left
bank, a di'op of loose sand
the broken ledges of horizontally
stratified dark stone project from the right shore above the
rivulet-mouth, and deflect the stream to the left, thus doing
engineer's work. J Above the rapids much gold has been dug.
A couple of hours carried us down to the Cachoeii'a do Lagedo,§
a small rapid formed by a porpoise nose of wooded bluff on the
right from its summit, they say, the Piedade of Sahara may be
sighted.
After sundry unimportant features,'! and passing the
;

;

* It began with two bluffs of rock, floor-

ing the hill to our north.

At the Corrego

da Tabaquinha (the little Taboca, Taquara,
or bamboo), a rock-outcrop from the left
bank intrudes upon and deepens the
stream.

+ The first name would mean the rapids
at the embouchui-e of the stream

of the
General Lands, an influent from the right.
Geraes are mostlj' lands out of the reach of
the river, either Pasto, Campo or Mato,
and bearing general produce, cotton, tobacco, cereals, as well as breeding cattle.
St. Hil. (I. ii. 99) confines the use of the

word to pastures, and says that " urates"
must be expressed when forests are meant,
I did not find this difference, nor did the
people ever emj)loy '' As Geraes " to mean
" As Minas Geraes.
t In order to drive the stream to the
" tunage avec
left, M. Liais proposes a
enrochment" on the right with a passage
through it for the streamlet
a gigantic
work.
§ In the Plan rocks are placed on the
right bank
in the description (p. 8) on
the left.
The Fazenda do Jardim belongs to the
;

;

||

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

62

[chap. v.

Coroa do Jardim, almost an islet, and to us a new spectacle,

we anchored

at

usual

the

hour,

shortly

5'30

before

p.m.,

Below was a Coroa of the same
name, which made music for us all night.
Behind the holeriddled bank were a few hovels with patches of sugar-cane
Praia da Ponte.*

at the

soil, good only for ticks.
A
few boors came up and stared at the menagerie
they would
neither eat with us nor take anything but fire for their

growing poorly in rough, scrubby

;

cigarettes,

and we were as formal as they were.

gravit}^

had been
civility and

I

—
— otherwise that they may become quarrelsome or

warned to treat them with " agrado e gravidade "

They spoke of a pilot, and we

resx^ect.

usual, he was ill.

sent for

him

;

lose

but, as

Two women bringing fowls for sale, squatted
Africans, and chuckled their

near us with feet wide

aj^art

remarks to each other

nothing could be less like certain Buffalo

guds.

At sunset

all

;

like

disappeared, touching then* hats in the

deepest and gloomiest silence.

saddened by this contact with my kind.
It was the
the bright kaleidoPresent in its baldest, most prosaic form
I felt

;

scope of cultivated life here becomes the dullest

affair

of un-

There is no poverty, much
nor is there competency, much less wealth. There is
less want
no purpose no progress, where progress might so easily be no
collision of opinion amongst a people who are yet abundant in
Existence is, in fact, a sort of Nihil Album, of
intelHgence.
which the black variety is Death. I prefer real, hearty barbarism
varying shape and changeless colour.
;

;

;

to such torpid semi-civilization.

—

August 24. The cold night made the fog hang long over the
Two Coroas, neither of
water, and we did not set out till 7 a.m.
Thence the river
them in the plan, gave us some trouble.
entered a gorge, each side alternately being high ground,
wooded above and stony below. Before the hour was finished
we were at the Cachoeira das Violas t but, instead of going down

—

;

widow of the Capitao Herculano
a
streamlet comes in from the right bank,
and below it there are two sand-bars the
first with a clear way to starboard, the
second on the other side.
Then came the
Saco de Pindahyba, where the river loops
to the south-west, and the llibeirao de
Luiz Pereira on the left.
* A Ponte is the name of a corrego
;

:

which does not appear in the Plan,
probably some one lost
f Or, da Viola
his fiddle here.
The stream runs north to
south
and the obstructions are two rockwalls from the right
then one from the
left, and lastly detached rocks on the right.
I include this feature amongst the bad ones,
;

;

;

as it has done much harm in its day.

—
TO THE FAZEXDA DO BOM SUCOESSO.

CHAP, v.]

63

the mid-stream, we took tlie left to avoid driftwood, and we bmnped
A charming reach, with beautiful
like the bucking of a mule.

woods, api)eared ahead, and the material of the latest clearings
strewed the land here the direction of the limestone (?) is north15°.
After sundry unimportant features*
east, and the dip 12°
;

—

w^e left

Fazenda do Boi,

on the west a fine

bit

of land, the

Delfino

dos

Santos Ferreira.

belonging to

Sr.

The people

crowded down the yellow bank to stare and to frighten us about
the Cachoeu^a Grande, a place of which we had akeady heard
The dialogue was in this style
ugly accounts.
" Do you know the Rapids ? " we inquired.
:

*'

We know them!"

" WiU you pilot us ? "
*'

We will not pilot you

" For money ? "
" Not for mone}"
*'

"
!

"
!

And why?"
"

" AVhy ?

Because we are afraid of them
This was spoken as the juniors ran along the bank like ostriches
!

or the natives of Ugogo ; they are begimiing to lose the use of

and "no," and to answer by re-echomg
half youi' question the true old Portuguese style.
Shortly before noon we landed on the right side and examined
their un-Latin ''yes"

—

a thick

layer of

Canga or pudding-stone, probably auriferous,

The almonds were dark, rusty quartz,
in the usual ii'on clay paste, and from this pomt downwards we

and possibly diamantine.
shall

see

large

deposits

of

it.

Further

on,

sandstone

com^ses,

lay

ready for

facing the

south-east in nearly horizontal

quarrj'ing.

The men crossed to an orchard on the left bank, and

brought back baskets of fruit and sugar-cane, which they tore
and chewed like Botocudos. They sounded the horn, but as no
the
one came they put off.
Alas they had robbed the chm'ch
;

!

ground belonged
*

to Padre

Leonil, and worst of

As the general course of the river is

from north to south, I shall call the right
bank east, even when it is not, and so forth.
The obstacles here are a rock (os Pandeiros^
in the centre, which causes a break, and
allows passage on the left.
Then to starboard enters the Ribeirao de Sao Pedro
amongst rocks and sand-banks. Followed
the easv Cachoeira da Agua Doce near the

all,

his oranges

Sr. Nicolao de Almeida
Barbosa.
We swang w-ith the stream to
the left, avoiding the thick shrubbery
clothing the bank, and finding a clear way
between it and the three detached rocks of
Then a larger sand-bar than
the Plan.
usual led to broken water, and sent us

Fazenda of the

down by the right.

"

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

64

[chap. v.

This, however, is here a venial offence.
were not worth eating.*
You may freely take from a plantation a Ro^a cannot be robbed,
but jou must not touch, for instance, a little plot
is the saying

—

—

of onions or other vegetables upon which the proprietor bestows
pains,

such as

entering

it

at

dawn.

For the former

are as

the latter is a park or a poultry-yard.

ferae naturae ;

Luckily for us

—the Cachoeira Grande was no joke —we found

on the right bank, a small crowd preparing
for a " Samba," or to keep " Saint Saturday," and perhaps " Saint
The men carried guns in hand,
Monda}' " with dance and drink.
and pistols and daggers mider their open jackets evidences that
they did not intend to be recruited. The women were in full dress
at the Saco Grande,

—

—

brilliant as rainbows

—with blood-red flowers in the glossy crows-

but of the dozen not one was fairly white. After a
wing hair
few words with Chico Diniz, the bow pole was taken by a certain
*' Felicissimo
Soares de Fonseca," the stem was occupied by a
;

" yaller "-skinned elder with curly white beard, " Manuel Alves
Pinto," and his son Joaquim.

new comers were men

The

This looked like business.

of few words ; they saluted us civilly, and

they pushed off.

The beginning of the end was the little Rapid of the Saco
Big Bend," where the river bed turning sharply
To avoid
from south-east to north-west makes parallel reaches.
the rock-pier on the left we floated stern foremost down along the
right bank, here a mass of ferruginous sandstone, striking to the
After bringing the boat
south-east and nearly plane (3° 4°).
round, we left, on the right, two sand-bars and as many detached rocks upon the 02:)posite side also was a mass of blue
This elbow is too
stone, t which must not be approached.
sharp for a tug-boat, and the obstructions absolutely require

Grande or

''

—

;

removal.

* Tliey were veiy like the Laranja da
TeiTa, the "indigenous orange," alias the
The taste is a
imported orange nin Avald.

fade " mawkish " sweetness ending in an
I have, however, seen
unpleasant bitter
the juice beneficially used in ptisane for
one of the severe catarrhs (constipacoes or
defluxos) which abound in Minas and Sao
Paulo.
I presume that, like the Laranja
Secca or juiceless orange, the " bitter
orange" is the effect of a high country,
rough soil, and other local conditions.
St.
;

Hil. (i. 280) quotes PizaiTO, who enumerates
three subvarieties, one sweet, another agrodolce, and a third very sour, and believes
that the Lan.nja da terra is a retiu'n to the
primitive type of the sweet fruit.
Personne, " he says, " n'aurait probablement
song^ h, nommer un arbre qu'on aurait fait
venir d'Europe, oranger indigene. " This verbalargumentis worthless; many productions
imported in ancient times are now called
by the Brazilians " da terra.
f In parts of the Rio das Velhas it is
'

'

—
TO THE FAZENDA DO BOM SUCCESSO.

CHAP, v.]

Presently we turned to the

east-south-east,

65

and faced the

dreaded Cachoeii*a Grande, which is formed by another sharp
bend in the bed, winding to the north-east. The obstacles are
six several flat ledge-like i:)rojections of dark stone

on the right

mostty awash, and cunning is required
bank,
We began b}^ passing the port of
to spiral down between them.

and foiu' on the left,

No. 1, then we made straight for No. 2, to the left here, by
had a stick broken we should have
23ushing furiously up-stream
"
"
was forced over to the right, was
Eliza
been nowhere the
swung round by main force of arm, and was allowed to descend,
well in hand, till within a few feet of No. 4, which rises right in
front.
Finally leaving this wrecker to starboard, we hit the
usual triangle-head, with plenty of water breaking off both arms.
A single bump upon a sunken boulder (pedra morta) was the only
event. The descent occupied sixteen miimtes. The Great Eapid
is more dangerous, but not so serious an impediment to navigation as the "Maquine."
Any form of ram would easil}' loiock
off the heads of the rock-piers, and open a way in mid-stream
;

—

—

all that is

wanted.

After many congratulations our friends made a show of taking

which proved on inquiry
.to mean
doing compliments." As the dangers were not over,
the keg of Restilo was produced, it was tasted and pronounced
*'muito brabo " (very hot in the mouth)
the Ma-a-jor (myself)
became so irresistible that all would accompany me to the Rio de
Sao Francisco or elsewhere, an^-^^here. The poles were twirled
and wielded with a will. We left to port broken water and an
leave ; all had some important business,
''

;

—

ugly stone, a hogsback, known as the Ca^^ivara (H3^drochaerus),

and then we crossed to scrape acquaintance with a sunken mass
'^
corin front.
it is a mere
This place is called the Eapadura
renteza," but the many " dead stones " would render it dangerous
;

for a steamer.

The end was the Cachoeh-a das
sently came.

Gallinhas,* to which we pre-

We gave a wide berth to a rocky wall on the right

bank, and stuck to the left side of the Coroa, till we had reached
its tail down stream.

Here is a narrow gate formed by two rock

without testing the rock,
determine "whether it be sand, clay,
impossible,

to
or

* M. Liais treats it as a matter of little
we thought it quite the reverse,

moment

;

and evidently so did the pilots.

lime.

VOL.

II.

F

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

GO

[chap. v.

piers, projecting from the shores, and in suchphices " corclelling

"

The men sprang into the water with loud

is alwaj^s advisable.

cries of ''He Eapasiada,"* and pulled at the

hawser till the curthey then cast off and sprang
rent had put us in proper position
"We left to starboard
on board before we could make much way.
two blocks and one smiken rock of fine blue limestone, brushmg
them as we ]Dassed. The " Rapid of the Hens " occupied us
;

The right channel may
drift wood is all that obstructs

nine minutes, chiefly spent in shouting.
easily be

the

left,

mass of
and knocking away the rock walls w^ould soon
cleaned

:

a

start

the " Coroa."

A second dram of the ''wild stuff," and all our friends in need
ruled.

Thej^ blessed us fervently but stammeringiy

:

theypraj-ed

somewhat the "vvrong way, and they unintelligibly invoked
for us the protection, of the Virgin and all the saints.
They
landed with abundant tripping and stumbling, carrying 1^000
and a bottle of the much prized restilo.
I had ever}^ reason to
be grateful to them, for they had most civilly saved me an
immense amount of trouble but, shortly afterwards, reports of
certain " little deaths " in which they had been actively concerned, showed that they were not exactly lambs, except after the
for us

;

fashion of Nottingham.

By this time my men were

"pretty well dead beat."

I

anchored a little above the Barra da Cerquinha,t oj)posite the
Corrego do Paiol. The ground was sandy and unusually clean,
w^hilst

the

valley soil,

cotton in quantities.

apparently arenaceous

To-day the

river,

only,

j)roduced

except where disturbed

by rapids, has been a vista of beautiful amenit3\
Mr. Davidson was in ecstacies, and began to talk of the Yazoo and to sing
something about "Down the O-hi'-o *' The grandly moving
stream, hardl}' broad enough to suffer from winds, is not too
narrow for vessels to thread their way up, while steamers could
easily turn in the fine reaches.
At nightfall the sugar- wheel of
the "Paiol"! creaked and sang in curious contrast with
the accompaniment of nature
the distant hum and the nearer
!

;

" Now, my lads "
+ The "Embouchure of the small hedge
or paling (stream) ;" it is not named in the
*

!

Plan.

X Properly a "bread-room," but often
applied to places where coffee, sugar, and

mm

This Paiol has been
even
are stored.
mentioned as one of the estates belonging
to Colonel Domingos.
I afterwards visited
it
the soil is fine, the water abundant,
and there is a large house, with the usual
chapel and sugar mill.
;

TO THE FAZENDA DO BOM SUCCESSO.

cHAr. v.]

cries

67

of birds and beasts, frogs and toads,* and a noisy liltle

rapid fretting and snorting down stream.

We were now approaching a place of rest, and I contemplated
with satisfaction a fortnight of land-march, even on mules. Eapids
resemble in one point earthquakes the more you see of them the

—

less you like them, and the stranger at first is disposed to look

contemptuously upon the i3rudence and precaution of the " old
Shortly after dawn we went do^^^i the small but ugly
soldier."
Cachoeira da Cerquinha, between a bad rock on the right and a
It was followed by
stone ridge on the left, to which we mclined.
another little break.
After two hom's' work we turned fi"om the main stream up the

Corrego do

Bom Successo.

Here we made

and the crew agreed to keep guard in

it

fast the ''Ajojo,"

at night.

As a rule the

riverines avoid sleeping in these places between the days of the

and of the St. John. The waters bring down much
it is easy to smell the difference
earthy, decomposed matter
of the branches and of the main line, and especially during the

new^ year

:

Vasantes, or annual retreat of the waters

;

the}^ dread the

danger-

ous marsh fevers, remittent and intermittent, called the Maletas.

At Jaguara

had been warned that the Rio das Vellias below

I

Bom Successo required certain precautions, such as to eat much
pepper, to avoid the cold night

damp after the day heats, not to

wash or bathe when perspiring, and not to drink

coffee in the

I could not, however, be troubled with so much
" coddling," and we both found the climate perfectly healthy.

open au\t

After making the necessary arrangements we walked up to the

Manor House the aii* was crisp and dry, and the soil gravelly
but rich.
The stunted Cashevv everywhere grew^ wild, and there
;

was an abundance of the Jaboticabeira myrtle, justly called cauliflora, the aspect of the dark leafage being exactly that of an
enormous cauliflower. The other fruits were the Mango, Planthe Gabiroba { and
tains in a fine patch on tlie hill to the left
:

* Humboldt, on tlie Orinoco, heard by
night the sounds of the sloth, the monkey,
and the day -bird. This is not the case
here, at any rate at this season.

+ The two latter somewhat whimsical
precautions are general on the Sao Francisco
River, where the iieople, seeing an old
hydropathist bathe in a state of violent
persi^iration, quietly remarked, " You are
calling upon Death " I have often known
!

Paulistas, even in tbe healthiest part of the
Province, refuse coffee out of doors.

J In the System, " Gruaviroba " is the
name of sundry Eugenias. The Tupy Diet.
\\Tites the word

Gruabiraba.

St. Hil. (III.

us that the small species of
Psidium "a bales arrondies " are called
Grabiroba, opposed to Araga, those with
I believe this to be
pear-shaped fruits.

ii.

270)

tells

correct.

F

•_>

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

G8

the Araticum,* of which all are so fond.

[chap. v.

At the tall gate we found

a fine fig-tree planted onl}^ fourteen years ago.

The garden to

the north-east of the house contains vines, as usual trained to
here Bacchus a2:>parently refuses to live without
lath tunnels
;

support.

The Brazil has many

The flowers were, as usual, few.

more of the wild than the tame.
I remarked the pretty white Beijo de Frade, or Friar's Kiss,
and the Poinsettia hracts, brilliant as the " flame tree," and
There is also a
generally known as Papagaio, the parrot.
graceful tobacco (N.

ruralis

or Langsdorffii), wdth thin leaves

it is, I believe, the " Aromatic Brazilian,"
and pink flower
much admired in the United States, and there found to lose its
aroma after the second year. The Tropeiros learned from the
Indians, who used it for smoldng, and in medicine, to clean with
:

its infusion their mules

of the Berne-maggots.

The traveller will

do w^ell to remember that a leaf rubbed over his hands and face
will compel the greediest mosquitos to buzz harmlessly about
him. According to the System this Nicotiana grows spontaneously, and is a Brazilian indigen, local as the Missouri variety

:

I have always found it a companion of man, and flourishing un-

planted about the houses and villages.

The Coqueiro palms

were peculiarly fine, although here as elsewhere the reticulum
pendent about the throat, a kind of vegetable goitre, is never
removed.

The Jenipapeiro f (Genipa americana, L.

;

Jenipa bra-

siliensis), whose fruit is compared by strangers with the medlar,
but which appears to me even more nauseous, is a noble tree its
;

Wheat will grow at Bom
Success©, but it is subject to rust, and the flour, which is made

fine

white flowers had ah'eady fallen.

into bread, is of a dirty-brown tmge.
I introduced myself to Dr. Alexandi'e

Severo Soarez Diniz,

nephew and son-in-law of Colonel Domingos his family occupied
the Sitio, now the Fazenda of Andrequeice, mentioned in 1801
by Dr. Couto.
There is nothing to describe in the establish;

* Also written Araticu, and pronounced
The name is given to many
Anonacese (A. muricata, A. spinescens, &c. ).
Thus the fruits are distinguished from the
Anona squamosa, the custard apple of India,
here called pinha, fructa do Conde, and at
llio de Janeiro by its Hindostani
name,

"Articum."

Atta (for Ata).

t This is the tree,

Ic

Grenipayer, well

kno%vn to the " Indians, " who painted their
bodies with its juice, yielding a dark
The fruit is called Jenipapo,
blue dye.
Jenipabo, or Genipapo.
Such is the general rule in Portuguese, as Caju, the CashewCajueiro, the Cashew-apple-tree.
apple
At times, however, the former is used by
synecdoche, as grammarians call it, for the
:

latter.

"

;

TO THE FAZEXDA DO BOM SUCCESSO.

ciiAP. V.J

meiit, which was the Casa Branca on a large scale.
first

09

Here, for the

time, Friday appeared honoiu'ed by fish and eggs.

meals

all

After

stood up with clasped hands and prayed, ending with

As is the custom of old Mmas, the slaves
I do not know why St. Hilah'e was so
in waiting did the same.
much scandalised by the anticipatory process. Durmg the evenmg
crossing themselves.

the household and the field-hands sang a long, loud

more elaborate.
At Bom Successo,
quicksilver

were

until

fom'

hymn, and

On Sunday the prayers were

recited the " Christian Doctrme."

3'ears

ago,

globules

of free

found adhermg to the cross-battens of the

which feeds the overshot
Several bottles were filled, when suddenly the jield
wheel.
stopped. Mercury is reported to have been discovered on the
Jequitinhonha River, and in other parts of the Mmas Province
but a suspicion arose that it came from ancient gold washings.
''

bica "

or race

of raised troughs

Here, hovrever, all agreed that this could not be the case
therefore resolved to

com'se

of the

inspect the formation.

Rego or leat

water channels, sometimes 12

which

— 13

;

we

We followed the

supplies the race.

These

feet dee^), are of vital import-

ance to an estate, and are levelled by the eye, like the Kariz of
Belochistan, to great distances.

An Irish ditcher, if he could be

kept sober, would soon make his fortune.

The banks were green

with grama (Triticum repens) pricking up from

between the
stones
the Herva do Biclio,* held sovereign for headaches the
bamboos were the Taboca de Liceo, and the Cambahuba, which
;

;

resembles the tasselled Criciuma.

These gigantic reeds fatten

beheved that the food aftects the \sind of
horses and nudes.
We were on the left of the Bom Successo
stream, which heads three leagues to the north-east, and in it we
found argillaceous shale, unelastic sandstone, slaty, talcose, and
cattle

well, but it is

laminated,! fine blue limestone in bits and boulders, and quartz
rusty and black, and especially
—white and
black and white —passing into one another. In the small creeks
of many colours

j-ellow,

feeding this main Hne scattered fragments of cinnabar apjoeared,

and a bit about the size of a nut was fomid in the leat.
* This well-known term is usually applied to tlie Polygonum anti-liEemorrhoidale,
the Tupy "Cataia" or "Cataya."
This
Polygonea supiDlies a bitter peppery decoction, used to cure the disease kno^ii as

"

largo.

f In fact, diamantine Itacolumite. There
are several diamond diggings about Bom
Successo.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BIlAZiL.

70

After about four miles we reached the

here

leat;

stakes were

[chap. v.

dam at the head of the

bent down-stream, and weighted with

might pass over them with as little
damage as possible. Evidently the metal came from below this
if not, it would have been deposited beyond the possibility
point
We
of being w^ashed down, in the deep water above the weir.
therefore thought it probable that, as has happened in Spain and
Austria, in Peru and California, the w^ater or the pick had struck
the gangue of native mercury, and had set free the disseminated globules. The deposit in the earthy w^ater would be
washed out and exhausted, and thus the ore would not appear
stones, so that the floods

;

until another cavity may be laid bare.

Diamantina city, I had engaged at Jaguara
an old Camarada and employe of Casa Branca, named Francisco
He had preceded me for eight days, acting as guide to
Ferreira.
Trooper Manuel and to the four mules obligingly sent for my use
by Mr. Gordon of Morro Velho. Matters did not look pleasant;
the *' talkeej' " elder reported with a hiccup and a stagger, that it
w^as " aw right " and landsmen and watermen at once engaged in
It w^as in vain to take away the keg; in
a general "drunk."
these Fazendas liquor is always to be had gratis. Mr. Davidson's
and my three Calibans
health did not allow him to accompany me
Agostinho was to act page-cuisinier
w^ould, without the
in
normal
disguise.
strictest supervision, be
a
state of
On the other hand my old longing for the pleasures of life in
the backwoods for solitude was strong upon me as in Bube-land.
I sighed unamiably to be again out of the reach of my kind, so to
speak once more to meet Nature face to face.
This food of the
soul, as the Arabs call it, or diet of the spirit, as Vauvernagens preferred has been the subject of fine sayings, from the
days of Scipio to those of J. G. Zimmermann
it is the true
antidote to one's entourage, to the damaging effects of one's
epoch and one's race it is hke absence, wdiich, says the proverb,
extinguishes the little "passions " and inflames the great; from
Intending to

visit

;

;

—

—

—

—

—

—

;

;

those who think mth others it takes all powder of thought, but the

" totus quis " comes out in
wishes to think for himself.

and

it,

it

largely gives to him who

" Homo solus aut deus aut daemon,"

almost half true
Yse soli
is evidently professional, and
" O Solitude, where are thy charms ? " is a poetical study.

is

;

!

How unliappy is the traveller who,

like

St. Hilaire,

is

ever

CHAP, v.]

TO THE FAZEXDA DO BOM SUCCESSO.

71

bemoaning the want of " society," of conversation, and who, "reduced to the society of his plants," consoles himself only by
hoping to seethe end of his journey " Une monotonie sans egale,
rien qui put me distraire un instant de
une solitude profonde
mon ennui." This, too, from a naturalist, '' * * * Je finis par
!

;

me desesperer a force d'ennui, et je ne pus m'empecher de maudire les voj^ages."

One understands the portrait which he draws

of himself, veiled, with parasol to ward off the sun, and a twig to

smtch away ticks.

It suggests a scientific Mr.

Ledbury.

—

—

CHAPTER VI.
TO THE CIDADE DIAMANTINA.*
PAEAUNA EIVER AND VILLAGE OF THE CABOCLOS. — THE WINDY RIVULET. — THE
SERRA DA CONTAGEM. COMPLETE CHANGE OF COUNTRY AND VEGETATION. CAMILLINHO VEGETATION, — BIRDS, GOUVeA.— DONA CHIQUINHA.

—

—

SOLAR ECLIPSE,

— BANDEIEINHA.—ARRIVAL.

Haec Boreas

.

.

.

Pulvereamque traJiens per summa cacumina pallam>
Verrit humum, pavidamque metu, calig-ine tectus,
Orithyian amans fulvis amplectitur alls.
Ovid, Met. vi.

SECURED a sober

I

start

from

Bom

Successo by sending

forward my Calibans to bivouac at a j)lace be3"ond the reach of
liquor, and I followed them on the morning of Tuesday, August 27,

1867.

The

hung the north with heavy blue
outlying an arch of lighter and more scattered

cold windy night had

fleece-pack,

Itinerary from Bom Successo to Sao Joao via Diamantina (approximately).

1.

2.

Bom Successo to Bura

time

CHAP.

TO THE OIDADE DIAMANTIXA.

VI.]

vapour

73

—signs of galey weather. Whilst the wind blows from

the north or east we shall find the road dusty, not
versa, if

it shift

muddy

;

vice

Here the rains open in early October,

to south.

either with or without thunder-storms (trovoadas) ; if the 15th be
still

dry, people fear for their crops.

madas), began about 9th
Sej^tember

— 10th August, and

the patches are fh-ed in

:

The grass-burnmgs (queiwill last

alternate

j-eai's,

through
that

so

may never be w^anting, and we shall sometimes see half a
dozen blazings in different directions. The custom is old and

forage

poetical.
to fell the virgin wood,

To fire the second growths while young- they grow,
To feed with fattening ashes all the field,
The grain in holes to hide."

There is no doubt of the real injmy, independent of the loss in
timber, which such romantic and picturesque practice entails
upon the woodlands. It must greatly affect the vegetation, and
kill out all but the strongest species.
In these rugged Campos,
however, there is less to say against it ; the grass sprouts at once,

and the potash is believed to be wholesome for cattle.

Caminho do Campo, the western high

I fell at once into the

road to Diamantina City, on the occidental

sldi't

of the Serra

Grande or do Espinhaco. It is separated by an interval of ten
to twenty leagues from the Caminho do Mato Dentro, on the
eastern flank, and via the Serra da Laj)a
this latter is the
shorter, the more trodden, and the better, but still very bad and
:

;

both are equall}^ detestable during the rains.

The path runs over the crests and round the flanks of familiar
Campos gTound, whose surface is sandy, gravell}-, or j)ebbly, with
stones, bearing stunted vegetation, Cerrados,
"
Capoes t ^nd Matas," or dwarf woods, clear of underwood, like

scatters

of

loose

charmmg forests of France.

The gTound, strewed by the
Water
gushes ever3'where from a white or red clay, now compact, then

the

fierce north winds with dry leaves, was over-rich in ticks.

a silty dust

;

and the vile bridges are logs loosely laid over a

*

... demibai- os virgens mates
Queimar as Capoeiras ainda novas

;

;

Sei-vir de adixbo a terra a fertil cinza

Lan9ar os gi-aos nas covas.
(Gronzaga, LjTas, part 1, 26\

+ There are two principal Capoes, separ-

ated by two miles, the Capao das Moendas
(of the IVIills), to which it siippHes hard
wood, and do Padre (Antonio).
Both are
near waters flowing to the Bom Successo
and thence to the Rio das Velhas. The
usual desvios mark the worst places.

"

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BllAZlL.

74

There is very little of human life in view

pair of sleepers.

the

left

is

;

on

the " Rissacada," * a Retiro, or shooting box, con-

sisting of a few i^oov huts, belonging to Colonel
after an hour's

do Bura

[chap. vi.

Domingos, and

sharp riding I reached a similar place, the Retiro

—of the Bura bee. Here my Calibans and animals had

passed the night, and I was most

civilly received

by the honest,

burly feitor, Sr. Paulino.

The inevitable coffee duty drunk, we pushed on merrily over
broken ground at the foot of the hills, thick with copse, and
showing green grass sprouting from the ashes of the dead.

Where clearing was in process, the people worked off the reedvegetation with a bill-hook at the end of a long handle.
Crossing the limpid streams,! and passing the Tapera (da Maria)
do Nascimento, the ex-home of a defunct widows w^here the

like

vultures were enjoying a dead bullock, we reached the Serra do

Bura, which divides the basins of the

Bom Successo and the

Paraima t streams. Up this buttress, which is partly grassy,
and partly white and ston}', with boulders of blue limestone
striking south, there are two steep windings divided b}^ a step or
level.

From the summit we have a perfect command of the country
around us. We see in front the tall blue wall through which the
Parauna breaks in places the summit appears level, in others
:

there is a feature locally known as Tapinhoacanga, § or Nigger-

head, a porcupine-like lump, with out-cropping ledges of dark

Behind us the Campos roll as usual in flattened
waves to the blue horizon, a smooth ring except where fretted
with some solitary peak or notch of darker hue which suggests
the Koranic " W'al Jibalu autadan,"
a peg to pin down earth.
Everywhere in the Brazil the idea of immensity suggests itself,
and nowhere more than on the Campos.
Beyond the Bura Crest begins a yellow descent, rough with
gravel, soft laminated clay-slate, and porous iron-stone, like slag

bare rock.

—

* Translated

"Bosq\;e."

In the die-

tionaries Ressaca or llesaca is the Fi'ench
ressac, the back drag of the tide.

+ The first is the Corrego da Eissacada,
which at times swells and is dangerous
the second, an unimportant feature, is
;

known as the Correginho

— the streamlet.

X The Blackwater River, from "Para"
and " \ina.

§ St. Hil. (III. ii. 103) derives the word
from Tai^anhuna, which he says in the
Lingoa Geral means black the latter, however, is Pixuna, Pituna contracted to Una.
The dictionaries give Ab^ (man) tapyy"!!htna or tapyyiuna contracted to Tapanhuna or Tapanho, meaning a negro, and
;

" acanga, " a head,

CHAP. VI.]

orlaterite.

TO THE (JIDADE DIAMAXTIXA.

75

Tliis leads to the " Cerradao/' a taboleiro or plateau,

about four miles in length
sently becoming a rich red

at iii'st

;

something

sterile,

soil with fair vegetation.

but pre-

The grass

Capim-Assu, whose grain, often compared with rice,
keeps cattle always fat, and amongst the dwarf woods are Pahns

is

the

in abundance, the Licorim,

delicate, with

ragged leaves,* the
Indaia,t and the Coqueiiinho do Campo, which rises but little
above the ground. The plateau ends at the Ollios de Agua,

where a few huts gather near a Corrego that supplies pure water.
Below us, to the right, lies the Parauna, a dull dark (turvo)
stream, running in snowy sand, vdih banks of white clay.
After three hoiu's we reached the wretched little Aldea de
Parauna, on the left bank of its river. It has a smgie straggling

some seventy mud hovels, including one large open
Rancho and eight Vendas most of the tenements are tiled, few
are whitewashed, and many are in ruins.
On the right bank are
six huts and a tilery.
Tliis old Indian settlement was once rich
in gold, it flourished in the days of the '' Diamantine Demarcation," which here began
in 1801 it was an Arraial, with most of
its houses shut or fallen, and tenanted by a guard to prevent
precious stones bemg smuggled.
It lives now upon its excelstreet

of

:

:

lent-stapled cotton, which fetches

2g500 to 2§800 per arroba,
The people are famous for their
churlishness, possibly the effect of the moody Indian blood, and
a cmious contrast to those further on.
As we found no civility
at the house of a Caboclo shopkeeper, by name Sr. Totto, we
and by supplying

travellers.

rode up-stream to the Httle Fazenda do Brejo, an Engenhoca
(small sugar-house) belonging to

Manuel Eibeiro dos Santos,

better known as " Manuel do Brejo," Emmanuel of the IMarsh.

When unable to visit it, I heard of a place called the Brejinho,
where there is a salt stream that might be utilized.

The Parauna, whose mouth we shall presentlv pass, drains the
* The Licorim palm must not be confounded with the Aricuri (Cocos coronata),
which is common along the coast latitudes.
It grows twenty-five to thirty-five feet high,
with foliage like the tiiie Cocoa -palm the
fruit hangs in bunches, and each nut is
covered Avith a deep yellow and sweetish
pericarp.
The Macaws are fond of these
Cocos de Licorim, and break the kernels
with their powerful beaks.
t Also written Indaja, and in places
;

jtronouncecl Andaia.

Prince Max. calls

it

Coco Ndaih, assu, and describes it (ii. 30).
On the coast range and shore we may truly
say of this Attalea comi^ta, "I'arbre est
majestueux; c'estun des plus beau jjalmiers
dans ce pays."
On the Camjios it is a
stunted gi-owth, almost without bole.
The
leaves are not eaten except by the hungriest
of cattle
the nut is small and exceedingly
hard, with an almond resembling that of
the Cocos nucifera.
;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

76

western slopes of

the

Serra Grande

:

it

is

[chap. vi.

a useless shallow

stream, here about 200 feet broad, full of rapids and choked by
drift Avood
the banks are of hard, white, rain -guttered cla3\
:

The valley, a flat of red and grey silt, edged by gravel and stones,
is

narrow, and the lower vegetation at this season is browned by

the burning sun.

The

hill

tops preserve then- black verdure,

whilst the flanks are yellow, and dark clumps are scattered about

The ferry is six leagues by water, or four to four and a
half by land, from the Barra or Embouchure into the Rio das
them.

In opposition to the map-makers, ^^ all assured me that
the Cipo stream, which is fed by the Serra da Lapa, falls into the
Parauna, one league by water, or one and a half by land, above
Yellias.

Eight leagues up-stream from the Ferry is the
Arraial de Parauna, a place of no consequence.
In 1801 Dr.
Couto declared that the Parauna and its branches, as well as the
Pardo Major and Minor, in fact all the waters from the Great
Serra, would prove diamantine.
This has lately been shown to
this village.

be the case, and there are now washings at the confluence of the
Cipo with the Rio das Pedras, near the south-west corner of the
Rotulo estate.

The ferry here belongs to Colonel Domingos, who lets it for
600^000 per annum and free passage for his tropas the toll was
not tollendus, being only 0$500 for five mules and four men.
;

After the riverine valley on the right began the usual ascent,

winding round and up hills, whose tops and bottoms are earth,
whilst the sides are almost invariably ribbed with

ledges of white grit, smooth as

blue

sandstone. t

These

marble, and

strike

to

the

bare

scatters

rock,

of dark

south-west, and

are

raised at angles varying from 25° to 80°, giving a peculiar and

new appearance to the scene. The ascent of such places, often
made worse by tree-roots, is troublesome enough the descent
is still more disagreeable.
;

From the crest of this dividing ridge, the Black River, still
in its

snowy bed, showed the Cachoeira do Parauna, with three
down a rock wail, backed by the Nigger-head
The vegetation, like the pure white sandy soil, was a

distinct flashes
Hill.

Burmeister is one mass of confusion.
M.^ Gerber makes the Cipo join the Paratina close to the Rio das Velhas, and calls
the Junction " trcs barras," the three

embouchures.

+ To avoid tliis sandstone break, a road,
or rather a path, has been haid out to the
left, np a brown dusty hill, not yet worn

down to the stone, and at present offering a
little shade.

"

TO THE CTDADE DIAMAXTIXA.

CHAP. VI.]

detritus of new '^ Itacolumite."

I saw the Canelas

Yellozias,*

or

de

Ema,

tree-lilies,

77

For the first time in the Brazil,
" Shank bones of Ostrich," the

peculiar

take the place of the heaths so

to

these

uplands. f

The}-

common in Europe and Africa,

and of wluch Gardner remarks, "not a single species has
hitherto been detected on the American Continent, either South
It is, like the tree fern, the bamboo, and the
or North." +
Araucaria, an old world vegetation, suggesting the Triassic en-

was that of the Dragons' -blood
Dracaena.
The field showed all sizes, from a few inches to ten
feet, the rough endogenous stems, mere bundles of fibres, were
quaintly bulged with abundant articulations, like those of a polyTins part of the plant contams resin, and the soft, highpus.
dried substance is prized for fuel where wood is scarce and
exceedingly dear.
On the summit of each quaint stem was a
bunch of thin narrow leaves of aloetic ap2)earance as we brushed
through them, the mules snatched many a mouthful. In the
centre of the foliage was the lily-like flower, with viscid stalk,
quadrangular calyx, and blue and yellow stamens. There was
a smaller variety showing lavender-coloured blossoms, which the
people called Painera.
This must not be confounded with the
Paina do Campo, or da Serra,§ from whose fibres are made
horses' saddle-cloths
it is probably the Composita named by
Gardner, Lyclmophora Pinaster, a narrow-leaved, stiff shrub,
crinitis,

whilst

the

leafage

:

:

rarely exceeding six feet in height, but

much resembling a ver}'

young fir, and giving a decided feature to the i)eculiar vegetation
It will be found taller in the u^^per levels.
The
Caralwba do Campo, with tortuous branches easily formed into
yokes, lit up the scene, as if points of gamboge had been scattered over it the naked form contrasted curiously with the wellclothed Mimosa Dumetorum, one foot high, bearing a flower here
pink, there white, ten times larger than proportion requii'es, and

of Minas.

:

* So named from Dr. Joaquim Yellozo de
Miranda, Jesuit and botanist, born in

Minas Geraes.
+ They flom-ish, I believe, on the Sen-a
de Ouro Branco. We shall find them again
on the middle coiu'se of the Sao Francisco
River, where they clothe the western
counterslopes of the Bahian " Chapada.
J I need hardly say that such is no
longer the belief of botanists.
Australasia
alone has Epacrids instead of heaths.

§ St.

Hil.

(III.

i.

247)

mentions the

" Paineira " do Campo (Pachira marginata),
whose bark is scraj^ed for bed stuffings.
I

name Paina do Cerro (or
applied to a palm which extended
over the higher levels as far as the end of
also heard the

Serro)

The trunk is thicker above than
below, the general aspect is that of a huge
Sago, and the leafage, which resembles the
Indaia, is useful for making hats,
this trip.

-

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BILVZIL.

78

[chap. vi.

with the pink, white, and scarlet tassels of the Cravinho do
Campo, a shruhlet whose root is a wild purge.* The people
declare that Arnica is found

in the

uplands

:

f

all

know the

medicine, none its plant.

Early after noon I descended the white hill into a red hollow,
which grows a little coffee, sugar, and plantain fruit for the
household. This is the place called Riacho do Vento Windy
Stream a clean and well- wooded stream, flowing from the north.

—

—

A

and the
ground was strewed with timbers of the Aroeira, an Anacardium
the heart w^as mahogany-coloured, and harder
of several species
than any oak. The reception was not splendid, a tray turned up
served for a table, a quarter-bushel measure for a chair, the food
was as usual,"and the dessert was snuff, either the coarse Rolao or
certain Joao Alves Ribeiro was increasing his ranch,

:

the finer P6 de fumo.

En revanche the bill, including breakfast

and civility, was only 6 $000.
I soon found out why nw ^' Camarade " had dissuaded me
from sleeping here. At sunset the east Avind began to blow great
gims, threatening to carry away the tiles truty the place justifies
According to accounts the infliction is milder during
its name.
the first and second quarters; it sets in violently with the full, and
It comes from the high and
is most dreaded at new moon.
bleak meridional range to our right, and easily accounts for
There
the regular morning gale on the Rio das Velhas.
"
"
"
taboleiros
are propasto fechado," and these
was no
ours began locomotion at
verbial for causing mules to stray
They were necesuntil
sundown.
once, and were not found
sarily tethered for the night in an empty rancli, and the tinkling
Nor were the
of their bells proved that they were starved.

—

:

men better off.

We were glad to mount at 6 a.m., though the gale still howled
overhead, and the stars were twinkling over hill tops, clearly cut

and silver tipped. Crossmg the Windy Rivulet, we struck up the
This offSerra da Contagem,t or Range of the (diamond) tolls.

"

ProLably a MjTtacea

:

of this

several are called Craveiro da terra

genus

—native

clove-tree.

t The Brazilians mostly mistake for
Arnica a Composite knowTi to us as Eupatorium Ayapana.
i These Contagens weve established with

the consent of the lieges in 1714, -when,
it will
be remembered, the capitation
Dr, Couto tells us
quints were raised.
(1801) that the Villa do Principe was one
*
Contagens dos Sertoes, " and
of the four
says, " they call Sertoes in this Captaincy
theinnor lands distant from mining villages,
'

—

TO THE CTDADE DIAMA^TIXA.

CHAP. VI.]

79

from the Espiiiliaco runs from east to west, and acts as
Our course was to the northbuttress to the Rio das Yelhas.
east, and we wound from side to side with the blast catching our
Thi'ee
pouches, and doing its best to blow down man and beast.
ascents, not precipitous, but rough with rolling stones, and mostly
set

using the rock}' beds of streams, led to the summit

they were
(Chapadinhas),
scattered
dwarf
levels
over with grass
divided by
:

and trees: in places water-sank, and dui'ing the rains transit must
The soil was mostly red, set in patches of
be desperately bad.
glaring white sand, the detritus of the rock ; in some places it

was blackened with vegetable humus, in others it sx)arkled with
There were slabs and sheets of
pebbles and fragments of quartz.
in ^^laces
the white gritty Itacolumite, yesterday' so abmidant
long ridges crossed the path like the rock-walls that form a
Cachoeira, and nothing could be quainter than the shapes here
they were gigantic frogs and '' antediluvian," i. e. Tertiary beasts,
Megatheres and Colossocheles, seen in profile there were magni:

:

;

fied

tombstones, erect or sloping, and there

were

fragments

j)itched about as if in the play of giants.

After two slow miles up the south-western crest, we reached the
highest Chapada, and saw for the last time the plain behind us,

Here the
rocks and crags disappeared, and the compound slope was bisected
billowy with endless tossing of green-yellow waves.

from north to south b}' As Lages, a tree-clad stream, running
over a bed of smooth slippery slab
an " ugly " spot; nor much
better were the ribs of fast or loose stone on the farther side
beyond a patch of rich ferruginous soil. On the right, a charming
Capao, wliich seemed to be traced by the hand, divided shade
from sunshine whilst cattle, -s^ith clean hides, browzed the juicy

—

;

and where there is no mineration. "

Under

•±^
-j.^ /n
n
XI, '\ nr
Caitd (Caethe) Menm, ^ith an•

nual revenue of
Kibello

Inhacica
iinei)

.

.

.,,^,,^
/66|400

/Mfl»/

•

....

(on

PedoMorro

.

;

.

Jequitmhouha

Contagem do Galheiro
lered stag) to south

4db|»»/

4o2$a3

.

_

(0. ant-

.

TV

.

^

iota ]

1:146$4.3/
o. f:QQ*p9i
tj.oa-f^

The pi-ofits of all four were but 5: 446 1 562
(say

penses

of barrack-repair,

and so forth.

&c. p. 89) were,

it (]\Iemoria,

= £544), without deducting the ex-

changing posts

The author justly ridicules

a svstem wMch, for such paltry gain, did
Those who farmed the
so much harm.
Contagens cared only for locating them
^.]^gj.Q they paid best; when a new mine
^^s discovered they sunwnded it with a
^^gj^ ^j obstacles, and thus they lost all,
_^.^^ ^^^ husbandman who harvests beOf course the toll-gates
f.^e harvest-time.
^j^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^.^^^.^^.^
not inland
^^^^ collected from the imports
where imports paid twice, or where dues
were taken from those who had bought
;

country-made goods.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

80

pasture.*

[chap.

vi.

We then crossed a divide running east to west; the

path was broken, and near it was a rib or dyke of dark stujff,
which after rude testing appeared to be cobalt. The crest leads

Limoeiro Basin, a formation similar to that
just traversed, and cut b}^ three waters flowing to the southto the adjoining

west, t

Two hours of dull riding placed us on the eastern edge of the
Chapada, where the view suddenly changed. From our feet fell
a long slope, or rather two slopes, a big one and a little one, of
velvety surface, curiously contrasting with the hedgehog rocks

At the base was a gleam of water flowing to the northeast; we are still in the valley of the Sao Francisco Eiver. Below
us, somewhat to the right, is a clump of oranges, spiky pitas and
wind-wrung bananas, showing where stood the old Contagem das
around.

Aboboras, now desolate as the Inquisition of Goa.

Further

down is the Bocaina, or Gorge, seen from afar on the right the
Alto das Aboboras, and to the left an unnamed lump, form the
;

huge portals of the lowland-gate.

Masses of white sandstone, in
places weathered to dingy blackness and queer shapes, and swept
clean of everything by the wind, strike to the west, where the}^
stand up in bluffs like river cliffs the dip, from 70° to 90°, gives
:

a quoin-like aspect, whilst the eastern backs are of gentle slope,

frequently grass-grown.

Scattered about are knobs, heads, walls,

and saws, a peculiarl}^ wild and hard aspect, and we look in vain
for any correspondence of angles.
Here Minas, alwaj^s hilly,
becomes extra-mountainous
and writers declare that the formation, generally arenaceous, turns to quartzose. In front are
;

the distant lowlands, apparently plains dotted with dark hills, but
really without half a mile of level,

and the furthest distance is

another hne of fantastic rocks.

We now enter the true diamantine land, which older writers
term the Cerro formation, thus distinguishing Diamantina of Minas
from the diamond grounds of Bahia and from Diamantino of
* I

saw no sign of the berne or worm,

No one, however, breeds, and consequently
the herds are small.
f The first is the Pindahyba, a muddy
bed into which, mules sink even in the
"dries."
An unpleasant path of white
sandstone, with a pole serving as parapet
to a precipice, leads to the Riacho da
^ areda.
The latter word here means a
" Campina " or dwarf plain. The stream,

coming from north to south, courses cold,
dark, and clear over a rocky and slippery
bed of sandstone, and on the left is a place
where the tropeiros encamp. The third is
the Limoeiro, dark and muddy, with a
As a rule
dense Capao a little beyond it.
pure vehicle
the water is of the best, a
In
for forming the finest crystallizations. "
some places a white sand is spread over
'

'

the black mud, reversing the usual process.

CHAP. VI.]

TO THE CIDADE DIAMAXTINA.

81

Matto Grosso. Tlie view strilies at once.
It is a complete
change of scenery everything is the image of bouleversement
and aridity. The hills are no longer rounded heaps of clay, grown
;

over with luxuriant vegetation.

Here we have

2)auper growth springmg from the split rocks,

a dwarfed and
a

mean Campo

flora, or yellow tliickets based upon scanty humus, and even the

hardy Coqueii'o becomes degenerate.*

It is a fracas of Natm-e,

a land of crisp Serras stripped to the bones, prickly and brist-

peaky liills and fragments of pm-e rock separated by
deep gashes and gorges; some rising overhead black and threatening, others distant with broken top lines, with torn blue sides,
striped with darker or lighter lines.
Here and there, between
the stern peaks, lie patches of snow-white sand or a naiTow bit
of green plam, confused and orderless, a fibre in the core of rockmountam.
The land also is illiterate, and it is wild fossils,
those medals of the creation, do not belong to it.
After the first view of this country, and inspection of its material, I felt how erroneous was the limitation of the old men who
confined the diamond to between 15° and 25° of north and south
latitude, thus including Golconda, Yisapur and Pegu, and making
Borneo and Malacca the only Equatorial diggings. I at once
recognized the formation of the Sao Paulo Province, in which
many diamonds have been fomid.f My little trouvaille was that
we may greatly extend the diamantme, as we have the carboniferous strata, and that the precious stone will be found in many
parts of the world where its presence is least suspected, and even
where the ignorant have worked the ground for gold.
But when, returning home, I looked at my newspapers, the
trouvaille had been made for me.
In one I read, " There are
fifteen localities in California at which diamonds I have been fomid
The Melbourne Argus
in the course of washing for gold."
"
declared that
a small but very beautiful diamond had been
ling with

;

found in a claim at Young's Creek, near Beechworth
is perfectly white,

and the crystallization well defined.

* \Ylien clothed with sufficient humus,
degraded Itacolumite is a veiy fertile soil.
f M. Barandier, a French artist, found
a small diamond at Campinas in Sio Paulo.
I have seen the "forma9So," or stones
supposed to accompany the gem, in many

parts of the Province, in the valley of the
Southern Parahyba, and even near the city
of Sao Paulo.
A fine specimen of the

VOL.

II.

:

the stone
It is the

bhxck diamond, perfectly symmetrical, was
taken from the Rio Verde, near the frontier
of the Sao Paulo and Parana Provinces
moreover the Tibagy and other influents of
the Parana are kno-wn to be diamantiferous,
and have supplied small specimens set by
nature in the Cauga rock.
X The "California diamond" vas formerly a bit of rock crystal.
;

a

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

b'2

second diamond found on
Advertise}' recorded the

[chap. \ j.

Again, the

that Creek.

Coleshery

discovery of a diamond digging on the

farm of Dr. Kalk, and asserted that some gems had been washed

worth 500/.*
Old Ferreu'a, my comrade, used very hard words as he passed
the ruins of the Contagem das Aboboras, which he called the Con-

tagem do Galheiro.f

The

senior was a kind of Mr.

Chocks,

exceedingly grandiloquent till Nature expelled Art ; he would call
heat a " temerit}' of sun," rich ore a " barbarity of iron " he told
;

me to

charge to the right," meaning to take that direction when
imcertain he declared that " it did not constate," and when he
''

;

ignored a thing, he was '^not a great apologist of it." But, if
tradition do not mightily exaggerate concerning the " days of despotism," as the colonial rule is popularly called, his bad language

was justifiable. The soldiers and their commandant who occupied
yon stone ranch, now ruined, held all the passes and watched the
neighboming Corregos, the only zigzags up which the Garimpeii'o
or smuggler could travel. Travellers were searched, and muleteers
were compelled to take to pieces the pack-saddles where treasure
might be concealed. Extreme cases are quoted. Men who bathed
in the diamond rivers were flogged, and those found washing in
them lost theii' hands. The tradition here is that the obnoxious
system was abolished by D. Pedro L, that popular prince having
accidentally, when disguised a la Harun El Rashid, learned from
a mule- trooper all its evils and injustice.
From the white soil we i)assed to a wave of reddish j^ellow
ground, the ''Mulatto" of the Southern States, and took the left
of the huge portal on the right.
The descent was gentle, but at
the bottom came the usual troubles—tree stumps in the ground,
holes whence roots had been drawn, banks up which the mules had
to climb, a red soil forming puddle during the rains, and black
earth even now a rivulet.
We met a few mules about 9 a.m.
Here the cold prevents an earlier start. Some carried for sale in
the backwoods *'Pedras de furno," round slabs of white Itacolumite,
For drying manioc
2J- feet in diameter by 1 inch in thickness.
''^'

When traveHiug

In Virginia, I Lad
diamond picked ui) near
Richmond
it -^Acighed some twenty-four
<arat8-and cut to about lialf, and was
sold for a small sum as it wanted "water."
f The (xalheiro is to the north on tiniieard

of a tnie
;

Rio rardo
nortli

Llraiule,

hix

to seven leaguc.-

Eio Paraima,

of tlie

There is no^N-

a Fazenda do (xalheiro, which l)elongs i«
many owners it in drained hy tJie Riacho
-lo Vento;
;

;

TO THE CIDADE DIAMANTIXA.

CHAP. VI.]

S;i

they are preferred to metal pans or plates, because tliey cost
The manufacture is easy. They are x)rized up
3 §000 to 5S000.
with levers, chipped into rounds or oblongs, and are ready for the
oven.
For convenience of carriage they are sometimes divided
into semicircles.

The quarry was shown

side, a drop in the ocean that

— a mere dot on the

could supply all the Empii-e.

hill

Fine

heavy soapstone is found in the torrent beds, and 1$000 procured
the shape of a candlestick.
for me a specimen
Presently we reached a miserable hamlet of tattered wattle and
dab huts, called Camillinho little Camillus after some ^'regulo

m

—

—

da roca" who

settled there.

An honest Eancheu-o, Luis

man and beast.

In his absence the wife gave

first

Monteiro, lodges

us coffee and food, whilst the mules were sent to a good closed
Ai'ound the huts, which were jalousie-closed
pasture hard by.

towards the road, and swarming -^-ith hens, pigeons, and black
gu-ls, grew a few coffee trees and v>-ind-wrung bananas, whilst a

smgie rose, which had learned to be a creeper, curled over a
thatched roof.
From Camillinho v\-e took a north-easterly com'se between two
lines of rock.
liill

The soil appears to be always red clay upon the

tops, with stony and ribbed sides, which sometimes throw lines

across the road, and white or yellow tints in the lower parts.

The

huge Esbarrancados are here a mixture of water-breach and suncrack in places they cut up the country and cut off the roads.
They are mostly elongated crevasses, whose projecting and reentermg angles correspond. Some form central islets, like St.
;

Michael's Mount in miniature.
hill,

The favourite site is the side of a

which will inevitably be eaten away, and often they moat the

heights like the ditches of Titans.

The old formations are known

by their tarnish, and by the growth of trees in the lowest levels
the new are fi-esh, and generally bottomed with mud or flowing
water. The whites and reds, yellows and pm'ples, are lively as in
other parts of the Province, and the feature is pictm-esque with
light and shade, especially at thnes when the sun lies low. At fii-st
the brilliantly coloured secsight they suggest artificial models
;

tions wliich are supposed to represent the earth's interior.

We find

even the ''faults" and " djdces" which restrain percolation.
The line ran over sundry waves of ground, and wound round
the hill sides, white vvith their small, loose^ glaring stones.

The

descents and ascents were both bad, and led to and from waters
G 2

—
THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

84

[chap. vi.

either grej'-coloured or crystal clear, flowing to the right, that is
to swell the Paraima Eiver south-west.

The huts appeared tem-

porary, like mining villages, and here and there a manioc i^atch

shows the capability of the soil. I presume that in many places
the land would bear the short and strong-stemmed hill-wheat of
Texas. The cool and shady wooded bottoms swarmed with the
Carraputo tick, and it was found advisable to send a man forward
by way of " drawing them off." We are now approaching springtide, and the tints are prettily diversified.
The pink Quaresma,
dwarfed by cold, hugs the damp places near water the golden
Ipe, that local yew, also small, prefers the stony upland.
In the
hollows there is a flower that reminds me of the purple Aster,
;

llie stripped trees project their grey lean limbs against back-

grounds of lightest-green, middle-green, and darkest green, and
everywhere the bush is red, burnished with the new leaves of the
Pau de Oleo,* a leguminous celebrity which prefers dry grounds and
shuns stagnant waters.

The birds seem to be less bullied here than in most other parts
of the Province.

I saw for the first time a peculiar pigeon which

extends down part of the
the Highlands of Bahia.

Ivio

de 8iio Francisco, and is found in

The people call it Pomba Verdadeii'a, or

de Encontro branco, from the white marks on the wings.

It is

probably a variety of the Columba speciosa found on the seaboard,

and its marbled neck and superior size suggest our blue rock.

It

looked like a giant by the side of the Pomba Torquaz,t the largest
of the
*

many doves

*' Oil --wood,"

also written

other

wa3^s.

Bola,

(Jurity,

Copaifera

officinalis,

Copahyba, Cupauba, and in

The Caramuru (7, 51)

de-

scribes it as,

Capivi which oft works a certain cure."

The Indians, who knew the medicine Avell,
collected it in sections of nuts, corked with

wax, and during hot weather it used
to sweat through the rude bottle, i)ro"\dng
its excessive
"tenuity."
In 1787, according to Ferreira, a pot of nine Lisbon
canadas (each two litres) cost 6 $000 to

6$400, and "Capivi" was considered to
be an important importation, having credit
for inany pseu do -virtues.

vexy violent remedy, and mostly confined
the treatment of cattle sores.
The
season for collecting the precious balsam
opens with the new moon of August the
people say of the tree "Chora " (it weeps like
Myi-rha) "tudo o mez de Augusto," and a
^ing^e trunk fills several bottles.
The bark
is cut, and pledgets of cotton are placed to
drain the slit
the people have an idea
that the greatest yield is Avhen the moon is
full, and that it gradually falls till the
wane.
f The word is the Latin "Torquatus,"
and alludes to the ring round the neck
the vulgar corrupt it to Trocaes, and thus
we find'it Avritten by Prince Max. (i. 396).
Amongst the uneducated in the Brazil the
to

;

A Copaiba em curas applaudida—
''

and others) which inhabit

Painters used

it

;

;

iiufoitiniatc

letter

r

is

sul)ject,

amongst

for linseed oil, but not in places exposed to

other injuries manifold, to excessive trans-

weather, as it easily came
in the shops, but it

position.

ijold

off.

is

Here it is
held to be a

)

CHAr.

TO THE CTDADE DIAMAXTIXA.

VI.]

So

The Eaptores are unusually numerous.

these liiglilands.

There

Caracara, which ranks with the eagles, and behaves, the
degenerate aristocrat, vilely as a buzzard, A vulture (V. aura),

is the

probably the Acabiray first described by Azara,
Urubii Cacador, or the hunter.

It resembles in

is

here called

form the vulgar

The head is red, and the wings are black
bird, but
with silver lining, like the noble Bateleur of Africa. Prince Max.
high.

it flies

75) makes the bird's head and neck to be gris cendre, which is

(i.

he also guides its distant com*se by smell, which I
vehemently doubt. Another hawk, known by the general name
not the case

;

Gaviao, poises itself in mid air, and is said to be a game bird, self-

taught to follow and kill the C'adorna, or local partridge.
there would be no difficulty in training it.

If so,

There is also a tin}^

The first swallow seen
during this year darted by in search of a warmer climate. The

raptor, hardly larger than a sandpiper.

Scissar-tail (tesoura)4urns sharply in the air, opening and shutting

forked tail the x^retty white and black Maria Preta, and the
crimson Sangre de Boi or Pitangui, disported themselves amongst

its

;

the stunted trees

;

while John Clay (Joao de Barros) hopped chat-

tering before us as if he had some secret to tell, and the Tico-tico,

tame as a robin, flirted with us like a little girl. At times the
sharp stroke of a file upon a saw, sometimes singly and sometimes
in quick succession, was heard.
We recognised the voice of
the bell-bird,* which has latel}' been introduced to England.
Ascending a slope after an hour's ride, we found a fresh change
of scene.
To the right, in a low, flat green bottom by the banks
* A drawing of a specimen which reached
England lately appeared in the Illustrated
News.
It is the Campanero or hell-bird
described in the last generation by Water-

who makes its voice

audible "at a
The
miles."
Chasmorh}^lchos nudicollis is popularly
known as Araponga, a coiTuption of Guiraponga, from C-fuira a bird, pong onomatopoetic, and -a, what exists.
St, Hilnire
(III. i. 26) derives it from Ara, day, and
He
pong, ''son d'line chose creuse."
wai-ns us not to confound it, like ]\rr. Walsh,
with the "ferrador"or blacksmith frog,
and, curious to say, for once ISlv. Walsh
The T. Diet, explains Guirais right.
Castelnau menIjonga by ferrador-ave.
tions the ferrador bird (i. 274) and (in i.
169) the feiTador frog, which Prince Max.
ton,

distance

(i.

of

nearly

269) calls Ferreiro.

three

is

The Procnias (a genus formed by Illiger,
called nudicollis from its thin gi-een-

patched throat, so conspicuous in the snowIt has no caruncle like the
white plume.
bird figured in the illustration to "Kidder
and Fletcher," (edition of 1857) and called
Uruponga the l)ird with a tubercle is the
named Guiraponga or
white Cotinga,
Ampelis Carunculata (Linn.). Prince ]\Iax.
has described other species of tliis remarkable family, as, c.ff., the Procnias
melanocephalus (i. 260), and the Procnias
Cyanotropes or ventralis, with blue green
;

reflections (i. 291).

The peculiarity of this winged Stentor is
the disproportion of the note to the size.
We hear the blow of a hammer upon an
anvil
we see a creature about the size of
the smallest turtle dove,
;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

86

[chap. vi.

do Tigre, another influent of the Paraima, lay
houses and dwarf fields on the hill side was a tall black cross in
of

tlie

Ribeii'ao

;

a brand-new enclosure, a cemetery lately built, and already in

Around was a kind

active use.

of prairie, high and subject to

fierce winds, as the dwarfed Bromelias

and the stunted Vellozias
proved: the grass was thick but brown in the upper levels, and of
metallic green below, suggesting fine pasture.
The surface was
pitted with termitaria, of which many liad been mined by the
Armadillo mostly they showed annexes of a darker grey, clumsy
projections lil^e modern additions to some old country house.
The praii'ie fires produced a dull glow in the sky, and the smoke
folds crossing the sun had the effect of a cloud, and in places
cast shadow upon the face of earth
we blessed the beneficent
gloom. Far to the north-east lay our destination, Gouvea we
are now about half-way—pointed out by its road, a red-bro^\ai
ribbon spanning the sunburnt turf. To its left rose a massive,
lumpy peak, streaked with horizontal wavy lines on the right
towered a cloud-kissing point, which some called Morro das Datas,
and others Itambe.* The horizon in other places w^as bounded
with bluff' cliffs, which seemed to buttress an immense imaginary
stream.
Here and there was a '' Pilot-knob," with strata regular
as if built up, but defjdng human hands to build it.
The hill sides here showed traces of ancient leats, and heaps
of clay stone grit which they had helped to wash.
Within the
Contagem all the soil is reputed to be diamantiferous, and the
people delight to tell 3^ou that you may be treading upon precious
stones.
This, indeed, appears to be their thought by day and
their dream at night.
The surface was still disposed in waves,
with abrupt inclines of red and yellow ground, deeply gashed,
leading to thi'ee several waters, f which are struck perpendicularlv.
The watershed is from north-west to south-east, discharging to
the Parauna River. Mostly they are bright little streams, painted
:

;

—

:

* Ita-mbe, the big stoue or rock.
St.
(L i. 294) proposes as derivation,
yta aymbe, pierre a aiguiser.
There are
tv.'o features of this name, as will presently
appear.
Hil.

t
left

The first is the Agoa Limpa, on whose
bank rose a tall cliff, black as if vol-

canic

—

the effect of grass burning. Further
on to the right is a silvery lakelet, containing a knobby islet.
The llibeirao das
Areias spreads out T>-idc, and has a rough

bridge of eight trestles, some sixty-three
yards long
at this season it is fordable.
The Ribeirao das Almas showed a thread of
pure water running along the main current,
which had been made a dirty slate -coloured
The
drain by washings in the upper bed.
soil is mostly red as if rusty with oxide of
oranges
iron
it is fertile and produces
(remarkably good) and Jaboticabas, beside;^
the nonnal coffee shnibs and bananas.
;

;

=

-

TO THE C'IDADE DIAMAXTIXA.

87

l^ink-red with ii'on, and set off by golden sands

and avenues of

f'HAP. VI.]

In the dwarf riverine valleys and the hillsides
were fields and huts, some of them tiled, and near the Areias a

leek-green trees.

venda was being built.
We met on the way sundry parties of women coming from
some local festival, a few wliites, di'essed in straw hats and rainbow-coloured cottons, with blacks carrying their children.

They

many places, run away, and the tropeiros were
unusually civil, seeing that I was still a recruiting- of&cer. The
did not, as in

last divide led to the
v/hicli is

Corrego do Chiqueii'o

—of the Hogstye *—

deep and dangerous during floods.

We are now one

league from om' night's destination, and presently, after a long
ascent and a leg to the east, we saw over a dwarf peak the con-

spicuous church of Gouvea.

Women, all with the Caboclo look, carrying wood, entered mth
us as we passed the Cruz das Almas, which rose fi-om a pile of
stones.

This cross, wluch recalls the souls in Pm'gatory, is here

general.

On the hill to the right was an unfinished building,

N** S^

das Dures, undertaken by the vicar. Rev. P^ Francisco de

Paula Moreii'a, and Sr. Eoberto Alves, Jun., the son of a wealthy
family.

I

thought that the grim, stone buildmg, with what

appeared to be a single chimney, was a fort raised for some
it reminded me of the old Portuguese

inexplicable purpose ; and

fane

—

" Half churcli of Grotl, half castle 'gainst the Moor."

We passed the Rosario, a detached chapel with a single palm
and rode northward, up a street of ground-floor houses and
open Ranchos, each with its fi'ontage of stakes towards the
After the sunnjsquare, which apparently represented the town.
ride, and the high wind, which promised a cold night, I looked
Presently my guide
wistfully for a lodging, and saw none.
remembered Dona Chiquinha, the wife of a Diamantina merchant,
now at Rio de Janeiro his name, Ehzardo Emygdio de Aguiar,
Here
is written as pronounced by his friends, Elizaro Hemedio.
began the civility of which I afterwards experienced so much in
The Dona at once admitted me, her
this part of the Province.

tree,

:

* A poetical name not rare.
Near Oui'o
Preto is a place called N* S^ da Concei^ao
do Chiqneiro do Allamao (for Allemao).

— Oiu* Lady of the Conception
stye of the Grerman.

of the Ho-v-

—
THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

88

[chap. vi.

maiTied daugliter brought oranges, her little granddaughter orange
flowers, and her slaves cofl'ee.

I presently walked out to view the place, and to escape bemg a

The people stared like the negroes of Ugogo they
could hardty gaze their full they would, when tired, rest awhile,
and ju'esently take another ''innings." The operations of shav-

menagerie.

:

;

ing and of using a tooth-hrush seemed to produce a peculiar

North of the town stands the chief church, Santo
Antonio, occuiDying part of the square, which is rather a bulging
edification.

in the street.

It stands awry, having

Gouvea was founded

;

it

been built probably before

fronts south-west, unpolitel}' i^resenting

to Jerusalem its dorsal region.

On each side bits of Calcada line

the red soil, and these incipient pavements

lie

here and there.

About it are a few Casuarinas and Coqueiro palms, at this season,
they feed a large caterpillar (lagarta) *
which presently becomes a " borboleta " moth or butterfly

they say, always mangy

;

—

after which they recover.

The square shows one sobrado, belong-

ing to Jofio Alves, amongst the sixty-four houses east of the

chm'ch: the fiftv-eight to the west have sundry half-sobrados, and
all the

better sort are

distinguished by shutters painted blue.

The holy building is crooked from cross to door, a2)parentl3" the
people's eyea cannot see a straight line

:

it has

four windows, and

two weather-cocked towers, with roof covers upturned there are
two bells, and the eastern belfry has a bogus clock. Behind the
:

temple is the God's acre, quaintly adorned with corner-posts of blue
plaster, supporting rude and rusty armillary spheres.

The town is on a rough ridge, and water is scarce and distant.
On the east, far below, lies the usual Lavapes nearer is the Rua
:

do FogOjf a kind of chemin des affronteux, and in the distance is
the Morro de Santo Antonio, a noble stone-knob based upon an
earthen pedestal. No one has ascended it, yet it may be easily
chmbed on the south-east. Westward is the Rua do Socego or
dos Coqueu'os, with a few houses scattered and whitewashed, in

compounds defended by dry stone walls.

The growth

is

the

Castor shrub, the Jaboticaba, the papaw, whose leaves are here
* The Curculio palmarnm is relished
Africa, and greedily eaten by the S.
American "Indians." I have never tasted
it, but white travellers have informed me
that it has a delicate and even a delicious
in

flavour,

f The Street of Fire, not an uncommon
name in the Brazil, usually meaning that in it liquor and consequently
village

quarrels abound.

"

CHAP. VI.]

TO THE CTDADE DIAMAXTIXA.

80

used for soup, the plantain, a few good oranges, and the sweet
lime with bitter placenta, called Lima da peca the coffee looks
:

crowded and untrimmed.
thriftless and
Provisions are excessively expensive, having to make the
journey which we have made, and maize* costs 4 $000 per
starving, as usual

it

is

alqueire.

On the next morning, when I called for the bill, the Dona
such was her hospitable habit,
and she declared that her sons also were wandering over the

refused everything, even a gift

world abroad.

;

AVe mounted at 7 a.m., a light east wind rising

with the sun, whilst the sky was moutonne with clouds.

Our

course lay north-east towards the pyramids of dull grey stone,
the smaller below the larger, and both sentinelling the richer

diamond lands. A slipper}^ hill, gashed with water-breaches, led
to the
to a wooded hollow, which sheltered a few thatched huts
It had outhouses,
right was a Sitio, belonging to Roberto Alves.
enclosures, and a coffee plantation, somewhat thin, but defended
from the blasts and superior to all rivals.
Here began the Pe de Morro, or ascent, which will last till near
Diamantina. The wheel-road winding round the western side is
the bridle-path to east seems made for goats, with its
easy
Presentlv
loose stones and its ruts petrified in hard pink clay.
the latter fell into the former line, and the slope im23roved. From
the summit we had a good back view of Gouvea, but soon the
wind, chopping round to the north, drifted in oiu' faces a thick
Scotch mist. Old Ferreira complained that the Corrubiana t got
into his bones and nearly made him lose the way.|
The hill led to a plateau consisting of two plains divided by a
One of them was about two miles
water and a prism of rock.
;

:

across ; such an extent of level surface is here rarely seen.

Cattle

fine and plump, despite the Carrapatos, and probably strengthened

by the highly ferruginous water, made it look like " a pastoral in
a flat."
The Capao, however, was not of the style " bonito," §
* In this country the alqueire of maize
regulates prices like the quai-tei-n loaf in
England.
I have seen it at Sao Paulo, the
city, fluctuate between 2 $000 and 4 $000

— more exactly between

1 $ 940

and

4 $160,
f This word is popular in Minas Geraes,

and also, I believe, in Rio Grande do Sul.
Some Caijilras pronounce it "Cruviana,
X 0^ the right hand a road sets off to
Datas, the property of Colonel Alexandre
de Almeida Silva Bitancourt ; it reaches
the city, but after a very long round.
" is often seen
§ The "pretty tree motte

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

90

[chap. vi.

was coarse and lagged, whilst the land was much burnt.
The road became excellent, broad, level, and fit for a carriage
unhapi3ily, like that approaching Agbome, it is a mere patch.
At 9 A.M. we descended to Barro Preto, the first diamond dig-

it

:

ging which I had seen at work.

The site

is

a stream bed, the

head-waters (Cabeceiras) of the Corrego das Lages, which feeds
successively the Corrego das Datas (or the Cachoeira), the Cor-

The surface showed
rego da Grupiara and the Parauna Eiver.
"
varying
in colour from
saibro," clayey sand,
spoil-heaps of
dirty white to milky white, like the detritus of quartzum lacteum,

and pebbles mixed with fragments of
rock crystal. A Httle thread of muddy water triclded down and
served the *' Servicosinho."* We passed two huts and a half of
thatch-wattle and dark-grey dab, whence the negroes stared, the
dogs barked, the pigs grmited. The place, knomi for two to
three years, has been worked during the last eight months by
tm-fy and vegetable matter,

Joao and Manuel Alves, the sons of a centagenarian. It is said
that they have several diamonds exceeding two oitavas (say each
= 280L), and there are vague rumom-s of a large stone which is
kept a profomid secret. In these diggings all is mystery, and not
an exceptional diamond generally counts in the
wild parts at least one murder.
Pushmg across the sterile diamantine land, where the windwrung trees acted as anemometers, I again remarked the fantastic
forms of the sandstone, especially on the north-east, whence the
weather comes. Here were watch-towers and pyramids, there
without reason

;

were walls which no CjTlops could have raised now we passed
Between them the surpeeled skulls, then mouldering bones.
;

face was mottled, sand -patches white as kaolin, or stained with

humus and

soil,

yellow, purple, and dull crimson with ochre

and haematite, dotted the expanse of warm-red brown land the
latter was comparatively fertile, and clothed with black ashes, from
;

which si^routed grass of metallic green, spiky as a stifi" beard.
The expected eclipse came on, the sun diminished to a crescent,
but the mist was so thick that the efi'ect passed away almost

in the Province of Sao Paulo,

where the

grass, like the nap of yellower green veh'et,

sweeps up to the clump, which

and regx\lar growth.

is

of tall

A small Servigo.

The latter is an old
and
Bahia to diamond washings worked ])y a
tropa or slave-gang under free-men.
'"

name still

applied in Minas <xeraes

CHAP. VI.]

TO THE CIDA_DE DIAMANTINA.

imperceptibly.

No one

any attention to

paid

91

it,

nor would

they
Si fractus illabatur orbis ;

not because over-just or tenacious of tilings proposed, but from

mere incui'iousness. Old Ferreii'a, it is true, remarked that it
might be the cause of the '^ confounded Corrubiana," * but then,
he could think of nothing else.
Still ascending, we crossed thi-ee waters flowing to the westward, t and divided by bulges of ground. Near the fii'st was a
clump of huts and signs of industr3^ A rough "Baco,"t or
three-sided trough of planks and sandstone-slabs, awaited the
After four miles of barren
rains to wash the heaps lying near it.
''
Bandeirinha," § a wliitewashed house, surrounded
soil we made
by a few trees, and a close pasture fi'onted by an open ranch.
Maria Augusta de Andrade, in the absence of her husband, Jos^
da Eocha, miner, ''merchant," Rancheii'o, and so forth, rose up
shivering and prei)ared breakfast for us the south-east Tvind had
blown for five days, and on my retimi, five days afterwards, I
:

found it blowing still.
Now remained only ten miles.

In half an hour w^e ascended a
This is the great dividing line
ston}^ hill of red and white soil.
from this
l)etween the Rivers Sao Francisco and Jequitinhonha
;

On
the left was a cross-road leading through the little villages O

I'joint it

trends in a northerlv dii'ection, bending to the west.

Guinda, the Brumadinho, and the Rio das PecU'as to the

Sao Joao.

,

In

lay a

fi'ont

huge

bro-^ai

slope,

Mme of

patched with

snowy, ghttering, dazzling sand, and here and there growing grass

was an abundance of the
ground-palm, here called Coqueirinho do Campo, dwarfed by the
of

a lively green

:

in places there

* Perhaps this was the case.
On my
return the mist tried to gather thick, but
svas soon dispersed by the sun.
+ The first is the Corrego de Joao Vaz,
so called from an old settler whose descendthey have
ants still gamble in diamonds
It
seven huts, one neatly whitewashed.
flows to the Corrego do Capao, and thence
diu-ing the
to the Rio Pardo Pequeno
The second is known
rains it is dangerous.
as the Brauna (Melanoxylon Grauna), a
rocky bed with the bulges called Caldeiroes,
and at this season a ti-ickle of water, which
;

;

also feeds the Corrego do Capao.
A single
house is built near its bank,
% This trough con-esponds -\\-ith the canoa used in gold-washing,
§ Dr. Couto, in ISOl, mentions the
Sitio da Bandeirinha, the little Bandeira,
or Commando.
Burmeister en'oneously
-wi'ites " Bandeirinho. "
This and Bandeira
are common names in the Province of
Minas, dating from the days of the slaving

expeditions,
||

See Chapter 9.

—

—

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

92

Near

gales.

the

horizon,

scatters

of

tall

[chap. vt.

stone,

heads,

shoulders, knobs, piles and lumj^s broke the outline, and far to
rose the long blue wall which bears the majestic
p^Tamid Itambe.
Presentl}^ we passed, on the left, O Guinda, so called from a
broad, shallow, and sandy stream, once very rich, and still
worked it feeds the northern Eio das Pedras, the Eio do Caldeirao, the Biribiri, the Pinheiro, and the Jequitinhonha Rivers.
It is a miner- town, surrounded by red excavations, and looks from
afar like an ant-hill; has a single small square and large black cross,
sheds for tropeiros, and decent houses, hugging the left bank of
the water.
Beyond it is the Brumadinho, a similar settlement,
but smaller. Presently we sighted, far ahead, a grim rock}^
wall, with a white path winding up its darkness
this is the good
new road leading to Medanha on the Jequitinhonha River, and
thence to Sao Salvador da Baliia.
Crossing the northern Rio

the right

:

;

das Pedras, a crystal water-babe in a sandstone cradle, I crested

and saw to the east a big white house, garnished with a
fcAV brown huts, and standing apparently on the edge of a precipice
the Episcopal Seminary.
Diamantina was within musket-shot, but a long northerly
detour was necessary in order to gain the main road.
I forded
the Riacho das Bicas, so called from an old and rich gold mine
on the hill behind the Seminary
this Lavapes flows to the
east, and falls into a little Rio de Sao Francisco, south of tlie
a

hill,

—

:

The hollows were rich in the large and deeply digitated
Ai'oid with an edible fruit, known as Imbe, or Guaimbe, and in
Tupy, Tracuans (Philodendron grandifolium). It loves damp
city.

places, and has an extensive range
feet of altitude.

between sea-level and 3000

A stiff ascent—the last— and a line of stunted

Araucarias, led to a hill-crest and the usual Cruz

das Almas.

Here the traveller first sights the city, falling in perspective below
his feet. It is a Brazilian *' Pangani "
a settlement "in a hole."

—

The first glimpse suggests
Dirarum nidis domus opportnna volucrum.

Yet sings of it its local poet, the late Aureliano J. Lessa
Ves la na encosta do monte
Mil casas em gruposinhos

CHAP.

V].]

TO THE CIDADE DIAMANTIXA.
Alvas como cordeirinhos
Que se lavaram na fonte ?
Qual dragao petrificado
Aquella serra curvado

Que mura a cidadesinha ?
Pois essa cidade e minlia

E meu berco idolatrado.*

* See'.sf thou upon j'on slope of hill

A thousand houses grouped together,
White as the yeanling of the wether,
All freshly bathed in summer rill ?

And see'st not in far backgi-ound
Like to a serpent tiu-ned to stone,
The range in regidar curving thrown,
That walls the little city round !
Behold my o^vn dear M-alls arise,

The cradle which I idolize.

93

—

—

CHAPTER VII.
AT DIAMANTINA.

—

—

SOCIETY. POPULARITY OF THE ENGLISH IN THE BRAZIL.
THE DIAMOND IN THE BRAZIL, ITS DISCOVERY, &C. VALUE OF EXPORTED

CITY DESCRIBED.

—

DIAMONDS.

" The temperate climate enjoyed by the inhabitants of this part of the country
renders them more healthy than those who dwell in the Sertao (Far West)
women are the most beautiful I met with in Brazil." Gardner^ chap. xii.

The site of Diamantina is peculiar

:

it is

the

almost precipitous to

the east and south-west, whilst the northern part
tion of the broken prairie -land.

;

is

a continua-

This incipient Haute Ville is the

best and healthiest locaUty, and here the settlement will spread.

The '' Cidadesinha" runs down the western face

of a strongly

inclined hill to meet on the sole of the deep valley the Kio de Sao

Francisco, or Rio Grande

;

its water,

draining the lowlands, feeds

the main artery of this basin, the Eio Jequitinhonha, distant three

leagues in a straight line, and five to six indirect.*

The breadth

of the torrent-bed, here running from north to south, is patched

with red-brown soil and brilliantly green herbage the middle is
white with cascalho heaps thrown up by the old diggers a mere
:

:

thread of water

dangerous

J

now trickles down it, but

after rain

a dwarf bridge has been put w]) to

it

becomes

save servile

life

from the frequent inundations. The further side of the ravine is
a grim broken wall of grey rock, white under the hammer; the
rampart springs steeply from a base encumbered with spoilbanks, washed

many a year ago, and is raggedl}^ clothed with

grass now brown, f

Viewed from the '' Alto da Cruz," the cit}" has a well-to-do
* The course is southerly to the Southei'ii
(las Pedras ;
it then turns by east to
noi-tli-east, and joins, or according to some,
forJns the head waters of tlie gi-eat .Jequitin-

Kio

lionlia.

t It is advisable to walk up tlie new
Bahia road, whicli commands an excellent
prosi^ect of the city.

CHAP.

AT DIAMANTINA.

VII. ]

95

and important look. It is much changed since 1801, when as the
"Arraial do Tejuco " the village of the mud-hole,* it had
nothing hut wooden tenements nor can it be recognised in the
pages of Gardner and M. Barbot,t who described it as it was
durmg the last generation. Belov>" us lies a sheet of houses
dressed in many colours, pmk, white, and 3-ellow, with large
green gardens facing broad streets and wide squares, whilst public
buildings of superior size, and a confusion of single and double

—

;

church-steeples, testify to the piety of the place.

From the Alto da Cruz we make the Largo do Curral, the best
building-site in, or rather out of, the city.

Formerly cattle w^ere here

now a tall black cross has converted it
mto a respectable square. Descending the good new Calcada of
the Rua da Gloria, formerly '' do Intendente," we passed on the
stabled and slaughtered

;

Sobrado da Gloria, which began life as the Intendency of
Diamonds, then became the provisional Episcopal Palace, and
now lodges those Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul whom we met

left the

upon the road near the Caraca. Inside the carpenters are at
work pulling to i^ieces thnber stiU sound after a centmy of use
an old-fashioned wooden verandah looks upon a large back:

garden of

the

richest

02:>posite is the tall

supplied with the

soil,

purest water.

sobrado belonging to the Lieut, -Col. Eo-

drigo de Souza Reis, whose mine we shall presentl}^ visit.

The Gloria strikes at right angles a street called, no one laiows
why, the Macao do Meio. It must not be confounded with the
Largo do Macao, where stands the Caridade Infirmary, a long,
broad,

white

building

belonging to

a

" brotherhood."

roughly paved Middle Macao contams good shops, the

''

The
Hotel

Cula," I and the Church of Sao Francisco, whose doors and wm-

—

dows are set in a framework of very unpretty streaky red here a
A six-faced and
fashionable tint, supposed to resemble marble,
two-spouted fountain of Egyptian grotesqueness, set in the wall
and dated 1861, begins the normal Eua Direita* '* Straight
Street" is exceedmgiy crooked, steep, and badly paved. Most of
some preserve the
the houses are new and boast of windows
shutter, and one retains the hanging gallery and Eotula or
:

'^

The word

is

exjjlahied

at

leugtli

in

Chap. 10,
+ Traite Complet, etc., p. 218.
i In full Sr. Herculano Carlos de ^Maga^

Vol.

I.

baeus Oastro, a delegate of police. Breakfast at 9 'SO a.m., a table d'hote (mesa
redonda), at 4 p.m., and 0$S00 i>er meal,

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

96

lattice-work of dingy, cliocolate-coloured wood.

removed
Brazil

:

these

:

It will

soon be

antiquities are very properly despised in the

here Temple Bar would be photographed, and no longer

allowed to
is

[chap. vii.

The sooner

cumber the ground.

demolished, the better for progressive

the

old Pillory

Diamantina

—

let

me

suggest.

In the Larofo da Kua Direita or de Santo Antonio is the TownhaU (Casa da Camara), a humble building, displaying the Imperial
Arms.* It has latterly been used as a Masonic Lodge. This was
forbidden, justly enough, because a Portuguese priest, Padre Luis,
became a brother. Opposite the Camara, and facing with the
Course of Empire, is the Matriz, whose '' Orago" is Santo Antonio.
an

It is

'^

insula," with a raised platform towards the northern

slope of the hill.

A stone wall shows the cemetery, to be banished

quam primum.

The two-windowed front, with two rose-lights

pierced in the rude Taipa-conglomerate, is bound in neutral-tmted
skj'-blue french-grey, whilst the

chocolate.

doors and shutters are daubed

All above the cornice

is

of board work, even to the

which I have seen in the
Brazil. The single window of the steeple shows a gilt bell. There
is a clock which, wondrous to relate, goes, but goes wrong, and

belfry, the first instance

of the Idnd

the finial is the usual armillary sphere with the normal extensive

There is nothing
to be described in the interior of this or of any other Diamantine

weather-cock, more often a dragon than a cock.

Church, and the ''lumber" work gives them generall}^ a look of
instability.

We are in the heart of the city, the centre of business-circulation.

On the left of the Square is the Intendencia de Sousa

"Intendency" here means a substantial market shed, the
embryo of the Pisan Sotto borgo. Sousa Reis is private property,
and under the deep dark verandah are shops which sell everything,
from flour to snuff, required by the wild country. Below and to
the east is a large open square, the " Cavalhada Nova," as distinGuished from the '' Yelha," further down and almost outside the
These clear spaces were so called from the Portuguese carcity.
rousels, which, like bull-fights, once accompanied every festivit3\
They are obsolete in the Brazil, though they preserve vitality in
Beis.t

*

The losvfv story is not the iiurinal
which h;i.s l.)een veinoved to a biiikl-

jirison,

ing near the tlicntrc.

+ There arc two other Intcndencias, dc
the hitter
Scbastiao Picada, and tlic Lagcs
has tive storca.
;

AT DIAMANTIXA.

CHAP. VII.]

97

and even in Anglicized Madeira. The last
tournament" I saw was at the Island of Fogo, in the Cape Verde

Italy,
'^

in Portugal,

group.

Crossing and leaving on the right the Rua da Quitanda, I found
the house of my host, Sr. Joao Ribeiro (de Carvallio Amarante),

on the noi*thern side of the Pra9a do Bomiim. The ground floor
is laid out in a dr^'-goods store and an inner writing apartment,
where the diamonds are kept. The dining room and kitchen
affect the back part of the tenement, and above are the apartments

The hospitable Lisbonese freely confesses that he
began life with di'iving a few mules he is now the wealthiest merof the famil3\

;

and he supplies goods even to
Guaicuhy and Januaria.* At the Pe de Morro, near the Curumatahy influent of the Jequitinhonha, he owns a large fazenda,
where he breeds cattle, grows provisions, and manufactm^es sugar
and rum. He is in trouble about his 50 slaves, and nowhere, as
chant where

all

are merchants,

far as I know the Brazil, are negroes so

troublesome as those in

and around Diamantina. Many of them take to the bush and
become *' Quilombeiros," black banditti, ready for any atrocity
which their cowardice judges safe. Here no one travels even by
day without having his weapons handy and without looking round
the corners.
They are skilful as Canidia or Locusta, and much
addicted to the use of Stramonium.f A common sj^mptom is an
intense pam in the legs, a medical man assm'ed me, causing a
drawn and anxious countenance. Many a slave-owner has suspected mahngering, till mideceived by the sufi'erer's speedy death.
A case has lately occiu'red at Pe de Morro the owner will presently visit it and make a terrible example of the poisoner. Thus
a tlu'eatened servile mutiny was summarily crushed in 1865 by
flogging and the galleys + nor did anybody meet with the fate of
Governor E}Te.
Sr. Joao Ribeiro consigned me to his bachelor guest-house in
the Rua do Bomfim, so called from a Chmxh dedicated to Our
Lady of Good End. The street is a kind of ragged iiTegular
;

;

* See Chapters 13 and 17.

that the plant has here followed the foot-

+ The System says that its alkaloid prin-

steps of man from N. America,
The " Quilombeiros " of Medanha had

ciple is well known to the negi'oes, who pre-

pare from the plant their " philters," that
is to say, charms and poisons, love-draiights
and other devilries. May not the seeds of the
Stramonium have been brought from India
vis,

Africa ?

VOL.

II.

St. Hil. (I.

ii.

97) determines

J

a Maroon settlement within a league of the
village, and threatened the suburbs of
Diamantina.
When their stronghold was
attacked and taken, whites as well as
blacks were found in it.

H

—
THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BHAZIL.

98

square ;
cary.

it boasts

[chap. vii.

of a good barber, a watchmaker, and an apothe-

Of course all imported articles are sold at an extravagant

price, and considering the transport, this is not astonishing.*

From

the Bomfim the Eua do Amparo, tolerably paved, runs to the east,

and strikes the Valley of the Eio de Sao Francisco. It passes by
the Church of N^ S^ do Amparo
Our Lady of the Eefuge. The
front was adorned with coloured glass lamps, and the Sunday
morning squibs told us that a Novena was in progress there. The

—

best drinking water

is brought from the bottom of the ravine,
where a few houses and huts, plantations and fields, are scattered

about, leaving abundant building room.
ticks,

If not afraid of snakes,

and thorns, you may fight your way far down the Rivulet

banks.

My three daj^s spent at Diamantina left upon me the most
The men are the '' frankest,"

agreeable im23ressions of its societ}^

the women are the prettiest and the most amiable that it has yet

been my fortune to meet in the Brazil.

Strangers everywhere in

these regions receive cordial hospitahty, but here the welcome

is

peculiarly warm.

Perhaps the wealth of the place has something
to do with it.
Where lodged I was at once called ui)on by some
young men from Rio de Janeii'o, here popularly called Cometas.
Sensible, obliging, and well-informed, they had none of that offensiveness of the Em*opean Commis-voj-ageur, or travelling bagman.

The calling is honourable as any other.

may be said with
truth, and greatly to the credit of the Brazil, that no man feels
It

degraded by honest industry, however humble.
Consequently
society ignores the mauvaise honte about professions which distinguishes the old world, where I have seen a man blush to own
that his father was a "doctor," and where Faraday was lauded

because he dared to confess in public that his brother was a gasfitter.

My first evening was spent at the house of John Rose, a Cornishman, originally a miner at Morro Yelho, afterwards a diamonddigger, carpenter, mason, architect ; his last job was at the Bishop's
*

My test bottles having been broken, I bouglit
3 oz, muriatic acid
3 oz. nitric acid
2 oz. tannin, in alcohol

.

Total

At that time about one guinea.

.

.

.

.

.

.1^040
.

.

.

1$040
6$ 500
10 $580

—
;

CHAP.

AT DIAMANTINA.

A'lL]

Palace.

-

99

B3' sobriety and good conduct he has cleared some 5000?.,

and now he can amply enjoy his propensity for independence in
word and deed. Not so pleasant was another stranger, who at
once showed the cloven foot by loudly abusing the Brazilians, and
I
b}" declarmg that they allowed none but themselves to thrive.
liis
name, for, although he must have tm'ned the
will not mention
half-centmy, he may still find out that it is never too late to mend.
He is a well-educated man, laiowing German and English perfectly,
Portuguese well, French tolerably he can teach languages he can
keep books of course he has a gold mine he has been a doctor
still a j)opular character * and he still practises homoeopathy. But
he prefers to ''loaf about," borrowing 100 $000 from this and
160 $000 from that acquaintance, whose charity he expends, not on
;

;

;

;

;

When in liquor he is addicted to the free
use of knife and pistol. He attributes his habits of sleeping in the
He had left her at Kio
streets to the infidehty of his spouse.
raiment but upon drink.

and she was persuaded to accept the protection of a Portuguese, who offered to, and who did, maintain,
The latest little game of my
educate, and settle her children.
unpleasant acquaintance has been Freemasomy, to which he has,
totally unprovided for,

for a consideration, admitted the least worth}" aspirants.

He pro-

posed, moyennant the payment of 5L, to make me a P.M., and he

had the impudence to deliver a message from me to a certain ecclesiastic, begging that Freemasonry might not be jDreached against
it was necessary to call, and to explain the affair.
This man was a Hanoverian, consequently a Prussian, but he
Britons in the Brazil are wont to
called himself an Englishman.
complain that they and the Portuguese are exceedingly unpopular.
The fact is that we frequently suffer not only for our own sins,
which are manifold, but for those of our European neighbours,
which are not few. Foreigners also exaggerate our unpopularity.
" Les Anglais sont detestes au Bresil on regarde comme appartenans a cette nation tons les etrangers chez lesquels des cheveux
blonds et une peau blanche indiquent qu'ils sont origames du
;

*

The Diamantists did not seeto to me

satisfied with the gifts of their Esculapiuses,

as everjTV'here in the outer Brazil a stranger
I was
is expected to be a medicine-man.
at once consulted for a simple hepatitis,
which the leech, after the normal treatment of cupping and blistering, was attack-

In vain I
Ing with antl-spasniodics.
assured the patient that my favoiirite prof ession was rather to kill than to cure ; he
seemed satisfied that he had already run
the very greatest risk of killing without
murder,

H 2

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

100

[chap. vii.

M. Dulot
Nord," says, in 1815—1817, Prince Max. (i. 119).
qui
faibles
(p. 62) speaks of "la brutalite traditionelle envers les
fait detester partout I'Angleterre " and here he would be justified
;

Aberdeen Bill." St. Hilaire (III. i. 219) remarks that *' grace a leurs compatriotes,Mawe,Luccocket Walsh,"
the English became unpopular in the land. And it is almost a
truism to say that if perhaps we hear too little good of ourselves
from others, we, like other nations, hear far too much good of
This puffery and clap-trap about our
ourselves from ourselves.
own perfections is still held to be patriotism, and at last the ** genial, broad-shouldered Englishman" has learned to bear without
a murmur gigantic weights of " Buncombe." *
The Brazil, also, like other people, has met with a small
amount of merited praise, and a large amount of unmerited
But the travellers of one nation have hardly been more
abuse.
if he

alluded to the

polite to her

''

than those

of the

others. f

The

result

of

my

experience at present is that, despite the Aberdeen Bill and the
the

Empire respects us, and even

silly

Abrantes- Christie

lilves

us as much as, if not more than, her other visitors.

It is

favourites anywhere

in the

not pretended that

affair,

strangers

are

them far too much, and they
justified considerably less than the most moderate expectations.
Brazil

;

the country expected from

In our case they complain of the "insular manner," now happily waxing obsolete, as the Frenchman of Goldsmith and Sterne,
the coarse roughness of the uneducated, X and the shy pride and
haughty reticence of theu' " betters," are ever gall and wormwood to the Brazilian spirit. And we have lost esteem by the

* It has lately been judged advisable in
British India to consult high officials concerning the afjpreciation of our rule by the

Many men,
not by ourselves.
myself included, have since 1850, written
and repeated in the plainest English, what
now comes before the public in a decorous
foolscap form.
The only result was that
we were pronounced by the few who took
the trouble of reading us, to be either
ignorant or impertinent, and ignorance and
impertinence in such matters can expect
very little mercy.
+ Nor have the French tended to improve the entente coi'diale.
The Comte de
Suzannet (Souvenirs, 1842), M. de Chavaignes (Souvenirs, j). 160), the unjustly
treated M. Jacquemont, and MM. Biard,
natives,

and D'Abbadie, may be quoted
Reybaud, Ferdinand Denis,
and Liais. I cannot explain, except by the
influence of an oiitrageous nationality, how
Hilaire (III. i. 263), defends and
St.
homme de beaucoup
applies the terms
d'esprit," to M. Jacques Arago, author of
the " Voyage autour du Monde, " and one of
the most disgraceful charlatans that ever
Expilly,

versus

MM.

*

'

appeared in the Brazil,
This is a free country, and any man
+
therefoi'e may take any freedom he likes
with any other man, and protest is simjjly
'

'

Quixotic.
But we are a coarse people."
Thus writes a popular author, who has
never yet been called a "degenerate English-

man."

t"

CHAP.

AT DIAMAXTIXA.

VII.]

great country's

little

101

wars, which began the dotage of a liberal

and which led it to shirk the duties of its position, and to
An Abyssmian Expediretire from the business of the world.
Hindostan, and
tion benefits England as much in the Brazil as
may be pronounced to be worth the two-pence.
I paid a visit to the Rev. Michel Sipolis, at the Episcopal
j)ohc3^,

m

Semmar}', the staring white building with unfinished outhouses,
before mentioned.

The Government assists the establishment

by paying salaries for the several chairs, and the three French
priests receive, per annum, only 400^000 for clothmg and all
wants this salary of £40 must raise them above all suspicion of
interestedness.
At 1 p.m. the bell rang and we went to the
Refectory
there were twelve pupils, a considerable number
"
during
Ipng vacation," and these young men spoke French
during the meal, and ended it with a long prayer. M. Sipolis
then led me to the Episcopal Palace, which is opposite the Carmo
Church, a white building picked out with blue, j^lastered concrete
below and boarding above. The diocese of Marianna formerly
extended here
Pius IX. created the bishopric b}^ the Bull
The Ex^^^ and
Solhcitudinis," June G, 1864.
*' Gravissimum
Rev"'° D. Joao Antonio dos Santos,* of the Council of H. I. M.,
is an old eleve of the Caraca Seminary
he naturally patronises,
in preference to the Propaganda of Lyons and the Capuchins of
Rome,f St. Vincent of Paul, who must find it hard work to
;

;

:

;

The Bishop was a man about
I found him
forty, with a gentle, feminine voice and manners
dihgently engaged with M. Mirville on Magnetism (not Fara-.
day's), and he did not take part with M. Sipolis when the latter
answer

all

the calls

upon him.

:

proved to me that table-turning and " rapping " are the works of
evil spirits.

From the Palace we passed over to the house of a fazendeiro,
at whose door an Agent de Police

sat

comfortably in the shade.

He had had with a neighbour some trifling dispute about a water* In the Brazil it is often impossible to
the family names of ecclesiastics, who
mostly adopt some technical or theological
cognomen, somewhat after the fashion,
Praisethough not quite in the style, of
Grod-Barebones.
t Here the Capuchins have assiuned as
instructors the place held by the Jesuits.
I need hardly say that they have never done
tell

'

'

BO in Europe.

'We may add
J Nee deus intersit, etc.
As regards the spirit theoiy
nee diabolns.
I may again remark that, if after this life
my psyche or pnenma, or whatever it may
be, is to find itself at the mercy of every
booby who pays half-a-crown to his or her
medium, evidently the future state of
this person will be much worse than the
present.

—
THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

102

[chap. vii.

course, which ended in a " shyuting," and he was expected to

purge himself before a juiy. The antagonist having fired into
his side and mangled his thumb, which required amputation, the

wounded man

cried out to his son, who discharged a barrel or

two into the hostile face, and then sensibly took to the bush.
Of course there was another and a contradictor}^ account, which
declared that the fazendeiro had snatched the gun from his
antagonist,

and that

it

had exploded, hurting his hand.
apocryphal

could not but think of the true or

I

story touching

History of the World " he would

Sir Walter Ealeigh and the

''

have found it impossible to

settle the rights of this little affair

:

at Diamantina.

Meanwhile the hurt man was in great pain, restless, and fearing tetanus. Yet the room was darkened, the windows were shut,
the ail' was oppressive, five silent ladies sat pensively lookmg on,
and just outside the doors were half a dozen muttering male

When a patient is held to be

friends.

popular Brazilian idea

sick unto

death, the

— of course the rare sensible scout

it

and console and condole with him. Such an apparatus would injure the most robust surely it would be humane
The
to pubhsh a Portuguese version of " Notes on Nursing."
vile Caldo de Gallinha, or hen-broth, which it is indispensable
to swallow every two hours, is an infliction to be compared
is to visit

;

only with the ''beef-tea " of the old-fashioned priestess of Libitina in Great Britain.

My last appearance in "Society" was at a ball given by
.a

wealthy

Leme,

widow,

the

Sra.

D^ Maria de Nazareth Netto

honour of the baptism of a grandson, the second
child of a very charming young person, wife of Sr. Joaquim
Manoel de Vasconcellos Lessa. When this pretty lady was
married, she was attended by twenty-four bridesmaids in
dresses from Paris the merry-makmg was kept up for a fortnight, and it is said that 750 bottles of Bass disappeared every
night.
This rain of meat and drmk at the City of Diamonds
is a great
contrast to the ascetic '' tea and turn out " of
Southern Europe.
The whole of the City of Diamonds was in accurate black
raiment before 3 p.m., the hour for the religious ceremony. As
evening approached, I accompanied Sr. Joao Pdbeiro with the
most amiable D^ Maria and his daughter up the Bua das Merces,
in

;

AT DIAMAXTIXA.

CHAP. VII.]

103

The rooms
had
sat
down
to
a
preliminary
sup]3er.
were crowded, and many
SO called from its church, to the Alto da Gupiara.*

The

were remarkably good, a contrast to the times
described by Gardner, when ladies went abroad in men's hats,
and " black seemed the most fashionable." Every neck sparkled
toilettes

the other ornaments were the solid and honest,

with diamonds

:

if not tasteful,

jewellery of Diamantina.

The ball seemed to be

amongst the
CathoHcs of England, all are related or connected, more or less,
and those who are not, intend to be, or are '^ gossips." The
dancing was chiefly quadrilles. I excused mj'self on the plea
that my last performance had been with Gelele, King of Dahome
thus the proprietress of No. 14, St. James's Square wore for life
a family party, infinite

in

merriment

:

here,

as

:

a glove upon the hand saluted by a former Prince of Wales.

Supper seemed never to end, and a stiff shower of rain only
added to the mirth within. The life of the party was " O Diamantino," curtly for Sr. Jose Diamantino de Menezes, son of the
late Barao de Arassuahy.t
I stole away at 2 p.m., leaving all
" merry and wise." This is specified, because the country mice
around give the city mice a bad character, and declare that every
morning the ladies and their slaves sally forth to pick up their
husbands from the pave, where " tangle-leg " had put them to

Of this I saw nothing.
Of course in a place where money is abundantly I spent, and

bed.

where

visitors

flock in

for

pleasure,

after

the toils

and the

dulness of the out- station, there must be some debauchery. The
many smilmg faces, protruding from small casements, cheeks

bloommg^^ith the juice of a certain Hibiscus and a squeeze of
lime, tell their own tale.
But such things have nothing to do
with society.
the

The " hell," moreover, that usually accompanies

modern growth

of mining cities,

does not exist in these

no one takes the trouble to

dis-

I hare already explained Gupiara
(comipted Grupiara), to mean the slope of
a tilted shed hence ip gold and diamond

Avhich

diggings it is applied to a ledge projecting
eaves-like over a stream.
The Alto, seen
from the entrance of the city, is a conspicuous hill, crowned by a building that
This proresembles a fortress or redoubt.
perty originally belonged to Sr. Luis Antonio, and then passed to Sr. Jose Joaquim
Netto Leme, whilome husband of the present proprietrix.
It is still rich in gold,

from Diamantina, passing by IVIinas
Novas (do Arassuahy), and forming the
The
eastern gate of the Jequitinhonha.
Avord is Aracu, a kind of bird, and -hy,
There was also a Baron of DiaAvater.

'"

;

turb.

+ The river rising about t^velve leagues
east

mantina, of the Lessa family,
+ Here, as in Australia and California,
the miner is mostly poor, whilst the merchant or storekeeper is rich.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

104

[chap. vii.

regions, except when a stray Frenchman starts a roulette table,

and makes his fortune after a few months.
An Englishman, who had spent thirty years in and about Diamantina, told me that of late years its prosperity had diminished.*
Formerl}^ diamonds were easily washed from the surface diggmgs
now the works are confined to capitalists. In early days the
stones were sold in the city, at present they are sent to Rio de
The slaves have been traded off to the
Janeiro,! and to Europe.
coffee-growing Provinces, and the free man, white or black,
:

Hence fortunes now average 4000L,
these figures,
whilst the highest may amount to 10,000/.
however, represent very different values in Minas Geraes and in
cannot work.

will not, or

;

England.

But so far from the diamonds being exhausted, I
the true exploitation of precious lithology has

believe that

still to

begin, and

extend 800 miles along the Serra do Espinhago.t
There are also rich gold-diggings, which men hardly take the
trouble to w^ork; with gold they justly say you may be poor, with
that

it will

diamonds never. § When the rail shall have reached Sahara,
and the paddle-wheel shall connect the Rio das Vellias with the
great Sao Francisco, the immigrant may be expected, and the
Diamantine country will attain its full development. " The Lord
bring them

!

" say the mine-proprietors, alluding to the

" and they will soon use up our useless

erners of the Union,
slaves

!

"
||

South-

And whilst Golconda and Visapm' have failed, and

the Cape of Good Hope, Australia, and California are but begin-

nmg, and whilst men sink capital in the trash manufactured in
•

5000

Tlie
;

in 1800 was about
was 6000 and now it

population

in 1840,

it

;

is not increased.

+ Diamond cutting was attempted without success by a Sr. Carv^alho, at Bahia.
There are three or four lapidaries at Rio de
Janeiro
the best is, I believe, Sr. Domingos Moitinho (at the corner of the Rua
d'Ouvidor and tlieRua dos Ourives). Some
of his workmen ai-e descendants of the
artists brought from Portugal by D. Jo^o
VI.
The machinery is driven by an engine
of five-horse power.
The diamond is here
cut exactly as in Europe, and the Brazilians
ignore the Hat slab-like shapes of Hindostan.
Of late years Boston has attempted
the industry, but it cannot, I am told,
compete with Amsterdam.
J The portion which has been explored
;

begins at the Rio do Peixe, nine leagues
south of Diamantina, and extends to the
celebrated SeiTa de Santo Antonio, forty
to fifty leagues to the north, or between
All was found to be
N. lat. 16° to 19°.
diamantine, but not continuously so, as in
the Demarcation Proper,
§ According to Dr. Couto (p. 112), who
settled and died at *'Tejuco," the city is

upon slabs of red copper, and the
metal is found in the i3avement and the
garden walls.
built

'
||

'

The pride of man makes him love
Wherever the law allows it,

to domineer.

therefore, he will generally prefer the ser\ace of slaves to that of freemen. "
of Nations,

iii.

2. )

(Wealth

My experience is dia-

metrically opposed to this dogma of

Smith.

Adam

;

AT DIAMAXTIXA.

CHAP. VII.]

Paris and Bii'mingham, the Brazil

105

may still hope to do great

things in the " diamond-line."

The somids of every city leave upon the traveller's sensorimn
At Diamantina my brain connects the
their own impression.
clmrch-bell and the Ai'aponga, or blacksmith bird.
The sharp,
sudden cry, which to the stranger seems artificial, charms in the
dead silence of the forest alcove, tempered b}^ the distance of the
tallest tree-top, and when the little white form is not visible in
the verdant gloom.
Caged, and in a street, the tiling is quite
out of place.
The situation of Diamantina, as has been seen,
renders the rumbling of the cart and the rolling of the carriage
impossible

here, as at

:

only conveyance, and

it

Sao Joao d'El-Eei, the hammock is the
seen in the hall of every rich house.

is

As usual in the Brazilian interior, the city is guiltless of club,
cafe. Mechanics' Institutes, Christian Young Men's Association
and Mutual Improvement Societies, except for musical pm-poses
the bands, however, are, all tilings considered, good.
There is
neither library, literary cabinet, nor bookseller, but of course

About three 3'ears ago, the only newspaper " O Jequitinlionha," which was devoted solely to politics,
expii^ed, and now the city does not contain a printer.
Yet the
there is a photogTapher.

citizens

—the Brazilian

education,

is

a citizen, not a subject

even for church education.

The

— are wild

for

"Sisters" have

already had offers of 100, and have accepted 30 pupils.

The site of the city is one of the highest in the Empu'e,* and
to reach it we have ascended seven distmct gradients.
The
coldest months are June, July, and August, when fi^osts are

common in the lower levels

;

they do not, however, prevent the

of the Pitanga berry, f
The wet season ojiens in
October or November, with thunder storms from the north the
heaviest downfalls came from the west, but sometimes the warm
south-west winds bring rain and hail.
The fertilizing showers of
the dries, which abound in other parts of the Brazil, are here

matiu'ing

;

*

The altitude ranges, according to trabetween 40UU feet and 1730
meti-es (5702 feet) above sea level.
The
steps of ascent from the Kio das Velhas
Tellers,

are seven, viz. , first, to the Paratina stream

second, to the Riacho do Vento
the Chapada ; fourth, to the

summit

;

cirinJia ;

;

;

third, to

Contagem

Grouvea sixth, to Bandand seventh, to Diamantina.
fifth, to

;

f Tlie well-kno-mi Eugenia pednnciilata
Michelii, Linn.), whose quadrangular
red fruit ripens well at Madeira, and makes
good jellies.
When raw it has a drug-like
llavour, which is disliked by strangers.
In
this part of Minas Greraes it is rare, but it
flourishes at S. Paulo, 2200 feet above
(E.

sea level, though not so kindly as on the
coast.

—
THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

103

[chap. yii.

rare.

Tlie east v^incl is the mildest and the most agreeable ; the

north

is

cold and raw,

causing sickness like om* east.

From

November to February is the hot season, and the annual range
of the thermometer is from 64° to 88°. Water of the best quality
is

In the

sui^phed by almost every hollow.

clear, bracing air

European fruits and vegetables thrive the soil is sometimes rich
and deep, and the abnormal expense of provisions would make
the neighbourhood an excellent market for an agricultural
;

colon3\

" Tejuco," the village in the Comarca do
Freguezia September

6,

Cerro, became a

1819, a VHla Oct. 13, 1831, and the

Cidade Diamantina by the Provincial Law, No. 93 of 1838. It
owes its prosperity solely to the diamond. This valuable stone

was used, it is said, by the Indians as playthings for their chilThe first man who sent it to Portugal was one Sebastiao
dren.*
Leme do Prado, in 1725; he had washed certain brilliant octaheThey
drons in the Bio Manso, an influent of the Jequitinhonha.
found no sale, and the same happened to Bernardo (or Bernardino) da Fonseca Lobo, who hit upon a large specimen amongst

There is a local tradition that the
latter was a friar who had been in India, and that about 1727,
others in the Cerro do Frio.

seeing the curious, brilliant little stones used as counters at back-

gammon by the gold miners of the Jequitinhonha, he made a
collection of

them and went to Portugal.

Others attribute the

discovery to an Ouvidor or Auditor Judge, fresh from service at

Goa

;

the specimens were sent to the Netherlands, then the great

jewel-market of Em'ope.

The official account of the exploitation is that D. Lourenco de
Almeida, the first Governor of Minas Geraes (August 18, 1721
Sept. 1, 1732), reported the new source of wealth to the Home

Government. Portugal at once declared the diamond to be Crown
property (Carta Begia, Feb. 18, 1730), and established the celebrated Diamantine Demarcation, forty-two leagues in cii'cumference, with a diameter

of fourteen

* It is generally s-api30secl tliat in Enropo
Van Berghem, popularly -written
Berquen (1456 1475), invented the practice of making diamond cut diamond, and
established a guild in Bruges.
But the
Hindus must have been long beforehand,
and the working of diamonds in Europe is
mentioned in IbGO.
It is possible that the

Louis

—

to

fifteen

leagues.!

Gold

industry had a little before tlie fourteenth
century drifted, like the cholera of modern
daj'S,

"westward.

+ John Mawe's Map gives a sketch of the
" Diamantine Demarcation. "
of eight by sixteen leagues,
was nearly in the centre,

It is an oval
and "Tejuco"

—

AT DIAMAXTIXA.

CHAP. VII.]

—

"

107

digging was forbidden within the limits, and a tax of 20 g 000

—

subsequently raised to 40 $000 and 50 $000 was placed upon
every head of negro. To arrest the many and repeated disorders,
an Order, dated Sept. 30, 1733, created the " Intendencia

Diamantina " the washing-grounds were marked out, and no
one might enter without a licence. In 1740 (Henderson says
1741), the lands were farmed out, with great restrictions, for
138:000$ 000, but this first contract was much abused. In 1771
(1772, John Mawe), the great Pombal reformed, with characteristic thoroughness, the diamond mines, b}' taking the management
He abolished rumous leases, and governed
into his own hands.
by an Intendant- General, under whom worked a board of three
Directors in Lisbon, and three Governors in the Brazil. The
scheme failed, and so energetic was action against the '' extrariadores," that the place became almost a desert. In 1800 to 1801 the
gold supply began to fail, and the lands about the Villa do
Principe, where diamantine was mixed with auriferous matter,
;

3'ielded only 2| instead of 25 arrobas.

Thus the Government lost

by reducing all industry to the diamond, and the i^eople fled
because they could not afford to buy ii'on, steel and gmipowder.
I have not been able to find out exactly at what ]3eriod of Tejucan
history occurred the event alluded to by Sr. Joaquim Norberto de
Souza Silva *
:

E o filho de Erin, que em duros ferros
Pagou seu pasmo por um novo imperio.

The name given in the foot note is ^'Nicolas George." He was,
we are told, of Irish extraction, and employed in the Junta of the
AiTaial do Tejuco.

Admiiing the fertility, the wealth and the

vastness of the Brazil, he declared that her shores contained
ev'erj^thing necessary for

a mighty Empire, and that she might

become free and independent as the United States. The sentiment made him share the pains and penalties of the '' Conspirators of Minas."

According to John Mawe, from 1801 to 1806, both years
included, the expenses incurred by the Government in exploiting
* In the Cantos Epicos

—a Cabega do MartjT

''And Erin's son avIio in the eating irons,
Atoned the purpose of a free-born realm.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

108

[chap. VII.

the district were 204,000/., and the diamonds sent to the Trea-

sury amounted to 115,675 carats.

During the same period gokl
Thus, he saj^s, the carat cost

was washed and valued at 17,300Z.
23s. 9d,
At length the Decree of Oct. 25 (1832) abolished the
monopoly with its Junta Administrativa dos Diamantes, and the
industry assumed its present form.
If the Portuguese doubted the existence of the diamond in the
Brazil, the English did the same.
There is a difference in
specific gravity between the noble Vieille Roche of India and the
produce of the New World.* In the last century, Jeffries and
other lapidaries contended that the Brazihan were unformed
gems exported from Hindostan. The miners cleverly turned the
tables upon their scientific antagonists b}^ sending their stones
to Goa, whence they were forwarded as true East Indian to
Europe.
According to John Mawe, dming the first twenty years some
1000 oz. of diamonds w^ere annually extracted from these diggings.
Castelnau (ii. 338), in 1849, estimates the total value of the Minas
Geraes exportation at 300,000,000 francs. The subject is also
treated by Jose de Bezende Costa, in the Memoria Historica
sobre os Diamantes (Bio, 1836).
I will not trouble the reader
with details, as all such estimates are the merest guess-work, and
even the modern appliances of Custom-house collection and
statistics are powerless against the general rule of contrabandism.

The following table, however, taken from Mr. Nathan's annual
report (Bio de Janeiro), will show the
EXPORTS OF DIAMONDS AXD ESTIMATED VALUE IN YEARS 1861 TO 18G7.
Years.

—

CHAPTER YIII.
TO THE DIAMOND DIGGINGS OF THE SOUTHERX RIO DAS PEDRAS,
ALIAS THE JEQUITINHONHA.

—
—

—

THE RIDE.— QUAINT STONES. SlO GONgALO OF THE GOOD GIRLS. THE SERVigO
MINE DESCRIBED. EXPENSES. — WANT OF MACHINERY. PLUNDER. — DR.
DAYRELL. THE"L0MBA" MINE. — THE MARAVILHA MOUNTAIN. RETURN

—

—

TO DIAMANTINA.
Ov xiLiJ.(jjv Xvwe7 cr' ov Kavfx oil vovaos eVoxAe?,
Oh ireivT} a* ov 5ti|/os ex^t o"'.

Shortly after my arrival I was introduced to a Brazilian gentleman, Sr. Francisco Leite Vidigal, who lost no time in inviting

me to visit liis " Servico," known as the Canteii'o or "pot-stand."
This season, the height of the dries, is the best for exploring the
diggmgs, which are now all activit3%
AVe breakfasted perforce and set out late, although the sun is
hot, and we had four to five leagues of total work before us.
We
rode down the Rua do

Bomfim to the southern suburb, past a

very small post-office in the Largo do Eosario, and a fountain

with cocks sticking out of steatite faces.

Here is a negro church,

as usual mean and gaudy, and a large unfinished theatre, a carcase

of timber and

brown

clay.

A splendid Gamelleira fig, whose

natural grandeur did not set off the dwarfishness of the Art around
it,

led us to a Calgada winding

down a stiff descent.

Here the

site of

the city falls into the riverine valley, and the slope of fine

soil

rich in oranges, plantains, myrtles, and trees that give

is

more shade than fruit.
Beyond the bank the place is called La Pallia here are the
large ranch, the venda, and the camping ground belonging to a
Frenchman, M. Antoine Richier. I failed to find liim at home,
but the thumbing of his photographic manuals showed an interest
;

in something civilised.

We then crossed a confluence where the

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

110

[chap. viii.

Porurnca or Pururuca,* translated " Stream of the sand and
gravel, '* flows from the west into the little Rio de Sao Francisco.
The banks were a mass of loose amygdaloid, pebbles of w^aterand they '' paint gold," which no one cares to
rolled quartz
;

In the evening my host show^ed me many oitavas lying
in the corner of his hut ; they had not even been washed for
work.

market.

We then ascended to Campo ground, and struck the highway
which leads to the Provincial Capital, via the city of Cerro, now
Cidade do Principe, distant ten leagues.! Before us rose the
grand Peak Itambe, said to be 6000 feet above sea level. Its
head was in a cap of clouds, ever similar, never the same, and the
shoulders were clad in ruddy grass and gloomy forest.
On the
eastern horizon rose the hilly mass called the Curralinho, and
held to be very rich in diamonds. Around us w^ere outcrops of
the usual granular quartzose Itacolumite, hard and soft, finely
laminated or coarsely agglutinated, gre3dsli outside, and overgrown with lichens the inside is snow^-coloured or slightly yellow.
In places the masses are horizontal, forming regular walls in
others the}' become ridges of slabs disposed at every possible
During the day we saw a man in a liberty cap, a sphinx,
angle.
a frog-like labyrinthodon, an old mutilated lion, gravestones with
inscriptions, stones with hands, gaps, arches, circular holes, and
;

;

every variety of outlandish shape.

The degradation of this grit

forms the frequent patches of snowy sand, which are of course
sterile, whilst here

again the red-brown soils which separate them

are often exceptionally fertile.

The road proved to be especially vile, and at the most prewe w^re certain to meet strings of horses or

cipitous narrows

unruly mules laden with large square boxes, generally labelled
" Louca," equivalent to '' Glass, with care."
How an3'thing
ever reaches Diamantina unbroken is be3'ond my comprehension.
* The

word

is

here applied to a large

sand and pebbles, either water-rolled or
not the formation is not agglutinated by
has no
l^aste or cement (gomma), and
body (corpo).
In the diamond mine it is
more watery than the "desmonte," which
will presently be explained.
;

t St. Hil.

(I.

i.

330) says that Cerro

is

more than ten leagues from Diamantina.
Dr. Couto (p. 1) makes it ten leagues to
the south-south-west.
The people say it is
less,

but their leagues are of the longest.

Cerro (or SeiTO, perhaps a more modern
form) is a rare word applied to particular
places where there are lines of hills or
moimtains.
Originally it signifies a hillock
Constancio explains it
or rising ground
"Monte Alto ;" and Moraes " Outeiro," as
The Cerro do
well as "Monte Alto."
Frio, which is more usual than Cerro Frio,
be a translation of the
is suj^posed to
Tupy "Yviturui," from "Yvitu," wind,
and " tuy " cold,
;

CHAP. Yiii.]

THE JEQUITINHONHA DIAMOND DIGGINGS.

After fording siindiy streams,
Eibeirao, called

Ill

we crossed by a neat bridge the

the early travellers do Inferno on account

b}^

of the difficulties which

it

offered.

Its soui'ce to the west is

kno^n as "As Porteiras," and the yellow rocks and blue skies make
it

a " Rio Verde."

Above the bridge were the " casas palho^as,"

the poor thatches of sape and walls of stick and clay that tell the

presence of miners.

Beyond the stream we found a few men tinkering up a very bad
ascent, and we remarked with indignation a mile-post which told
us that we had finished one league such here are leagues after

—

—

two hours of sharp riding. We then pricked across a taboleiro
In
coberto,* or wave of ground, beautified only bv the view.
addition to the fronting Itambe, we had now to the left or west
the Maravilha, or Marvel, a local Sugarloaf, just the place where
a Maharatha Rajah or an Abyssinian Dejaj would build his
Durg or Amba. The Ribeirao do Palmital, bridgeless, and rolling its pellucid waters over a dwarf

cliff

of sandstone, veined,

dyked, and ribboned with lustrous-white quartz, dashed to meet
the " Rivulet of Hell."
Of course a house was near the ford ;
linen hung in the yard to dry, but no

amount of shouting would

open the door. It was the same at the next bridge, although
near it was a large ranch and a staked camping ground.
The hills resembled those about the Parauna River, rough
above, whilst the lower folds were of earth, here light, there stiff.

On the flaiiks about half-way up were zones of stone piercing the
weathered and

soil,

trodden

into

ledges,

gutters,

and deep

hollows, whilst here and there lay loose rounded boulders.

The

head was generally spread into a dwarf plateau of thin soil, with

more or less of vegetation. On cresting a summit we suddenly
saw across a long green valley traversed by the long red line of
and village of the " Marriage-maker of
Old Women."!
The place is remarkable for its order and
industry; not a ''lost girl," I was told, can be found in it, and

highway, the church

the inhabitants have many small industries.

They do not care to

work, where diamonds are, a hill of rock crystals which lies near
their doors.

When these six-sided prisms of pure silicic acid,

* Not Tabolelra coberta as Gardner wrote.
This '* covered plateau," a modification of
the Campo, is thinly clad with gnarled
trees
the term is opposed to the Taboleiro
descoberto, a formation of greater altitude,
growing only the hardier shriibs and
;

grasses.

+ Casamenteiro

das Vellias,

the

title

which S. Gon^alo bears in the Brazil,
John Mawe, with his usual inaccuracy
" San
aboiit names,
calls
the village
Gonzales."

"

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

112

[chap. viii.

terminating in hexagonal points, have unbroken pyramids, which
rare after traveUing, and when the interior contains the water

is

of crj^stalHsation or heterogeneous bodies, the larger blocks are

valuable as museum specimens.

This wave of ground ended at the Corrego do Jaca (of the
Pannier),* which boasts a small bridge.
Another ridge brought
us to the Descida do Corrego do Mel (the Descent of the Rivulet
of Honey).

On the further slope the sandstone slabs were so

steep and slippery that

my companion, a very light man, disWhen a Brazilian does this

mounted from his good new mule.
it is

generally wise to follow his example.

All the ground which

we have traversed is rich in diamonds, but it cannot be worked
want of water near the Corrego which feeds the Rio das
Pedras many white heaps were waiting to be washed during the
for

rains.

;

The Gurgulhoi

(gurgulho bravo) that

it

or breccia, here

sometimes so sharp

cuts the hands,

is

peculiarly rich in

stones, and about the bridge the torrent banks produce gold.

We then turned to the left, and made two miles of "picada"
The country w^as as before rocky on both sides,
and poorly clad. The greenest and shadiest tree was the Canella
or bridle-path.

remarked also an abundance of the large-leaved
Congonha do Campo (Ilicinea), and a tree with green berries,
called by my friend '' Mata Cavallo," a general term for all things
(Laurinea).

I

that bear " wild," that is to say poisonous, fruit.

The herb

called Arruda do Campo, because supposed to resemble the Euro-

pean rue, scented or tainted the air.

The last descent led us to the Southern Rio das Pedras, here
running from the south.

It is one of the head waters of the great
Jequitinhonha | River, a lesser rival of the Rio de Sao Francisco
*

The Tv.py Diet, explains Jacd by Cesto
de Cipos.
It is more usually
made, I believe, of woven bamboo-bark.
+ The word is pronounced like, but not
written,
"Gorgulho," which means a
(l>asket)

weevil (Curculio).

It is described as a loose

compact pudding of angular stones
mostly found in Campo gi-ound, and thus
distinguished from the water-rolled Cascalho.
Some apply the term to a collecor

tion of Cascalho, others to a larger formation than Cascalho.
An English wi'iter on
precious lithology has followed John IVIawe's

misprint, which
" burgalhao.

corrupted

* The name is written

in

gurgulho

to

many ways

;

Gectinhonha.
Tlien came
Gigtinhonha,
Geqiiitiuhonha, Jigitonhonha, and so forth.
The
trivial and popular explanation of the
word is "Jequi tern nhonha," the fishing
crate has caught a nhonha fish.
Jequi is a
Tupy word meaning a fish trap (armadilha).
Nhonha, according to some, in the
local dialect
meant any fish ; in the
Lingoa Geral the word is Pyra or Pira.
St. Hil. (I. ii. 142) says it was explained
by une nasse (creel) pleine
to him
" Juquia" being the nasse. This reminds
us of such derivations as Capivarhy from
Capivara ahi, Arassuahy from Ouro so ahi
(gold only here), and so forth.
the old style

is

Gfiquitignogna,

CHAP. viiL]

(Maior).

THE JEQUITINHOXHA DIAMOND DIGGINGS.

113

It rises a mere torrent in the mountains to the north of

by many streams, amongst
which is the Lomba or Jequitinhonha do Mato about two leagues
below the Canteii'o it becomes the Jequitinhonha do Campo, and
finally the true Jequitinhonha. According to others, the Southern
Eio das Pedras is the Upper Jequitinhonha do Mato, which, after
receiving the Pibeii'ao do Inferno, is the Jequitinhonha, and
The course of this river,
absorbs the Jequitinhonha do Campo.
which upon maps looks so well, is said to be much obstructed by
rapids.
I have not -visited it. At last it takes the name of Rio
Grande, divides into several arms, unites with the Hio Pardo, forms
a delta, and buries itself in the Atlantic about forty-five miles
the Cidade do Principe.

It is joined

;

north of Porto Seguro in the Province of Bahia.
After six hours' work we entered the little mining station of a

dozen huts, built upon a rough stubby slope that lines the left
Under the cii'cumstances, a " Roxo
side of the Rio das Pedras.
this
forte," or cup of cafe noir " laced " -^ith rum, was excusable
;

taken, we went off without further dela}^ to inspect.

AVe began

mth the beginning, a proceedmg which, say the

Germans, we English rarely adopt. The descent to the mine is
a narrow unrailed path, winding down the precipitous left bank
of the Rio das Pedras.
It was crowded with double meeting
lines of black and whitey-brown labourers, free as well as servile, whom the presence of the master had galvanized into a
momentary *' spui't." Those ascending carried on theii* heads
Carumbes, or cedar-wood platters, about twice the size of soupplates, containing " desmonte,"* or the useless sand and gravel
which is washed down by the gi'eater inundations of the year,
and which underhes and overlies the strata of true diamantiferous
Cascalho. Planks, rough ladders, and incHned planes, led to the
bottom of the long pit, whose southern extremity was 80 feet
deep by 19 to 20 broad. It was evidently the river bed in bygone
ages before the channel was filled up to its present height. Each
talliiao, or rock- wall of the underground channel, was wonderfully
worked into pit holes and convex ciu'ves, regular as though the
latter had been used, by the grinding action of gravelly water,
"f

* Desmonte is sand and gravel, with.
In gold
more or less consistency (liga).
literally to
nnmining "desmontar"
mount is to remove the vegetation and

—

the

humus from
VOL, II.

—

over the auriferous cas-

calho.

In Portugal it is synonymous with
"desmoutar," to clear the

"rocar" or

land for cultivation.
f We shall find many of these " jjitholes" in the bed of the Sao Francisco River.
I

"

"

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

114

[chap, vni;

These are the richest pockets, and each may yield a hundred contos
of reis.
The hanging wall, and the loosened blocks on the sides,
were carefully timbered wherever a joint was inclined to open.
The negroes, watched by overseers stationed at every angle,
w^ere removing, with the usual merry song, the valueless stratum
under which they expected to find the gem-bearing yellow
Cascallio.
Some bored, others broke away the interfering rock
with huge pyramidal-headed crow-bars
These
(alavancas).
loosened the gravel with the almocafre, * an oval-shaj)ed, blunt-

headed

iron,

whose handle was about two

feet

long ; those

scraped out of the fendas or fissures the likely sand, with an

" almocafre de frincha," a bent blade one inch broad by four to
I was shown in situ the curious formation called
six in length.
" Canga preta," which is found in hundreds of pounds' weight,
though rarely of large size. At first it was mistaken for coal,
but it became red-hot in the fire without being consumed. It
looks fibrous, like asbestos, and in appearance much resembles
graphite.
Here also are found loose fragments of polished sandI saw a child's
stone, tm'ned by the water into curious shapes.
foot perfectly imitated, and many leg bones and shoulder blades
were of monstrous size.
A
All this work is going on far below the water level.
strong dyke of ashlar and earth has been run out from the right
bank to the mid-stream of the Bio das Pedras, which here runs
from south-east to north-west, bending north. Above the pit
the waters are all collected into solid wooden launders, some 400
The trough bifmxates below the mine one fork
feet in length.
discharges its load of foaming yellow water into the lower
channel the other turns a wheel which works the syj^hons and
drawing pump, f a '' sack " or wooden tube, with leather joints,
which should be replaced by caoutchouc. + The mine, though
somewhat wet, is thus kept in order.
;

;

—

The name is " Cakleiroes, " not " Calclrones,
as John Mawe writes
he justly, however,
describes them as " les creux, qiii etaient
;

auparavant des remous"(ii. chap. 2).
* Not Amocafra as written by Castelnau.
Tavernier mentions
little iron rods bent
at the end," and used to " draw diamond
sand and earth from the veins.
t The usual pump is called Bomba, the
one above mentioned is known as Buxa
de Saco.
'

'

In this part of the Brazil several
are supposed to be capable
of
supplying caoutchouc.
In 1785
1787
Ferreira noted the "India rubber" of the
" Resina elastica
Hancornia speciosa.
e concrete succo lacteo arbor vulgo Mangabeiras in hac observantur proprietates
ususque gummi elastici."
The peojjle
seem to think highly of this source of
caoutchouc.
I do not.
Ij:

trees

—

—

CHAP. VIII.]

THE JEQUITINHOXHA DIAMOND DIGGINGS.

115

These works must be renewed every year. At the end of the
dries the moveable plant is taken down for use dui-mg the next
season.
In November, when the rains set in, the dam is swept
away the height of the inundation here averages twenty-five to
The uncertainty of the
thirty feet, and has risen to fort}".
seasons renders diamond mining far more precarious than any
other industry which depends upon the weather.
Of course, the
longer the dries last the better and miners gratefully remember
1833-4, whose prolonged drought followed closely the Anno do
;

;

Eato, or Eats' year,

when those rodents appeared in swarms. *

Usually the wet season ends in April

;

in 1867, however, showers

This incertitude, combined with many other
hazards, serves to explain the gambling nature of the pursuit.
**
If I hit upon a pocket of diamonds," said an Englishman to
me, " I will go home next year." But the " if" points to a con-

fell even

in July.

tingency far less to be expected than breaking the bank at Baden-

Baden,
In former days, the diamond diggers, like the gold diggers,
contented themselves with washing the rich superficial Cascallio
after which they removed to another place.
It is but a short
"
time since
deeper winnings " have been commenced, and the
originators had to endure the usual amount of ridicule, in addition
to the great expense.
They have now silenced the laugh by
winning the day the " old school " revenges itself by predicting
that the " luck " cannot last.
This Canteu'o mine was held to be
exhausted, valueless, when Sr. Vidigal, who deserves to become a
Podre de Eico,f took it in hand. A most energetic and progressive man, he ventured ^66000, here a fortune, before getting
the mine into proper working order.
Some 6400 pounds of
;

:

gunpowder are

annually expended

in

blasting.

The

outlay

and the income was
80 000 $ 000 this year it may rise to 100 000 $ 000.
My host employs dm'ing the digging season 300 slaves, worth

during the last year was 25: 000 ^'000,
:

;

:

£120 to £150 per head.

The hii-e of each hand, food included,
is about 1 $ 200 per day, and the monthly expense is £750.
As
engaged in any pm^suit that
requii^es head-work, Sr. Yidigal complained bitterly of the servile

is

general

amongst Brazilians

* In parts of tte Brazil rats are supposed to swarm every seventh year, when
the bamboo flowers.

f " Rotten with riches," an

expressive

conversationalism.

I

2

!

116

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

labour-market ;

lie

[chap. viii.

wishes to dig by night as well as by day, but

the smallness of his gang compels

him to begin at six a.m., and

to end at six p.m.

Another especial grievance is the prevalence
of theft.
Some mine owners go so far as to declare that almost
all the finest stones disappear.
A receiver of stolen goods settles

near every new digging, as surely as a public -house follows the
Hydropathic EstabHshment; and here, as elsewhere, the broker
is

generally richer than the

Jefferson,

of Virginia,

desired

diamond
that

a

President

proprietor.

sea

of

might roll
Vidigal would

fire

between Em^ope and the United States.
Sr.
prefer, and justly, to see a tunnel or a bridge.
The desmonte which we have just seen carried up in platters
is disposed of in the readiest and most suitable way.
AVhen the
rich Cascallio, * or Canga, t is struck, the labourers transport it
up the left bank, and dispose it in heaps (amontoadas) near the
Lavadeiro, or washing place. In this shed I at once recognised the drawing familiar to my childhood, and copied from
John Mawe into every popular book of travels. I remembered
the long thatched roof of the Mandanga mine, with a stream
of water passing through a succession of lengthy boxes
the
four inspectors in straw hats perched upon the tallest of stools,
and armed mth the terriblest of whips whilst the white-kilted
sable washers, in a vanishing line, bent painfully to their tasks,
and one of them, in an unpleasantly light toilette, was throwing up
It was written that " when
his arms, to signify *' Eureka."
;

;

a diamond is found weighing seventeen and a half carats (my in-

nocence did not remark that "half"), the negro is entitled to his

—

crowned with flowers, and is entitled through life to
own account." How I used to sympathise with that happy black person, little thinking in my
simplicity, as does many a philanthropist, that he was likely to
die an early death from a disease which may be described as consisting mainly of want, drink, and debaucher}^
liberty

is

look for diamonds on his

* Generally called " Cascalho corrido"
(water-washed),
Cascalho
opposed
to
virgem, the pudding stone.
Its substance
is quartz of many varieties and colours,
clear
as
crystal,
yellow-white, slightly
transparent, ojjaque and dark.
+ The Canga of Diamantina is a conglomerate of quartz, mica, and other components pasted together with red-yellow
iron clay, and covered with the dark,

ferruginous,

shining,

metallic coat which

It is eminently diaman-

gives to it a name.

tiferous as well as auriferous.

M. Sipolis

showed me a fine stone embedded in it, of
This
course the result of water washing.
amygdaloid has always consistency or body
(corpo).

When

broken

" gurgulho de Canga."
ticulars, see Vol.
**

I.

becomes
it
For other par-

up

chap. 21.

Canga," in its agglutinated form,

is

CHAP. VIII.]

THE JEQUITINHONHA DIAMOND DIGGINGS.

117

The reaKty of the Lavadeiro is an open thatched ranch, built
"convenient" for the master's eye, and one end, which is slightly

The total length

depressed, is set off for the use of the panner.

may be 35 to 40 feet by one-thu'd of that breadth
is

of course proportioned to

Canteii'o.

One

the

but the size

;

number of washers

at

the

of the long sides is occupied by a line of nine

" bacos," * three-sided troughs of rough wood

;

the poorer owners

make them of flat stones, clay slates,

or slabs of the granular,

quartzose and laminated Itacolumite.

The troughs are each four

feet long, three feet broad,

and one deep

;

they open with a little

slope towards the inside of the shed, where the water is, and

there is a cross piece to arrest the heavier material.

As the Brazil borrowed her gold mining through Portugal from
the Romans, so she has taken her system of diamond washing

from Hindostan.f There the season was in January when the
The diamantine
rains had ceased, and the rivers ran clear.
earth was carried into an enclosm'e, surrounded by a wall from two
spans to two feet high, with little di-ains at the foot this served
Water was added, and the mixture
as a "baco" or ''batedor."
was left for a day or two till it became mud. The mass was
;

again watered, and loaded with soil to press down the mud, after

which the di-ains were opened, and the earthy matter flowed off.
The residuum of gravel was again covered with water if not clean ;
when diy it was sifted in baskets like gi'ain for the sand to drop

was retm'ned to the enclosm'e, spread out with a
rake, and beaten with long staves or wooden pestles pebbles had
been used, but they flawed the stones. After this it was resifted,
spread out again, and collected in one spot, when the diamonds
through.

It

;

were picked from it. I

The washing here begins with the rains about November.

The

upper parts of the troughs are charged with Cascalho, and a hand
"
standing before the open end or at the side of each *' baco
dashes water from a shovel, often a bit of wooden platter, upon
the contents he then sths with the fingers the mass to relieve
clay, till the water runs
it of the wortliless earth, dust and
;

often

three

yards

often applied, says Dr. Couto, to oclires of
When Mr. Emmanuel writes
copper.
*'Takoa Carza," I presume that he means
"Taua," felspathic clay, and "C^nga."
* These in older books are called Guy.

larger,

acaa ; they seem to have been then made

Voyage round the "World.

long

by two

broad.
in soil,
f The stone there occurred
gravel, and silicious grit (Itacolumite?)
t I>r. Jobn Francis Gemelli Careri's

1683.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL,

118

[chap. viii.

Thus a pocket of
and this washing may be repeated.
diamonds is sometimes, but very rarely, hit upon. The fortunate
He
slave no longer claps his hands in the old style of signal.
more
than
may receive his freedom after finding a stone weighing
an oitava and a half; not by law, however, but in order to

clear,

encourage the other labovu-ers.
*'

This prehminary ended, the Cascalho, now technically called
areas " or sands, is made over to the panner.
His implements

are two

wooden basins like those used in gold-washing.

peneu^a or sieve-pan

is

fitted at

The

the bottom with a bit of tin

pierced with holes, averaging six to the inch, and arresting stones
of one vintem (half a carat)

;

the sizes, however, vary as required.

The other is the common batea with the central depression (piao)
into which the diamond, like gold dust,

sinks by its superior

specific gravity.

The washing (lavagem) begins in the batea.

It is charged with

the rich Cascalho, mixed with sand and water to form a paste in

which the gem will sink

;

the usual rotatory motion

is given to

the pan, the surface water is pom-ed off and the upper useless

matter is removed with tho hand, more water is added, and the
operation continues.

The next process is sifting (peneirar), the

pierced pan being held over the other batea.

After this the finer

sand which falls into the under pan is washed and becomes
" corte," from " cortar," to cut or stop. When washed once

more it is "recorte."

The gravel may be thus treated a dozen
times or more, and precious stones, of course very diminutive,
will still be found in it.

A good washer takes from half to three-

quarters of an hour in order to exhaust a single pan-full.

After

sifting the sand is called no longer areas, but canjica grossa, and

the pieces are smaller in the latter than in the former.

Magnifying glasses are not yet in use, yet they would save
much trouble and prevent loss. The present rude system is very
severe upon the sight, which soon fails
past twenty-five few
eyes can be trusted, and children are always the best washers.*
;

during this treatment that robberies are mostly effected.

It is

Few swallow the diamond, not because it is considered poisonous,
as by the

Hindu,! but on account of the difficulty of doing so

* Thus in Hindostan Tavernier tells us
that children were the best judges of the
water, weight, and clearness of the dia-

mond

;

he gives a pleasant description of

the boy purchasers and their boy principal,
f The Hindus, it is well known, conaider powdered diamond to be a deadly
poison, and all old Indians remember the

THE JEQUITINHONHA DIAMOND DIGGINGS.

CHAP. VIII.]

unobserved.
or stuck it

119

In India the miner jerked the stone into his mouth,

m the corner of his eye

twelve to fifteen overseers

;

The civilized
Tvere requii'ed per gang of fifty Hght-fingered men.
thief pretends to be short-sighted, and picks up the i^lunder with
his tongue -tip.

A favourite way is to start as if fi'ightened by a

snake, and thus to distract the attention of the superintendent,

who, if '^ clever," is wide-awake to the trick. Most of the stones
disa23pear by being tilted or thi'own over the Hp of the pan duiing
They are easily sold
the washing, and are picked up at leism'e.*
to the huckster, the pedlar, or the keeper of the nearest groggery.
Thus may be explained the number of slaves who have purchased
theu' liberty

Even the white man has

and taken to the bush.

owned that his first imjDulse is always to secrete the diamond.
In the evening I met Mr. Thomas Piddington, a Cornishman,
who, thirty-two years ago, came out as a miner, and who dming
upwards of a generation has not seen his wife or children. Yet,
him justice, he always talks of returning " home," and
perhaps he might do so, but for an unhapj^y habit of being
generous to the extent of double his means. He has tm^ned his
hand to and from everything between a pump and a bridge, and
he is generally consulted in their difficulties by the mine-owners
to do

of all the countr}^ side.

A fine-looking man, with straight features

and jovial countenance, he is still the model of a Britisher, and
he would hardly be persuaded that I was not an American in
;

fact

he probably

visit one

still

preserves

liis

opinion.

of his chums, a ^Ir. Aaron,

He urged me to

who is diamond washing

at Quebra Lenha near the Santa

Cruz village, on the Jequitinhonha Paver, twenty-tln-ee leagues from Diamantina. Tune, not
inclination, was wanting to me.
The night was cold, the stream was dark and suUen, and heavy
clouds gathered in the north, making my host look glum a few
showers at this season are sadly damaging to the owners of
diamond mines. On the next morning we arose early, for we
had hard work " cut out " for us. After coffee we rode down the
very rugged and troublesome left bank of the Rio das Pedras a
Close to the Canshorter and better path runs along the right.
;

;

case of the great Commissariat Agent who
came into coua-t with a small packet under
his waist-shawl, determined to swallow it
if cast in his suit.
It can only act me-

chanically like coarse powdered glass, formerly given to dogs as an anthelmintic, by

abrading the surface which it touches,
I have known cases in which the latter has
been tried in the Brazil,
* Many a wager has shown that the
black can rob his master under the latter's
eyes.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

120

teiro is a smaller ''Service," also belonging to

[chap. viii.

my friend Vidigal;

at this season it employs about a score of slaves.

Above it is a

good site for a liouse, with the essentially useful capability of
overlooking the work
but my host is a philosopher, satisfied
with his hut as long as it brings money he will never have a
;

;

better building until

it

is

built for him.

The country here is

pretty, and the contrast of blue sky, white sands, and a profusion

of the purple Quaresma, wliich grows about in clumps, makes it a

Wady in the waste. The land, where not stony, is productive, as

My guide
around the Fuba Mill.
pointed out to me certain red cuts and spoil banks at the bottom
of a small Guj^iara on the further side of the stream. Here, some
years ago, one Jose Joaquim da Souza saw the true diamond
was proved by the

fields

formation tlu'own to the sm-face outside the nest of the large
plantation ant (Atta cephalotis, the Tao of the Tupys and the

Formiga da Eoga of the Brazil). Before purchasing the ground
he cleared 150 oitavas (nearly four lbs.) of diamonds, and at his
death he left ^6000.
After half an houi' we forded the Rio das Pedras, a notoriously

dangerous stream

:

but lately it had drowned two boys.

I readily

recognised from afar our destination.
The house looked neat,
and the orchard- garden, rich in oranges and other fruits, was
prettily laid out; in fact there was some flavour of the old country,

pleasm^able

—when not too strong—in a new land. The most

curious growth

is

the Cipo Jiboia,* the ''boa,"

or

"snake"

creeper, so called from its form ; the juice they say forms excellent cement, and cracked cliina

mended with it will, when thrown

on the ground, fracture in another place.

This would be a boon

to many a notable house-wife.

Dr. Dayrell, my countrj^man, of Barbadoes family, originally
from Bucks, can correct Rokeby in the matter of his ancestor
" Wild Darrell " of Littlecot Hall, who burned the baby. After
taking a London degree and marrying, he came out in 1830 to
the Cocaes Company, and he can tell many a curious tale touching

For the last thirty years he has been settled at
Diamantina, where a large family of sons and daughters has gi'own
up around him, and where, much to the detriment of his professional
the early mines.

prospects, everybody

is

now his " gossip."

He has a house in

* Or Giboia,
the boa constrictor, from "ji" or "gi," an
" boya," a serpent, because it is supposed to strike like a hatchet.

axe,

and

*'boia"

or

CHAP. VIII.]

THE JEQUITIXHO^'HA DIAMOND DIGGINGS.

121

the city, and a fazenda of some 1200 acres all his sons have
found employment, and he looks with indifference even at the
;

prosi3ect of becoming lord of the old manor-house.

Dr. Dayrell kindly consented to accompany us, threw his
holsters across the mule saddle, and whistled his dog, a half-bred

Enghsh mastiff of the Morro Yelho breed, now mifortimately
becoming

He had learned to be cautious, ha\ing been

extinct.

twice shot at in the Serra de Grao Mogor, once by mistake and
rode down the right bank of the
once with malice prepense.

We

Lavra where one of the doctor's sons,
Eio das Pedras to
Mr. Felisberto Dayrell, was working with a score of hands. The
property is hii'ed and has produced daily 2 $ 000 per head with
The '' Corrida" is
industry and economy it may turn out well.
a little

;

a miniature of the Canteu'o mine

;

there is the dam, but of trifling

and the pit is still very shallow.
Beyond this point we found the road rough, and the river

size,

valley much turned up.

After about a league we reached the

Ponte de Santo Antonio, named after a rich Corrego, which has
caused the gi'owth of an AiTaial. The troughs worked last year
by Sr. Antonio Baptista still lay on the gTound. The Corrego do
Mel joins the Eio das Pedras above this Devil's Bridge, and the
joint channel is liideous with jagged cruel rocks extending almost
The blocks are of the hardest crystalline Itacolumite,
across.

showing a distinct cleavage

:

one kind is the green (Cabo verde),

whilst the other has a ruddy, pui'plish blush, the effect of

ii'on.

Both glitter and sparkle with mica.
Accompanied by Mr. Carlos Dayi'ell, another of the scions, we
reached the Barra da Lomba Mine. This Servigo, worked by the
concessionists, Jose Bento de Mello, Jose Juliao Dias Camargos

and others, deservedly enjoys a high reputation.

During the last

year a single share jdelded forty-one oitavas, or above five ounces,
worth £4000. The system was that of the Canteii'o, but the
works are lai'ger, the pit is deeper, and the labour is more dangerous.

The dam extended half across the Eio das Pedras, here

a much more important stream, and cut off the water from the
I descended about 180 feet along a
excavation on the left.

—

and found the subterraneous part very narrow
and close, as the workmen were obliged to use lights, and those
lights were torches.
The Lomba was unwatered by a pump which John Mawe
slope of 45°

50°,

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

122

[chap. viii.

and wliicli Caldcleugh compared with the irrigators of China.
This Caixao de Rosario, or Macacu,* borrowed
from the Himde, or Hundslauf of Freyberg, is on the principle
sketcliecl in 1801,

of elevating-buckets

:

squares of wood disposed at intervals in

endless string, passing up a long narrow trough, which they

fit

tightly, and worldng over the axle of a water- driven wheel, raise

As I have before remarked, the only labour-saving

the drainage.

machine bequeathed by Portugal to the Brazil is the wretched

The art of

old Monjolo-mill, rudest of Oriental contrivances.

mechanics is at as low an ebb as on the southern shores of the
Mediterranean, and we still recognise the apphances described by
Piso and MarcgTaf in 1658.
I found in the most civilized
diamond- diggings of Minas Geraes no trace of kibble, crane and

no knowledge of that simplest contrivance a
and he carried as
much as a schoolboy would stuff into his pockets a pair of
buckets would have done the work of a hundred such men.
Even the Hindus used great wooden wheels turned by hand
labour to work the steel plates upon which the diamond was
cut.
Important improvements, however, can come only from the
example of a more constructive race. I was asked my opinion
about the system, and suggested a few of the simplest modifications they were fomid to be unpractical, and did not meet with
favour.
In this point many Brazilians resemble the phrenopulley,

or

rail,

tackle ; the negro was the only implement,

—

;

logical patient, who will swallow unmoved the largest draughts

of

" soft

sawder," but

gested that

a

single

who makes wry faces when it is sugmay be "somewhat deficient in

organ

development."

We breakfasted at the Lomba with new appetite.
is

The meal

usually eaten at a late hour by mine -owners and diamond-

diggers, who give the greater part of the forenoon to then' work.

The style is very patriarchal.

The head man sits at the tojo of

the table and drinks from a silver cup, whilst all his overseers are

ranged along the sides, and disappear immediately after cofi'ee.
Despite the " difference " about machinery there was no want of
cordiahty on the part of my hosts.

From this Servi9o we made for Diamantina by a vile line some
* Former travellers describe tlie Mac&cu as a " series of wooden cogs passing
up a square trough."
Mawe, vol. i.,

French Edition, has given a sketch of the
machine,

CHAP. VIII.]

THE JEQUITINHONHA DIA^IOND DIGGINGS.

123

twenty miles long, leaving the highway on the w^est. Happily
for me I was mounted upon a mule as good for bad as it was bad
for good, roads

—not an unfrequent

broken, and the muds were deep

case.

The

only bridge was

the bridle-path was all up and

;

down, and the banks were unpleasantly steep. The vegetation,
Peroba and Copahyba, Monjolo and Brauna,* seemed to be as
hard and stony as the soil, here justifying the popular belief in
or perhaps I should say, the consequence.
the concomitance
We passed to the left of the Maravilha, or Wonder-Mountain,
That to
wliich here appeared to be divided into two lumps.

—

north-west had a sheer

the

fall

of

immense

height,

a

grim,

up which only an insect could creep; fi'om the
At the base were
south-east the ascent is probably easy.
white holes and heaps awaitmg the rains, and the summit
dark

wall,

was feathered with vertical

slabs of stone

emerging firom the

thin scrub.

Under a broiling sun we pm'sued our way over 'the barren hills
that bear the

diamond.

We

thatched hovels, at this season

passed
all

sundiy

deserted.

forlorn-looking

The first stood

near the Ribekao do Inferno, where certain wet-weather diggings
called Mata-Mata,f belong to Sr. Jose Juliano and Company.

The next were the washings on the tributary Ribeirao do PalYenancio
Morao. Shortly afterwards we struck the southern highway by
which we had left Diamantina, and between the gloaming and the
mital

;

they are the property of the

Collector

Sr.

mirk we found ourselves once more imder the hospitable roof of
Sr. Joao Eibeii'o.
After this experience of two days we may venture to set right
Mr. Harry Emanuel, who, in his carefully written book, I almost
ignores the Diamantine formations of Minas Geraes in favour of
Bahia.
Thus for the last thi-ee years the cotton of Sao Paulo
has, much to the disgust of the Paulistas, appeared in the London

market misnamed " Rio Cotton." §
* Often written Grauna.
The latter is
tlie
name of a bird -with shining
black plume, from Gruira (avis) and una
contracted from pixuna (nigra).
'
Lorsque Ton decouviit des diamans
t
daus cet endroit, le peuple s'y precipita en
foule
des rixes s'engag^rent, et de 1^
vient, dit-on, le nom de IVlatamata (Tue-

also

'

;

tue)."

St. Hil.

(II.

Mart. Reise i. 452.

i.

64),

from Spix and

Minas began her labours

J Diamonds and Precious Stones, by
London
Harry Emmanuel, F.E.Gf.S.
:

Hotten, 1865.
§
foot

"Provinces like Sao Paulo, where a
of ground had never before been

planted

mth cotton,"

(A Journey in

Brazil,

says Prof.

Agassiz

508),

But the

p.

Province of Sao Paulo has ever been celebrated for her cotton cultivation.

124

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

[chap. viii.

with the seventeenth century, and in 1732 the Lisbon fleet carWe read (p. 59)
ried to Europe 1146 ounces of precious stones.
*'In 1754 a slave who had been working at (?) the Minas Geraes
was transferred to the district (?) of Bahia," and that thus emi-

But the great Province
of Baliia commenced to work her Chapada or diamantine plateau
In the same page we find " the most
1846.
only in 1845
productive district is at the present time the Province of Mato
Grosso, in the vicinity of the town of Diamantma." Tliis must
refer to the city which we have just visited in Minas Geraes;
the Mato Grosso diggings are called (Rio, Arraial or Sertao)
gration set in and exploitation began.

—

*'Diamantino." *
* Memorias Historicas (Pizarro, ix. 19, 20, 21, &c.).

—

CHAPTER IX.
THE DIAMOND MINE AT SAO JOAO.
THE BRANT FAMILY " DURO." RIDE OUT. — " LE SPORT." — DIFFERENT KINDS
OF DEER. — REACH THE ARRAIAL OF SAO JOAO DO DESCOBERTO. — RAPID
FEEDING.— THE DURO MINE. — THE BARRO MINE. — ENGAGE O MENINO,"
THE NEW PADDLE.

—

—

'*

" C'est dans ces lieux sauvages que la Nature s'etait plu a cacher la pr^cieuse
pierre qui est devenue pour le Portugal la source de tant de richesses." St. Hil.
II. i. 2.

Mr. Gordox had supplied me with " recommendations " to the
brothers Lieutenant-Colonel Felisberto Ferreira Brant, and Major
Jose Ferreira Brant. The family is descended from an ancient

governor-at-arms of Bahia, and, as may be seen in Southey and

has taken a prominent part in the exploitation of
The Major has a store at Diamantina, and the

St. Hilaire,*

diamonds.

Lieutenant- Colonel, during the temporary absence of his son-inIt hes
law, superintends the important digging of Sao Joao.
north-north-west of the city.

I was threatened with the worst of

journeys, but the reply was, " There

road in the diies

;

no good pasture or bad
there is no bad pasture or good road in the
is

rains."

About noon I set out, '' convoyed " for a short distance by
Major Brant M. SipoHs had half agreed to join me, when the
theft and flight of the negro slave-cook who fed the Episcopal
Seminary required his presence at home. Passing through the
Curral and by the Alto da Cruz, where the prospect was the
more enjoyable because now I understood its details, we struck
the high road to the west of the city. A party of yomig chas;

* Joaqnim

and

Felisberto

Caldeira

Brant, says Sonthey (iii. 624), were rich
Under the Count de
miners of Paracatu.
Bobadella, the second became the Third
Administrator of Diamonds in Tejuco of

Minas Geraes, and botli were bound to
organise a " Serrigo " of 200 negroes to
work the two Diamantine Rivers of Goyaz.
Felisberto,

acciised of

in prison at Bahia.

malversation,

died

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

126

[chap. ix.

guns thrown across their shoulders, was leisurely
An over-love for "sport" has done as much
sloping along.
harm in the Brazil as the ridiculous " sparrow clubs " of a former
day threatened to do to England. I have mentioned the prevalence of the ant plague since the ant-eater has been killed out,
seurs, with

and the destruction of bii'ds has increased the host of Carrap^tos.

The scenery, too, has lost in artistic beauty

;

the brilliant birds,

as the Arara (Macaw), have disappeared from the coast, and taken

refuge in the Far West.

It is to be desired that

amateurs would

give ear to the sensible advice of Padre Correa, and attack vipers

and jaguars, instead of slaughtermg the Tanager and the Orpheusthrush.

The cantonnier is not abroad in this part of the Brazil.

The

ascents and descents over the normal waves of ground, subtended

by streams in sandy or rocky beds, with pure water or current
dyed slate-colour by the washer,* were of the worst. The land
many little mining stations were
was by no means deserted
scattered about, and frequent snowy heaps denoted '' Servigos."
At 2.15 P.M. old Ferreu-a and I crossed the Corrego dos MorrinThe mistress of
hos, and halted for coffee at the nearest ranch.
the house sat coiled up on her bed like a Hindostani woman, but
her extreme communicativeness, and an approach to what we call
*'
chaff," made up for want of graceful posture. The semi-Oriental
and old Portuguese reserve begms to vanish as w^e enter the
I
interior, and to a Northron the effect is decidedly pleasant.
did not ask the names of host or hostess, as they openly told me
that I was the Chief of Pohce from Ouro Preto, and they were
;

most anxious to know my business. They laughed to scorn the
''
If this be true," they asked,
idea of my being an Englishman.
*'
how is it that you do not know Nicholas,' t your countryman,
'

* The drainage is to the Rio Penheiro,
six
falls into the Jequitinhonha,
On the left
leagues below Diamantina.
bank of the Ribeirao dos Caldeiroes is the
Servigo known as the Retiro de Joao Vieira.
The next important stream is the Corrego
da Prainha then comes the Corrego da Sepultura, an ill-omened name, common here.
+ Amongst the Southern Latin races
generally, and especially the Hispanian,
the individual is known by his Christian
name only and as this must be taken

which

;

;

from some saint, and as saints are few,
nicknames are common. The family name,
which we use, is mostly neglected, espe-

cially

whose

in the case of northern strangers,
cognomens are so often iini^ro-

and thus
nounceable by southern organs
the foreigner is perpetually in a fix.
Even neighbours who have known one
another for years often ignore all but the
The practice is of old date,
prenomens.
" Quinti," puta, aut " Publi," gaudent
pr^enomine molles
;

Auriculae.'

surname also was rarely used
amongst us in the days of the Plantagenets,
and until the last fifty years the Christia,n
name was that of the people in certain of

The

our rural districts.

"

CHAP. Tx.]

THE DIAMOND MINE AT SAO JOAO.

127

He was, they in"
perdidos," the lost ones, a poor
sinuated to me, one of the
wretch who spent his life in squalor and in liquor, when obtained
who is living within musket shot of us ? "

by some i)recarious job. However, they gave me a good brew of
coffee, and sent us on our way rejoicing.
We then crossed a long plain, a most likely place for game
only one Campeu-a, or prairie deer (Cervus campestris), showed
giving good venison, it is much
at a considerable distance
hunted. Castehiau mentions the Campeko, and Prince Max.
(iii. 109) suggests that it may be the Mataconi of Humboldt, the
Cerf du Mexique (C. mexicanus) of natm-alists, and the Guazati
:

;

of Azara,

who speaks of a white variety (albino ?).

plains to forests, and runs with frequent bounds.

It prefers

The size is

about that of the roebuck the tail is short, and the coat is a
reddish brown. Here the people declare that it is the female of the
Gallieu'o, whose large antlers prevent it from entering the bush,
and whose fiesh is fetid. It is the (Ju^uapara* of the Tupys,
;

and the Guazupucu of Azara

;

according to the older TVTiters, it

This deer haunts the prairie and
the marsh.
It is short tailed, and about the size of a yearlmg
calf.
Its flesh is eaten in January, February, and March, after
attacks man at certain seasons.

which it is said to be offensive. The favourite form is "Moquendo,"t roasted on the embers. The Mateiro, or forest deer,
the Guazupita of Azara, called by the Tupys " Cua9u rete," or
*'true deer," is of all the most common species; it is white
tailed, and stands about the height of a sheep; the dry, hard,
lean flesh much resembles that of the cow (Carne cle Yaca),
especially the old cow.

The Catingueii^o, Hterally the Stinker!

(C. simpHcicornis), the Guazubira of Azara, lives, like the pre-

ceding, in woods and weU-clothed valleys.
* More correctly 9Tia9u-ap^ra, a word
The Tiipy Diet.
applied to both sexes.
declares that it has large horns, and feeds
in the Campos.
t Amongst the Botocudos, '* bacan,"

pronounced "bacoun," meant flesh, and
the Tupys had '' mocaem," to toast in the
In Tupy also, according to Sr. J.
flame.
de Alencar, Bucan was the implement wdth
which meat was roasted, and the origin of
The indigenes
the French boucaner.
meat-provision
for
their
smoke-dried
journeys or campaigns by hanging it upon
a little gallows over a wood fire, or by
suspending it to the fuliginous thatches of

It is supposed to shed

Hence is derived the Brazilian
" moquem " and the verb Moquiar (St.

their huts.

III. i.
269), synonymous with the
Moquem has
boucan of the buccaneers.
become the name of many country places
in the Empire.

Hil.

X So the word was explained to me by
The Tupy Diet, writes
Alexandre.

Dr.

(^vi?i(}<x-Q,a.Sii\ng?i,

growth (Mato

the

deer of

rasteiro).

St.

the second
Hil,

(I.

i.

337) makes the fetor proceed from " une
matiere d'un vert noiratre que remplit une
cavit^ profonde que Ton trouve entre les

deux sabots des pieds du derriere.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

128

its very short, straight,

branchless horns

;

it is

[chap. ix.

dock-tailed, and

the brown-coated body is apparently too heavy for the slight legs,
which are disposed at an angle fitting the animal for long high

buck-jumps. In shape it resembles the Pallah, or hog deer of
Sindh, and even the Brazilian rodent " Paca " (Coelogenys Paca).
Besides this, I heard of a marsh deer (C. paludosus), the Quagiipucu), sometimes erroneously written Guacu pucu, and the rare
Bira, a small red deer which is said, when pursued, to leap upon
But the fallow deer mentioned by Mawe have not
a tree branch.
yet been discovered, nor have the antelopes which Koster has

placed in the New World.*

Creeping up a bad hill, pitted with the deep gutters, and dotted
with the loose stones of the normal Itacolumite, we saw, far to
the left or west, amongst the peaks of the Cerro Frio group, the
curious formation known as the Tromba d'Anta, the Tapir's

From this point it much resembles the Itacolumi of

trunk, t

Ouro Preto, a huge monolith raised at an angle of 50°. Another hill, and below us on the left was the large mining establishment known as the Chapada. Yet another long slope and
struck a high grassy plain, where nothing taller than a foot
could face the fierce north wind, which caused the leaves to droop

w^e

in the lower levels, whilst the fiery sun

made the wild flowers

Here we sighted the Arraial of Sao Joao do

shrink and wither.

Descoberto, considered to occupy the highest site in the Municipality.

The village lies in a shallow hollow close to the mines which
made it. To the west is the " Morro Eedondo," a dwarf quoin
crested with a tall cross ; eastward is the cemetery, also with its

The single street boasts of a humble wooden chapel in
The " Almanak " (1864) gives it 2000 souls and
a dwarf square.
300 houses, a figure which I should divide by two. The tenecross.

* I have seen a large red skin broiiglit
from Rio Grande do Snl the people had
no name for the beast but Cervo. The
Tupy Diet, gives as the native names of the

syphilis,

the

ancestors
bullocks.

;

Cervidge
smallest.

:

9^^^?'^"*i^g^

1.
2.

Qua^u

(white),

Cariacu,

so

called

from its sleeping in the thickets, and
Ferreira explains
showing only its back.
the word as "Caa," foliage, "ri," many
or much, and "acu," that exposes itself.
3.
^uacu Anhanga, the devil-deer, so
because its flesh is held to be
injurious to those suffering from fever or

called

+ The

Portuguese,

who

ignored

the

Tapir, called it Anta, or buffalo (F. Denis,
thus their
Anta or Danta *' buffle ")
:

had named elephants Lucanian

On the other hand, the Tupys,
never having seen black, called the bull
Tapy'ra o^u (big Tapir), and the calf
Tapy'ra Curumim O^u (Pappoose of the big
We have corrupted the word
Tapii-).
Brazilian purists prefer
Tapy'ra to Tapir
;

Tapyr.

THE DIAMOND MINE AT SAO JOAU.

til AT. IX.]

129

ments are the usual taipa, mostly whitewashed, of the door and
window order, veiy narrow and somewhat deep, roofed with
thatch or tile.
Each has a large ''compound" to defend the
the material is puddle or
vegetation from the rudest Boreas
dry stone, here and there eked out with stakes and other con;

trivances.

Tm-ning to the right we made a crest our " espigao mestre,"
Avhose watershed is north to the Jequitinhonha, and south to the
Eio das Vellias. On clear days it commands a view of about
eighty miles

m diameter.

To the west is a bald Campo, eastward

he piles of jagged rock; in front, placed for shelter a Httle below
the

liill,

stands a long, low, single -storied house, with a small

chapel at one

muddy water, and

of

full

end, and looking

upon a tall black cross,

a pit

a vegetable plot enclosed to keep off

animals.

According to custom my Camarada had ridden forward vdth my
letters.
The mistress of the house met me at the door, and
hospitably asked me to dismomit.
I found the host during with
sundry men and youths, relatives and employes. The work of

refreshment soon over,* we repaired to the digging.

It is known

as the Duro Mine, because

when the diamond was first ''won"
the sinker had met hard ground presently to become soft and

—

soppy as that of the neighbouring pit.
We found a large hollow, which at first glance suggested the
Esbarrancados, or water-breaches, so nmnerous in Mmas Geraes.
The shape was an elongated horse-shoe, with the major axis
disposed from south-west to north-east, and the heel draining
towards the Jequitinhonha River. The maximum dej^th ma}' be
ninety feet, the breadth 300 yards, and the length about double.
The material is a hardened paste of clay, whose regular and level
stratification argues it to have

been deposited in shallow water.

The eastern side of the gap is the more ferruginous formation
* Brazilians eat nearly as fasst as the
the United States.
I have
met only one m'Iio "took time over his
meals " and indeed this is the rule of the
world.
In the nearer East a man sits
down with a j)ions ejaculation, swallows
his quantum, ends with drinking water,
ejaculation,
rises
with another pious
washes his hands, and with frequent
Those
eructations, applies to his ])ipe.
who amongst \xs write * Manuals of
citizens of

;

'

VOL.

T[.

Health " never forget to dwell pointedly
uijon the necessity of food being thoroughly
well insalivated before it is swallowed,
and they allow at least half an hour to

each meal.

I presume that the necessity,

if it exists,

arises from the artificial habits

civilization, and the pracfrequently and at regular
hours when the stomach does not call
aloud for another supply.

engendered by
tice of eating

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

1-50

[chap. ix.

on the west it is mixed with beds of white
Below one foot of brown soil the argillaceous matter has

(terra vermellia) ;

sand.

the usual staining and marbling, glaring white like fullers' earth
with felspar and kaolin, chocolate-brown or rape-coloured Avith
organic matter, blue-green with traces of copper, pink and rose-

purple and dark yellow with various oxides of iron, especially
haematite, and dark steel colour with oxide of manganese.

Thus

old travellers describe the diamantiferous pits of the ''Mustapha
nagar circar " as a peculiar fat white clay associated with ironstone.

We zigzagged down the easy slope of the eastern wall, which
"
Here the ''hydraulicking
of California, where a fall of water hollows out chasms 250 to

everywhere bore marks of the pick.

800

feet

deep, might be applied with great

advantage.

The

The strike of the
ribboned clays is north and south, bending eastward. The lode
richest lode (corpo) is No. 3, or

tlie

highest.

inclines towards the higher grounds, and thus the owner hopes to
find the gem-bearing strata spreading over the crest or watershed

Through the ferrugmous sandstone (borra) and the white felspathic matter run dykes and lines

ridge which forms his property.

sometimes fibrous like arragonite,
and often finely comminuted. Large pieces of imperfect specular
iron and thin strata of quartz, yellow and brown at the junction,
thread the argile, and I was shown a specimen of fine sandy
conglomerate, blackened and scorified by the injection of melted
matter.
The characteristics of this upper lode are a drier clay,
silica, a trace of copper, of iron-cement, and of Canga in small
pieces ; when the specular iron is in large pieces and abundant
the rock is rich in gems.
Its " agullias " are iron-lilve bundles
of needles welded together by intense heat
some are double, the
"
"
fibres coming at obtuse angles.
Agullias Cor de Ouro
The
have a burnished co2)pery surface, wdience the name.* Throughout all these corpos the diamonds are small, averaging perhaj)s a
little under one grain, or G4
72 per oitava
they are mostly
of fragmentary rock

crj'stal,

:

—

;

crusted superficially with a light green tinge.

Lower down we came to the middle or second body.
**taua" (felspathic clay) was

Here the

and sand}^ marbled with a fat,
blue, muddy marl, which leaves upon the fingers a greasy steely
"

The owner iuforiDcd

liiiititutc of Civil

iiic
that he
Engineers, London,

stifi'

IkuI

sent

8iicelniens

of all

his miuerals

to

the

THE DIAMOND MINE AT SAO JOAO.

CHAP. IX.]

streak.

rest ;

131

It also yields a dark olive-green argile harder than the
like

all

the others

it

has consistency in

situ,

but when

removed it crumbles to pieces after drying. Lieutenant- Colonel
Brant gave me from this corpo a fragment of hard large-grained
cla}', reddish coloured with oxide, and showing a small brilliant
imbedded in it.
We then descended to the lowest formation. Here the clay
the colours are
contams very little sand, and much stained
white and blue, red and yellow, rosy, si)otty, and in places dyed
Here also are found the '' Agulhas " in streaky
as with blood.
bimdles of iron like asbestos. The sole of the pit is uneven with
working, and m places ''horses," ''old men," and long walls of
stiff clay have been left standing amongst the holes and gashes.
From this point the several lodes were distinctly traceable in the
walls of the basm. A deep di-aining trench divided the length,
and at the north-eastern end was a washing place, a shallow,
muddy pool, faced by two concentric circles of staked fascines, to
prevent the slime from falling in.
We then walked to the north-eastern end, and found traces of
Messrs. Rose and Piddmgton. Rails, 600 fathoms long, had been
laid doTsai, and a white -washed towerlet denoted the engine-house,
where a raising pump of three -horse power enables the mine to
work throughout the year. The washing apparatus under the
;

neighbouring shed consists of a " batedor," or stone-faced pit,
eighteen feet long, nine broad, and eight deep
in it by the " trolleys " is here first puddled.

running water washes

it

down

a

;

the clay tilted

Thence a stream of

succession

of

bulinetes,* coffin-shaped troughs like Canoas, but

bolinetes

or

much larger.

They are revetted with masonry, and each is provided at the
lower end, where the slope

is,

with a batten or cross piece of

wood to prevent the heavier substances from being carried do^Mi
Formerly the Duro
stream.
Very few hands were at work.
employed upwards of one hundred negroes, a nmnber now reduced
to half, and looking very " small " amid the vast area*

In the evening the host discussed the celebrated Rabicho of
the Jequitinhonlia River, seventeen leagues from Diamantina City.
The " crupper " takes its name from a saco or bend, across
which a cutting of one mile would expose five miles of highly
* St. Hil. (I. i. 255) makes the cliamoiut ''boliuete, un cailal de bois beailcoup
court et plus etroit que ceux dans lesquels on lave le cascalho."

K 2

i>\\\>:

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

132

[chap. ix.

adamantine bed. A plan of this place has been made by Mr.
Charles Baines, C.E., and also a concession to exploit it has been
granted to the Commendador Paula Santos. Unhappily the law
in its unwisdom requires that companies for working diamonddiggings must be composed of at least an equal proportion of
Brazilians to strangers.

minded

This is verily a relic of the old narrow--

colonial exclusiveness

—

it

is

not easy to see

why the

diamond-coin should require an especial regulation.

Early on the next morning Lieutenant- Colonel Brant took me
to visit the Mina do Barro, belonging to Lieutenant- Colonel
Rodrigo de Sousa Eeis, a wealthy mine owner, who is part concessionist of the Caetlie Mirim.

the great

''

We gained the Espigao mestre,

Wasser-schied," and found lying dos a

clos Avith

the

Duro, another similar quarrj^, but somewhat larger and deeper.
A narrow s\i]) of land was preserved for a path between the two,
but this will probably soon disappear,

as

Brant's i)rospects are best in this direction.

Lieutenant- Colonel
It

was a strange

view to one standing on the crest, with the two painted pits yawning on either side, and stretching away into the distance.

On the

further bank of the artificial ravine lay the owner's house ; the
large, i^ale

clay square of buildings, with courts

enclosed, as if for defence, reminded

and outhouses

me of a fortified village in

Ugogo. We found nothing new in the '^ Barro ;" Hke the Duro
it was drained by a trench
the washing pit was prevented from
caving in by stakes and fascines. A few negroes were removing,
under an overseer, the clays, coloured and white (Jiz), which
serve as guide to the diamond formation; and there was a
steam pump of four-horse power, with a tall useless engine
;

turret.

This diamond digging was discovered at a time and place w^hen
and where no one dreamed of looking for the gem. An old
woman, who was in the habit of j^anning Cascalho gravel in a
little trickle of water from the gap, found that the precious stones
extended into the blue argile (barro azul). About thii'ty -three
years ago the digging was begun Avith a will, and presently it
passed into the hands of the actual owner, who has emploj^ed as
many as two hundred head of slaves. Other similar diggings
came to light, and the wealth was such that sometimes an owner
"
would exclaim, " O my God, are you doing this to cause ni}' loss ?

The Duro is the legitimate offspring of the Barro, begotten, seven

CHAP. IX.]

to eight years

THE DIAMOND MIXE AT SAO JOAO.

133

ago, by Lieutenant-Colonel Brant,

who judged,

naturally enough, that
so might be the other.

if

one side of a clay slope be productive,

As has been seen, the progeniture has

thriven.

^

I

left

.^

vi-

Jjt

the Diamantine region, including the
Socially speaking, it is the

regret.

4j4

Duro mine, with

most ^' sj^mpathetic " spot in

the Brazil, according to the light of my experience.

With an

''enemy in the fortress" traitorously urging delay, it was not easy

My plea was the absolute neces-

to escape from its hospitalities.

had promised to be at
Bom Successo before the eleventh day, and the promise must be
kept.
This requii'ement is universally recognized throughout the
Empire. Lieutenant-Colonel Brant accorded to me a reluctant
dismissal, and the amiable Senhora charged me to return, and
loaded me with kind messages to an miknown, and what might
have been a theoretical, or even a hj-pothetical wife.
Old Francisco Ferreira was in no hurry to take the road once
more. He was i^aid by the day 1$000 and thus interest comsity of

an Englishman being punctual

—

bined with inclination to urge a

I

;

—

little

laziness.

But neither

cough nor groan, nor euphuistic phrase of the old eloquent, nor
muttered anticipations of '' Corrubiana in the bones," was of the
least avail.

I struck the direct road via Guinda to Bandeirinha,

and on Thursday, September

5,

1867,

after

a day's ride

of

fort}'

miles upon jaded beasts, that now fell twice every twenty-

foiu'

hours, I found myself within the pleasant walls of

Bom

Successo.

As my Jaguara pilots did not profess to know much of the
stream below this point, I engaged, with the assistance of Dr.
Alexandre, a third paddle. He answered to the name of Antonio

Marques, but was better known as '' O Menino," the '• Little 'un,"
because he was peculiarly tall, broad, and raw-boned, " a long,
hard-weather, Tom Coffin-looking fellow ;" moreover, he was
grim and angry-looking as a Kurdish '' irregular cavahyman."

He had begun life in English emplo3'ment at the Vao Mine, near
Diamantina, and he had mastered more than one northern habit,
such as drinking and brawling.

He had learned the world, he

had travelled half-way down the Sao Francisco, and had struck
overland to Piauhy he had rim up north as far as Maranham,
and he had even seen a steamer. His price was somewhat exorbi;

134

tant

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

— 2 $ 000 per diem, and

lie

[chap. ix.

vainly attempted to instal himself

as pilot by ousting the good old " Chiko Diniz," who was worth
He greatly preferred conversationizing to rowa dozen of him.

and drink to both. My temper was sorely tried by him, but
I kept it till we reached Varzea Redonda,

ing,

—

—

CHAPTER X.
NOTES ON THE DIAMOND.
THE BRAZIL, WHERE FOUND. — PROSPECTING FOR
— CONCESSION TO WORK.— PERFECTION OF THE DIAMOND.
DEBATED ORIGIN OF THE STONE. — REFRACTION, TESTS, ETC. — WHERE

DIAMANTINE

LANDS IN

^

DIAMONDS.

—

—

FORMED. DIAMOND GROUNDS. DIAMOND " FORMACAO," OR STONES THAT
ACCOMPANY THE GEM. NOTE FROM M. DAMOUR. SHAPE OP DIAMOND.
ITS COLOUR. — ITS FLAWS. — THE WEIGHTS AND PRICE. ABOUT " BOART."
CELEBRATED BRAZILIAN STONES.

—

—

—

—

" The substance that possesses the greater vahie, not only among the precious
stones, but of all human possessions, is adamas, a mineral which for a long time

was known to kings only, and to very few of them."

PUnij^ xxxvii., Chap. 15.

Couto (p. 127) described the diamond diggings of
Bagagem which he visited, and named Nova Lorena, after
D. Bernardo Jose de Lorena, Comit of Sarzedas, and eleventh
Dr.

Governor or Administrator of the Minas Geraes captaincy. These
lands, he shows, are of greater antiqiiitj^ than the countries near
the coast, as is proved by their degraded and water- washed forms.
They are also the easier to work, ha^dng more of plain ground
and larger rivers. The crystallisations of the Cerro or Diamantina
diggings have smoother facets and sharper angles, whilst the yield
On the other hand, the stones are
is more regular and constant.
small 1000 oitavas hardly produce a single gem of one oitava.
From Bagagem many stones, varying between three and six oitavas,
have been taken, but by jumps, as it were. The water is fine
and brilliant, but the shapes are more rounded and more deeply
flawed, the effect of longer weathering and more water-rolling.
Castelnau (ii. 231) describes, in 1844, the diamond diggings of
Goyaz, on the Araguaya or Rio Grande. We lack, however, a
modern description of the Diamantino diggings near Cu3^aba, in
Mato Grosso, and of the Bahian Cliapada. Tlie latter Province
extends its wealth almost to the seaboard gems have been found
;

;

—

"

THE HIGHT.ANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

mo

[chap. x.

within one or two leagues of Sao Salvador, at the Engenho do
The Caldeirinos of
Cahrito, and at other places near the railway.
Parahy, thirty leagues from the Sao Francisco Eiver, and the

lands hetween Crato and Ico, in Ceara, require inspection. I
shall presently allude to the formation on the lower waters of the
In the Provinces of Sao Paulo and Parana, the
great artery.

Parahyha do Sul, Verde, and Tihagy, have produced
diamonds, whilst the hest indications are found near the coast

rivers

ahout Ubatuha.
Evidently the Brazil has a vast extent of diamantine ground
reserved for future generations to w^ork with intelHgence, and
especially by means of machinery.

Prospecting for diamonds

done as follows The vegetable
and the desmonte, or inundation

is

:

humus, the underlying clay,
sand, are removed with the almocafre, till the labom'ers reach the
gem-bearing *' cascalho," or ''gurgulho." This first w^ork is

The larger fragments
usually an open cut of a few feet square.
of quartz are then removed by the hand, the gravel is washed in a
*'

baco," '' canoa," or '' cuyaca," and, finally, the batea is used.
After the prospecting (provas) a concession to work diamantine

ground is directed to, and is easily obtained in these days from
Government. The api)licant specifies the limits of the extent
which he proposes to exploit. The land is put up at public
auction, any one may bid, and it is knocked dow^n to the highest
The owner of the soil has the right of pre-emption, and
ofi'er.
if

0g200 per braca (Brazilian fathom) be

only

prietor can take

it.

called, the

pro-

After the death of the concessionee, the

inherited by his wife, his children, or, in default of
For the use of the reach * in the
other heirs, by his brother.

digging

is

Rio das Pedras, 13,000 bracas long, Sr. Vidigal pays a tax of
1 $ 000 per thousand, and Dr. Dayrell, within whose limits the
Canteiro is, might for that sum have exploited it had he so
pleased.

The diamond,! say old writers, unites all perfections: sparkling limpidity, lustrous brilliancy
*

" Tiro do rio.

+ M.

Science des Pierres
precienses, Paris,
1826,) observes that
the word is derived from aSa^as (in
Arabic and Persian, almas), " indomptable"
nulla vi domabilis, because not
to be conquered by fire.
This is true

—

Caire

(La

—the

efiect of its

hardness

only when the oxygen of the atmosphere
is exch;ded from it, and when the heat is
He also notes
nnder 14° Wedgewood.
diathat onr modern word " diamond,
mant," &c., by rejecting the " alplia
privative," etymologically signifies the re-

""

verse.

NOTES OX THE DIAMOND.

THAr. X.]

137

the accidental colours of the rainhow, reflections that come and go
with the vivacit}' of lightning and, finally, it has " as many fii'es
;

as facets."

The

structure is

of thin shining plates closely joined,

and thus it is easily split along the
parallel with the planes

line of cleavage, which is

dodecahedron.*

of the octahedi'on or

The substance has been proved to be crystallised carbon, f but
Some believe that the vapours of
the origin is still debated.
carbon, so rich during the sandstone period, may have been con-

densed and crystallized into the diamond. Xewton, it is well
known, argued from its great refractive power that it is ''proFor reasons which
bably an unctuous substance coagulated."
will presently appear, it is evidently

formation of gold, and

it

is

younger

possibly

still

at

times than the

forming, and with

Others have conjectured that the Itacolumite matrix may have been saturated with petroleum which has
capacity for growth.

gradually disappeared from oxidation or otherwise, except where
the carbon has collected into nodules, and has formed the gem b}'

gTadual crystallization, t

As has been shown, the specific gravity of the diamond varies
from 3*442 to 3*556, quartz being 2*600, and water 1*000 hence
it is easily washed, and a i^ractised hand distinguishes it b}^ the
weight.
The index of refraction or quotient, resultmg from the
division of the sine of the angle of incidence in the vacuum by
the sine of the angle of refraction in the vacuum, is equivalent to
5*0, § water and plate-glass being 1*50, sulphur 16*0, and bi-sulphide of carbon, the most refractive liquid at present known,
37*0.
According to Sir D. Brewster it slightly changes the light
passing through it older authorities remarked that it decom;

:

poses light into

its

prismatic colours, and shows a distinct phos-

phorescence after being

exposed for some time to the sun,

imbibing luminosity even through leather.
it

Rough

or polished

acquires by friction positive electricity, other precious stones

* Thus the test of striking with a
hammer, often applied by those who have
heard that the diamond is of extreme

hardness, has destroyed many valuable
They were split with the grain
gems.
That
or in the plane of the ciystals.
" shocking the diamonds " (with iron
levers) "causes them to be flawed " was
The
taught by the Hindus to Tavernier.
file roughly applied to the girdle or edge
is likely to chip it.

f It was, and perhaps still is, believed
that a dissolvent of carbon is alone wanted
to make the artificial diamond,
J I have seen it popularly stated that
flexible Itacolumite is the matrix of the

diamond, which

is

undoubtedly incorrect.

Nor I believe do any of the Itacolumites
contain petroleum.
§ It has been stated to
2 '439 (Brewster).

be as low as

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

ms

being negative in the rough, and positive

[chap. X.

onl}^ in the

pohshecl

Okl authors remarked that the gem when placed in the

state.*

magnetic line of the loadstone neutralizes the attraction to a
considerable

Most precious stones

degree.

"wdll

scratch glass

the diamond cuts it with a peculiar creaking sound, hence this is

Another is the peculiar shock of diamonds
rubbed together, which is more or less sonorous according to the
a favourite test, f

hardness of the stone

:

I

however, requires long practical

this,

hand a sensation of cold, a property shared with it b}^ many other stones, and notably by rock
Finally it is said that the diamond is the only stone
crj^stal.
which can scratch the sapphire.
It gives to the

acquaintance.

As regards the matrix of the diamond, many popular
are still afloat.

errors

"
It has been washed mostly in the " Cascallio

down by streams and deposited either on the
banks or in the beds. Hence books have determined that " the
diamond is always found imbedded in gravel and transported
gravel brought

Others are of
whose history cannot be traced."
opinion that the diamond was formed in the alluvial and arenaceous matters that accompany the Tertiary and Quaternary
The accurate M. Damour, who wrote two conscientious
epochs.
materials

papers § upon the diamantine sands of Bahia, tells us (p. 11)
" Ces roches crystallines, servant autrefois de gangue au diamant,
ayant ete brisees et en partie detruites par I'effet des commotions
qui ont remue et sillonne la surface du globe, a certaines periodes
geologiques, ne se montrent plus qiCa Vetat de debris et de matieres

Professor Agassiz (A Journey in Brazil, 501), " is
prepared to find that the whole diamond-bearing formation is
" I do not mean
This, however, is qualified by
glacial drift."
arenaceesJ"

—

^ Tlie electro-magnetic current strongly
affects the diamond.

I spoiled a fine rose-

cut stone by allowing the ring to remain
njDon my finger when iising a Meinig's
chain.
My attention was aroiised by a
peculiar rasping sound, and I found the
corners

of

the

diamond

chipped

and

as if a rough file had been
Perhaps this
a bit of glass.
prove a labour-saving method of

ground

off

applied to

may

which rec^uire to l>e much
The " Odylic Sensitives" of Reichenbach see when "magnetized" a brilliant
white light proceeding from the diamond
and hence probably the idea that precious
stones had specific virtues.

treating stones
cut.

;

+ Diamonds, especially those Avith acute
have been
rubbing upon hard

angles,

process

of

testing

injured

by

violent

Pliny's
substances.
them by anvil and

hammer may easily split them.
X I have heard this asserted by some
diamond merchants and denied by others.
§ Bulletin de la Societe Philomatique,
la
de
Bulletin
Fevrier, 1853, and
2*^
Serie.
Societe Greologicpie de Paris.
It is regretable
Seance du 7 Avril, 1856.
that sands from other parts of the Brazil,

5

from the Ural, from Hindostan, and from
the Borneo have not been sent to this
savant.

NOTES OX THE DIA:srOXD.

CHAP. X.l

tlie

diamonds occur in tlieii' primaiy posibut tlie secondary agglomerations of loose materials from

rocks in

tion,

inn

^\liicli

tlie

wliicli thej^ are washed."

Many authors have mistaken the secondary for the primary
The gangue, about Diamantma at

formation of the diamond.

least, is the white and red, granular and quaiizose Itacolumite,
which has been weathered and worn down by geological commoThis was suspected by Dr. Gardner, who observed that
tions.*

the matrix of the stone is not the '' diluvial" gravelly soil, but

the metamorphic quartzo-schist rock.

people

:

the general idea

is

or psammitic grit bears diamonds

The fact is easily proved.

It is not

unknown to the

that the hard sandstone '' pissarra

"

when old, but not when new.

All the diggings which are not near

some stony mass.t Diamonds
have been found in the Itacolumite by several hands, and finally
I have sent to England a specimen embedded in Itacolumite.
Perhaps the dajMvill come when the rock will be spalled, stamped,
and washed for diamond- dust as if for gold.
Accordmg to miners in this part of the Brazil the best diamantaor in rivers, lie at the base of

tion (to borrow the native term) is found in the gurgulho, breccia,

or loose pudding of angular stones, t
its wealth,

AVonderful tales are told of

how the discover}- of five or six gems was made by

pulling up a handful of grass

—the picturesque

detail has, since the

days of Potosi, become a fiivom-ite legend, and has ever been

The choicest specimen

carefully collected by the popular writer.

of a digging of this kind is said to be " O Pagao," at the head

The next best
Sao Jofio.
supply (Mancha de diamantes) comes from the " Cascallio,"
which has been compared ^^ith boiled beans of this the Pdo das
Pedras is an instance. The third habitat which we have visited
at Sao Joao is the '' barro " formation, which seems to contam all
waters of the Caethe-Mirim near

:

the others, mixed and degraded.

It must, however, be borne in

mind that the diamond grounds greatly vary in a country so immense as the Brazil. §
In tlie crystalline Itacolumite I have
not seen the diamond, but I can hardly
donbt that it exists there.
t So Tavernier, sj^eaking of the G-ani
under the King of
or Coulotir Mine,
""

where 60,000 soiils were emremarks, "The place where the
diamonds are found is a plain situated

Grolconda,
l^loyed,

between the town and the mountains, and
the nearer they ajiproach the latter the
larger stones they find."
t Castelnau (ii. 323) declares of the
diamond-diggings of Diamantino (Mato
jamais de diamant
(rrosso),
II n'y a
dans le gorgulho " (gurgulho).
§ Dr. Dayi'ell described it to me in the
'

'

"

"

THE HIGHLAKDS OF THE BRAZIL.

140

[chap. x.

As various are the indices of diamonds (pinta em diamantes),
and almost every digging yields some novelty.* The chief signs
of many are here given in order of importance, and their name
united is the Formacao Diamantina, Diamantine formation.
Cattivo (the Slave), of old called

^'

escravo do diamante," and

supposed to accompany it, as the pilot-fish does the shark.

This

includes at Diamantina bits of transparent, semi-transparent, or

The

rusty quartz, silex, rock crystal, and especially spinelle.f
latter is transparent or semi-transparent,

octahedrons (Cattivo

and with tolerably regular facets (facetas) it is distinguished from the diamond by its want of fii'e and inferior
oitavado),

;

The " Cattivo Preto,"

hardness.

or black slave,

j)robably

is

Titaniferous iron, and the miners believe that when occurring in
quantities

it

These

betrays the presence of black diamonds.

Cattivos in places are found strewed over the ground ; they show
that the diamond may be there, not that

The same
The word is

it is there.

has been said of quartz, the ''flower of gold."

applied to very different formations.
Dr. Pohl translates it
" thonseisenstein," oxidised hydrate of iron or the limonite of

Bendant (St. Hil. III. ii. 144). A practical miner assured me
that at the Chapada of Bahia '' Cattivo " includes zoned
SeiTa de Grao Mogor of Miuas Geraes, a
lode of soft sandstone, one foot broad, in
containing walls of hard Itacolunaite.
He
gave me a specimen of sand from Brocotii
or Brnciitu, near Cocaes, where spongy
nuggets of Jacntinga gold abound
it
contains a small diamond, a ruby, a
sapphire, and iron jijTitiferous as well as
specular.
The curious formation called
;

"Boart," and of which I shall have more
say, is also local.
At Diamantina of
Minas it is unknown, and Bagagem produces small qi;antities.
It is found at
Sincora, the Diamantine Chain of Western
Bahia, and the largest supply is from the
Chapada of the latter Province. I have
remarked that in many places gold acconipanies the diamond.
Plato believed
that the diamond is the kernel of auriferous matter, its purest and noblest jDith,
condensed into a transparent mass.
Thus
to

also we may exjilain Pliny's statement that

" adamas " is a " nodosity of gold. " Itacolumite is also the matrix of the tojmz and
the ruby.
A specimen of the latter was
shown to me it was a small square stone
of tolerable water, but too light in colour,
not the real "pigeon's blood" of Asia.
Garnets are found in handfuls, but they
:

are valueless.

* John

Mawe

(ii.

chap.

2)

describes

the diamond-accompanying substances as
" Un mineral de fer brilliant et pisifonne
(ferragem), vxn mineral schisteux silicieux
ressemblant h, la i)ierre indique
KieselSchiffer
de Werner (?), de I'oxide de fer
noir engrandequantite, desmorceauxroules
de quartz bleu, du cristal de roche jaunatre, et toutes sortes de mati^res entierement differentes de celles que Ton sait
etre contenues dans les montagnes voiCastelnau limits the "fonnasines."
Cattivo do diamante,
^ao " to three kinds
Pedra de Osso, and Pedra Rosea,
a
According to Taverviolet-coloured grit.
nier the Hindus judged the land diamantine when they " saw amongst it small
stones which very much resemble what we
'

'

—

call

" thunder stones.

+ The
is,

Brazilian

I believe,

name

''Sarud. "

of this

crystal

Under this word,

however, are probably included the hexahedrous fluor spar, corundum, and jDcrhaps
also certain titanates.

gests

Pliny's

The chrysolite siig" never larger

description,

than a cucumber-seed, or diiFei'ing at all
from it in colour.

XOTES OX THE DIAMOND.

CHAP. X.]

141

quartz, clirysolite, bits of magnetic iron ore, iron pyrites, and so
forth.

With Cattivo we must associate '' Siricoria," elongated prisms of
chrysolite (Chiysoberil, Werner, and Cymophane, Haiiy), of a faint
Amongst the Cattivos on
yellow-green, sometimes almost white.
the Sao Francisco River I found a large proportion of straw-

coloured topazes,* with sharp angles, and readily leading to error.
Pinga d'agua (St. Hil. I. ii. 6, " Pingo de agua ") "drop of

rounded and cylindrical pieces of every
some are white, others rusty
size from a pea to a pigeon's egg
It is applied to

water."

;

;

the drops are transparent, semi-transparent, opaque, or zoned.

and more especially
The small diamond-shaped stones are the
quartzum nobile.
most prized. With the Pinga d'Agua we must associate the balls
of quai-tz, called from their shape Ovos de Pomba, or " doves'
eggs," and the pedras de leite, " milk stones," rounded and waterwashed bits of silex calcedonius and agates. Both are clear and
diaphanous, dull and o^^aque, or zoned and prettily marked with

They

cornelian,

include

white

topaz,

concentric undulations.!

Fava, a stone shaped somewhat like a broad bean, and varymg
in size

from a pea to two inches in diameter.

As a rule it is

jasper, blood-stone, or one of the mam' varieties of wliite, brown,

and

yelloAV

Many ''favas," however,

quartz.

with ii'on, one-half to two lines deep.:!:

are clay revetted

The fava branca and the

fava roxa are sometimes of ^Dure silex or of crystallised quartz.

Several appear likely to supply good blood-stone for seal rings.
Feijao, a haricot-shaped stone, rounded and rolled.

It is also

of different sizes, and is mostly of tourmaline (Schorl) or hyalo-

tourmaline, like that which accompanies the tin-mines of Cornwall.
The colom- ranges between dark gTeen and black, and the

people believe it to have been glazed by gTeat heat.§
"•

The Cattivos may be compared with
the Bristol or Irish diamonds so often
associated with bog-oak.
They have been
frequently taken to Europe, but with
little profit.
It is said that they break
when being cut.
" These
t Mr. Emmanuel (p. 126) says,
topazes (/. c, of ]\Iinas Greraes), found in
rounded

pebl)les,

coloiu'less,

or

'

ai-e

perfectly pure

and are termed

gouttes d'eau

;

'

'

and

pingas d'agoa

'

they are also termed

Nova Minas (?),
The Portuguese call
them 'slave diamonds.'" Here there is
CA-idently a

confusion between the quaii;-

" pinga d'agiia " and the crystal
"Cattivo." The term " Minas Novas " is
taken from John Mawe (ii. chap. 3.)
J :Mai-umbe, or Pedra de Capote,
§ I believe that the feijao is sometimes
zose

of jade,

axe-stone, nephritis or nephrite,

"the
because used by Hindus against
pain of the kidnej-s. " The aborigines of
the Brazil employed it as labrets and other
oniaments, and made their hatchets of
this fine apple-gi-een mineral, which is
known to be soft when first taken from
the quany, and to become tough and
compact l)y exposui-e to the atmosphere.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

142

[chap. X.

(p. 64) as Pedras

Caboclo, mentioned by Dr. Couto

Cabocolas,

and explained to be Ferrum Siniiis and rubrum, red with dark
stains (mesclas).
This jasper or petrosilex takes its name from
It is compact, and
the dull yellow tmge caused by oxide of iron.
The surface is i)olished and lustrous, as
feebly scratches glass.
if it had been in contact with excess of caloric
the usual colour is
of dark or light yellow, opaque, and verging on brown
and there
is no pecuUarity of shape except that the fragments are mostly flat.
There are many varieties of the Caboclo. The C. Oitavado is that
which has angles. The C. bronzeado, common in the Barra da
Lomba, is dark yellow. The C. Comprido is an elongated bit of
The C. Eoxo is a compact red sandstone, possibly altered
jasper.
by heat. The C. Yermelho, common in the Caethe-Mirim, is
;

;

apparently cinnabar.

Esmeril,* in shape resembling the feijao,

is mostly oxydulated
According to the miners, some stones contain eighty to

iron.

Of this stone, also, there are many
varieties.
The Esmeril Caboclo has a dull j^ellow tinge. The
E. preto, in Gardner's opinion, is a kind of tourmaline. The
ninety per cent, of metal.

E. lustroso is almost pure iron, often welded by heat to a fine
breccia it sometimes resembles a black diamond, but it is amor;

phous.

The E. de agulha is a long, thin strip of iron-stone.

Ferragem, or Pedra de Ferragem, is either flat, bean-shaped,
nodular, or rounded like a bullet.
It is mostly of ohgistic or
specular iron, of dark purple or lustrous black.

I have seen some

specimens which are iron pj^ites, and others are bullets of silex,

making good touchstones of velvet-black colour.
Pedra de Santa Anna, squares and cubes of magnetic iron that
aftects the needle.

The name is also applied to copper pyrites^

and this is often found degraded to a mere sand.
Osso de Cavallo, t '' horse's bone," which it resembles in aj^pearance and consistence.
The shape is long or round like an
osseous fragment, and it appears to be pure sandstone (granular
Itacolumite ?) which has long been buried,
Palha de arroz, "rice straw," a fragment of light j^ellow sublustrous chlorite, slate or hardened clay-slate, resembUng a
cucumber- seed.
'"

Not Isnihim, as OastcliiaU Write.s (ili.

178).

" L' oxide noir dc

cmeri," says John Mawe
8pix and Martins explain

"Eisenghmz."

fer,
(i.

the

appelc
cliap.

word

ici

12).
l>y
'

+ rctlra

fic

O.sso

" hortic-bonc "

(Castcluaii,

ii.

olio).

must not be ecufounded witli the " Pe de Cavallo" or
" horse-hoof, " a yellow jasper, which merits

Tlii^j

its name.

.

NOTES OX THE BIx^MOXL).

CUAP. X.]

143

AguUia, or Aoullia de Cascallio, Titanic iron, in bundles or in
single needles.

Casco de tellia, cinnabar or reddish
showing mica and talc.

clay, yellow inside,

and

Pissarra folliada, schists of different colours,^ var3'ing from a
dull yellow white to black.

Pedra Pururucu, a light-coloured friable grit.*

''
The following uote is taken from
the valuable paper of M. Damour (Soc.
Geol. p. 542, April 7, 1856), describing
the cUaniantiterous sands sent to him from
The numbers show the formations
Bahia.
which occur most frequently,
Quartz (the yellow is the
1. Hyalin
occidental topaz, the blue is the

occidental sapphire).
Itacolumit^s,

This substance
it is indistinguished
fusible by the blow-pipe, consists
of
little
needles or thin-bladed
crystals, the edges are rounded by
rubbing, and the coloui-s are pearlgrey, light blue and pale-green.
Zircon or Hyacinth, also found in the
This
auriferous soil of California.
silicate shows well-preserved crysin
tals more than a millimetre
diameter it occurs in squares and
prisms ending in four-sided pyramids, with the angles and crests
sometimes modified.
!^ome arc
coloiu'less, othei-s are lirown, yellow, violet, or clear red.
Felspar, in rare water-rolled fragments
of reddish matter, cleavable in two
directions, which ineet
at right
angles.
It is not affected by acids,
but is fusible before the l)low-pipe.
^Melted with cai'bonate of soda it
proves to be composed of silica,
alumina, and a little oxide of
iron, with probably some alkaline

Disthene or Cyanite.
ea,sily

;

:

earth.
2.

lied

Garnet (almandine

shows manganese by assum-

!Mica.

Tounnaline (green and black.)
Hyalo-tourmaliue (feijao).
Density,
3*082,

scratches

glass

feebly.

Under the microscope it looks like
a number of small needles crossing
one another the fracture is fibrous.
The dust is of greenish grey.
Heated in a glass tube it disengages a little water: melted with
borax, it gives a reaction of iron,
and before the blow-pipe it swells
and fuses to a brownish black or
dark green scoria, which, after
being subjected to burning charcoal,
becomes slightly magnetic.
The
scoria can be decomposed by boiling
:

Jasper and Silex.

is

nitre,

ing a dark violet tinge.

or

precious

garnet).

Slanganesian CTarnet (spessartiue or
Density, 4 "16.
deep red garnet).
In dodecahedral rhomboids, very
small bright crystals of a topaz yellow.
The blow-pipe fuses it to
a ghi.ss which becomes black and
opaque in the oxidizing flame.
The glass made with salt of phosphorus (microcosmic salt\
and
heated to redness with a little

in siilphuric acid ; and biu-nt in
alcohol it gives a green flame, show-

ing

boracic acid.
Analysis also
yields silica, titanic acid, alumina,
magnesia, a trace of lime, soda,

water and volatile matter. It differs
from black tourmaline only by the
presence of water and titanic acid.
Talc.

Hydrous jihosphate of alumina, or Wavcllite (Caboclo).

Density, 3 '14 in

Diamantina and Abaete, and colour
a coftee lirown.
Density, 3*19 in
Bahia ; tint rosy or brick-red, and

shape rounded galets.
Composiphosphoric acid, alumina,
a little lime, barj-tes, oxide of
iron, and 12 to 14 per cent, of water.
Phosphate of white yttria, which J.l.
tion,

Damour previously called Hydrophosphate. Before the blow-pipe it
liecomes white without fusing
the
;

lustre is tlie fat adamantine,

and

the colour white or pale j^ellow
it
scratches fluorine and is scratched
:

by a steel point.
The iiTegular
and rounded fragiuents have a
double cleavage leading to a rectangular or slightly oblique prism.
One incomplete crystal showed a

pyramid Avith foiir faces, two largo

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

144

[chap, X.

As regards shape the rule is that the smaller stones are the
most regular. The larger specimens seem to have no constant
form or crystallisation; they are round, flat, or elongated, and
generally truncated abruptly at one end, as if a j^iece were wantThe facets, which when cut appear flat and even, are, in
ing.
the natural stone, concave, convex, or rounded hence the Abbe
:

may be regular

Hatiy observed that the component molecules

Wallerius (quoted by M. Caire) assigns to the diamond

tetrahedra.

The

three shapes, the octahedron, the plane, and the cube.*

normal form of the diamond, here

as elsewhere, is the regular

and clean with an angle of incidence at the summit, amounting to
96° 35'
the two others, narrow
and miiTory (miroitantes), had

iVom the diamond by inferior hardness
and reactions before the
blow-pipe.
It becomes opaque,
brown and reddish after an epigene, which converts it wholly or
partially to nitile.
These transformed crystals are holloAv, and
composed of a multitude of needles
Avhich cross in all directions.
Hydrated titanic acid ; of this substance no quantitative analysis wa-s
The whitish yellow conmade.
cretional matter crepitates strongly,
and disengages water in a glass

;

the angle of 98° 20', whilst that of
the neighbouring facets was 124°
23' 30".

Phosphate

titaniferous

of

yttria,

termed silicate of ytsilica having been confounded

])reviously
tria,

it
Density, 4 "39
it is ojoaquc

with zirconium.

:

feebly scratches glass

cinnamon

and of
rounded

;

The

brown.

grains are pierced wdth
in
holes ;
it
is
also
surface
with
octahedrons,
square-based
Boilfacets like those of zircon.
ing sulphuric acid decomposes it,

tube

7.

small

rolled

grains

Brookite,

differing

entirely

from

crystal

comj^osed

rutile

type.
of titanic

It

8.

9.

;

a

11.

Gold, free.

49) says, "The
generally found in
octahedral, the Brazilian in dodecahedral
* Mr.

Indian

Density, 4*06
octahedrons, transparent or
.^tmi -transparent, and distinguished
(titane).

Iron, hydroxydated.

Mercury, with suli)luir
heated in a
glass tube it gives a black sublimate.

iron.

The only specimen examined was

l>right,

the fracture has
It scratches glass
a semi-metallic histre, and the dust
dark olive-green.
The black grains
are almost all water-rolled
a few
crystals show rhomboidal oblique
prisms of 123°.
Iron, oxydulated (Esmerih)
Iron, oligist (rhombohedral, six-faced

Iron, yellow with sulphur.
Tin, oxide of.

is

in Wales.
;

4 '82.

8 (Ti O^, Ta O^).

prisms).

in

striated along the
flat prism
major axis and ending in the
dihedron, like the formations found

-f

;

10.

having the

Density,

titaniferous.

;

or

cations.

Iron,

Formula, 3 Fe

;

in

the dust is reddish

;

brown.

and water when this is disengaged
by the blow-pipe, it becomes opaque
and milky white.
quadrangular prisms, with stria3
along the major axis, ending in
a foiir-sided pyramid with modifi-

sulphur

of

;

regular crystals

alumina.
Diaspore, or hydrate of
Density, 3 '464; composed of bright
crystalline blades of greyish wdiite,
The
resembling certain felspars.
composition is alumina, ferric acid,

salt

Avith

scratches glass.
Baierine, or Columbite (Niobate of
iron)
in flat striated and often

lina.

Anatase

and

black amorphous substance, which

This
leaving a white residuum.
substance is found in the auriferous
sands of Georgia and North Caro-

Rutile,

;

gives reactions of titanic acid.
Tantalate.
Density, 7 '88 ; it is a
it

Emmanuel

diamond

crystals."

is

(p.

NOTES ON THE DIAMOND.

CHAP. X.]

145

octahedron (Adamas octahedrus turbinatus of Wallerius), composed of two four-sided and equilateral pyramids, springing from a

common base. This is called the Diamante de piao, and it loses
much in cutting. With this i^rimarj are found the modified
forms, the hexahedron or cube, the dodecahedron (twelve rhombic
faces), the pyramidal hexagon (tetrakis-hexahedron of twentj^-four

and others. When the table and the culet of the fundamental system are worn down, the octahedron becomes a
decahedron the abrasion of two other points or angles (quinas)
makes it a dodecahedron, a geometrically allied form, but
approaching the si)heroidal, and w^hen two other edges at the
girdle or base of the double pyramid disappear, it will number
These rounded stones (tesselladas or boleadas,
fourteen facets.
Adamas hexahedrus tabellatus of Wallerius) are locally known as
the primeira formula, and they are preferred by the trade, as they
There are all manner of derivations
lose least by lapidation.
from the normal octahedi'on and dodecahedron, as the flat
and triangular hemi-hedral, or half-sided diamans hemiodres

faces),

;

macles, the effect of secondary cleavage, called diamantes

forma de chapeo

(hat-shaped)

;

these

find

tetrahedrons (four-sided) are pjTamidal,
vertices are acute.

There are

little

em
The

no fi\vom\

valued when the

also diamantes rolados (water-

rolled stones, reboludos, M. Jay), which lose all their ''pointfes
naives ; " these are held, when round and oval, to be a good form.

They may, when elongated, explain Pliny's "two cones united at
the base; " they are often covered with o^^aque crust, and rugged

be distmguished,
except by theii' power of scratching softer substances, from the
Pinga d'agua. Some of the latter, on the other hand, especially

like gi'ound glass ; in this state they are not to

when of pure opaque quartzum nobile, so much resemble the
gem in its " brut " or rough state, that many an inexperienced

man has lost his time and his money.
The form of the diamond gi'eatly influences the price, and thus
it is that the merchant makes his profit.
He pays for size,
w^eight,

and water

;

he gains by the shape.

Purchasers on a large

scale have boxes of metal plates pierced with holes,

and acting

Those shown to me were in sets of nineteen, and bore upon them the mark of Linderman and Co.,
Amsterdam.
The diamond greatly varies in colour. Those mostly prized
as sieves (crivos).

VOL. II.

u

*

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

146

[chap. x.

are nitid as silver plates, clear as dew-drops, lively and showing

the true diamantine lustre.
''

oxide are called

All that are deeply tinted with

fancy " or coloured stones.

A light yellow is

very common, and detracts from the value ; the decidedly yellow,
the amber-colom^ed, and the brown are worse. The rose-tinted

and much admired, the red are seldom seen. At
Diamantina I was shown a fine green specimen, but the price
The black or rather steel-coloured diamond
was enormous.*
being very rare, and rather curious than beautiful, is valued by
museums as the shape is often a good double pyramid, it should
be mounted uncut, f The dead-white is not prized, and the same
may be said of all '^ false colours," especially the milky and
undetermined tints. The violet is still, I believe, unknown. I
heard of blue diamonds, and many of those brought from Caetheare rare

;

Mii'im are coloured superficially with a greenish-blue coating.

This and the various oxides of iron must be removed by burning
The *' Duro " stones are
at a loss of about one per cent.t
distinguished by a light green colour, crusting sometimes thickly
Tavernier learned in India that the
outside, but they cut white.
colour of the diamond follows that of the soil in which it is dug
red if it be ruddy, dark when the ground is damp and marshy,
and so forth. This has been copied into om^ popular books.
To discover the flaws so frequent in diamonds, the purchaser
has several simple contrivances, such as to breathe upon the
^ !Mr. Emmarixiel relates a case of

£300

may explain tlie fable believed by Marco

having lately been paid for a diamond of
vivid gi-een colour, weighing 4 J gi'ains
had it been of the normal colour the value
"Until lately,"
would have been £22.
the people of Golconda
says Tavernier,
made no difficulty in buying diamonds,

Polo in the middle of the thirteenth
centnry
"Such as search for diamonds
watch the eagles' nests, and when they
leave them, pick up such little stones, and
search likewise for diamonds among the
eagles' dung."
Hence too " El Sindibad of
the Sea " (Sindbad the Sailor), whose adventures are a curious mixture of fact

;

'

'

externally of gi'een colour, because when
cut they appear white and of a very fine
water."
+ "One (diamond) was jet black, a
colour that not unfi'equently occurs."
Thus says Mr. Gardner (chapt. 13), speaking of the " Serro " formation.
I have
only seen one in the Brazil, and that was

brought from Rio Yerde of Sao Paulo by
my friend Dr. Augusto Tiexeira Coimbra.
he drojipcd it from
It came to a bad end
his waistcoat jjocket, and it was swallowed
by a fowl. In rich and new districts the
:

crojjs of all poultry when killed are carefully

examined, and are often found to contain
diamonds another j^roof, if wanted, that
the gem is not poisonous.
Possibly this

—

—

distorted to fable.

+ At the Chapada
are

placed

"w-ith

of

Bahia the gems

saltpetre

in

a crucible

and kept over the fire,
usually for about a quarter of an hour:
this, however, is a " kittle " point.
When
sufiiciently roasted to have lost the oxide
which

is

closed

of iron or the earth colour, the stones are
throwTi into cold Avater, and of course they
are found to have lost a little weight,
Heating the diamond and then throwing it
into cold water was a Hindu test of soundThese
ness and freedom from flaws.
crusted stones, according to John Mawe,
genei-ally cut well.

f"

CHAP.

NOTES ON THE DIAMOND.

X.]

147

and deficiencies of colour appear ; or to
place it in the palm of the hand, and to look thi'ough it towards
The Jaga (in French
the light, turning it in all directions.*
stone, wlien defects

Gi\T.'e,

or Gercure)

colour, such as is

is

a shallow line or speck, often of a dark

seen in crystallized quartz ;

it is

also a semi-

opaque imperfection, which we call "milk," or ''salt." The
Natura (glace) is a want of continuity, or a void where the planes
meet ; the Kacha is a fissm'e, or vein and the Falha is a serious
In cutting
fractm'e, where two flaws join as if cemented together.
these flaws they open out, and the diamond is spHt (estalado).
The " ponto " is a strange body which has entered mto the
Grains of sand have been observed in the
cr}^stallization.
diamond by many writers. I heard of a stone which contained a
spangle of gold, and the same peculiarity has before been noticed.
This formation shows the comparative date of the stone, whose
crystaUizations of carbon, or protoxide of carbon, must have
arranged themselve's round the metal and favoui's theu' opinion
who beheve with Brewster, that the diamond, hke coal, is originally vegetable matter which has passed through Nature's
crucible.
A stone was lately fomid at Bagagem, with a loose
piece nailed (cravado) as it were into the body of the gem
a
"
similar
implantation of crystal " was suspected in that celebrated stone the '' Estrella do Sul."
The flawed diamond
;

;

;

generally is

called

''fundo."

Possibly

many of these defects

may be removed, and tradition dimly records that the Comte de
Saint Germain, and others who have displayed immense wealth,
had mastered the art.
The diamond-merchant in the Brazil still cleaves to the old
system of money-weights, introduced by the Portuguese in the
* The Hindus tried the goodness of the
diamond by cutting one with another, and
if the powder was grey or ash-coloui-ed, it
was held sufficient test, " for all other precious stones, except the diamond, afford a
powder." (A Description of the

white

—

Coasts of Malabar and
Philip Baldasus, 1670.)

by
They also examined them by night, and judged of the
water and clearness by holding them between the fingers and looking through them
Coromandel,

at a large-wicked lami^ placed in a wallniche.

f

" Nous y avons constate des paillettes
says M.
Charles Barbot (Traite

d'or,"

Complet des Pierres Precieuses).

the flaws caused by metallic molecules,
" crapauds. "
M. Damoiir, speaking of
" boart," remarks, " Des paillettes d'or
sont quelquefois implantees dans les cavites
de certains morceaux de ces diamants.
Sir J. Herschel (Phys. Greog. 291) quotes
M. Harting, who in 1854 "describes a
diamond from Bahia, including in its sub
stance differently formed crystalline filaments of iron pyi-ites a fact unique in its
kind, and, taken in conjunction with the
affinities of iron and carbon at high temperatures, likely to throw some light on the
very obscure subject of the ultimate origin

—

of this gem."

He calls
L 2

—

—

—

,

:

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

148

The Brazil lias, lil^e ourselves, an

days of colonial ignorance.
especial diamond weight

;

* but practically, and

amongst miners,

one hears of nothing but ''grain" and " oitava."
carat,! is not popular.

[chap. x.

Quilate, or

Thus, in selUng ''fancy" or coloured

stones, such as the blue, green, rose, or j^ellow-coloured, the old

French lapidaries said, for instance, " eighty grains," not " twenty
carats."

The following is a complete list of weights

:

= 1 grain (0-892 gr. Troy). This is the lowest of all weights

Dezreis

below this all becomes "fazenda fina," or diamond
dust.

= 2 grains (2-25 Portuguese) = 20 reis = | a carat. The

Vintem

Vintem

(plural Vintens, not Vinteis as St. Hilaire

writes) is the unity of measure.

Meia-pataca =16 grains =160 reis = 8 vintens.

Meia oitava = 32 grains = 320 reis =16 vintens.
Cruzado
= 45 grains = '400 reis (an old weight).

= 480 reis (quite obsolete).
= 64 grains J (72 grs. Portuguese) = 640 reis = 17'44 carats
= 32 vintens =16 carats.

Sello

Oitava

Above four

vintens, the

diamond is considered large.

Many

miners have dug all their lives without finding a stone that
exceeds twenty vintens.
The most useful size is probably six
vintens or three carats.

The smaller stones are known in the

trade as " pedra de dedo," stone of the finger, because they can

be raised by pressing the tip upon them.

when the lot consists of the larger gems

;

The "cuberta" is

e.g., " Partida (parcel) de

diamantes que tem cuberta."
* The Brazilian measures (found in books) are
Lisbon lb.

Brazilian Custom-house lb.

= 458 "92 grammes.
= 0-199
= 1-195

233 '81 grammes.
= 0-203

4 grains

= 1 quilate (carat)

6 quilates

= 1 escrupulo (scruple) = 1-218

Our diamond scale is
16 parts
4 grains
151-50 carats
16 ounces

t The word

= 1 grain = O'S grains Troy.
= 1 carat = 3-2
= 1 ounce Troy (8 oitavas, or 256 vintens).
= 1 pound,
,

derived fiom the

from the Arabic word ' Kuara,' the name of

Arabic J^LJ V(Klrat),
the Greek
/» through
&

*^^
,^,
f^'^ Q-o]j
"^^^'^l^^'f^
^}^''\\%f''^'}^^
on i\^Q
The
Coast
of Africa
(?).
" Kuara" of Bruce grew upon a region adjoining the Red Sea.
The Hindu equivalent is the Rati (Ruttee), which Tavernier
makes = |ths of the carat
3^ grains,
60 grains
Z Some make the oitava

carat

is

^^

the small, red, blacktipped bean of the Abrus precatorius, a
tree probably indigenous to Hindostan, but
which has migrated to Eastern Africa,
where it grows wild. Mr. Emmanuel (p. 55)
says, "The origin of the carat weight is
Kepi^TLou.

It

is

f

=

=

English.

NOTES ON THE DIAMOND.

CHAP. X.]

the price of diamonds

Of late years,

149

the world over has

all

In 1750-4, when David Jeffries wrote,
and
si)read brilliant of one carat was worth
a perfectly white
£S; it now fetches from ^17 to 56I8.* The reason is easily

prodigiously increased.

found.

The

influx

of gold

has raised the

price

of

stones.

The market has greatly extended f in the United States, for
instance, these gems are eagerly sought by those who have made
;

money.

And lastly, in unsettled countries, as the Orient has

and wherever poHtical troubles threaten, the
diamond is used " en cas," or " en tout cas " its extreme portability
the fact that its currency is nearly at par all the world
over and the difficulty of destroying it, raise it to the category
In the Brazil, as in the Atlantic
of a coin of the highest value. |
cities of the United States, where every one that can afford
them, even hotel waiters and nigger minstrels, wear diamonds in
rings and shirt fronts, demand has produced the same result,
which is, moreover, exaggerated by the want of slave hands, and

long

proved,

;

—
—

by the exhaustion of the superficial deposits. Thirteen years
ago the oitava sold for 320 $ 000 now it fetches from 800 $ 000
In 1848,
to 1:000 $000, nearly three times its former value. §
dming the European convulsion, the price of brilliants at Baliia
was reduced to fifty per cent. but the market lost no time in
recovering itself.
Castelnau (ii. 345) predicts that at the end of
the present century the diamond will be worth onty twenty per
;

;

!|

*

A "specimen stone" will rise to £20

or £21.

t

'
'

Amid the sumptuous articles which

distinguish the Russian nobility, none,
perhaps, is more calculated to strike a
foreigner than the profusion of diamonds,"
says Cose, writing in 1802.
California,
after 1848, developed the demand for dia-

monds

United States.
During the
ten years following 1819 the various customhouses registered a rise from an annual
average of $100,000 to about $1,000,000.
The duty was kept as low as 1 per cent, to
discoui-age smuggling
but it was paid,
they calcidated, by something less than
one-sixth of the imi^ortation.
The stones
are mostly small, weighing under the half
carat, and jewellers ask 2.5 per cent, more
than in Paris. A good article on " Diamonds
and other Grems " (Harper's New Monthly,
February, 1866) declares "it is doubtful
whether there is any diamond in the United
in the

;

States of over twelve carats in weight. " It
states that a marked advance in price took
place between 1863 and 1864, when gold

rose above 200.

Good diamonds of three

to four carats then sold for $3500 to $4000.
ninetj' -nine out
Finally, it assures us that
'

'

diamonds sold in the
United States are what are called brilliants,"
as opposed to the rose, the table, and the
every hundi'ed

of

brilliolette.

J Thus only can we explain the fact that

many noble but reduced families have sent
their

diamonds from Hindostan, the very

home of the diamond, to Europe, and have
brought them back because they could find
On
a better market in the older countiy.
the other hand, the general style of East
Indian cutting, making the gem lustreless
and glassy from want of depth, injures it in
public esteem.
I have seen a fine stone
placed like a bit of crystal over a portrait,
and even thus it was valued at £1000,
§ In 1867-8 the fall of the milreis has
produced other comijlications in the dia-

mond trade of the Brazil. At the present
moment (July 28, 1868) the oitava may
average 1 000 $ 000 at Rio de Janeiro,
During the first French Revolution,
:

||

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

150

cent, of its value in

1800.

[chap. X.

I venture to say that, unless the

stone can be manufactured, the reverse will approach nearer to

the truth.

In j)roclucing the diamond, Nature preserves her regular prothe small are comparatively numerous, and the larger
portions
stones are progressively rarer. In rough diamonds, the ratio of
Thus, supposing
value more than doubles with the weight.
and one
a stone of one vintem to be worth 18 $000 to 20 $000
;

;

of 16 vintens wiH fetch 400 g 000 to 500 g 000 when the oitava is
at 1 000 $ 000. At Bahia the price is thus ascertained. Assuming,
for instance, the unworked stone to be worth £2 per carat, the
worth of a heavier diamond is known by doubling the square of
For worked
the weight (e. g,, 2 carats x 2 = 4 x 2 = d68.)
multiply
and
by 2 ; for
stones, double the weight, square it,
:

instance, 2 carats

x2 = 4x4 = 16x2= ^£32.

Lieut. -Colonel Brant gave

me the following list of prices in

brute stones, showing that the value at Diamantina differs little

Diamonds, I should remark, are divided
for facility of pricing into first, second, and third waters.

from that of England.

Grain diamonds*

—

NOTES 0:N the DIAMOND.

CHAP. X.]

The

151

curious substance called by the English ''boart"* and

by the French ''boort" and *' diamant concretionne," that is to say having no cleavage, and by the Brazilians
" carbonato," was formerly valueless. In 1849 it became worth
from one to two francs -per carat, and now it fetches 56 $000 per
It is supposed to be the connecting link between carbon
oitava.
and diamond; its hardness is that of the true gem, and its
The granular amorspecific gravity ranges from 3*012 to 3*600.
phous mass appears under the microscope distinctly crystalline,
in fact an aggregate of granules or lamellas of diamond
In some si^ecimens
analogous to a grit of quartzose sand.
are cellular canities like pumice, empty or full of sand, and geodes
It is
lined with small regular crystals of colourless diamond.
black and lustreless, and when burnt it leaves a residue of clay
and other substances. This " diamond- carbon" accompanies the
diamond in sandstone and in cascalho it appears in angular and
rounded galets the irregular lumps bemg often as large as a
walnut. Castelnau speaks of a piece weighing more than a pound.
*'

graphite," t

;

;

I have heard of 2: 500 $000 (^250) being paid for a single frag-

When "boart" is of large size it is generally broken to

ment.

find if it be full or hollow.

It is

known by the great weight, by

diamond-like coldness in the hand, by the sharp peculiar
sound when bits are scratched and rubbed together. The miners
sometimes steep it in vinegar, as we do lard in water, to augment
the weight, and it so resembles a piece of common magnetic or
its

13}Titic

ii'on

ore that

without great care the best judges are

circumstances of buyer and seller, and so forth.

The larger stones often remain on hand

of a Brazilian gentleman who
expended nearly all his property in buying a " great bargain," in the shape of a diamond,
of which he has never been able to dispose. The larger stones are always sold singly.

many years before they find a purchaser.

I

have heard

Tavernier gives the following nile for estimating their value

:

15 carats (perfect stone)
15

15 carats (imperfect stone)
15

225
150 (value of a single carat)

225

33,750 livres.
* Wonderful to relate, the diamond merchants of Bahia could not agree upon the
meaning of "boart," which books apply as
One of the oldest and most
in the text.
experienced insisted that it was the cheapest
and worst kind of perfectly crystallised

diamond, worn by attrition into spherical
globules, like shot grains,
This kind is

80 (value of the single carat)
18,000 livres.
mostly unfit to be cut, and when crushed
the dust is used for polishing gems and for
engraving on hard stones.
+ Graphite is usually applied to the pure
debitumenised carbon found in the Laurentian, and associated with anthracite in the

Cambrian systems.

Its vegetable origin is
not thoroughly established.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

152

deceived. *

[chap. x.

It is x^ounded and used principally in diamond cutting.

Drills pointed mtli this mineral have, I am told, been employed

with great success in driving tunnels through hard rock.
Of tliis little known substance three kinds are distinguished by

The worst is the "Carbonato;" a finer kind with
better formed crystals is the ''Torre," which fetches 60 $000 per

the trade.

oitava ; the best occurs in small rounded balls of shining metallic

appearance, and

is

therefore called "Balas," this

80 $000 per oitava. t

may rise to

Some Chapadista miners have not yet

learned to sort the varieties.

The Brazilian diggings have produced some large and valuable
gems, which have all been sent out of the country.
The Braganza diamond was worn by D. Joao VI., who had
a passion for precious stones, and possessed about ^3,000,000
value.

in

Now amongst the crown jewels of Portugal, it was

extracted in 1741 from the mine of Caethe Mirim.t

Authors

and no drawing of it has, I beUeve,
been published it is supposed to be larger than a hen's egg, and
it has long laboured under the suspicion of being a fine white
differ touching its weight, §
;

topaz, a stone which

m the Brazil, as elsewhere,

|I

often counter-

feits the diamond.
* The boart or carbonate, however, has

no attractive power. It is tried by striking
and if it
it between two copper coins,
breaks or does not dint the metal, it is
held valueless.
+ Dr. Dayi-ell gave me a specimen of
"boart" from Sincora. It much resembled
The substance is
pyi-itiferous iron-sand.
found in pieces varying from one gi-ain to
I have heard it called
half an oitava.
*'bolo redondo," and was told that the
colour is sometimes of an opaque white.
t M. Barbot specifies the place as the
little river "Malho Verde," in the vicinity
ef *' Cay-de-Merin,"
§ John Mawe and the Abbe Reynal
make the weight 1680 carats (12^ French
Rome de I'lsle, who estimated its
ounces).
value at 7 milliards 500 million francs,
gives 11 ozs. 3 gros. and 24 grains of gold
weight.
M, FeiTy says 1730 carats, esti'006 less
mating the Brazilian carat at
Mr, Emmanuel gives
than the European.
it 1880 carats in p. 78, and 1680 in p. 128,
the former being probably a misprint.
Mr, St. John (Forests of the Far East,
vol. i. 48) mentions a noble in Brunei who
for £1000 offered a diamond about the size
of a pullet's egg, which proved to be a
II

pinkish topaz,
In reading these two pleasant and instmctive volumes I con Id not but regret
that the author had not given us an account
of the celebrated diamantation of Borneo.
In old authors we find that the sands of the
" Succadan" River produced fine stones of
white and lively water, but that the Queens
of Borneo would not allow strangers to
We remember, too, that in
export them.
Borneo was found, in 1760, the largest
The weight was 367
diamond known.
It caused a war of
carats = 1130 gi-ains.
nearly thirty years' duration, and it remained with the original possessor, the

Rajah

of

Mattam,

The

island,

with

its

core of givanite and syenite which protrude
in the vast mountain mass known as Kina

Balu, the " Chinese Widow, " through the
secondary limestones and sandstones, much
We read also of the
resembles the Brazil.
pot holes washed by sand-water, the gravels,
and the rocky streams which characterise
There are curious
a diamantine country.
resemblances in minor points. For instance,
the people of the Sulus Islands keep their
small stores of seed-pearls in hollow bamThese are the " Pequas," so well
boos.
known to the Brazilian mine-owner.

—

NOTES ON THE DIAMOND.

CHAP. X.]

153

The Abaete* brilliant was found in 1791, and the circumstances
of the discovery are related by John Mawe, M. F. Denis and
Three men convicted of capital offences, Antonio da
others.
Sousa, Jose Fehs Gomes, and Thomas da Sousa, when exiled to
the far west of Minas, and forbidden under pain of death to enter

a city, wandered about for some six years, braving cannibals and
Whilst washmg for gold in
search of treasui'e.
wild beasts,

m

the Abaete River, which was then excej)tionall3^ dry, they hit upon

diamond, weigliing nearly an ounce (576 grains = 14^
They trusted to a priest, who, despite the severe laws
carats), t
against diamond washers, led them to Villa Rica and submitted
this

the stone to the Governor of Minas, whose doubts were dissipated

by a special commission. The priest obtained several i^rivileges
and the malefactors their pardon, no other reward being mentioned.
A detachment was at once sent to the Abaete River,
which proved itself rich, but did not offer a second similar prize, t
D. Joao VI. used to wear this stone on great occasions attached
to a collar.

The "Estrella do Sul" briUiant was found in July, 1853, at
Bagagem of Minas Geraes by a negress. § In the rough state it
weighed 254^ carats. The owner parted with it for 30 contos
at the Bank of Rio de Janeiro it was presently
(£3,000)
deposited for
300 to 305 contos, when it was worth
;

£2,000,000 to £3,000,000. After being cut by the proprietors,
Messrs. Coster of Amsterdam, it was reduced to 125 carats, and

now it belongs, I believe, to the Pacha of Eg}3)t.
perfectly pure

and white, its

gems extant.
The Chapada

*'fii'e"

renders

it

Though not

one of the finest

1|

*

M.

of Bahia also produced a stone weighing 76|-

(427) calls the Abaete dia-

Biiril

mond *'0 Regente."
+ In some books the weight is given at
1384 carats

;

in others it is made 213.

+ This stream has already been men-

The diamond was described by
John Mawe as octahedral in shape, weighing seven-eighths of an ounce Troy, and
tioned.

perhaps the largest in the world. It passed
through the hands of the Viceroy, and was
sent in a fi-igate to the Prince Regent.
§ A story far too long to tell here belongs

do Sul, which appeared at
our Grreat Exhibition in 1851.
Exceptionally, for few diamonds with names can
make such boast, it has caused no bloodto the Estrella

even the finder was not murdered
Of
only ruined, and died broken-hearted.
the score or two of persons who made fortunes by the discovery, Casimiro (de Tal),
whose negress (not a negro, as the writer in
shed

;

"Harper's"

says) brought

it

to

him

in

order to obtain her freedom, was the only
one disappointed.
M. S. Dulot (France et Bresil, Paris,
1857), p. 20, seems to confound the "Star
of the South," which was found in 1853,
with the " Braganza," dating from 174:1.
]\Ir. Emmanuel (p.
61) rightly makes the
Eitrella do Sul the largest found in "the
||

Brazils."

154

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

[chap. x.

and when cut into a drop-sliaped brilliant it proved to
It was bought by
possess extraordinary play and lustre.
Mr. Arthur Lyon, of Bahia, for 30 contos, and it is now, I am
told, in the possession of Mr. E. T. Dresden.
Briefly to conclude.
As yet the Diamantine formations of the
Brazil have been barely scratched, and the works have been com2)ared with those of beavers.
The rivers have not been turned,
the deej) pools (po9os or po9oes) above and below the rapids,
where the great deposits must collect, have not been explored,
even with the diving helmet; the dry method of extraction,
long ago known in Hindostan, is still here unknown. All is conducted in the venerable old style of the last century, and the
fiend Routine is here more deadly than Bed Tape in England.
The next generation will work with thousands of arms du'ected
by men whose experience in mechanics and hydraulics will enable
them to economize labour and it is to be hoped that the virgin
gem-bearmg waters will be washed up-stream.
This was the
Diamantine
Regulation.
Unforsensible provision of the old
tunately it came too late, when the channels had been choked
with rubbish which was hardly worth removing.
carats,

;

CHAPTER XL
FROM BOM SUCCESSO TO THE COROA DO GALLO.
THE SACO OR PORTO DOS BURRINHOS. INDEPEXDEXCE DAY. — THE " CACHOEIRA DO PICAO." THE LAPA DOS URUBtJS. THE BURITY PALM. SILENT

—

—

—

—

BIRDS.
" Cette partie si importante de I'economie publique, en un mot demeure encore

d'abandon que le gouvemement ne peut trop s'empresser de faire
(J/. Claude Deschamj)s, of the French Rivers in 1834.)

livree a un etat

cesser."

—

" It is presumed the Brazil will not attempt to dispute the
doctrine, that no nation holding the

now well-settled

mouth of a river has a right to bar the way

to market of a nation holding (land ?) higher up, or to prevent that nation's trade

and intercourse with whom she will, by a great highway common to both"
{Lieut. Herndon, p. 366.)

—

Saturday, SeiJtemhcr 7, 1867. My letters were soon written,
the trooper Miguel and his mules were dismissed with good characters, and at 9.30 a.m., after embracing our kind host, Dr.
Alexandre, we pushed out of the creek " Bom Successo."

" O Menino," the new broom, swei)t, as hapjoens for a short
time, uncommonly clean, naming every little break of water or
hole in the bank.* The rocks, sandstone aboimding in iron and
laminated blue limestone, were all in confusion. The strike was
to the east, the north-east, the south-east, the west, the north-

west and the north, and sometimes within ten yards the strata
were anticlinal, nearly vertical, and almost horizontal. There

were slabs of clay, with perpendicular fracture dipping towards
the river, and here and there " Canga" and " Cascallio."
After a few unimportant featui'es,t we left to starboard the
* E.g. the Cor6a do Nenne, so called
after the nickname of a man with a cripi^led

hand, and the Corda do Saco, both with the
main channel to the left. Then the Coroa
do P090 do Gordiano and the Coroa do
Cedro, with the Ribeirao do Cedro faUing
into the left bank ; these have the thalweg
CD the right.

+ Corrego do Bom Successo Pequeno on
the right bank, one league by water and
one mile by land from the Fazenda. Then
the Coroa do Saco do Cedro, grassy and treegrown, -ndth a break above and below it.
On the right bank the Sitio of Antonio
Alves, with traces of cultivation.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

156

[chap. xi.

Larangeii'as stream and estate, belonging to Colonel Domingos.
Opposite it is tlie Barro do Maquine Grande, a little '' fishy "

creek of clear water, which has a water-way of five leagues for
canoes, forming a Coroa (do Saco do Maquine Grande), with a
clear way to the right.*

In the Maquine Fazenda there is, they

say, a cavern which gave fifteen days'

work to Dr. Lund, and the
savant found there a " pia " or baptismal font of stalactite, which
would have commanded 400L in Europe. Shortly after noon we
descended this day's first rapid, the Cachoeira da Capivara, which
has two channels, with a sandbank in the centre. The left is the
deep water-way, but rafts come to grief by dashing against the
bank where the pole cannot touch bottom. We therefore floated

down stern foremost, threw out a cord and hugged the Coroa.
The air was dense with bush-burnings, here producing an
" Indian spring," which corresponds with the " Indian summer "
in the north

mostly Brazilians complain of the smoke, and
Nothing could
be more picturesque than the long lines of vapour like swathes or
:

declare that it gives them difficulty of breathing.

veils,

whose undulations overlay the

hill-tops, and gradually dis-

persed in air.f

At 4 P.M. we passed the Eio de Santo Antonio, a pleasant little
stream which admits for two leagues tolerable-sized canoes, whilst
the small dug-outs ascend it about double that distance. It leads to

(Santo Antonio de) Curvello, a town so called after an ecclesiasbuilt upon the

Campo, and the last in this region,
supposed to demarcate the " Sertao," X or Far West. But
the inhabitants do not readily own to the soft impeachment the
traveller is always approaching the Sertao, and yet hears that it
is still some days off.
He remembers the lands of the tailed
nyam-nyams, which ever fly before the explorer, or, humbler
tical colonist ;

it is

;

comparison, the fens of certain English counties which, according
The next holm, Coi-oa do Palo, which
sent US to the left, is not mentioned by M.
Liais.

+ After the Palo are the Porteira, so
named from a creek, and the Coroa das
Mamonciras, with the thalweg to the left
neither of them is mentioned by M. Liais.
Then comes the Corrego das Canoas (Ribeirao das Canoas, Liais), exposing on the
right bank a mass of auriferous puddingstone, and beyond it the boulders dip 10°
to 30°.
Here the Coroa das Canoas blocks
;

up the right channel.

On

the left

is

a

perpendicular bank of brown clay six feet
deep, with red-leaved Co^Dahyba trees gi-owing fi-om it. There is little to notice in the
Porto and Corrego da Anta or in the Porto
do Murici, so called from a small edible
yellow berry.
Z Southey "WTites the word after the old
fashion, "Sertam," and declares (ii. 565)
It is
that he does not know its origin.
nothing but a contraction of Desertao, a
large wild, and it is much used in Africa
as well as South America,

FROM BOM SUCCESSO TO THE C0R6a DO GALLO.

CHAP. XI.]

157

to the pallid, ague-stricken, web-footed informant, are not honoured

by being his dwelling-place.
After passing broken water at the Coroa de Santo Antonio and
the Coroa and Corrida das Lages, at 5 p.m. we fixed upon our
*'
dormida." It was a sandbank in a bay called Saco or Porto
dos Burrinhos, of the Little Donkey's, and o]oposite it, on the
right, lay Boa Yista, still the property of Colonel Domingos.
The moon, that traveller's fiiend, a companion to the solitary
man, like the blazing hearth of Northern chmates, rose behind
We have
the filmy tree-tops and made us hail the gentle light.
not the same feeling for the stars, or even the planets, though
Jupiter and Venus give more light than does the Crescent in
England they are too distant, too far above us, whilst the Moon
is of the earth, eartli}^, a member of our body ph3^sical, the com;

plement of our atom. We did not forget a health to this, the
Independence Day of the Brazil. Within the life of a middleaged man she has risen from colonyhood to the puberty of a

mighty Empire, and history records few instances of such rapid
and regular progress. This ''notanda dies" also opens to the
ships of all nations, the Amazons and the Rio de Sao Francisco
a measui'e taken by Liberals, but, curious to say, one of the most
liberal that any nation can record.
In spirit we join with the
rejoicings which are taking place on the lower waters of the
;

liberated streams.

September 8.

—Pushing

off at 6*30 a.m.,

we passed the Porto do

Cui'vello with a ranch on the left, denotifig the high road to Dia-

mantina.

The rapid and shallow, known as Saco da Palha, sent

us first to the left and then to the right.

Again the rocks are

quaquaversal, with dip varying from horizontal to vertical.

banks

were low, but ^n-esently they
forested hills on the right formed a hollow

at the beginning of the

became high and bold
square.

;

The

daj^

The first rapid was the Cachoeii'a do Landim,* with its

crown " and shallow; aline of stone, fractured in the centre,
stretches nearty across stream, and gives passage to the left.
Beyond this point are sundry minor obstructions,! not named
*'

* Said to be the

name of a fish and a
M. Liais writes Landin.
+ The Coroa do Jatahy, but little above
water, and Tvdth a break to the right, shows
where Col. Domingos' property ends. Then
by the right of the low banks the Coroas
do Garrote and do Pau Dourado
by the
tree.

;

a third, where two sandbanks narrow the bed to fifty yards, and descend the
left of

Saco daVarginha or Varzinha. Another little
nameless break, the course turning from
east to north, and backed by a hill-line
wooded to its flat top, and apparently crossing the sti'eam.

158

by M. Liais.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

[chap. xt.

He proposes, however, extensive " ameliorations "

of the stream, "tmiage," draguage," canalizing to suppress the

and '* attacking" the bank.
After the Varginha, a low sandbank which gave us passage to

useless *'chenal,"

Here
the left, the Porte do Silverio (P. N.) sent us to the right.
a reef, at this season very shallow, nearly crosses the stream,
and "Marumbes" or h^on-coated stone, began to ghsten on the
bank. Next came the Saco and Cachoeii'a de Jequitiba, with
We landed on the Coroa and
fields and houses on the left.
inspected this neat mill-dam, a broken ridge of ferruginous rock
extending right across
possibly derived from the Serras
Canoes can creep
from north-north-west to south-south-east.
along the left side, but our ark gallantly plunged down the
middle, which a little hammering would easily open. We noticed
the magnificent sugar-cane, which exceeds in size that of Bom
•

—

—

Successo.

More small troubles* led us to the not very important CachoThe word denotes a narrow lane, and a square
eira da Manga.
of rough rails leading to the water edge.

Cattle are driven in,

and the pressure of those behind compels the foremost to set the
example of swimming the stream. A clearing ran up the neat
hill-slope on the right bank, horses and cows basked on the sands,
and men, squattmg like Africans under shady trees, shouted
warnings of the dreaded Picao, and promised to pilot us if we
would wait a day. We expressed our gratitude chaffingly, modifymg the puppy pie and the lady in mourning.
Steering to the left of the Tronqueira break, and describing a
little circle to the right, at 3 p.m. we entered the Saco do Picao.
Here the stream, swinging to the left bank, works round from west
to north-east and east.

At first

a

little

break extending across

nearly home, and well provided with snags, made us present rear
and hug the right the bank was hard and soft argile, quartz;

veined, and supporting Canga, whose

30° to 35°.

strike

was east and dip

Then passing to the left of an ''mch" we landed

on the right side to Hghten the craft and

to

inspect the for-

mation.
* Barra do Breginho, with a turn to the
on right bank, huts and fields
with snake fence opposite.
The Cachoeira
do Saco, a dam of ironstone, with narrow
The
gap to left, and grassy hill in front.

noi-th-east ;

Cachoeira and Coroa dos Tachos (Taxes, M.
Liais), with bad break over rock wall to
the right, passage on. left, but two rocks iu
the way.

"

;

FEOM BOM SUCCESSO TO THE COROA DO GALLO.

CHAP. XI.]

The Picao, or Pickaxe, deserves its ill-fame
worst obstruction on the Eio das Yellias.*

;

it is

159

perhaps the

A broad, broken band

of jagged serrated teeth dams the stream, besides which rocks and

sandbanks extend some two miles above and below it. The material
is a very hard blue clay shale, whose laminations easily spHt
apart

:

it

has a metallic ring, it does not effervesce under acids,

and it hardens in, without bemg otherwise affected by, fire

;

evi-

The emergmg rocks cause
groan
and
splash,
waters
to
to
dash
and
s^did by them
the
httle
dently it will be valuable for building.

m

rapids (Corradicas), averaging

some nine feet per second.

crept under the right bank, but

AYe

now drawing sixteen inches, we

were soon aground, and required liftmg by levers. Passing to
the right of a small sandbank below, we had a good back view
the water-fall was between three and fom' feet, and there would
opening the mid-channel.
be no difficulty
At 5 p.m. we
crossed to the left and nighted on a sandbank, still in the Picao

m

Sack, opposite a

hill,

and a small cascade which resembled a

toy.

Here we enter the land best fitted for emigrants. We are
beyond the reach of the great planters who vdsh to sell square
leagues of ground, some good, much bad, and all, of course, at
There are no terrenos devolutos, or
Government grounds, but the small moradores ask little. Here-

the longest possible price.

ready to part with four square miles,
including a fine large Corrego, for 300§000 to 400S000, less
than I paid for my raft. The Geraes, or lands beyond the river,

abouts a proprietor

is

are still cheaper, and generally where water runs in deep chan-

may be purchased at almost a nominal price; the
people have no appliances for iiTigation, which the steam-engine
nels, land

would manage so efficiently. The views are beautiful, the climate
is fine and dr}^, mild and genial, there is no need of the quinine
bottle on the breakfast-table, as in parts of the Mississippi
Valle}".
There are no noxious animals and, excej)t at certain
seasons, few nuisances of mosquitos and that unpleasant family.
The river bottom is some four ixdles broad, and when the roots
are grubbed up, it will be easy to use plough or plow, whilst the
yield of " corn " and cereals is at least from 50 to 100 per cent.
;

* M. Liais remarks of ttis Picao (p. 10\

" ime petite barque vide et a moitie portee
par des hommes pent seide passer tout contre

la rive droite,

et en

fond de pieiTes.

toucliant soiivent

ua

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

160

[chap. xi.

There is every facility for breeding stock and poultry besides
washing for gold and diamonds, limestone and saltpetre abound,
Water communication will
whilst iron is everywhere to be dug.
soon extend from the Rio de Sao Francisco below, to the excelLastly, the
lent market of Morro Velho in the upper waters.
people are hospitable and friendly to strangers my companion,
who had a smattering of engineering, could have commanded
employment at any fazenda.
The end of the Picao was a shallow break, known as
Sept. 9.
the Portao it is formed by a ledge projecting from the high right
bank of red-stained limestone.* This was followed by a straight
reach, with fine bottom lands, wooded hills bounding them to
the left. After paddling for about two hours and a half, w^e
descended by the stern " as Porteiras," the gates, and came to
the rapids known as Cancella de Cima, and Cancella de Abaixo,
the upper and lower barred gate.f These unpleasant gratings were
not passed without abundant clamour and fierce addresses, beginning with " Homem de Deus." The river is shallower than
ever, we can see the water line below which it has lately shrunk,
;

;

—
;

and evidently the usual rains are wanting in the upper regions.
The marvellous dryness of the air continues to curl up the
book covers at sunrise the breath of the morning deadens our
fingers, and incapacitates them from writing, though it ranges
between 55° and 60° (F.). At noon the mercur}^ rises to 75°, and
at 1 P.M. to 85°. Presentl}^ a south wind will blow from the Serra
;

Grande or do Espinhago.
At 11 A.M. the reach bent from north-east to north, and we
passed the mouth of the Parauna Piver I (Barra do Paratina),
now an old friend. The breadth of this, the most important
of influents, is 90 to 105 feet, a mass of sand cumbers the left
* Further

down was limestone on the

right bank, striking to the north-west,

and

dipping 45°.

t The upper Cancella is formed by scattered teeth of stone projecting from the
We hung upon a detached rock in
banks.
the centre, and the poor canoe took in
levered her oflf and found
much water
Rest of
passage close along right bank.
run occupied by a ledge stretching fi-om
north-west to south-east; touched again
and spent a total of twenty minutes before
getting into deep water.
Another dam
from left bank gives free passage to the
;

on opposite side a Barreiro de Gado
with huts, sugar-cane, and Jaboticabas. The
Cancella de Abaixo has on the left bank a
grating composed of four long walls and
detached rocks, the passage is along the
right side, where there are two separate
here also
stones and a pair of dam lines
we struck, and lost twenty-five minutes,
X M. Gerber places the Barra da Parauna

right

;

;

M. Liais in 18°
in south lat. 18*^ 50' 0".
30' 19" "9, at fifty-three direct miles from
and eightyCasa Branca, in 19** 23' 45"
;

four from Sahara (in south lat. 19° 54').

CHAP. XL]

FROM BOM SUCCESSO TO THE COROA DO GALLO.

jaw, and elsewhere there are

The

white and red clay.

stiff

IGl

banks of brown humus, and

j)osition will

make it a great central

from Eio de Janeiro shall connect with
the steam navigation of the Sao Francisco.
At the Barra do Parauna began new scenery. Hitherto the
mountains have been like crumpled paper now they assume a
kind of regularit}^, and often lie parallel with the axis of the
On the left there is a buttressed calcareous line through
stream.
station when a railway

;

which the Rio das Velhas breaks at its confluence with the Parauna further south the same ridge is to the right, or east, and
The Eio das Vellias widens
flanks the Cipo river on the west.
stream becomes comparatively
to 200 yards; the tortuous
straight, with a general dii'ection of north, 11° west, and the
A "fancy country" showed itself,
slope is greatly diminished.*
the blocks of hill drew off, and the banks were gently sloping
and yellow clay
ledges, with brown drift wood at the water edge
and sand with rocks here and there in higher levels. Large undulatmg ribbons of tender green, set in sun-burnt flanks, showed
:

;

the torrent-beds green-lined as those of Somali-land in the rains,

and here and there the thicket contrasted with tall scattered trees,
the remnants of an old forest.
Cattle lay and sunned themselves
upon the damp Coroas, and we heard with pleasure the voices of
\illagers and the barking of dogs.

At 1'30 P.M., we passed the Lapa d'Anta, a formation reminding us of Pau de Cherro.
The river runs to the north-east,
and its right bank is buttressed by a bold mass of limestone
from the sands and clays on
both sides, and forming a small bay with a graceful sweep. It
is the perpendicular face of a long range, extending from souththe
east to north-west, and hemming in the river on the east
bluff to the west, rising sharply

;

The dip is

featm^e corresponds with that before noticed.

exposmg only the edges towards the stream

:

25^,

the lower part is

a hollow of wavy, blue-tmged strata, wliilst the upper half is an

'

overhanging mass

of solid matter,

looking as

if

crystallised,

stained red by the rusty clay, and curtained with black tongues

apparently dyed by the cinders of the burnt soil above.
\

the summit sloped backwards a brick- coloured hill, with leafless
* According to M, Liais,

/
I

(

From

tween Trahiras
metre per mile.
VOL. II.

and

tlie

Parauna

From

slope beis

0"4355

latter stream to tlie deboucliure of the
Eio das Velhas, it diminishes to "2735.

tlie

the confluence of

M

f

162

trees,

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

[chap. xi.

contrasting singularly with the metallic verdure of the

banks.

At 1'45 P.M. the river turned from north to west, and we passed
a similar formation.
Here a cave, the P090 do Surubim or do
Loango,* faces south, and shows an arch of blue limestone with
soffit-like edges of brick, built as if by art, with then- laminations
of dark chocolate embedded in a limestone resembling marble.
A little below, a sandbank, projecting from the left, contracts the
stream to half-size and makes it very deep. The prospect is
pleasant, hill piled on hill, and changing colour from brown-red
to blue as the lines recede.

Presently we sighted the Lapa dos Urubus, a limestone bluff
lilie its

neighbours ; but rising some eighty feet in height

:

it

is

crowned with green trees, and has grey vegetation above. It faces
to the west, the river running north to south and the strata are
horizontal, except where they had slipped dovni into the water.
On the right bank, and in front, lay a tapering point projecting
from a bushy hill, whilst the sand-ledge that banked the stream
was tasselled with verdure. A single splendid Jequitiba, with a
cauliflower-like head and a wealth of cool verdure, marked the
spot.

About 5 P.M. we landed and walked up to the Lapa. Beyond the
bank, some fifteen feet high, was a dwarf clearing (Eoga), with
felled trees and a field of tomatos and Quiabos, or " Quingombos,"
(Hibiscus esculentus), mixed with the Cordao do Frade.J After
a few paces we reached a cliff from whose crevices trees sprang
and creepers hung down here also the arches had a brick-like
;

* According to tlie people, tlie Loango
male of the Surubim others declare
that the Moleque is the male of the Loango.
The fish here supplies the Amazonian codfish, the Pirurucu (Vastus gigas), and the
people will learn to salt and export it.
It
is a kind of sturgeon, scaleless, spotted and
marbled, flat-muzzled and whiskered, like
the "cats" (Silurus), which drown the
negro boys fishing in the Mississippi waters,
and ugly as any "devil fish." It is often
five feet long, and attains a weight of 128
lbs., yielding two kegs of oil.
Several
species are mentioned
for instance, the
Surubim de Couro. The people declare it
to be a cannibal like the pike
they net it,
and the wild men shoot it with arrows.
They split the body, sun-dry it, and sell it
is the

;

;

;

in tlie Sertao.

The meat is excellent, white,

and fat.

I have never tasted a finer
fresh-water fish
it has, however, the bad
name of causing skin disease,
f Here occurs the Ilha Grande which
blocks up the right side.
Then the Coroa
do Clemente with three sandbanks, one
tree-grown, the others sandy.
Beyond
this is another large islet, which must be
passed on the right.
t Leonotis nepettefolia. From Ukhete,
in Eastern Intertropical Africa, I sent home

firm,

;

a specimen of this labiad, which grows
Avild all over the low damp region of the

The negroes use it to narcotise
and probably it has been introduced
into the Brazil by the old Portuguese.

seaboard.
fish,

cii-AP.

XL]

FROM B0^[ SUCCESSO TO THE COKOA DO GALLO.

1G3

appearance, and the tall organ-pipe Cactus hedged the foot. The
cave faced to the south, dehris of rock encumhered the entrance,

and liigher up was a large shield-formed slah, masking a dark
gallery some three feet high, and said to extend two miles. Here
was a shallow j)it whence the saltpetre earth had been taken, and
we found nothuig within but bats and " horse-bone limestone."
The night was cold, a chilly eastern breeze coursed
Sept. 10.
down from the Diamantine mountains, and the ^' Corrubiana " apl^eared fi'om afar in fleecy dark-lined clouds. After twenty minutes'
work we came to the Cachoeii'a das Ilhotas, an ugly place,* but
The sun
easy to be opened, as the crest of the ledge is narrow.
and
high,
and
waxed hot, the east wind was exceptionally cold

—

my companions began to suffer.

Joao Pereii'a was treating a
bruised arm with arnica, and was compelled to "lay up;" a
serious matter with a small crew. The other men had for the last
two days complained of a sensation of malaise, headache and

want of sleep, without an}^ apparent reason. I resolved to begin
Finduig
a new system, and to halt during the greatest heats.
the Eliza overweighted to starboard we pulled up a plank and discovered that, in addition to the leak, the carpenter had not taken
the trouble to remove his chips.
In the Bight of Benin none of
us would have escaped fever, and a few would have remained on,
or rather in, the banks.

After the Ilhotas we attacked the three Jenipapos.

No. 1 is a

wooded islet defended b}" a dangerous snag there are rocks in
abundance and the current swings towards them. AVe ran down
the left bank of the holm, and crossed water breakmg over sunken
;

stones

;

here in June, 1866, they wrecked a canoe and implements

for sugar-maldng, en route from Sahara to Januaria.f

Jenipapo

No. 2, where the stream runs to the north-east, has few difliculties ; there is suflicient water in the

mid-stream.

After this, for

some three miles, we made easting, and gained notliing. Then
we crossed the Bedemoinho da Beija-mao, the " Whirlpool of
* Ptocks extend across tlie stream from
blocking it up in tlie latter
direction.
We went to starboard, groimding upon the dexter bank of the Coroa,
above the rocks on the right, and rounded
its lower end by cordelling.
Then we shot
through a bad break formed by a rock pier
running from north to south, and made the
left side to avoid two similar formations, a
detached stone and a shallow.
The second

riglit to left,

caused us to hug its eastem side to
avoid a reef on tlie riglit bank of the
stream, and we ran the rapid, carefully
looking out for ledges below water. This

islet

occiipied half-ai-hoiu\

t Below it is another break, stones and
an islet, crossing the stream from north to
south further down, the water dances and
whilst,
flows over a nev/ly formed bank
;

;

lowest of all, there is a break of ironstone.

M 2

"

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

164

[chap. xi.

not even a Maelstrom, but it may be
dangerous to small craft during the floods. The third Jenipapo

Hand-Kissing."

It is

was a Coroa, which we skirted on the right, the res't of the water-

way breakuig heavily.
Hippolito * with a

Shortly afterwards we passed the Ilha do

saw of jagged rocks that barred the right

side.

At 2 P.M. we resumed work in the teeth of a strong north wind.
The right bank showed a bed of quartz-conglomerate four to five
and below it was the dry Corrego do Brejo with its
limestone outcrop. At the Vao da Carahybaf there is a ford in
the dry season, and the Saco of the same name showed a rock to
starboard, not dangerous, for the channel on the left is well
marked. Here we followed three sides of a square, and a cut of
1*5 mile would save six.
At 5 p.m. we passed the Porto de Areas,
on whose right people were encamped. It was marked by a quaintlooking Angico Mimosa, then leafless, and exposing a smooth
rhubarb -yellow bole.t Another hour placed us at the Saco da
Manga, a sandbank 20 feet high, spangled with the Mangui
Hibiscus, and supporting fine rich soil eight feet deep. Here the
waters of the Rio das Velhas, probably affected by some influent,
were particularly dark and foul, with the peculiar smell of the slimy
African river where rain has not washed it. The pilots declared it
crj^stal compared with the waters of the wet season, when the upper
washings give it a blood-red hue. At night, however, the evil was
mitigated by a strong wind from the " Eange of the Spine."
The dawn when we set out was clear, but as the
SeiH. 11.
horizon waxed yellow, smoke columns began to rise from the
water till dispersed by the hght breeze which became a strong east
wmd. At noon the sun was fiery, and the afternoon w^axed wintry,
but it was a winter in Egypt. It reminded my companion of a
feet high,

—

"fall day"

in

Tennessee, when

men

begin to pick " cutt'n."

About eventide clouds hke smoke-pufl's flitted across the sky and
gathered in the north, whilst a purple haze in the west, and a
misty moon betokened, said the pilot, not rain but wind.
Swee]3ing round a corner we saw white sand-drift and tall trees,

which showed the Porto da Manga of the Rio Pardo.
M. Liais calls it " de San Hippolyto.
+ Also called CarauLa, Caroba (an error),
Caraiba, and Carahiba
we shall find it in
*

;

quantities upon the llio de Sao Francisco,
where there are two species, one with pale

It drains

goldeu brown, the other with a smaller
blossom of pleasant lilac colour.
J The guides named it Pau Breu X-'itch

—

tree,

CHAP. XI.]

FROM BOM SUCCESSO TO THE COKOA DO GALLO.
The

countersloioes

Caethe-Mhim to the Jequitinhonha.

Canoes, after

the western slopes north

supply

tlie

165

of Diamantina.

two days, reach its Serra, distant only twelve leagues from the
City of Diamonds.

stream being 650.

The month was 140 feet broad, the main
The first hour saw us bumping down a shallow

formed by a break, and i)assing a jagged Hne of limestone slabs
with a western strike, and nearly perpendicular, like half-submerged gTave-stones. A little below it were limestone blocks,
with a south-eastern strike. Again the surface of the land displays extreme iiTCgularity, caused probably by the meeting of
different systems of uplands wdiicli project their bands from both

banks across the stream. It is one of the peculiarities of this
Low^er Rio das Velhas, and deserves attention.
Presently we shot at the Cachoeira do Goncalvez,* an ugly
place with broken water.

Shortly afterwards we struck heavily,

and hung for a time upon a sunken rock in midstream, under
Twenty
sm-face ail the year round, and not noted in the plan.
minutes led to a similar accident. On the latter occasion, how^ever, limestone lumps emerged from the water near the bank.
These obstacles are dangerous to boats the Cachoeka must be
At 9*30 a.m. was
cut through, and the rocks should be removed.
;

crossed the mouth of the Cm^umatahy Eiver, which heads north
Here the pretty stream
of and runs parallel with the Rio Pardo.
its right bank is rich with tall trees, and

is

about 105 feet broad

it

curves gi-acefuUy out of sight.

;

The Rio das Velhas again alters its aspect.

For some time we

had seen in front a long grey line, the Serra do Bicudo, so called
from a little stream entering the left bank. Now we make a long
w^esterly bend, compelled by the Serra do Curumatahy, a chine
rismg some 1500 feet above the river-bed, and at this point
approaching within 300 yards of the stream.

It is prolonged to the

north \)j the Serras do Cabral, do Paulista and da Piedade, whilst
opposite them on the left bank are the Serras da Palma and da

Tabua. There is a remarkable correspondence in the lines. The
smnmits are grass-grown, and shrubbery appears in the damper
hollows.
Here, as elsewhere, more rain falls upon the higher

*

Cacboeira de Gongalo. Two
of limestone on the right
all below
strike south-east, and dip 75°
We w^ent
is rugged, with scatters of rock.

M.

Liais,

separate

lines

;

dow-ii on

the

riglit,

for the left side,
east,

shaviug a slab,

made

and then crossed to the

"

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BPvAZIL.

163

[ciiap. xi.

than upon the lower levels, but the former readil}'- drain into the
Between the southern chains, which appear to be the
latter.

an average interval of four miles.
The ranges are composed of gently swelling hills, with a surface
of brown bush from which the timber has been removed, and with
scattered patches and gashed lines of green, denoting water. The
slabs of blue stone, probably lime, are said to form caves and

boundaries of the old bed,

is

At the base are bayous and swamps (brejos) lying below
highstream level. The banks show a remarkable difference on
saltpetre.

;

the right is a fertile calcareous soil, based on a ferruginous argile *

used for whetstones.

On the left, where sandstones and lami-

nated clays appear, the vegetation is poor and " scraggy."

At noon we anchored for rest near a bed of conglomerate, six
feet thick, shaded by a noble Jatoba salaammg to the water. The
place is called the Brejo do Burity, and it bears a thin forest of

monocotyledons with a dicotyledonous undergrowth. The word
wTitten by Pizarro and St. Hilaire "Bority," by Martins, Gardner
and Kidder " Buriti," and by the System " Bruti," is a vulgar corruption of the Tup3^ " Murity." f This Mauritia vinifera is at once
elegant and useful, but I was disappointed with it v\^hen recalling
to mind the magnificent Palm^^as or Fan-jDalms of Yoruba. The
people, however, declare that near the river it is an inferior
growth, attaining its full dimensions only in the high and dry
Geraes lands. They could not tell me how far it extends. Most
of them agreed that where the Carnahuba clothes the margins of
the middle Sao Francisco the " Burity" grows inland.
Here it
flourishes isolated and in groups.
I saw every size, from the
little

ground-fan to the tall column crowned with sphere of leafage.

According to Leblond and Codazzi, a tribe of Guaraunos or
Waraons depended for life upon this palm, where they built their
aerial houses,

and whose larvae are

" Indians" of the Orinoco.
kets,

and the fronds are

still fixvourite

food Avith the

Here the leaves are woven into bas-

cut, rafted

down, and sold for fences.

The oily, reddish pulp between the fruit scales and the albuminous substance of the nut I is made with sugar into a massa
or lump, and carried bound in leaves to market.
The people
relish this

" doce," although it

is

believed that eating the fruit

At 9-50 A.M. Ave passed in the river
and on the hanks, ironstone, apparently

est remjili d'une moelle, dont

^^ch.

sorte de confiture."

t Some old travellers have " murichv.

t St.

Hil. (III.

ii.

it was from the fruit.

34-i)

says, *'le tronc

on

All assured

fait

une

me that

CHAP. XI.]

FROM BOM SUCCESSO TO THE COPvOA DO GALLO.

stains tlie sldn yello^v.

1G7

Tlie brown-3'ellow fibre forms strong liam-

mocks, wliich last longest when the material is greased. On the
Rio de Sao Francisco they cost from 1$000 to 1,S500. The
saccharine juice gives the most highly prized palm wme in the
Brazil, where, cmious to say, that of the
delicatest, is

unknown.

Cocoa nut, of all the

It is extracted, after the wasteful negi-o

fashion, by felling the tree ; holes are cut with the axe half a foot

long by three inches deep, at intervals of five or six feet, and they

As time advances a more
"
The
Buritizal" suffers much

are soon filled with the reddish liquor.

economical system will be tried.

from the lar2"e
D ant called lea or Yea.
3

3

At 2 P.M. we left the Jatoba shore, which seemed to be enjoyed
by flies and other pests as well as by ourselves. "We made a
straight line of five miles between the parallel range, after which
the narrowness of the right-hand channel drove us to the left of a
Corao. At 3*15 p.m. we passed an island wooded on the north.
The west bank was stre^^Ti with very loose Cascallio, and cut by a
limjnd stream. Here the bed narrowed to 250 feet. A few " derrubadas," or clearings, contained dead trees encumbering the
ground, and httle onion plots spoke of population. Half an hour
afterwards a sandbank squeezed the

down the right.

left

channel, and drove us

Here we saw for the first time groups of lime-

and overgrown with the woody
Ai'uida.
The Cachoeu'a do Pdacho das Pedras breaks in the
centre and shows the same features, calcareous blocks bare of
everythmg but shrub. Lastly we left on the right the Coroa do
Gallo, two bars of limestone almost a fleur d'eau
and at 5'45 p.m.
we anchored on the port bank, a tract of sand thinly covered with
stone rocks just above water,

;

scrub.*

This day we passed over immense wealth, of which, like philosophers, we took no heed.
The Eio Pardo, lilve the Parauna,
di'ains highlands rich in diamonds and gold, whilst the bed of the

Pio das Yellias is a natural system of launders. In due time it
will be thought, perhaps, advisable to turn and lay diy certain
bends in this part of the stream, and there are several places
where such an operation suggests itself.
For the last two nights the " Whip-poor-will " and the '' Cury* Opposite this place the map shows a
dwelling-house, '* As Porteiras," but from
the stream Ave did not sight it.
Porteira

(originally a porteress,) here means a baiTcd
gate leading to a pasture, &c.

168

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

—

[chap. xi.

angu" have been silent they who so often had broken our sleep
with their complaints and responses, delivered from the thickets
along and across the stream. Men are certainly not numerous
enough to destroy them. Perhaps their fovourite food abounds in
some places, not in others, and thus the}^ may not inhabit the
banks continuously. Or again, the cold wind is, we may conjecture, micomfortable enough to interrupt the concert.

—

CHAPTER XII.
FRO^l THE COROA DO GALLO TO THE ILHA GRANDE.

—
—

"CACHOEIRA DA ESCARAMUQA " (NO. 10, AND FINAL). THE DELIGHTFUL
TEMPERATURE, — VERMIN. ECLIPSE OF THE MOON. THE HOWLING MONKEYS HOWL, AND OTHER SIGNS OF AN APPROACHING RAINY SEASON.
THE JACARE, OR BRAZILIAN CROCODILE.— GULLS, AND NOISY BIRDS.—
SERPENTS. LAST NIGHT ON THE RIO DAS VELHAS.

—

—

o clima doce, o campo ameno

E entre arvoredo immenso, a fertil 'herva
Na viQOsa extensao do aureo terreno.
{Caramnrd, vii. 50.)

—

Thursday, Sept. 12, 1867. We had been idle j-esterday. I
had given an inch, and very naturally my men had taken the usual
We began earl}" with the best of resolutions, doomed, howell.
ever, to be disappointed.
fall,

Presently slack water prepared us for a

called by M. Liais the '' Cachoeira dos Ovos.*

of green-clad blocks and a break sent us

fii'st

Here a mass

to the left and then

Half an hour afterwards we reached O Desemboque the disemboguing.! A little further down an old Morador
put off from the right bank to buy twist-tobacco, which the ^' Menino" had bought for seven and sold for twenty coi:>pers per yard.
Yet the wdiole country is admirably fitted for growmg the weed.

down midstream.

—

He gave us a terrible account of a rapid some seven miles down
be six feet high, and nothing would
persuade him to accompany us. Probably he had never seen it.
stream, declaring the

fall to

Presently appeared on the left the opening of the Rio Lavado,
or

Washed River, so

called

from the diamond diggings in the

The *' Menino " nametl it " Barra das
and an old man on the bank
"Cachoeira do Ribeirao," from a little
stream on the right which we passed at
*

Pedras,"

9 '30 A.M.

+ In Minas Geraes there is a town called
Desemboque.
]\I.
Liais writes Desem-

borque and '' Emborqiie " (p. 22), thepopupronunciation
there is, however, no
such word.
Here a shallow tide-rip (malai*

;

crosses the bed, the effect of rocks
extending from the right bank.
We descended, stern foremost, in ten minutes,
and took the right of a small Coroa.
reta)

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BKAZIL.

170

upper bed.
green.

[chap. xii.

The gap, 150 feet broad, appeared to be choked with

We easily shot a small break garnished v.dth three lumps

of stone, and went to the left of a Coroa and its shallow.

reach and banks, regular and

artificial

Now a

dykes, backed by a fine

mass of blue Serra, prepai'ed us for the Cachoeira de Escaramu9a,
the tenth and last serious obstacle on the Eio das Yellias.
This rapid is formed by a broken wall extending nearly across
stream from north-west to south-east.

The hard clay is capped

with iron, and the shapeless rocks are tilted up nearly vertically.

In the centre is the main drop, about tlu-ee feet high, and here
the channel would easily be opened.* We went half way down
the shallow thalweg, close to the eastern bank,

and after six

minutes we made fast near a patch of bright green " water grass,"
hardly sweet enough to be good forage, whilst the pilot went

ahead in the tender to i)rospect. Under the shady trees the rush
and bubble of the cool waters made pleasant music, and it was
interesting to see the old man balancing liimself like a rope-dancer

upon his hollow log, tossed by the tide-rip.
Below the principal fall were three channels. That lying to the
right of the Coroa proved too shallow. Above the sand-bar was a
bad broken passage, rejected because of the rocks to leeward. Between them and the gravel-islet lay the clear way. The river was now
at its lowest, and the drift timber showed that it had lately fallen
two inches. The crev/ was obliged to clear away the rock-fragments, and the Eliza v/as led like a vicious mare down the handmade channel. On the Coroa we found for the first time the
bivalve shells of a ''river mussel," f which extends all down the
Eio de Sao Francisco, and which is valued for fish bait.
After working nearly an hour we made for the left bank, and
anchored near the mouth of a small marsh drain, " S. Goncalo das
Tabocas" (of the wild bamboos). Here the m.en changed their
dripping clothes, and guarded against the rheumatics with a dram.
At 2'20 P.M. we resumed work, passed sundry Cor6as,| and ran
under the Serra do Paulista. At 4*30 p.m. we attacked the Cacho* M. Liais proijoses to oijeu tlie right
channel, but this portion would, I venture
to think, soon be filled up.

J The first was a .small Coroa Avith a
break and snags the right bank a little
below it showed heaps of black stone, in

t It is the No. 1 of my small collection.
According to the pilots this mussel, when
alive, keeps in deep water, and only shells
are found in the shallows.

Avhich sand, and frequently the blue calc'aThe next Coi'oa
reous matter, reappeared.
was close to the Serra, which in the map
is placed one mile too far east.

;

CHAP. XII.] FROM

THE (JOFvOA DO GALLO TO THE ILHA GKAXDE.

—of the prisons.

171

formed by a Coroa of
large pebbles between which spring tufts of grass. On the northern
eira das Prisoes

It is

end grew a clump of the largest trees yet seen. The right channel
beino- too narrow, we took the left, and bumped along the islet,
It was not easy to escape a snag in
leaA'ino- the break to port.

The Mandim fish
the middle, where there are also many rocks.
croaked like a frog and grunted like a pig under our bows.
This day's sim had been burning hot, and till 1 p.m. we had no
As we descend the atmosphere undergoes a notable
breeze.
change, like the air of the Mediterranean after the English Chan-

Nothing can be more delightfid than this sensation one
feels thawed; the " snow gets out of the eyes," the ''ice leaves
the bones," and man is restored to the passive enjoyment of Hfe
Hence oui* seain the medium where he was first born to live.
men, it is weU known, prefer the AVest African Station, despite its
A "spell of cold" easily explains the
fevers and dysenteries.
nel.

;

preference.

remembering that we are in
S. lat. 17°, about the parallel of Mocha in Southern Arabia.
Here we have 85° (F.), there 105^ The climate is tempered by
the large area of sea compared with land, by the abundance of

Nor can we complam

of heat,

water causing a regular ventilation, by the height above sea-level,
by the hours of darkness being nearly equal to those of light,

and generally by the shape of the continent. At times, however,
especially under the tree-shade, the vermin bite viciously. Of the
larger nuisances, I have not yet seen dm-mg my Brazilian sojom-n
the centipede, or any but spirit specimens of the lacraia, or scorpion,
Patagonia the latter is
although Koster was stung by one, and
plentiful as in El Hejaz. Hence the term is sometimes applied to
the Bicho Cabelludo, or hairy caterpillar, called by the indigenes
Tatm-ana. The Carrapato tick and the jigger, except in huts, are
rare. We did not suffer from the Berne or blow-fly, nor from the
Marimbombo, the ''Jack Spaniard" of trappers. The borrachudo
(Culex penetrans) which gi'eatly affects cool and wooded Serras, at
The bite draws a point of blood which must
times gives trouble.

m

be pressed out, and the place rubbed with ammonia, otherwise the
itchmg becomes intolerable. I never travel without a large supply
of " smelling salts," which are equally valuable agamst a snake or

In this arid atmosphere the mutuca or motuca
(which Southey mtes "mutuca") gadfly is rare. The Mosquito,

a headache.

172

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

[chap. xii.

generall}^ called mosquito pernilongo,* but here murigoca or muri-

soca (Morisoca, Koster), at times pipes a small song, in " la shai-p,"

say the musical^ eared.

The "bar," however, is as little necesThe insect is not a large variet}^,

sary as is the " fever-guard."

like the Yincudo of the coast, especially of the Mangrove rivers,

and its threat is worse than its bite. In February and March,
when the waters recede, and the banks, like those of an African
river, are dressed in mire, the infliction is said to be severe.

The

most troublesome is the diminutive dark sand-fl}", known as Mucuim (Muquim, St. Hil.) or polvora. The Maruim or Moruim
(Maroim, Koster

;

Miruim,

like a "blister" of fire;

it

St. Hil. ;

Meroh}", Gardner), burns

produces swellings, especially around

the eyes, even in those who do not sufi'er from the Mosquito, and

where swarms are found it is as well to wear gloves and a gauze
veil connecting head and body gear. The Carapana and a smaller
variety, the Puim, which delight in the Assacti (Hura Brasiliensis),
also bite b}^ day.

At 5*45 P.M., after much labour, short and sharp, we were not
sorry to find on the left bank a clearing known as the Curralmho.

A little above was the Corrego do Negro, with a white-tasselled
Ingazeira f drooping over the water. A black morador sold us a
gourd full of eggs at the rate of five per "dump," copper or
penn3\ Here we saw fine sugar, castor plants 15 feet high, and
magnificent cotton. It was a fine study of wild life. The screams
of the wild fowl told us of a lakelet on the right bank, and as
the after glow deepened, flights of wild duck and the splendid rosetinted Colheireira+ winged their

way across the stream.

The

and almost obscuring Jupiter, rose
majestically above the misty wall, the Serra da Piedade, which
bounded the view to the left. The shadow of the vegetation upon
the far side, as the lunar disc tipped the tallest trees, was nearly

moon, nearly at the

full,

upon the mirrory waters as in the soft blue air.
The river seemed to sleep, and over its depths brooded unbroken
The stars and
silence, except when a fish sprang to its prey.

as well painted

* Mosqiuto, both in Spanish and Portugnese S. America, is jiroperly speaking a
"little fly," namely a sand-fly, and the
name which we have perv^erted is thoroughly
appropriate.

+ Not Angaseiro as Halfeld has it. The
name, Inga or Enga, is applied to Mimosas

of varions species,

some bearing an edible

legnmen.

t The "spoonbill," so called from its
The zoological name,
peculiarity.
"Platalea Ayaya " or "Ajaja," is evidently
derived from the Trpy Ay' uya.

chief

cnAr. XII.]

FROM THE COROA DO GALLO TO THE ILHA GRANDE.

173

planets rose with no glimmering indistinct beams, as they appear

upon the horizon in northern lands

;

once in the full blaze of their beauty.

the rays strike the eye at

At times a cold breath

came from the highlands to the north-east, soon to be followed
by a warm and violent gust from the north, which swept harmThen recommenced the persistent
lessly over our sheltered raft.
clamom- of the " CuiyangTi" and the complaint of " Wliip -poorwill," whilst in the distance the wolves bayed theii* homage to the

Queen of Night.

What a contrast to the hum of civilisation and

the glaring of the gas

September 13.

!

— The morning was warm— 65^ F. —and we were

en route with the rising of the " fall-sun," whose smoke-stained
Presently we passed the Piedisk was harmless as in England.
dade Pdver, which heads

far to

the north-east.

'f^

Under its

influence the Eio das Yelhas siDreads out into a bay widening to

—

1500 feet and half a mile my companion was remmded of the
Yazoo Kiver. The flat benches and ledges of the banlvs, fifteen
to twenty-five feet high, show by theii' regularity the action of
water.
Half a mile below the Piedade we found the Cachoeira
dos Dourados, t with rocks on the

left ;

the channel to the east is

shallow, and a bottom of heav}^ pebbles causes a break.

Below

the Coroa we poled across to the western side, shaving two large
trees in the stream.

At 7'15 A.M. we passed the Corrego de Sao Goncalo,t which
takes

its

name from an old ^illage and chapelry on the upper

After making another channel by removing loose stones
and safely cordelling down a difliculty,§ we came to another
" Cachoeii-a do Desemboque," which M. Liais calls the most
course.

It is a complidangerous point on the Lower Kio das Velhas.
cated feature; at the north is a gravel islet covered with trees;
||

*

The mouth is 110 feet wide, and the

jaw is garnished with a green patch
and fine trees
the stream is said to be
full of fish, and, though shallow, it gives
left

;

passage to canoes as far as its Serra.
t The Dourado, or gilt fish, the Aurata
of Dr. Levy, so called from its red yellow
belly and fins which flash in the sim, is
one of the Salmonidse, found in salt water
and in streams where it cannot escape to
the sea.
It resembles a trout in shape of
the body, not the head, and it gi-ows to a
It readily
length of two to four feet.
The
swallows bait and devoux-s small fry.

people consider it one of the best fish for
the table, and the head and belly are the
parts prefex-red.
% ]\t. Liais has called it Corrego de
Maria Grande.
§ Below the Corrego was the " meio
brabo (half fierce) Cachoeira das TaboThen
quinhas " of the little bamboos.
a long mass of black rock forms two distinct
ledges, the northern stretching from southeast to noi-th-west almost across the stream,
Here M. Liais has placed on the right
bank a tall block of hill, which does not

—

II

exist.

_

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

174

fi

[chap. xii.

white and sancl}^ holm also well clothed, and below it a common

The brawling river-channel on the right has not water

sand-bar.

Here magnificent masses of green bulge out
towards the stream, and are set off by large bunches of rustyenough for canoes.

red yellow flowers, resembling from afar the autumnal and maturing leafage of the sugar maple (Acer saccharinus).

Jahu,* when seen singly, is by no means beautiful

;

This Paii

the Sertanejos

make tea of the blossoms, and the ashes are used for soap. We
took the left of the islet down a thalweg with a small sand-bank
and two breaks in the centre. The second was the more dangerous; a rock below the surface threw back the flood in white foam.

"We then poled to the north of the Coroa and down the centre,
inclining to the right.

Followed a confusion of small sand bars, f while in front rose
the " Serra do Brejo," trending from east-north-east to west-northwest.

The height is from 1300 to 1500 feet, and there are two

distances, the nearer forested, whilst the farther is dyed blue with
air.

We halted for an hour at 1*30 p.m., when a high northerly

wind set strong in our teeth it lasted till 4 r.M., when it fell to
the deadest calm.
These breezes greatly retard progress, as the
men seem to disdain the shelter of the bank. A charming reach
then appeared, a long i^erspective of corresponding sides, some
ninety feet high, into which ran large blocks of stratified and
weathered stone. Below the small " Coroa da Carioca,"! (of the
white man's house,) the Rio das Pedras opens on the left a mouth
of ninet}^ feet from jaw to jaw.
It comes from a distance of ten
;

leagues, but at this season it is dry ; such indeed is the case with
all but the ver}^ largest drains.

The Coroa-cum-Ilha do Cahir d'Aguia was the largest we had
it took us fifteen minutes

to run b}' it, and in England

yet seen

;

it would

have been a prett\' little estate.

The narrow right hand

channel is garnished with splendid forest-trees, faced on the
* Tlie i)llots callcJ it ]\tarmelo ilo Mate,
Tlie Jaliu is also the name
of a large Sihinis, not found in tlie llio
ov wild quince.

das Velhas, but abundant in the llio de
Sao Francisco, the Upper Paraguay, the
Tidtc, and other streams.
+ The first was a shallow break, tlie
"Cachocira da Cannella ;" it is just below
the "Coroa do Curral," a deep strong
current with the passage on the left.
The
"Cachoeira do Cotovclo " (of the elbow)

left

Buotcnds .1 long island, antl tlie " Coroa do
Cantinho " (of the little covner) is a donble
islet, with dark rusty jiehbles to the south
and tall trees to the north.
From Carfba, a" Carib," a white man,
a Portuguese, and "Oca," a house. " Carioca " was often ajiidied to a small fort,
and hence the name of the suburb of llio
This Coroa has many snags
de Janeiro.
on the right, the swiftness of the stream to
the left sweeps them away.
ij:

CHAP. XII.] FROM THE COROA DO GALLO TO THE ILHA GRANDE.

175

by second-gTowtli and scrub.* About 5 p.m. we anchored near the
left bank, at the " Porto da Palma," a i:)eculiar formation.
Projecting into the stream, and flaked and caked with the mud of the
last flood, was a natural pier 150 yards long by twenty deep, with
The substance is the ''Pedra
a dip of 5° and a westerly strike.
de Amolar," an argillaceous schist of greenish colour, sometimes
bare, more often capped with ironstone
the cleavage is in all
;

du'ections, the subaerial portion is veiy fragile,

and the laminations vary from wafer thickness to a foot deep.
A Httle below
on the right bank there is a sister formation. AVe picked up
sj^ecimens of this clay shale
as whetstones they were too easily
;

broken.

The river plain on the left bank is baked to white mud and
sprinkled with silt, showing that it is regularly inundated

;

small

drains bear scattered lines of trees, and the rest of the vegetation
is mostly bitterish water-grass,

salt.

which will not feed cattle without

To the south-west the land, as the forest shows, is bej^ond

the reach of water
lately been burnt,

;

here the soil must improve.

The flat had

and the shrubby trees, well warmed, had put

forth the tenderest green leafage in lieu of the scorched

brown

tatters that hung loosely to the twig tops.

This evening was the perfection of chmate, fresh yet balm}-.
The boys fished successfully ; everj^thmg bit voraciously, even at
Five douradinhos-'- and eight mandins soon lay
crimped upon the ground, and when the line, nearly the thickness

the bird-bait.

of a little finger, was left in the water, it was cut, the pilot said,

by a pu^anha. Again the noise of water-fowl told us that a lakelet
was not distant. Clouds liigh
ah' flitted over the moon's full
disk, which threw across the water a pillar of tremulous fire,
and crested with red the ripples tliat rose from the inky sui'face
swirlmg under the farther bank. The mobile physiognomy of

m

this river is not the least of its charms. Its expression is changeful

as that of the human face.
as a

Yesternight it was still and shallow

mountam tarn, now it is swift and deep, covering the back-

waters with flecks pjid curds of foam.
Presently the eclipse came on, and the dark shadow of our globe
creeping slowly over the disk of the old "harvest moon," was
* The left bank sliowed tolerable soil in
the beginning of this day's v/ork, but the
improvement was only temporary. As a rock

it

was not nearly so fertile as tlie otlier side.

f Considered to be a small species of the
doiirado.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

17G

[chap. xii.

shown by reflection in the new moon's arms the gibbus of the
There were none of the
crescent, however, faced to the south.
;

sinister

appearances,

rather

appalhng than

imposing,

which

accompany solar obscm'ation, the lurid copper-coloured aii', the
slinking of beasts and the silence of birds, and in man the feeling that even the sun is not above or beyond change. Here the
light slowly waned, the various voices of frogs and night birds
came from swamp and forest, bats flitted about, fireflies lit up
the copse, and the fish splashed merrily to catch the gentle
breeze.
As might be expected, the human beings there present
hardly noticed the phenomenon by looking upwards; a comet
would not have roused their attention.*
Then the glorious
satellite climbing the zenith finally emerged from the shadow, and
again shed silvery light and gladness over the nether world. By
^yily of anti-cHmax we " turned in."
September 14. We set out at 6 a.m. in warm and perfectly still
air; foam was floating in hues down stream, and curdling near
the banks where the deep water lies.
An hour's work took us to
the Ilha da Maravilha, where the Corrego do Lameh-ao t enters
the left bank.
On the opposite side appeared a good *' improvement," the soil was excellent, and a fence of stakes and poles had
been run down to the waterside.
Presently we heard, for the
first time, from a tall Jatoba tree, whose fruits are its delight, the
hoarse roar of the Guariba monkey (Mj^etes m^sinus, or Stentor).
It is here known by the general words bugio, and barbado, the
bearded; the French colonists call it alouate.
John Mawe

—

declares that it snores so loud when sleepmg, that

it

astonishes

bony box
which causes the disproportionate noise, is now familiar to naturalists.
This brown monkey was eaten by the Indians, and in
wilder parts BraziUans do not disdain it.
The pilot mentioned a
similar species with a long fine black coat, which may be the
Mycetes Beelzebub. He declared that the roaring of the guariba was
travellers ; the enlargement of the larynx into a square

* Mr. Buckle, whose first volume liatl
the good fortune to be designated by a
poiJuJar writer
a farrago of energetic
nonsense and error," remarks (i. 345)
there probably never has been an ignorant nation whose superstition has not been
excited by eclipses."
Possibly in the New
World, where the operations of nature are
on so grand a scale, man is steeled against
'

'

'

'

appearances whicli in other countries would
stimvilate his imagination.
Who that has
ever inhabited an earthquake country woidd
think of drea'ding an eclipse, unless at
least it be connected in the popular mind
with earthquakes ?
f "Of the big miid;" the pilot gave
this name to an opening in the right bank,

;

FKOM THE COROA DO GALLO TO THE ILHA GRA^'DE.

CHAP. XI r.]

177

a sign of the Rainy Season drawing near, and noted a variety of

other small sj^mptoms, such as the trooping of butterflies in moist
places, the louder frog-concerts, the hum and chirp of the Cicada,

the biting of tlie sand flies, and the song of the Sabia, that Prmce

Durmg the last three days also, the soft and
had
been distiu"bed by gusts of wind, vapours
balnw atmosphere
here la}' upon the ground, there accmnulated into clouds, and distant sheet lightnmg flashed from the mists massing round the
The smoke of the praii'ie-fires rose in columns, and
horizon.
they might have beeli mistaken for the fumes of a steamer by
night those that were near glowed like live coals, whilst the more
AVe prepared for an Ember week of equidistant gleamed blue.
noctial gales, but we hoped to be far down the Sao Francisco
River before the beginning of the wet summer, which usually
As will appear, we had dedates from the middle of October.
of the Merubidae.

;

ceived ourselves.

About 10 A.M. we passed on the right bank the Ribeii'ao do
Corrente a small stream, which greatly swells dmdng the inmidations, was trickling down it
the line is not navigable, but the
waters abound in fish, and these places vriR act as preserves when
life is driven from the main line by steamers.
The embouchure
is marked by a columnar conical mass, which suggests an enormous cypress formed by vines and creei)ers swai'ming up a broken
tree-shaft.
Here a dog swimming across the stream showed little
apprehension of the "Jacare" (Crocodilus sclerops), and the
;

:

people declare that those of the lakes are dangerous, whilst the
river-caj^mans * are not.
off in the

Lately, however, a woman was carried

Ribeira de Iguape by this congener of the dreaded

African crocodile.

It is said to prefer its

meat "high," as does

and before deglutition to break the bones of its
According to Koster,
victims b}' blows with its ponderous head.
the wild people eat it, but the negroes will not touch the meat
even the Gabams (Negroes of the Gaboon), who are believed to be
cannibals. Both on the Rio das Yelhas and the Sao Francisco we
often saw the Jacare protruding its snout from the water, basking
in the mud, or lurking amongst the drift wood.
No specimen
exceeded five feet in length in the Apui'e and the equinoctial
its big brother,

;

* In old French, Caymand and Cajinande
are equivalent to " faineant " perhaps the
early travellers found the huge lizard un;

VOL.

II.

move.
It becomes unwieldy
but in youth it is very agile,

willing to
with, age,

X

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

178

rivers it grows to four or five times that size.

[chap. xii.

The negroes, it is

well known, use the crocodile gall in their philters

and poisons
the molars of the Jacare are here hung round the neck as talismans against disease. The musky smell of the meat must deter
any one hut an ''Indian" from using it, and the people ignore
the alligator- skin hoots which Texas invented.
A lumpy liill, grassy ahove and forested below, and stretching
from north-east to south-west, strikes the stream at this point,
and bends it from a straight course to the south-west and the
north-east

;

this " sack "

is

seven miles long instead of one.

Present^ we i^assed a large Fazenda on the right bank of perpendicular clay, some thu'ty-five feet high it belongs to Dr. Luis
Francisco Otto of Guaicuhj^, and we begin to acknowledge the
odour of civilization. After a few obstructions,* we rested at
noon on the left bank, sheltered from the strong north wind
here was a mass of bluish stone, which appeared to be finety
laminated calcaire when it was only clay shale.
Resuming our way, we passed to port the Corrego das Pedras
do Burit}^,! where the great bend terminates, and two nameless
influents
I mention them, because they are ''Corregos de
Morada," where men have settled, and which afford a good '' situacao," giving value to the lands adjacent. At 4 p.m. hove in sight
a tall blue wall of mountains, denoting the line of the Rio de
Sao Francisco; the crew disputed about the name,| and also
about a couple of Corregos further down.§
At 5 P.M. we made fast to the right bank of the Illia da Tabua,
wliich the pilots called Ilha Grande.
It has a large Coroa to the
south, with a mound of stiff clay, tree-grown and root-compacted,
extending from south-east to north-west.
The left arm of the
river is here greenish in the centre, and beautifully clear under
the banks
on the other side we saw a farm with a line of
;

;

—

;

*

A .sunken sand-bank

(Areao)

wliicli

)uust he passed on the left, a Coroa in the
bend called Saco do Jequi, and a double

smooth water; this is
formed by a beach (praia) on the right,
which narrows the stream to 120 feet,
tide-rip inclosing

" CoiTego gi'ande dos Buritis. " Liais.
J One named it SeiTa do Jemipapo, and
another the Sen-a da Tabua
it may have
been the Serra da Porteira (Liais) on the
right or eastern bank of the junction.
"
§ In the map "Corrego da Gamelleira
"t

;

The Avikl
and " CoiTego do Tamburil. "
fig here attains a great size, and sometimes
six stems spring up together.
The Tamburil, pronoimced Tamburi (M. Liais "Tanibury "), also called Vinhatico do Campo, is
The *'Menino"
a tall hardwood tree.
insisted that the " Tamburil " influent
should be called the " Gramelleira," and
that it is " de morada," not navigable
but coming from afar. The mouth is eighty
feet wide from jaw to jaw.

—

"

CHAP. xii.J FJrlOM THE COEOA DO GALLO TO

noble trees, whilst the north

is

THE ILHA GRANDE.

179

of wood, thicket,

and

a tangle

grass.

For the first time we found the Coroa well stocked with birds.*

The Urubii scavenger, regardless of the rifle, expanded his wings
to the sun, and looked as if he w^ore a silver back.

Small Cha-

radriadse hopped gieesomeh' about the sands, together mth

nuelsinho da Coroa

—

little

Ma-

— a Scolopax

Emanuel of the Sandbar

with red-stockinged stilts, much resemblng our sandpiper.

The

South Ameiican plover (Yanneau d'Amerique, Yanellus cayennensis, Neuw.), also with red stockings and pretty variegated
plume, followed the cattle tracks. Spanish America calls it after
its cry, Tero-Tero, the Portuguese prefer Quero-Quero (I want
I want ) and Espanta boiada, " Startle Cattle "f its manners
!

:

!

are those of the peewit, it haunts marshes and pastures, it seems

never to sleep, and

it is

In

a great plague to the sportsman.

remarkable contrast ^^itli its unpleasant vivacity, is the solemn
Acara, or heron with the long tliin legs supporting a body alwaj^s
delicately white and clean.

A tern very like the Sterna hii'undo,

looking snow-Avhite against the slatey blue sky, fluttered in the

lower ail' with the rising and falling flight of the

The

butterfl}'.

Tupys term Atyaty, or Cara-carai,
dark-backed and red-billed, reminded my companion of those
wliich show communication between Memphis and the Mexican
Gulf, one of the colonies which I saw upon the Tanganyika Lake.
The whole flock rose and with circlings andswoopings followed and
Gaivota, or gull, which the

seemed determined to fight the dog Negra, occasionally varying the
exercise b}' feinting to assault the men.

They were enraged at our

intruding upon theu' i)rivate j)roi)erty, and with proverbial stupidity

they told by screams the secrets of their menage.

We retaliated

by taking their eggs, I which were about the size of a plover's, with
^'
splotches " of light and dark chocolate brown upon a dirty
cream-colom'ed ground.
They revenged themselves by a persistent '' corrobory " round our camp-fii'e, which effectually banished
*

The number, however,

gi-adually in-

creased below the Parauna River.
+ Thus Sr. Ladislao dos Santos Titara
sings,

Yao quero quero pelo ar soltando.
t So on the lower Purus, in July the
eggs of the Gaivota may be picked up by
scores from the nests, round holes, four
inches across and three deep, in the sand-

banks,

where an npper coating of
drifting of the wind

ju-events the

;

mud
'
'

the

or four in each nest, are of a
dirty light green or brown, with patches as
eggs, three

when fresh they are very
^^ ^^^^^^^ .^^^ood
good eating and much like puffins' eggs.
Ascent of the River Purus, by W. Chandless.
Jouraal Royal Geo. Soc, vol. xxx-si.
IS 66.
;

N 2

THE HKJHLA^'DS OF THE BllAZlL.

180

[chap. xii.

and they were viciously ready by early dawn to " see the
last" of us with taunts and execrations.
The " Menino " found ui^on the sands the parallel lines which
might easily have been mistaken for cart-ruts he declared it to
be the sign of the dreaded Sucuriti,* or Watersnake, whilst
Chico Diniz declared that the straightness of the trail showed a
sleep,

;

This hideous boa mostly haunts stagnant waters,
it is amphibious, and when not disoccasionally visiting rivers
small Jacare.

;

turbed by man and prairie fires, it attains the enormous length of
thirty feet.
I heard of one that measured sixty, and swallowed a
bullock

;

in old travellers

we read

of men sitting

fallen tree-trunk, which presently began
fire

on its back

—

to

Sucui'iu which, like

food

;

change

—

The " Indians " eat the

location.

most serpents,

is

savoury and wholesome

the civilized confine themselves to eels.

be tanned for boots and housings,

down upon a

like the whale with the

The skin used to

now it is kept chiefly as a

curiosity.

At Maquine,
secure

it,

a

morador threw into the

river, before I could

a fine specimen of the Surucucu, or (Jurucucti, first

mentioned by Marcgraf.

It is the

Lachesis mutus of Dandin,

the Crotalus mutus of Linnaeus, the Bothrops Surucucu of Spix

and Martins, the Xenodon rhabdocephalus of my friend. Dr. Otho
Wucherer (Zool. Soc. London, Nov. 12, 1861), and the " great
viper " of Cayenne and Sminam, which is suj^posed to cause death
in six hours.
The length of this trigonocephal varies from three
to eight and even to nine feet its skin is of a du'ty tawny yellowy
wdth dark brown lozenges on the back, and the broad head gives
;

it,

to the

connoisseur,

a pecuharly vicious

appearance.

It is

reported to be attracted by fire, but rarely to injure travellers.

There are two species of this snake, the less common being the
*'
Sururucu bico de jaca."
The other serpents of which the people spoke were the fol* The Boa Anacondo of Dandin
(the
Boa Murina of Mart., Ciinectes naurinus).
"Sucuriu," properly " Sucury," is derived
from "Suu" beast, and "cuiy" or "curu"

a snorer, a snoi-ter, alluding to its sibilant
powers.
According to Prince ]\Iax. (ii.
172) this boa is called " Sucuriu " in
Minas, and " Sucuriuba " on the Rio Belmonte. Pizarro prefers "Sucruyu. " Some
write '* Sucuruju " and even "Sucuriuh,"

It is also
and i^ronounce "Sucuriu."
called " Cobra de Yeado " because supposed
to be fond of venison, and Spix and Martins heard from M. Duarte Nogueira that
it has attacked a man on horseback, and
A Brazilian
has even swallowed an ox.
gentleman assured me that in Maranham
he had seen the terrible reptile swimming
across the stream with a pair of horns j^rotruding from its mouth.

;

CHAP. XII. 1 FROM THE COROA DO GALLO

TO THE ILHA GRAXDE.

181

lowing.

The rattle-snake (Crotalus horriclus), is known as the

Cascavel

(not Cascavella, as

some write),

a "hawkshell,"

and

the Tupvs called it " Maraca," a rattle, or boicininga, from
"boia," or ''boya," a serpent, and *' cininga," a chocalho, or
bell.
It is well proportioned, in length between foiu' and eight

and brown gre}^ with lozenges of lighter and darker colour.
It prefers stony and hilly ground, where it can easily sun itself,
and has a kind of domestic habit of maldng a home. It is
feet,

when troubled hence, probably,
its fame for listening most wiUmgiy to the voice of the serpentcharmer. The rattles* soon give warning, and it may be killed
very lazy and harmless, except

with a switch

;

cattle are often

heard in the Brazil of a man

;

poisoned by it, but I have not
dying by its bite. Possibly the

dampness of the climate may modify the venom. The fiercest
of the lance-headed vipers, and emphatically declared to attack
mankind, like the Cobra de CapeUo of the Guinea Coast, is
or Yiper atrox

the Jararoca (Cophias

Spix and

;

Bothi^ops Neu\^iedii of

Martins, alias Crespidocephalus

du'ty dark yellow, turning to brown-black

although Koster gives

it

It is of

atrox).

about the

nme feet, it seldom

exceeds

a

tail,

and

five

feet

and the Jararacussu is the same reptile when full
grown and old. The Caninina often mentioned by old \\Titers,
is a Coluber not much dreaded, and the papo-ovo or egg-eater
much resembles it. The Cobra Coral is so named by the people
from its resemblance to a necklace of mixed corals the term,
in length,

;

however,

is

applied to four,

five,

or

more animals

of difi'erent

The common Coral, Elaps coralHnus, called Coluber
fulvus by Linnaeus, who saw it when the beautiful colours were
species.

tarnished by alcohol, has black, carmine-red, and greenish-white
All declare, both in
transversal rings upon a smooth thin body.

books and viva voce, that it is as venomous as it is charming
but the fangs, though formed for offence, are so placed as to
be almost useless. Another Coral (Coluber venustissimus), is
also ringed with tricolor ornaments, but the head and gape are
A third ringed snake is the
larger than that before-mentioned.
Coluber formosus, with an orange-coloured head, and not venomous. Lastly, there is the Cobra Cipo, or whipsnake (Coluber
* Dr.

Renault

of

Barbacena declares that the rattle (sonnette), is perpendicular in the

male and horizontal in the female.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

182

[cHAr. xii.

bicarinatus, the Cypo of Koster), with a line of carinated scales

on each side
fine, green,

:

it

is

often confounded with the

harmless Coluber.

Cobra Yerde, a

I have killed it in a tree despite

the praj^ers of the b3^standers, who declared that
itself like an arrow.

it

can project

The same tale is told of the Cananina, which

is mentioned as a " fl^^ing snake " by Koster.

When first visiting the

Brazil, travellers

come prepared to

meet serpents on every path, their minds are brimful of beasts,
every spider is deadly, the}^ suspect the intentions of the cockroach,

and a thorn-prick suggests a scorpion.

Even the un-

Macaco fl}^, the African Millipede (piolho de Cobra),
the Amphisb£ena or Slow- worm ( " Miii das Sambas " ), the
fortunate

innocuous " Dryophis," and the Gitaranaboia * are capable of
dealing sudden death.

Presently the}^ find out that the rep-

have retreated before man, either to the seclusion of the
maritime regions, or into the Far West. As in Africa, so here,
" snake " means something more or less fatal. I presume that

tiles

man's aversion to this harmless and maligned animal

is

partly

Hebrew m3^th, and, to a certain
brightness of the e3^e, upon which Mr.

traditional, derived from the old

extent, instinctive ; the

Luccock could not look, and the form of the head, a curious
resemblance to humanity, being the most remarkable points. I
have heard, even amongst the educated, of an inherited horror of
the snake, but this must rank with the tales of the Serpent kings,
and with the " Indian" fancy that a man when bitten must not
look at a woman.
The Brazilians inherit from the old inhabitants f a sensible
way of treating snake bites, but their system admits of improvement.

The savages apj)lied above the wound a ligatui'e, wliich

* Tliis Insect, of which the traveller will
often hear, is described as aboiit two inches
long, with

an oblong body, a snake-shaped
head one third of its total length, and
wingslike those of the tree cricket (Cigarra),
but much longer.
The proboscis folds
under the abdomen like the blade of a penknife
this stylet is supposed to be thrust
;

forth like a bayonet when the insect flies
straight as an arrow, and as it is always
blind it victimises ever}i;hing which comes
in its way.
1" And from the Africans.
I could not,
however, find any traces of the "Mandiguciro " or serpent charmer, Avho, according

to Koster, is the West Indian Obeah.
But
the word is evidently a corrujition of Mandingo, the old and incorrect form of
Mandenza, a Semi-Semitic Moslem race,
well known at " Sa Leone."
Wonderful
tales are told of these "Curadores de
Cobra," how they could handle the most
venomous reptiles, cure the patient (curado
de cobras) by wrapping a tamed snake
round his head and shoulders, or by reciting magical words, or by the use of
" contas verdes, " literally " gi'een beads,"
which were probably nothing but the blue
Popo bead of which every West African
traveller has left an account.

"

CHAP. XII.]

FEOM THE COEOA DO GALLO TO THE ILHA GRANDE.

183

prevents the blood reacliiiig the heart for some time ; the civilized bind it so tightly that mortification of the limb has followed.

Both indulge in a butchei'-like st^de of sui'geiy, which has been
imitated by the scientific man.* They almost always administer as sudorifics spiiituous cU'inks in large quantities,

the secret of the cure

is

;

and this

the action of the heart is restored,

venom is expelled, and the brain returns to its normal
"When the patient, who mostly complains of a
functions.
the
''

sinking " sensation, as in cholera, becomes intoxicated he

is

On the other hand they mix with the alcohol what is

safe.

lemon juice, or spirit in which a Cobra Coral
has been macerated, or what is positively injurious, as mercurials.
There are many simples in general use, such as the Herva
either harmless, as

Cobreii'a, the Ai'istolochia, the leaves of the

Plumieria obovata,

Teyu, tree-lizard, f wdiilst Aves and
''
On dit que les sauvages guerissent
Paternosters do the rest.
tres bien les morsures des serpens, et Ton m'a meme assure

and

the

grease

of the

que parmi eux personne ne meurt de cet accident." + Evidenth'
the civilized man ought not to die unless he delay too long to
apply ammonia, eau de luce, or the " whiskj'-cure."

Eio das Yellias recalled to mind the
words of an eloquent BraziHan writer. " I cast my eyes now on
the stream spanned by a line of fii*e reflected from the planet
Oiu* last night on the

Jupiter, then

on the banks whose beautiful woods concealed

The

the rich champaigns.

despised by and

despising

produce, fertilizing in
full of all

canoe was

human life

tied,

art,

;

'

'

in

a thousand

kinds

of

banks here and there a
rose the log which the

to its silent
its

vraters

his perch; while at rare intervals a

Sellow records treatment hy
repeated bimiing with gnnpowder, and peppering wdth Cantharides.
Labat, to mention no others, scarifies the
le rum est
Koster obsers^es,
wound,
aussi administre jusqu'a produire ri\Tesse.
.
+ The Teiu or Tejii (Lacerta Teguixin,
Linn.), is black spotted ^^ith yellow, and,
Yves
including the tail, four feet long.
L'E%T:eux writes Tyvu, Marcgraf Toiuguafu,
M. Denis Till (Tupinambis monitor), and
declares with St. Hil. that the white,
savoury, and delicate meat is eaten by
This is
Brazilians in good circumstances.
IsL

scarification,

ricli

of navigation,

sinuous course millions of acres, was

and from

fisherman makes

solitary

* Thus

but

its

river, a natural line

certainly not the case in the Sertao of these
Koster mentions the Tijaa9u, which
days,

he believes to be the Teguixin; the Cakngo,
a smaller variety also edible; the \-ibra,
and the lagartixa, a house and wall lizard,
a vivacious little animal which destroys
Some travellei's
flies and other insects.
have confounded the Teiu with the Jacare,
as the old Greek who wrote the Periplus
did at Zanzibar. The good missioner (Yves)
specifies the Taroiiire as a grand lizard, but
his editor corrects him, and declares the
TaranjTa to be smaller than the Tiii,

+ Pi-ince Max. ii. 294.

!

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

1S4

[chap. XII.

and clearings that ignore civilized agriculture,
Such misery and so much want in the
dotted the forest-shore.
here such neglected wealth, and so much that
Old World

dwelling-pLice,

!

can make

—

life

happy

!

Lands that will fructify every manner

of plant and grain cast into their hosom, shoals of fish to feed

the poor, a wealth of precious stones and ores, a channel easily

But the age shall come, and
the day has dawned, when men shall flock to these unknown
regions, when gardens, quays, and works of art, shall adorn the
river side, when town and village shall whiten the plain, and
when the voices of a happy people shall be heard where the
profound solitude and silence are now broken only by the moan
of the dove, by the scream of the night-bird, and by the baying of
connecting with the outer world

the wild dog."

So be it

!

—

;

;

CHAPTER XIIl.
TO AXD AT GUAICUHY.
LANDING,— THE " JIGGEES."— THE GREAT "MEETING OF THE WATERS."—
GUAICUHY DESCRIBED, THE MANGA AND THE VILLA, THE SERRINHA
AND ITS VIEW. THE GOOD DELEGATE OF POLICE, SR. LEANDRO HERMETO
DA SILVA.

—

—

"

A descrip9ao das scenas de natureza deleita, a dos costumes instrue."

que so deleita toma se superficial, o que so instrue, aborrecivel
casemos pois estas duas qualidades," A. G. Teixeira e Soitza.
" Aquelle

A HOUSE on the left bank kept up diuing the night a red
which shone through the dark trees, another evidence that
we were approaching a centre of settlement. After a few days of
traveller's life and liberty, of existence in the open aii', of sleej:)
under the soft blue skies, of daj's without neck-ties, the sensation of returning to ''Society" is b}^ no means pleasant; all
have felt, although, perhaps, all will not own the unamiable
The idea of entering a town
effort which it has cost them.
after a spell on the Prairie or on the River, is distasteful to
me as to any Bedouin of the purer breed, who must stuff his
fire,

nostrils

with

cotton

to

exclude the noxious

looked forward with little
and to entering Guaicuhy.

i:>leasure

to

atmosphere.

breaking up

I

my crew,

The first of Ember Week (Sunday, September 15) showed
a warm cloudy morning with a north wind, contradictory signs.

We passed on the left the Currego da Tabua,

it

comes from

contmuation of the Palma range
about two miles from the mouth is an AiTaialsinho, or little
Presently rose before us the peaky Serra do Jenipapo.
village.

the Serra of that name,

a

;

The uniform river-banks would in Europe be
here they seemed

utterl}- civilized,

called a forest

with their Coqueh'o palms,

their huts and vegetable-plots, and their scatters of old

and new

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

186

clearings.

[ciiAr. xiii.

The river widened out and became somewhat shallow

the sole obstacle w^as a sunken rock known as the Pan Jahii.

We " cleaned ourselves " — literally not funnily— and prepared
for delivering letters

of introduction, which,

absentees, all proved useless.

being directed to

About 10 a.m. we made fast at

the Porto da Villa do Guaicuhy, the port being a rough

clay

bank, covered with thicket, through which a path is cut to the

upper settlement.

Presently we received a visit from the Dele-

of Police, Sr.

gate

friends

;

Leandro Hermeto da

and sundry

Silva,

he kindly detached a sergeant to find us a lodging at

the Porto da

Manga, a few hundred

j^ards

down stream, and

two great rivers, das Velhas and
de Sao Francisco. We w^ere soon established in the house of
Major Cypriano Medeiro Lima, who had offered us its hosj^iclose to the junction of the

tality at

walls,

Diamantina.

It was in the usual st3de,

containing a well-ventilated

table, a

dark closet with a pair of

mud and wattle

room which boasted
''

of a

catres," or cots, one with

a bottom of cow-hide, the other wdtli leathern thongs.

A pas-

sage nearly blocked up by the big water-pot led to

kitchen

a

upon the ground, and to a little
railed compound well calculated for the accommodation of beggars,
distinguished by thin stones
pigs, and dogs.

Here a mature old age ends the stream which w^e have accompanied from its babyhood for the last three months this, howIt was
ever, is not a Thanatos, it is a Mokshi, an absorption.
:

impossible to contemplate without enthusiasm the
the two mighty waters which here
of the Old

lay

meeting

The

mapped.

of

'^Eiver

Squaws " sweeps gracefully round from north-east to

nearly due west, and flowing dov/n a straight reach about 550
feet

broad,* merges into the Sao Francisco, which flows from

* M. Lials gives 167 metres. The figures
the Rio
as follows
das Velhas discharges 209 metres per
of the junction are

:

and lies above sea-level, 2,365
palms (Halfield), or 567 metres (Gerber),
I made
or 432 (Liais at the confluence).
the Manga 1774 feet high (B. P. 209° '40,
second,

Before the confluence the
temp. 45°).
Sao Francisco is 359 metres broad, more
than doul)]ing the Rio das Velhas, and the
debit is 446 cubic metres.
The limited
discharge is 655 cubic metres per minute.
The Barra or mouth of the Rio das
Yelhns, smith lat. 17° 11' 54', and west

long. (Rio) 1° 43' 35",

maybe considered

almost in a straight line of prolongation of
Rio de Janeiro, Barhacena, and Sahara,
The distance from the arc of the great
circle uniting these points is only five geographical leagues to the west, although
the old maps placed it far to the east. The
deviation from the direct line prolonged from
Rio de Janeiro to the Barra do Rio das
Velhas, is only 3800 metres, about half a
Brazilian league, or y^o^d of the total dis656 kilometres, or 5° 55' 31 " "4
tance,

(355 geogi-aphical miles).

:

'

CHAP. XIII.]

•

the east to receive
is

:

TO AND AT GCAICL'HY.
it.

187

The right bank of the Eio das Yelhas

of stiff clay standing almost upright.

On the other

side

is

Chacara with the plots of Castor-shrub which stretch in
blue-green tufts towards the water, backed by a climip of
oranges and bananas. Beyond it, at the point projecting into
the united rivers, is a matted forest of wild figs, Pan Jahii, and
a

little

other wild gTowth.
I remained at the

tember

Manga from the 15th to the 18th of Sep-

the house, which had been long unoccupied, was well

;

tenanted by the Bicho do pe, and two of them chose to lodge with

me. It is a beast of mam^ names, Pulex penetrans, P. subintrans,
or P. minimus.
The old French Missionary Yves D'Evreux
(1613
14), calls it le Thon, and the modern Gauls speak of
" des biches " * thus the neo-Latin tongues borrow from one

—

—

another, only changing the terminal vowels.

I have also seen

Brulot and " Pou de Pharaon," although Pharaoh was never in
America. The Tupys Imew it as " Tumbyra." The Spaniards
chose Nigua and Chigua,t from which again the French took

and the term has descended to us in various forms
Chigre, Cheger, Chegre, Chegoe, Chigo, Chigoe, Chigger,]: and
finally the Jigger, thus immortalised by the Negro minstrel
Chique,

Rose, Rose, lubly Rose,
I wish I may be jig-gered if I don't lub Rose.

This

and deserted
the old travellers bitterly complained of it, and carried

nuisance

abodes

:

§

especially

aftects

coffee-stores

camphor in their boots, being careful never to go barefoot.
persons of whatever rank,"

says Southey,

Catharina, the island (iii. 861),

''

'^

All

speaking of Santa

carefully wash their feet every

night, as the best preservative against the Chiguas,"

—which

it is

A traditional naturalist, wishing to carry home a live speci-

not.

* "Bicho" in Portuguese is a veiy
comprehensive word, as Sir Charles Napier
said of Hindostani; it applies to everything,
from a flea to an elephant, and even to a
steam-engine (bicho de fogo, bicho feio),
Koster pleasantly relates how, being a Protestant, he was called in the out-stations
"Bicho."

+ "Chica" is also used, and M. F. Denis,
the editor of Yves D'Evreux (Notes, p. 416)
Xiga.
writes
t The "Chigtrer" or "rod bucj" of the
'

'

'

Southern States of the Union, is, I believe,
a kind of tick which, like the Carrapato,
It does not hatch its
affects the woods.
young in the body, but the result is a
i^ainful pimple.
§ According to Koster (ii. xix.), it is not
found in the plains of the Xorthern Sertao,
and some people in parts badly infested
have been so much preferred by the insect,
that they were compelled to leave the
country.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

188

[chap. xiii.

men, would not be operated upon, induced mortification, and
became a '' martyr to science." I have often seen boys with their
toes dotted over, as if i)epper had been sprinkled upon them, but
no death has been recorded, and I have heard that careless
negroes have lost their feet by amputation.
The Jigger, seen under a microscope, has the appearance of a
small flea with well developed bod}^ and of somewhat lighter
colour.
It crawls more quickh^, but does not jump so well as the
ordinary pulex; the popular belief is that the male is never
found.
It burrows under the nails of the hands and feet, especially the latter ; I have extracted as many as six in one day, but

never from the fingers.

The sole

is

also

a favourite place ; in

—

Bicho colonizes wherever the skin is thick hence its
Its proper habitat is between the cuticle
and the flesh, into which it does not penetrate, and where there
Having enis not lodging room it falls ofl' after drawing blood.
sconced itself bodily, the jigger proceeds to increase and multiply
the small dark point develops to the size of a pea, and can move
no more. The light-coloured bag is enormously distended with
eggs of a slightly yellow tint, and after producing her fine family
fact the

preference for negroes.

;

the parent departs this life.

The small livid poiiit which appears about the nails is generally
accompanied b}' a certain amount of titillation which old stagers
enjoy; they describe it as sui generis, and make it almost deserve
Men with tender skins easily feel
the name of a new pleasure.
the bite, and remove the biter before

it

can penetrate.

The}^

then send for a negro, alwaj's the best practitioner, and he proceeds to extract the intruder with a join in preference to a needle.

Should the sack be burst, and the fragments not be all extracted,
the place festers, and a bad sore is the result
some sufl'erers
have had to wear slii:)pers, and have walked lame for weeks. The
wound is finally cicatrized with some light alkali, even snuff and
cigar ashes are used, and a little arnica completes the cure.
If any place bear the stamp of greatness aflixed b}^ Nature's
hand, it is this Junction. It is the half-way house on the mighty
riverine vallej^
it has, or rather it can have, water-traflic with
Sahara, Diamantina, Curvello, Pitangui, Para (or Patafugio),
Dores de Indaia, Campo Grande, Paracatu, Sao Romao, and the
;

;

other settlements on the Siio Francisco River.
the

Pi'(-)Yinr'os

of

(lovaz,

It links together

Pernambuoo, Pahin, and Minas, and

TO AND AT GUAICUHY.

CHAP. XIII.]

before

189

many years tlie steamer and tlie railwa}' will connect it

with the Capital of the Empire.

I shall ink

enough for the present settlements
then* future greatness shall have

;

more paper than

thus, when m}^ forecast of

been justified, the traveller may

compare his Present with m}- Past, and therein find another
standard for measuring the march of Progress as it advances, and

must advance with giant

strides,

in the

Land of the Southern

Cross.

In early colonial times the Junction of the rivers and the
settlement near it were called Barra de Guaicuhy, and formed an
old Julgado, or Chef-lieu de Justice, extinct about fifty years ago.

The later generations translated the Tupy name into Barra do
Rio das Yellias. The district and the municipality were created
in 1861 (Provincial Law, No. 1,112 of Oct. 16) by takmg in part
of Montes Claros, Sao Komao, Paracatu, Curvello, and Diamantina, and the principal tovm. took the name of Villa de Guaiculiy.
Afterwards were annexed to it Mumbuca and the new districts of
Estrema, Pii'apora, and Sao Goncalo das Tabocas, and now it is
divided into foiu', namely, Guaiculiy, Sao Goncalo, Pii'apora, and

Estrema. The population is stated to exceed 15,000 souls, with
1200 voters and seventeen electors the latter seldom exercise
their functions, as the College sits at Montes Claros, distant 120
to 200 miles of vile road from their several homes.
The settlement is divided into two BauTos, or Quarters. Near
;

the

confluence

is

the (Ai-raial da) Manga, or the Cattle-ford,

popularly called the Port.

The upper village is the Villa, for-

merly the Arraial da Porteira, so called from a neighboiuing
range, also an old name.
The municipality has a single parish,
the " Freguezia de X^^ S^ de Bom Successo e Almas da Villa de

Guaicuhy."

The Manga is a wretched decaying village, apparently doomed
to destruction.
It is perched upon an almost upright bank of
white -yellow clay, twenty-nine feet six inches high, and the walls
of the tenements show a water-mark of more than six feet ; thus

the total of the rise is between thh'ty-five and thirty-six feet, with

a weight which nothing can withstand.

The river, as usual with

large streams, flows upon a ridge, and swings towards the north
side, which readil}' melts awa}^ ; its

course will be arrested only

by the Serrmha da Manga, or Muritiba, a long low lump of hill
to the north.

The southern bank projects into the Sao Francisco

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BKAZIL.

190

[chap. xiii.

a long tongue of sand, with hardly hve inches of water at this

season.

The Manga hank is painful climbing, as that of Angolan Kuisamhi, and its rude attempts at steps, when greased by rain are
The only
safe only to the semi-prehensile feet of the natives.
conspicuous building, upon whose tall, gaunt, sloj^ing roof of tiles
the traveller's eye first hghts, is the
it fronts

Bom Jesus de Matosinhos

;

the meeting of the waters, or south, with a little westmg,

and it now stands almost at the edge of the precipice. Built of
ashlar and lime, it sIioavs that in Colonial times the place knew
better

a "work of Santa
it is half-finished,
The southern entrance has never been roofed, the

days; as usual

Engracia."

sacristy to the east is bare scantling, and the belfry is the normal

gallows of three timbers.

destined to remain

Pilasters and i)ulpits of cut stone are

embryo, and a neat arch of masonry

in

intended to mark the high altar to the north,
the temple, is foul with weeds.

now the body of

Beyond the Bom Jesus is a small

rum-distillery, and fm*ther down stream the " bush."
Formerly the Manga had two thoroughfares, but in 1865 the
inundation swept away the most convenient portion, and only
part of " Water Street " shows a double line of blocks and huts,
numbering twenty-four. They are built upon flags of hard blue
sandstone, resembling lime, sometimes capped with iron, or

showing junction with reddish gneiss. The new^ thoroughfare to
the south, and running parallel with the former, has thirtj'-three
tenements wliich look upon a road ankle-deep in sand. These
lodgings contrast badly in point of comfort with Dahome, or
Abeokuta, in Egba-land they are unwhitewashed cages of wattle
:

and dab, roofed with half-baked tiles.

All have ground-floors of

tami:)ed earth, except the Sobradinho,* belonging to Sr. Joao

Pereira do Carmo, merchant, and Juiz de Paz.

In the Brazil

this official has conciliating powers, intended to spare appeal to

But in country places the servants of old
Father Antic, the Law, not unfrequently recall to mind the Scotch
saying about a far cry to Loch Awe.
Most of the houses have back-yards, green with bananas,

the Juiz Municipal.

Cuietes or Calabash trees (Crescentia Cujete
•

* The Meio Sobrado is a single-storied
house upon a raised platfonn of masonry.
The Sobradinho is a one-storied house "vWth

or

Cuyete)

and

a single room above it, and the Sobrado is
a two-storied dwelling a casa nobre when

—

Avell

made.

—

TU A^'D AT GUAICUHY.

CHAP. XIII.]

oranges,

wliich

191

exported clown stream.

are

Tlie

Settlement

abounds in manioc, and as wheat was not to be found, we laid in
a store of

iDolvillio

or Tipioca cakes (roscas de Tipioca)* and

fuba-meal, wliicli is very expensive on

Upper Sao Francisco.

tlie

As in Africa, tlie housewives Avould not sell their eggs. Tiu'ke^'s
thrive here, and cost 2 $000 a head. About half that sum is paid
for fowls and for Guinea-fowls, which are exceptionally held to be

good food. The people do not readily part with theii* provisions,
and they are perniciously frugal. A month's work at manioc
Moreover, much more is to be had
gives them bread for a year.

by barter than for money. All determined that we were merHad we known
chants, and offered cent, per cent, for tobacco.
this I should have invested heavily in the article, and thus made
A fatted bullock costs 30 $000,
mj^self a something inteUigible.
a cow 15 $000, a pig from 10 $000 to 16 $000, and fine goats
and sheep, mostly fom'-horned, 2 $ 000. Fish is, of course, cheap.
A fresh Carumata, weighing 4 lbs., is worth a halfpenny, and
a salted Surubim of 32 lbs., from 3 $000 to 6 $000.
The high
value of the latter is owing to the price of salt, which must be
imported from the lower river, and the plate of 4 lbs. or 5 lbs.
fluctuates between 0$ 800 and 1$320. Washerwomen and sewing

women gave their services at the cheapest possible rate.
At this season the Manga is tolerabh^ healthy, but between
January and Jmie, agues, typhus, and malignant marsh-fevers
(carneii'adas)

decimate the inhabitants.

lids, paralytic,

Many are clu'onic inva-

or suffering from ophthalmia

and

which

goitre,

below Guaicuhy will cease to offend the eye. The climate has
won for itself an enduring bad name f but the blame attaches
;

'^

I

Our "tapioca" is a mere coiTuption.

modified

by

Lieut.

Hemdon

(p.

326).

" The mere traveller passes these places

bought,
,,
„
^
r ^r
n
Half a quarta of Manioc fioiu•

4 lbs of toucmho lard
32 lbs_. of carne seca (sundried beet)
.

.

....
,,,

,

lotal

•.*A,-,-%

1 100

1 $ 280

6^iii0
««;ioA
b$i2U

+ "Le long du Rio San Francisco, a
I'epoque oil le fleuve baisse, le pays est
afflige d'epidemies qui enlevent beaucoup
de monde et de^dennent surtout tres
dangereuses pour les etrangers, ainsi que
pour les vovageurs qui ne sont pas acclimates " (Prince Max. iii. 185).
This is
repeated by many a "v\Titer, and is sensibly

without danger.
^^.

^.j^^

It is

the enthusiast in

^^^^^ ^.^^^^

^^^ ^^^^^^ .^

collecting curious objects of natural history,
^^, ^^^ ^^,.^^^^^^ ^^^.^1^^^ ^^ consequences
in
^^^ ^niTsuit of doUars, T\ho sufi-ei-s from the
Sezoens."
As a rule on the Sao Francisco
^Yie fevers, though at times of malignant
^^'P^' ""^'^ ™<^-^% "chills," and the people,
^'^^^""^ ^^^'^^^^ ^^ procure the much valued
Q^^mme, treat them with simples such as
^^^ Amargo, the antifebrile Quina, the purg^.^!^ Fidegoso, the bitter root Cipo de
;

mil-homens or de Jarrmha (a diaphoretic
^""'^ ctiurctic

Aristolochia).

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BliAZIL.

192

[cuAr. xiii.

more to tlie dirty and dissolute habits of the people than to the
maligned river.* Drainage is absolutely unknown, and the worst
sites are preferred, because they are the most handy. The houses
The pig lives in the parlour, and
are impure to the last degree.
"intramural sepulture" here survives. The diet, fish and manioc,
manioc and fish, assists the work of dirt hence the sallow unwholesome look and the listless languor of the people. The}'
drink to excess new rum, the " Ivill-John" of the Mediterranean.
On Sunday evening hardly a soul was sober, and two of my men,
the " Menino" and Agostinho, could hardly stand. Having little
They sit up half the
else to do, their libertinism is extreme.
and
singing.
smoking,
Of course they
playing
night chatting and
Hence too
are unfit for work till nearly noon on the next day.

—

—

;

often poverty, misery, and churlishness.

The inhabitants are all more or less coloured, and as the yellow
skin denotes the Brahman, so here a light-tinted face is invariably

The genus Vadio abounds, and as these idlers

a token of rank.
are not above a

little

stealing, w^e

grating of our raft's galley.

removed, by advice, the iron

On common days many of the men

are absent at their rocas or are fishing with seines (Pugas),!

and

The street and a half shows here and there
a vagrant stretched upon a bench or on a mat to protect him from
Rarely a great man passes, with wooden box-stirrups
the sand.
and ambling nag. The animals are like those of Pernambuco,
with long hand-lines.

small for want of breeding, but showing original good blood in the
shape and carriage of the head. At times a Caipera, mostly a
vagueii'o

or

driver,

cattle

rides

leather-dressed cap-a-pie,

in

The slave boys

showing that he is a denizen of a thorny land.t
* Dirty not in person

but in lodgings.

(HI. ii. 37) remarks "En general,
c'est Ih, line des qiialites qui distinguent
qu'ils
quelque pauvres
les Bresiliens
soient levu-s chaumieres ne sont presque
St. Hil.

:

;

jamais sales, et s'ils ne possedent que deux
chemises, celle qu'ils portent est toujours
He doubtless spoke as he found
blanche."
matters, but he wrote much from memoiy.
My exi)erience amongst the poor showed
me that they reverse the practice of the
Netherlanders, amongst whom I have seen
a woman whose arms required a bath-brick,
diligently scouring a door-step white as
snow.
+ The Pucja is a bag-net of reeds which
two men drag along the bottom.
^ These leathers are best made at Janu-

aria,

on the

whole

siiit

and

it

is

Rio de

Sao Francisco.

A

costs from 5 $000 to 25 $000,
far superior, softer and more

durable,
than what
a London tailor
The preference is given
supplies for ^'5.
to the skins of deer, Yeado, Sassuapara,
Catingeiro and Mateiro
an inferior kind
is made
of the Capivara,
here called
Caititu.
Bullocks' brains are principally
used to soften the leather, which becomes
like casimir
this is a trick doubtless
inherited from the savages of the land,
;

;

The

full

suit

billy-cock

hat,

of the Chapeo, a
sometimes flapped behind

consists

the Gribao or jerkin, a
jacket opening in front and with
pockets outside, the Gruardapeito, an oblong piece of skin extending from throat
like a sou' wester,

short

-

CHAP.

XIII.]

TO AND AT GtAlCUHY.

193

upon the cruppers of tlieir lean garrons as the youth of Egypt
On ass-back the seat is correct, not on
bestride then- donkeys.
horseback. Nothing else is to be seen but bmls, beasts, and
naked lads. The dogs and pigs are apparently in a state of
chronic ci^il war, and the onh' gymnastic of the citizen and the

sit

citoyenne consists of ''sticldng" them.

Amongst these half-breeds respectable men are invariably civil
and obliging. Churlishness increases with the deepenmg tint of
the skm, and at times, when ver}^ dark, it indulges in the peculiar
negro swagger which speaks of a not unintentional rudeness.
When, however, the men are sober, they show nothing of the
ruffianism so

common amongst the European uneducated.

A

stranger would often look upon their manners as offensive, whereas
the offence proceeds not from mtentional ill-will, but from a total

want of tact, incapability of discernmg the decorous, and absence
Men come to the
of perception that they are giving offence.
door, lean against the post, stare like the OphidicT, stare like the

gods of Greece and Rome, with eyes which never wink. They care
not whether the man in the den is eating, shaving, or bathing they
;

intrude conversation, and they make viva voce personal comments

and remarks, as the Central Africans would do.

In fact the

Realm of Bocchus by the Blackland Sea
is

the best of patience-teachers.

You there learn, and must
The

learn, to endure what the Englishman hates, perhaps, most.

women enter uninvited, cigarette in mouth, and sit down for the
first time like old friends.
AVe have a pretty neighbour, much
resembling the ''Yaller Gal of New Orleens."

The S'-'^ Miner

vina of Salgado loved, said the tongue of medisance, a soldier,

Like the rest of her sex in this
region she carried one shoulder alwaj's bare, and she asked for
The
everything, valuable or valueless, which met her sight.
not wisely and not too well.

to stomach, -with a hole through Avhich the

head is passed, and acting waistcoat, and
the Perneiras or tights, v^-hich reach the
Over these boots are drawTi on the
feet, and protected by closely fitted soleless shoes, like the
under slippers of
Egypt.
I soon adoj)ted leather. Bniziliau travel,
especially in the interior, wears out a pair
of overalls per month.
^Yhere the land,

ancles.

^|lr,.

Ti.

however, Is not very thorny, the suit ]nay
be limited to the breeches or even to leggings
some backwoodsmen here economize
the "seat."
A modem author justly
praises the material for long lasting, but
he probably never tried what he describes
;

as " frais et leger."
It is, as most of
blaster Shoetie's brethren knovr, heavy and

cumbrous, hot in hot weather, cold in
wet in wet.

o

cold

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BKAZIL.

194

smallest

was

trifle

thanklessly received,

[chap, xii

because better than

The women are here tolerably independent of the men.
I often saw them paddling themselves and their children across
nothing.

the streams.

We took an early opportmiity of visiting the Serrinha, behind
or north of the Manga.

Beyond the fifty yards of river-ridge

lies a bayou-bed, mud-flaked

and in parts still green this partly
exjilains the fevers.
On the damp margin grew a circle of
Crioulma trees, regular and domed like enormous oranges, with
thick trunks two feet high, and leafage like the myrtle oftenderest
j)istachio-green
the perfume of the flower resembles vanilla,
and the small red berry is eaten by children. They contrast
strongly with the " Carrascos " and Cerrados of the broken
waterless ground further from the stream.
This vegetation is
European rather than tropical in w^ant of variety, and it presented anything but a gay prospect, this depth of winter in the
heat of the dog days. IMany were leafless, like hazels in our
winter some were dead, killed, according to the people, by the
heat of the sun
others said that frost was the cause.
The
ground was rich in the black *'formiga douda," or mad ant,
which loves the orange tree it is so called because it moons
;

;

;

;

;

about as

if

mad or drunk.

Wens of termite nests* throttled

the branches, and we were once pursued by a

swarm of furious
This nuisance must be abated by

Marimbondos or tree-wasps.
breeding birds we found few of the feathered race, and ornamental rather than useful, with brilhant tints they lighted up
the dull and arid view. Passing a few outlying hovels, each of
which sent forth its barj^ing cur, we began the ascent. Here
;

the land shows, where denuded, red and yellow sandstone, new,
shaly,

and regularly

stratified;

perhaps

it

is

the ''Old Eed,"

discovered in the Serra da Porteira by Dr. Vii'gil von Helmreichen,
the same

Soco. t

who detected granite in the limestone near Gongo
The dry grass was still burning in parts, for the future

benefit of the few cows, and the surface was cut by wet-weather
rivulets.

On the higher levels, well swept by the cool breeze,

houses might be built be^'ond the range of malaria, but there

'"

Tlie

nest

of the

tevines arboruin

k

" panella," a pot.
+ Similarly on the Amazons River, older
observers l.elieved tlie slatv rock and hard

trailed

on the banks at Manaos to
Prof. Agassiz (p. 199)
determined both to form part of the ''great
fiaudstoiic sccli
l)e

Trias or OhI Red

drift fdrmatioii,"

:

TO A^'D AT GUAICUHY.

CUAF. xiii.j

I95

no surface water, and none but a madman would now dream

is

of lajing down pipes.

The view from the summit delighted us.

To the north the

was broader than the eye
could estimate, and the least width was nine miles.
To the east
*
is the crescent-shaped Serra da Porteira,
a long tongue of raised
riverine valley of the joint streams

land, convex towards the stream.

Southwards the horizon was
broken by the high blue lines of the Serras do Rompe-dia and
do Saco Redondo. A httle north of west stood the Serra do
Itacolumi, f forming with the Jenipapo and the Yarginha to the
south-west another half-moon, whose bulge faced the river.

The

said to bear a plateau on its head, and to
is
aboimd in gold. These western mountains have gaunt forms,
as if broken by volcanos, and there are two p^'ramids connected
by natural curtains, which make magnihcent land marks. Below
the peaks there are gradmgs of horizontal lines, evidently formed
under water.
The sm-face bore the growth of the great and
arid plams called Campos Geraes, and resembling the upheaved
''
levels " of England and the '' carses " of Scotland.
Here it
was dull and grey, there the trees were donning their spring

Jenipapo

dresses of liveliest gTeen. +

Between these limits of the stream in davs of vore, the Rio
de Sao Francisco winds up through its verdant avenue from the
south-east, spreading out into bays 1800 feet broach
Above
the thin confluence-point of trees and sand, its noble tributary,
the Rio das Yellias, serpentines from the south-south-east, and
shows a silvery lake on the left bank. Grand are the ciu'ves
described upon the lacustrine lowlands, the ^'straths" and
" dales " of om- countrj^, whose vast extent smokes like a battletield with prairie fires.
During the rams the flats must become
Below us lies the shallow line of village,
a broken line of lakes.

*

1* Down
stream,
near the town of
Remanso, there is on the left bank a "Serra
dos Columis," and a hill called " Itacolumita" is at the junction of the Rio

i The extreme breadth of the riverine
determined by its tributaries,
lies between
the Serra Gf-rande or do
Espinhago on the right (east) and the
highlands that divide IMinas Geraes from
Goyaz, under the names Serra dos Piloes,
da Tiririca, dos Ardras and do Parana
(called by St. Hil. Serra de S. Francisco e
do Tocantins).
Thus its extreme breadth
would be 240 geogi'aphical miles from Rio

Preto with the Rio Grande,

de Janeiro to W. long. 4° (Rio).

M. Halfekl calls the uortliein part of
"da barra da Manga," and con-

this SeiTa

the south

-^'ith

Rompe-dia.

South

of

the

the
Truichete.

Serras

da

nects
places

it

to

the Serra do
confluence ho

Tabua

and

do

valley as

2

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL,

VJ'6

[chap. xiii.

and scattered near the junction are plots of bright and luxuriant
sugar-cane.
I did not neglect to ins2)ect the Villa de

Guaicuhy, distant

from church to church about three-quarters of a mile. The path
wound along the right bank of the Rio das Yellias, which is
only partially subject to inundations their limit is denoted by
green grass and thickly foHaged Almacegueiros (gum trees)
;

the prettiest feature

is

the

Pau de Arco de Flor Roxa

—the

red-flowered Bowdarque. This Bignonia, rich with mauve-coloiu'ed

trumpets, is used as an anti-syphilitic, and the cerne or heart

made to do the duty of lignum guaiacum.

In places there is
good ground for cotton grown annually, and '^topping " would
turn its fibre to lint here the comparative aridity of the soil
would save the trouble of cutting the tap root. The people
is

;

is too much sand and too little water for coffee
"
"
the
Cafezal
is an exception, and the best are in the Fazendas

say that there

;

of Eompe-dia, Bejaflor, Canabrava,

Mumbuca.

We

crossed a

dwarf ridge of the usual shaly sandstone, and a fiuman now
dry; be^'ond

it

lay

Campo ground,

dotted with a few cattle.*

Two bulls eyed us curiously, but the novelist's pet animal is here
unknown.
Presently we

crossed by stepping

over stones

the

normal

bridge, the small Corrego da Porteira, which drains the crescent-

shaped Serra of the same name other streams can be added
it, and thus there will be a sufiicient water suppl}^ for the
;

to

future city.

Passing the Quartel or barracks, a more substantial

house than usual, we issued into the square, where the superiority of the site at once became apparent.
The floods reach
only to the lovrer portion the upper part slopes gradually up
to the skirts of the stony hill, and affords a beautiful view of
the double distances which buttress the riverine plain.
At
;

present the settlement consists only of the square, and the square

has a total of forty-five tenements, not including the church.

At present

it

supports

itself

* In tlie true cattle-Lreediug euiuiiries,
as Texas and the Argentine Republies, a few head turned out to graze and
completely neglected multiply exceedingly
in the shortest jjossible space.
Here, as in
the southern part of the Sao Paulo Province, they do not, and the cause is hardly
apparent.
The climate is excellent, and
sucli

by exporting provisions, and
the surface
vvliile

of tlie

grouud

is

it

favourable,

forage, possibly not of the best de-

scription, abounds.
On the other hand
the animals cannot live without salt, and

want of communication, by adding 400 to
500 per cent, to the price, greatly limitthe supply.

"

riiAP.

;

TO AND AT flUAICUHY.

XTTT,]

imports from Joazeiro

salt

197

and dry goods, and from Januaria

and sole leather. The post reaches it twice a
month, on the 7th and the 27th.
The vicar, Eev. P^ Francisco da Motta, was confessing at
Desembrigo I was sorry not to meet him, as all spoke liighly
The excellent Delegate insisted upon
of liis local information.
my companion
giving ITS coffee and sponge cake (pfio de 16)
saltpetre, hides,

;

;

bought

at his store a bit of cotton

marked J. Bramley Moore

and dextrin, it contrasted badly with the
Our friend led us
substantial home-made produce of Minas.
to the village school, which could easily be traced by the sound.
full of starch, leucom,

The BraziUans have facetiously described the viva voce S3^stem,
borrowed from the Arabs.*

It should

not, however,

be

con-

it assists in forming pronunciation, it
demned precipitately^
fixes the subject upon the memory, and it teaches abstraction of
;

Mj system of learning foreign tongues has long been

thought.

"read out loud," and mentally to repeat whatever is said

to

The process is tedious, but it masters the language in

to me.

three months.

The fault of every old settlement in the Brazil, beginning with
Rio de Janeiro, is the narrowness of the streets, and after a time
it

can hardly be corrected.

We advised the Delegate to lay out

the wide open space in regular parallelograms, with thoroughfares
at least

100 yards broad, and thus to make ready for the days

when, pace the manes of Sir John Shelley, tramways will become
universal.
We visited the church in charge of a Sacristan, born
about 1796. Founded some 150 years ago, b}^ the piety of an old
philanthropist, the Rev. P^ Xicolau Pereira de Barros,

the fair view to the setting sun.

it

faces

The stone front is pierced with

three windows, a door, and what by courtesy may be called a rose

and the material is taipa, armed with mail of broken
The bells depend from the
pottery wherever the rain strikes it.
normal gallows outside, and of the two Sacristies one is in ruins.
Inside there is an organ-loft, and the two plain wooden pulpits

light,

The High Altar bears the
Patroness supported by Sao Miguel and by N^ S* Mae dos

resemble magnified claret chests.

^

((

Ouve

se

um concerto infernal e

monotono, uma esj)ecie de canto descompassado e confuso, composto de gritos
o
de uma modulaffio especial.
Grrita

mestre, grita o discipnlo, gritao os monitodos gritao, e finalmente uingneni
aprende.
tores,

.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BKAZIL.

108

Homens
corner.

;

[chap, xiil

but I detected a bird's nest in a cosy
On the left are two side chapels, one of S^° Antonio,

unfinished

it

has been

still,

gilt,

the other of Santa Anna, somewhat in the pier

and gilt by a devotee in the olden day, Joao da
Rocha Guerreiro. Opposite Santa Anna is N^ S* do Carmo in
newer fashion, with pillars and capitals, the gift of Joaquim Jose
Caetano Brandao.
The fourth is completely modern, columns
style of Bahia,

resting on consoles, the liberahty of a Genoese, Antonio da Costa.

The worst part of the Matriz was its floor

;

the nave w^as paved

with loose boards, and the sanctuary with coffins and brass tacks,

The sacristy had the huge boxes de

forming dates and initials.

rigueur, the waterless fountain, a spout projecting

from a human

and the stool and sieve confessional.
Sr. Leandro lent me the last papers from Ouro Preto, and the

face,

Presidential annual reports, together with the original description
of the Sao Francisco by

M. Halfeld.

He had travelled little,

had collected a
his thirst for knowledge was unlimited,
varietj^ of information
and he often spent half the night in study. He was great upon
the education question, and as a moderate politician he deplored
the excesses to which zeal and interest led, appropriately quoting
the fable of the old man, his son and the ass, to show how difficult
it was to please even his own part}-.
He wrote for me a variety
of introductory letters to his friends on the Great River
in the
Brazil generally the handwriting w^ould have charmed Lord
Palmerston, but the Delegate's caligraphy was positively copperAVe had every reason for being grateful to Sr. Leandro,
plate.
and I embrace the first opportunity of expressing to him my best
acknowledgments
and

ignored even

Rio

de

Janeiro,

j^et

he

;

;

A

r^HAPTER XIY.
TO THE RAPIDS OF THE PIRAPORA.

WHAT "PIEAPORA" MEANS.— THE NAME " SAO FRANCISCO" EXPLAINED.—
NEW CREW.— THE PIRAPORA EXAMINED.— DIAMONDS.— THE STORM AND
THE "bull's eye."— the BARCA, OR YAWL.—THE " HORSE-BOAT" WANTED.
THE BARQUEIRO, OR WATERMAN OP THE RIO DE SAO FRANCISCO,— HIS
POETRY, HIS IMPROVISATION, AND HIS SUPERSTITIONS,

And streams as if created for his use,
Pursue the track of his directing- wand
Sinuous or straight, now rapid and now slow,
Now murmuring' soft, now roaring in cascades.
.

.

.

Cawper.

We were strongly advised to visit the Eapids of the Pii-apora,
which are said to be, after the Casca d'Anta at the begmning, and
the Paulo Affonso at the end, the important feature upon the
Rio de Sao Francisco. The word means a '' fish leap,"* and is
applied to places on more than one Brazilian river it has, how;

Sao Paulo, the
On the Tiete,
ever, many significations.
people translate it " Sign of fish," making " Pora" a corruption
of " Bora." t With a flush of joy I found myself upon the bosom
of this glorious stream of the future, whose dimensions hereabouts average 700 feet. I had seen nothing that could be compared with it since my visit to the African Congo. In due time
in

the banks T\ill be leveed, the floods T^ill be controlled, the bayous
will be filled up, and the great artery will deserve to be styled a
" coelo gratissimus amnis."

The author of the Noticias do Brazil
* Pira, orpyra, a fish, and pora, salto,
Thus Colonel Accioli explains it,
a leap.
" lugar onde peixe salta. " The word must
not be wi-itten with St. Hil. (III. ii. 213),

"Ph-apora."

by
t The dictionaries explain pyra-pora
" fish- inhabitant, a gi-eat fish which Hves

in the open

(1589) informs us that
sea— that is to say, a whale.'"

"Bora," contracted from " Bor vera," is a
verbal desinence con-esponding with the
Hindostani -wala in such expressions as
" Canheu-bora," which a Hindu would

render " Fujne-wala."

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

•200

[f'TIAr.

XIV.

now extinct tribes living near this river,

the once numerous and

Tupinamhas, the Tajiuyas, the Tupiaes, the
Amorpiras, the Ubirajaras, and the Amazonas of course there
the

the

Caetes,

—knew

—

as '' O Parii," the sea.

The old Portuguese explorers went down the coast with the Romish Calendar

were Amazons

it

in hand, and thus the Eio de Sao Francisco (de Borja) derived its

name from the Jesuit saint presiding over the 10th of October.*
So Yarnhagen assigns the honour to the little squadron of five
caravels which, commanded by Joao da Nova, and bearing on
board as pilot the cosmographer Vespucci, f sailed from Lisbon
about the middle of May, 1501. It must not be confounded with
the little Eio de Sao Francisco in the Province of Santa Catherina,
a port also described by tlie author of the Noticias (chap. 66)
and it is as well not to suggest California by giving to it the
Spanish form San Francisco, instead of the Portuguese Sao or
San Francisco. t The river soon attracted the attention of those
like the Nile and the Congo, it floods
dwelling on the seaboard
during the dry season, and rice versa sufficient to excite, in
;

;

—

those days, the marvel-faculty. §

Adventurers Avho determined to

* Thus we find the Promontory of Sao
Roque first visited August 16 Cape St.

America a Vesputio invente qufe occidentum
Columbus did not complain
of him, and the fortunate Genoese died
convinced that he had discovered the
Eastern portion of the "Indies," to which
Castella added the term "Western."
The
historian sensibly remarks (i. 27), "And
the designation of
West Indies would
best perpetuate for lis the work of Columbus and his genius in perseveringly working
out a great idea.
It will ever remind
human nature of the respect due to genius,
even where it greatly errs, inasmuch as

;

Rio de Sao Miguel,
Augustim, Aug. 28
Rio de Sao Jeronymo, Sept. 30
Sept. 29
Rio das
Rio de Sao Francisco, Oct. 10
Rio de Santa Lusia (the
Virgens, Oct. 21
Rio Doce?), Dec. 15 Cax^e St. Thome, Dec.
Sao Salvador da Bahia, Dec. 25
Rio
21
de Janeiro, Jan. 1, 1502 Angra dos Reis
;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

Island of S. SeLastiao,
G
( Epiphany), Jan.
Rio or Porto da Sao Vicente (Sao
Jan. 20
Paulo), Jan. 21.
Frei Gaspar Madre de Deus would attriliute the naming of Sao Vicente to the
Souza, who
fleet of Martim Afionso de
touched there on his return from the Rio
But the port is
da Prata, Jan. 22, 1532.
mentioned under the name of its saint iu
the Diary of ]\I. Alfonso's brother, Pedro
Lopes de Souza, before the squadron in
which he commanded a ship reached it. It
is, moreover, found in the map of Riiysch,
;

;

:i

508 (Varnhagen, i. 425).
f Sr. Varnhagen (i. 27) ably rehabili-

name of Amerigo Vespucci, the
god-father against whom for many years

tates the

America, and even Europe, have been so
furiously raging.

He quotes the Phisices

Compendium
Salamantice, 1520 (eight
years after Vespucci's death),
Prima est
Asia, secunda Africa, et tertia Europa
:

'

'

.

.

.... fifldfnda tamen veteribus incognita

versus," &c.

'

'

these errors often lead to the discovery of
truth, which in the exact sciences is reached

by setting out at times from gTatuitous
hypotheses."
X This inadvertently has been made by
stranger authors from Soiithey to Agassiz,
I know only one who has avoided it, Lieut.
" Les Hollandais an Bresil,"
Netscher,
1853.
§ The same is the case with the Paraguassii of the Bahian Mediterranean
in
fact, with all the streams which in these
latitudes rise west of the sea-fringing ujjlands
they flood during the dry season,
and they shrink when the coast rains set
in.
The reason is simply that the dry
season of the coast is the rainy season of
the interior.
;

;

"

TO THE EAPIDS OF THE PIRAPORA.

fHAP, xiY.]

201

solve this great mystery, and who prohahly had heard of the then

abundant " Brazil wood," and mines of gold and silver, ascended
The ''protomartyr
as far as the Great Rapids in early days.
was one Sebastiao Alvares, of Porto Seguro, who was sent to
explore by the second governor of tlie captaincy of Pernambuco,
T^uiz de Brito de Almeida, who succeeded Duarte Coelho de
Albuquerque.* After four years of travel he and his twenty men,
an insufficient force, were massacred there has been man}^ a

—

Bloody Pam"' in these regions. Presenth^ Joiio Coelho de
Souza ascended more than one hundred leagues above the Papids,
and published a Roteiro, now curious.
Two new men were hired to guide us in the 'Hender" canoe,
which they described as very " violenta e banzeira," crank and
*'

kittle.

We eyed curiously the contrasts of the new stream with

Here the Avater was of a transparent
green, like the mighty Zaire; it is said to be "heavier," when
that which we had lately left.

drunk, than that of the Rio das Yelhas

;

the influents, often so

deeply embedded as to be now useless, were clear, especially when

on the sides. The water seemed to
break even from the stiff cla}^, which was in places caving in.
The Coroas were either mere sandbanks, lines of gravel or lumps
of boulder, or clothed with the Arinda, which in places grows
they drained

twenty

feet

little

ba3'ous

high.

Cattle,

theii' favourite

haunts.

here the chief produce,

made them

The barreiro, or salt lick, cribbled the

sides, but we lost the

aluminous white rash which distinguished
the Rio das Yelhas.
The banks were cut and graded into steps
b}^ the receding floods, and where not broken by " riachos," they
were above high-water mark. In places there were heaps of
decayed leaves crushed and pressed together the}^ formed layers
;

—4

At noon we passed on the left bank ledges
caked over with hard " Canga ;" water trickled fi'om it upon the
often 3

feet deep.

loose Cascalho and the felspathic clay of the Sao Joao Mine.

This is a true diamantine formation. A natural pier projected
from the right side, hard clay deeply tinged with iron and the
violence of the floods was shown by a tree root, weighing at least
;

*

Here the Noticias para a Historia e
das Na9oes nltramarinas
(March 1, 1859), which has a chapter

a

Gfeogi-aphia

(No. 20), "On the Greatness of the Rio
de Sao Francisco and its Sources," seems t<)
1)6 incorrect.
Luiz de Brito de Almeida

about the end of 1573 govevneJ the Caj)taincy of Bahia. D. Coelho de Albuquerque
(the second Donatoiy, not to be confounded
with Duarte Coelho the First) became in
1560, third governor of Pernambuco.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

202

a ton, and lodged in

tlie

fork of a

fig,

[chap. xiv.

whose gigantic limbs were

distorted b}' the burden.

All tliis region is of the greatest beauty and fertility ;

when the

Rio das Velhas shall have been opened it will become the garden
of the land.

On the banks were many clearings and small sugar

plots, with which the owners are ready to part.

Beds of melons
show that the fruit has now grown to be a favourite, and will,
presently, become the daily bread * the Mangui Hibiscus and the
Castor shrub here stand thirty feet, and everyAvhere we saw
;

the broad-leaved Brazilian tobacco growing half wild

;

the people

prefer to pay heavily for the gifts of Baependy and Pomba.

In

the patches of cultivation the women had stuck, as in Harar-land,
a cow's horn on an upright stick, to keep off the evil eye

—por

olho da gente.

Fishermen and boys appeared at times, and the
negroes and negresses washed by the waterside here there is no
cause to fear the crocodile or the slaver.
Before the banks were
;

sloped cuttings of sugar-cane, ready for planting in October if the
rains be early, if not in November.

A fish hung lifeless, hooked

to the stern of a small canoe, whose beak was the

wedge-formed

projection used in Africa as a handle ; and the turkey buzzards

were hard at work upon a dead terrapin (Kagado), which infatuated

humanity in these regions will not eat.
During the ascent we hugged the left bank as closely as possible
the descent was,

till

;

struck by the storm, via the '' fio de agua,"

or mid-stream, crossing to the headlands and points round which

The distance was said to be five leagues,
and if so each league must represent six and a half geographical

the current swings.

miles, f

After nearly nine hours of hard work, we doubled a

wooded projection from the left bank, and sighted the Cachoeira
of the Pirapora.
The break is now at its worst like most others,
it is easier to pass during the rains, and the more Avater upon it
;

the better.

The Pirapora differs from anything that we have yet viewed
is

a su2)erior article in quality as well as in quantity.

fact,

partly a true

fall,

divided into two sections ;

•'

Tlie fruit is of two kinds, tlie melancia,
water melon, and the melao, mnsk
melon.
The former is a great favourite
with the barquemen, who seem to have its
name ever in their mouths. Yet they de-

or

clave that

it

gives

them **dumb chills,"

;

it

This is, in
but we have

and the same is the belief in tlie Southern
United States
few will touch the fruit
:

when Avorking in the sun.
f It is about six leagues west of the Rio
das Yelhas.

—

TO THE RAPIDS OF THE PIRAPOHA.

fHAP. XIV.]

203

c<jme a long Avay to see a small sight, and ^ve tremble to think
what Paulo Affonso may really be. On the western bank rises a

—

lumpy hill, the Curral da Pirapora some day it ^vill be built
The course of the
Qver at whose foot is a narrow stony beach.

—

here from south to north, and the rocky
mass crosses it in ledges and scattered blocks, mostly disposed
There are evidently several breaks, and southwards
diagonally.

Pdo de Sao Francisco

is

the dark blue of the swift gliding river, backed by the light azure
of the Saco Redondo range, contrast T\ith the boiling raging flood
that forms the "foreground."

Glad to stretch our cramped limbs we landed at the Porto da
Pirapora, on the right or eastern bank, and proceeded to inspect
''
Barandao," a
the Cachoeii-a from above. The path led through
its principal featm-es were
caricature of the Arraial da Manga
huge seines and large fish, split, limig on gallows to sun dry.
;

The people do not export this produce, but sell it only to passing
mule troops. Finding that we did not trade, and suspecting us
of being agents of Government, they were scantily civil, but they
offered

for

pui'chase

their refuse

" desmonte "

—sand without

The dogs were even more churlish than their masters.
Had we had tobacco and other small matters for barter we might
diamonds.

have been received in another way.
the rest of the right bank
of rock, which probably extends far under the

At first we walked over loose sand
a

is

flooring

;

The natural course of the water is to this side,
M. Liais opines that
and canoes prefer it during the floods.

eastern bank.

hard however to predicate
M. Halfeld
this mitil careful piercings shall have been made.

canalization would here be easy ;

it is

proposes sluice gates, moreover, which the French authority does
not consider necessarv.*
There is no danger of the Brazil undertaking any such work

m the present generation.!

The stone platform is composed of slabs, some forty feet long,
and mostly narrow
*

M,

Liais

;

the cleavage is perpendicular with the stream

makes the length

of

the

Pii'apora oltstacle a total of one kilometre,
and the difterence of level 3 "So metres,

This would give a velocity of only 3 to 4
metres or yaixls per second,

....
....
....
....

t The estimates for opening forty leagues are as follows
Canalizing up the Pirapora
To the Cachoeira Grande
To the Porto das Melaneias
Total

:

1,400 000 $000
4,100 000 $000
:

:

.3,200

:

000 $000

8,700 :000$000 say ^870,000,

THE HTOHLANBS OF THR BFiAZIL.

204

[vhw. xtv.

and the water-turned iDot-holes and channels, cut a yard and more
The suhstance is generally a
in depth, show the effect of floods.
hard compact gneiss (granwacker sandstein, gris traumatico) of
light purple tinge, dotted with specks of mica glistening white.
We found also sandstones and impure calcaire which effervesced
hut little under acids.
From this point we could easily distinguish the two main steps separated hy ahout 700 yards, a
length which makes the slope of the rock planes appear very
gentle.
The upper rapid, six feet high, seemed more formidNear the right
ahle than the lower of ahout seven feet.
bank these form catadupas, or true falls they are also garnished
with escadinhas (little ladders), miniature cascades in gerbs and
jets, rushing fariousl}^ down small narrow tortuous channels,
between the teeth of jagged stone-saws, and tumbling over dwarf
buttresses.
Thus the total height between the upper and the
;

lower

"smooths" is thirteen feet; above the break the stream

narrows to 1800

feet,

whilst below, at the Porto da Pirapora,

where the serpentine arms, after crossing and dividing between
the boulders, unite, the bed broadens to 3500.

During the dries

the fair wa}^, if it may so be called, is a thin sheet of water near

no ajojo, however, can pass, canoes must be
unladen and towed up, and without a good pilot there is immiAt the present season it is broken by outcrops of
nent risk.
rock, and during the floods it has dangerous whirlpools.

the western bank

;

The Pirapora is a serious obstacle.

It is not insurmountable,

but it would cost more money, and take a longer time to remove,
than all the most serious obstructions upon the Rio das Velhas.

No work could be carried on in the rainy season, and the inundawould damage the labour done during the dries. Hands
would have to be sent here at a great expense, and even on this
most wealth}^ soil imported provisions would be required. Above
it also the Pdo de Sao Francisco becomes a mass of rapids, and
when you clear one you are within hearing of another. Canoes
tions

ascend with difficulty to the mouth of the Abaete.* M. Liais accurately survej^ed as high as the embouchure of the Paraopeba, and

he found that no expense would clear more than a hundred
leagues of its course.
Pieturning to the Porto, we visited the diamond diggings, whicli
* Etyinologically,

the true

man

man, and dt(j, veritable), or hero.

(aba,

This

is

tlie

stream wliicli ijroducetl the celebrated

diamond in 1792.

TO THE RAPIDS OF THE PIKAPORA.

CHAi\ XIV.]

are

of

some antiquity

205

formerly gold was washed,

;

but this

The gem, which comes, perhaps, from
Most
Cascalho arrested by the rocks.

industry has now ended.
afar,

is

found in the

probably the Caixao or hollow at the foot of each fall would yield
About a dozen men raising " desmonte " from
a better supply.
a pot-hole (panella) between two boulders deeply channelled out

by the joint action of sand, gravel, and w^ater. For small and
valueless stones they asked per vintem (two grains) from 12 $ 000
to 14 $000, something above the London prices.

This part of the Sao Francisco should be eminently diamanOn the east it drains the Cerro, which we have already
tiferous.

To

Rio
Bambuhy (of old Bamboi), which falls in south of the city Dores
do Indaia. Beyond it is the Rio Indaia, or Andaia, where in
May, 1800, Dr. Couto's part}^ took from one hole fort3'-two
stones. Further north is the Ribeiriio do Borrachudo, which also
visited.

gave one gem

the

west

it

receives

the

washings of the

and its neighbour is the Abaete, di'aining the old
Sertao Diamantmo.
These four streams, to mention no others,
issue from the eastern liaiiks of the great chain, whose western
Further north
counterlopes supply the diamonds of Bagagem.
is the Serra da Gamelleira and the valley of the Somno, an
eastern branch of the well-kno-s^ii Paracatu. I will allude to these
rich diamantine deposits as we pass them.
During the last night a raw south '\\ind had set in from the
mountains, and told us that rain had fallen there. It was the
;

'

beginning of the wet season, but the people called the showers

Chuvas da Queimada

— of the bush-burning. Prairie

fires are popu-

larly said everywhere to bring down water ; they sublimate a vast

mass of humidity, the heat and steam rise, a cool draught supplies
their place, and thus the atmosphere camiot support the condensation. In the temperate parts of North America, diu'ing the fall
of the leaf, the tree-trunks restore to the ground the juices whicli
spring injected into the wood-pores, and hence the phenomenon of
streams swelling without a drop of rain. Here, however, though
the dry season was just ended, the vegetation is assuming its
vernal green.

As we began

descent lightning flashed from the

the

the south, and presently from

;

the horizon, followed by low

To the right hand appeared the Ollia

grumblings of thunder.
de Boi, or bull's eye

all

east,

it

is not,

however, the white patch under

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

•206

the black arch of the African tornado.

[cuat. xiv.

Here the sign is a little

section of distant rainbow glistening in all its colours against the
slaty grey background of the discharging cloud,

and showing that

a gale will blow up from the falling shower.

Mosth' we shall see
it in the east, meaning therefore in the afternoon, and when it is
accompanied by wind that sinks the thermometer 8° (F.), we shall
expect a patter of rain, and a storm like a charge of cavalry.

The peo2-)le call it either simply- or " com rabo de gallo "
panied by ciiTus.

—accom-

Presently our cranky canoe was struck

b}'

the gale (rajada de vento), one of the especial dangers of the Sao

The east wind was heard roaring from afar and, as
it came down upon the stream, white waves rose after a few
minutes, subsiding as easil}^ when the gale had blown itself out.
Francisco.

;

In July, 1867, a white squall of the shortest possible duration
carried off the tiles from the roofs of Guaiculn^

Our men preferred the leeward bank upon which

the blast

broke, leaving the water below comparatively dead, and thus they

escaped the risk of falling trees.

The

surface of the central

channel being now blocked by the fierce wind, the side current, a

backwater during our ascent, bore us swiftly down.

It was very

dark at 7*30 p.m., when we climbed the steep and slippery bank
of the

Manga.

Shortly the thunder growled angrily overhead,

and heavy rain fell, fortunately upon a tight roof. This was the
first wet weather which we had experienced since July 21, and it
began a season desolate as a fete-day in England.
At the Manga we saw for the first time the ''Barca,"* which
reminded my companion of the Mississij)pi '" yawl." It has been
introduced only during the last fort}^ years

;

before that time

all

The shape is probabh'
taken from the Douro, but here the form is more in Dutch style,
the work was done by ajojos and canoes.

round and spoon- shaped to suit the stream it wants also the
immense Portuguese caudal fin, though by no means without a
The planks are of the best woods in
large and powerful rudder.
the country, Cedro and Vinhatico, the keel is of Aroeira, and the
huge ribs (costellas or cavernas), together with the heavy crosspieces and gangways, are of the stout, tough Rosea. The average
length may be 45 feet by 14 broad, drawing 3, 4 to 5 feet when
;

* Barco is the

term for large
In this point
Portngnese agi-ees Avith the Italian, which
makes the feminine major than the niascugeneral

iraft, whilst Barca is larger.

line; for instance,
nientative form of
authorities,

smaller.

however,

" trivella,"^ the augSome
" trivello. "

make

Barca

the

TO THE RAPIDS OF THE PIRAPORA.

CHAP. XIV.]

207

loaded, and earning some 400 aiTobas, reckoned by rapaduras or

At Salgado was built tlie X^ S^
now broken up sbe was 81 feet

sugar cakes, each about 4 lbs.

da

Conceicao

da

Praia,

long and 6 feet in the water.

;

Tliese large craft

bottomed (de prato) to work off slioals.
as they cause upsets
lows.

ai-e

alwaj's flat-

Keels are dangerous,

when the current carries them to the shal-

The bows and stern are raised, as in the old caravel, and

matted over or covered with hides in the centre,
Above the
leaving a narrow trampway of plank at each side.
Paulo Aftbnso the toldo or standing awning is unwisely placed in
the cargo

is

the stern so as to catch every puff' of Avind.

The lower rivermes

prefer the cabin in the bows, and diminish its dimensions.

It is

made in tmniel shape, resembling the sm'f-boats of the Guinea
and it is worthy of imitation by the dwellers on the upper
The stern-cabin, which from 8 feet long sometimes
stream.
coast,

takes up a quarter of the length, is of solid planking, in the poorer
sort arched and matted with fronds of the Indaia or the Carnahuba

palm, or even vMi common grass
so as to carry

off'

the rain.

;

the ends hang over both sides

A rich trader assumes some fine

name, as the ''Baroneza de Minas," displays a flag with a " Santa
Maria," and has doors and glass windows. His cabin, which is

up with shelves for goods he comfoi-tribly
swings a hammock, and he disdains to sit at table "s\itliout a
also liis shop, is fitted

;

table-cloth.

The crew

moderate -sized craft may be ten men, the
extremes being six and foiu'teen.
The pilot stands or sits at his
rudder on the raised stern. His men, dressed in white kilts,
and at times in tattered shirts, with hats of leather or straw, have
hard work. Their poles, 21 to 23 feet long, are much heavier
than those of the ajojo, and like the Bedouin lance, require a
practised hand.
They also work huge oars like sweeps, one man
pulHng whilst another pushes. Durmg the floods they must creep
of

a

up at the rate of two leagues per diem, wearmg, as they say, holes
in theii' chests, and exposed to all the insects of the shore
hence
rule
beginning
as a
they make only one trip per annum, and at the
;

of the rains they return home to cultivate for themselves or for
others.
I was siu'prised at the absence of sails ; they were seen at only

two places, Pilao Arcado, and

**

Joazeiro;" and even there they

were limited to ferries crossing the stream.

The people declared

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BKAZIL.

208

that the channel, besides behig studded with

[chap. xiv.

snags, was

too

They

tortuous.

This, however, is very far from being the case.

also feared

sudden gusts (Pes de Yento or Eedemoinhos), wjiich

would cause accidents.

The chief reason is, doubtless, ignorance.

On the Lower Sfio Francisco, where the sea-breeze from the southeast sets in regularly at 9 a.:\i., every barca goes up under sail and
at steamer pace.

The Upper Sao Francisco has its regular trade winds, which
vary with night and day, and still more with the seasons.
The
east,

sometimes veermg towards the north,

is

called the

Vento

Geral,* and it often acts as a " soldier's wind," useful both wa3's.

By night in the lower j^arts of the stream it is followed by a
Terral or land-breeze from the west.

Of this '' vent traversier "

also the barca-men declare that with canvas their boats would be

driven

out of the channel. +

During the four rainy months,

which of course are different in the different sections of the river,
and which as a rule follow the southing and the northing sun, the
trade shifts to south with vresting, and thus blows down stream.
The regularity of the meteor suits admii'ably not only for sailing
but for all manner of simple and economical machinery.
In tliis portion of the Brazil, where the simplest labour-saving
contrivances are unknown, they have never heard of the " horseboat," now so common upon the streams of Continental Europe,
and still used in the United States. The machinery might easily
be adapted to the rafts and boats. A platform some seven feet
long, and raised at an angle of 20° to 31°, faces the stern, and the
animal is taught to walk up it. It is composed of some forty-two
slabs, each four inches square, and the hard, unelastic woods of the
country would supply the best material.
Connected by vertical
joints of iron, which work loosely upon one another, forming an.
endless band or chain, the platform is fastened to an ''idler"
axle in the fore flooring and aft to the tranverse tree which works
the paddles.
This portion is made fast to strong uprights,
and the diameter of the working wheel is about 3 1 of the axle.
:

* The regular east wind of the Amazons
also known as "Yento Greral " (Mr.
Bates, i. 213).
+ "The fault of the vessels navigating
the Amazon is the breadth of beam and the
want of sail. I am confident that a clipperbuilt vessel, sloop, or rather kcteh-riggod,
is

^\ith

a large mainsail,

topsail, topgallant-

—

the last three
and studding-sails
fitted to set going up before the wind, and
to strike, masts and all, so as to beat down
Avith the current under mainsail, jib and
jigger
woukl make good passages l)etwecu
Para and Kgoas " (Lieut. Herndon, 262).
sail,

—

CHAP. xiY.]

TO THE RAPIDS OF THE PIRAPOEA.

209

Thus it would be easy to get over thirty miles per diem with a
tithe of the present toil.

At the Manga I dismissed with the highest recommendations
to future travellers my good old pilot, Chico Diniz and his stout-

hearted companion, Joao Pereii-a.

The expense was 190$000,

but on the Kio das Velhas wages are now at a fancy price ; on the

Sao Francisco there is a regular demand and supply. Joaqumi
volunteered to accomi3any me, but he was short-sighted and softThe " Menino " agreed to remain with me on condition
bodied.
On the
of being supphed with a return passage from Joazeiro.
great stream barquemen do not leave then- beat it is the custom
;

them per travessia or trip, of which, as will be seen,
I Im-ed the cousins Manuel Casimiro de Olithere are eleven.
both were very dark,
veu-a and Justmo Francisco da Conceicao
and the latter, 6 feet 3 inches long, reminded me of Long Guled
to engage

;

the Somal.

They were well acquainted with the water, civil and

obliging, but they lacked the pluck and bottom of the Highlander

crew.

As a rule the worst hands offer themselves to the stranger, and
thus he may find himself in great trouble. All men are here
the canoe, as they say, is their horse.
a type as peculiar as the bargee of olden

more or less amphibious

The real barqueiro is
days in England

;

he is also a free-born man few^ traders ]ike to
More handy than a sailor with us, like the Afri;

;

employ slaves.
can, he is perfectly acquamted with all the small industries necessary to his comfort he can build his house or his dug-out, and
make his tiles or his clothes arts which among the civilised
demand division of labour. Thus he is mostly inferior to those
of his own class in more advanced lands where society has split up
;

—

Here, as elsewhere, it is wonderful how little
foul language is used. The same has been remarked of the North
American backwoodsmen, and the aborigines of both countries
know, we are told, neither swearing nor abuse, "bad man" being
into thin strata.

the worst reproach.
tolerably hardy,

The good specimen is quiet,

inteUigent,

and perfectly respectful to his Patrao, the pro-

prietor or hu-er of the boat.

He usually eschews drink altogether,

The worst lot is
fearing the drunken quarrels to which it leads.
rough as its own barque, and desperately addicted to strong
waters and women, to the nightly Samba and Pagodi, the local
My last gang will be a good specimen of the bad.
.^...
VOL.

II.

P

a
;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

210

[chap. xiv.

All are lieadstrong, a race of '^aiitonomoi," who will have their

own wa}', and who do not lilve to be directed or contradicted. I
was advised to carry plenty of spirits and tobacco to prevent them
jumping ashore at every house. They have enormous appetites,
which come, they say, from the shaking of the barca. This is
probabl}' an

'^

Vv'ould sacrifice

jaguars.
dehgiit,

Indian "

derivation ;

the

savages,

we

are told,

everything for food, and ate with the voracity of

Although the}^ know that it is injmious, the barqueiros
I
the Peruvians, in rapadura or Chancaca sugar

lilve

;

have seen a man eat 2 lbs. of it at a sitting.

They have the usual

Portuguese and tropical horror of fresh millv

;

on the other hand,
the soured form, here called Coalhada, and in Hindostan " Dahi,"
has a high reputation; it certainl}^ is antibilious. The rest of
the diet is Jacuba, which has been before mentioned, sun-dried
meat, water melons, and beans * with lard. Almost all smoke, a

few take snuff, and very few chew.

A characteristic of the barqueiro is his aptitude for mild slanging and chaffing, the latter being a practice abhorrent to the

—

mind in general. '^ O Senlior e muito ca9uador "
great joker means that you are not pleasant.
He has also the
habit of the Hindu palanquin-bearer carrying a " griffin," and
will, if impudent, extemporise songs about his patron.
The lanBrazilian

—

guage renders the rhj^me eas}^, but the stranger is astonished by
the facility with which men and women squatting on then* heels f
answ^er one another in Amabsean verse, made without a moment's

thought.

Althougli we have had an Ettrick Shepherd,

many

deride the pastorals wherein the swains prefer poetry to jDrose.

They should hear

the

Sao Francisco River
young w^oman," and making songs about

barqueiro

of the

capping verses with his

*'

everything in general.

Similarly the opera is held to be fictitious

and unreal because emotions and passions are expressed in music
but the negroes of Central Africa show by chaunting when their
sorrow is deepest, and the South American Botocudos evince
excitement by singing instead of speaking.
ils

"lis ne paiient plus

chantent," says the traveller.

* This is an excellent food, not only for
per cent, of nourislnnent to 60
The principal species of these
Papilionacete are Feijao Preto (Phaseohis
derasus), Feijao Carrapato (P. tumidns and
sphsericus), and Feijao Mulatinho (P. vulcattle (70
of oats).

Tliere are many others,
+ Tliis position is nsual in the wild parts

garis).

The eye familiar -with it in
of the Brazil.
Eastern lands is struck by it when the
squatter wears the garb of the "West,

—
TO THE RAPIDS OF THE PIRAPORA.

CHAP. XIV.]

Naturally

the

subject

matter

mostty

is

211

The

amorous.

barqueiro delights in screaming ''a largas guelas," at the top of
his voice, some such verse as

Hontem vi uma dama
Por meu rispeito cliorar.

He eternally praises the Cor de Canella or brunette of these
and he is severe upon those of the sex who dare to
deceive the poor mule-trooper or boatman.
regions,

Mulher que engana tropeiro
Merece couro dobrado
Coitadinlio tropeiro coitado ! (chorus).

He thus dii'ects Mariquinha to put the kettle on

:

frango na panella
Quanda vejo cousa boa
Nao posso deixar perder.

Beta

Pilota (ctorus).

Some of the songs still haunt my ears, especially one which much
resembled " Sam 'AH." The more and the louder they sing the
better for the journey;

it

seems to revive them as the bell does

the mule.

The

superstitions of the barqueu'o are as

chaunts.

numerous as

his

He beheves fii-mly in the Duende or Goayajara, wizard

and witch, the Lobishomem or loup-garou of Portugal, the Angai,
the Anhanga,"* the

Ahna or ghost,

the Esqueleto or skeleton

apparition, the Gallo Preto, or bad priest turned into a black cock,

and the Capetinha or imp. They have curious tales about the
Cavallo de Agua and other fabulous animals. This beast is the
size of a small colt, round-hoofed, red-haired, and fond of browsing on the banks. The ''Menino " declares that he saw it in a
pocao or kieve below the Cachoeu'a dos Geraes in the Pvio das
* Angai in the ''Tesoro de la lingua

guarani "

translated "the evil spirit,"
also called Giropary, Jurupari, and Jerupari.
I presume that it was really applied
to that injured man or to some ghost that
is

had made
Anhanga is

notoriously unpopular.
Anglicised " phantom " (phanitself

tasma) from "anho," alive, and "anga,"
thus it means soul
ghost, soul, spirit
Of course,
only
soul without body.
"soul" and "spirit" are civilised terms

—

:

applied to a barbarous idea.

Tliey denote

subjectivities which may be reduced to the
totality of central and nervous action. The

Alma is like Dr. Johnson's, or rather Mr.
Cave's " ghost
dowy being."

''

— "something

of

a

slia-

N obrega and Anchieta -ni'ote

Yves D'Evreux, Aignan, Barx\naanh and other forms used upon
the Continent and the Islands are Uracan
and
(hurricane ?), Hyorocan, Amignao,
Anhanga,
riere,

;

Amignan (F. Denis).
P 2

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

212

[chap. xiv.

and that a youtli fired at it. Perhaps it may be the
Lamantin, so well known in the Amazonas waters, but I am not
aware that the Peixe boi (Manatus Amazonicus) has been found

Vellias,

here.

The Cachorrinha d'Agua or water-pup has a white coat

and a golden star upon the forehead

whoever sees it will comThe Minhocao or large worm, the

mand all the gifts of fortune.

;

Midgard, the Great Sea Serpent, the Dabbat-el-Arz of the Ai'abs,
plays a part as important as the Dragon in China.

It is 120 feet

long by 2 in diameter, barrel shaped, scaleless, bronze-coloured,

The Minhocao

and provided with a very small mustached mouth.
is

a perfect " Worm of Wantley " in point of anthropophag}^

St. Hilaire (III. ii. 133) heard of it in the Lagoa Feia of Goyaz.
At first he beheved it to be the Gymnotus Carapa, then a gigantic

Lepidosiren.

Col. Accioli (p. 8) holds it to be an extinct monster.

Castelnau (ii. 53) speaks of it in the Araguaya.

It was 30 to 40

metres in length, and the terrible voice resounded for many
Halfeld (Relatorio, 119) mentions that his men mistook

leagues.

for it a tree trunk, and thinks it fabulous.

Farther down we shall

pass a part of the bank which has been injured by the Big Worm,

and many educated men have not made up their minds upon the

The superstition is evidently of " Indian " origin.*

subject.

All these legends have a taint of the Tupy, grotesque savage

who best adorned his j^erson by spreading upon a coat of gum the
hashed plumery of gaudy birds, in fact who invented tarring and
feathering b}' appljing it to himself ; experimentum in corpore vili.
Classical, and worthy to rank with the Sea Fairy Tales, however,
is the

Mae d'Agua, a spirit, a naiad, a mermaid who aspires to

be a mer-matron, and who inhabits the depths of Brazilian

Of perfect form,

rivers.

utterly disdaining the

fish-tail,

clothed only in hair glittering like threads of gold, she
siren.

aird

is also a

Her e^^es exercise iiTCsistible fascination, and none can

withstand the attraction of her voice.

She is fond of bo3"S, lilve
most of her sex, when arrived at a certain age, and she seduces
beautiful boatmen.
Unlike the churlish Undines and Melusines
* Thus Lieut. Herndon (Chapter 8),
speaking of the Lake Country of the Upper
Amazons, remarks,
Many of these lakes
are, according to the traditions of the
Indians, guarded by an immense serpent,
which is able to raise such a tempest in the
'

'

lake as to

swamp their canoes, when it

immediately swallows the people.

It

is

called

Mama,

in

the Lengua Inga (Inca),

'Yacu

and the
or mother of the waters
Indians never enter a lake with which they
are not familiar that they do not set uj) an
obstreiierous clamour with their horns,
*

;

which the snake is said to answer, thus
giving them warning of its ijresence."

CHAP. XIV.]

TO THE RAPIDS OF THE PIEAPORA.

213

of Europe, when she pro^ooses a change, she dismisses her lovers
with great wealth. Gon^alves Dias, the poet, has made of her a

malevolent pixj, a Lurelei, whose object is to drown youth ; but
he takes away none of her charms.
Olha a bella creatura

Que dentro d'ag-ua se ve

!

—

CHAPTEK XV.
THE RIO DE SAO FRANCISCO.
THE SYSTEM OF THE STREAM. — ITS SOURCE. — DIRECTION. — LENGTH.— MAGNITUDE. — GEOLOGY.— GLAZED ROCKS. — IRON DEPOSITS.— WEALTH OF VALLEY.
THE RIVER CONSIDERED IN CONNECTION WITH COLONISATION, AND AS
A LINE OP COMMUNICATION. — THE RIVERS OF THE BRAZIL GENERALLY.
— DEPLORABLE NEGLECT OF WATER COMMUNICATION. — RIVERS VERSUS
RAILWAYS. THE RIO DAS VELHAS PREFERABLE TO THE UPPER SAO
FRANCISCO. — ESTIMATES FOR CLEARING THE RIO DAS VELHAS, BY M.
LIAIS.— ESTIMATES FOR CLEARING THE RiO DE SAO FRANCISCO BY M.
HALFELD. — ESTIMATES OF M. DE LA MARTINIERE, — THE AUTHOR'S OWN
ESTIMATES.— STEAM NAVIGATION ON THE RIO DAS VELHAS BEGUN BY M.
H. DUMONT. — STEAM NAVIGATION ON THE RIO DE SAO FRANCISCO BY THE
COUNCILLOR MANOEL PINTO DE SOUZA DANTAS. — CREATION OF NEW
PROVINCE ON THE SAO FRANCISCO RIVER. — GENERAL VIEW OF THE GREAT
LINE OF COMMUNICATION. — ITS BENEFITS TO THE EMPIRE.

—

—

" One of the best gifts of nature, in so grand a channel of communication,

seems here wilfully thrown away."

Darwin, Naturalisfs Voyage, Chap. vii.

Lieutenant Mauey is undoubtedly correct when he remarks
that the valle3^s of the Amazons and the Mississippi are commercomplements of each other, one supplying what the other
The geographical homolacks in the great commercial round.
logy of the riverine formations in the Northern and Southern
divisions has also been remarked by many writers. The Amazons
cial

represents

The Kio

the

comparatively diminutive

de la Plata

is

Missouri, and the Parana

Laurentian

system.*

the Mississippi, the Paraguay
is

is

the

the Ohio, whilst the Pilcomayo, the

Bermejo, and the Salado are the Plata, the Ai'kansas, and the

Bed Piver.
The Pio de Sao Francisco has been trivially compared with
the Mississippi and with the Nile.

It presents an analogy with

The valleys of the Amazons and the Paraguay Rivers can easily be connecteJ like
those of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi.

:

THE RIO DE SAO FRANCISCO.

CHAP. XV.]

215

One
the African Niger, but none with those of North America.
of many, it rises in the South, flows to the North with easting,
and near the end of its course it bends eastwards and disembogues into the Atlantic. It is the external segment of sundry
similar sections of cu'cles, bounded by basins draining north
to the Amazons, and west and south-west to the Parana-Plata
the included arcs are the great Jequitinhonha and the Doce rivers.
Further South is the Parahj-ba do Sul, and South again the
Eibeira de Iguape.* Except the latter all these streams burst
through the barriers which more or less developed subtend this
part of the South American, as they do the corresponding portion
of the African, seaboard.

The oldest traditions (Noticias do Brazil, 1589) derived from
the savages, make the Sao Francisco rise in a " great and famous
would be very desii-able to discover." Luccock
(p. 530) remarks, "in the St. Francisco and the Parana we beheld
the drains of an immense mternal lake, bounded on the east b}^
the Serros Frio and Mantiqueira, on the south by that of Maracana, and on the west by those which separate the Parana from
lake which

it

the Paraguay, or He bej^ond those streams.

The waters of this

ancient elevated sea have burst their barriers in S. lat. 15° and

wearing their channels deeper at the Falls of
Pirapora in the north, and Setequedas in the south just as the
Lakes Erie and Ontario, in North America, will, in all proba20°, and are still

;

bility,

be drained by wearing away the impediments which now

form the Falls of Niagara."

M. Halfeld

(Relatorio,

p.

108)

Ibyapaba," t and the
Itacutiara, Brejo and Itacaratu, with the minor features near
the Monte Escuro were of old the walls of an extensive '' salt-

is

thmk that the Serras of

inclined to

water sea."

''

He drains it off through the Eapids of Itaparica

(317 leagues I) which burst and formed the great futm-e Paulo
Salinas abound upon its Ime, the grits and calcareous
Affonso.
* This stream rise s to the east or sea-

ward side of the great Serra do Mar,
which in the southern province of Sao
The
Paulo bends away fi'om the shore.
etymology is "yg," water, "cua," belt,
and "ipe," a place where. I reserve the
Eibeira for a future volume.
t Sr. J. de Alencar prefers to write
"Ibyapaba." Yieira translates it "Terra
aparada," and Maii^ins explains it by
" Iby "
"Iby,"land, and "pabe," all.
thus the name of the
is often corrupted
:

celebrated Pjiiiguara tribe v/as originally
Iby-tiva-cua-jara, the lords of the land-

According to ]\I. Brunet, of
Bahia, the height of the range does not
Mr. Keith Johnexceed 2200 metres.
stone has adopted Ibiapaba, and Gardner
informs us that the Poi-tuguese name is
M. Halfeld writes HipSerra Yermelha.
piapaba.
J JVI. Halfeld's first league was at the
Pirapora, and he places the junction of
the Rio das Velhas,

valley.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

216

marls contain an abundance of
Chilian saltpetre (nitrate of

[chap. xv.

salt (chloride of sodium),

soda), *

and

and as in the Valley of the

Indus the Sal da terra effloresces during the dr}^ season. I may
add that the presence of iodine would explain the absence of
goitre, and the fact that the cocoa-nut palm flourishes at such
abnormal distances from the ocean.
The main somxe of the Eio de Sao Francisco is in the eastern
versant of the Serra da Canastra, the great central platform of
Minas Geraes, between S. lat. 20° and 20° 30' and W. long. 3°
" From the gap of a perpendicular rock more
(Pdo de Janeiro).
than 1000 feet high," says the Baron von Eschwege, " bui'sts the

The

principal nascent of the Sao Francisco."

spot was visited

by St. Hilaire (III. i. 184), and " tore from liim a cry of admira-

He

gives to the Casca d'Anta Cascade 667 feet of
and he remarks " qu'on se tache de se representer la
reunion de tout ce qui charme dans la Nature
le plus beau
ciel, des roches eleves, une cascade majestueuse, les eaux les
tion."

altitude,

;

plus limpides, la verdure la plus fraiche, enfin des bois vierges

qui presentent

toutes

les

formes de

la

vegetation

des tro-

piques."

The waters of the young river sweep from west to east for a
distance of about fifty-five and a half leagues, and

mountain torrents.

are

mere

Before receiving the Paraopeba the breadth

of the united stream is 140 metres, and the maximum depth 3*25

metres, with a discharge of 130 cubic metres per second.

The

direction is then from south to north with the Serra Grande or

Espinhaco on the

and the Mata da Corda forming the
western wall. From the Paraopeba to the Pirapora Kai^ids the
line has been surveyed, it inclines at first to the west and then
to the east, the distance being forty and four-fifths geogi'ai)hical
east,

leagues (226,845 metres).

From the Pirapora to the Cachoeii'a do

Sobradinho, a distance of 239

—

240 leagues, the whole line is
ready for a steamer, and including the Rio das Velhas, a total of
508 leagues can be made transitable with little difficulty. Below
the Sobradinho there are twenty-nine clear leagues, followed by
forty-four which, though dangerous, are transitable to rafts and

canoes.

From Varzea Redonda, twent^^-five to twenty-six leagues

are unnavigable, and in this section occur the Great' Rapids of

See Chap. 10, wlicrc the nitrate of potassa will Le mentioned.

;

CHAP. XV.]

THE RIO DE 8A0 FRANCISCO.

Paulo

Finally,

Affonso.

below the

line

217

of rapids, forty-two

leagues, upon which steamers now ply, connect the Lower Rio de

Sao Francisco with the ocean.

It is here unnecessary to enter

into details of direction * or distance, as we shall float down the

whole way.
The Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes de France assigns to
the Sao Francisco the foui'th rank amongst the streams of South
America.

It follows the Amazons (5400 kilometres f ), until lately

held to be by far the largest river in the world

;

the Parana-

I

But M. Liais has
shown that the Sao Francisco has been wrongly assumed to
represent 2100 kilometres from its source to the mouth of the
Plata (3440 ks.) and the Tocantins (2300).

:

800 kilometres, and 2100 from that point to
Thus the cosmic
the sea the total, therefore, will be 2900. §
or
eighteen,
In Em-ope
seventeen
will
be
rank of our stream
in Asia by the Yenissei, the
it is surpassed only by the Volga
Pdo das Yelhas

is

:

j

;

Yang-tse-Kiang, the Hoang-ho, the Oby, the Lena, the Amour,
and the Mei-Kong in Africa by the Nile, the Niger, the Zam;

We may briefly remark that it runs

direct length of 1000 British statute miles

with a little westing as far as
the Urucuia R. (.30th league from the
mouth of the Rio das Velhas), noi'th-northeast to the Bom Jesiis da Lapa (106th
league)
north, with a little westing to
This
the Villa da Barra (162nd league).

and of 1600, including wdndings, whilst he
sets dowTi the area of drainage at 250,000
square miles.
Sir John Herschel (Physical

*

north,

;

meridional course is plea.sant to the traveller, who always regrets when he must east
Then
or west, and thus catch the sun.
begins the long north-eastern bend, whose
or
Quebobo (278th
apex is Cabrobo
Thence the stream curves to
league).
the south-south-east, and finally to the
south-east.

+ Lieutenant Hemdon

assigns

to

the

Ucayali-Amazon an uninterrupted naviHe estimates in
gation of 3360 miles.
round numbers the flu\dal lines of the
valley for large vessels at about 6000 miles,
and he supposes that, including the
numerous small streams, the length would
swell to 10,000 (p. 280).

X The Nile is rapidly rising in point
length.

My friend ]\Ir. A. Gr.

of

Findlay,

the geographer, says (June 3, 1867)— "If
the source be near the Muxinga Range
the total course will be 3500
geographic or 4050 British miles, almost
unparalleled by any other river."
§ Professor D.T. Ansted(p. 34, Elementary
Course of Greologj', Mineralogy and Ph3\sical
Geography) gives the Sao Francisco a total
.

—

Geography, p. 188) says
"The basin of
the San Francisco includes the district (?)
of Minas Geraes, the great source of the
mineral wealth of Brazil.
It includes an
area of 187,200 square geographical miles
in length to its source in the Sierra da
]\Iatta

da Corda

(?)."

It

is regi-ettable

when any but professed geographers write
geography.
Mr. Gerber makes the total
of the two hydrographic basins in the
Province of Minas to contain 20,000 square
leagues
geographical
square
(180,000
miles), and amongst these he places first
the Sao Francisco, to which he assigns
8800 square leagues, or 79,200 square
geographical miles.
M. Liais assigns to it the 16th place.
But at present it is very difficult to calculate the area of the Zambesi and the Congo
Rivers.
Assiiming the former to rise in
E. long. 16° and to debouch in E. long. 36"
(and to extend between lat. 8° and 18°),
II

with the mean length of a degree of 58*472,
we have a greater direct course than the
Sao Francisco.
The Congo is not to be
estimated in the present state of geographical knowledge
it will probably prove
:

itself

equal to the Nigex*.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BllAZIL.

218

and

besi (?)

Congo (?)

tlie

;

in

America

b}"

[chap. xv.

the Amazons, the

Mississippi, the Parana-Plata, the St. Louis, St. Lawrence, and

the Mackenzie.

A late expedition has decided that the basins of the Piauhy
and the Amazons are identical, and that both are lilve the Mississip2:>i,
cretaceous formations.
Neither Professor Agassiz nor
Mr. Orestes St. John found marine deposits, but these may
have escaped the notice of a flying survey. They judged that
both were of fresh-water origin. During the cosmic winter the
glaciers had moved down to the valleys, without, however, ploughing then- soles, or leaving those " glacial inscriptions," furrows,

and burnishings which characterise ice-action. When the
frozen masses w^ere raised by thaws, the triturations were deposited at the bottom, and now form the underlying distinctly
stratified sandstones and the loose sands.
Upon these rest the
clay formations, laminated, stratified, cross-stratified, and unstratified, with lines and waves of coarse gravel and pebbles,
whose material is quartz, often highly ferruginous. Capping the
whole is the sandy and once pasty clay, red with ochre, and

stride,

common to the Brazil and intertropical Africa.

It

overspreads

the imdulating surface of denuded sandstone, following

all its

up its furrows and depressions. The
breaking up of the geological winter, and the final disappearance
of the ice, formed a vast fresh-water lake. This, after a someAvhat
com2:>licated histor^^ finalty burst its seaward dyke, effected denudation on a gigantic scale, and wore the land down to its
rock-core, except where the strata were hard enough to resist.
Professor Agassiz found distinct moraines, and shows that instead of forming a Delta, the mouth of the Amazons has suffered
extensively from the encroachments of the ocean.
Li the case of
the Sao Francisco the river builds up faster than the sea can
destroy and the denudation of the coast is not to be compared
inequalities,

and

filling

;

with that further north.

Its Delta does not equal in size those

of the Nile, the Niger,

and the Zambesi, but

it

is

distinctly

traceable.

M. Halfeld (Pelatorio, p. 172) opines that the gres, or sandstone
grit, is

the characteristic formation of the Pdo de Sao Francisco.

The stream rises, as has been seen, from the great central platform of Minas

:

its

material

is

the Itacolumite

or granular

laminated sandstone, which seems to compose the central and

THE RIO DE SAO FRANCISCO.

CHAP. XV.]

the

iiGT^'er

portions

of

tlie

219

Some would compare

continent.*

these deposits with the vast Sihirian beds of North America.

present characteristic proofs are wanting.

de I'Academie

de

Bruxelles,

viii.

M. Chusin (Bulletin

found

5)

At

the

print

of

a

Travellers
univalve in the modern red grits of Minas Geraes.
and miners, however, are both agreed that hitherto the Brazil,
and even Southern America generally, resembles Africa in
the difficidt}' of finding organised fossil bodies, and thus it is
difficult to decide the geologic age of the immense grit deposits
in the Eastern

pears

at

Bom

and Northern plateau. This Itacolumite reapJardim (138th league) and runs down stream

alternating with coast granite.

Below the gneiss and schist

of the Pii*apora, we find sand and

sandstones here brown, there of a deep ochre, often highly ferruginous, rarely stratified, and more or less nodulous and j)orous.

This formation resembles the coast '^ di'ift," and once covered
continuously all the river valley ;

is

it

still

superficial except

where the flood-mud has acciunulated upon it, and in parts it
shows intervening layers of clay. It is also broken by outcrops
of hard, blue mountain-limestone, and
draulic

limestones,

compact

or

by argilliferous or hyand abounding in

stratiform,

silex.

Further down stream are close sandstones resembling ferru.ginous

quartzite

and

chemical or mechanical.

covered with

a polished

crust,

either

The rocks are blackened to the colour

of dark coke in places where the floods have less polishing
power and the presence of the muTory glaze upon the brown,
yellow or red rock, sandstone, granite and syenite, readily gave
the high-water mark.
In many parts it resembled magnetic
iron, and I tried it upon the needle without any effect.
The
coating did not exceed wafer-thickness, and in places where the
softer material had yielded, glazed sheets, and surfaces partially
glazed, stood up detached.
The people term these tinted rocks

Pedras de Marumbe, evidently believing them to be ii'onstones.
The glaze, however, is of three kinds the darkest purple, which
;

* Tlie same grit was found by Castelnau
on tlie Tocantins River, and on his route
from Groyaz to Cuyaba, in Mato Grosso.
Near Santa Cruz of JNIinas Greraes he also
mentions erratic blocks of a granite which
does not exist in the neighbourhood.
That
traveller records the absence of fossils, and

believes that as a rule the low-lying and
hot j^ortions of the South American conti-

nent are of much older date than the
Highlands otfsetting from the Cordilleras,
and whose formations are placed regularly
as those of Europe,

220

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

appears black in the shade, another

is

[chap. xv.

plumbago-black

(peclra

negra), while the third is a warm red-yellow, probabl}" pm'e fer-

ruginous matter deposited upon boulders whose inner colour is

On the Sao Francisco the further

the same (pedra cabocla).*

we went down the deeper became the tint, and the denser the
glaze, till in j^laces above and below and about the Great Eapids,

the monstrous masses looked like castings of solid metal.

This
would suggest that it is the work of the stream, but it is difficult
to decide whether the waters carried it in solution, or whether
their friction had drawn it from the interior to the surface.
Analyses by Berzelius and Charles Konig made it to consist of
oxides of manganese and iron, f
The specimens from the Atures
proved to contain, besides oxide of manganese, carbon and supercarburetted iron, but they blackened the paper in which they
were wrapped. Such is not the case here, nor do the people
attribute to them any noxious influence ujoon the atmosphere.

The subject was, I believe, first discussed by Humboldt. |

He

found that ''whenever the Orinoco, between the missions of
Carichana and of Santa Barbara, periodically washes the granitic
rocks, they become

bago."

smooth black, and as if coated with i)lumOn the Congo Paver I observed the thin shining black

crust, strikingly

resembling the coatings of meteoric stones, to

begin at Boma, just below the narrows

of the Zaire, and to

extend up to the Yellalah or Great Eapids, in fact where the
stream is most turbulent.
Here it was first observed by the
expedition of 1816 under Captain Tucke}-, and the specimens

were described by M. Konig. §

In 1832 Mr. Darwin found near

Bahia, where a rivulet entered the sea, and where the surf and
tidal waves supply the polishing

power of cataracts, coatings of a

rich brown like those of the Sao Francisco, and he justty remarks

that *'hand specimens fail to give a just idea of these burnished

stones which glitter in the sun's rays."
* I never heard tlie people say, as on the
Orinoco, that "the rocks are burnt" (or
carbonised) " by the rays of the sun,"
or that "the rocks are black where the
waters are white."
+ I have sent to Europe specimens of
these curious rock-incrustations from the
Sao Francisco River.
During the few

months since they were removed, the glaze
has become comparatively dull, and looks
as though it required renewal.

He could assign no

+ Personal Narrative, vol. ii. chap. 20
Bohn's Scientific Library, London, lSf>2.
§ Tliat geologist (Appendix to Captain
Tuckey's Expedition, No. 6) argued from
the primitive rock-formations of the lower
mountains
Zaire the probability that the
of Pernambuco, Rio, and other adjacent
parts of South America, were primevally
connected with the opposite chains that
traverse the plains of Congo and Loango."
:

'

'

THE RIO DE SAO FKAXCISCO.

CHAP. XV.]

221

reason wli}^ these coatings of metallic oxides always remained of

During his second expedition Dr.
Livingstone (chap, ii; Zambesi and its Tributaries) remarks of
the rocks of the Kibrabasa Eapids, that "they were covered with
a thin black glaze, as if highly polished and coated with lampblack varnish." This was apparently deposited wdiile the river
Vv^as in flood, for it covers only those rocks which lie between the
highest water-mark and a line about four feet above the lowest.
This aj^pearance has also been remarked upon the Cataracts of

nearly the same thickness.

the Nile.*

In the river valley, runnmg parallel with the glazed rocks, are
detached hills rising abruptly from the level surface, and divided

from one another by low spaces, t Some of these piers, which
appear to be pinned down, as if they w^ere segments of dykes to
control the stream, and to keep it from wandering, are composed
of almost pure magnetic iron t we ascended several of them, and
;

* M. Rozi'Jre pointed out to Humboldt
that the primitive rocks of the little cataracts of Syene display, like those of the
Orinoco, a glossy sui-face of a blackish
grey or almost leaden colour.
f For the first few leagues below the
mouth of the Rio das Yelhas, the Sao
Francisco runs between containing walls.
Thence to Urubu in the 127th league, it is
bounded by the scarjDs of ridges which
divide the secondary river-valleys.
The

rich ores is often Cdnga, or hydr'ate of iron,
worked in Europe by air fui-naces it is

backed by " denudation
mountains " appear below Urubu.
t This vast iron formation is not noticed
by M. J. A. Monlevade, who in 1854 addressed Sr. Diogo de Vasconcellos, then

north -north -east to
south-south-west, inclining to the east
the breadth is one-eighth to one quarter of
a league, and the dejtth is unknown.
JSTo. 1.
Cordillera, beginning from the
east, extends from near Sacramento, Municipality of Santa Barbara, Parish of Prata,
River rid S.
the Piracicava
crosses

detached

hills

President of Minas Greraes.
He declares
the Province to be i)eculiarly adapted for
the industry, having a healthy temperate
climate, a vast expanse of virgin forest to
supply charcoal, and waterfalls which will
everj'where facilitate the ajiplication of
The united deposits contain
machinery.
more iron than the whole of Eui'ope, considering the richness of the ^angue, which
It is
gives 76 per cent, of pure metal.
principally martite, or magnetic ore almost
alM'ays accompanied by Jacutinga, oxydulated iron, or protoxide of iron, with
layers of manganese and titanium in the
The analysis by Dr. Percy of
sandy state.
the micaceous Itaberite gives 68 'OS per
Sesquicent, of metal thus distributed
peroxide of mangaoxide of iron, 97*25
nese, '14; lime, 0*3 4; residue, silica, &c.,
1 '88
a trace of magnesium and no phosOverlying the
total, 99 '61.
phoric acid

—

;

;

:

:

here neglected, because
from 25 to 35 per cent.

its

yield is

only

There are besides

huge scatters of mineral, five principal
ranges lying at a mean distance of eighteen
leagues east and west of one another on a line
The richest
perpendicular to their trend.
diggings are associated with gold, which
occurs for the most part in the lower hills,
slopes,

strata

and
strike

valleys.

The

metalliferous

from

:

Domingos and Jequitib^, covers a vast surface near the Ribeirao de Cocaes-Grrande,
and after twelve leagues, is lost in the

The land is everywhere wooded
on both versants, the soil is fertile, and
water abounds.
It rises in
No. 2 is ten leagues long.
the farm of Professor Abreu, 3 4 leagues
above the village of S. Miguel, and it
forms the left-hand wall of the Piracicava
*'Moito Aguado " (Agudo ?), its
River.
culmination, fronts the foundry of M.
Monlevade, and crosses his grounds for a
whole league.
No. 3, twelve leagues long, ajjpears in
the "Capao," south of Ouro Preto, is rich
to the west of that city, prolongs itself
fid Santa Anna and Antonio Pereira, forms

forests.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

222

I reserve a further notice.

The low hinds are

[chap. xv.

finely laminated

sands and clays with regular cleavage, where sun-burnt and airbaked, and patched with a variety of colours, white and black,
blue and grey, pink and yellow, crimson and orange.

dotted levels are backed by ranges

of denudation

The ironmountains,

Their smooth

which, from the stream, appear to be concave.

and terraces show that they were once continuous
walls, now isolated b}^ weathering on a vast scale, and being
still degraded by tropical rains and suns.
The superior hardness of their ferruginous sandstone saved them from being worn
down to the low alluvial levels, and the laminated formations at
table tops

their base.

The great granitic formation of the coast reappeared about the
238th league, and continued with interruptions to the Bapids of

Approaching tliis
feature, and due south of the Araripe plateau, where Dr. Gardner
found, on argillaceous ground, the stone-cased fishes of the
cretaceous sj^stem, the end of the secondary epoch, appeared
signs of a remarkable correspondence with the Amazons.
On
both sides of the river were arenaceous buttresses suggesting
gault.
The coarser materials had invariably settled in the lowest
levels, and above were the fine grits known to the people as
"Pedras de Amolar," or whetstones.
In this part he found
agates and an abundance of flint, with the coticular sandstone
re-occurring about Paulo Affonso and the Porto das Piranhas.
Paulo Affonso, where

On

the

lower S.

it

passed into syenite.

Francisco,

after

j^assing

the

rapids,

about

Talhado (332nd league) in Alagoas, I saw the same sandstone
Near the town of
Propia (367th league) there is an outcrop of lime, and extensive
deposits of modern calcaire are met with on the lower courses of
the shoii broad streams which cut the coast line.
overlying granite and underlying limestone.

the MoiTo d'Agua Quente and the cross
chain of the Caraga, and is lost opposite
the mine of the Griiarda Mur Innocencio.
No. 4, twenty leagues long, begins at the
south of the Card^a half a league from CaIjanema, and extending north via Cachoeira
Morro Vermelho, 1109a (Rossa) Grande,
G-ongo Soco, Cocaes, Brucutu, and the
Serra da Conceigao, forms the peak of the

Northern Itabira.
No. .5, eighteen leagues long, begins
south of Itabira do Campo, which is composed of pure oxide of iron, accompanies

the

great

Cordillera to

Curral d'El-Rei,

crosses the liio das Velhas at Sahara, forms

the Piedade Range, and prohably reappears
far north at Graspar Rodrigues, Candonga,
in the Serra Negra and in the Grao Mogor
all places very rich in iron.
Evidently, says M. Monlevade, it wants
nothing but roads, which will save 7 $ OUO
out of 8 $ 000, and an import duty on
A few model
foreign iron of 25 per cent.
establishments would soon give an impetus

—

to the trade,

THE RIO DE SAO FRANCISCO.

CHAP. XV.]

St. Hilaire (I. ii., 14),

223

when describing tlie course of the Sao

Francisco, had remarked, " La rive gauche, phis elevee que la
Col.
droite, est generalement moins exposee aux debordemens."

which was
The great river, however, flows on a
probably only local.
meridian, and the result of the compound motion produced by its
northern course and the earth's revolution from west to east,
tends theoretically to withdraw the weight of water from the left
or western side, and to throw it against the right or eastern.
Thus it has been remarked, that on long lines of railways running
Accioli

(p.

14)

seems

to confirm

this observation,

on the eastern rail. Practically I
did not find that this theory, which has been extensively discussed

north and south, the wear

is

in Kussia, affected the Sao Francisco.

This stream is not a ''holy river," caret quia vate sacro, but
its future will be more honorable than the past of the Ganges or
The valley and the high dry Geraes which limit it
the Indus.
on both sides contain all the elements of prosperity required by

The population is now calculated at 1,500,000 to

an empire.

2,000,000, probably nearer the latter than the former, and it can
support 20,000,000 of souls. As was said of the Upper Amazon,
''here the sugar-cane and the pine-apple maybe seen growing by

a spectator, standing in the barley-field and the potato patch."

The uplands can breed in any quantities black cattle, horses,
mules, sheep, pigs and goats, while there will be no difficulty in

Of mineral wealth, besides diamonds
and opals (?), agates, gold and iron, we find mentioned by M. E.

acclimatisino- the

camel.

de la Martiniere*

and others,

platina,

argentiferous

galena,

mercury, cop]3er (near the Sete Lagoas), antimony, arsenic, manSalt and saltpetre, sulphur
ganese, cobalt and various ppites.

and alum have been found in large deposits. Of building materials
we notice marble, freestone and slate, lime generally dispersed
and hydraulic cement; silex, grindstones and potter's-clay are

The land is admu'ably fitted for the silk-worm,

also abundant.

and for the cultivation of cotton, which will some day rival its

immense fisheries, t
* Official Letter.

The basin of the

Annexe X. to Presiden-

tial Relation of 1867.

+ The names of the fish not occurring
in the following pages, but mentioned by
]VI. Halfeld, and referred to by the people,

ave
1.

:

— The scaly

:

Camurupim (?), short and thickset.

2.

Silo

Francisco is terres-

Camurim, mirim, and assu (large and

small),

white with dark stripes on both

sides,
3.

Tubarana,

dourada

(yellow),

and

lean up-stream, but
much admired below the rapids.

branca, a large
4.

fish,

B\gre de Ouro.(.')

—
THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

224

[chap. xv.

and it is completely isolated by cataracts near
The fishes, therefore, which
the source and above tlie mouth.
have Amazonian names will i:)robabl3" be found to be distinct.
trial not aquatic,

The locahsation of species lately found, even to a greater extent
than he expected, b}" Professor Agassiz, who remarked that the
main

arter}^

of the great northern basin

distinct families, will be the case here.

was broken up into

The riverines, who have

never attempted classification, or distribution, or limitation, can
generally tell whether a fish

grounds.

is

The naturalist who

or is not caught below certain
shall attempt the ichthyologj- of

the Sao Francisco will have before

him the task of years.

The

stupendous results obtained by Professor Agassiz, the revolution
of ichth^^ology of which he sj^eaks, were effected by an immense
collaboration,

public and

private, as far as collection extends.

That savant may be said to have been assisted by the forces of the
empire.

The hop, and to a certain extent the vine, will flourish.
Amongst the cereals it produces a wealth of maize and rice,
whilst barley, rye, and probably wdieat, will succeed in the Geraes.

Most of the fruits and vegetables that belong to the sub-tropical
and the temperate regions may be introduced. A sugar plantation lasts ten years, although the cane is most inefficiently treated.
Coffee grows admirably; tea, congonhas (or mate), and the
favourite of North- Western Brazil, the guarana (Paullinia sorbites)
will succeed in low, hot,

the best in the

Empire

:

humid spots.

5. Robalo, a kind of pike common in tlie
streams of the Brazil.
Pacamon de Couro,
6. Pacamon and
which, says M. Halfeld, is a soft fish that
Gardner describes the
lives in mud.
Pocomo as an i;gly black fish, about two
it
feet long and covered with hard scales
keeps near the bottom, is easily netted,
and makes good bait, but is rarely eaten.
The Pacamum of the Amazons is described
as of a bright canary colour, and weighing
10 lbs.
7. Sardinha.
8. Sarapo.
9. Sibeira or Aragu.
10. Card.
11. Pirampeba,
white and black, a
small flat fish with teeth like needles.
12. Lombia, about one foot long.
;

13.

Sudia.

The tobacco is some of

salsaparilla and cochineal-cactus, aloes

The smooth-skinned are
1.

I

Niqiiim.

2.

Cumba.

3.

Prepetinga.

heard also of the Tambure, about one

foot long and held to be good eating,

and

the Piguri and Lambari, small fishes from
which oil is extracted, on the Upper ParaThe Shark (Tubarao, Squalus
guay lliver.
tubero, Linn. ) has carried off people near
the mouth, and they speak of another large
"Meru," x>robably a Squalus,
fish, the
which some say is anthropophagous, and
others not
it is also found at the mouths
of the short disconnected tidal rivers which
Of course the
drain into the east coast.
Manatu or Sea-Cow, that representative of
the Dinotherium, and the Porpoise of the
Amazons, are wanting in the ujJiJer waters
:

of the

Sao Francisco.

THE RIO DE SAO FRANCISCO.

CHAP. XV.]

225

and vanilla grow wild. Tlie lumber trade is susceptible of a vast
development the Aroeii'a, tlie Brauna, the Candea, the Peroba,
the Canella, and the fine hard-woods of the Brazil generally,
await exploitation. Oil-plants and tanning barks, basts and fibres,
;

drugs and gums, as the Jetahy-copal, the

Bahn of Peru, the

Copahj'ba and the Asafoetida, are yielded in abundance, and the
same may be said of beeswax and of the Carnauba wax, which is
converted

into

candles

Pdo de

at

Janeii'o.

The dyes

are

abimdant, from indigo to the Pau Amarello, and of cabinet woods
a long list is headed by the Jacaranda and the Brazilian cedar.
In the presence of such vast and unexploited wealth awaiting

the distressed classes of Europe

we may exclaim with Goethe,

''AYho says there is nothing for the poor and vile save poverty and

crime ?

"

We will now consider the Rio de Sao Francisco in another
most important light, as a line of communication linking the
maritune and sub^maritime regions with the Far West, the north
with the south, facilitating commerce and colonization, obviating
scarcity by giving an issue to the surplus of the central regions,
especially when the irregular seasons of the coast mjure agriculture, or when the seaboard

may be blockaded.

And thus will

be completed the strategic circle which the Empu-e, if it would
I may here premise
preserve its integrit}^, now greatly needs.
that the streams of the Brazil between the Amazons and the Plata

African peninsula, to be distributed
many are short and direct, rather

are, like those of the great

under two heads.
The
estuaries than rivers, surface -draining the ranges wliich subtend the
coast.
The few are the long and indirect, like the Sao Francisco
and the included arcs before specified. The former are of limited
value, the latter may be extensively utihzed.

The Brazil is emphatically the land of great, but as yet "unimproved," rivers. They have, however, gained for themselves a
bad name * and water communication has been deplorably
;

neglected as in British India.

Capital for railways being pro-

^ I came to tlie Brazil prepared to
believe and to regi'et with llv. Kidder
that, "notwithstanding the number and
vastness of the rivers flowing through the

into tlie Atlantic along the whole Brazilian

northern and western portions of the
Empire, and finally mingling their waters
with the Amazon and the La Plata, there
is not one, besides the Amazon, emptying

VOL. ir.

which is na\dgable any considerable
But actual
inspection soon showed that the lower beds
of many streams can be joined by short
railways with the upper lines, which are
naturally adapted for communication, and
which have been completely passed over.

coast,

way from its mouth inland."

Q

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

226

curable at heavy interest from England,

tlie

[chap. xv.

various

modes

of

communication have been performed in the reverse order of their
Water communication, a vast and economic power, which
should have been first undertaken, will be the last roads have
been limited to the use of the mule or the pack-bullock and the
merit.

;

;

Empire is threatened with a railway system of marvellous ineptiIn Europe, Italy is perhaps the only country which pro-

tude.

spected before brealdng

its

ground.

Here the want of a Topp-

graphical Commission on a large scale has made the Pernambuco

threaten to run into the Bahian Eailway at Joazeiro, and the

D. Pedro Seguiido cut across the Maua line, and prepare a
campaign against the Cantagallo and the Santos and Jundiahy.
I shall reserve this important subject for future consideration.

Communication by the Valley of the Sao Francisco is still in
embryo.
Dr. Mello Franco, Imperial Dei:)uty, drew attention
about 1851 to the importance of the Eio das Velhas. As has
been seen, this stream drains the northern versant of the Minas
Plateau, whose culminating point is the Itacolumi.

Its eastern

valley wall is the Serra Grande or do Espinhaco ; and westward
it is

divided by a long spine of many

the Sao Francisco.

names from the Valle}^ of

More tortuous than the latter, its declivitj^,

as far as the junction, is less, being an average slope of 0"*'3941

During the months of high water the
whole river is naturally navigable, and exceptional rises would be
dangerous for only a few days. In March, 1852, a respectable
Portuguese trader, Manuel Joaquim Goncalez, whom I met at
Januaria, floated down the Rio das Velhas with three ajojos, of
which one was lost. In 1862, when the Councillor Jose Bento
da Cunha Figueirado was President of Minas, the Imperial
Government ordered a survey under M. Liais and two assistants,
Lt. Eduardo Jose de Moraes and Sr. Ladislao de Souza Mello
Netto and their admirable plans of the Pdo das Velhas and the
Upper Sao Francisco are now well known to Europe.
This Commission preferred the Rio das Velhas as the line of
communication with the Empire, and apparently for the best
reasons.* The opening of the Upper Rio de Sao Francisco
per kilometre, to 0*4890.

;

_''*

Tims the riverines

truly observe

"

Rio de Sao Francisco faz barra (falls into)
llio das Velhas."
The discharge of the
former at the confiuenco is 446 cubic
metres per second, of the latter only 209.

But these proportions do not last long.
At tlie Porto das Andorinlias, sixty-tAvo
leagncs above the junction, the debit of
the Sao Francisco is but tifty-nine cubic
n)eti-es, and the llio (has Velhas has the same

THE PJO DE SAO FRANCISCO.

CHAP. XV-.]

227

would be a gigantic work for which the country is not 3'et prepared
the Pirapora Eapids alone would cost more to remove than all the
most important obstacles on the Eio das Yellias. In the thirtyfour leagues above this point, the Sao Francisco has as many
'*
Cachoeii'as " as the whole of its rival between Sahara and its
mouth. The ridges traversing the latter are mostlj^ friable and
;

shal}' ; the bars rarely exceed six to

whilst

seven yards at the summit,

many obstacles are merely detached rocks or sand-bars.

In the former the material is of the hardest gneiss and sandstone,

and spread out horizontally sometimes forty to fifty metres. For
a description of other obstacles, such as the nine terrible leagues,
so fatal to human life, about the Porto dos Passarinhos, the reader

M. Liais. Trade, moreover, has preferred the former
between the mouth of the Paraopeba River; from_ above the
confluence hardly a dozen ajojos descend per annum, whilst many
boatmen, feaiing for tlieii' lives, refuse to hire themselves. The
small tov/ns are sparsely scattered and diu'ing the rains, when

^^ill refer to

;

Carneu-adas drive the inhabitants into the interior, the banks are

abnost desei*ted.*

On the other hand, it has been shown that a meridian, with a
small deviation, connects the metropolis of the Empire with the

Sahara is only sixty-four dii'ect
tlie analogous point on the S,
Francisco vrould be ninety leagues- a weighty consideration
wlien looking to a Railway,
This pro:dmity, combined with
Line of the

Pdo das Velhas,

leagues from Eio de Janeiro

;

—

superiority of climate, will

recommend it to colonists.

Finall}",

it is connected vdth more important places, such as Diamantina
and Curvello.

M. Liais also decides, I believe rightly, in preferring water to
land communications.

Here again, as in British India, village

intercommunication has found no place in the sj^stem of public
" Nature's roads," the vilest paths made by the foot, and
works.
never bearing the impression of the cart-wheel, run down both
banks of the Piio das Yelhas and the Sao Francisco. Both are
Even in the dry
bad, but usually one is worse than the other.
.

season the canoe
are

ineAdtably

is

preferred, and during the rains these lines

closed.

There would

volumeat 111 leagues from its embouchure.
The reason is that the former receives
laore affluents in the lower, the latter in

the upper course,

* All

l)e

agi-ce

great

difficulties

upon tLe

in

subject^ of tliesc

yet the plane of the Upper Sao
Francisco is higher than that of the Rio das
Yelhas,
fevers,

Q 2

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

228

making, and even greater in preserving, a rolling road

[chap. xv.

;

and the

expense from Sabara to Joazeiro (244 leagues) would not be less
than 12,200: 000 g 000 (say ^1,220,000), whilst the high tolls

would do away with all the benefit.

A similar objection would

ai^pl}^ to tow-paths for tracking boats.

M. Liais divides the obstacles of the Kio das Vellias into five
varieties

axes ;

—stone-piers or detached rocks whirlpools, with
;

vertical

shallow sharp curves, snags and timber

sand-bars and

encumbering the bed.

While greatly admiring his plans, I cannot
agree with his system intended '' pour assainir la riviere " he
wants to make of this wild stream a Seine or a Rhone and my
experience of India and the United States suggests far more
attention to econom3^
He is too fond of mines and blasting
applied to soft stone, of "suppressing" boulder-piers, or marking
every rock, and even shoal, where an accident can happen. Here
''
un petit travail de canalization" is no joke, yet he would sup:

;

press channels;

" echouage,"

alter the stream-bed;
change its direction, rectify every abrupt detour, and canalize
even the shallows
doubtless the first flood would restore the

to prevent

:

''

status quo ante."

Often, too, he would obstruct one half of

the channel and canalize the other, a precarious work.

I have

alluded to his plans of draguage and tunage, either simple or
'^

avec enrochements; "

the removal of the Rapids will render

these costly works useless by increasing the current, and by
narrowing the bed where it spreads out in the dry season. He
wishes to ^' nettoyer " the stream of floating wood, which of

course will stick where

it

has stood.

To obviate the deposit of

sands from the gold washings of and about Sabara, he would

compel proprietors to dig tanks, through which the muddy
streams would pass and deposit their burdens before entering the
river.

But in the present condition of the Brazil such

pre-

cautions would be impossible ; nor would the profits derived from

gold-digging enable, as he supposes, mine-owners to

necessary disbursements.

make the

He would establish a water-police to

prevent trees being thrown into the stream ; the policemen would
probably be the first to throw them. Finally, the key-note of his
estimates
pilots,

is

that

the channel should be

made independent of

and offer no risk even to a mismanaged steamer,

I need

hardly characterize these as works of supererogation.*
The Brazil
inclined

towards

is
*'

already but too -well
moniiinental works."

''Les ouvriers Mineiros," says St. Hil.
i,
394) " s'ils mettent de la lenteiir

(I.

—

"

THE KIO DE SAO FRAXCISCO,

cuAP. XV.]

229

A considerable portion of the laboiu' could be carried on only at
dead low water

—that

is to

say, for thi'ee or foiu'

months m the

Half water would suffice for another part. Durmg the
floods (enchentes) from November to March nothmg could be
3'ear.

About April there is often a small inundation called
Enchente de Paschoa, wliich would limit the season to six
months. Thus the swellmg of the S. Francisco sj^stem is almost
synchronous with that of the Amazons, which begins in November, and lasts till May or June, the greater extent of time
bemg the result of its superior dimensions. Both streams have
the prelmimary freshets, which will presently be described and
in both the oscillations are known by the name of '' repiquete."
During the retuing of the waters (vasantes) sickness must be
expected amongst unaccUmatized workmen seduced from distant
parts by a rise of wages.
The following is the estimate proposed by M. Liais
done.

;

:

200: 000 1 000

—

Between Sabard and Macahubas, to admit in the
dry season a vessel drawing- 0°»'G0 (deeper
draughts would require a great increase of
outlay).
Canalization
" suppression " of rock.

1 ,730 :

000 $ 000

of

four

places

and

Between Macahubas and Jequitiba, draught l"-25.
Draguage, suppression of a ford, rectification
of Poco Feio, and removing rocks.

195: 000 $000

480: 000 $000

Between Jequitiba and Parauna. This is one of
the worst sections. For same draught.
Between Parauna and embouchure of the Rio das
Velhas, the finest part of the course draught
;

l"»-o0.*

Total 2,605: 000 $000 (say £200,000) between Sahara and the mouth, 120
leagues.

The followmg are the figures for opening the Upper Rio de
Sao Francisco
1 ,400

:

:

000 $ 000

4,100: 000 $000
3,200: 000 $000

opening the Pirapora Rapids.
from Pirapora to Cachoeira Grande included,
from Cachoeira Grande to Porto das Melancias.

Total 8,700: 000 $000 (say £870,000) between Pirapora and the Paraopeba
River, 41 leagues.

dans leur travail, au moins ils domient
beaucoup d'attention a leiirs ovuTages, et
je crois meme qu'ils les finissent plus que
ne feraient les ouvriers europeens.

* I need hardly obsei've that such a
In 1849,
draught is wholly uncalled for.
according to ^M. Claudel, on the high
Seine, empty _hoats drew on an average

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL

230

[chap, xv.

We will now proceed to the Eio de Sao Francisco.
M, Halfeld has made a detailed plan rather than a map

;

it

wants meridians, parallels, and the astronomical determination of
The
eight or ten points hefore it can be considered correct.
letterpress describes every league of the stream ; but as the distances are not checked by instruments, it is evident that one
league must often run into the other.

And as any amount of

paper has been expended, it is much to be regretted that a place

was not given to enlarged plans of the Rapids and the obstructed
This is one of the chief merits of M. Liais' publication.
The German engineer, with true Teutonic industry, probably
chained down the wdiole distance, and thus also he must have

parts.

ascertained the breadth ;
are given.

when the stream is very wide, no figures

Moreover, he was engaged in this gigantic labour for

the space of only two years, which would be insufficient accurately
to lay down the topography of the complicated thirty-one leagues

between Boa Vista (269 leagues), and Surubabe (300 leagues).
From the details of a '^ desobstruction," which would convert
this enormous bed into a clear channel
a kind of canal like
the Ehine or the Rhone, M. Halfeld i)roposes a total of

—

—

1,089:000$000 (say £108,900). A considerable portion of'this
expense is mere waste removing rocks, building dams, applying
fascines (which suggest the proverbial tide and pitch-fork), clearing of snags and timber, sloping banks, erecting quays and other
improvements all these may be reserved for the daj^s when
;

—

steam navigation shall have begun. I may observe that a total
of 12 900 g 000 (say £1290) has been devoted to the stream
:

between Porto das Piranhas and the Villa de Piassabussu, a line
upon w^liich steamers have plied smce August 1867, wdthout
expending a farthing. Strong objection must also be raised to
any attempt at a canal fifty palms broad at bottom, and extending
seventy-two leagues (206 geographical miles) between Boa Vista

and the Porto das Piranhas, the present terminus of steam navigation.
This can hardly succeed the land is alternately sandy
and stony, deeply flooded during the rains, and subject to enor;

C'n-27;

on the Loire and Moselle 0«'-22.
Steamers on the various streams of France
and Germany drew, say ]\I]\L Mathias
and Gallon, between a minimnni of 0'"'3G
(Ville d'Ojleajis, on the Loire) to a maxi-

miun

of l'"-23 (Bretagne, Biisse Loire).
In the United States we find flat-bottomed
steamers drawing 22 inches, and a metre
j^uftices for sea-going craft,

—
THE RIO DE SAO FRAXCISCO,

CHAP. XV.]

mous evaporation in tlie dry season.

231

Eyiclently a line of light

rails will be the true system of communication.

Compared with the two
Martiniere

is

preceding

Theii* united

economical.

M.

de

la

sum for the Eio

das

estimates,

Sao Francisco is £368,900, He reduces
and for this amount, besides
clearing the chamiel, he builds bridges and workshops, boats,
But he runs only between Sahara
slips, and five tug-steamers.
and Joazeii'o. Other s\Titers adopt the estimates of M. Liais for
the desobstruction of the Rio das Vellias, adding 2,400 000 $000
(£240,000) for clearmg the channel between the Sobradmho and
Varzea Eedonda; and 12,000:0005000 (£1,120,000) for a road
round the difficulty of Paulo Aft'onso. This estimate represents
a total expenditure of 17,000:0005000 (1,700,000) for a navigation of 476 leagues (1428 miles).
Yellias and the Pdo de

it to 2,000 000 S 000 (say £200,000) ;
:

:

I will now propose

my own estimates, simply premising that

the plan is not professional, and that I do not intend applying to

the

out

Brazilian

Government

for the

privilege of carrying

them

:

for the Rio das Vellias.

£55,000
40,000

to

remove the Sobradinho Rapid and the obstructions

above Joazeiro.
Railways and locomotives past the Great Rapids between
Varzea Redonda and the Porto das Piranhas, thirty-six
miles (at £3000 per mile, gauge 2 feet to 2 feet

108,000

6 inches).

£203,000

With respect

£4000 for twenty tons of
blasting powder, which, however, might possibly be made cheaper
upon the spot. The machinery would amount, transport included, to £15,500 viz., two big sledge hammers, and two
to

the

first

charge,

—

smaller ditto ; and two picks working in slot or cradle, with a
slot-joint

adjustable

to

the

piston,

£1000

;

drags

for

the

£2000 and five-horse-power engine mounted on a
raft, £2500
first-class steam-tug, with donkey-engines to follow
and assist in working, £10,000.
The wages and support
of the working hands may be set down at £30,000; and the
remainder for '' contmgencies," which in these lands demand a
Rapids,

;

;

large margin.

The second item I take from M.

Halfeld,

who proposes to

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

2.-12

[chap. xv.

expend upon the correction of tlie Sao Francisco channel (240th
league) to Joazeii^o (247th) the sum of 416: 320 g 000 (say
This is the highest possible estimate
the work is
^41,632).
the only absolute necessity between the Rapids of Pii^apora
(league 1), and the Villa da Boa Yista (269th)
and as will be
seen when we reach the place, Nature is doing there her own
;

;

engineering.

From the Axilla da Boa Vista to the Porto das Piranhas, seventy
Sao Francisco can hardly
Bafts like my own, and canoes traverse even
in the dry season the first thirty-four leagues between Boa Vista
and Varzea Eedonda, but with a thousand perils. The remaining
thirty-eight leagues (114 miles) between Varzea Eedonda and
to seventy-two leagues (216 miles), the

be called navigable.

The minimum
the maximum, s0648,OOO.

Porto das Piranhas are absolutely unmanageable.
of railway required will be .£342,000 ;

If a marginal tramway be preferred, the expense will be reduced
to one-half; a cart road would cost about one-third.

I rejoice to

hear that the Government of His Imperial Majesty has sent a
well-known German engineer, M. Karl Krauss, to ascertain the
levels which can connect the Lower with the Upper Sao Francisco.

As the great riverine valley becomes settled, the rapid drainage
will tend to increase the floods

and corresponding droughts. It
will then be necessary to build dams on the main artery and the
tributaries, solid piers jorojecting from either shore throwing a
strong current into the centre, and creating sufficient depth of
water for navigation.
Thus, combined with the removal of the
Cachoeii^as, the lower valleys will be secured from inundations.
Again, the droughts of winter can be avoided by deriving supplies
from artificial lakes and reservoirs constructed on the secondary
This plan has been proposed for the Mississippi, whose
streams.
area of drainage is a million and a quarter of square miles, and
whose navigable lines are ten thousand miles. Such bold and
magnificent schemes have been proposed and partly carried out
in the New World,* whilst the engineers of Europe have had a
chronic fear of '^ meddling" with great rivers, and have propounded the theory that these were made to make canals. It is
only a question of time

when the Brazil will follow the example

of the United States.
* Ellet

"On the Ohio and Mississippi Kivers," Philadelpliia, 1853.

CHAP. XV.]

THE RIO DE SAO FEANCISCO.

233

Steam exploitation of the Eio das Vellias is upon tlie point of
commencing. On Jmie 25, 1867, the President of Minas Geraes,
Comicillor Joaqiiim Saklanha Marinho, entered into a contract

with Sr. Henrique Dumont, C.E.

The Provincial Government
bomid itself to pay before June 30, 1867, the sum of 4: 000 $000
(£400); before July 15, 33:000S000 (£3300); 19:0005000
(£1900), when a tug-steamer of not less than twenty-five horse
power should reach Rio de Janeiro, and make up a total of
75 500 S 000 (£7550) after the vessel's first satisfactory trial-trip.
Counting from June 25, 1869, the engineer was to have for ten
:

years the use of the steamer, after which

it is to be handed in
good condition to the Provincial Government. The latter also
undertakes to solicit admission free from duty of all imported
articles, such as steamer, boats, tools, and machmery requu-ed

for clearing the channel ; or should the application fail, to take

The desobstructions of the bed were
to be carried out according to the estimates of M. Liais
and the
upon itself the expenditm'e.

;

report was that £160,000 would at once be devoted to the work.

M. Dumont,

on

the

other

hand,

bound

lihnself,

under

penalty, to place within two j^ears after date of signing, a steam-

tug at Sahara.

The vessel to make per mensem two passages,

gomg and coming (viagens redondas)

the portion of the

over

channel which would permit, and at the rate of ten leagues per

The passage money to be 1$ 000 per league and for
goods, OS 100,* while Government emploj-es were to pay only for
rations.
The contractor to keep the steamer in good order, and
day.

to be responsible for its

unavoidable accident),

;

injmy or loss (except b}' act of God, or
till

it

should belong to the Provincial

The stream between Sahara and Jaguara to be
reformed, according to the plans of M. Liais
and to be rendered
Government.

;

navigable, as the public purse shall permit, to its confluence with

the Rio de Sao Francisco, f
* The public at once began to complain
these conditions.
From Sabara to
Jaguara the passenger will pay 20 $ 000 ;
and each arroba (32 lbs.) of merchandize
But the same distance may be
2 $ 000.
done for 4 $ 000 by a mule carrying six to
seven aiTobas.
Time of course is never
taken into consideration,
f ]\I. Liais calculates that a iDoling-boat
drawing three palms (2 feet 1"8 inches),
of

with a crew of 10 men working 8 houi-s per
diem, and spending 15 days between

Sabara and tbe month of the Rio das
Yelhas, would carry 4000 arrobas (50 to
At present this would be done
60 tons).

by 340 mules and 42 men in 36 days.
The ascent of the boat would demand treble
the time and double the crew, yet it would
have a great advantage over transport by
animals.
On the other hand, a small steamer of
20-horse power, biu-ning wood, which is
everjT\'here plentiful, would tug the same
load, working twelve hours a day, in five days

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

234

[chap. xv.

Dumont lost no time.

In March, 1868, he brought from
Bordeaux to Eio de Janeiro the sections of the " Conselheiro
Saldanha " and " Monsenhor Augusto." The steamers are of
forty and twentj^-horse power, and their speed will be about eight
miles an hour, upon a draught of ten inches. About the beginnmg of the next 3'ear they will begin operations upon the Eio das
Vellias.
I have abeady alluded to the horse boat, with inclined
planes working paddle-wheels, and it is to be hoped that this
improvement will soon follow the appearance of steamers.
Sr.

As early as 1865 His Excellency the Councillor Manoel Pinto
de Souza Dantas, then President of the Bahian Province, pro-

posed to place a steamer uj^on the Rio de Sao Francisco. The
little *' Dantas," ninety feet by fourteen, and of about ninetj^-four
tons, was built by Mr. Hayden at the Ponta d'Area Works, opposite

Bio de Janeu'o.

The plates and machinery had been taken

and were sent numbered, with a model and detailed
by land to Joazeii'o. The road, however, was found
unfit for wheel vehicles
of 346 bullocks sixty had died in the
shortest time, and there had been an equal loss of horses.
It is
regrettable that the fine timber of the Bio de Sao Francisco had
not been preferred to iron plates, and that local jealousies, of
which I shall have more to say, had delayed the execution of a
to pieces,

di^awings,

;

great project.

Of late years there has been a re\ival of an idea first suggested,
I believe, in 1825 by a certain Colonel Joaquim de Almeida, and
which, since 1832, had ftiUen into oblivion.

This is to erect the

Sao Francisco into the twenty-first jn'ovince of the
Empire.* The main object is to remed}^ the social, commercial,
and political evils which arise from the isolation of the settlements ; these are often 150 leagues distant from their provincial
valley of the

capitals.

The only objection of which I am aware is the trifling

increase of expenditure ;
down, and in eight days

\ip

it would, however,

stream, with

soon reimburse itself.

from Sahara to Gnaicuhy, and

$ 225 from

five hands for the tug and two or three for the

(ruaicxihy to Sahara,

The expense of descending, including
commander and
engineer,
Avould
be
100|000;of ascending, 160 $000. Doubling
this sum for time lost in taking in and discharging cargo, and adding per trip 100 $000
for wear and tear of machinery, we have a
total outlay of 600 $000 for each descent,
and 9001000 for the return.
Thus the

'
I find that most of the gentlemen of
the lower Province are disposed to sneer at
the action of the Goveniment in erecting
the Comarca of the Rio Negro into a pro\dnce ; but I think the step was a wise
one. ... If the countiy is to be improved
at all, it is to be done in this Avay" (Liei;t.

hoat.

aiToba should pay a

maximum of 0$loO

'

'

Ilemdon, 329).

CHAP. XV. 1

THE RIO DE SAO FRANCISCO.

235

Foreigners, who are accustomed to view the Brazil with the most
superficial glance, have represented to me the evils of increasing

an official staff ah-eadj far too large. They seem not to be aware
that the highly constitutional government, wliich has been well
described as a republic under the disguise of an empii'e, requu-es
to be strengthened as

much as it legally can be, and that good

they are called in India) form the readiest

"appointments"
and most practical mode of strengthening it. And if the Brazil
cleave to number twenty, she may borrow from her northern sister,
the United States, an admii'able system " of territories " which
(as

are there States, and would be here Provinces, in statu pupillari,

educating for self-rule.

On the Eio de Sao Francisco, where the subject of No. 21 is
perpetually ventilated, every city, town, and village

is

prepared

and resolved to be the capital. The gTeat rivals are Januaria in
the south, and to the north Joazeii'o both would, I believe,
;

remam as they are

than accept a subordinate position.

The

desiderata for a chief settlement are man}' : a central site, facility
of communication with the seaboard and the interior, a healthy

chmate, and, if i^ossible, rich and fertile lands.

As will be seen,

Bom Jardim, or to Xique Xique.

I would award the palm to

The new^ province or territor}- might embrace the whole vallejof the Sao Francisco Kiver.
The south would borrow largel)^ from
Minas, the Serra de Grao Mogor, Minas Novas, Montes Claros

and Formigas, on the east

;

to the west the valleys of the streams

Paracutu, das Egoas, Urucuia, Eio Pardo, and Carunhanha.

From

would take the western watersheds of the Serra das
Almas and the Chapada Diamantina, and from Pernambuco the
It would extend to
Avestern river valley north of Carunhanha.
the Piapids of Paulo Affonso, and communicate with the sea by a
railway or a tramway, and the steam navigation now upon the
Bahia

it

lower river.

And when population and wealth shaU increase, it

may admit of further subdivision into a southern territory, with
Januaria for capital, and a northern, in wliich Joazeko would command. Each of these would own about 500 miles of liver, and

both are more worthy of provincial honours than the unimportant
Provinces of Alagoas and Sergipe, which are crushed like dwarfs

between the two giants Pernambuco and Bahia.
The du'ect distance between Rio de Janeiro and Sahara is
'?° 12' 39'^
or 192 geographical miles, and the usual calculation for

23G

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

the length of raihvay Imes

is

276 miles.

[chap. xv.

Of this, however,

portion has heen covered hj^the D. Pedro Segundo.

a

For^steamer

navigation we have down the Eio das Vellias 366 miles, and down
the Pdo de Sao Francisco, from the mouth of the Rio das Yellias
to the Villa da Boa Vista, 792 miles, perfectly clear, save at one

point.

From Boa Vista to the Porto das Piranhas, the railway

tramway will run for 216 miles, and from the Porto das
Pii^anhas to the mouth of the Sao Francisco, in south latitude
10° 27' 4'', and west longitude (G.) 36° 21' 4:1", there are 129 miles
of good navigation.
Thus we have the segment of an immense circle, whose arc
numbers 1779 geogTaphical miles, exceeding the average breadth
of Russia.
Of these by raih'oad are only 492, the rest (1287)
bemg water communication, which is usually considered to be
or

ten times cheaper.

Communication even by steamer will not create population,
except by attracting colonists on the other hand, it will, like the
railwa}^ benefit the country b}^ collecting and centralising the now
;

scattered homesteads.

This route of nearly 1800 miles, connect-

ing the heart of the Brazil with
placing

its richest

its

head, the metropolis, and

Provinces in direct communication with the

outer world, will be the most important step yet taken.

The

opening of the Rio de Sao Francisco will not only benefit directly
the Provinces of Minas Geraes, Bahia, Pernambuco, Alagoas, and

and indirectly those of Goyaz, of Mato Grosso, of
it will contribute potently to maintain the
integrity of the Empire.
Sergipe,

Piauhy, and of Ceara

—

f

"

CHAPTER

—

XVI.

FROM GUAICUHY TO SAO ROMAO.
FiKST Travessia, 24 Leagues.''

OF THE EIVEPw, — ESTEEMA VILLAGE. — GAME. — THE OTTER. — THE
CASHEW SHOWERS.— REACH SAO ROMAO. — ITS HISTORY. GIANT FIG-TREES.
ACTUAL STATE OF THE TOWN". A GOOD TIME COMIXG.

ASPECTS

—

—

Montanhas vimos, campos mil patentes,
E huin terreno nas margens tao extensa,
Que poderd elle so neste hemisferio
Foiinar com tanto povo lium vasto imperio.
Cava., 6, 27.

The Pii-apora Lad been on the Sao Francisco my terminus ad

—

and now it was a quo tlie rest of tlie voyage lying down
stream.
The weather was still surly from the effects of the last
night's scold, but the air was transparent, cleaned of atoms,
spores, and molecules, whilst increased humidity, as in England,
quern,

rendered

still

it

The books no longer

clearer.

curled

^\^!th

drought, as in the Eio das Yelhas, and an increased reference to
the quinine bottle was judged advisable.

The Vento Geral, or

Eastern Trade, set in, but we were evidently at the break of the
rainy season.

—

Wednesday, Septemher 18, 1867. Ember Day. Of com'se delays
were numerous
the new crew had to shake hands with the
villagers.
It was noon before the Eliza w^as poled off from the
bank of Guaicuhy, and tm^ned " head downwards " into the Great
;

We left on the right the Ilha do Engenho, upon wliicli

Stream.!

people were congregated
* The

word

Travessia

is

;

canoes were made fast to the alluvial

^\Titteu

by

Koster (i. iv. Ti'aversia, and translated by
It is probably a
M. Jay "Traversee."
In
local form of Travessa, a "passage."
Spanish South America "Traversia" is
applied to a land stage. This Travessia, or
trip, begins normally at Pii-ap6ra, and thus
)

I have heard tlie
boatman, when we crossed the stream under

numbers thirty leagues.
difficidties, call it a

" Travessa braba.

t " Navegar cabe§a abaixo, " in the dialect of the river, is opposed to " Cabe9a
acima," going up-stream,

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

^38

banks, rising in regular steps or grades

[chap. xvt.

this side of the island is

;

The Ilha do Boi led to
the Barra do Jatoba, a stream coming from the west, and this we
sandy, and fir-trees rise from the banks.

shall find to be the rule of almost all the great affluents.

waters, called

'^

the}^ say, chills.

Agato ; *

seizoentes,"

*'

sesonarias,"

''pestiferas,"

Its

breed,

A little below it were detached rocks., Pedras do

these the pilots did not expect to pass, as the head

wind, especially during the afternoon, often waxes fierce there
did not offer let or hindrance.

—

it

Passing '^A Barreii'a,"t where

there was a clearing and a few huts on the right bank, we saw
large deposits of the iron-revetted amygdaloid '' Canga."

Beyond

was the mouth of the Jequitahy]: stream, brealdng the right
bank with a gap of some 150 feet, and gracefully curving through
On the opposite side is a remarkable point, the
the low trees.
Pedras de Bura do Jequitahy, horizontal strata of stone from
which blocks and boulders have been washed into the stream.
As soon as the air became dusk we looked about for a nighting
place
here the working hours are from sunrise to sunset. Boatmen will not travel in this part l)y night even with the full moon,
they cannot see the ^' Maretta," or ripple caused by snags below
Our men preferred the exposed left bank, which supplies
surface.
wood the right affords more shelter from the east wind, and from
In the river
the storms which sweep up from that direction.
tongue, the latter is known as Banda da Bahia, the Bahian side,
These are old
the western being the Banda de Pernambuco.
names, dating from the days when the captaincy of Pernambuco
covered part of the present Minas Province.
This portion of the Sao Francisco, and, indeed, we may say
the whole course, is more civilised, tamer, and less picturesque
than the Lower Pdo das Velhas we passed hardly a league of
land without sighting huts or improvements. Making fast at
5*30 P.M. to a sandy '' praia," and climbing up the steep c\b.j
bank, we found a small tenement, surrounded b}^ a dwarf field of
manioc, poor bananas, and first-rate cotton, which seems to
flourish every^diere.
The maisonnette turned its back upon the
it

;

;

;

;

'''

Or Agatiio, probaljly a P. N.

t M.

Halfckl calls it ''Barreiva dos
Indies," a name given to a place further

down stream.
J Or "Gequitahy,"aconsidcral)le .stream,
120 direct miles long, heading in the western

counterslope of tlie cliaiu that discliarges
It is
eastwards into the Jeqnitinhonha.
navigable for canoes, "which ascend it three
leagues in the dries, and twenty-eight
during the rains.

—

FROM GUAICUHY TO SAO ROMAO.

CHAP. XVI.]

230

west, the rainy quarter, and some trouble had been taken to build

There was a kihi constructed in the river bank, a circle four
feet in diameter by two deep, a clay floor pierced with holes,
separatmg the fii'e below from the material to be fired the latter
operation ajDpears very insufficiently effected both in pots and tiles.
The Western Valley is bounded at a distance of about five miles
by the Serra do Itacolumi the mists, however, robbed us of the
view.
On the opposite side was the Povoado do Ollio d'Agua, a
few thatched sheds, buried in orange trees and Jab otic abeiras.
To-day the stream has averaged some 1200 feet in breadth, and
The banks to which the
in places has widened to 1600 yards.
flood swings are eaten below, and rise perpendicularly, whilst the
The height varies from
opposite side assumes the natm-al angle.

it.

:

;

25 to 36 feet

;

the material

supporting hard

^'

a base of white or reddish sand,

is

taua," and the surface

rich humus,

is

mixed

The suppl}' of wood will last for j-ears, but the vegeta=

with silt.

tion is miinteresting after the magnificent avenues of the Eio das

The surface is composed of swells and waves of ground,
in whose hollows are Alagadi9os, or stagnant waters.
Now, also,
Velhas.

begins the Ypoeira, which partly corresponds ^^itli the Igarape,*
or canoe path of the

Amazons and the Lower Sao Francisco.

When the bayou is considerable, it retains its water through the
and is drained to the level of the dries by a Sangradouro*
These little creeks carry a quantity of sand; they are mostly
disposed perpendicularl}- to the stream, and they assist in unwatering the waves of gromid which are not reached by the inundations.
In many places there are lumpy hills, forested or cleared,
and on both sides the divides of the riverine valley are well
marked vdih. heights which will disappear a few leagues down

3^ear,

stream.
.

September

—We eftected an unusually early

19.^

men are paid " by the job."

start,

but our

The right bank showed a mass of

building material, argillaceous schistose sandstone in horizontal

* Igarape is

cleriyecl

from yg, water

a canoe), and ipe, where
(it goes).
Of the Ypoeira feature I shall
have more to say further do"^-n stream,
Avhen it becomes important.
It is what
Lieut, Herndon calls Cauo on the Upper
Amazon, a natural arm of the main river,
opposed to the " Furo " (small mouth) and
the "furado," an artificial (but sometimes

jara,

lord

(i.e.

a Natiire-iiiade)

cutting,

That traveller

" Igarape is the Indian name

also remark^;,

which is filled with
and tlie
back water from the river
term raranamiri(m) literally, little river

for a creek or ditch,
'

'

— applied
is

—

to

;

a narroAv arm of the main

river running between tlie

an island near to it."

main bank and

§

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

240

[chap. xvi.

on the other side was ''As Lages," a clearing with
bananas and oranges. Presently rose before us the Morro da
Estrema, a terrapin-shaped buttress, disposed perpendicular to
the stream, high above the floods, well wooded, and with good
improvements below. The little village of the same name was at
the bottom of a sack, formed by the river sweeping to a projection of the opposite left bank.
It is built upon an inner ledge of
rising ground, and a few poor tiled huts clustered about the little
church, N^ S''* do Carmo.
At noon we halted for rest on the Pernam side, below the
slabs;

hamlet known as Serra da Povoacao.*

The hills of that name

form a meridional line of scattered lumps running ]3arallel with,
and rarely three miles distant from, the stream. At the Serra or
Serrote do Pe de Morro, they impinge upon the banks the little
crescent is called b}^ the people Serra do Salitre, as it contains a
saltpetre cave, and they declare it to be a north-eastern branch of
Opposite it the Barra do
the great Mata da Cordaf range.
Pacuhyl forms the usual Cor 6a; a little below, on the left, we
were shown a sand-bar, where a pleasure party of seven had come
They were returning from a
to grief some eight years ago.
;

festival at Estrema, a little place of great debauchery; the

" dug-

out " struck a snag, and all w^re drowned.

Passing the Pviacho da Fome, an ill-omened name

now not

uncommon, we anchored before sundown at the mouth of a Sangradouro, called the Cachoeirinha, from an adjoining village.

The clay wall of the river is here some thirty-two feet high, and
The
the streamlet draining a bayou is about a mile in length.
Mandim fish had awaked, and grunted like a gurnard, and his
hunger in the afternoon suggested to the pilots that he foresaw
Presently a cold east wind arose, the clouds gathered in
rain.
heaps, and the horizon gleamed lurid with the reflection of field
mistaken for electrical ''weather lights."
fires, easily to be
During the early night there were raw and violent gusts, and
they presently induced a downfall whose steadiness j)romised persistency.
* Serrote da Povoa9ao (M. Halfeld).

t Forest of the Cord, so called from its
narrow line.
X This stream runs almost parallel ^\•itll
the Jequitahy, and drains the Montes

long,

Claros de Formigas.
It has no mines, but
the lands are good for pasture and agriculture.

Tlic Pacu, according to Castelnatl, is tte
genus Characiniis of Artedi, and sub-genus
The carp-like body
Curimata of Cuvier.
averages two to tlu-ee palms in length, and
the Pacu veris considered good eating
melho licing held to be the best,
§ There is a Cachoeira hamlet on the
right or opposite bank.
;

CHAP. XVI.]

FEOM GUAICUHY TO SAO flOMAO.

241

This day showed us a more than usual quantity of animal life.
A Jacare (cajanan) stared at us from the bank, Avitli the short
round muzzle ]3rotruded in cmiosity, and another lay dead upon
the stones. Jacus (Penelopes) chattered on the tree-tops, and

was too thick for bagging,
although we worked like men for the pot. A large otter plunged
close to us, and at times we heard their whistling cries, which the
pilots compared with the quarrelling and scolding of old fishwives,
and the frequent ejaculation of '' diabo." There are two kinds,
the Lontra, or common species (Lutra brasiliensis), and the
Lontra grande, also known by its Tupy name, Ai'iranha. This
afforded fine practice, but the bush

animal is said to attain a length of six feet ; the colour is a lighter
brown than in the smaller variety, and a white rmg encncles the

This species may have given rise to the Mae d'Agua, or

neck.

and dogs fear to attack it when it is
making its escape over the rocks. The otter has an extensive
water fauy ;

it bites terribh',

range in the Brazil, it is frequent upon the streams of the seaboard, and if the ^'main d'oeuvre " were cheaper, its skins should
reach the markets of Europe.
destroy it because

it

is

The people of the Sao Francisco

so injurious to fish.

It lives in families,

tunnels into the river bank, and drives a breathing shaft (suspu'o)
to the surface.
The hunter stops both holes for a time, and then

opens the entrance, the inmates rush out to take the au', and then
they are killed ad libitum.
Often, also, they are shot in the

and theii' bodies are found floating after some hours.
The skins are of a comparatively high price, I bought none under

rivulets,

2 $000.
Sejjtemher 20.

—Ember Day again. In the morning the men

looked like turkey buzzards during a heavy shower they were so
benumbed that we had some difficulty in avoiding the snags and
:

a dangerous sunken rock, said to be of silex.*

After two homes'

bank the Paracatu de Seis dedos,
which M. Gerber has located on the right. The pilots praised
it for good water (rio bonito), but none could explain how it
came to have six fingers. Near its mouth was a hamlet and
clearing on the finely -wooded banks, and the creaking of the
water-wheel spoke of molasses and rum.
One league below that point we halted for breakfast on the left

work we passed on the

left

* The ijilots called it Pedra de fogo (of fire), or de Espingarda (of tlie gun),
vo.l..

II.

R

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

242

[chap. xvi.

bank of tlie great Paracatu River.* Its dexter jaw showed a point
or shoal which drove it to the other side, the centre was garnished
with dangerous chevaux de frise of embedded timber, and the
course, bending like a Turkish scimitar, was painted with the

The sides, despite their height, are flooded in the
wet season, and the sandy ground, mixed with humus and clay,

red Pau Jahu.

slopes to bottoms where the trees show a water-mark of eight feet.

There was little undergrowth, and the surface was strewed with
dead leaves it was cut in all directions by tracks and paths the
cattle fled from us, and the ticks soon caused us to beat a retreat.
Yesterday we had seen but a single bark creeping up the right
bank.
To-day we find two ajojos anchored at the mouth of the
The owner, a stout, healthy man, whose appearance
Paracatu.
spoke well for the chmate, was taking provisions to CajDao
Redondo, a '^ Garimpo," or small diamond- digging up-stream.
In former days hundreds of arrobas of gold were sent from this
valley
he declared the bank-diggings to be now exhausted, but
M. Halfeld tells us that in his day the
the bed to be still rich.
active and energetic riverines supplied flesh and cereals to the Lower
8ao Francisco, even as far as Joazeiro, distant nearly 700 miles.
Our informant stated that the staple industr}^ of the land was
stock-breeding, although agriculture still thrives, and the fine
Macape soil will produce any quantity of fruits, especially
mangos. He ended by predicting that we should not reach
Sao Romiio that night, as he himself would probably not have
;

:

;

Of course we resolved to give him a practical dementi,
and we now thought little of discouraging reports which had
done.

begun at Rio de Janeiro, and which will end there.
After receiving this *' formidable tributary," the Sao Francisco

At 11 a.m. we passed on the left hand side
a remarkable bluff, the Ribeira da Martmha, f which drives the
widens and shallows.

course nearly due east.

Before reaching it the land was low and

* Dr. Couto and other old writers prefer
Piracatu (pja-a-catu), or good fish river,
opposed to Parahyba (Pira-ayba), the bad
This imiportant stream drains
fish river.
2° 30' of latitude by 3° of longitude.
Its

northern branch, the Rio Preto, breaks
most of the great western influents.
through the frontier chain of Goyaz, the
Scrra do Tauatinga, which sets oflf the great
noi'thern versant, the Serra dos Pyrenees.
The mouth is about 1500 palms wide, the
like

normal breadth of the stream is 600 feet
twenty-eight falls and rajjids encumber the
bed, and it is navigable, after a fashion,
nearlv 260 miles, to the Porto do Buriti.
f Or Kibanceira (blufif) da Martinha
(P. N. of a Moradora, the proprietrix).
The up-stream end is the Barreira da
the centre, Ribanceira
Martinha proper
de Amancio Josd ; and the eastern, or
down-stream, Ribanceira da Martinha.
;

CHAP, xvr.]

FROM GUAICUHY TO SAO EOMAO.

243

thickly-wooded like an old river bed, possibly that of the Paracatu.*
The Barreira is the butt-end of a ridge cut off by the

many colours, white
and brow^i, pmk and yellow, surfaced with thin humus it stands
stream

:

the material

is

compact

argile

of

;

some eighty feet, and at the base it has
After a total length of some 440 yards
fallen into the usual slo23e.
it thms out into '' Canga," and terminates in woodland.
Below
it the bank became sandy, and showed the usual huts and improvements which argue the approach to a place of some importance.
Beyond this Barreira the river is a mass of shoals, sand-banks,
and sand-bars, whilst the stream varies from 0'87 to 1*28 miles
The '^ remanso," or sluggish cm-rent, is dreaded by
per hour.
barquemen, and usually the General Trade forms a troublesome
head wind. For some hom's the low dark clouds, dissolved by
the cold breath of the north, which in this section promises a
continuance of wet weather, f had indulged us "^ith a slow, steady
rainfall
it began at 10 a.m., and lasted, ^\T.tli rare intervals, till
uj) stiffly to

a height of

:

4 P.M.

An

ajojo

certainly not a pleasant place

is

''Cashew Showers :"

dming the

on the other hand the heavy discharge from

above silenced the gale.

At I'lo P.M. we grounded in the narrow channel of hard gravel
between the left bank and the Ilha do Jatoba the men were
:

obliged to take foot,;

i.e.,

to

tumble

in,

and to shove us

off.

Here the total width of the river, including the island, is some
1600 fathoms, and wonderful to relate, M. Halfeld proposes to
block up the western channel ^ith " stakes and fascines."
The
Jatoba is the normal type, an elongated lozenge with the side
angles shaved off, and outlines of sand in all du'ections, except
where the bank is highest. At this season it is double upstream there is a small, well- wooded clay formation, which a long
flat sand-bank connects with a similar and larger feature to the
north-east, and the latter boasts of a few inhabitants.
Further
''
down there is a Pedra Preta," black blocks and green Ai'inda
shrubs, as on the Lower Rio das Yelhas, which drives the stream
:

almost at a right angle to the west.
* The pilots denied this, but their reason
was that they had never seen the stream
liere.

The next turn is to the

the Cashew nut), a term evidently derived
from the Indians. They declare that the
wet season does not begin till K'ovember
;

t The cause is the cold wind setting in
after a few days of hot sun and still, damp
The people call these showers, which
air.
are normal in August, Chuvas de Caju (of

biit

this year they are manifestly out of

their reckoning.

J Tomar

p^,

to

find

deep

water

wading,

R 2

by

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BKAZIL.

244

north, and presentl}^ after tliirty-six miles

[chap. xvi.

we reached our desti-

nation for the night.

Sao Romao, or to give it the name in full, " Villa Risonha de
Santo Antonio da Manga e de Sao Romao," (the riant (?) town of
St. Anthony of the Cattle-ford, and of Saint Romanus)
takes its
nom de baj^teme from the holy martja', St. Romanus, who presides over the 9th of August, and who is, I believe, generally
ignored by the English faithful.
Two Paulista explorers, the
cousins Mathias Cardoso and Manoel Francisco de Toledo,
having killed an Guvidor-judge, fled with their families and
slaves to the Sertao do Sao Francisco.
The date of their
journey is not positive^ known, but it is supposed to have been
between 1698 and 1707. They were driven upon the islet opposite the town, and having beaten off the Indians they settled here
for a time, and then resumed their voyage, finally estabhshing
themselves at Morrinhos and Salgado.
Between 1712-13 the
Bishop of Pernambuco, hearing that the Indians were of peculiar
savagery, sent the Padre Antonio Mendes to catechize them.
Before 1720 S. Romao was a Julgado belonging to the Comarca
of Sahara.
The district was presently subjected to the arrondissement of Paracatu, a city then newly settled, and distant 200
miles
only.
On August 16, 1804, the Bishop D. Jose Joaquim
da Cunha sent its first parish-priest (parocho), the Rev. FeHcianno Jose de Oliveira. A chapel was dedicated to Santa Anna
and Sao Luis at a place above the confluence of the Japore with
the Sao Francisco
this was removed to S. Romao on his own
day and the invocation became Santo Antonio. The settlers
throve
Sao Romao, in 1804 a freguezia, rose in 1831 to the
honours of townshij).

—

—

;

;

I shall describe at

some length this God-forgotten place, not
Many travellers have men-

for what it is, but for what it will be.

tioned it,* and most of those

worst impressions.

The

last

who have visited it left with the
was a naturalist sent down the

by Professor Agassiz
he got into trouble by carrying
weapons.
There is absolutely no reason why the settlement

river

;

should be so miserable, the people so barbarous.
ing-site is

St.

Hil.

A good build-

close at hand, the surrounding country is admirably

(I.

ii.

428)

regi'etted

" de

as

"le poteaii surmonte d'une sphere."
Monsenhor Pizarro had previously

n'avoir pu visiter la Justice de S. Rumao ; "

The

and he defines the symbol of a " justice "

given a detailed account of it.

;

FROM GUAICUHY TO SAO RO:\rAO.

CHAP. XVI.]

245

and the town is well placed for the carrjing
trade.
The da}- I hope is not distant when some wayfarer shall
pass through Sao Romao and find my description of the Sao
fitted for agriculture,

Romanenses utterly obsolete.
Xear the town the stream, nearly 1300 yards broad, runs to
the north, and hugs the left bank it is broken by the island of
Sao Romao, about four miles long by 400 paces broad, densely
wooded, uninhabited, and still private property. At the ''port"
one canoe was drawn up, and about half a dozen were in the
;

water

;

the only " ship-yard " is on the top of the bank.

to the side was

a fine

Staked

The crew,

barca flj^ing the Imperial flag.

including the pilot, numbered seven, and the tonnage was 4000 to

5000 ''Rapadm-as,"— 20,000 to 25,000 pounds.
We swarmed up the steep bank, some thii'ty feet high and buttery with rain
the lower part was yellow cla}^ much mixed with
silt and sand above.
On the summit appeared a remarkable
feature, a line of six enormous Gamelleii'a figs,* like those described upon the Tocantins River.
At the point where the
stream deflects a little to the east, a decayed stump shows that
there was a seventh, and two of the giants are likely soon to be
washed awa3\ The paii' to the south raise their majestic crowns
of stiff and burnished ovoid leaves, and overhang the stream with
an admirable umbrella of verdure. The trunks, instead of being
as usual, low, thick columns, are bundles of compacted trees,
five or six feet high, and of the horizontally projected branches,
one, not the smallest, measured 100 feet.
The birds had settled
in colonies amongst the boughs, and but few epiphytes had
;

sprung from the bark.

In one of the two wliich front the
landing-place time had dug a chamber iised as a dwelling-place
the idea must have originated in Central Africa, where the
bulbous Calabash acts alternately home and water-cistern.
Immediately beyond this ridge with its colossal growth, the
land droops towards a bottom flooded during the rains, and
it must be a hot-bed of miasma during
thinly covered with bush
the retreat of the waters, and the sun must raise it well to the
'

;

* The

term the Gamelleira
chiefly from the
coloiu- of the bark.
Koster (ii. 11) makes
the latter useless, and the former distil,
after incision, a gummy juice, which is
taken internally for drojjsy and cutaneous
Brazilians

either Preta or Branca,

diseases.

According to the System,

the

acrid milk of the white fig Figueira branca,
or Ficus doliaria) is an anthelmintic, but it
adds that many other figs have the same
(

properties,

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

246

[chap. xvi.

The swamp is subtendecl by a rise cor-

level of the local face.

responding with the lay of the ridge running parallel with tlie
stream, and facing the east.
Here is the Kua do Alecrim, con-

by seven poor
tenements, of which one, by affecting a square box as an upper
sisting of a dismantled

hut on one

story, ambitionizes

title

the

of

''

side, faced

Sobradinho."

Beyond

this

thoroughfare of flowery name, and lying side by side with it, was
the

Eua do Fogo, a higher and drier site.

Here we comited

mostly with roofs of coarse tiles and mud
the
and wicker-work walls,* slightly washed with Tauatinga
large compounds are either railed or enclosed with j^ise, coped
fift^^-four tenements,

;

with thatch.

The most

pretentious

show attempts

at

orna-

mentation, white scrolls of plaster on azure ground, doors striped

with blue, and windows with small lattices instead of the shutter
or the

cotton

cloth.

Amongst them were

main of whose occupation is to sell spirits

three Vendas, the

and the blacksmith
in his leathern apron, suggested the village Vulcan of Negroland.
The wealthier houses had wooden stej^s leading to the raised
floors, the poorer logs of wood above the level of the puddly
thoroughfare, by courtesy called a street.
To the south some of
the tenements were propped up with stays and others were in
ruins not a few had a closed room attached to the unwalled
tile-roof which the Tupys called Copiar or Gupiara, and sometimes Agua furtada. In this place the traveller is allowed to
swing his hammock and to cook his meals.
Going northwards we passed the Quartel, or barracks, hung
inside with carbines, and tenanted by eight soldiers, who on paper
appear as a battalion. These black-brown men in Kepis and holland blouses looked somewhat more surly, as in duty bound, than
;

;

the rest of the citizens ; they eyed our patent leather waist belts
curiously, but they did not interfere with us.

was the Lago da Cadea, a

Beyond the Quartel

and an open scantling,
suggestively representing the future prison.
Joao de Barro had
derisively built his domicile upon the cross beams, and upon not
a few of the wooden crosses profusely scattered about the settletiled roof

ment.

Beyond the northern end of the Rua do Fogo, and surromided
by bush, was the old Rosario Church, definitively broken down.
Tlie citizens declare that tliey liave no stone, wlicn the viver bed is a quarry.

CHAP. XVI.]

FROM GUAICUHY TO SAO ROMAO,

247

Turning to the left we ascended the Eua Direita, an embiyo
thoroughfare which numbers twelve houses, including a farrier's.
It rises gently from the river to a cemetery, denoted by a cross,
from which half the instruments of the Passion had been
This village of the dead was fronted by a support of
abstracted.
the surface
rough stones, while the rest was wholly unwalled
was cumbered with timber, and littered with graves which lacked
monuments. In the centre of High Street was the square of the
new Rosario, a w^hite -washed temple wdth three shutters, a very
model of meanness.
;

To the w^est of this Rosario is the Rua da Boa Vista, the
it commands a
aristocratic quarter, numbering thii'ty houses
;

pretty view of the stream, the islet, the reaches above and below,

and the low blue hills on the Bahian or Eastern side. I sent in a
card to the Delegate, Sr. Joao Carlos Oliveii'a e Sa.
He had
probably never seen that civilised instrument, for he left us in the
rain till a friend beckoned to us fi'om the window to come in, and
after eyeing the pasteboard much as a crow inspects a dubious
marrow-bone, he returned it to me with a little weary sigh.
Unwilling to acce^^t defeat, I produced my Portaria or Imperial
passport he glanced over it and restored it in dead silence. My
desii'e for information was lil^el}' to catch cold, when fortunately
a decently dressed man walked in, and did not prove so chillingly
micommunicative. I told my tale all down the river, where men
agreed in giving a good name to the Delegate it is therefore onl}^
fair to suppose that he was exceptionally suffering under the
influences of Sao Romao.
Resuming our walk after this episode, to the south of the Boa
it
Vista we foimd a second church, the N'* S"" da Abbadia
boasted of the usual white-washed and two-window^ed face, wearing
:

;

;

a mutilated, noseless look.

To the w^est or inland of this line

are a few straggling huts, whose enclosures are hedged with the

organ cactus. Here is the highest and healthiest ground, w^here
the villa should be built; unfortunately it is too far fi'om the
Therefore, as in our West
business quarter, the river side.
they would
African " convict stations," men will not move
;

walk into their Avindows. At times exIn 1838 the water
ceptional inundations put them all to flight.
rose in places five feet above the floors, and in 1813 the lowest

rather

see

the

floods

street was nine feet under w^ater.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

248

[chap. xvi.

The trees scattered about the town show the excellence of the
soil.
The Almecega or Mastich grows to the largest size. Nowhere in the Brazil have I seen
corrective of hver complaints.
tuberosa)

is

the natural

finer tamarinds,

The

Imbuzeiro

a magnificent rounded gro^vth

;

(Spondias

the juice of this

myrobalan, tempered with milk and sugar, makes the favourite

"imbusada" of Pernambuco and Bahia.

There is an abundance
In the higher
levels, where the thorny mimosa and acacia flourish, cotton grows
taller than the houses, and in the lower parts sugar-cane flourishes.
Behind and above the town the vegetation is that of the canipo,
excellent for cattle-breeding.
In the streets w^e saw^ a few small
horses, the goats and poultry were tolerable, the pigs and sheep
much wanted breeding. An idea of the popular apathy may be
formed from the fact that whilst the river flowing before theii*
of fruit, limes and oranges, papaws and bananas.

doors produces the best of fish, and while salt may be brought
from a few leagues, if indeed it cannot be washed from the ground,
the to^vnspeople eat the hard, dry, and graveolent "bacalhao," or
codfish, brought in driblets from Newfoundland.

In 1822 Pizarro gave to S.

Romao 200 houses and 1300 souls.

Gardner, in 1840, reduced the number to ''not above 1000

M. Halfeld (Belatorio, pp. 27—28) numbers 220
houses and 800 souls.
The Almanak (1864) assigns to the
inhabitants."

municipality 8676

723 voters, and 17 electors.
According to my informants, in 1867 the houses, or rather
hovels, amounted to 200, and the tenants to 450.
When Saint
Hilaii-e wrote,* the ''village of S. Rumao " monopolised the
carrying trade of salt between the river and Santa Lusia of
Goyaz it also exported a considerable number of hides.
In
those days it had its "richards," Major Theophilo de Salles
inhabitants,

:

Peixoto, the late Lieutenant- Colonel Ernesto NataUsta Amaral de
Castro, the

Capitao Jose Jacob da Silva Silveira, and others.
A rehc of the good times is the vicar, Padre Antonio Ferreira de
Caires hearing that he was a " curioso," t rich in local informa:

upon him unfortunately he was at his Fazenda,
and the Sacristan assured me that there was no such thing as
tion, I called

;

a Livro do Tombo, or parish register.
III.

i.

216 and 359.

+ St. Hil. (III. i. 104) remarks, ''le
mot curioso repond dans notre langue, a
celui d'amateur
mais il a un sens moins
;

liiuite."

In the Brazil,

" afficciouado " is

an amateur, and curioso also includes the
non-i)rofessional expert,

CHAP. XVI.]

FROM GUAICUHY TO SAO KOMAO.

249

About ten years ago the diamond- diggings at Santafe * and on
the Paracatu Eiver have caused a small exodus, hence partly the
falling off of the census, and the exceptional nimiber of old men,

women and children.

The fevers have

greatly increased;

we

could read ague legibly wi'itten in the yellow skins, emaciated
frames, and Hstless countenances of the people who suffer terribly

dming the retreat of the waters between May and July.

The

fomentors are, as usual, poor diet, excess in drink and debauchery,
late hom's and extreme filth, not of person, but of habitation. In
this point they seem to have borrowed from the indigenes of the

land, who bathed several times dm-mg the day, but allowed them-

selves to be Uttered out of theii' ''carbets" (wigwams)

by moun-

tainous collections of offal.

The Sao Eomanenses did not affect me pleasantly. I did not
see a single white skin amongst them; they were a "regular
ranch" of bodes t andcabras,| caboclos and negros. The lower
practical
— there be any in this land of perfect
the wealthier were dressed
as well as theoretical— were in rags

orders

equality,

if

;

Em'opean style, ''boiled" shirts and velvet waistcoats, but
theii' lank hau' and flat faces recalled the original ''Indian."
They are devout, as the wooden crosses of squared scantling
affixed to the walls show
scant of civility, they have barely
energy enough to gather in groui)s at the doors and windows, the

in

:

men to j^rospect, the women to giggle at the i)assing stranger.
Some of the older blacks plied the primitive spinning wheel, but
the hammock, despite the raw chilly weather, was in more general
requisition.

Sao Romao, I have said, is well situated for trade. A good
road, some sixty leagues long, rmis up the valley of the Rio Preto,
the northern branch of the Paracatu. A little bevond the settle* This place was described to me as a
village, with the nidiments of a
chvu-ch in the municipality of S. Romao.
+ In the Brazil, " bode," or he-goat, is a
slang term for a mulatto.
X St. Hil. (III. ii. 272) makes the
Cabra (she-goat) a mixed breed between
the Red ]\Ian and the ?»Iulatto, and sjTionymous with the Pemvian "Chino." Here
it is applied as a general term to those who
addressed to
are neither black nor white
a man, it is grossly insulting, but I have
heai'd a boatman facetiously apply it to

little

;

himself.

The wild meu,

I

have

said,

gave the

name macaco da terra ("country monkeys")
Yet travellers have stated
to the African.
that they were fond of si;ch monkey's
meat, and all agree that their Avomen had

" un gout tres-vif pour les negnres. " Some
have advised, by way of saving the "Red
Man," to mix his blood with the black,
There
This is indeed unanthropological.
is no need to preserve a savage and inferior
race, when its lands are wanted by a higher
development and, in this case, the artificial would be worse than either of the
;

natural races.

,

250

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

[chap. xyi.

ment, called Os Arrepenclidos, it crosses the Serra of Goyaz,
which here offers no difficulties. Thence it bends north to the
old Villa dos Couros, now Villa Formosa da Imperatriz.
Here
there is communication with the great Tocantins tributary of the

Amazons, via the Eio das Almas, the Corumba,* and the Eio
Paranan, which bears canoes.
At night-fall we returned to the Brig Eliza, lighted the fire,
drew down the awning, and kept out as much of the drifting rain
and cold shifting wind as possible. It was not easy to sleep for
the Babel of sounds
here the dark hours are apparently the
:

time

When man must drink and woman must scold.

The Samba and Pagode seemed to rage

in concert

with the

and the harsh voices
screaming a truly African chaunt, suggested an orgie at Unyanguruw^w^e.
Evidently much reform is here wanted, and it will
come in the form of a steamer.
elements,

the twanging of instruments

* Men of information at Jauuaria, as
well as Sao Romao, mentioned tlie Corumba stream and village. I hope that they
have not confoimded it with another CoiTimba, the great northern influent of the
Southern
Parnahyba,
or
Pai-anahyba.
Usually, traders embark at the Villa das
Flores, or the Paranan, or Parana (St. Hil.
Parannan), the eastern head Avater of the
Tocantins.
Castelnau (ii. 106) declares,

'

Le Parana pent etre descendu en canot
jusqu'au Para." My informants described
the river as very "bravo" above S. Joao
da Palma, at the junction of the Araguaya,
or great western fork, and some have spent
six months in ascending it.
Hence they
say goods worth 0$700 at Para on the seaboard, sell at the Villa das Flores for
5 $000, and a bottle of wine bought for
01500 fetches 4 $000.
'

—

;

CHAPTER XVIL
FROM SAO ROjMAO TO JANUARIA.
Second Travessia, 26^ Leagues.

—
—
—

—

the village as pedras
steam-boat islands.
the uracttia rivee.
dos angicos. quixaba-tree3. the rio paedo. approach to the
city of jaxuaria. ^^^egetatiox at village of n-*- s^ da conceigao
reach the porto do brejo do
das pedras de maria da cruz.
salgado. the present city of januaria. its history and present
state danger of being swept away. reception. petty larceny.
civility of sr. manoel caetano de souza silva. the pequizeiro.
missionaries and missioners. walk to the brejo do salgado. its
actual state. romantic legend of the people's descent.

—

—

—

—

:

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

outro se ensTossa

De Scto Francisco, com que o mar se adoca.
Caraimirn.

Satnnlay, Septemher 21, 1867.

— The ceaseless drencliing rain

reduced the men to a manner of torpid hyhernating state.

After

a start under difficulties we threaded the long line of shoals and

In some places as many as six sand-bars v\^ere in sight
all were of finely sifted material without the gravel of the Coroas
in the Rio das Yelhas.
Passing the Roca do Porto Alegre and
islets.

other clearmgs* we came to the first of many features Avhich will

we reach Remanso. It is a long, narrow bank of stiff
sand, sharp fore and aft, and shaped like a river steamer in the
United States m places bushes formed the x^aflt'-le-hoxes, and
strata the lines of cauUdng.
We called them Steamboat Islands.
The vegetation was generally of yeUow-green, showing want of
fat humus.
last till

;

A head wind, driving misty blue clouds, drove us to the right
* ]\I. Halfekl calls this pretty spot
''Povaodo," or Village do Poilo Alegre.
His villages are mostly tenned by the pilots

"fazendas"

here,

meaning tracts cidtiThe next

vated by a number of settlers.

Barra do Braudao, a long, lovvThe bank also shows
improvement, bnt it must be extensively
innn dated,

M-as the

clearing ou the right.

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

252

bank.

[chap. xvii.

Tlie mercuiy showed 71° F., but we trembled with cold

such is the effect of air in motion, which seems to desjnse a sun

Furhng the awning we made a good "lick" to
The right bank was

nearly overhead.

the entrance of the great Uracuia stream. *

wooded with a truly magnificent vegetation it showed for the
first time the Carahyba de flor roxa, a tall tree with lilac-coloured
blossoms, which will presently become common, and here we
observed that every great western influent brings down with its
;

waters a new growth.
feet broad,

The mouth of the Uracuia is about 315
and behind tlie woodland the low banlc of yellow clay

bears only thicket.

A white-washed house, now a novelty, appeared on the Bahian
side, and presently we took the left of the "Illia do Afunda,"
which is interpreted to mean that the water is deep its material
is a pure yellow and easily melted sand.
The upper part of the
islet is well clad with various growths.
We then ran in mid
stream past the second Afunda, f and, after eleven hours of hard
and comfortless, dull and eventless work, we came to anchor at a
praia on the left bank.
;

—

The north wind which had raged all night
blew itself out about dawn, and we set out with alacrity. The
banks were dead flats, in places splendid with tall sugar-cane and
Septemher 22.

tree-cotton, but generally

showing second growth where magnificent forests had been.
Passing on the left the little Acary
tributary, I we found another high white bluff' about a mile long.
Also written Aracuia, wliicli means,
say the peoi^le,
"fartura," or plenty,
allnding to the fertility of its upper banks.
It drains the southern slopes of the Chapadao (big plateau) do Uracuia, and is
divided from the Paracatu Valley by the
Serra do Rio Preto.
Its area of drainage
is

latitudinally

1

30

2°,
and longitudinally,
The stream, though broken by
many rapids, is navigable for rafts and
canoes as far as Campo Grande, 102 miles
from the mouth.
.

Lama, and A. de Espinho.
It is the
Juacana which Marcgref saw at Pernambuco and the Cachimbo, or Cachimbao, of
Ilheos.
A species is probably the Acara
bandeira (IMesonanta insignis, Gunther) of
which Mr. Bates (ii. 140) gives an illustration.
It grunts like the Mandim, and
the pilots say that when eating the mud
and weeds from the canoe-bottom it rubs
its bluff head against the wood, and produces the peculiar sound.
They declare
that it lives in holes along the banks
;

t

]\I.

hibas,

Halfeld calls this Ilha das Caraand elsewhere sijells the word

Caraibas.

+ According to the pilots, the true Acary
is further down-stream.

The name of this fish (a loricaria of many
species) is also Avi-itten Acari and Acarehy.

The Tupy name was Acara, with the termmations,

-apua,
-assu,
-tinga,
and
-peixuna.
In this river we find the A.
de Pedra, A. do Casca (or Casci-do), A. de

many deem it poisonous, and it is generally
thrown away on account of the trouble of
Both the black and the white
cooking it.
kinds have hard, spiny skins, with longitudinal lines of points, highly dangerous
dorsal fins, and hooks above the caudal

Another well-known loricated and
''grunting" fish is the "Cascudo," which
The
abounds in the rivers of the interior.
people praise it, but I found the white

fins.

meat soft, tasteless, and full of thorns.

;

FROM SAO ROMAO TO JANUARIA.

CHAP. XVII.]

253

and divided into two sections, the Barreira do Indio (do Honorio,
M. Halfeld), and the Barreii'a Alta. Here we remarked the
abundance of the Angico Preto acacia, on this part of the stream
an ugly tufted tree its timber is too dry for use, but the gum is
the bark abounds in tannin, and
given to consumptive patients
;

;

the ashes in potash.

About noon, entering S. Lat. 16^, we came to a new featui'e,
"as Pedras" (dos Angicos), and we landed on the right bank to
Here a wall some forty-two feet i^rojects from a
insj)ect it.
fronts
to west and drives the river to the north-west
shallow sag,
it runs nearly a mile down-stream, and is found in a hollow, to

The outcrop is evidently the
The floor near
base of a bulge of ground observed on the east.
the north-east of the httle village.

the water was a hard bluish limestone, effervescing kindly under

above it was a stratum of laminated, friable clayshale, capped by a bluer calcaire, with dislocations, broken blocks

muriatic acid

;

and horizontal bands, varying in thickness from three inches
Water drops appeared upon the
to three and a half feet.
exposed slabs on the summit, which is always six feet above
water, and it was revetted in parts with iron cla}^, whilst to one
block is attached a small portion of quartz conglomerate.
This
is one of the many places which will supply admirable hydi'aulic
cement.

The bank and the village showed a scatter of noble Quixabeira
trees,

huge bouquets of verdure, whose aromatic flowers and

2)erfumed shade attracted hosts of bees.*

The little chapel of

Sao Jose, the brago of the place, is about nine feet above the
AValking up the
floods, and yet boasts of a stone foundation.
sandy street, perpendicular to the stream and sliowmg traces of
pavement and bottom, we found the usual hollow parallel with
the ridge and periodically under water.
In the loose free soil,
cotton, essentially a sun-plant, grows neglected, fifteen feet high,

and the castor shrub twenty. In ''AVater-Street," whose houses
and ranches were superior to those of Sao Romao, appeared three
Yendas, with men sitting outside the counters, or using them as
card-tables.
Two shoe-makers and a dry-goods store seemed
* Also written Quicliabeira, one of

The
a fine shelter for cattle.
mentions the Quijaba and the
Catinga branca (here called Catinga do

tlie

affords

which covers large tracts
on the Rio de Sao Francisco, above and
below the Great Rapids.
It resembles the
Zizyphns, produces an edible berry, and

Sj^stem

Sapotaceffi, a tree

Porco), as legnminosre

num.

abundant in stryph-

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL,

254

to be doing a thriving business.

canoes selling fine water-melons.

[chap. xvii.

South of the village were three
Under an old angico hung with

dark moss stood the frame-work of a barca, very solidly built of
On the northern waterside washerwomen were plj^ing
cedar.*
their trade, whilst their bantlings swam about, or plaj^ed on carts

with wheels of one piece some eighteen inches high.

Horses and
mules were restmg after being ferried across the river, and a
This at once
little caravan appeared upon the opposite bank.
explained the prosperity and the civility of the place. The Delegado had at once sent to procure lodgings for us. It communicates with the Acary Pdver, where, at the distance of ten
Sao Jose das
leagues from the mouth, are diamond diggings.
Pedras dos Angicos now numbers ninety-five houses and a popuwe left it convinced that it has good things
lation of 500 souls
;

in store for it.

Resuming our way in an exceedingly hot sun, we presently
passed on the left the Barra do Acar}-, t which breaks its way
through a sandy Coroa. Below the mouth are three '' steamboat
islets" of the same name, and the Ilha do Barro Alto, a wooded
holm. Then came the mouth of the Pdo Pardo X about 140 feet
broad

here began the magnificent bosquets (capoes) of cedar,

;

vinhatico and balsamo (a myrospermum) found in every river and
rill.

Opposite this

we

i^oint

nighted.

The

air

had become

''muggy," damp and tropical, like Western India, and, for the
first time after leaving Pdo de Janeiro, Ave began to disuse the
blanket.

I need hardly say that we recalled to mind with regret

the charming accidents of the Old Squaws' Stream

;

the clear

limpid air rich in oxygen, the splendid forest scenery of the
wild banks, the music of birds and beasts, even the song of the

rapid and the fall, and the cheerfulness of nature in general.

Septemhcr 23.

—After an hour's paddling appeared the Barro

Alto, a high bank of white clay on the right side where the bed
is

embayed.

We landed a little below it, at the mouth of a

Corrego known as the Braima it puts forth an under water ridge,
extending from south-west to north-east, and ending in what the
;

* The small 31- barcas here cost 200 $000

and the
moderate size, 500 $000
largest (45 x 14 feet), 1:600 $000.
t This Acary stream is not mentioned l)y
M. Halfeld, nor is it in M. Gerber's map.
The mouth is about 150 feet broad the

tliose of

;

;

high left bank of yellow clay is garnished

with grass and low trees, and on the opposite side the vegetation rolls almost to the
water's edge.

J The Rio Pardo drains the Southern
of the Chapadao de Santa Maria.

slopes

Its length is 1° 30',

but it is navigable for

canoes only twelve leagues.

;

CH.vr. XVII. J

FROM SAO ROMAO TO JAXUARIA.

255

crew called a ^'batida," a low sand-bank flaked with mud. Here
we found the true diamantine '^forma^ao," the Cattivo, the Siricoria, in fact all the symptoms, but not the gem. These evidences
appear at scattered intervals

;

the

people <leclare them to be

apparently arbitrary, that is to say, the source from wliich the}'

come has not been investigated.
Beyond this point the stream showed on the left heaps of stone
on the right, thrown out in a relief of bare or bluiTed line agauist
the blue sky, rose the Serra do Brejo,* which from this point
appeared a slope, a broken saddle-back and a liunp swelling
above the trees and sands. To starboard we passed the Pdacho
do Peixe, near whose mouth is the small Fazenda of a German

Doctor Otto Karl Willielm Wageman fm'ther down is the
Biacho dos Pandeiros, t whose winding course admits canoes for
some five leagues nearly opposite it the Biacho do Mangah}'.
The northern Hmit of the S. Bomao municipality showed at the
mouth a clump of magnificent trees, and, a little below, a large
bed of Cascalho. In fi'ont rose the remarkable table-mountain
settler.

;

;

known as the Itabirassaba, corrupted to Piassaba I the word is
We are evidently approaching an
translated "Monte de Fogo."
;

important place

;

the

primitive

vegetation

disai^pears,

nature

begins to look cbilled and disciplined, there are kihis, the huts
are whitewashed and tiled, and the people offer fish for sale.

we reached a
place which we had long seen in the shape of a lumpy line on the
right bank, and we ascended a flight of steps cut out by the
retii'ing waters.
Here there is a bed of the finest white limestone
some 10 feet thick. The i^lace is known as N^ S^ da Conceicao
After a few features of no great importance, §

das Pedras de Maria da Cruz, and the

first

edition of the httle

chapel was built about 1725 by the PauUsta Miguel Domingos,
after the defeat at the Bio das Mortes

* Brejo do Salgaclo, which we shall
presently ^asit,
+ The Pandeii-o is a gipsy kind of instmment a bow and calabash, derived from
Africa.
The wild men, as might be expected, greatly enjoyed its music
hence
the name has been given to many places in
the backwoods.
Near this Pandeiros a
man lately died said to be 107 years old.
+ The head man declared, and with
truth, that this saddle-back was the Seri-a
do Brejo to the north-east of the former.

—

;

m 1708.

The mound that

§ At noou we passed three islets near
the Pernani. bank, and an h.our afterwards
v^e saw the Ilha das Pedi-as, a sandy and
shrubby formation, with small clearings
and barking dogs.
On the bank opposite
to it were ledges of Canga
beyond it
appeared, upon a base of light-coloured
stiff clay,
a wall of fenniginoiis argile,
black and red, pudding'd with pebbles,
varpng in thickness from one to nine feet,
and thinning off from north to south,
;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

256

[chap, xvii,

supports it had an old and remarkably good " ladrillio," or tile
The river,
pavement, which commands a magnificent view.

broken

b}'

sand-bar and island, sweeps nobly from south-west

and at this point trends nearly due north. The wavy
bank in front is clothed with immense trees, and about eight
miles distant the western horizon is closed by the quaint-shaped

to west,

Itabirassaba, towering high above its chain.

The population of the little hamlet was scattered about in low
Some of the women
huts of wattle and dab, thatched or tiled.
working the old pillow-lace were hardly clad with decency, and on
the bank was a j^ellow girl with unveiled bosom, as if she had
been in the Bight of Biafra. All, however, are more or less

and here, as elsewhere, the brow^n buff simulates dress.
Goats wandered about the bush, and seemed to enjoy the shiny,
succulent leaves of the gigantic croton shrub, which grows to an
abnormal size. This Jatropha Curcas* of many names supplied
the physic nut for the Lisbon lamps, and thus for a time preserved certain of the Cape Yerde Islands from starvation. It has
an extensive range. I have seen it at altitudes between the seaThe Guinea negroes administer with
board and 3000 feet.
tinged,

excellent effect the green seeds together with the pulp
is, I believe,

;

the dose

a quarter of the nut boiled in water, which is drunk, t

Half-dram doses used to be given in the Brazil, but the "physicnut " is now neglected, as it is a dangerous, and has proved a

As the rains begin, everpvhere sprouts a pretty

fatal, drastic.

pink

flo'^er

""

thin an
*'

somewhat

Cebo]

like

a primrose, solitary, and capping a

3

stalk about one foot high ;

,"

or the poison-onion, and declare that cattle will

the people call

it

On the higher banks, where the floods do not

not tor
extend, ^.

the Solanaceous Jua,

blackened berries

;

still

the organ cactus

;

bearing the last year's

the Pitombeira (Sapindus

an edible fruit; the Pingui, here called
Imbaru, and the shady Aroeira de Minas, also known as Capicurii.
edulis), a large tree with

The latter resembles the Melia Azadirachta of Hindostan, but
the leaves are not bitter.
* Here
" pinlieiro

it

de

popularly kno^v^l
is
purga," or " i>inliao

as

vellers— namely, not to eat iinknOAvn fruits

do

which birds refuse.

The Tupy dictionaries give
Paraguay."
" Mandiibi-guagu " (the great ground-nut,
or Arachis), a mixture of African and
American terms. Labat has " Medicinier"
or " pignon d'Tnde," and when describing
its eflects, he ofters sensible advice to tra-

f In Africa the unripe pulp, didy prepared, is, I believe, also taken as a strong
medicine,
J In other parts cattle are, they say,
poisoned by it.

CHAP. x^^I.]

FEOM SAO KOMAO TO JANUAEIA.

257

As we advanced, the long reach, running nearly due north, bent to
the north-east and showed in the far distance a whitewashed chapel
and three large double-storied houses. On the left was the Ilha
do Barro Alto, a long " steamboat island." We were obliged to

round the large, flat sand-bars before we could make the Porto do
Brejo do Salgado, the channel above the town not admitting even
our raft. This is the most important place on the Upper Eio de
Sao Francisco, and its only rival is Joazeii'o, distant 190 leagues
down-stream. The site is a dead flat on the left bank, distant
fom' to five miles from the Serra do Brejo, a broken line to the
north-west and north. A certain Maciel, of whom more presently, here built a chapel of brick and lime, the people assembled
round it, and the Bishop of Pernambuco sent a curate, the Padre
Custodio Yieu-a Leite.
The principal settlement however was
inland, at the base of the hills, and this povoacao or hamlet on the

name of Port of the Salt Swamp, abbreviated
"
to
O Salgado," "the Salted," and this the people insist upon

river side took the

Of com'se the two settlements were rivals and enemies.
In 1833 the Port became the "Villa da Januaria," chiistened
after the sister of the reigning Emperor; in 1837 the honoui* was

retainmg.

transferred to the Brejo inland

;

in 1846 it was re-transferred to

moved to the Brejo; and finally, in
1853, it settled upon the Stream.* The water side objects to the

the Port; in 1849

it

hill side that it is

too far from the seat of trade

again

;

the hill side

no danger of seeing even its samts
swept into the river. The municipahty, which is large, and contains a considerable extent of uncultivated land, numbers five
districts, namely, the City, the Brejo, Mocambo,f Morrinhos, Sao
Joao da Missao, and Japore, the latter distant about 20 leagues.
We had to fight hard against the strong cm-rent, which now

retorts that at least

it

is

in

shows signs of incipient flooding. We passed the tall sobrado of
the Capitao Jose Eleutherio da Souza, fronted by a dozen stunted
and wind- wrung palms, and a slope of Capim ussu (the big
stretching

grass)

metallic green,

doAvn

lil^e

to the

stream.

young Paddy.

* According to the Almanak, the parish
was created by Royal resolution of Jamiaiy
2, 1811, and the Port was made the Cheflieu by Pro^ancial Law K"o. 288 of ]\Iarch

The herbage

It is not destroyed

of a

is

by the

12, 1816.
+ ]\Iuch of the land in the J\Iocambo has

Here the best land
500 $000 per league, not,
however, a square league, which would be
nine geographical miles, but half a league
each way.
In these matters there is no
regulation, and each man adopts his oyro.

no i^roprietor, and

system.

VOL.

IT.

its

admii'able fertility

suggests colonisation.
is worth at most

S

"

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

258

inundations, and cattle will eat

it.

[chap. xvii.

The Port is formed at this
It has been pro-

season by two sand-bars fronting the left bank.

remove them, but the best authorities are agreed that
they defend the side, to which a strong flood swings during the
rains.
The river is now upwards of 3000 feet in breadth, and
the weight of water does far more damage than the superficial

loosed to

washing.
3^ears

It will not be easy to save the place ; about twenty

Rua do Commercio, the " w^ater street,"

ago half of the

became the stream-bed. A few stakes have been planted to act
as grains, and a stockade of tree trunks defends the sloping bank
of sandy clay, perilously near whose edge runs a line of low,
whitewashed, and red-tiled tenements. The principal danger is
above the city, where a small channel admits a vast influx of
flood water.
Here it would be easy to throw up one of those
levees with which we d^^ked the Indus near Hyderabad.*

We found in port a number of canoes and eight barcas made
fast to the usual poles.

The praia, as

the bank

is

here called,

at once recalled to mind the African market, and the monotonous

chaunt of the negroes measuring beans did not diminish the
resemblance to the scenes of distant Zanzibar. "Women, now
far more numerous than men, washed at the water-side, or cai'ried

and fro the hojs, more than half-nude, squatted
on the s^nd-bars on tree trunks, or in their dug-outs, bobbing for
daily bread.
The dark boatmen, clad in the sleeveless waistcoat
(Jale or Camisola), and the cotton-kilt (Sayote) of the Guinea
Coast, stroll about or lie stretched upon the slopes playing with
the splendid and majestic Araras,f which they have brought
from down-stream, and whose plumes glittered in the sunshine.
On the more level ground were planted seven shed huts of poles,
mats, and hides. Here the merchant who disdains to hire a
house exchanges his salt and cloth for provisions and supplies.
their pots to

;

* In making these levees, it is well to
dig a trench, and carefully to remove tree
_

roots,

and everything that can assist perThe dyke should have a base

Aranma (Ararauna) and tlie Arary,

also

termed Caninde, or Arara Azul.
The
former (Psittacns hyacinthinns), as its name

eolation.

denotes, a black, or rather a dark-purple

of 3

bird, of smaller size than usual ; it flies in

:

1.

+ Ara, I have remarked, is a parroquet,
or parrot ; the augmentation ara -ara contracted to arara in the large psittacus.
It
is regi-ettable that we have not adopted
this pretty onomatopceia, instead of the

gi'otesque half-bred

Spanish macaw,

\nilgai-ized the scientific

and

" Araina^.

The common wild varieties here are the

pairs high, with loud screams, like the
parroquet. The Arary (Psittacus Ararauna)
is the well-kno^^ii and magnificent bird,
with a coat of the brightest blue, and a

golden waistcoat.

St.

Hil.

(I.

ii.

376)

notices the ei'ror of Marcgraf, who gave the
name Ararauna, which means black or

dark macaw, to the -wTong bird.

FROM SAO ROMAO TO JANUARIA.

CHAP. XYiT.]

259

When we had slipped into place I sent up my card and introductions to Lieutenant-Colonel Manoel Caetano de Souza Silva.
Januaria showed her civiUsation by crowding to inspect us with

extreme avidity.
into feline shape

A very drunken j^outh, with teeth chipped

—here fashionable— addressed Agostinho as
—very
a big
"moleque" — small
slave bo}^

slave bo}-,

offensive to

and a ''row" of the mildest natm^e ensued. Another stole an
" Engineer's Pocket-book," and offered it for sale to a Portuguese,
The police authorities took no
v\dio at once returned it to us.
notice of the theft, perhaps because the robber was half silly with
liquor, and consoled us with the intelligence that we might expect
This, however, was
to be extensively plundered down-stream.
not the case Januaria was the only place where anything of the
;

kind was attempted.
"VVe were soon rescued from the situation

b}^

Manoel

Sr.

Caetano, who, accompanied by some friends, invited us to inspect
the city.

I greatly enjoyed the view from the bank summit.

To

the west the purplmg hills were faint as clouds floating upon a sea
In front lay the Eiver
of ruddy haze, the last effort of day.
Valley, at least twelve miles broad, and suggesting a vast expanse
About two leagues distant rose the
of water during the floods.
Morro do Cliapeo, curiously shaped like a Pluygian cap it is an
outher of a long broken wall extending from north-east to southThis Serra dos Geraes de Sao Felipe
w^est as far as we can see.
is exceptionall}^ rich, and supplies the river with lard, tobacco, and
maize-flour.
Its remarkable pomts are the Urubu peak, from
;

this point a regular p}Tamid, the Serra das Figuras, the table-

shaped Morro da Boa Vista, and the three round heads known as
the Tres Irmaos.
The N'* S^ das Dores is rather a chapel than a church, and at
the building is
times, they say, fish have been caught in it
fronted by a tall cross, enclosed in a dwarf square of short wall.
At the other end of the settlement is a N^ S^ do Rosario blown
;

'

down by the wind, and still unrepaii'ed.

The streets are floored

with sand, and in places there are strips of trottoii', slabs of the
fine blue limestone from the Pedi-as dos Angicos.

Trees requii-e

"compound," walled or
growth is the papaw, and a palm

a soil less lean; each house has

its

staked round, but the largest
here called the " Garii'oba " *

a tall, dull-brown stick bear-

;

Or Guariroba (^Cocos oleracea,
growths of the Sertao.
^'

it is

i\Iart. ),

a

palm commonly found

in the

S 2

stunted

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

260

[chap. xvii.

ing small ragged fronds and a raceme of edible fruit about the

The thoroughfares are straight, but as usual too

size of an egg.

narrow; their names are carefully inscribed upon the corners,
showing that the Camara does its duty, and the tenements are
numbered. The Pra^a das Dores contains the jail, with barred
'v\andows, where guards and sentinels loll and loaf, and near it
the humble Guildhall.

A hospital is much wanted

;

we met in

the streets many cripples.

The total of houses may be upwards of 700, of which at least a
In 1860, the famine-year of Bahia, the population numbered 6000 souls
five years ago it declined to 4000,
and now it may be 5000, slaves included. For some time past
fifth are Vendas.

;

the serviles have been traded off to Rio de Janeiro, and, only

head were sent do^vai country. The city is supported b}" brokerage and the carrying trade. The Quattro-Maos*
of the backwoods bring in a very little cotton, a quantity of sugar
and rum, excellent tobacco and provisions, especially hill-rice
and manioc, which flourish on the table-land beyond the riverine
valley.
Fine canoes of the best Vinhatico and Tamboril,f forty
feet long here, cost 100 $000, and are sent down-stream, where
lately, thh-ty

large trunks are rare.

The imports

are chiefly via Joazeiro,

which the people place at a distance of 220 to 240, instead of 190
leagues

they are chiefly dry goods and salt.
not visited the inner Brazil will hardly imagine
;

prosperity is this condiment.

Those who have
how necessary to

must be given to all domestic

It

animals, cattle, mules, and pigs; they convert into '^ licks" every
place likely to sux)ply the want, and even crunch bones to find it.
Without it they languish and die in fact, here the desert may
;

be defined as a place where

salt is not.

A popular succedaneum

is oil and gunpowder,

and even this is found better than nothing.
In 1852 the mule load of eight arrobas from Eio de Janeiro (200
leagues) + via Diamantina, paid 45 $ 000
it has now risen to
15^000 or 163 000 per arroba, nearly three times the price.
Consequently the capital sends only "notions" and "objects of
luxury."
Bahia (186 leagues) adds hides and salt, potter}^,
ammunition, and ii'on-ware the price of conveyance varies from
12 $000 to 143000 per thirty-two pounds.
Goyaz, like the
;

;

*

Quadnimana

:

here tlie word

is

used

in tlie sense of Caipira, country bumpkin.
+ _A hxrge leguminous tree. St. Hil.
(T. ii. 331) writes the word "tamburi,"
according to the pronunciation of the

Sertanejos.
t The distances are those given to me
Tliey made
by my friends at Januaria.
Diamantina 70 leagues distant, and Leu^oes

70 to 80.

FROM SAO ROMAO TO JAXUARIA.

CHAP. XVII.]

261

Geraes * lands on both sides of the river, supplies stock and
provisions, " doces," cheese, and a little coffee and cotton ; some
of them produce a small quantity of wheat.

''Colossal fortunes,"

says the Almanak, " are rare," but there are

men worth upwards

of £4000, and

money here breeds safely 2-1:

—36 per

cent, per

annum.

Our host was a distinguished " Liberal," ^vho prefers politics to
trade or farmmg he is made well known throughout the country
;

by a greater generosit}^ tlian is usual. He offered us the novelties of absinthe and cognac, he compelled us to sup with him,
and he placed his house at om' disposal. For liberty's sake I
preferred the raft, also to escape from the screams of the children,
wliich, throughout the Brazil, fonn the terribly persistent music
of the home.
The mothers, I i^resume, physically enjoy being
noisy by proxy, the fathers do not object, and thus the musicians
are never punished.
Indeed you are considered a " brute " if
you object to losing a night's rest by a performance, which could
be settled in a second. The onl}' place where the shriek of
woman and the scream of babe are silent is, I believe, the Island
of Madeu'a.
Sr.

Manoel Caetano gave an

invitation

to visit

him

at his

fazenda, where he intended to sleep, and promised to send animals
at daybreak on the morrow, but apparently the light at Januaria

dawns after 9 a.m. AVe, therefore, set out on foot under guidance of Sr. Candido Jose de Senna, ex-Professor of First
'

Letters.

The path led to the north across an inundated flat,

which appears lilvely to disappear, and a line of mist showed the
Corrego Secco, that requires the levee. Dming the rains it is a
flood, now it retams water-pits (pocoes) frequented by washerwomen. Ahead, and a little to the left, lay the table mountain,

up which men have ridden

;

at its foot is the

fazenda of the

Capitao Bertoldo Jose Pimenta, and near the summit, they say,
is

a natural well.

After

walkmg a mile we made

rising ground, and exchanged

white sand for ruddy soil rich with himius.

Here even the floods

of 1792-93, wliich rose thii'ty-eight and a half feet above the mean
level of the stream, did not extend.

In 1813 there was another

inmidation, when a Surubim was caught in the church, followed
* In these parts the Greraes are generally named after their streams;
das Palmeiras, do Borachudo, &c.

e.g.,

Geraes

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

262

In 1857 the

by a tliii'd in 1855.

[chap. xvii.

citizens took refuge here, and

spent several days in picnics and jollit3\

It is called the Piqui-

zeiro,* from the abundance in former times of the wild Caryocar

become the left bank of the Bio de Sao

tree, and it will probably

Francisco.

Evidentl}^ this is, even now, the fittest place for the

settlement, which a line of

with the Port

;

the

aii'

wooden rails would

easily connect

cooler and healthier, water abounds,

is

there is plenty of building-ground, and the soil behind it is loose

and red, excellently adapted for cotton and sugar.

A scatter of huts is sprmging up around the Piquizeiro, where
a

new cemetery has been laid

out.

Our host dug

supply the builders with water, and the place

is

a leat to

strewed with

adobes and fine slabs of blue limestone. A tall cross of cedar
bears a little cross and the legend " Salus. P. E. G. C. 1867."

This was lately set up by Fr. Eeginaldo Goncalvez da Costa, a
vicar detached on a missionary campaign from his cure near
Montes Claros b}'' the Bishop of Diamantina. He collected a
copper from the poor and a testoon from the rich. Some 6000
souls, mostly feminine,

strewed the plain as he doled out the

Bread of Life, and the fireworks which ended the day are described as having the efi'ect of a volcano in full blow.

Januaria

had lately been visited by a convert, pervert or divert Spaniard,
in the j^ay of a certain Bible Distribution Societ}^

there he had left to raise

more

When I w^as

grist for the mill at

Bio de

Janeiro ; and he had bequeathed to a Portuguese clerk the work
of conversion, perversion, or diversion.

The priests down-stream

were much scandalized by the distribution of '* false Bibles," and
I could not but sj^mpathize with them, knowing how easily in

mind is unsettled by a small matter.
Surely it will be time to Protestantize the world when it shall

these countries the local

have been Christianized.

Similarly the missioner t and the mis-

* According to Arruda, the "Acantacarix pinguis " the tree prefers the sandy
soils of the Taboleiros and Chapadas, where
the growth deserves all encouragement. Its
;

height is fifty feet, with proportional girth
the timber is good for boat-making
and
the fruit, as large as an orange, supplies an
oily, farinaceous, and very nourishing pulp,
much enjoyed by the people of Ceara and
;

—

Piauhy (Koster, ii. jjp. 486 7).
t The Saturday lleview, when noticing
a book which I wrote after my return from
Dahomc, remarked the use of the word

''

]\Ii.s,sioner."

The Eeviewer did not re-

member that of late years "Missioner " has
been adopted by the (Roman) Catholic, in
Miscontradistinction to the Protestant
sionary."
Perhaps it would be more anthropological to call the former the phase of
faith at present adopted by Southern Europe,
opposed to the young Church which belongs
to Northern Europe, and to the Greek
Church, as old as the oldest which prevails
in semi-Oriental Eastern Europe. Similarly
Ave ol)serve in El Islam that certain ununimporimportant articles of belief
'

'

—

FROM SAO ROMAO TO JA^'UARIA.

CHAP. XVII.]

263

sionary, Jesuit and Cliiircli of England, have been let loose upon
Abj^ssinia, whose church dates from the tliii'd centiuy, and

more than those of
A few massacres have been the direct, and

doubtless resembles the i)rimitive form far

Eome and London.

an Abyssmian campaign the indirect, result of the merciful interference. Meanwhile, mitil quite of late years, the Galla accolents
have been left in full enjo^^ment of theii' savage fetishism.
After a walk of four miles we reached an admii*Eevenons
!

mangos, perhaps the finest that I have beheld in
the Brazil, lining the approach to our host's property, the Fazenda de Santo Antonio do Brejo do Salgado. It is on the right
able grove of

bank of the Salgado, or Salt Eivulet, which rises in a pretty plain,
the Fazenda da Carahyba, and which feeds the Sao Francisco a
Here it
little below the settlement, to wliich it gave a name.
breaks through the Boqueirao, a gap in the Serra do Brejo,
vrhere it acquires a cooling and salt-bitter flavour, which argues
When floods in the main artery block up the mouth,
saltpetre.

can be ascended by canoes, showing that the channel could be
The people avoid drinking the water, as
converted into a canal.
and after usmg it strangers must check the
it is highly laxative
efi'ects with an orangeade made of the sweet, fade and medicinal
it

;

In two years it has deposited on the
wooden watercourse which tm-ns the turbine, a coat of calcareous
matter about three inches in thickness. Its lime and salts give
''laranja da terra."*

a wondrous fertility to

its little valley,

the richest spot that

have yet seen on the Rio de Sao Francisco
jom'ne}^ we shall see few that equal it.

;

we

and dm'ing the whole

Amongst the Mangos I detected by its circular crown of fronds
an old friend in the other hemisphere, the Cocoa-nut, here called
Coco da Praia. It was a fine taU and lusty specimen of the
Cocos nucifera, hung with sixteen nuts. The tree is plentiful
along the coast from Pdo de Janeiro to Para t except, however,
;

tant because neither the Koran nor TracUare
tion has pronounced iipon them
adopted by one school of di^'inity because
the rival school has preferred another view.
*'
Ragban I'il Tasannun"— in hate against
the Sunnis— is the Shiah reason for adopt-

—

ing some of its minor usages.
* The perfumed flower of this countiy
orange is much admired by the hummingI was here told that the fiiiit bebird.
comes bitter or tasteless, imless periodically
refreshed by grafting, and they showed me
orange -trees six years old, but still barren.

St. Hil. (III. ii. 409) says of Salgado,
*'Cette bourgade doit son nom a I'un de
ses premiers habitans, et non, comme on
pom-rait le croire, a la qualite, un peu
saumatre, de ses eaux." This is, I believe,
Pizarro has explained the
a mistake.
origin of the term correctly ; he remarks
that the waters are stomachic, deobstnient,
digestive, and capable of healing or dimi-

nishing goitres.
f I* ^^^st be remembered that the Cocos
nucifera was not found in the Brazil by the
earliest explorers.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

264

[chap. xvii.

upon the river sides, it wanders but a short way inland, justifying
Here a bee-line to
the popuhxr belief that it requii'es sea air.
the Atlantic measures 350 miles, and we shall find it extending
The largest plantation is
in patches all the way down-stream.
at the Lugar da Aldea do Salitre, seven leagues south-west from
Joazeiro
the fruit is exported by Dr. Joaquim Jose Ribeiro de
Magalhaes, who x)referred farming and road-making to being a
Desembargador in the Ilela9ao of Maranham. Both these places
have saline or saltpetrous waters. The Coco da Bahia, as it is
also called, is found, however, in many spots where the ground,
possibly an old sea-bed, supplies the want of sea air.
The host led us into his garden, and showed us, embedded in
;

the soil at an angle of 45°, a semicircular fragment of " Cavitaria,'^
the true white and black granite of Rio Bay, two feet broad, two

and a half long, and three deep. The sides had been chipped,
and the face had been used as a grindstone. An old Quattromao declared that the Geraes had whole hills of such rock, but
no one believed him. It had probably been brought from downstream, and about Joazeiro we found the formation common.
The energetic Netherlander s, it will be remembered, built a Fort
Maurice at the mouth of the Sao Francisco, and plundered
Penedo it is more than probable that during their Thu'ty Years'
War in the Brazil, they visited the upper stream. So M. Halfeld remarks that the floods of 1792 laid bare in the river bank
several tiles more than a foot long each way, and five mches thick.
He believes them to date from the age of the '' Hollandezes."
The plague of the garden is the '' Cupim," and nothing but
the plough will remove it from the rich fat soil.
The coffee
planted under the shade of the Shangos or luxuriant jack-fiaiit
;

trees, ajDpeared to be subject to the caterpillar;

exposed to the sun.

not so the leaves

We saw a single tree dating from 1828, and

were told that during its best days it had borne fifteen pounds per
annum. The sugar-cane was remarkably fine, and once planted
lasts almost through a man's life.
The arrowroot (a Maranta)
grew well the Guandu pea was common, and there was a large
grass whose dried root much resembled patchouli.
The flowers
were the i)erfumed "Bougarim," suggesting a white rose, lilies,
gigantic snowy jasmines, and the "bonina," a land of ^'prettj^-

it

;

by-night."

To the north-east we saw the solitary steeple of N^ S'^ do
Rosario gleaming against a green hill.

South of it were the tiled

FROM SAO EOMAO TO JAXUARIA.

CHAP. XVII.]

265

roofs of the Barro Alto, a fine plantation, and behind them lay
the '*Boqueii*ao " estate, as well as gap, where the Church of

Santo Antonio, built by Maciel, the Adelantado, lies in rums.
To the west-north-west peeped the summits of the Matriz do
Amparo, the mother of Januaria city. And the background was
the Serra do Brejo, pillared with cactus, capped with thin bush,

and walled with banded grey cliffs of a stratification so regular as
to resemble art, and stained here and there with a bright ferruginous red.

We then visited the sugar-house,* which had poor machinery,
but an excellent article to work upon. Instead of troughs there
were Jacas, cones of bamboo, each containing four bushels, and
piu'ging into pits below.
Good mules were straying about the
grounds; the natives cost 30 $000, and those driven from the
Province of Rio Grande do Sul, via Sorocaba and S. Paulo, a two
A " Jack " showed that

years' journey, fetch 50 $ 000 to 60 $ 000.

breeding is here in vogue ; further down the river asses become

common.

Flesh

is

not plentiful, and a cow of the small Raga

curaleira, which gives

The

good meat, commands 8 §000 to 10 $000.

Curios " shown to us were broad-brimmed hats of the Imbe

''

Vermelho, an Aroid used like the African '' tie-tie ;" its fibre takes
a good colour the leather clothing was soft as cloth there were
stout cottons, and woollen stripes and checks, worked by the
women of Tamandua, and stained with indigo, and a powerfully
;

di'astic

;

cucurbitaceous plant known as the Bucha dos Paulistas.f

We breakfasted at the usual bucolic hour, 9 a.m., preferred to
Lisbon wine the " Minas wine," i.e., Restillo, and the peculiar
cheese Requejao,! which here always accompanies coffee. We
ended mth Januaria-made cigars the tobacco came from the
hilly Geraes three leagues to the north-west of the city, and the
;

'

* The whitest sugar in Januaria came
Pitangui (120 leagues).
It would

from

easily have

into loaves.

been

crystallised,

and moulded

I suggested the use of animal

charcoal
but who will take the trouble to
make it when clay is found ready made ?
+ Literally, the gun-wadding of the
;

The specimen showed to us was
a fibre containing dark oleaginous seeds.
About one square inch of it is steeped in
water over night, and drunk in the morning

Paulistas.

S. Paulo it is known as the Purga de Joao
Paes (Momordica oijerculata), and alludes
to its various uses.
We also heard of a
smaller variety, said to be even more violent in its action, and the jjlant was
described as resembling the Passion-flower,
It is probably the Buchinha,
or Lufia
purgans, whose extract is used as the

coloquintida.

as an emetic, &c. ,

J In making Requejao, the milk is
curded, as if for cheese, and butter and
cream are afterwards added.
It lasts for

paralysis

two years, and is still soft,

by those who suffer from
(" ar," or "stupor") induced
by river fever. The System asserts that in

f

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

2C6

[chap. xvii.

leaf costs 3 $000 per bushel; the cigars are retailed at a half-

l^enny each, and they are better than many *' Havannahs."

mounted neat nags, and taking the western road,
which goes to Mato Grosso, visited the venerable Arraial do Brejo
Finally, we

do Salgado.

It lies at the eastern foot of the Serra, which gives

the air some similaritv to the breath of a hothouse, and the curious

The hamlet now con-

limestone blocks were reeking with heat.

sists of a sprinkHng of houses round a square, whose centre is the

Chui'ch of N''^ S^ do Amparo, remarkable for notlimg but red

doors of solid timber, with tall bosses.

Adjoinmg is a stone box
with barred windows rej^jresenting the jail, and a tall tiled roof,
wanting the finish of walls, showed that it did not need enlarge-

The people were yellow from eating fish and manioc*
Amongst them was a Polish Jew, Moses Mamlofsky, who did not
sx)eak in flattering terms of his new home
he had been in partnership with a German co-religionist, Samuel Warner, who called
upon us at Januaria. The latter called himself a New Yorker;
ment.

;

unfortunately he could not speak English ; twenty years ago he
settled in these parts, made money, and sj^ent it.

The glory of the Brejo was the Conego Marinho, before mentioned as the historian of the movement of '42. He was equally distinguished as a liberal, an orator, and a statesman.

We called upon

several of the notables, who exhorted us strongly to visit the Lapa

de Santa Anna, distant two leagues. Here the old conquerors
found, or by vivid fancy thought that they found, stone crosses
cut by the " Indians," statues of Saint Anthon}^, and so forth.

We heard, also, of another cave, in which a rocket could be fired
without striking the ceiling; perhaps some more leisurely traveller may find it worth his while to inspect these places.

Brejo we were told the romantic tale of its origin.

At the
When Manoel

Pires Maciel, the Portuguese explorer, was descending the river,

he attacked, on the Pandeiros influent, a powerful kinglet, who
governed 120 miles of country between the mouths of the Urucuia
and the Carunhanha streams. The redskins fled luuTiedly, and
the chief's wife hid her babe under a heap of leaves, as the
* They are not, liowever, a short-lived
Our host's father, aged 81, rides
like a man of 40, and the vicar. Padre
Joaquini Martins Pereira, is still vigorous

race.

at the ripe age of 77.

t I will not positively assert that all was
The Eastern Coast of South Ame-

fancy.

rica,

long before the age of Saint Columbus,

was doubtless reached by Em-opeaus and
Africans, possibly by Christians, even as the
western shores had Asiatics occasionally
driven to them. I shall reserve the grounds
of my conclusion for a future volume,

—

FROM SAO EOMAO TO JANUARIA.

CHAP. XVII.]

conceal its j-oung.

csLjjnsin is said to

267

Tlie Conquistadores' dogs

found the pappoose, who was christened Catherina, brought up as
a Christian, and finally married by her capturer.
She bore to

him two daughters, Ainia, who settled with her husband Joao
FeiTeira Braga, upon the Acaiy River, and Theodora, who became
The name of Maciel has
the wife of Antonio Pereira Soares.
been merged into that of many Portuguese houses, Bitancourt,
Gomes, Morenas, Proencas, and Carneii'os. Catherina's issue
now forms a clan of 4000 souls, whose coal-black haii', brown
skins, and sub-oblique eyes, sometimes *' brides," still bear traces
of this Brazilian Pocahontas.
We retmiied to Januaria delighted with our visit, but justly
anticipating

The Guaiculiy

some trouble in collecting a crew.

men positively refused,

despite liberal offers, to i^roceed ; they

were, doubtless, anxious to look after

Sr. Manoel

theii* wives.

Caetano and his brother-ui-law walked with me all about the cit}^,
and found that six of the barcas desired to start, but wanted
Man}^ of the barqueiros had been carried off to the war,
others had fled theii' homes, and some declmed to leave the city,
lest they might be enlisted in a strange land.
Moreover, this is
hands.

the season, as we were warned by the fiercely howling vrind, which

swept up the water from the Bahian shore, when the fields must
be made ready. Finally, there is no actual poverty in this part
of the world ; the pauper has at least a cow, and a mare to ride,

with imlimited power of begging or borrowing food from his

neighbom*;

consequently,

he will not work

till

compelled by

Those who did consent coquetted, demanding, at least, three daj^s' delay, and one fellow, free, but black as
approaching want.

my boot, could not start without his boiled shirt.
From Januaria to Joazeii'o the liii'e of a bare a is 1 S 000 per
diem, and the barquemen are usually paid 14 $000 a head, a poor

sum, but the diet is some consideration. It was vain to offer
20 $000, of course including tobacco, spirits, and rations. At
last I closed with a pilot and a paddle-man, who demanded
35 $000 and 30 $000. My excellent friends had sent on board
everything necessary for the long jom^ne}^,* and we determined to
*

The proyisions

were:
32 lbs. roll tobacco
20 Rapaduras
Demijolm of Restillo
Lard

boiiglit

.

.

.

.

.

Januaria

at

.

.

.

.

Farinlia

.....

6|000

6 medidas of rice
5 lbs. meat

2 §400

Quarta of beans

1$S00
3$500

.

.

.

.

Total

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

1$280
1$920
o|600
2 $000
19$500

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

268

set out at once.

[chap. xvii.

There was an ugly frown upon the forehead of

the western sky, thunder growled, and lightning flashed in
directions.

all

The new crew shook their heads, and I began to fear

the loss of, at least, half the next da}'.

However, they took heart

of grace, and we pushed off, to make fast a few mmutes afterwards

near the ruins of the Rosario.

We shall miss the frank and ready hospitality of Januaria as we
advance, and going farther we shall fare worse in the little matter

The change will make us think more often of the

of reception.

kind-hearted and obhging Lieutenant- Colonel Manoel Caetano de

Souza Silva

;

of his brother-in-law, Capitao Antonio Francisco

Teixeira Serrao ; of the Promotor Publico, Luis de Souza Ma-

chado

;

of Gongalo Jose de Pinho Leao, and others who took so

much interest in the passmg strangers.

—

CHAPTER XVIII.
FROM JA2sUARIA TO CAHUNHANHA.
Third Travessia, 30| Leagues.

—
—
—
—

the ^^le tveather.— remaln^s of the red-skin's. the hamlet and large
church of n^ s*^ da coxceiclo dos morrixhos. — decay axd desolation. — the manga do amador settlement. the song of the birds.
the rio yerde, a salt stream. the carunhanha riyer. — the
MALHADA SETTLEMENT AND ITS RECEIYERSHIP. LIEUT. LOUREIRA. \T:SIT
THE YILLA OF CARUNHANHA. — DON RODRIGUES. VILE NIGHT.

—

—

Ergue-se sobre o mar alto peuedo,
Que huma angra a raiz tern dos naos amparo,
Onde das ramas no intrechado enredo,
Causa o verde prospecto hum gesto raro.

Caramnru, G, 18.

It was an abominable

nigiit.

The storm, as often happens in

the Brazil, assumed the t3^)e of a Cyclone, passmg round from

north via east to south, and about the small hours I thought
that the '' Eliza's " awning would have been beaten down by wind

and rain.

The new men, both now and afterwards, j)roYed them-

selves real watermen ;

the}' tallied much,

but they worked more,

and better still, neither of them drank, nor had "sarnas."* The
de Santa Anna, officiates in a black coat he
is silent and dignified, rarely consorting with the barquemen.
Of
very different temper is Manuel Felipe Barboza, who rejoices in
the cognomen ''das Mocas," or '' Barba de Veneno " he sings, he
roars, he improvises Amab?ean verse
he chaffs like a bargee,
and the fluency and virulence of his satire have made this
'*
repentista" t celebrated as
the Poison beard."
Yet he has
pilot, Jose Joaquim

;

;

;

'•'

* The ''Indians," from time immemoused to treat their " sarnas " by extracting, with a pointed thorn, the Acarns
(an Arachnid) which produced it.
The
psoriasis is very common amongst the boatmen of the Sao Francisco, but they have
never adopted the wild system of healing it.
rial,

Some are loathsome objects, with blotched
and mottled skins, even after the .sores
have become scars. As on the Lower Congo,
the disease is highly infectious, and very
difficidt to

cm-e ; in fact, many declare it

to be incurable,

f An imj)rovisatore.

I

need hardly say

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

270

not ignored the main chance, and he expects to
investing
(tijolos)

[chap, xviii.

make money by

and bricks
of orange and other sweetmeats, which he will sell
in

capital

straw-hats,

water-guggiets,

down- stream.
Tlmrsday, Sept. 2G, 1867.

— The

produced a start
at 5 A.M. After passing some uninteresting spots * we were on the
jDarallel of the Mocambo, which has been mentioned as one of

Beyond it,! on the left bank, rose the

the districts of Januaria.

Morro do Angii, and
_island ; the heights are

Brejo,

a

evil weather

its

long sandy and partially cultivated

aj^parently an offset from the Serra do

scrubby lump with

scarped walls

of grey and red-

Presently the rain and thunder, coming from

stained limestone.

the north, drove us for refuge into a narrow channel formed by a
''

steamboat island," near the right bank.

The hurricane proved

a mere '' peta " or feint, and after losing half-an-hour, we resumed the way and presently anchored on the Praia do Jacare,
opposite a small Arraial of the same name.
AVe are now careful
to take the windward or Bahian bank, and to avoid the vicinity
of tall trees.
To its north rose the Pico do Itacaramby,t a term
which none could explain early in the day it had appeared to us
lilve a tall blue pyramid.
Here we found it to be the southern
;

buttress of a line of scattered hills that trend to the north with
easting.

The low cone presented a cmious aj^pearance,

the

colour was somewhat darker than the slaty back-ground of low-

and it seemed to vomit grey puffs of heavy mist,
which formed conducting lines of electrical vapours gu'ding the
nimbus cloud.
Sept. 27.
The nev/ moon brought with it for a time heavier
ering

sk}",

—

that the practice come« from Portugal,
Tv'liere the " jnsta," or trial of strength, is
still popular amongst the peasantry.
Here
it met the
"Indian" blood, which had
also
the habit of mailing impromptu
chaunts.
* The Ilha da Boa Vista on tlie right
the Ilha de Rodeador, fronted by houses,
and the Vendinba islet, on the left.
t Tbe Barra do Pan Preto, a small yellow stream from the right the Fazenda and
large island of Amargoso
and the Yarginha, which showed a tiled house.
After
noon we passed the Ilha do Jatoba, a buttress lying to the left of the stream ; at
the bottom of the sack, the Arraial do
;

;

Jatoba, fronted by canoes, and composed of
mud and tiled huts, faced the river, which
here must flood the banks,
Z St, Hil. (I. ii, 24) mentions a Fazenda
de Itacorambi, and derives it from "ita,"
a stone, and "and carambui," small and
pretty ; certainly not applicable here.
l.>etter explanation is that given to him by
a Spaniard of Paraguaj^ well versed in
Gruarani
"itaacabi," a mountain divided
into two branches.
Pizarro believes that
this place was discovered in 1698 by the
Paulist Captain Miguel Domingos;
St.
Hil. (I. ii. 303) attributes it to Fernando
Bias Paes.

A

:

FROM JANUARIA TO CARUXHANHA.

CHAP. XVIII.]

271

weather, and the an* was wet and soppy. Presently tlie west
bank showed a broad sandy ramp, the road to Sao Joao das

Missoes (or dos Indios), distant from the river three leagues, and
the object of a great Patron (Komaria) on its Samt's-day. Here,

—

removed eighteen leagues from their old home the beautiful Brejo
do Salgado, a savage paradise are villaged the remains of three
great tribes, the Chavantes, still powerful on the head waters of
the Chacriabas (Xicriabas), and the Botucudos or
the Tocantins
" bung-lipped " races, an indefinite general name.
Of old the
Geraes hereabouts were held by the Acroas, vulgarly known as the
Coroados or tonsured people, the Clierentes, and the Aiicobis,

—

;

Now the nearest of the wild
who were dangerous till 1715.
"
are about Moquem,* in Goyaz, distant some 125
'' Eed-skins
leagues.

After a succession of the usual features,! at 1'30 p.m. we saw

and washerwomen, the usual
'We ascended a natui-al ramp, and fell into
approach to a town.
thence turning
a kind of street much broken up by the waters
Cascalho

on

the

right

bank,

;

to the right we made the large square with its tall central cross, the

Here the inundations have never extended. On the north there is a Casa da Camara, whose shutters
are shut, and a jail whose gratmg is open. The twenty-one houses,
beginnings of a second.

including

tv\'o

ruins, are of the

humblest, and down-stream are

two parallel lines of thii-teen to fourteen huts.

The eastern side

by N*"^ S^ da Conceicao dos Morrinlios,
which gives a name to the place. It is a '^ delubrum mir© magnitudmis," which enjoys a wide reputation, and which makes the
stranger inquh-e how it came here. It owes its origin to the piety
of a certain Mathias Cardozo, before mentioned, who, with liis
sister Catherina do Prado, married in Sao Paulo to a Portuguese,
"
settled in the wild, and for his services against the " Indians
obtained the rank of Mestre de Campo, a dignity to extend
He, and after him his son J anuario,
thi'ough three generations.
built, of com-se by the svreat of ''Indian" brows, the fane,
and the latter sent to Bahia for masons and carpenters.
of the square is occupied

* I have explained tliis word (and its
moqnear), whicli tlie author of the
Caramurii defines as follows
Chamao ilfog-M^Hi as carnes que se cobrem,
E a fogo lento sepiiltadas assao.
This is our "gnishen." The term, however, is also applied to meat smoked or
verlj

:

slightly exposed to tlie flame.

+ The Ilha do Capao, where T\I. Halfeld
places a ^'illage ; opposite it, on the left
bank, the Fazenda da Barreira (H., As
Then the sandy islet and Fazenda da Resaca (H. Resacca) made ns take
the left side.
Barreiras).

,

—
THE HIGHLA:XDS OF THE BEAZIL.

272

[chap, xviii.

The temple, facing a little north of west, rises from a platform
of fine bricks, 1 span 4 fingers long, and 2 inches thick

these and

;

mortar compose the building.* It might easily have been made of
stone, as massive calcareous blocks appear bald-headed above
The fagade has the usual pediment, protected by
the ground.
eaves with three rows of tiles, an attempt at a rose-light, and
shuttered and railed windows above and below. Between the
two latter is the gate, with massive doors, strengthened by large
it is apparently never opened, and signs of
round-headed nails
bits of crosses, strings of beads, and
fire appear near the floor,
decayed scapulars hang about it. The towers are massive, and
;

—

capped with whitewashed pyramids like those of Sao Bento
The brickwork, however, is falhng from
in Bio de Janeiro.
above the windows, and poles planted against the front show that
On the northern and southern sides are
repairs are in prospect.
fragments of
piers ;
ties.

cloisters,

arches

supported by six large

square

both end towards the east in rooms intended as sacrisOutside the mortar is green with damp below, and stained

red by the ochreous earth above. Inside, the northern cloister
opposite it the bulges of
is heaped with sand and goat-dung
;

red clay dotting the floor betoken graves, a bier also

lies

under

the arches, and a broken coffin is propped against the wall.

We had some trouble to procure the keys
the sacristan with the normal " tail."

than the exterior
boardings, the

;

;

at last

appeared

The interior was worse

the ceiling was partly stripped of its cedar

choii*

was ruinous

— here

deca}^ generally

com-

The four sidemences, and the pulpits were likely to fall.
chaj)els in the body of the cluu'ch resembled portable oratories.

A bold and well-built arch, revetted with fine wood and raihngs
of turned Jacaranda, led to the high altar, which did not

any signs of gilding or whitewash.
slate from Malhada, bore inscribed

Below

it

show

a broken slab of

:

AQVI IAS

JANVARIO C
ARDOZO DE
ALMEIDA.

The date had been forgotten, and the sacristan could only tell
*

Not "templo de pedra," as M. Halfeld Las it.

FROM JAXUARIA TO CARUXHANHA.

CHAP. XVIII.]

273

US that at Morrinhos had lately died, aged 113 years, a man who
said that the tomb was there when he was born.

We ascended the little hill at whose western foot the fane lies.
The substance
and

quartz,

blue limestone,

is

capped with

in places

agglomerated

banded with hard

sandstone

the

;

soil

stained with oxide of iron produces the red blots which marble

Formerly the Morrinho supplied saltpetre

these lumps.

now

either

exhausted

or

From the

neglected.

mit we ascertain that the

left

bank

is

of

;

it

is

thorny sum-

similar

formation,

and even more subject to floods.
Here we count foiu*
knobs of ground, the Morros da Lavagem, do Salitre, and so
forth.

The smoky mists rising above a floating tree that left foam
in its wake, formed a phantom-ship,

which startled us by its
resemblance to an expected steamer.* Descending on the right
of a long island, the Manga do Amador, we saw the village of
that name, advantageously situated upon the " Pernam side."
It is the first unflooded settlement which we have seen on the
high Sao Francisco, and the superiority of site will tell in
future years.
Two barrancos or bluffs rise at least 100 feet
above the brown tree-dotted bank, and are divided by a deep
gulley, draining a bayou behind the village.
The colour is a
deep red earth
clay

of

—the

finest of soils

the water-side.

I

northern summit, and the

—extending down

to the white

on the
settlement though 3'oung was not
counted

seventeen

doors

without ruins.
After a last hour's work we found anchorage ground near the
Ilha do Carculo.
lilve

Towards night we viewed the stars and planets

the faces of long-absent friends.

flashed through

tlie

The ^' Avander-lights " +

darkness of the trees, the gull screamed at

our intrusion, the bull-frog (Sapo boi), and the Cururu (Rana
ventricosa), croaked like the wheel of a sugar-mill being set in

and again we heard the complaint of Whip-poor- Will, and
of the Eurj^angu, which brought to mind the delightful wilds of
the Eio das Velhas.
The raw damp became mild and balmy, the
lightning sank to the very horizon, and the north cleared to

motion

*

;

Chapter 25 will tell how we were dis-

appointed.

t Vaga-lume, the tirefly, also known a.s
pcrilampo, and Cacafogo (Elatevnoctilncns),

VOL. ir.

These specimens will show that the Portu=
giiese langiiage has some of the prettiest

and the ugliest of descriptive expressions,

T

"

274

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

a dull blue.

In

fact,

Hope

visited

once

us

;

[cuAr. xviii.

more, and very

deceitfully.
Sc2)t.

28.

—We

set out at tlie normal hour, 5

heavy shower, and,

after three hours'

despite the

A.:\r.,

work, we landed on the

hank to inspect the mouth of the Rio Yerde Grande.
This stream flows from the northern sloj^es of Montes Claros
coming from the south it receives the Verde Pequeno, which

right

drains the western Serra das Almas, a branch of the Grao Mogor

range, and a counter versant of the great Rio Pardo that inosculates wdtli the Jequitinhonha, the two uniting

and bending to the

north-west from the frontier of the Minas and Bahia Provinces.

The stream is ascended by canoes, some thirty leagues from the
embouchure.

At the mouth of the Rio Verde Grande is a broad "praia "
which causes the stream to flow along the right bank of the Sao
Francisco.
U2)on the water-side, which is caked with mud, we
found, as might be expected, a liner diamantine "formariio.''

The higher parts of the beach were occupied by a negro family,
whose hut was in a little garden of beans and water-melons. Here
the latter thrive upon sand, almost pure of humus, and where
" corn " is short and wilted. They sold to us for three coppers
five melancias,

very cheap compared with what the fruit will be

Bees were bus}^ among the flowers, the pink
Crista de gallo, Hke our '' cockscomb," and the thorny-leaved,

further down.

(Argemone mexicana)
called
Cardo Santo," or holy thistle, from its real or supposed
medicinal properties.*" From this point we shall see its greygreen glaucous leafage all down the river. Another plant with
white flower, pink stigma, long stamens, delicate leaves which
curl up in the sun, and viscous stalk, will show its dull verdure
in damp places near the settlements.
The people call it Mustambe, and Mr, Davidson, after trial of the taint, declared it to be

yellow-blossomed

dog-rose-like

Sarrao

''

the ''stink-plant" of the Mississippi valley.

The Tiririca rush, so

common on the streams of the Brazil, resembles paj^yrus, and towers
over the Capim Amargoso (bitter grass), a large broad flag much

We saw but few animals on the banks, as the
owners had begun to drive them inland*
A few ^ears ago one of

loved by cattle*

'^

Azara

(i.
132) iiiCntloiis its fee in
Prince M-ax. (i. 891) refers to it an
a remedy for snake l>ites,
The wnr'l snti-

fcvevfs

;

the Carduus iJcnedictus of the olfl
Morld, couccrning which Me may ask, ** Ik-

gcsts

nc<liitiis

I

mIiv IJencdictiis

,'

FROM JANUAELl TO CARUNHAXHA.

CHAP, xviii.]

275

the breeders lost 300 head by the sudden floodmg of the Green
River.

The Rio Verde

discharges tlu'ough a bending avenue of fine

timber a considerable stream about 150 feet broad.

The water

was of a dii'ty muddy green, "heavy," as the crev\^ remarked, and
These
sensibly salt, mthout, however, the taste of saltpetre.
the
remarked
Dr.
on
Sao
Francisco
were
by
influents
saline
Ui^per
Couto they attract swarms of fish, who enjoy them as beasts do
From this part of the valley downwards we
the "salt-licks."
the Riacho do Ramalho, ten
heard of many similar formations
leagues below Carunhanha the Riacho dos Cocos, falling into the
northern Rio das Egoas, and others. They are worth explora;

:

;

tion

;

Salinas or deep

deposits of sea-salt would be better than

gold-mmes, and open a fount of wealth to some enterprising man.
The water might be treated like saltpetre, made into lye, and left

must be here imda Barra do Rio Grande, and even from

At present

to sun in pans or troughs.

ported from the Villa
Joazeiro

;

salt

consequently it costs per quarta * 8 §000 to 12 $000.

On the low right bank beyond the Green River there is yet more
cultivation.

We were charmed with the soft and amene scener}*

about the Fazenda das ]\Ielancias, backed by the Serra da Malhada, a north-eastern oftset from the Montes Altos, the further
wall of the Rio Verde Pequeno.

Presently ^Ye passed the mouth

of the Japore, a considerable stream draining the Geraes massed

maps as the Chapadfio de Santa Maria the
confluence is known as the Barra do Prepece, which the j^ilots
could not explain,
I believe it to be the name of some Indian
chief.
The next influent, also from the left, was the Riacho do

together in our

Ypoeii'a.

;

Mr. Halfeld translates

Indian term " lagoa," or

this

"

whereas the " lagoa
It is becoming a constant feature, found where the
is perennial.
banks are flat, and have not, as above Januaria, waves of high ground
perpendicular to the main artery, and dividing the tributaries from
" tanque d'agua," but

it

is

temporary,

the east and from the west. We here miss these heights, which often

extended to the water, rising above

all

a natural dyke to contain the channel.

inundations, and forming

The low lands subtending

the river-ridge are periodically filled by the floods, which are thus
'

The old ''Broaca " of 2t prates (each

4 lbs.) is no longer mentioned. The smaller
20 medimeasure is the medida of i 11 »s.
:

das to o'i (at Joazeiro), or from SO to 12^
]])s.,make the " quart'." vhich everywhere
varies.
r

-2

'THE

^t6

HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

[chap, xviii.

The
on tlie upper stream.
swamps afterwards dry up or become ^'nateiros," i.e., slimes.
Wonderful draughts of fish, especiall}^ the Surubim and the Trahira, are taken from the Ypoeiras, and some parts of the valley are
literally manured with fin.
A boat-load is caught by dragging
branches along the Avaters as they dry up, and the denizens may
prevented from extending

as

far,

be caught Avith the hand.

We ran quickly past the Pontal da Barra do llio Carunhanha,*
a large western influent which di^ams the Serra da Tauatinga, and
is

a counter' versant of the Parana or Paranan, the eastern head-

It is navigable for some tw^enty leagues
up to the Serra or dividing ridge, through which it breaks then
it becomes a succession of rocks and rapids.
Large timber,
especially cedar, is here felled
made into balsas or rafts, and
floated down for sale.
Seen from the south the low sole appears
overgrown with trees, a view from the west discloses a river about
300 feet, curving through grand vegetation, and it has probably
shifted south-westwards or up-stream.
The left jaw is a mass of
sand, disposed in waving lines
a little further down, and forming

water of the Tocantins.

;

;

;

a dark line, is a deposit of fine purple slate in slabs or layers.

not wholly neglected.

It

and twenty feet

saw several pieces two inches thick
long, and smaller sizes were cut into round and

oblong tables;

they were without stains or signs of p^Tites.f

is

I

The Carunhanha is the western frontier between the Provinces
Minas Geraes and Bahia, and at the Pontal or Ponto do
Escuro a guard was stationed, and duties upon goods were
levied.
It was deserted on account of the malignant typhoid
of

fevers,

called " Carneiradas,"

(carneiros).

which butcher

men

like

sheep

Since 1852 the receivership has been transferred to

the right bank.

We made for the

Malhada," or to give it the full name,
N^ S^ do Eosario da ^'Malhada," i.e., a shady place where cattle
gather during the hot hours.
Here the Sao Francisco broadens
to 2650 feet, and turns to the north-east
the Carunhanha pour*'

;

ing down the left channel strews the main stream with snags and

branchy trunks, and forms a sand-bar, and a shoal which extends

some way down.

We were obliged to round the northern end of

* It is thus generally written
other
forms are Carynhanha, Carinhenha, CariuT
licnha, and Caronhanlia (preferred by Dr.
Couto)
it is su])poscd to be a corruption of
;

;

Arinhanha, the large otter,

+ M. Halfeld

notices this qnariy,

calls it Phyllado or argillaceous schist.

and

CHAP. XVIII.]

FROM JANUARIA TO CARUXHANHA.

277

the latter, and to bring the *' Brig Eliza's " head up to the southeast.

The shore being exposed to the south-west wind, wliich

came on heavily, yeasting the stream, I sent the craft to emba}' herself (ensaccar-se) leeward of the Coroa da Malliada,
The single barca which was at anchor
above the settlement.
followed her example, but the canoes remained staked to the
shore.

The Poi*to is a bank

of sand and clay cut in steps by the ebb

of the floods, grown with a few weeds, but bare of trees.

A few

horses and mules lingered over a scanty meal, and boys were
fishing and bathing near a sandspit, where the water is too shal-

low for the dreaded Piranha. The settlement faces a little to the
north of west, the houses on the bank are of mud and tile, one
only being whitewashed
is

;

the long ends, of wliich the greater part

occupied by the door, fronts the stream, and the rails of the

compounds

are

used as

''

horses "

for

drying clothes.

The

settlement consists of a water-street and two parallel thoroughHere is the Rosario Church, a
fares, T^ith a central square.
before it stands
ground-floor fronted by a deep sheltering porch
a rude black cross, bearing amongst the instruments of the
Passion a very rude cock, and planted round with the Bai'ba de
;

Barata, or '' cockroach's beard."*

The houses show a water-mark three
Malliada

is

for about a

feet high.

Above the

the Sangradom'o de Santa Cruz, which every year

week

in January or February, permits the floods

nearty to surround the settlement.

After that the flow is sur-

rounded

by stagnant water, in places so deep that a boatpole does not touch bottom.
Of com'se this evil might
easily be remedied, but who will undertake the cure which is
" everybody's business ? "
To the east the land becomes sandy,
and produces good cotton and sugar, the castor shrub, and the
ever-gTeen Joazeiro-tree,+ a gigantic shady umbrella for man and
The level here begins to rise above all floods, towards the
beast.
Serra de Yuyii, or lujaiy, | distant six leagues. It is a segment
* This is tlie Poinciana

pulcliemma, a
leguminous shi'ub, supposed to
have been brought from Asia.
According
to the System it is rich in " stryphno, " the

to the System, its acrid, Litter, and astrinHere, as in
gent bark promotes emetism.
the Sertao of Ceara, it presei-ves during the
diy season its foliage, which is eaten by

astringent j)rinciple.
+ "Zizyphiis Joazeiro " (A9eifafa Joazeii'o), a species of Jujube tree
an ally to
the hawthorn (Prof. Aga.ssiz).
Accoixling

cattle.

brilliaut

;

+ This is a Tupy word, which no one
could explain.
The range Js also called
Serra da Malhada.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

278

[chap, xviir.

of an arch extending from east to south-east, and opposing its

concavity to the river

;

there is apparently a projecting elbow or

It is said
a buttress which forms an apex fronting to the west.
The western bank
to be calcareous, and to abound in saltpetre.

of the Siio Francisco is a vast level ;

the nearest range is distant

This Serra do Eamalho, more generally
known as'* A Serra," is also calcareous and off- sets from the
great dividing ridge between Bahia and Goyaz.
I had a letter for Lieut. Silverio Goncalvez de Ai'aujo Lou-

about fifteen leagues.

Administrator of the duties payable to the Provincial

reiro,

Treasury of Mmas Geraes (Administrada da Cobran^a do Thesouro Provincial da Provincia de Minas). We called upon him
at his house in '' Water Street," and sat there talking over
He hails from Ouro Preto and having spent twelve
coffee.
;

months in this vile hole, where of his escort, a sergeant and four
men, all but one are dead or absent, he pui'poses to leave it as
soon as possible.
Lieut. Loureiro gave me a printed paper, dated October 19,
1860, and showing that the several " Recebedorias " collected a

Here imports and exports are
both taxed, and onl}^ salt going up-stream does not pay. Three
per cent, are taken on cotton, minor articles of provisions, worked

total of 600Z. to 800?. per annum.*

tobacco

(including Pixua,

a

kind of Cavendish prepared for

che™ig), clothes, pottery bowls, canoes and woods for fui'niture ;

hammocks, wliips, saddles, and so forth. Coffee is rated at threeand-a-half per cent, and six per cent, is recovered from grain,
raw provisions, including x)oultry, which is the best thing in this
liides, ipecacuanha, quinine, and precious stones, the
place
The horse, valued at 51. is taxed
diamond only excepted.
3 $160; the native mule (8Z.), 4g.960; the Sao Paulo mule,
5g000, and black cattle, 0$600. These animals are driven to
it crosses difficult
Bahia by a vile road which their hoofs made
;

,

;

Serras without bridges or any "benefits," and the distance is 130
leagues.

A white man walked in whilst we were sitting with Lieut.
Loureiro, and astonished us by his civilised aspect, amongst all

Cor; he was introduced as Dr. (M.D.) Joao Lopes
Kodrigues, who had graduated at Eio de Janeiro, and had settled

this Gente de

* In 1852-54 M. Halfeld makes the
exports reach a value of 21,200/. ; imports,

34,5007, ; balance in favour of the latter,
13,300/.

FROM JAXUARIA TO lAKCXHAXHA.

CUAP. xviri.]

at Carunhanlia.

why

279

No one had the indecenc}- to ask him the reason

—

he complained of the Preguiea do Sertao -the idleness of
the wild country and of stunulns heing totally wanted, except
;

—

when a

stranger happens to pass.

I have heard the

same

m

Dublin society possibly Dr. Eodrigues, like a certain Abyssinian
traveller, found *' making up his mind " a severe and protracted
process. He had suifered from the climate of the River Valley,
alwaj's cold-dami) or hot-damp, so different from the dry air
and sweet waters of the sandy table-lands on both sides of,
and generally at short distances from, the river. He had none of
the pretentious manner and address usually adopted by the
Bahiano, who holds himself the cream of Brazilian cream, and
he readily accepted a passage in the raft to his home, about two
;

miles dovm. stream.

The denizens of the Malhada have
their

are bistre-coloured

lips

a fever- stricken look, and

as tlieh-

faces.

Yet within the

houses we heard singing and clapping of hands, after the fashion
and, as we embarked, a Httle crowd of women colof Guinea
;

lected to prospect us.
calico, a

The dress was a skirt of light chmtz or

chemise or rather a slurt, generally a shawl, and above

and below comb or kerchief, and slippers.
We dropped down the still fierce stream, here treacherous and
much dreaded. The strong up-draught often keeps craft in port
for fourteen days
they load hea^-ily, and the waves are likely to
The weather looked especially ugly, but our
damage the cargo.
companion consoled us by declaring that we were fast outstripping the rains. Here showers had begun to fall only five daj^s
The
ago, and were called *' chuvas de enramar," of branching.
wet season will not set in till November, when the Vento Geral
We escaped swampwill shift to the south, the normal quarter.
ing with some difficulty, and presently reached the head of the
Ilha da Carunhanlia, which splits the stream into two channels of
;

about equal deiDth.*' The com'se of the river is here to the northformerly'
east, and the western arm is apparently ^\idening
The islet is about two miles
children could swim across it.
;

grows fine cotton, and
as upon the Sao Francisco, lower down, manioc planted during
the Vasante Geral (March and April), produces a large root

long, sandy, but of admirable fertility.

* ]\r. Halfeld remarks that the right
The
channel is low and full of shallows.

It

eastern bank is only half the height of the
western.

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BKAZIL.

280

[cHAr. xviii.

for farinlia before the flood-time ill November and December.

fit

Here

is

good

a

site

for

a

bridge

to

connect

Minas with

Goyaz.

At the landing-phice are large blocks of Pissarra or Saibro do
Rio, a felspathic clay, yellow-tinged with iron ; this bank

is

to 75 feet high, or 5 to 25 feet high above the annual rise.

much

55
It

up by a surface drain, now an Esbarrancado, but a Corrego during the rains, dividing it into waves of
high and low ground, and loudly calling for a levee. Sao Jose
da Carunhanha is a larger place than it appears from up-stream
there are some 450 houses,* none double-storied, and mostly
flanked by the Gupiara or Agua furtada.
Though noble timber
Young cocoa-nut trees
is here, the wood-work is mostl}^ sticks.
grow well in the court-yards, and the produce of the adult in
this saline nitrous soil is 200 nuts per annum.
In the north of the town we found an enormous square, the
Largo do Socavem t it has a cross and symptoms of a chaiDel.
Bej'ond the settlement a Sangradouro with a sandy bed, based
on hard reddish clay, breaks the bank with a gap some fifty
yards broad, and the floods form a back-water which does
however,

is,

cut

;

not extend

far.

The best houses are in the southern square,

where fewer people squat on logs before their doors there is
in the latter our Januaria man
a Camara and a prison
found a friend who had been resident for nearly four years,
after kniving a brother boatman in a drunken quarrel.
The
Matriz of Sao Jose da Carunhanha suggests nothing but an
old termitarium, yet it has a bell which sounded for us the
;

;

Angelus.
It

now becomes diflicult to

collect

information.

local

The

great Province of Bahia is behind most of her rivals in i)opular
toi^ograj^hical works, and those which she i^ossesses are too

cum-

brous and discursive for the traveller, whilst Minas Geraes has
her Almanaks, and Sao Paulo has two handbooks. Carunhanha,

dismembered from the Allla da Barra, rose to township thirty
years ago, and is now capital of the Comarca of Urubu in the Bahia
Province.

Its municipality

formerly extended to the Bio das

Egoas, the western branch of the Paracatu
here, however, a
villa has lately been established under the name of N'^ S'^ da
;

*

In 1852 there were 265.

t It is the

name of

a town in Portngal,

but none of tlie Carunhanha people knew
wliat it meant.

\

—

CHAP. xviiT.]

FROM JAI>}UAPvIA TO OARUXHAXHA.

281

This mimicipio still numbers about
slaves are
10,000 souls, of whom 1000 to 1200 are in the town
rare, and few fazendeii'os have more than 40 to 50 head. The post
arrives three times a month,* and each side of the river has a

Glona do Rio das Egoas.

;

fair-weather road to Januaria

— distant thirty leagues.! The prin-

and include salt and diy and wet
There are no rich men, and the chief people breed
goods.
They also send " sola "-leather, hides
cattle for export.
here worth each 1 $ 250, and at least double below Joazeiro
The land would produce rice
a Httle sugar and dried fish.
Hereabouts also the Geraes grow
and cotton in abundance.
a medicinal root known all down the river as Calemba or
cipal imports are from Joazeiro,

Calunga. I

Dr. Rodrigues led us to his house in the square, and offered
us the luxuries of sofa and rocking chaii', wax candles, and a
map of the war moreover he gave me his photograph. I sent

—

an introductory letter to the Delegate of PoHce, Capitao Theotonio de Sousa Lima. That young man did not even return a message possibly he, a Liberal, had seen us walking with the doctor,
;

a Conservative.

Again the stranger was tempted

to

exclaim,

Confound their politics!" Unfortunately for us, the Juiz de
Du-eito of the Comarca, Dr. Antonio Luis Affonso de Carvallio,
was on leave at Bahia
all spoke well of this distinguished
*'

;

^'Curioso."

We reached the raft in time to prepare for a night of devilry
A cold wind from the north rushed through the hot
let loose.
and precipitated a deluge in embryo. Then the gale chopped
round to the south, and produced another and a yet fiercer do's\Tifall.
A treacherous lull and all began again, the wmd howling
and screaming from the east. The thunder roared and the lightair,

ning flashed from

all

directions ;

the stream rose in wavelets,

* The 5th, the 15th, and the 25th are
the days appointed, and this tri-monthly
delivery is- the rule of the river. Of course
punctuality is not to be expected.
t The reaches will now become straight,
and the land routes, which everpvhere
connect, are but little shorter than the

It is mentioned by St. Hil. (III.

water lines.
t Probably the word is taken from the
African Colombo or Calomba (Cocculus palmatus), which gives the ra<lix Colombo.

anti-febrile.

i.

164-5).

The System (p. 93) calls it herva amargosa
(Simaba ferruginea or Pichrodendron CaThe bark of the root and trunk of
lunga).
this Rutacea, which is much valued as a
simple, has an unpleasant, bitter, acrid,
and astringent taste it is stomachic and
;

heard it everywhere spoken
of, but no specimen was procurable under
a couple of days' delay,
I

282

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

[chaf. xviit.

which washed over the " Eliza " and shook her by the bumping
of the tender-canoe.

At last, just before day-break, the crisis

hot
took place, and we snatched a few minutes of such sleep as
heads and cold feet, and dogs persistently baying at the weather,

would permit,

CHAPTER XIX.
CARUNHAXHA TO SENHOR BO:Sl JESUS DA LAPA.

FRO:\r

FouETH Travessia,

2-i^

Leagues.

—

—

THE LUGAE DA CACHOEIRA. THE PARATeCA
QOOSELESS MICHAELMAS.
STREAM, AITD THE DISPUTED "RIO RAMALHO."— DIAMAXTLNE DEPOSITS.
THE ALLIGATOR NOW KILLED OUT. THE CONDE DA POXTE. THE
ASSASSIX GUIMARAES. THE MOUXTAIX OP THE HOLY CAVE DESCRIBED.
THE \aLLAGE. THE HOLY CAYE. THE STOUT-HEARTED YICAE, REV.
FRAXCISCO DE FREITAS SOUEIRO.— THE " UXIFORMITARIAN " EXVIES THE
" CATASTROPHIST,"

A

—
—

—

—

.

.

.

—

—

—

lapa que esconde alto mysterio.

Caram7/t% 7, 8.

Michaelmas Day found us gooseless, Avorn out and cross
song was hushed, and silenced was the voice of chaff.

;

the

After a

couple of dull leagues we reached the Lugar da Cachoeii'a, famed

The clay is made into neat tallias (jars) and quar-

for pottery.

ornamented with red taua, placed upon the
naturally yellow groundwork hefore burnmg. What is here bought
for two coppers fetches six at Joazeiro
our men made a small
pui'chase, and the prospect revived their spii'its.
The Cachoeii'a
took its name from a ridge of rock forming a diagonal rapid across
the stream. A sand-bar has now been thrown up, and we passed
On the left bank, which
over the place ignoring its old break.
floods,
and
which
is
drained
by two ^' bleeders,"
rises above the
there are a few huts. Further do^^i is the Fazenda dos Angicos,*
where the yellow variet}- of Acacia is common.
We halted at noon on the left bank near the Fazenda do
Espiiito Santo
it has a large grove of Joazeiro or Jujube trees,
bark
is
whose
sold for tanning. The straight reaches, some twenty
tinhas (guggiets),

;

;

*

M.

villages

Halfeld, I liave remarked, calls
(povoagoes) what the pilots speak

of as fazendas.

synonyroous

;

The words are here nearly
the

fazenda

is

a

breeding

agriciiltui-al establishment, often containing a little chapel and a dozen huts
belonging to as many proprietors in partnership.

or

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

284

[chap. xix.

miles long, and the narrowness of the stream, 1460 feet, greatlyincrease its flow, which averaged three knots an hour. The morn-

ing rain had diminished to a spitting, but a strong wind came up

from the south and played about the west.

Here the people do

not shout
Honor be to Mudjekeewis,

who is also of the Pau-puk-Keewis f\miily. These signs and
symptoms induced the men to caulk the port canoe, wdiich had
scraped bottom till the cracks formed a leak. At 3 p.m. we had
to repeat the operation

on a large praia to the right, opposite
the Fazenda das Pedras.
Here we found bits of pure saltpetre,
and a trunk of Brauna tree almost lignite, while the diamantine
*'
formacao " appeared under water, between wind and water, and
above water.
About 5 p.m. we "knocked off work" at a long
beach near the mouth of the Parateca * called a river, it is a
;

mere streamlet, a fillet of water now coursing down the right
bank, and even during the floods it admits canoes for only two
leagues. A barque and sundry dug-outs were being repaired by a
dark carpenter, who told us five lies in three minutes, and wdio
apparently would have ridden twenty leagues to unburden himself.
He pointed to the " finest place on the Sao Francisco,"
the Barra da Yj)oeii'a on the Pernambuco, as the boatmen still
call the now Bahian bank.
It was the usual high bluff, red above,
white below, with sand up-stream and bush down-stream.
The
neat huts upon the level ground reminded me by their small size
and " natty " look of the pretty one-street villages on the Old
Calabar and the Gaboon Rivers.
Sept. 30.
Durmg the night rain fell again. At dawn, low,
mist-laden clouds lay heavy where Carunhanha was, and lighter
vapom-s coursed from south-east to north-west,but far behind us.
Presently the climate became that of Malabar, and before 8 a.im.
the pilot actually removed his black coat.
About noon a strong
southerly breeze swept through the well- washed atmosphere.
There was nimbus to the south as well as to the north, but we
were not molested, and the weather was peculiarly comfortable
and good for work. It was a '' dies notanda," this our first fine
day upon the Pio de Sao Francisco.

—

Tljis

sitreaiu

ulso sliows si^ins of diainonds in its sandbanks.

CHAP. XIX.]

CAEUNHANHA TO SENHOR BOM JESUS DA LAPA.

285

We set out at 5 a.m., and, after passing the usual features,* we
landed at 7.30 below the Sangradouro da Volta de Cmia to
inspect the large E. Ramalho, which in ]\Ir. Keith Johnston here

Xothing appeared but a mere ditch, a
Eiacho.f Most men agreed that the Rio do Ramallio is a branch
Hence, possibly,
of the Rio do Corrente, further down stream.
the confusion in our maps, which give a Rio Corrente entering
tlie imaginary Ramalho, and to the north a Rio Correntes, which
The beach again afforded good
is the true Rio do Corrente.
sign of diamonds, including the cattivo, the crj^stal, and the
canga-stone.
Barboza, '' Barba de Veneno," picked up a wax
foot, some yotiye offering that had remained here en route to the
Bom Jesus. He forgot to leave it at the shrine, and thus all
our little accidents and evils were chaffingiy attributed to him.
We passed in succession the Barra do Riacho das Raas, from
the right, and the Pitubinha and Pituba, formerly Fazendas. The
Rio das Raas, also on the east, is a mere rivulet, whose waters are
said to be fetid.
The opposite side showed a regular and tabular
bank of soft greensward, adorned with tall trees. At the Ilha da
Coroa Grande, a sand-bar and clump of vegetation, there was a
shallow and a tide-rij). We took the right channel, and both
abound in snags. Of this part M. Halfeld says, " there are many
ca3Taans (Jacares), of ashen-brown colour, and one with a yellow
throat, called the Ururau, which is the Crocodile (!) I
Frightful
numbers appeared, and my boats were surrounded by more than
thii'ty."
He also mentions Capivaras, which similarly have
enters from the west.

"made tracks."
About the " Frogs' River " we sighted a long blue range perpendicular to the stream, and extending far inland. §
At its
mouth was the Ilha da Batalha, a memento of some forgotten
struggle with the wild men.
At 3.30 we passed the Ilha da Boa
Yista, a sand-bar in mid-stream.
On the left bank was the
A

*
gTeeu islet on tlie Peruam side
leads to "As Barreiras," a red bhiff, wavj'
in outline with ijrojections and bays ; the

Ramallio Riviilet exists near Pitubinha. M.
Halfeld shoAvs a drain, but does not name

central depression

+ This is probably the Jacare de papo
amarello (yellow-throated cayman), which
is su^^posed to be more dangerous than the
common Crocodilus sclei-ops. I do not know
whether there be, as has been suspected,
any specific difference between the two.
§ Mr. Keith Johnston's map places along
the stream a range which does not exist.

is

the only part subject

"tip over" during floods.
Then
appeared the Ilha da yolta de Cima, where
the stream bends to the east-noi-th-east
it
is a strip of yellow-gi-een vegetation, with
its ruddy bluli' a league long, and its Santo the

;

gradouro.

+ Some authorities told me that a little

it.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BKAZiL.

286

[vuxf. xix.

Fazenda of the same name. Here in old colonial times began
the enormous property of a Portuguese, known onh^ as the Conde
da Ponte the family has long left the river. The Fazenda da
;

Boa Vista afterwards belonged to the *' Assassin" (Antonio Jose)
Guimaraes, who sixteen years ago murdered his brother, the

Commandant Superior Jose Guimaraes.

He w^as afterwards killed

by a party of mule-trooj^ers. A canoe was
fastened to the bank, and w^e counted twenty huts, faced by a tall
thin wooden cross.
The men indolently stretched under the
trees, reiolied gruffly to the extempore songs and bawling chorus
of my crew.
Here they are contented with a curral or fenced
enclosure for their animals when driven from pasture, with railedoff plots of manioc and corn, melons running over the sand, and

in Goj^az, it is said

in rare places with a few stems of arboreous cotton.

The furni-

ture of the tiled hut is a girao or cot, a sleeping-hide, a few

benches, riduig apparatus, wooden bowls and cooking pots, whilst
the gun and the line never allow them to see the face of hunger.

These are humble comforts, but thej^ far exceed those attainable
by the dwellers about the Great Rapids. The wigwam was as
w^ell furnished, even to the w^ooden ferule for thrashing the women,
which hung to the ceiling.
Near the Fazenda da Volta de Baixo, on the right bank, we
heard the dash of falhng water, and at 5.30 p.:m. we landed for the
night upon one of the three " Illias do Campo largo."
The clear
dry minute sand crunched with a peculiar chipping sound, like
snow under foot-friction and here again diamantine deposits lay
;

parallel with

in lines

the water.

AVe are

now in about the

latitude of the Serra das Almas, whose eastern horn, the Serra

de Sincora, is one of the richest diamond districts in the Brazil.

And it is evident from the state of the

sand that

it

has floated

from afar.

—During the night the water

and we had some
off.
Observing the cirrus and cirro-cumulus
high in au-, the pilot quoted a proverb similar to om' own.*
The channel between the sand-bar was very foul with timber.
On the right was the head of the Ypoeira or baj^ou, which spreads
out into a little lake about its central course, and returns to the
Oct. 1.

fell,

delay in pushing

*

Ceo ])C(hcuto,
Oil clmva oil vciito.

Oh nuulanria de tciniio.

A .stone-paved .sky, lain or vincl hi^li,
or change to diy,

—

!

CHAP. XIX.]

UARUXHANHA TO SENHOR BOM JESL'S DA LAPA.

237

main artery above the " Lapa."

Below it is the Ilha do Medo
of Fear
another reminiscence of the dark and bloody days. As
we bent to the right, or north-east, the Serrote da Lapa rose tall
and abrupt over the vegetation based on the river sand. Above
them was a slight central depression, and a yellow gash noted
Below it ran diagonally to
the position of the mysterious cave.
the stream a thick avenue of Jacare * and other trees, showing
where the bayou re-enters the parent stream.
As we advanced northwards, the Serrote \iewed from the west

—

changed its form to that of a headless sphynx, or a crouching

And now we could distinguish the

lion, the popular comparison.

peculiarities of a scene, whose novelty has raised

it

to sanctity.

It is the mere skeleton of a mountain, disposed with a north-east

and Ijing lone upon a dead level. It is
remarkable for perpendicular Hues bristhng against the an*, mth
The sides, fretted and
ribs which resemble finials or pmnacles.
jagged like the flying buttresses of a Gothic temple, are cut up
It has
into salient angles, and are sharp-pointed by weathermg.
cleavage rather than stratification deep black cracks, at altitudes
varying from ten to thii'ty feet, run horizontall}', forming gigantic
to south-west trend,

;

coiu'ses

of masonrv.

On the north-eastern side these com'ses

are slightly dislocated, dipping towards a bushy depression in the
centre.

The south-western end is

a vertical precipice, with a

long broad yellow stripe, where the stone had been removed.

The colom'

of the

mass generally is

grey-slate, breaking blue,

with fine crystals of the whitest calcaire.

A few tiled roofs, and one white-washed house, rismg in their
above the trees and shrubs, directed us to
landed on the right jaw of the bayou, which

line at the hill base

the Port.

We

dm'ing the floods becomes a harbour of refuge.

A tall bank,

much water-waslied, led to a plain groAm ^\T.th grass, shrubs, and
tall

trees ; one of the latter, an acacia, with golden blossoms,

Deep pits, cut for adobes, showed

emitted a heavy cloying scent.

the nature of the gTound, sand and clay, with scatters of limestone.

Hence cultivation here flourishes

;

the people plant garlic

and onions, melons and water-melons, pumpkins-^especially the
^ So called from iU rough :-oaly bark
the word ih possilily a eoutraction of Jacare
ihi;a (or iga, a canoe !), -svhich supplied the
"Indians" v%-ith du^-outs twentv to thirtv
;

feet long.

f Colonel Accioli calls it a graaitic
umtion
it is, ho^^ever, all limestone.
;

foi'-

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

288

[chap. xix.

—

Girimu haricots, and the castor bean, Quiabos or Hibiscus
rice, and a little maize, sweet potatos, and excellent cotton.
We
also passed a well-railed field, whose freshly-cut grass preserved
the aroma of ha}-.
Presently we entered the settlement, which is detestably situated even the African avoids the vicinity of great rocks.
Here
;

eighteen houses, disposed in arch-shape, front towards an unfinished church, which stands at the base of the great stone pile.

They are all of the ground-floor order, built upon foundations of
rough limestone

and one is solidly made, with attempts at
pilasters.
The total of the tenements may number 200, and, as all
are inhabited, the population cannot be less than 1000 souls.*
AVe found fresh meat, and bought tiinoca cakes, whilst every
vendor applied to us for medicine. We can hardly wonder that
the}^ suffer from psoriasis, cutaneous eruptions, terrible fevers, and
;

inflammations of the spleen (opilacoes).

Besides the limestone

reverberator, they have the full benefit of a large Ypoeira swamp.

Thus the stone raises the temperature of the air, and the heavier
marsh poison rushes in to supply its place.
At the crescent a party of pilgrims were mounting their
animals, and were being dismissed with a " Bom Jesus da Lapa
guide ye

"

!

We walked to the south-west, noticing in the

occidental face of the buttress several ogival entrances, doubtless
natural.

In the higher

degraded to

soil,

levels,

wherever the rock had been

trees displayed the filmy light-green foliage of

spring ; the most conspicuous were the Joazeiro, the Angico, and

The stone was clad with lichens
and air-plants grey as itself. At the south-western end is the
tallest bluff", which contains the grotto.
Here a huge column,
the delicate Pitombeira myrtle.

horizontally fractured in three places, and separated from the

main wall by a perpendicular fissure, threatens to fall. At the
cliff'-foot is the Ypoeira channel, and here large fragments of
limestone, cut into curious shapes by the water, block up the
ledge which once allow^ed a path.
Six rough steps of blue limestone lead up to the Lapa, which
faces west.

above

it

A stout wooden door, with ponderous lock, and

two shuttered windows,

M. Ilah'clcl says l28 Jiouscs aud 250
where alj^enteeism is the rule.

Avith

souls,

''rose-light" and drain

a very

unusucil proportion,

except

cuAV. xrx.]

CARUXHAXHA TO SENHOE BOM JE^US DA LAPA.

are flanked

pipe,

by thin

pilasters

289

of the burnt brick and lime

Inside, ten steps of brick, placed
composing the entrance.
edgeways, and dangerously narrow for crippled devotees, admit to
I looked in vain for aught to
the body of the Holy Grotto.
justif}' the vivid imagination of Rocha Pitta, which saw here an

entrance large enough for a city, a stone bell * made by Nature's

hand, marvellous columns of stalactite, and a high altar with
collateral shrines ready for human use.

The Cavern,

bends to the right, and
extends forty paces in depth, widening from ten to twenty paces
at the far end.
all the

a very vulgar feature,

The floor is of tamped earth, which, being like

Serra, mu'aculous, is collected

used as medicine.

It is the

Near the entrance the

by coloured people to be

sovereignest thmg for a headache.

ceiling is

blackened; over the shrine it

is

flat,

water-w©rn, and smoke-

somewhat arched.

Down the

length of the blue limestone runs a light-yellow band, forming

In the vicinity of the steps there is a
The narrower end,
stalagmite resembHng a Hindoo " lingam."
and both sides of the grotto, are supported with masonry. On
truncated stalactites.

the left of one advancing towards the altar, wooden steps lead to

and lace fringed with cloth. The
awnmg of this pulpit is a projectmg ledge of stone. Further on
Opis a shallow recess in which some hermit has been buried.
varanda
the
projects
posite it, at the broadest part of the tunnel,
a

box covered with red

silk,

Here, upon a bench,
lounged a few idlers, chiefly negroes, enjoying the fresh draught

or balcony, a natural opening in the wall.

from the green-avenued bayou below. The atmosphere reminded
me of Yambii, yet the thermometer showed only 85° (F.) f
The high altar is at the further and broader end of the Cave.
It is approached by a raised i)latform of dislocated wooden
The shrine is fronted by a tall
oblongs, showing old graves.
central arch, between two of smaller size, all three lined with

That to the right opens
ui)on a narrow passage behind the adytum the ascent is bad,
the boarded floor threatens to fall, and there is an odour of

painted wood, and hung with ex-votos.

;

death

—perhaps the

calcaire

may be of that kind vulgarly called

* Meaning, I presume, a thin plate of
which could be used like a gong.
The only bells now are two small articles,
hung to the usual wooden gallows, and protected by a small tiled roof.
stone,

VOL.

II.

+ ]\L Halfeld found

it

95° (F.), nearly

The bats of which he comblood-heat.
plains have disappeared, leaving no sign,
and the dead are no longer buried within
the cave.

U

290

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

" stiiikstone."

The left arcliway is the mouth of a recess heaped

[chap. xix.

up with heads and faces, arms and legs of beeswax, and other
offerings which commemorate the sanative powers of the spot.
In the highest part, under the central arch, and protected by a
wooden tunnel ceiling, stands the Senlior Bom Jesus da Lapa.
The little crucifix is, to judge by the ghastly style of the colouring, modern. A polite devotee assured me that it had been found
here, and that, despite m-any attempts, no one had ever been able
to remove it.*
Upon the ledge at its feet are statuettes and two
candles burnmg.
On the altar below there are more images, and
six lights, whilst a massive

and expensive

silver lamp, bought at

Bahia, hangs from the ceiling outside. Be^'ond the railings of
painted wood stand portable chapels of Nossa Senhoras, each

about ten feet high, sentinelling the shrine.

Also, most impor-

tant of all, a strong box of iron, labelled in the largest letters,

''Papel

—

Cobre," catches the first glance.
This place of pilgrimage has the highest possible reputation
devotees flock to it from all directions, and from great distances,
even from Piauhy. Sometimes there may be a crowd of 400

;

visitors, t

The

average daily receipts, I was told, amount to

The "esmolas " are paid
to a certain Lieut. -Colonel Francisco Teixeira, who is the Procurador of the shrine. My crew when exhorted to visitation,
lest they should call then- employer " herege," pleaded " who
prays, pays."
They went, however, and the pilot gave fourteen
20 §000, and on Sundays to 50^000.

vintens, the rest two.

I left something at the foot of the crucifix ;

the old Sacristan did not readily find

it,

and he hurriedly sent a

message, asking the amount of my alms.

We left the fane very little impressed, except by the damp
Our next

heat.

step was to the Porto, on the right

bank of

This is the seat of trade. We found a few houses,
half-a-dozen sheds, one barca and five canoes.
The principal
Ypoeira.

industry is making saltpetre, which
at the

is

here found in quantities

south-eastern side of the Serrote.

It is a constituent of

all these

calcareous soils, the effect of atmospheric air decomj)os-

ing

limestone.

the

The process

Thus, at Cairo and in other Moslem
tombs are seen let into tlie walls of
the domiciles.
This is where the bierbearers have been unable to contend with
cities,

an obstinate

corpse,

which

insists

upon

of extracting

it

is

a

mere

choosing its own sepulture, and becomes so
heavy that none can carry it.
t From Jannaria the best road is on the
eastern bank of the river.

CARUXHAXHA TO SEXHOR BOM JESUS DA LAPA.

CHAP. XIX.]

lixiviation

;

£91

the cliocolate-coloured earth, mixed with stone,

is

This is generally a square
l)yramid of boarding, with the base upwards, equally useful for

thrown into a bangiie or

strainer.

The poorer people use a hide,

extracting saltpetre or soap-lj^e.

When

supported by four uprights, and both act like jellj^-bags.

exhausted with hot water, the nitrous particles find their way,
duly filtered, through a tube leading to a
often a bit of old canoe.
is

The

a thin greenish liquid, which

''

Coche " or trough,

decoada," as

it

is

now called,

must be boiled in a ''tacho," or

metal pan, like that used for sugar.

mounted upon an ant hill.

''

This '' tacho " is sometimes

It is purified by repeating the pro-

columns of yellow-white
colour.
The price is here six coppers on the Upper Rio das
In the Sertao saltpetre is
Yellias it sells for 10 §000 per arroba.
used medicinally for nitre. My specimens were unfortunately lost,
and I cannot decide whether the material is or is not the nitrate
of soda like that of Chile, which though usefully employed in
composts and nitric acid works, attracts so much damp, that it is
of little value for making gunpowder.*
cess, and it appears in regular six-sided

;

We introduced ourselves to the Yicar, the Rev. Francisco de
Freitas Soueu'o, a native of Lamego, near Douro.

He spoke

with great reserve about the miracles of the place, and declared
that the image must be some 100 years old.
hovrever, dates

The Lapa Sanctuary,

from 1701, and was founded by a Lisbonese, the

Padre Francisco de Mendonca (alias da Soledade), a man of considerable property.

He set up the

figures

Bom

of N'^ S^ da

andX'^S'da Soledade, and the Archbishop D. Sebastio
Monteiro da Vide,t after sending to it a Visitant, made the Lapa

Jesus,

a chapel, and the Padre its priest.

By no means so reticent or so sensible was the Padre Baldoino
who was calling upon the Vicar. He
gravely assured me that all the Serrote was blessed by Heaven,
and consequently that it must contain gold and diamonds. The

of the Villa da Barra,

crucifix, he said, was at least 367 A'ears old

the Brazil was

people before
* Contraband

it

—

— about the date when

discovered and was worshipped by the wild
was found by Christians. His red face became

gunpowder lias, however,

de Janeiro.

A lately-mide analysis of tlie

made with saltpetre brought
from ]\Iinas, even in the daj^s when the

brown Bahian saltpetre gives a fair account

former was a royal monopoly; the latter
in 1816 sold for 4$ 6(H) per arroba at Rio

+ This ecclesiastic issued the
tutions " of lUhia in 1707.

often been

of it.

\-

" Consti2

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

•292

redder when I asked him

if

[chap. xix.

another woukl not do as well.

He

declared, with various inuendoes, that the efficiency resides in

that particular figure

;

that it was the work of a miracle ; that it

was formed by a miracle, and that by a miracle it remains. Substitute for it anything else, and all virtue departs from the Lapa.
I afterwards heard that this reverend was once a person of fair
attainments, but that his devotion to Bacchus had dislodged part
of his intellect.

The Vicar had lately recovered from an abscess in the
which,

Lanman and Kemp's Salsaparilla, had

despite

killed him.

leg,

nearly

When we spoke of ascending the Serrote, he conHe proved himself

cealed his ailments, and offered to guide us.
a good

man, and actually climbed up in his

slippers.

At the

began a thin grove of Xique-Xique, here a kind
of Cansancao or Jatropha urens.
This is a tall shrub, with

base of the

hill

common
It extends to the summit in clumps, and is much feared

patches of sharp and venomous thorns radiating from
centres.

Another unpleasant growth is a small Bromelia,
In the lower part I found sundry young
shells of a pink-lipped Achatina (No. 2), which here grows to
a large size.
John Maw^e (i. Chap. 12) records his astonishment at seeing the eggs laid by this '' new variety of helix."
The air was perfumed with the odour of peppermint from a bright
blue floweret, which seemed to have no name.
We ascended the
wooded central depression on the western side, behind the main
bluff", and a steep rough path had been w^orn by the fuel-seeker.
In the shade the thermometer was 94° (F.) The small red ant
stung viciously, and huge iguanas eyed us as if the lazy things
disdained^to run ^way.
We found adhering to the lime a hard
red sandstone, with black spots like syenite, and silex with a
conchoidal fracture, which had the tint and the compactness of
Rosso Antico.*
Beaching the summit of the guile}', we started flights of urubiis,
which had whitened the pinnacle tops. Here there is no soil
except where the rock is resolved into its original elements. The
jagged surface is like the waves of a cross sea, and in places it
looks as though rain-drops had s^^lashed upon a soft substance.
by the people.

with cruel serrations.

This appeared to he a sign of igneous
our glasses could detect no signs of
shell in the liiuestone
and the glazed iron

action

;

;

stone and conglomerate scattered about tlie
base suggested exposiire to heat,

cn.vr. XIX.]

CARUXHAXHA TO SEXHOR BOM JESUS DA LAPA.

2'Xi

A rude triangulation fi'om below liad given 150 feet, a total of
Between the thorns we enjoyed a
noble view of the Sao Francisco, whose inundations extend in
The broad band which glittered in
places three leagues across.
the sun with silver and gold winds in majestic sweeps round the
Island of Bom Jesus, the well-cultivated " Canabrava," and the
about 180 above the stream.*

On the north is a blue knob,

"Itaberava," or Shining Stone.!

the Brejo de Sao Gon^alo, beyond the Rio do Corrente, and to
the north-east a long purple line, the Serra do Bom Jardim, and

Nearer is the Fazenda of
low domes, near Urubu.
Itaberava, where only the stream-edge is flooded; its green
And at our feet lies
pastures are rich in horses and black cattle.
the two

the village, with

its

three small

streets

branching from their

nucleus, the square.

In this grand lump of limestone there is sign of convulsion
The growth or upheaval must have been so
or catastrophe.
gradual, that the long horizontal lines are

still

hardly broken.

be desired that some catastrophist, T^Titing upon
" geological d^mamics," would state i:)recisely the ground upon

It is greatly to

which he believes that the ancient oscillations, dislocations, and
inversions of strata are not wholly explicable by existing phenomena, with the Hindu ages and the Tropical and glacial epochs
behind them. And when the Uniformitarians shall have won the
day and I presume that the believers in continuity, in the

—

" orderly mechanism " of slow and long-continued movements

broken by periodical paroxysms, will win it, seeing how much
they have already won I
it is to be hoped that they will do
better than the Cosmos, which includes under vulcanism, or
vulcanacity, " crust-motion," together with earthquakes and

—

Archeus has been proposed for the honour of naming
that slow growth which belongs to the earth as to other inanimate
We want something which does not
things so has Ennosig?eus.

volcanoes.

;

hail quite so far back.
* !M.

Halfeld gives 240 palms

(—172

feet).

Itaberaba " pedra que
according to Rocha Pitta, the
name of the whole Lapa. The Fazenda
formerly belonged to the Conde da Ponte.
J In the beginning of the present century, M. Boubee and others explained the

+ Itaberava or

liiz,"

is,

appearance of aerolites, erratic blocks, and
similar "problems," by supposing tliat the

earth had daslie J to pieces some minor star
or planet.
This is but a modification of
that semi-barbarism which sees in the

world-plan disorder and
work of offended deities.

destruction,

the

Buckle (i. 800)

complains, with feeling, that many men of
still fettered in geology by the
hypothesis of catastrophes
in chemistry,

science are

;

by«fche h}itothesis of vital forces.

CHAPTER XX.
FROM SENHOR BOM JESUS DA LAPA TO THE ARRAIAL DO
BOM JARDIM.
Fifth Teavessia, 2G^ Leagues.

THE KIO DO CORREXTE. — THE SETTLEMENT " SITIO DO MATO."— THE " BULL'S
EYE" AND STORM. VISIT TO THE VILLA DE URUBU. — URUBtJ WILL NOT
BE A CAPITAL. WE RESUME WORK. — COMPLETE CHANGE OF CLIMATE AND
ASPECT OF COUNTRY. — THE SETTLEMENT " ESTREMA."— REACH BOM JARDIM. — ITS RIVULET AND FINE DIAMANTATION. TRUE ITACOLUMITE.— BOM
JARDIM A GOOD SITE FOR A CITY.

—

—

—

Os tres reinos aqui que a opulencia,
E bases sao da humana subsistencia,
Em Minas e animaes e vegetantes,
Tao uberrimos sao e tao patentes,
Que nao resolve a subida subtileza
Por onde niais pendeo a natureza.
Fret F. do S. Carlos Assiinqjqao, Canto G.

AVe bade adieu to the good Yicar and resumed our journey,
although it was already late. Presently a bad storm followed the
sultry '' Morma^o," or stillness of the atmosphere, and came rush-

ing up from the south.

The lightning, seen through the rain,

appeared a white fire, whereas
air.

it was

remarkably pink in the dry
Dripping with wet, and anything but merry, we made fast,

Sitio do Mato, a well- cultivated island ; we
"
fed and we
turned in," to "bless the man who invented sleep."
at nightfall, to the

Mixed with the sounds of mankind, the cry of the night heron
resembled that of the ounce, and the fish splashed a treble to the
grim bass of the falling banks.

Wednesday, October

2,

1867.

— Cirrus again and ''mackerel's

back " prepared us for more bad weather.

AVe set out, hoAvever,
and ran down the island which had sheltered us
it thinned out and showed an even richer cultivation than above.
At the bottom of a high bank on the left, came in the Rio do
at 4*45 A.M.,

;

SENHOR BOM JESUS DA LAPA TO BOM JARDIM.

CHAP. XX.]

295

Corrente,* so called from the swift currents which sweep round

We crossed the mouth, some 500 feet broad,

the salient angle.

of this great stream, wliich here runs from west to east
jav/ projects in

;

its right

a long sand-bar, and a dark avenue in its left

cheek shows the line of an affluent, the Pdacho da Barra.
Below the port, which is flooded, the bank rises 35

feet,

The high ground is

driving the main stream to the north-east.

divided into two waves, and, in the hollow between them, is the

manga

kraal for cattle, communicating with the ajojo raft,

or

which passes them over for Sincora and the Bahian Chapada.
Above rises the village Sitio do Mato, running nearly north and
south, a Ime of mud huts and three whitewashed tenements.
AVe landed below it upon Taua, a

stiff white

clay,

underlying a

—roof-corners
adorned with pigeons of white plaster and so forth —belonging
steep, sandy ramp.

Opposite was the flash house

Theodoro Antonio de Oliveira. He tm^ned
his back to us, as we were walldng past him, and, of course, he
was a " cabra "or a '^ bode," probably the latter. Fm-ther to
the north is a tiled shed covering, a portable chapel and a cross,
with its sudarium behind it lies the railed cemetery, and a heap
of adobes, intended for a mortuar}" sacellum, whose beginnings
were washed away in 1860.
Inland, the bush extends up to the settlement, and the outWesth'ing lands are said to be good for cotton and castor.
''
ward, and not in sight, rises a range known as
A Bibeii^a; " f
between it and the village are many lakelets and j^ioeiras, which
to a cattle breeder,

;

do not recommend the ''Sitio do

Mato" for a future capital.

The tillage proper is to the south

here the floods enter between

;

the waves of ground, and extend to the habitations behind the

" manga."
soap-lye;

The small industries are cotton-spinning and making
the
we shall now find the " bangue " ever3'where
;

animals are barking
tm-keys.
sell,

and

pigs,

especially

When we wanted to buy fish, the fisherman refused to

saymg

Joazeii'o

curs,

and poultry,

that he had a large

tree

we found,

in

excellent

* This gi-eat influent drains the meridional spine that separates Bahia and Groyaz.
Boats navigate it, despite snags, as
far as the Porto de Santa Mai-ia, 28 leagues
from the mouth the banks are said to be
;

grandly forested, and, in places, to be cul-

and under a shady
repair, the good old

family

;

One of its many tributories is the
northern Rio das Egnas, and this again has
a considerable influent, the Rio Acanhuao.
f The right bank showed a long blue
range which the people called de Sant'
Inofre (Onofre or Onofrio).

tivated.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BKAZIL.

296

[chap. xx.

" tronco,"* or village stocks, which have but lately disappeared
from rural England. Here thej^ are two long boards, planted
upright, and pierced with ten holes, accommodation for five men,

" in log," as the Africans sa}'. At times it is used as a pillory,
but the offence must be very grave.
Pushing off from the Sitio do Mato, we found the water
so deep that the pole would not touch bottom.

The

effect

of

right.

and then to the
The eastern shore is only nine feet high, and the interior

is still

lower

the Corrente River is a great sack to the

;

left,

during the rains boats cut across country to the

Urubu, despising the risk of submerged trees, and the
annoyance of insects. On the side is the Fazenda da Bandeira,
and below it, a section of the eastern shore, the large island of
Santo Antonio,! from which another cross-cut, setting off north-

Villa de

east to Urubti, joins the other.

An ostrich appeared, pacing

along the shore, but the people have not yet learned to kill it for
its feathers, t

opened up a
full prospect of what we had dimly sighted for five hours, and
On the
wdiich prepared us for a change of country and chmate.

At 1*30,

as we were going north with easting,

bank appeared a "neat's-tongue," projecting in regularly
This is a spur of
shaped treeless mounds of brown-red hue.

left

the Serra Branca, which, according to M. Halfeld, is a calcareous

range

;

the specimens shown to

with quartz. §

me were sandstone grit revetted

Behind the Serra begins the plateau known as

the Alto do Paranan, rising

almost imperceptibly towards the

Along the southern side of this
neat's-foot begins the highway to Goyaz city,|| w^hich is here said
heights which feed that stream.

* Trunco in St. Hil. (I. ii. 42 and III.
101), who describes it minutely, but
makes it like the "Tornilho," a militai-y
punishment, and refers to the neck being
placed in the pillory.
The invention is
probably due to the Arabs, whose ' Makantarah " has extended to the Zanzibar
coast in East Africa.
+ Mr. Keith Johnston places on the right
bank, about half way between the Lapa and
Urubu, the town of "Santo Antonio,"
which is a mere fazenda or Sitio fronting its
ii.

'

large island.

X The Welsh colony in Patagonia are
buying, I am told, Ema feathers for threepence jjer pound, and expect to
in

England for thirty shillings.

sell

them

In these

civilized clays, when no head requires to weaithe colours which Nature gave it, surely the
grey plume of the American bird may, by
bleaching and dyeing, learn to pass off as an
African.
§ The citizens of Urubu declare that
from this Serra an old Minas negro, who

was prosjiecting for gold, brought rounded
steely gi-ains, which in the cupel proved
refractory.
The discoverer died, and the
discovery was lost on the road to Bahia.
Platinum, of which the jjeople have seen littie and heard much, is naturally suspected.
The country lying to the west of the
city, is one of the few which the Brazil
II

still

offers to

the traveller.

the explorer, as opposed to

;

8EXH0R BOM JESUS DA LAPA TO BOM JATIDIM.

CHAP. XX.]

to be distant 150 leagues.

207

The road is described as being safe,

and abounding in game and water the sole inconvenience is a
desert tract, 30 to 40 leagues broad, where provisions must be
On the right bank was the second distance, a straight
carried.
blue wall, the Serra do Boqueirao, three leagues beyond Urubii
;

and the third, still further east, consisted of a saddle-back, a
ridge and two lumi:)y heads, parts of the Geraes attached to the
Boqueirao.

above and white below
showed the Povoado do Mangal, and its Rosario church, with
Bej^ond its island the stream bent to the northfalling front.
Shortly afterwards, the

left

side, red

and already, behind a large central holm of vivid red, we

east,

descried the white dottings of a town.
" mackerel's back " declared themselves.

But now the

effects of

Boulder clouds surged
up from west and south, hiding the hills with hangings of rain
sheet.
To the east appeared the ominous " Olho de Boi," or
section of Iris that promised a " temporal."

AVe made, with

might and mam, the windward bank, where at 4*15 p.m., the
roaring gale compelled us to anchor, and to bush the Eliza.* AVe
passed a night of scanty comfort.

The guinea-fowl clucked in

the village till dawn, and there was another nuisance.

Hitherto,

we had slept near Coroas or Praias to avoid insects, which are
Here the weather comvery properly termed " immundicities."
pelled us to roost under a ridge, with a fall inland, a mere
and a rich breeding-ground for a small and almost
minute mosquito, whose sting was like a needle-prick. As a rule
the river has been wonderfully free from insects as from snags
this part, however, is an exception.
When we least wanted a
calm, the gale fell dead, and when light was worthless, the stars
hung like lustres from the cloudless sky. The pilots declared
that we had escaped from the rains to fall into the power of the
Our course was
Avind
it will be seen that they were right.
against the sun, which will presently bring up with him wet
weather, but the heavy showers, now falling behind us, must
cattle-trail,

;

;

increase

the

evaporation,

and open a way

for

the

cool

dry

Trade.
Oct. 3, 1867.

—At

earliest dawn began angry puffs from the red

* To prevent the waves washing over
these shallow rafts, the pilots have the
sensible practice of cutting off the heads of

yoxmg trees or leafy branches, which, fastenecl

alongside

screens.

or

to

the

bows,

act

as

THE HIGHLA^^DS OF THE BRAZIL.

298

[chap. xx.

eastern sky, which was striped with cirri of a dull vermilion, and

was mottled with clouds, standing out hard and solid as if cut
in dark grey pai:»er.
This appearance will soon become familiar,
and cause many an impatient sigh. The stream turns nearly
due east, so ever}^ capfull was a head-gale. On the left bank
rose the Povoa^ao de Pernambuco, a hamlet of dingy huts nestling below the Ponto do Morro, the south-eastern buttress of the
Serra Branca. Here the stream is broken into two arms b}^ the
rich and fertile Ilha do Urubu, a mass of grass, bush, and trees,
one league long, and shaped like a leg of mutton, with the
knuckle-bone down stream.

The left channel is the broader,

we took the right, upon which
Both
the towai is built, and at once grounded upon a sand-reef.

the deeper, and the straighter

;

are low and liable to floods; on the right, at a "port,"

sides

denoted

onl}^

by women with water-pots,

is

the

mouth

of the

Sangradouro, which, during rains, admits canoes to the Sitio de

Santo Antonio.
Presently we landed to inspect the town of Urubu, the
" Gallinazo," the turkey buzzard.
The riverine plain is here

low and caked with mud, soon trodden to impalpable silt. A
bush of the " Araticum " Annona here the people mention three

—

varieties of the shrub

— shows the limits of the

it begins the vegetation

first

time,

the

Beyond

I saw, for the

arboreous

Jatropha, with

"Favelleiro," that

sinuate leaves, described by Gardner.
of a blackberry and an

once attracts the eye.

floods.

of a dry and sterile land.

ai")ple

tree,

It varies between the size

and the

stiff,

quaint look at

The leaves, resembling those of the

oak,

but dangerous to touch on account of their cruel, poisonous
thorns, are, as often happens amongst " Campo " plants, only
terminal, not axile, and planted in tufts at the end of fat twigs.

The leaves are used to narcotize water, and to catch birds
fruit,

;

the

described as resembling that of the castor plant, supplies oil

The rhubarb -coloured gum, with a faint perfume, is
compared with gum arable, and the wood is made into spoons. The
Aloe family musters strong, especially the " fedente babosa,"

for the table.

wliich

Liliacea can

only be rendered " fetid slabber chops

"
;

the leaf-juice, mixed with oil, and called '' Azeite de babosa," is

used to correct baldness. A flock of dirty-white sheep, whose
fleeces were torn to rags by the thorns, wandered about, seeking
what they could devour.

XX.]

ciiAi".

SENHOR BOM JESUS DA LAPA TO BOM JARDIM.

299

A walk of 200 3'ards leads to the tov.ii, wliicli is the usual
long, shallow Ime, fronting to the north-west.

The items

chapels, adohe houses, palm-frond huts, railed

compounds and

are

rude gardens, in which the cocoa-nut, with its rounded tuft, rose
consj)icuous.
The mam street, the Rua de Sao Goncalo, runs
along the whole length, and

houses displayed the

is

raised ahove flood level.

civilization

of glass

shutters, lattices, and squares of calico

;

Two

windows, amongst

of those twain one was a

Casa Nobre.* I sent in my letter to the Juiz de Direito, Dr.
Joaquim Rodrigues Seixas, who asked us in, gave us coffee, and
gallantly exposed himself to a well-furnished fire of questions.

The judge complained that he had lost his memory by living in
such a hole, and I can readily believe him. The climate, as so
often happens m dry places, unpleasantly close to damp situations,

is

}T.elding

Fevers,

dangerous.

easily to native

or rather

" chills,"

practice, tartar emetic

they generally, however, end in spleen diseases.

are

mild,

and quinine +
About August,
;

l^leurisies are dangerous when treated with

when exposed

fatal

to

scientific

the popular simples,
practice of " lancers and

leechers," copious blood-lettmg, tartar emetic, heavy doses of
nitre, and ptisane of a certain emollient Hibiscus, I the only harm-

less part of the '^cure."

Santo Antonio de Urubii was formerly known as the Urubu de
Cima, the upper turkey buzzard, opposed to the nether turkey
buzzard (Urubii de Baixo), a pleasant name now changed to
Propia or Propria, on the Lower Rio de Sao Francisco. According to the citizens, this place began the diamantine discoveries,
which presently sx:>read to the Chapada Diamantina, then in the

Pdo das Contas. It may
be remarked, however, that in 1755, gems were discovered at
Jacobina, on the eastern flank of the Bahian Chapada, and that
district of the Yilla do Livramento do

the

Prime Minister, Pombal, forbade the worldng of the vast

buried' treasures, for fear of injuring agriculture.

The effect of

these davs of ignorance endured till 1837.

* It belonged to Sr. Gualteiro Josd Guimaraes, a merchant who at the time of
our visit was pilgrimaging to the Lapa.
+ Svdphate of quinine is much used in
the Brazil, and with little pinidence by the
thus while it relieves one disease,
people
Honi'popathy
it often brings on another.
;

has clone mucli good by preaching against
the abuse, and by substituting pilules for
doses of six to ten grains.
t Cozimento de Althea, which IMoraes
translates Malvaisco (Hibiscus^ The System
(60) also gives Alcea, and describes the use
of the Sida althseifolia.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THP: BKAZIL.

300

[ciiAr.

xx.

The judge congratulated himself upon the fact that, under his
jurisdiction,

there had been only four murders in four years.

—

The municipality contains only 3051 voters in 1852 54, M.
Halfeld gave the district 731 fires, and 7204 of all sexes and
The town cannot contain more than 300 houses, and
ages.
when full 1600 to 1700 inhabitants. They live and die in the
greatest ignorance.
I was astonished at the absence of all
;

jn'ogress in these western outstations of the great Bahian Province,

whose chief city was once the metropolis of the country, and
whose seaboard is now one of the most prosperous and populous
portions of the Empire.
Everything that we see denotes
poverty, meanness, and neglect a Fazenda in the interior of
Sao Paulo or of Minas is equal to a town here and whilst the
majestic Sao Francisco flows before these hovels, and there are
excellent lines for routes both to the seaward and to the interior,
the people have wholly ignored their communications.
This is
at once the cause and the effect of their semi-barbarism they sit,
calling upon that Hercules, the Imperial Government, but they
;

;

;

will

not put shoulder to the wheel.

Urubu will not be a capital.

The port is bad, the lands

are

deepl}^ flooded every year, and the Serra do Boqueirao is too far

to be utilized.

I heard, how^ever, of olhos or w^ater pools, which

and these metamorphic formations may be
found to be rich in minerals. All vaunted the fertility of the
inner country to the east and to the south-east they declared
that four shrubs give three pounds of uncleaned cotton, formerly
an item of export to Bahia. The so-called '' Irish " potato is
possibly exist in

it,

;

small but ver}^ good, and onions grow from their own and not from
imported seed. In addition to the usual list, the soil produces
cucumbers, ground-nuts (Arachis hypog?ea, here known as Mandubi, Mundubi, or Manobi), and oriental Sesamum (Gergelim or

Oranges and limes*
grow, and the tamarind,
though stunted, produces an abundance of fruit, which the
Africans know how to prepare, while the Bahians do not.
I
also heard of soils in which the '' Mandioca brava," the poisonous

Jerxelim).

manioc,

the sweet kind.

*

becomes "Aipim" or " Macaxeira,"
The Judcfe and Jucfe de Paix, Dr. Claro Fran-

spontaneously

The sweet lime (Citnis Limoniiim)

known

as

limao doce;

the

soiir

is

lime or

limetto
lima.

(C.

Limctta)

is

simply limao or

CHAP. XX.]

SEXHOR BOM JESUS DA LAPA TO BOM JARDLM.

cisco XegTdO, also assured

301

me that the}- had seen three colts got

by stallions out of she mules, addmg that the offspring was a
most unsightly animal.
The x^rmcipal " curio " shown to us was a bit of compact uncrystallized alum from Mocahubas,* a town fourteen leagues to the
It is said to appear like stalactites in the caves which
south-east.
riddle the Serra do Machichi, and, as we were floating down
stream to the north-west, the pilot pointed out a white mark

which he declared to be the mine in a range right behind us.
The people ignore the easy art of purifying their " j)edra hume."
The ruddy resin of the Angico Acacia, which here forms their
and the
forests, was vaunted as a pectoral and an expectorant
yellow gum of the Jatoba, light as amber, serves to caulk
boats.
The chief of the small industries is weaving hats, for
which the Aricuri palmf supplies material; here they are worth
;

$ 200, and they sell down stream for $ 500.
AVe walked up the Rua da Pallia, which runs parallel with and
inland of the Siio Goncalo
two lines of very humble houses led to
;

the large square behind the Matriz of Santo Antonio.

This fane

mixed with boulders (rolados) from the opposite
Ponto do Morro, and with ii^on-stone from the river banks as
3'et the belfries are wanting.
There is a Casa de Camara, a
detached jail and a vicar-general's house, but no such things as
parish registers or public documents.
Here the dry, sandy, and
is built of brick,

;

silty plain is

covered with the Quipa, a dwarf cactus, about eight

inches high, with fine, hair-like, but sharp thorns, radiating from

white spots.
Its flat plates contrast curiously with the tall
" organ," the five-sided chandeliers (C. candelabriformis), the
short, thick

around it.

cyHnder (C. brevicaulis), and the serj^ent cactuses
My friends showed me upon the Quipa what appeared

a white web, but after crushing

it,

the fingers were stained with

This is the indigenous cochineal-insect, and
It is looked
it extends throughout the dry riverine regions.
ux3on, hke most unknown things, as a magnificent mine of wealth,
but years must pass before it can be made useful in commerce.
a rosy-pink juice.

1 told the b^^standers about Tenerife, which had imported from

* In Mr. Keith Johnston's map,
cauba."

"Mil-

+ Commonly spelt " Ouricury, " also
written Aliculi, Aracui, and Arari (Cocus

According to the System,
used in Bahia for curing oph-

schizophylla).

the juice
thalmia,

is

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

302

[chap. xx.

Mexico the large succulent nopal, and the fat insect. The}" manfully suj^ported their fellow-country growth, the Quipa,* which
was juiceless as a shoe-sole, declaring that during the rains it
Here, as elsewhere in the
swells to thrice its present size.
"
esprit du mieux ennemi du bien " to
Brazil, men hold the
advice they are untameable as flies their minds must grow, like
those of infants or " Indians," by example rather than by precept, and though intelligent and imitative, they always require
improvements to be subjected to the faithful ej^es.
Our friends " convoyed us a bit," gave us oranges and limes,
and saw us off at 11 a.m. The nortli-east wind, cold in the
burning sun, blew in strong blasts (refegas), frequently repeated till
3 P.M., and hindered progress. And now we noticed that a complete change of soil and formation, climate and phj^siognomy, had
taken place the frontier being Urubii, and its portal of hills.
The limestone country, with its gi*eat productive powers, and the
rich Macape clay, have passed into sandstone, and the wooded
banks have altered to a "Carrascal," or lovr bush. This ground
in places produces the small maize, but agriculture and breeding
The river, which
flourish only in the " Geraes," or inner lands.
;

;

—

before could spread far over its wide, flat valley, is

nov^^ narrowed,

and the overflow is checked by bounding ridges, through which
the larger tributaries must twist

;

the eastern wall will last with

breaks till near the Great Hapids, the western till the Villa da

There

Barra.

is

no general name

for the

range, each place

christens its own section ; that to the right is usuall}" spoken of
Serra," while near Urubu the opposite wall is the Serra
as "

A

becomes Serra de Santa Catharina, the O Furado
The effect of these
(or Serra Furada), the pierced, and so forth.
containing walls is to form a funnel, up which the Trade, now to
the greatl}' increased
be our deadly enemy, blows violently
evaporation is carried up due south, hence the lands on the
higher stream are drenched, where here all is bone dry.
These Serras are disposed in straight and in slightl}" waving
lines, which viewed from the stream appear to be great lunes and
crescents, approaching and diverging.
The regularitv of their
shape, the flatness of the summit-line, and the steps and benches,
which run in straight course along them, suggest that they were
Branca

;

it then

;

* Tlie fig of tliis cactus i,^ eaten, but it is full cf seeds.

"

CHAP. XX.]

;

SENHOll BOM JESUS DA LAPA TO BOM JAEDIM.

30;l

and that presently they rose to be river
branches. As the bed, whose general course is from south to
north, winds between them, the ridge of one side is often conFrom the plains connectmg
founded with that of the other.
their feet with the stream-banks, rise detached and mound-like

formscl under

Avater,

knobs, here single, there in groups, now perpendicular to, then

running diagonally from, the bounding Serras in i3laces they
form bluffs, striking the bed at right angles. The material of all
the heights is sandstone, in places revetted with quartz, and con;

we often see the strata
Further down
we sliall find iron in the lowland lumps. The surface of these
taining, according to the people, gold ;

exposed in the precipitous flanks facing the river.

formations is a poor, shrubby growth, chiefly thornv, and here
the giant Cactus, the Acacia, and the Mimosa are kings.

About 3 P.M. we touched at Estrema on the right bank, which,
though high, is swept by great floods here was a whitewashed
house, a few" huts, and various ''timber," post and rail, and
snake-fence.
We had been told that the owner had a goat for
At sunset we
sale
he was absent, and w^e v>'ere disappointed.
;

;

made

hamlet, the Riacho das
The crew was living upon a bit of dried " bacalhao, or

fast to

Canoas.

a coroa, opposite a

salted cod, whilst the fish leaped

they had no bait.

little

and splashed in all dii-ections

Ashamed for them,

I

made

the youth,

Agostinho, arm a hook with a bit of meat, and in a few minutes

we had enough for a day's food. The worst was the Curuvina *
the Matrincham-|" is not bad, and a kind of Pirat bit freely.
Oct. 4.
Sunset and sunrise had both been red, nothing could
be more delightful than the dawn, but we felt that, as in Hindostan, the noon and the afternoon would make us do unlimited
;

—

penance.

The gusts and raffales which blew at times during the

night, fell into a fitful slumber, wliich, however, did not in any

way delude the watchful suspicions of the i:)ilot.

Here the river

itself offers prime

broaden to a

conditions to the breeze

* Gardner writes Curvinlia, ^L Halfeld
has Cariivina.
The fish is aboiit two feet
long when full-grown, scaly, with pale,
The
soft meat, anything but delicious.
head contains a white hone, which is
pounded and administered for various
diseases.

t Grardner writes the word " Matrixam

;

it is one of the Salmonidfe, smaller than
the Douiado, and very common in the

;

it will

seal}', it

grows

to the length of three to four palms,

and is

upper waters.

Yellow and

a favourite food with fishermen,
it is a longt Also called Tamandua
headed fish, v/ith light-blue tinge, about
two feet in length, and tolerably good eatOne variety is the Pira de Couro,
ing.
another the Pira-pitanga (M. Halfeld, Pri;

petinga).
n^iue.

There

is

also a sea-fish of this

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE EEAZIL.

3C4

[chap. xx.

mile and a half, and split into channels, often of equal depth, and

both

filled

with

stranded

trees

and snags.

The river islets

greatly increase in size ; we shall presently pass one about a mile
in breadth, and five miles long.

These formations are mostly
of sand, covered with thin humus, 'green with grass, in ]3laces
cultivated, and bearing tall trees, amongst which the Grao de
Gallo is conspicuous.
After a few minor features,* and a prudent halt at an " espera

"

on the Bahian side, we sighted at the bottom of a ''big bend,"
the Arraial do Bom Jardim.
Tiled huts api)eared on the right
bank, a wave of higher ground offsetting from the Serra iliey lay
some five miles behind or to the east. This range was patched
with green, suggesting that it is better watered than the hills
about Urubu, and the nearer surface appeared as if the bush
had been burnt, or that a cloud was fitfully shading it in patches.
Dark streams and sheets, apparently spread by an eruption,
invade one another, alternate and strive for master}- at last,
puzzled, I ascended a hill side, and found the gloom to be produced by a matted aromatic shrub, with leafless twigs of umberbrown, and growing between stones, set off by the light of golden
;

;

yellow grass.

The left bank oi:>posite Bom Jardim is a lower level, a mass of
tangled forest, cut by many an ypoeira, and nothing but an embanked causeway could render it passable. The bend is fronted
by the western containing ridge, Serra Furada, a tall and regular
line, runnmg north and south here it is some seven miles distant
from the stream, but below only about a league. On the waterside appeared the hamlet, Passagem (do Itahy or Bom Jardim),
with its ruinous chapel, N* S*^ do Bom Successo. Where piles
can be fished out of the stream, no one thinks of planting them
under their floors, and of thus securing ventilation and escape
from the floods.
We landed at the Biacho de Santo "Inofre,"! above the set;

* After one hour

we passed the large
do Saco, and on the left bank,
when the thalweg is to the right, rises the
Fazenda (H., Povoado) do Saco do Militao.
A rugged line in front, apparently on the
PernamLucan, really on the Bahian side,
presently shows peaks and distances, and
in the pure clear air it seemed £o be at no
distance.
Another hour brought us to the

gi'een Ilha

Ilha do Gado Bravo (H., Ilha do Barreiro},

We took the normal
the western channel, and facing to the
north-east, we were compelled to anchor
hy a head wind, which, meeting a current
like a mill-race, produced an angry tide
up.
f In Mr. Keith Johnston the " R. S.
Oncfrio " is marked with dots, and made to
some two miles long.
line,

"

CHAP. XX.]

SEXHOR BOM JESUS DA LAPA TO BOM JARDIM.

tlement.

It rises to the south-east, di'ainmg, with the aid of its

affluent, the Boqueii'ao, the north-western face of the

305

Serras das

Ahnas de Sincora and dos Lencoes ;* the eastern slopes forming
Small canoes ascend it for some leagues,
the great Paraguassu.
during the floods, to the Yargem de N^ S^ da Guia. During the
hot season it is nearly dry, but leats and courses would readily
create reservoii's in the lower levels.

The mouth of the green

jaw is a sandpit, the
right is a stony platform, composed of ferruginous " canga
and pebbly conglomerate, j)asted ^\ith hydrate of iron. In time
the stream swings to it, always
it will become a steamer-pier
avenue

is

about forty feet broad, the left

;

allowing a deep-water approach;

it

flooded for a few days

is

during the year, but a levee higher up would, if necessary,
At present it is used only as a
obviate the inconvenience.

The shallow pits and pot-holes sup"
diamantation " the people, who leave
plied the finest sign of

ground for washing

linen.

;

unworked, declare it to be brought down by an eastern influent,
the Eiacho do Pe da Serra, where they still dig gold.

it

Below the mouth

of the stream Hes the

water froths against pm-e pottery-clay of

little

dull,

arraial.

The

dead white, worn

upper levels it is
mixed with sand. The settlement consists mainly of a smgle
There
line, whose railed backyards extend to the river-brink.
into holes by the tongues

of cattle ;

in the

are scatters of houses inland of this line, including a ranch for
travellers.

The total may be

forty, whereas in

1852

—

4,

there

The people live by
were 300 inhabitants under 103 roofs.
breeding cattle, by agriculture, and by fishing. AVe bought a
three days' provision of the fine Cacunete f for ten coppers
Behind the village lies a sandy plain, about 100 paces
broad, with thin pasture, and showing symptoms of flood.
Beyond it the ground, thickly bushed over, rises high above
At
all inundations, and here ^\t.11 be the site of the settlement.
whose
Guia,
da
church,
N*
S^
present it is occupied by the vicarless
(0 $ 400).

wmdowless front had been freshly whitewashed.
it

faces to the west with southing.

last.

to me

"Paramirim" is the main western drain
corresponding with the Paraguassu to the
VOI„

IT.

A heap of torrent-rolled

The details in the text were supplied
by the people of Bom Jardim, and
therefore are open to doubt,
f A fish with few spines, highly prized,
and sixpposed to be a kind of Suriibim.

come from the western versants, which send
to the Atlantic the Eio das Contas.
* In a map lately published by the concessionees of the Paraguassu Valley line, the

Like the hamlet

X

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

306

[cHAr. xx.

stones (pedras de enxurrada) lay at the wall-foot, and at once

showed

the

origin

of

and the gold.

the diamonds

There

were large pieces of laminated quartzose sandstone, in fact, true

Mostly it was reddish, like a half-burnt brick, exceedingly compact, and streaked and dotted with finely disseminated mica
other specimens were purely Avhite, and their
Itacolumite.

;

coarser texture showed the grain distinctl}^

The formation is

found upon the hilly Geraes, three to six leagues to the northeast of the river's right bank, the strata are often too thick
solid for use ;

it

and

supplies, however, the country-side with the

slabs for flooring massive ovens, and

it

equalled in size those

" Pedras de Furno," which I had seen near
Diamantina.

CamiUinho

of

We were much prepossessed by the general appearance and
the capabilities of the land even the phlegmatic German exclaims, " E esta uma das mais agradaveis paragens a beira do Bio
;

de Sao Francisco."
after the

The people appeared comparatively healthy

wretched palHd faces of Urubii, and even the horses
better bred.
The prospect is charming, and this

seemed
must alwaj^s form a great consideration, when estimating the
future value of a place.
The channel is narrow, compact, and
unencumbered with shoals, while the current is not too rapid
sweeping to north-east, and frequently to north-west, it throws
its main current agamst the bend, whilst the general wind, being
easterly, and blowing over a high and dry country, the evils
which might arise from ypoeiras, bayous, lakes, or lakelets in the
low riverine valley are corrected.
Building-room is endless,
material abounds, and in the vicinity are hills wliich will allow
change of chmate.
Bom Jardim, a name of good augmy, is the only site yet seen
which deserves to become a cit}^, or which can pretend to be the
capital of the long-expected province or territory. In some points,
especially as regards river-navigation, it is better than, in others
it is

inferior to, its rival down-stream,

Chique-Chique.

The posi-

tion is central, about equi-distant from Januaria on the south,

and from Joazeiro to the north.
It is nearly due west of
Sao Salvador, metropolis of the opulent commercial province of
Bahia it is nearly due east of Palma, one of the most important
cities, in agricultural and cattle-breeding Go3^az, where the navigable Paranan or south-eastern branch unites with the Pdo
;

CHAP. XX.]

SEXHOR BOM JESUS DA LAPA TO BOM JARDIM.

Maranliao to form the grand Tocantins.

307

thus connects with
the Atlantic by two roads, more and less dkect.
The water-vv^ay
is

down the Rio de Sao Francisco.

It

The land route is via the

Paraguassu Eiver, which passes by Cachoeu-a city,
I will say nothing about
the steam tramway, which proposes to run along the southern
valley of that stream, as the ground is absolutely unknown to me
line of the

the head of Bahian steam navigation.

beyond

Cachoeii'a.

A glance at the map, however, will show

that this has the advantage of a riverme plain, whereas both the

Pernambucan and the Bahian Anglo-Brazilian main-trunks are
distinctly '' cross-countrj-."
Meanwhile it has been strongly
advocated by Mr. John Morgan, of Bahia, v\dio has had the
advantage of a thii*ty-five j^ears' residence and the works have, I
am told, commenced under ever}^ advantage.
Finally Bom Jardim connects by land and w^ater with that
Brazilian Mediterranean, the Amazons'; and we may safely pre;

dict

for it

high destinies, of which

it

is

at

present naively

unconscious.

X 2

—

CHAPTER XXL
FROM THE ARRAIAL DO BOM JARDIM TO THE VILLA DA BARRA
(DO RIO GRANDE).
Sixth Travessia, 29^ Leagues.

the carnahuba, or wax-palm. — vintens offered to santo antonio.
first sight of the arassua range. the gull-fair. — big cranes.
the toga, or cave of saint anthony. — the thorns. — the villages
OF THE PARA. — THE LEATHER-COAT BIRD AND THE CHAMELEON.
APPROACH TO THE VILLA DA BARRA DO RIO GRANDE, A PROPOSED
CAPITAL.
THE RIO GRANDE AN IMPORTANT INFLUENT.
THE VILLA

—

—

—

—

DESCRIBED.

Onde a natureza
BeUa e virgem se mostra aos olhos do homem
Qual moga Indiana, que as ing-enuas gra9as
Em formoza nudez sem arte ostenta.
{Poesias B. J. da Silva Guimaraes.')

As the wind fell we put off, and presently landed on the right
bank, below Cachoeirinha. At this point a short projection of
stone makes the water dash and murmur, but in no way injures

We broke through the tangled bush and found a
sandy plain between the stream and a knob of thickety sandstone

the thalweg.

hill,

distant about 100 paces.

river-ridge to a hollow

The surface sloped away from the

a water-course during the rains.

mud

must be
All the ledge was cut by paths

paved with flakes of

;

it

leading to the various settlements, cattle grazed the thin grass,

and the sheep besides being fat, were woolly and not hairy.
Amongst the Angicos and the Myrtacese, one of which w^as mistaken by the '' Menino" for a Jaboticabeira, now alas
no more,
!

we observed a white-blossomed bush, much resembling in perfume and physiognomy, English " May." And here we saw for
the first time in situ the beautiful wax-palm known in the Brazil
as Carnahuba (Carnauba), and Carnaiba (Corifa cerifera, Arrud.
Copernicia cerifera. Mart.), the Caroudai of Spanish America.
Its habitat is the riverine land

upon the streams of the Pernam-

—
BOM JARDIM TO VILLA DA BARRA.

CHAP. XXI.]

buco, Parahyba do Norte, Ceara and Piauhy

;

309

during the last

few years it lias been introduced into gardens near the coast.

The Carnahtiba, when first appearing, is a mere bunch of fronds
projecting above the ground. As it advances the trunk is clad
The fronds, as they fall off,
in a complete armour of spikes.
leave their dull brown petioles in whorls or spirals winding round

When not higher than a man the

with or against the sun.

youngster's pith or heart yields, when crushed in water, a fecula

somewhat like tapioca, white as manioc, and useful in times of
drought or famine. At a more adult age it i^uts forth a thin
shaft, smooth, clean, and gTe}', like dove-colom-ed silk, which contrasts strangely with the six feet of corrugated chevaux cle fiise

the magnified thistle

—which protects

year it assumes

full

its

its

base.

After the

fifth

beauty, the cruelly-thorned leaves dis-

tinctly fan-shaped, and with long rays rising

from a spindle which

attains a maximmn of thii'ty-five feet, are peculiarly picturesque

In old specimens the trunk is raised,

after the fashion of palms,

upon a lumpy cone of fibres or aerial rootlets, a foot high. Some
eccentric individuals have narrowings and bulgings of the bole,
others encom'age creepers to form in masses upon the frond-

The

petioles below, and suggest the idea of a tucked petticoat.

and I
have seen instances when the trunk lay upon the ground and the
upturned head was still alive, fighting to the last. It grows to a
great age
people mostly decline to mention the number of its

vitaUt}" of the tree is great,

it

resists the severest droughts,

;

j^ears.

The Carnahuba is justh^ considered, both for man and beast,
the most valuable palm of the Sertao.
roots are used as salsaparilla.

Its gum is edible and the

The mid-rib is rafted down the

worked into strong thread and
The leaves are good food for cattle,* they form excelcordage.
lent thatching, and the fibre is made into "straw-hats," ropes,
and cords, for nets and seines. The fruit is in large drooping
streams for fences, the fibre is

clusters of berries, wliich in places strew the ground.

green the nut resembles a small olive

AVlien

it

ripens to a brilliant

black, and attains the size of a pigeon's egg.

The pulp, boiled to

;

remove its astringenc}', becomes soft like cooked maize it is considered good and wholesome, especially when eaten with milk, and
;

* I have read of, but Lave not
miolho, or pith of the young tree.

seen this

:

the part usually given to cattle

is

the

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

310

animals readily fatten upon

[chap. xxi.

Tlie ripe berry is usually eaten

it.

raw.

The most notable property of tliis palm, according to Koster,
was discovered in 1797, by the Portuguese naturalist. Dr. Manoel
Arruda da Camara;* the latter communicated it to Frei Jozc
Marianno da Conceicao Vellozo, who published an account of it
The leaves of the young tree,
in the ^'Palladio Portuguez."
when two feet long by about the same breadth, are cut and dried
Thej then discharge from the surface pale greyin the shade.
yellow dusty scales, which, melted over the fii-e, become a brown
wax.
Cereous matter is also procured by boiling the unripe
berries,! and chiefly by scraping the central spike, which prolongs
the tree.
The wax occurs mixed with heterogeneous substances,
bark or fibre, and it loses considerably by sifting. The material
the smell has been compared
is tasteless and soft to the touch
;

with that of newly made hay.

Its chief fault is its brittleness ;

this, however, is remedied by mixing with three-parts of vegetable

one-part of animal wax, or l-8tli to 1-lOth of tallow.

Carna-

huba candles are made upon the seaboard but I saw only one
*'
dip " upon the Eio de Sao Francisco, where, a little lower
down, the palm is found in forests. The colour was that of rhubarb, 3'ellow or brown sugar, and the light was not to be com;

pared with the worst " Paraffine."!

Another league placed us at the head of the Illia da Pedra
Grande, the largest jet seen, and where the river contained a
greater breadth of land than of water.

channel, although the

left is

We took the right-hand

marked in the plan

;

perhaps the

crew did not wish to land at the cave of Santo Antonio in a rock

lump (Morro da Imagem de Santo Antonio), near a remarkable
* Pic piiblislied at Bio de Janeiro in 1810
brocliiires, wliicli were analysed by

two

After three weeks it became a
pale yellov/, witb a surface almost wbitc.
plates.

The same change was effected by reducing
thin plates, and dipping them into an

Appendix, vol. ii.
Koster.
+ This also is from books. I do not
believe that the fruit is used to extract

it to

wax.

Made into

X Koster tells us (quoting vol. xxxi. p. 14,
Trans. Philos. Soc. 1811) that the Count of
Valveas (the minister Pombal, Count of
Yciras) sent from Ptio de Janeiro to Lord
Grenville a si^ecimcn of the "carnanbaa"
wax as an article of export, produced betwcen N. lat. 3° 7°.
The brown-yellow
colour of the dust was attacked with weak

tioned wick, it burned uniformly and with
It was found to differ
perfect combustion.
from other species of vegetable wax, such
as that of the M3'rica cerifera, lac and
white lac.
The latest authority upon the
subject of this jmlm ''Notice sur le palmier
Carnauba," was publislied at Paris, 1867,
by Sir M. A. de Macedo, 1 vol. 8vo.

—

nitric acid,

and exposure to air on glas,s

aqueous

solution

of

oxymuriatic

acid,

candles, with proi3erly propor-

BOM JARDIM TO VILLA DA BARRA.

CHAP. XXI.]

buttress, tlie Morro do Picliaim.

311

Tlie}' contented themselves witli

throwing a vintem into the water, reminding me of m}^ Beloch
escort and their slender gift to the hol}^ but angry Shaykh, who

We cheated the
upon the banks of the Pangani River.
sand-bar
below
the Fazenda do
anchoring
upon
a
mosquitos by
lies

Barro Alto, and were regaled with the music of song and drum,
which extended into the smallest hours.
October
site,

5,

1867.

—Appeared in the yellow of dawn a pretty

the Limoeiro Fazenda, backed by the Serrote do Limoeiro,

an assemblage of sandstone heaps and hills, here and there tied
and compacted with ribs and ridges its containing wall vanished
;

From the Fazenda Grande further down, a

to the north-west.

man put off, bringing for sale a neat new saddle, like the Egj'ptian

donkey pad, and priced at 8g000.

At ''the Carahybas" a

boat-load of the last night's revellers greeted us with shots, and

we returned

The hierarchy of the river formerly was

shouts.

established with a certain rigour

pearing before the

''

wliicli,

however, is fast disap-

The canoe

levelling tendencies of the age."

was expected to halt and compliment the raft, by trumpeting or
blowing the conch the raft showed the same deference to the
barque, and the saluted craft passed proudly on without deigning
;

reply.

Shortly before noon, as we passed the islands do Meleu'6 and

do Sabonete, the wind fell to a dead calm

;

all Nature

seemed to

m

front
was cloudless, and the long level
horizon
to a
the
near
showed a silver plate of water narrowing
thread.
Behind lay a charming prospect, strata of golden sand
supporting emerald bush, a warm ruddy buttress flying from the
back-ridge of sandstone, a mound of purple distance, and a iixr
perspective of sky-blue peaks. About noon we opened the Riacho

take a siesta, the

aii'

das Canoas;* this

is

zeii-o,

the half-way house for the pilots of Joa-

as is the Villa da Barra for those of Januaria, and thus the

boats overlap.

showed a brown saddleit was the
back, apparently on the left bank, and quite close
At its foot
Morro do Para, on the right shore, and distant.

The

stream,

now bending

east,

;

* Mr. Keith Jolinston gives tlie ''R.
Canoas," making it Lead near the Puo do
CoiTente to the sonth-^-est.
It is a brook
01 little importance.
At the mouth is
"Passagem," a small well-situated settle-

mcnt on a wave of ground; it lives apparently upon a ferry-raft used by passen ers
and animals, bound to the Bahiaa Diamantine range and to the provinciil
capital.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

312

[chap. xxi.

seemed to nestle the Penedo da Toca, above j^ellow ^Yith dry
The
tufty grass, and below dark, with water-glazed sandstone.
range,
on
the
bounded
broken
blue
Bahian
a
was
by
distance
far
side by a tall ridge with a pyramid peering above it, a central
saddle-back connected by a low wall, with a lion couchant on the
This is our first view of the '' Serra de Arassua."
left.
As we approached the Penedo buttress, the sudden curve made
the stream run swiftly, and form, near the left side, an eddy and
a boil, which the pilots called a " Eemanso." A sand bank to
The larus and the sterna,
the right showed a kind of gull-fair.
essentially wandering and restless birds, ma}' have been trooping
preparatory to a jaunt during the approaching rains.

them the rosy Spoon-bill
forming a flower bed

(Platalia Ajaja)

Amongst

gathered in patches

and the Guara, or red Ibis (Ibis rubra, or

;

Tantalus rubra),* with stiU brighter plume, reminded me of fla-

mingo-companies. Amid the variety of gloomy divers and snowy
herons, large and small, stood aloft the Jaburu (Jabiru),! here
also called

Tuyuyu (or Touyouyou, Mj^cteria americana, Linn.),

about four feet tall, with a bare jet-black head capping its purely
white plume.

It

haunts the banks and sand-bars, where it passes

the time in fishing

;

I

hence the people do not eat it, declaring

We shall often see it

that it tastes of fin as much as of feather.

when it wings its way
flying low enough to be shot down
and

all down-stream, especially in the morning,

in regular triangles,

;

amongst the chatter and the screams of the smaller birds its loud
hoarse voice sounded " like the chaunting of a friar." Mr. Davidson compared it with the sand-hill crane of Florida. § I could
not but remember the " adjutant-bird " of old.

We paddled to the left bank, were swept down-stream by the
eddy, and poled up to the landing place, at the base of the rock.

A rough cross to the east directed us to the " Toca de Santo
* This ibis "was of importance to the
''Indians," who Tised its fine plumes in
There are several kinds,
their full dress.
the white and the green (Tantalus Cayanncnsis), which the Tupys called Grarauna,
blue or dark Ibis, and which was corruirted
to

"Carao."

Mr. Bates (i. 282) mentions the Jaburti-Moleque
(Mycteria americana),
a
powerful bird of the stork family 4 4 feet
•\-

in height.

+ Prince Max (iii. 1-46) heard that it
was a bird of prey which devours other

This the pilots deny.

volatiles.

Lieiit.

Herndon found the Tu^aiyu grey on tlie
Amazons the pair
which he succeeded
'

'

;

in

getting

white."

to

the

United

States

were

He also mentions a " large white

crane, called JaburCi "

(p. 229).
§ Other common species are the white
TantaCourica (Ciconia americana).
lus albicollis, with white and black jjlume,
and loud harsh voice, is mentioned by
The Qarqa, real (ArPisen and Marcgraf.
dea pileata, Lath.) has a black head and a

A

yellow-white coat.

BOM JAEDIM TO VILLA DA BARRA.

CHAP. XXL]

—

now becoming

313

This tunnel,
seven paces long and six feet broad, opens to the south a mouth
The ceiling is pierced with a natural shaft the
eight feet high.

Antonio

lioly

caves are

banal.

;

floor is of dry caked mud, and the liighest water-mark is ten feet
high at the entrance. We found inside a flight of bats, whose

perfume was the reverse of pleasant, and a taper of the usual
brown bees'-wax, curled up like the match of a matchlock, was stuck

up against the wall.
columite,

The formation is a hard, red, laminated Ita-

with dots and particles of mica

;

the dip

is

nearh^

vertical.

Seen from the strfeam in front, this *' jienedo" appears a sharp
roof-ridge of stone, somewhat like a cocked hat, tapering to the
Externally the profile has a strike nearl}^ north and
north-west.
south, and cleavage lines dipping 45°, split by other fissures nearly
"We failed to ascend the eastern wall, which was
at right angles.
worse than precipitous. Where it thins out, however, the slope
is easy.
The summit, 100 feet above the plain, bristled with
slabs serrated and set almost on edge.
The Itacolumite was
striped with broad bands of white quartz, and the junction may
be the bii'th-place of the diamond. The stone would readily have
cooked a beefsteak, yet it sheltered the goatsucker, which rose in
pau*s, flitted past as if thrown from the hand, wheeled suddenly
above gromid, and hid itself nestling a few 3'ards from our feet.
On these rocks also the coney had his refuge. The brown Moco
(Caira rupestris) * peeped out of its home, stared curiously from
side to side, and, scenting danger, sprang back with the action of
the rabbit.
The riverines hunt this animal, and declare the flesh
to be excellent eating.
It is a congener of the tame variety
which, preserving its voice, changed its coat dming the process of
domestication, and deceived the world by calling itself Guinea pig
and Cochon d'lnde.
I was simple enough to ask, when in
Guinea, whether it was at home there.
Santo Antonio has not been so successful with the thorns as
was St. Peter with the frogs. We scraped unpleasant acquaintance
with the Macambira, a Bromelia whose thorns, shaped like a
bantam's spurs, are sharp as awls. The gregarious Quipa Cactus
* It was called Kerodon by ]\I. Fred.
Cuvier, and is mentioned by every traveller
in the Brazilian interior, from Koster to
In the Sierras of Peru
the present day.

Herndon (chap. 4) seems to have
found a dish of stewed Guinea pigs very

Lieut.

good.

—
314

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL,

did its little best to sting.

[chap. xxt.

The ugliest customer of the nettles by far

was the Urticacea which the men here called Cansan9ao bravo
(Loasa rupestris), a poison nettle. The tall stem was garnished
with short sharp bristles which seemed automatons, finding
tlieii* way through the
air.
Worse than an}^ Dolichos, they
penetrated the skin in dozens, caused a violent itching, and
raised an eruption, wdiich disappeared only after su2:)purating.
The only non-spinous tree that grew upon these rocks was a
stunted and silvery Cecropia.
Thus the ancient *' Indians"
found growing together the two shrubs, large nettle and the
sloth-tree, which supplied fibre-thread for their thick, heavy, and
enduring cloths.

The rock top gave a fine view of the glorious river-plain below.
The stream, dotted and patched with islets, made a long sack
from south to east and north. The Morros do Para and da Torrinha, on the right and left, seemed planted to keep

it

in place.

To the north-east the Arassua range displayed its huge folds and
ramps stretched between
earth and cloud.
Between the blocks was a dead level which,
according to some informants, extends as far as the northern
slopes, and far to the south-east giant

breakwater of the great Paraguassu valley.*
liopulous and well cultivated.

It

clumps, bright green clearings,

The riverine plain is

showed the usual features, hut
dark green woods, and yellow

grass, which four several prairie-fires canopied with a long purjDle

awning of smoke.

Once more shooting across the eddy, we reached the elbow
upon whose right bank stands the Povoacao do Para where
" Barboza of the Girls " struck up the '' riUng" ditty
;

Niio me qiierem bem, nao me querem mau

Par^ e longe, nao vou la.

The mouth of the Para-mirim, or, as the pilot called it, Paranamirim,t opened vith a line of green to the south of the settlement,
and formed a sand-patch upon which cattle basked. The houses
of red clay, and ashen grey thatch, set off by a few domes of freshfoliaged trees, ran in lines at the south-western foot of the umbre* The road passes by a town, knov/n as
N. S. do liom Caminlio: despite Avhich, many
informants complained that it was in a
desperately bad state.
t This is the Paramirim which in Mr.

John Morgan's map encloses the Riacho of

Bom Jardim.

According to the people it is
no importance, and certainly the moulh
docs not argue a long course.
of

;

BOM JAllDIM TO VILLA DA BARRA.

cnAP. XXI.]

coloured

315

The next feature was the Morro da Torrhiha, a

liill.

stony ridge begmning at the water-side and forming a double

At the pomt were
This is the Fazenda laid

tongue, the more distant lump being the higher.

taU trees, and above rose broT^ii bush.

out by the Commendador Antonio Mariani, and the ten huts and

houses to the water front are so disposed that the people can fly
from the floods to the knob-top. Passing sundry islands, all more
or less inhabited, we

anchored at night-fall near a low sand-

Our visit disturbed hundreds
of V\'ater-fowl, and again at night we heard a concert of drums

bar below the

Illia

do Timbo.

no want of "jollity" here. Yesterda}",
however, a blind white had begged ahns with the true drone and
whine of the professional '' asker" an event rare enough to be

and voices.

There

is

—

chronicled.
Oct. 6.

—At night, the Yento Geral gave way

to the westerly

land breeze, and the sensation was of unusual cold.

When we

awoke the river had risen some eighteen inches, floating away one
of oiu' paddles, and placing us at some distance from the sandbar.*
These "repignetes," as the barquemen call them, are
swellings and subsidings preliminary to the flood of the year
according to the pilots they occur three or four times in succession.

wmd.

The morning was pleasant, but it showed distinct signs of
As the sun, between G a.:\i. and noon, warms the earth

and water, the cold breeze comes up vdtli puffs, and blows hard
till about 2 p.m., when the equilibrium of the atmosphere is
Then by slow degrees succeeds a calm, which often
restored.
lasts till evening.
Near Remanso we shall have alternately one
of rain.
wind
another
and
day of
Setting out at dawn, we presently sighted, from a distance of
four to five miles, the Serra do Brejo, or western containingit is faced by the
ridge, trending to the west, and bending north
Assaraua, rising like a gigantic insulation, and capped by a high
;

white cloud, like a second storey of island in the light blue sky.

The near banks v\'ere flat, grassy ledges, producing an abundance
The
of the hard, gnarled, and dark-barked Jurema Acacia, f
* ^Ye had, I have said, an anclior with
and this proved of no little use. Grenerally rafts, and even barques, are made fast
us,

and many an accident has
taken place from their breaking loose. The
men work hard, especially if they wish to

to upright poles,

reach a town in time for some fete, a watch
at night is never set, and the craft would
be amongst the rapids before the sleei^ers
would awake.
+ This Acacia vvas first noticed about
Malhada and Carunhanha, where it is sup-

316

THE HIGHLAXDS OF THE BExVZIL.

[cHAr. xxi.

ends with nests two or three
feet long, bags of diy and thorny twigs, opening with a narrow
entrance at the upper end, and comfortably lined with soft grass.
trees were tasselled at tlie branch

Probably, like the clay hut of Joao de Barro, it receives an
annual ''annexe." Here the tenant is called Casaca de Couro,*
or " leather-coat."

We had to battle with the winds and the wavelets, which rose
as by magic ; and off the " Angical " Fazenda the enemy had the

This is a
best of the affair, and kept us at halt for three hours.
large breeding estate in a sack on the right bank, which is sandy
Carnahubas, and Quixabeiras.
From a point a little below this, canoes during the floods make a
Apshort cut across country to the Ypoeira of Chique-Chique.

and produces

fine

Cocoa-nuts,

proaching the Ilha do Camaleao,!

of the Chameleon,

we saw

ahead, the white houses of the settlement, attached to a huge
The northern approach
pile, projecting over the green left bank.
to the Villa da Barra do Rio Grande is by the narrow " Corredeira," or channel, formed near the western side by the long thin

island-ship, the Ilha do Laranjal; to the east is the main line of

the Sao Francisco, a mass of sand-bars and beaches.

The course

across the mouth of the Pdo Grande, which here runs to
the east with northing, and discharges into the Sao Francisco.

is then

jaw pushes out from inundated thickets a clay point
thinly covered with bush, and in the centre there is a shrubby
island. The current at the confluence, where 1200 feet of breadth
rush to meet 6100 feet, strikes heavily upon the Pontal, or projection which faces to the south-east, and separates the two rivers.
The material, fortunately for the town, is a perpendicular bank
Its right

It will
posed to give the finest charcoal.
become more alnmdant as we approach the
The people speak of two
Great Rapids.
Jiirema (alias
the
qualities (species?),
Gerema or Geremma, Acacia Jurema), and
The ample growth of
the Jurema Pesta.
Acacias and Mimosas Angico, barbatuirao
and Inga, combined with the saline soil of
this part of the valley, prove how wellfitted it is for camel-breeding.
* It may be the same as the Gil)ao
de Couro (leather-jacket), a gobemouche
(Musicapa rupestris)
I did not see the
bird.
Prince Max. (iii. 95) described a
similar nest of the Anabatis rufifrons, or
Sylvia rufifrons, with an opening at the
•

:

he found tlie Lird in the upper
and below it a kind of bush-monse

lower end
storey,

:

(Rat des Catingas, IVIus pjTrhorhinns).
t The author of the Caramuru asserts
(vii. 58) that the Camaleao feeds upon wind,
In the Brazil, however, the Chameleon is a
lizard (Lacerta iguana), which changes a
little the colour of the skin, but which
cannot be compared with the true chama3This animal in the wilder parts
leones.
of the Sei'tao is considered to be more delibut the people are
cate than the chicken
not particular, they devour the ounce, the
cayman, the wild cat, the Siriema-bird,
and other strong meats.
;

:

CHAP. XXL]

BOM JARDIM TO VILLA DA BARRA.

317

of hard clay, strengthened with hj'drate of iron, at this season
six feet ahove the water ;

it

extends some leagues down the

side of the Rio de Sao Francisco.

left

From the mildest of heights

we can see the low-lying valley of the Eio Grande winding up
from the south-west, where there is a break in the blue cm'tain
which subtends the plain. It is a flat Delta of dense vegetation,
at least twenty miles across in a bee-line.
These confluence
towns run a double risk, from the main artery and from the
influent; the heavy downfalls of rain are often local deluges,
and thus one stream may do damage when the other is peacefullv
During the last night the Eio Grande rose several
inclined.
the people declared that
inches, when the Sao Francisco fell
they never saw this happen so earh', and began to predict that
water would be wanted when most required.
The town runs from west to east, along the northern bank
of the Pdo Grande,* beginnmg about a mile up-stream, and
:

extending to the " Pontal."

It has a

mean

look, the

houses

and small, with roughly railed courts on the waterside, where the floods prevent building, and sunchy are unfinished, mere tiled roofs without walls.
Here and there, on
the higher levels, is a platform of rough stone and lime brought
from Porto Alegre, six leagues down stream
it supports a
whitewashed back waU or a tenement half-white, half-yellow,
are low

;

set

ofi"

with pea-green shutters.

place of sand and clay, is the
it

The

Porto, t a dirty landing-

common sewer

;

in the mornings

becomes a fish-market, durhig the day seines hang on poles

to dry, children pelt the dogs, the asses, here a " feature," and

the long-legged pigs, ducks and fowls, wander about
* This great influent has heen surveyed
by M. Half eld, who devotes to it three
Well deserving the name, it drains
charts.

the eastern side of the northern di^-iding
The mouth is in (approxirange of (jroyaz.
mately) south lat. 12° 10', and west long.
(Rio) 1° 3'. It is navigable for 45 leagues to
the Villa do Campo Largo, where it is still
its depth is about 4 metres,
350 wide
the cui-rent 0'77 per second, and the discharge about 190 cubic metres, or nearly
double the Seine at Paris.
Bej^ond this
point there are difficulties, but small
"dug-outs" go 20 leagues fiirther to
The Rio Preto, its great northLimoeiro.
western fork, gives a navigable line of 32
;

leagues

rid Santa

Rita to

this is a troublesome journej^

in

com-

Formosa

;

but

From these

lands are exported rice, farinha, maize,
legumes, rapadura, and other proWsions
also made at the Barra do
16 to 18 leagues from the embouchure of the Rio Grande.
The Rio
Preto is the stream whose waters Lieut.
]\Ljraes would throw over the mountains
into the Parnagua Lake. I have alluded to
this wondrous project in Chap. 26.
f I do not understand what M. Halfeld
means by *' este portoparece ser artificial."
It is rare to find an}i;hing more WTetch-

some

salt

is

Boqueirao,

edly natural,

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

318

[chap. xxi.

pany witli lialf-tamecT cranes, white and asli-coloured, and tlie
women wash in company. Water for househokl use must be
here it is dark, foamy, and tainted.
brought from up-stream
A number of canoes and barcas ride at anchor attached to their
poles, and a favourite conveyance appears to be the ''balsa,"
:

or raft of

''

Burity " fronds.

The long bundles are lashed to-

gether in live or six places, and are kept in position by crosspieces ; they rise about one foot above water, and, being elastic,

they are less likely to be injured by shoals and rapids. They
carry down the river huge " pipas," or. hides full of grain, and
similar

"trem:"

at

their destination they are

broken up to

make posts and rails, which are tolerably durable.
This is a great '' festa," the peculiar day of the Padroeii'o,
As w^e approached
or patron saint, " S. Francisco das Chagas."
the town, we saw the F. F. in accurate black, riding small
horses and smaller mules, along the unclean Praia to join in
the

office.

The rest of the crowd was in hats of sorts, cliimney-

and in brown or white cotton clothes.
There was the usual grotesque old negro, wearing a caped cloak
of the thickest blue broadcloth, in an atmosphere of 98° (F.).
The women are all in church till the ceremony ends, and the

pot, Burity- straw, or

felt,

men cluster at the door lilve a swarm of bees.
''function" ended with a discharge

broad daylight
comfort.

of fireworks

Presently the

— was
it

still

—which seemed to administer much

spiiitual

A procession issued to perambulate the streets, and

the dignitaries, by their red and white " opas," or short cloaks,

caused no

little

sensation.

dressed

Girls

in

the

brightest

coloured stufts, and small youths in the lightest of clothing,
and very little of it, charged wildly about the place, dodging
round the corners to " catch another sight." I visited in the
evening the little chapel of Bom Jesus, vdiich has stumps where

towers should be

— a man in uniform without epaulettes. The

showed me that the feminine element predominated the principal duty seemed to be to
kneel down before a table, and to kiss the Saint's very diminutive feet the principalest to deposit a few coppers upon
an adjoining table.
The night showed not a few of the
scenes which one expects to see at a commercial port on festal
illumination was not brilliant, but
:

—

occasions.

it

"

CHAP. XXI.]

BOM JARDIM TO VILLA DA BARRA.

319

M. Halfeld speaks with enthusiasm of the townspeople.* I
found them civil and courteous, as indeed is the rule of the Brazil,
but the Bahiano did not sliine after the Paulista, or the Mineu'o.
My letter of introduction to the Lieut.-Col. Joaquim Francisco
Guerreu'o was not followed by any results on the other hand,
the Lieut.-Col. Carlos Mariani, the grandson of a Corsican who
had emigrated to the Brazil, " in the days of the Genoese Re;

public," came at once to see me, led me to his house, and showed

me all his curiosities.

He had octahedral pieces of magnetic

(ferragem), which is found scattered about the fazendolas

ii'on

and on the Vareda do Curral das Egoas, beyond
His rock crystals came from an
the western containing-ridge.
eastern Serrote wdiilst the Tauatinga Range and Natividade in
(little estates),

;

the Tocantins Yalley supplied red sandstone vnih attachments of
quartz, showing at the junction regular lines of free gold, and
diffused traces of copper.

He informed me that a wandering

German had lately been robbed of some opals, which are

sup-

posed to be found near the Villa de Sao Domingos, en route to
Cuj^aba in Mato Grosso.
I spent the main of my time wandering about the town, and
Beginning at the east and
trying to detect its latent merits.
walking round by the north, we find that the site is a great
Varzea, or river plain, raised 18 to 20 feet onty above the low
The land immediately behind the town
level of the stream.
is flooded six feet,

and even more

;

to the north there is a large

swamp-bed, which has its own (h'ain to the east. Many of the
houses in this du'ection show a water mark of 3 to 4 feet in
height ; and some have smik twenty-four to thii'ty-six inches into
It is probable, however,
their sopped and sandy foundations.
that this may be accounted for by the deposit of the inundation
the Mississippi, in some places, leaves annually a coat of mud and
sand two or three feet thick. On the north-west is a whitewashed
;

and beyond it another of clay. In this part also is
the Tezosinho (little rise) da Conceicao, a '' Retu'o," where the
townspeople huddle together when then' houses are under water
it is the resisting bluff which prevents the plain being swept

cemeter}^,

;

*

'

Tlie noble and loyal character of the
inhabitants of the Villa da Barra, especially the higher classes, evinces,
in all
'

their acts, civil

and

religious,

cordiality.

gentlemanly politeness, and in
extreme delicacy of manners
which rivals the most civilised Coui-ts.

the most

social life an

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

320

away.

Here

At the west end we find the
is

the tip- over, the

''

[chap. xxi.

origin of all these evils.

transbordamento," where the waters

Grande enter, form an Ypoeira, and, with the assistThe
ance of the swamp, convert the site into an island.*
and
the
bayou-head can hardly be embanked, it is too broad
soil is too loose and silty to form a levee. Lime being expensive,
clay is used in its stead, and the deep holes dug for this material
of the Rio

form, under a sun that burns at

marsh disease.

6' 30 a.m.,

another fomenter of

The only remedy is to remove to a better place,

but the question is where to find it.
The town is in the usual long narrow form, with

silty

and

sandy thoroughfares, all bearing names, none boasting paveBehind, or north of Water Street, is the Paia do
ments.
Santissimo behind it the Rua do Rosario has at the west end
a Praca, a huge cross, and a two-windowed ground-floor chapel
still northwards is the Rua do Amparo, a wild suburb, and
;

These long lines are connected as
beyond it the " Retiro."
streets.
There are a few sobrados
cross
usual by Travessas or
and meio-sobrados, fronted by the usual bits of brick-edge trottoir,
and proudly displaying glass windows. Most of the houses are
many, even
small, with large projecting eaves under-boarded
in the highest parts, appear half interred. There are a few shoi)S
of dry goods, and a photographic establishment, which sells
cartes de visite at the rate of 8 $000 per dozen; a butchery supplies tolerable meat, and a host of Vendas sell spirits and rapadura, onions and garlic.
The nucleus of the settlement is about the Largo da Matriz.
The people determined to show their spirit by building to Sao
Such things
Francisco a church of the grandest description.
;

begin vigorously in the Brazil.

The

Provincial

Government

£2400.
Bahia was applied to for a plan and an architect the person
chosen was a German, Herr Heinrich Jahn, who brought with
him his family. The first stone was laid on Oct. 4, 1859. The
building is, or rather will be, 100 feet long by fifty broad,
gave £'400,

which

alms

and

contributions

raised

to

;

double towered and with a clerestorv.

* Since the

little deluge of 1792 the
has often been threatened with destruction, especially in 1802, 1812, and
1838.
In 1857 the Villa da BaiTa escaped
to^vll

The material is

better than Januaria;
as Uriibu,

brick

the latter, as well

was not so fiercely visited as the

former in 1865.

—
BOM JAEDlM TO VILLA DA BARE A.

CHAP. XXI.]

321

and lime upon a foundation of ashlar. The front has the usual
three entrances and five windows, and the graded pediment has
introduced a little change into the popular monotony of facade.
In the interior part}" walls set off two sacristies, which seriously
diminish the space. At present all is scaffolded with Carnahuba
The whole
palms, and the works are stopped by lack of funds.
affair is out of place and size, and the Villa da Barra looks like
an annexe to its Matriz.
On the south-east of the church square is a detached Casa
da Camara, with a bell and six windows above, and a grating
which shows the jail below. At times the floods have rendered
it

necessary to

save

appeared, like the rest of the people,

need

The prisoners

the arcliives in canoes.

never sing with the

starling,

and here they

''jolly,"

"I can't get

The

out."

of one sergeant

military force, paid by the Province, consists

and ten men, whose duties seem principally to sound the bugle.
The sentinel at the door leans against the wall he has neither
collar nor shoes, his only weapon is a bayonet, and he much
reminded me of the items which composed a certam corps on
;

the Gold Coast, now disbanded.

The last of the public buildThe Government assisted
with funds a Brotherhood, which subscribed 1$000 each per
mensem, and contmued to do so for a short time. The house
ings

is the

Hospital de Sao Pedi'o.

still remains, but the

inmates are at most two, and the good work

may be said vii'tually to have been dropped.
The Villa da Barra

—
—

dates from 1753

Its municii^ality

4.

There is only one freguezia
Siio Francisco das Chagas,
In 1852 54, the houses in the
town numbered 660 and the population 4000 neither had incontains 10,000 to 12,000 souls.

;

connection with the

seaboard

very

creased in

1867.

imperfect.

The road to the cit}" of Lencoes (sixty leagues, each

Its

is

—

mere '' picada " in 1855 -a line of river
The
fords, muds, and mountains barely passable, but passable.
best road to Baliia is through the old town of Jacobina (seventyIt is described to rmi over
five leagues), a long leg to the east.
of 3000 bracas), was a

a plain -s^dth three ''jornadas" or stages of twelve to fourteen

leagues

each, waterless

during the dries

;

the mule troopers,

however, accomplish each one in the twenty-four hours

comes the Serra do Tombador, leading

;

then

to

the town, a stony

ladeira or ascent, for which, however, the

mules are unshod,

VOL. II.

Y

—

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

322

[chap. xxi.

and lastly from Jacobina to Caclioeira City all is comparatively
level.

Tlie people of the Villa da Barra breed cattle and a few mules ;
their chief occupation, however, is the carrying trade,* and, like

the West African seaports, they act as brokers between strangers

We are now on the outskirts of

and the people of the interior.
the

great

salt

formations, which, however, d^es not prevent

the condunent being imported from the coast via Joazeiro.

by water

saline matter is deposited

The

chiefly in the vicinity of

streams, and rock salt (sal gemma) has not 3'et been found.

We

visited further down several places where salt had been ''planted,"

with the view of making it
The " Salineiros " collect and

that is to say, mixed with the

spread and, as

it

soil,

were, breed.

make it between the months of July and October.

It is treated

bangues (coffers or hides), evaporated
over the fire, and allowed to crystalUze.
Sometimes it is exposed
in " coclies " or huge troughs to solar action onl}^ and this
simple operation would pay better if done on a grand scale.
What it chiefly requires is purification, and the separation of
the other salts, magnesia, for instance, which are equally disagreeable and deleterious.
Some of it is white and fuie like
sea salt; often, however, it is bitter and brown (amargoso e
trigueiro), fit only for beasts.
Finally it is packed for exjiorta-

like salt]oetre, strained in

tion in hide-bags called Surroes (Surons). f

The Villa da Barra do Pdo Grande has a high and unmerited
reputation.
I soon found how it had risen to fame.
The
Mineiros wish to see Januaria the capital of the new Province.
The Bahianos prefer Carunhanha on the Villa da Barra, and
the cause of the latter has been ably esjooused by the ex-Minister

and Senator, Joao Mauricio Vanderley, the Baron of Cotigipe.
"'^

my purcliaso« will bIioW tlie prices then current at the Villa

The following list of

da Barra

:

1 Gf-arafao (4 bottles) of coxintry riilti

2 lbs. salt
10 lbs. beef
16 Ibft. lard
10 lbs. rice

0$500

,

......
,..,..,
.

,

.

,

1 string (resta) onion.-r
j^

.

"

.

,

quarter of fariuha

=

,

,

,

,

Total

T The nicufciurc vavies everywhere

;

,

.

,

.

,

7$ 130

hero tJic tSurro«3 is of 21 piato.s, say 50 lbs

CHAP. XXI.]

BOM JAEDIM TO VILLA DA BARE A.

This influential Conservative
a

filial

regard for

its

is

323

a ''son" of the place, and has

prosperit3\

My conviction is that the

Villa is one of the worst sites that I have yet seen, and that it
is fitted

Chique.

only to be a port or outpost for Bom Jardim or Chique-

—

;

CHAPTEE XXII.
FROM THE VILLA DA BAREA (DO RIO GRANDE) TO THE
VILLA OF PILAO ARCADO.
Seventh Tkavessia, 29 Leagues,

—

the sand-dunes.
complicated approach to chique-chique.— the settlement described. the xique-xique cactus.
good mutton.
hire animals to visit the diamond diggings. — the old freedman.
the trees and birds. breeding fazendas. the grove of carnahtjba palms. — lakes. ascent of hills. the servlgo or diamonddigging " do pintorsinho." the village of santo ignacio. origin
of the diggings, and other peculiarities. return-ride to chiquechique.— resume navigation. the portals.
the storms.— reach

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

PILAO ARCADO.
" Ce beau pays pent se passer de runivers entier."

Voltaire.

We did not pass a pleasant night.

The air during the early
Then the cold land-wind set
At first a long monotonous song made the hours unpleasant

hours was still and sultry (82° F.).
in.

afterwards came the lively splashing of Piranha, the '' devil-fish,"

and the muffled growl of the stream, which seemed to be mischievously inchned.

Below the Yilla da Barra the Sao Francisco broadens, the contaming ridges retreat, and the riverine valley is a dead flat. The
heat greatly increases, altliough the channel trends between north

and north-east, the direction of the Yento Geral. Boats must
sometimes remain embayed for days near the low ragged sandbars, and the crews congratulate themselves on having a dozen
clear working hours.
Accidents are so common that there is
hardly a boatman who hereabouts has not been wrecked at least
Suddenly, in the clearest atmosphere, the breeze dashes
down upon the wide surface, the waves rise, and the canoe or raft

once.

swamped. The greatest care is given to observing the premonitory symptoms, especially the '' redemoinhos," columns of sand

is

sixty to seventy feet liigh, which career whirling over the plain.

CHAP. xxiT.]

"

f

VILLA DA BARE A TO PTLAO ARC ADO.

323

Boats creep along the windward or sheltered bank and make ready
for the refuge -place before the ''yendaval" or squall bursts.

We could not set off before 9*30 a.m.

The vnnd began early.

The first league showed on the right a blind channel, the ^' Ypoeira funda," which, dining the floods, gives direct

with Chique-Chique.

communication

A little beyond Cajaseu-a* of the Capitiio

Jose Vicente is another bayou also impassable at this season, conThese should be carefulty
verging to its southern neighbour.

The narroY\' opening, made practicable to admit craft

examined.

at all times, would greatly assist navigation to

main

relieve the latter place of its

Chique-Chique, and

difficulty,

direct

approach.

The channel, it is said, would be easily managed. We shall preOn
sently skii't it when riding inland from Chique-Chique.
the other hand it must be taken into consideration whether such
opening will not throw the thalweg to the right and greatly increase
the amount of flooding.
Fazendas and fazendolas were scattered
in all directions over both banks.

We landed on the right side to

examine a place reported to contain limestone. It proved to be a
mere " barreii'o." After we had passed sundry cultivated spots,
and Carnahuba groves standing up like huge palings, the furious
wind compelled us to anchor at the head of a little sand-bar, the
Ilha do Mocambo do Yento. This " Maroon village of the wind,"
an ill-omened and appropriate name, is considered one of the
worst places.
The channel bends to the east and the south-east.
The bed is unusually broad, and the stream flows in the teeth of
the Trade.
Upon the Coroa we found diamantme crystals, and a
scatter of acary, the armom'-plated fish, had been thrown awa}^
from the seines. The spiny outer sldn had been mummified, and
the attitude was still that of the death-throe.

Tuesday,

Oct.

8,

1867.

— The wind,

after

a

fierce

struggle

through the night, made a feint of falling. It rose, however, with
the sun and filmed over the Coroa with a gauze of sand which
reminded me of the Arabian ^ilds. Even at 1 p.m., when we set
The left bank was dotted with small
out, advance was difficult.
detached hills, and between Ai'eia branca and Hycatu| we entered

Burseracea resembling the Imbu or Imbu-

The Arraial do
near a fine wooded rise of
Camabuba and Caatinga on the left, and

zeiro.

so forth.

* Probably
dias

from Acaya or Acaja (Spon-

vemilosa,

in

Tupy

ybametara),

a

with red
milho hanging to dry upon a Yarao, or

t Sambahiba,

a

little

village

tliree-poled
Poi-to

gallo-v\-s.

Alegre,

X 'i'he '' good water.

—
THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

326

[chap. xxii.

a land of ^'lencoes," or shrouds, as they were called b}'- the old

Portuguese explorers.

Sheets and heaps of the whitest sand, the

degradation of Itacolumite, glittered in the sun, Hke the patches
that

lie

about Diamantina.

Here and there it was dotted with

black points, dark green tufty shrubs, which at times the mirage

In parts the substance becomes yellow,
and resembles even more the low dunes lining an ocean shore.
The underl}ing rock is probably limestone, and the formation
will extend for many leagues dowai stream, especially on the left.
Nothing could be more picturesque than this bit of the Sahara,
especially when backed by a gloomy pall in the northern sky
here a sign of wind, not of rain and when fronted by the steely
stream, damascened by the golden glories of the setting sun.
The main channel runs far to the north-west of Chique-Chique,
and there was not water enough to float us over the direct line,
about two miles long, passing to the south of the Illias do Gado *
and do Miradouro. We were therefore compelled to skirt the
whole western shore of the latter, which in length is at least seven
miles, with four miles of extreme breadth.
At its north-eastern
converted into tall forests.

—

extremity the navigable channel, a continuation of the blind
Ypoeira, doubles back to the south-west in order to reach Chique-

Chique.

It is at least eight miles long, not including the

nume-

This is the ''Barra da Picada," so called from a
small place at its mouth.
There is yet another passage, at times

rous windings.

practicable, between the main stream and the Ypoeii'a, the "Barra

da Esperanca," which passes between the smaller lUia do Gado
and the Miradouro. This portion of the Sao Francisco is exceedingly complicated, and the network of channels can hardly be
understood without a map.
The great artery widens to upwards of a mile, and is marked
by sno\\y sand-heaps, set in the darkest verdure, opposite the
mouth of the Barra da Picada. This channel begins with a
breadth of 500 feet between terra firma and the Miradouro, which,
at its north-eastern extremity, fines off to a

swampy point, the

Ponta da Ilha. It presently narrows to 200 and 150 feet, and
where it joins the Ypoeira to the north-east of Chique-Chique it
* Tills is the lesser ''Illia do Gado," to
thc west of the great Miradouro Island.
The larger "Ilha do Grado" is the space
included between the blind Ypoeira and

tlie main

channel

douro, and
floods.

it is

it is south of the Mirainsulated only during the
:

CHAP. XXII.]

VILLA DA BAREA TO PILAO ARCADO.

widens out to 700 j^ards.

bend" to the west.

327

At first it makes a long " liorseslioe-

After that

its

course

is direct.

The depth

will admit boats at all seasons, and the breadth is hardly sufficient

to allow waves

to

form.

Its tranquillity, especially enjoyable

after the roughness of the great river, reminded me of those West

African lagoons which subtend the shores of the boisterous sea,

and wliich aid so much the loading of slave ships. The low banks
on both sides, the dense bush, at times broken b}'' a bare talus, and
the little patches of spinach-green fields with their rough fencing,
vividly brought to mind the features of Dahoman AVhydah.

We passed a few tiled huts on the proper right bank of this
quiet channel, and the whitewashed chapel and hamlet of Santa

Anna do Mii'adouro* on the eastern margin of its islet. We then
entered the broadening mouth of the Ypoeira at tliis season a

—

backwater, and found a safe anchorage where the gusty north-

wind can do little damage. At the port were a number of canoes
belonging to fishermen and melon vendors. A barca had been
stranded, and another was being caulked upon the beach. Above
us rose the town, which was not less ''jolly" tlian its neighboui's.
Drum and song, dance, laughter, and shouts of applause, prolonged till dawn, showed that, despite the absence of festival, the
*' folia" was not wanting.
The next day opened so badly with the wind-clouds that I
determined to rest the crew, and to indulge myself in a short "sisit
to the nearest diamond washings. We began by inspecting ChiqueChique. The "porto" along the eastern bank is formed by a
natm'al pier, a dwarf cliff, at this season some four feet above
water.

The material is a silicate of white-grey lime, in places

granulated Avitli iron stone and puddinged with large and fuiely

and a considerable proThis
portion of clay,t it will make the best hydraulic cement.
and the Lapa are the principal lime quarries. Chique-Chique
annually sends up and down stream, between the Axilla da Barra
and Joazeii'o, 1500 to 2000 alqueu'es. On the beach were canoes
Horses were being groomed by
full of the finest water-melons.
the usual process of dashing water upon them from a large caladisseminated quartz.

Containing

silica

" S.

15 per cent, of

argile, tlie good,

Anna de Miradonro " is made a small town

in those which

make the best cement the

upon the eastern hank

proportion rises to 25

* In

jMr.

Keith Jolmston'.s
of the

map

Sao Fran-

Cisco.

f Ordinary hydraulic limestone contains

cent.

IG

;

and

and even 30 per

THE HKTHLANDS OF THE BEAZli:.

328

[vu\i\ xxii.

Lads in naturalibus were preparing to batlie, and waslierwomen and carpenters plied their trades. Spoonbills (platyrhynchus) stalked amongst the dug-outs, which had brought for sale an
abundance of fish. The birds were not improved by civihzation,
and their delicate pink plumage had turned grey with mud.
Ui)on the bank-top we found a large space open to the stream,
with a central cross suj)ported by a heap of stones. At the bottom,
facing to the west-north-west, is the Chapel of N. S. Bom Jesus
do Bomfim.* It is a poor, mean pile of brick and lime upon a
stone foundation. The usual preposterous front was four windows,
and no belfty-towers. The interior, anciently a burial ground,
disj)lays a blue and gold high altar, with frescoed ceiling, and two
side-chapels wdiere swallows had nested. The walls show a single
miracle paj)er, dated 1804, and the congregation consisted of three
old women, two in uniform black, the third girt with the white
cord of St. Francis.
The town extends on both sides and behmd
bash.

.

The tenements near
the creek show a water-mark two feet high.
They can easily be
raised upon platforms.
The floods do not extend to the higher

the church, thus forming a truncated cross.

parts, and the people boast with justice that their

''assento," or

The heavier rains begin to fall
in October, and continue with breaks till May.
The inundation
lasts five months, from November to April.
Already there is a
site, is the

best upon the river.

freshet of six palms, and the indirectness of the water-course here

makes a rise of one foot to four or five in the true Siio Francisco.
There is some excitement in visiting and describing these
places, now the most WTetched of '' rancheries," but destined to
become the centres of mighty States. Chique-Chique runs nearly
north and south

;

as usual the long straight streets are parallel

with the creek, and here they are almost sufficiently broad.

Pave-

ment is as yet unknown, but scatters of ironstone upon the hard
ground render dust and mud equally impossible.

A triangular

"square," south-east of the clmrch, surrounds a detaclied Camara-

wooden

cum-jail,

and the iron-bars of the

frames.

Farther to the east tliere is a neat, whitewashed ceme-

tery, with incipient catacombs.

latter are

fixed into

One Casa Nobre, Avith a balconj^

of quaintly jjainted wooden railings, and a few half-sobrados, have

been

built.

The rest are ground-floor tenements, eacli witli its
* N'^ S» <lo Boviifim (M. Halfeld).

VILLA DA BAERA TO PILAO ARCADO.

lHap. xxiT.l

329

and little "hanging-garden" of geranium, basil,
and lavender (alfazema),* of onions and choice vegetables the
latter is mostly a trough or a bit of canoe, raised on poles be3'ond
The tenements may number 180,
the reach of ants and pigs.
but many of them are opened only on fete-days, vvhen 1500 souls

large compound

;

find lodgings.

The country behind the tovai is a field of various Cactaceae, which
form contrasts. The dwarf of the family is the Quipa, with its
large crimson fig, so much enjoyed by the parrot (Psittacus cacAnother pigmy is a bulb
torum) that the beak is stained red.
nearly a foot in diameter (]\Ielocactus, or Echmocactus), ribbed

and guarded at the angles by terrible thorns upon
the top is an inflorescence, lilve a Turkish fez, and the people knovv^
Horses learn to like the
it as the friar's head (cabeca de frade).
soft spongy substance, which the plant takes so much care to
it keeps them in condition, and they fetch a higher
preserve

like a melon,

;

;

The i^eople

price than those who refuse it.

declare that riding

animals and black cattle learn to open the armed exterior by

There is the common flat Opuntia and
"
hedges, and gives its
Xique-Xique," + which is planted
the
striking it with the hoof.

m

name to the settlement.

According to M. Halfeld, this is a kind

of cactus which, roasted and peeled, has the taste of a batata or

The almost general word is differently used in the
Here it is applied especially to a tall " Organseveral i^laces.

sweet potato.

Cactus," which is almost a tree
in j^outli

it

The shape

is

many-sided, and

also

ground, there

;

it

varies ;

stands

here
stiffly

the angles vary with its years,

ahnost cylindrical.

it

ends

life

it

runs

serpent-like

upright.

white flower resembling wax-work;

along the

One kmd has a fleshy

another (C. mamillaris)

is

patched with white fleece, as though it had robbed a sheep, and
almost conceals its dark-red blossom. AVe shall meet ^nth other

forms further down the Sao Francisco.
I was surprised to see about a place so rich in Cactus, goats so
small and stmited, whilst here were the finest shee^) of the Brazil,

and mutton

is

justly preferred

to beef.

Hardly an}" pasture,

except thorns, was upon the ground, yet a perfect assimilation of

* The women are fond of these perfumed herbs, and ornament their hair with
the flowei-s.

f Gardner writes Shuke-Shuke, as the

word is pronounced. T have prefen-ed the
form " Chiqiie-Chiqiie " for the settlement,

" Xique-Xique "

for

the plant;

but the

distinction is not recognised by the people.

"

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

330

[chap. xxii.

Somali countiy and on the Western Praii'ies of
North America, kept the animals in the highest condition. The
lambs wore a thick fleece, which disappears from the adult some

food, as in

tlie

;

are white, others are brown, all are thin-tailed, and not a few are

No trouble is taken to breed them

bearded.
ever,

;

the owners, how-

have sense to pen at night the flocks, numbering thirty to

fort3\*

The usual price is 2 $ 000, or 3 $ 000 when the animal is

A^erv fat.

Horses, small but hardy, and with signs of blood, cost

60 $000; good riding mules, which make Jacobina (sixty short
leagues,) in four days, rise to

SOgOOO or 100$ 000.

The cattle

neat and sleek, apparently untroubled with ticks or " bernes."

is

Besides stock-raising the country supplies, every year, 1000 to

2000 alqueires of salt to the Upper Siio Francisco manioc planted
after and taken up before the rains, gives good farinha
maize
and excellent tobacco are brought from the Assurua Eange.
;

;

The people boast that their land is one of the richest, if not the
richest near the river ;
salt,

it

produces gold and diamonds, fish and

and the wax-palm grows in vast forests.

After some trouble about conveyance I hired for 3 $000 each,
a horse and a mule, with the owner as guide.

Cyriaco Ferreira

was a tall, thin, old black, with a preposterous masticatory apparatus, and a scanty, scowling brow.
He consulted me shamelessly in the presence of his wife concerning a certain *' Gallica ;

here even white

were a

^'

men talk about it before their families as if it

cold in the head."

The frequent mutilations which

now begin to meet the eye doubtless proceed from the use, or
rather the abuse of mercurials, to which are added the ignorance

and the recklessness of the patient, who, even when the facial
bones are attacked, will drink spirits and take snuff.
Our negro had been a good man and true as a slave a false
idea of charity had emancipated him, and with freedom appeared
;

all the evils

of his race.

Fawning as a spaniel to those who knew

his origin, he was surly as a mastiff to us ; recalcitrant as a mule,

he would loiter when we wished to advance he " trod upon our
toes" at all opportunities, and with the real servile style he pro;

ceeded to give his orders. Travellers who have even a constitutional aversion to a " row," are forced into it at times.
When it
thrust

is
*

The

seen here,

upon one the only way is "to go into it," tooth and

]>rnzilian variety,

called on tlic Amnzoiis

"sheep

of

five

rinarters,"

was not

CHAP. XXII.]

VILLA DA BARRA TO PILAO ARCADO.

831

This was done a few rough words, and clearing decks for
action, soon brought back the old slave, but at times it jdelded to
a passionate outburst of the new freedman.

nail.

;

Riding down the Paia das Flores, we struck out into the open
country, towards a long blue rock with a table-top summit, southThis Serra do Pintor ^Y\U. be conspicuous
east of the settlement.
for several da^-^s do^ai stream

;

it

appears a frustum of a cone, a

second distance rising above a long sloping ridge. Cotton of
and the district
smaller than usual size grew in the suburbs
;

be^^ond it, the Praia Grande, was clay strewed T\ith iron pyrites,

which unless neutralized by underlying lime, must produce inOur path lay along the left bank of the
jurious sulphuric acid.
great Ypoeira Funda, which bulging out forms a lake round a

Higher up the bed, it sends to the southeast a canal or navigable arm, which we shall presently sight.
The Fazenda da Prainha was built upon the most unfertile soil,
which produced only dwarf thorns
attached, however, to the
ranch was a large stockade of palm-trunks, and wandering about
the fold were the fattest of sheep. Few j)eople were on the road,
all were armed, and most of them were talking about a late murder
in three acts
a chinking bout, a stab, and a shot.
An old prol^rietor rode b}^ ^ith two immensely long pistols projecting far
above his holsters, and the attendant slave followed with a gun
slung over his shoulders.
A typical sight was a woman on
foot and a man on horseback carrying the bab3\
The tropeiros

wooded central islet.

;

—

here,

however, we are getting into the

countr}^ of the pack-bullock.

These men boast that they travel

mostly drove horses
all

;

day, not only till noon, like the muleteers of the Southern

Provinces, and that thus they cover an

almost

all

umber of leagues.

But

were mounted upon pads supported by two broacas,*

and grain
moreover the leagues are
short, and it is easy to walk over two in an hour and a half.
My companion could not travel ^^dthout wanting to diink water,
which greatly amused the Brazilians.
For this pm'pose we
halted at the Fazenda de Suassica, one of the many breeding
establishments tiled huts, ranches, and large folds
scattered
wliicli

carried their salt

—

at short distances.

prietor,

;

—

Two youths, the sons of a neighbouring pro-

who "^ith half

a

dozen wliitey-brown lookers on were

* These square saddle-bags, witlx the hair outside, are now generally known as "Snrroes
de Couro."

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BT.AZlh.

332

[chav. xxii.

playing dominoes in a clay room limig witli hammocks, came to

When coffee was finished

the door and asked us to dismomit.

came the usual queiy, 'Tois, que trouxerao de negocio?" The
inevitable repl}'' puzzled every brain
they must have thought
"
that they had entertained unawares
diabos " government men
on no angelic errand but they preserved their courtesy to the
last, and held our stirrups when we remounted.
Beyond Suassica the land became a deep sand of ruddy colour,
and presently passed, as the house-walls showed, into a blood-red
clay
it was scattered with lime, and it is doubtless exceedingly
;

—

—

;

The Favelleiro (arboreous Jatropha,) stunted near Chique-Chique, is here a tall and goodly tree. The thorny Mimosas
and Acacias are hung with golden and silver blossoms, and the
fertile.

charming Imbuzeii^o perfumes the air.

Here the growth is lo^\',

di'ooping its flower-laden branches almost to the ground, and forming
a shady bower, like the wild figs on the banks of the Lower Congo

Eiver.

Many trees have the smooth barks and straight spindles of

the Myrtacese, especially the Pao branco, which sui^plies the hardest

wood; they contrast curiously with the gnarled Imburana* (Bursera leptophlocos. Mart.), whose bole is hung with burnished yellow
rags, the peeling off of the cuticle that exposes the green-blue
cutis beneath.

This tree 34elds a greenish-yellow gum or balsam,

resembling turpentine, and the scent is a favourite with the wild
bee, as is proved

by the many places cut away by the hatchet to

reach the combs.

These

strips

of forest

support,

chiefly

on the

a

outskirts,

Plovers coiu'se across the opens, large green

variet}^ of birds.

paroquets rise screaming from the boughs, and Ardras of the
usual two

si^ecies,

the red and the black, appear to us for the

The " Encontro branco," or large blue
and white winged pigeon of Diamantina, here called " Pomba

first time in a wild

state.

Verdadeira," is a visitant from the hills;
Itacolumite formations.

The

''

it

aj^parently prefers

Alma de Gato," a large, light-

brown Coprophagus (?), seeks lizards and such small cheer.
the topmost twigs,

especially of the shrubs, balances

On

itself

a

snow-white bird with black wing-feathers, probably a Muscicapa

we see it now for the fu'st time.

High in air wheels the Urubu

* St. Hil. (I. ii. 105) explains Imburana by the Gruarani "ibiranae," meaning

" -rana " in the Lingua Geral, equivalent to
the Tortuguese "bravo" or " bravio,"

baiil, sdbille, tirvir.

means poisonous.

But tlie tcrminatiou

)

CHAP. XXII.]

VILLA DA BARE A TO PILAO ARCADO.

333

head and silver-lined

Cacaclor, or liiinting viiltui-e, with crimson
Avings.

AYe rode slowly through this interesting tract of wood, and

hedges of
present^ we came upon a bit of African scenery
"
were about
Cactus fencmg a large field, whose " black jacks
This is the Fazenda do Saco dos Bois, with
three years old.
the little chapel of X"" S"* do Amparo, and a scatter of huts,
;

inhabited by the proprietors in partner slnp.
received by

a

We were civilly

man who was lying stratus in umbra, under a

and now blossoming Jua.*
The site is high
ground, never mundated, although within a few yards of the
" Canal," the south-eastern arm of the Ypoeha, which we passed
The back water was then flowing
near the Fazenda da Prainha.
up it toAvards the Assurua lakelet, which it floods during the
rains, and drams during the dries
it was covered with waterfowl, but the fluid was so muddy and impure that our beasts
refused tc touch it.
The civil agriculturist, peasant I cannot

thickly

leaved

;

the hills, former^ blue
and we could distinguish slips of white
rock and patches of sun-burnt grass. But distances are deceptive
in this unsmoked air
the heat was unusual, and heavy stormclouds were surging up from the west,
the especially ramy
The hills must attract every mist within then* range,
quarter.t
and wet weather comes from everv direction. All were pravmg
for the " Chuvas
de Mangaba " (Hancornia)t or de Pu^a
(Mom-u'ia Pusa, Gard.), § the showers which accompany the
call

him, advised us to lose no time

;

walls, now looked near,

;

—

fruiting of these trees.

Leaving the Saco

at

4 p.m., we

fell

at

once into deep sand,

with a labyrmth of paths running tlu'ough the stunted blades
of grass.

A few yards led to the northern edge of a great

Carnahubal, some four leagues long from north-east to south-

enough to supply the whole river with candles.
Every shape and age and size of the palm is here, from the
chubby infant a foot liigh, to the tall thin ancient, vrhom a breath
may fell. The panache gives tremendous leverage, and in parts
the trunks lay prostrated by the north-eastern hurricanes, like

west, and large

* Tliis is a local
Joazeiro or Zhyphxis,

name

of

the tlioniy

f According to others, the north-east is
the rainy quarter by excellence.
Hil. (IL ii. 2L5) mentions two
^: St.

^Langaba,

the

IM.

speciosa

f^pecles

of

(^jromes),

and the IM. rubescens (Nees and

jMart.
§ This
plum.

shrul>

produces a small dark

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

334

[chap. xxii.

the long thin alleys which canister cuts through a column of
In other places water Hngered upon the black muddy
men.

ground, and the spike}^ bases of the trees, catching the floating
weeds, showed the amount of rise ; this has a curious effect when
the palms are numerous.

Much of the Carnahubal during the

great floods of the 3^ear must be crossed in canoes.

After two hours' ride the Carnahiiba began to be mixed up
with strangers ; the Baliii tree, the Mureci (B^Tsonima verbas-

Presently it ceased
and the Mangaba.
"
Lagoa do Pintor,"
altogether, and we saw on the right the
a green-margined tank, about 200 3'ards across, with a central
During the floods, it is connected
islet of lush aquatic plants.
with the south-eastern branch of the Ypoeira, and at times it is
almost dry. Amongst the trees beyond the water line are a few
huts, whose inhabitants seem little aware of the wealth before
them. This pond receives from the mountain slope a number
of small diamantine streams, and the gems must settle in it.
Artificial draining, however, is required, and such operations
the

cifolia),*

Puca,

are far beyond the reach of the present occupants of the land.

Presently we arrived at the hill-foot, cumbered with large and
small blocks of stone, which have rolled from the upper heights.

This

is

the western counter-slope of the Serra do Assurua, a

meridional range that x)rolongs the diamantme formation of
the Bahian QJiapada. The " ladeira " or ascent w^as a succession
of steps, loose stones and slabs, between which the sandy soil

Peaching the summit of the hog's back, Ave turned
to prospect the "taboleiro" over which we had passed; the large
appeared.
*'

Salinas," that supply salt to the river, lay upon it in glistening

Lagoa de Assurua, about one league in length,
was surrounded by snoA^7 heaps of sand, like the '' Shrouds " of
This water drains the Serra do Pintor,
the Sao Francisco.
and its village " Itaparica " takes from it every year ^300 worth
patches, and the

of fish, here not an inconsiderable sum.

The people speak of

immense shoals which aAvait ex})loitation.
Descending the counter slope of the ridge, we saw below us
a small Servico, with a single house and a few thatched huts
This Piaclio do
on both sides of a narrow stony guile}'.
Pintorsinho flows, like the neighbouring waters, from north-east
*^

Also written "Alnnisi;"'

tin;

Imrk yields n

\i\-Ark

.lyci

;

OHAP. XXII.]

VILLA DA BARRA TO PILAO ARC ADO.

335

letters

and feeds the Lagoa do Pintor. We had no
of introduction, but we rode up to the doors and intro-

duced

oui'selves

to

soiitli-west,

to

owner,

the

Capitao Jose Florentino de

Carvalho, wdio, after the hibours of the day, was reposing under
the shadow^ of liis

own fig-tree.

Tlie

fig,

by the bye, w^as a wild

Brazilian, Avhich lately took only eight days to cover itself with

dense verdiu'e

;

such

is

the exceptional fertility of these Ita-

columite soils in the rare places where they are

fertile.

The

Capitao and his amiable wife have been diamond washing in
this ravine since 1864.
He gave us some excellently cooked
Siu'ubim, with

the

usual

trunmings

of *'pira6" and pepper

Dona sent a cup of aromatic coffee, the hammocks
were slung in a room under the fig-tree, and we should have
sauce

;

the

slept like toi^s but for the

heavy rain about midnight, and the

tremendous snorting of Sr. Cyriaco Ferreira. I cannot call it
snoring, the sound was that of ripping up the strongest new
calico.
When he did not snort he coughed, and the place was
somewhat close as the leopard cannot change his spots, so the
negro skin, even in a freed man, remams negro. Contubernation
with the Hamite does not prepossess one in his favour.
The next morning was warm and pleasant, but it spat, and
it seemed to promise rain for the afternoon.
Our ungracious
guide was salt or sugar, so we resolved to visit Santo Ignacio

—

—

alone.

The cross-path lay over a wonderfully rugged succession

of hills, forming

prism- shaped

ridges,

whose

crystal

waters,

and piu-e, discharged into the Assurua Lake,
and where Itacolumite showed in all its grotesqueness. There
were shapes of strange beasts, colossal heads and masques
arches, tunnels, and funnels, worked and turned by wind and
ram; huge portals, towers, and cyclox)ean walls, to leeward
smooth and solid, on the weather side seamed into courses of
masonry, that showed an imposing regularity. The granular
delightfully clean

quartz w^as not so finel}^ laminated as the Cerro formation ; some
of it was hard, white,

and polished like blocks of marble, and
at fii'st sight it might have been easily mistaken for limestone,
which, as the river bed shows, here and at Diamantina of Minas,
Underlies the sandstone.
It was also more generally stamed
with oxide of iron, and it had large veinings of quartz, which
sometimes formed external layers.
Crystallized quartz and
ferruginous matter, externally vulcanized, lay al)out in scatters.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

336

The

feature,

characteristic

Chapada to the

east, is

also

remarkable

[chap. xxii.

in

the

Bahian

a bouldeiy, not pebbly conglomerate,

which resembles that of the Scottish Old Ked. The huge blocks,
man}' of them weighing several tons, contained proportionate
pebbles, some rolled, others angular, here entire and there
The hard paste of
split, like the halves of almond kernels.
sandstone, with nestings of manj^-coloured porphyry, will be cut
into slabs of remarkable beauty.

We crossed the Eiacho Largo, a narrow gully heading in a
liigli bluff;

its delicious water,

the prerogative of the Itacolumite

lands, feeds a tiny patch of green grass.

places where the rock wastes to

Beyond it were three

a dazzlingly white sand, and

where thorns grow, passes into soil,
brown with a slight admixture of humus. Then we reached
a broad sheet of sandstone shows hollows
the highest divide
this,

in the lower levels

;

The vegetation v;as
that of the Cerro, the dwarf Mimosa, and the Ostrich Shank
(Vellozia) a few inches high, whereas in Minas Geraes we
and holes lilve the

counted it by feet.

hoof-j^rints

of horses.

On the right the eye plunged into the sandy

and where other sahnas
glittered
to the left was an old diamond-washing, from which
the people had taken the sand arrested by the big boulders.
In front and below us lay the little village of Santo Ignacio,
upon the left bank of a Corrego, whose narrow valley was
bounded on the further side by a wall of jagged stone, disposed
The yellow-green vegetation told
in courses, piles, and peaks.
plains which

bore

signs

of floods,

;

the poverty of the soil.

We entered on foot the little mining village, much to the wonhad a Eua Formosa, a widening
called a square, a miserable chapel, by courtesy termed a church,
and men in ''Panama" hats, black coats, and white overalls.
Every Monda}' there is a fair, frequented by j^eople from far and
The prices are
wide, and some 150^. or 200/. may change hands.
high: what costs on the coast 0$100 here commands 1$000.
We found the shop of a Mineiro from Formiga, who appeared
excei:)tionally civilised amongst the " atrasado," arriere, race of
the Province which still boasts of being the Ecclesiastical Capital
of the Empire.
The httle booth dealt in notions and provisions,
red japanned tins of English gunpowder, pots, pans, and bowls
The
onions, garlic, sardines in cases, and rum in demijohns.
derment of its denizens.

It

;

"

VILLA DA BARRA TO PILAO ARCADO.

CHAP. xxiT.]

337

wife being unwell, we could not breakfast, but we drank coffee and

men, whose principal
seemed to be expectoration. Tliis habit is general,
perhaps the climate of the New World
as in the United States
has tended to preserve it from abolition. Brazilians have told
me that it preserves them from obesit3\
As far back as 1803, gold was known to exist in the Arassua
Range, and it was worked in 1836. Diamond washing began in
1840, at Santo Ignacio, which was then transferred from the municipality of Urubii to that of Chique-Chique, and the fii'st digging, near the Pedra do Bode, a little down the Corrego, has not
been exhausted. In 1841, the Chapada do Coral, some twenty
leagues to the south, was found to contain " Cascalho," from
which pieces of gold weighing four pounds were taken. In
1842 — 3, Mucuje, in the Comarca of the Rio das Contas,* became Santa Isabel do Paraguassu, the chef-Heu of its own arronate biscuits under the eyes of brown-faced
office in life

:

dissement.

Presentl}" diamantine deposits were found at Lencoes,

so called from the sheet-rocks in the little stream of the

same

name, the western head-waters of the great Paraguassu River.
The place was then a country hamlet, in the Municipality of the
Rio das Contas. The discovery was claimed by M. Fertin, a
Frenchman, afterwards established at Bahia. It is reported,
hovv^ever, that before 1844 a party of slaves had collected in
twenty da3's some 700 carats, which the}" offered for sale. These
*'
garimpeu'os " were put in i:)rison, but they refused to show the
diggings they were then let loose, watched, and caught working
at midnight.
In 1845, Lencoes which had been in the municipalit}' of the Rio das Contas, was made independent.
Presently
a rush of 20,000 souls took place there, and the city rose to importance.!
M. Reybaud, Consul de France, Bahia, calculated
from the date of discovery (August 1, 1845), a produce of 1450
carats per diem, and a total of 400,000 carats = 18,300,000
;

francs.

On retm'n, we walked up the Corrego to visit our kind host's
The lower part

*'lavra."

of the bed belongs to another

j)i'0-

prietor, who, having water handy, can wash all the year round.
* Generally written Rio de Contas, wliich
I believe, a corruption.
+ It also became the chef -lieu of the
E.eparti9ao, or Diamantine Department.
The papers (bilbetes) issued to the **faisis,

VOL.

II.

cadores " were cliarged annually, at first
0$020 per square braya, now 2 $000.
They give permission to establish the

"garimpo.
z

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

338

Here we found tlie rock-crack forming the
**can6a/' or *'batador; " the

'*

rill

[chap. xxii.

converted into a

Cascalho " is thrown in, and the

diamonds are arrested by cross-pieces. Following the left bank,
we came to a pit some twenty feet deep, where the owner, seated
in an arm-chaii', with book and snuff-box, was superintending the
hands, who, should he happen to go away, lie down to sleep, if at
least they find nothing to thieve.
Two men, armed v/ith alavanca
(crow-bar) and hoe, were loosening a bit of boulder, and were
scraping up the desmonte, or inundation sand, which was carried
up the pit side by a black girl, a youth, and a boy. The Cascallio
must wait to be washed in the rains, and here great inundations
or scanty showers are prayed for.
The host complained that the
increased rate of wages prevented all profit, nor did I wonder
deep works on so small a scale cannot pay. The formation (forma9ao) is here called Pe de Batea, small dark stones, like iron
filings, which settle at the bottom of Ihe pan; there are also the
fava, the ferragem, and fragments of hght or dark-green claj^
unprettily termed '' Bosta de Barata."
The Capitiio showed us
in a Pequa,* one little yellow stone.
The gems are mostty small,
:

the largest yielded by this pit was the half-vintem, one grain, or
a quarter- carat.

The Riacho do Pintorsinho has produced a

stone of two vintens, and a neighbouring Corrego four vintens.

A diamond of half an oitava (eight carats) had been washed in
former years, and the result was a " difficulty," ending in a
murder, and in the disappearance of the prize.

AVe bade adieu to our liosi)itable host, the Caj)itao and the
Dona, and returned to Chique-Chique with all possible speed.
This short excursion had j^roved that " Cactus-town " has around
it

lands of immense fertihty, salubrious mountains, which as

yet have only been scratched and played with for diamonds and
gold, and, briefly, all the conditions requisite for a capital.

It is

connected to the east with the coast via Jacobina, Lencoes, and
Caitete,! and to the west with the Piauhy and the Goyaz Provinces.

* The Tupy word Peqiicii, meaning wood
is applied to a bamboo-tuLe a
few inches long, from which the stones
can be turaed out withont letting them

generally,

Castelnan (ii. 343) describes Picoi,
Sorte d'etni fait d'une ecorce trcs Ilex-

fall.
_"

ible."

The miners have sundry snpersti-

tions about these articles.

+ Alias Villa do Principe. The word,
written in a variety of ways, e.g. Caitete
and Caitete, is a corrnption of Coa-eto,
virgin forest, and is thus s}TionjTnons with
Caethe.
In the days of Spix and Martins

its

cotton.

neighbourhood

was

famed

for

•

VILLA DA BARRA TO PILAO ARCADO,

CHAP. XXII.]

339

We ma}^ easily j^redict that, despite the satii'ist, some one

presently be proud to —

Y>'ill

Ser barSo de Xiquexique.

Oct. 11.

—We

easily ran down the

Barra da Picada, which

is,

however, more tortuous than it appears in M. Halfeld's plan, and
after tlu'ee horn's we made the main artery.

The left continued to

show the containing mounds, here dark with vegetation, there
patches of white or yellow sand, and this feature will extend some
eleven leagues do^ni-stream. The land is everj'where arid, and the
principal features are the '^ Carrascal " and the Salina.
In the
afternoon we passed the Arraial da Boa Yista das Esteiras (of the
mats), a little chapel-village with some fifty huts on the right
bank and we presently anchored at a Coroa, known as the Ilha
da Manga, or da Porta. Here a rich diamantine " formacao "
abounded, and the gull, everywhere impatient of man's presence,
;

screamed through the night, justifying Agostinho's epithet " bicho
aburrido," * disgusting vermin.
Oct. 12.

—AVe are about

to enter a Porteira or funnel, where

the stream, after spreading out to five times that breadth, is com-

pressed to 1500 feet.

On both sides liigh lumpy ridges, some

bare, others rising umbre- coloured from the green lines of water-

shrubbery, either fall into the stream, or form bluffs that fiice it

Pamning down the sand-bar shore we passed
with infinite trouble through the fii'st gate.
On the right bank is
for some distance.

Tapera da Cima," with its broad j-^Doeira.
Opposite rises the Pedra da Manga, i^rojecting southwards into
the stream a ridge lilce that of Santo Antonio, prism-shaped,

the

little

*'

village

about 100 feet high, by half that breadth, red above and dark

Here commences the great gisement of magnetic ii'on,
the Itaberite or Jacutinga which we have already visited at Sahara
and Gongo Soco no examination for gold has 3^et, I beUeve,
been made. The strike of the metal is north with westmg and
south mth easting,! and it is prolonged on both sides of the Sao
below.

;

Francisco.
*

The

word

abliorred, hateful, disgusting, the strongest

+ In ^I. Halfekl's plan, the strike is laid
down nearly due north and south. I am

expression of dislike ;

probably in

abon-ido,

which

originally

is

is

it

is

Aboirecido,
contracted to
by the

pronounced

Caipira aburrido, which,
aught, means doakeyned.

if

it

signifies

error

:

these

formations

so

" disorient " the needle, that peculiar precautions are necessary.
z 2

—

:

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

340

Below this

first

[chap. xxii.

portal the river, flowing to the north-east,

widens out considerabl}^ The Vento Geral, which had been
fitful and fractious at dawn, j^resently brought a cold wind and
violent rain, which made us shiver, though the mercury showed
73° (F.), about the temperature of a comfortable East Indian
Club.

We made fast to a Coroa till the storm had spent its rage,

and then we attacked the second gate. Here again the bluffs on
both sides correspond, and both have similar ports, sandy beaches
a little down-stream.
To the north were the few huts of the
Taj^era de baixo, backed by a hill-knob
and on the south, "As
Pedras (do Ernesto)." We landed at the latter, a short row of
Here the
hovels, and a single block with whitewashed walls.
rock chine, prolonging high ground behind, trends to the northit is broken into blocks, and shows cleavage as well as
w^est
stratification.
Pieces picked up by chance drew the magnetic
needle round the compass card, and the substance appeared harder
and closer than what we had seen in Minas Geraes.
Again the channel bulged out, as we emerged from the second
portal, which ends in a cliff of yellow sandy water on the left
bank. And again the grey nimbus in the purple northern sky
sent forth howling blasts, and a slanting rain which compelled us
to anchor thrice.
The pilot determined at last that this is the
wet season, and somewhat regretted that he had left home. We
presently made fast to a sand-bar in the stream, and prepared to
night.
Far to the west was a blue crest fading in the distance.
We are now nearly on a parallel with Paranagua of Piauhy, on
the southern head-water of the great northern Paranahyba Piver,*
and this may be an offset from the dividing ridge between the two
valleys, called in maps Serra dos dois Irmaos, and here the Serra
do Piauhy.
;

;

Oct. 13.

— As work was not to be done by day, we deter-

mined to try the night in places of minor interest the moon
also was nearly full, and robbed the snag of a few terrors.
;

Again, the yellow muddy colour of the margin told us that the
Sao Francisco had fallen to the extent of six inches, and we
* St. Hil. (III. ii. 250) explains Paranahyba as a corruption of Pararayba, "riviere
allant se jeter dans une petite mer."
Sr.
J. de Alencar supplies the true derivation
Para,'' the sea, " nhanha," to run, and
"hyba," an arm, "running arm of the
^

sea," tliat is, tidal river.
Three words in
the Lingua Geral are easily confounded,

hyba (hiba), an arm ayba (aiba), bud and
hyba, iba, yba or ina, a tree, especially a
fruit tree, and often used as a desinence,
;

;

CHAP, xxii.]

jealously

VILLA DA BARRA TO PILAO ARCADO.

3il

every spnptom, wanting

as

watclied

as

much flood

possible, with an eye to the Rapids.

At o'lO a.m. there was a

mist, or rather a tliin rain, the

*'

first

Garoa "-fog since

quit-

ting the charming Rio das Yelhas, and under its influence the

showed a sea horizon. At 7 a.:j. we saAv over the darkgreen right bank the Serrotinho (M. Halfeld's Serrote do Rio

river

Yerde), with

its

two heads of the lightest leek-colour.

to the south of it enters the

A little

Lower Rio Yerde, whose mouth is

and whose line admits of scantv navio-aLilce its namesake, the water is distinctly salt.
tion.
On the
north-east was the Serra do Boqueirao, a long vanisliing Hne
about 230

feet broad,

Upon the left bank
upon whose crupper sits the Yilla of Pilao

of buttresses, forming three distinct bluffs.

rose a

little

hill

Arcado, the end of this highly interesting Travessia.*
* In Mr. Keith Johnston's map, the
dotted line o{ the Rio Verde is placed at
soma distance below "Pilau," whence it

enters the Sao Francisco, about two miles
above Pilao Arcado.

—

CHAPTER XXIII.
FROM THE EX-VILLA DO PILAO AUCADO TO THE VILLA DE
SENTO SE.
Eighth Travessia, 3L^ Leagues.

—

pilao arcado described.— ruined by private wars, great iron formations. storms again. bad approach to the villa do remanso.
THE TOWN DESCRIBED. RESUME WORK. THE GREAT EASTERLY BEND OF
THE RIO DE SAO FRANCISCO. THE TUCUM PALM. LIMESTONE. AN IRON

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

SERROTE DO TOMBADOR. SHELLS. THE MINHOCAO MONSTER
THE WILLOWS. REACH THE TOWN OP SENTO S]E.

HILL, THE

WORM.

—

—

" The Missouri

and the Mississippi Rivers, with their hundred tributaries, give

to the great Central Basin of our Continent its character and destiny."

Mr. Ei'creft, July 4, 18G1.

PiLAO Arcado is still a mere hamlet tlie original settlers here
fomid a crooked ^vooden mortar, hence the corrupted name.* A
natural pier of iron-revetted clay projects to the north-east, and
throws the stream to the right hank, where it forms a sack the
channel then sweeps to the north-west. The heach shows conglomerate, based upon soft green shale, which is traversed by
Three nameless or unnamed streets, running
quartz veins.
parallel with the ^vater, contains about 200 houses, including a
" casa nobre " with wooden shutters.
The Church of Santo
Antonio is a mere "tapera" of bare wattle. The rising ground
behind the settlement shows brown soil, growing tolerable cotton,
and cactus in quantities higher up it is scattered with quartz,
white and rusty, and with fragments of various-coloured Itaco;

;

;

lumites.
*

Properly

Here M. Halfeld places the beginning of the gneiss,
" Pilao

arqueado. "

The

terms do Pilao, or dos PiloSs, are often
added to the names of streams, mountains,
and new settlements in the back-woods.
Eitler a coarse wooden mortar used by the

aborigines was found xipon the ground, or
the neighbourhood had peaks, needles, or
clieese-wrings, which the new comers compared with pestles and mortars.

"

CHAP. XXIII.]

or

''

EX-YILLA DO PILAO ARC ADO TO SEXTO SE.

gneiss-granite,"

which

presently

will

pass

into

343

true

granite.

In former days Pilao Ai'cado washed gold from its hills, made
sugar, which was dark but tolerabl}" heavy and well flavoured, and,

being the centre of the Salinas, supplied

salt to the settlements

up and down-stream.* It became a villa, the chief place of a
termo, and the residence of a Juge de droit presently it lost the
which was transferred to " Remanso,"
desvillou-se
privilege
distant sixteen leagues. The principal cause of its decadence was a
private war which lasted for some generations, and which remind
us of the days of the Percies of Northumberland.
Such things
were in former times common all over the Brazil as they had
been throughout Europe, and traces of the Montague and Capulet
system are still to be found in many towns of the interior. Here
tlie rival houses were those of the Guerreiro and the Militiio
families, names that suited vrell with their fierceness.
The head
of the former, in late years, was Bernardo Jose Guerreiro
whilst
the latter were "Captained" by the Commendador, Militao
Placido de Franea Antunes.
This distino'uished " valentiio" f for
nine or ten years defied the power of the Imperial Government,
here perhaps a unique feat, and he appears to have been lilve the
;

—

—

;

dreaded " Defterdar" of Egypt, a man of peculiar personal " grit."

At the Yilla da Barra I saw one of his victims who had lost both
hands, and I heard of another whom for a greater offence he had
caponized.

He died in 1865, t aged sixty-two, and, as was said

of a certain St. Paul of Scotland, that Militao merited the epitaph,

" Here

he who never feared the face of man." Since the
death of this energetic person, who "will long be remembered as
the " Brigador Militao"
Militao the Fighter Pilao Arcado and
lies

—

—

the neighbourhood have known quiet da3^s.

It showed as a novelty

sails applied to a large ferry boat.

Eesuming our work, we found the river trending generally to
the north-east, but often breaking to the west, whilst a multitude
of islands and sand-bars rendered the course very devious.

The

channel, in places two miles broad, contained

much more dry

* St. Hil. (I-II. i. 293) mentions the Sal
do Pilao Arca«io, corrupted to Piloes Ar-

" le valentoens s'age-

cados, from the Pi'ovince of

"Fei-nambom,"

now Bahia.
f I need hardly wai-n the reader that we
must not say, as in the French translation

of Roster's Travels,
nouilla.

—

M. Halfeld (Relat. pp. 105 111)
speaks of this brave as one who had departed life,
Ijl

;

3U

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

land than water

;

[chap, xxiii.

the branches were often bigger than the Rio das

Velhas, and in parts, especially on the left bank, a narrow natural
canal, the

''

Paranamirim " of the Amazons River, had been laid

by long, thin tracts of insulated ground. A little above the
Upper Remanso (Remanso do Imbuseiro), the stream winds suddenly from north-east to east, with southing.
The line now
becomes populous, and on the left bank the fields are fenced in.
off

The waterside abounds in a lush growth of Capim Cabelludo or
hairy grass, and above it is a wooded wave of ground toj^ped by a

blue-green cone.

On the other bank is the Serra do Boqueirao,

the northern extremity of the Serra de Assarua.

The blocks,

low ground, where the drainage passes, were well
defined by the cloud- shadows, and faced the river hke cliffs
frontmg the ocean. Near the summit are long white lines of perseparated

b}^

l^endicular wall, regular as if fortifications had been thrown up by

below them the reddish-brown ramp, a2:>parently
clothed with dwarf bush, slopes at the usual angle.
The material

the

Titans

;

Itacolumite,

is

based, according to

M. Halfeld, on granite

or

gneiss (schistose granite).

At the Boqueirao Grande, or Great Gap, between the bluffs, the
river again

bends to

tlie

north-east, and a

little

below, off the

Fazenda da Praia, there is a bad rock in mid-stream. Presently
we passed on the left Caraua,* the large white house and
tiled out-houses of the old "

Brigador Militao."

A " bull's eye "

glared fiercely at us from the east, and an African rain- sun had

warned us to be prudent. We made fast to the north of a Coroa,
called Ilha do Bento Pires, from some huts on the left bank
and here we found a large barca moored in expectation of the
" temporal." This squall did not come on till dark; en revanche
it lasted through the night.
October 14.
is here

—We proceeded cautiously down the channel, which

shallow and bristling with crags.

The valley is watered

on the east by the Serra do Boqueiraosinho, a prolongation of the
Boqueirao, and on the summit there
fine fertile lands.

lieuce corrupted to Caroa, Caroata,
Caragoata, Grravata (in the Bay of Rio de
Janeiro), and (Bromelia) to Karatas by the
botanist.
In a future volume I shall have
;

a " taboleii'o alto," with

At 11 a.m. we landed near the Serrote do Velho,

* M. Halfeld writes this word Carna.
In Tu^jy, howevei', it is Caraua and Caraua-

ta

is

something to say about this most important
genus, whose edible fruit gives spirits and
vinegar, and whose fibre, valued for hammocks and nets, is current as coin in parts
of the Brazil,

;

CHAP. XXIII.]

EX- VILLA DO PILAO ARC ADO TO SEXTO

SE.

345

the most southerly of three trimnion-shaped buttresses, which

we had seen from early dawn looking blue and small.

The nar-

row ledge supx^orted a few pauper huts and bore poor bush upon
a red clay, too ferruginous to be fertile without lime.

Crossing

a foul backwater behind the settlement we ascended the hill-slope
it is scattered over with red Itacolumite, cut and cloven by quartz

vems, and with magnetic iron, the hardest possible Jacutinga,
As fuel here abounds, and transport
black and amorphous.
as well as water-power are at hand, it ma}^ some day prove
valuable.

From the hill top we had a good view of the river, which here
narrows, and the gut is rendered dangerous b}^ snags, shoals, and

Here again M. Halfeld would control the

a large central rock.

stream by fascines

—a hopeless

task.

We crossed to the left

which are
now common on the river, and which will extend to the Great
Rapids
those lying upon the sand-banks were empty, and the
animal seems to prefer shallow water near the edges. The storm
had now worked round to the south, and the scene looked

bank

a stony floor remarkably rich in shells (No. 3),

;

''ugly" as the mouth of the Gaboon River before a tornado.
The sky was hung witli purple black, white-grey cottony mists
lay upon the earth, and the water

gleamed with a sickly yellow.
Two men were placed at the helm, and presently the fierce
"rebojos"* were down upon us, driving on the "Eliza" with
furious speed, and tearing to pieces the sm'face of the stream.
We were compelled to paddle across always a risky process, as
" broaching-to " swamps the raft; tufts of shrub emerging from
the water showed where a Coroa had lately been. A bow-shaped
ripple to the right hand denoted the bank upon which we
grounded all sprang into the water till the "Eliza," vigorously
pushed and shoved, sloped over to the safe side. At the bottom
of the reach which rmis from south to north, we had seen
" Remanso ;" the site is a wave of ground gradually suiking to
from afar the
the deep still water f which gave the place a name
appearance is striking, but a nearer prospect shows little to

—

;

;

admire.

A single barca was being built upon the clay bank, where
*

The Rebojo is a gale like the Pampero

further south

;

in the plural

it

is

mous with refegas, raflfales, gusts.

synony-

+ At the time when I passed it the
remanso" in front of the town had become a strong stream.
*'

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

345

several craft lay decaying.

Tlie Villa do

[chap, xxiii,

Eemanso, which till

eight years ago was an Arraial or village, extends along stream
from north to south. The houses straggle down towards the

water, and the suburbs wander over the higher land. It is fronted
by a large flat island, and below it the channel is narrowed by

sand-bars and shoals.

To the west, a lumpy blue rise projects

from the dividing ridge between the valleys of the Sao Francisco
and the Paranahyba,* while down-stream are the Morro do Marco
and the picturesque Serra do Sobrado, whose crooked cones,
quoins, and plateaux form an outline like a crested sea rushing
to the north-west.

The houses of the new Villa may number 300, and many of
them show a water-mark two feet high. The rains had deposited
big puddles in every street, and the damp heat reminded me of
Zanzibar.

A ragged square to the north still bore the platform

of poles erected to hail the return of July 2nd

—the Provincial

Independence Day. There is another open space to the south, and
the Chapel of N^ S^ do Rosario, which appeared so grand in the
offing, was a bald little chapel, with its ruined sacristy to the
north.

Here men are

The people number about 1500, more or less.

so incurious that after living thirty years in a hamlet of fifty
houses they have never taken the trouble to count roofs or noses.

We met with, however, some signs of animation
at work,

and beer

sale in the shops.

—everywhere the

;

the tailor was

test- of civilization

—was

Salinas and good breeding grounds t

lie

for

on

both sides of the stream. The popular complexion, however,
shows sign of dyscratia, and a French " Commis-voyageur," collecting the debts of his Bahian employers, complained of fever,
and declared that life at Remanso is " heute roth morgen
todt."

The " curandeiros " have given some

dietetic

ideas,

and have taught the sick to use bitters rather than sweets.
Lieut.-Col. Jose Cirino de Souza, who acknowledged by a visit
my introductory letter, was astonished to see M. Davidson
devouring sugar, more Americano, after suffering severely from
ague.

At 4 P.M. we set out, and having run a league down-stream, Ave
*
it

The ridge cannot he of importance, as
does not prodiice any but the smallef^t

influents.

t We here caught

the

tick since leaving Uruhii.

first

carrapato-

EX- VILLA DO PILAO

CHAP. XXIII.]

ARC ADO TO SEXTO SE,

anchored at a Coroa opposite the Serra do Sobrado.

347

Here we

seemed likely to rue the night of
Mali culices ranasque palustres

;

and, in addition to the gnats, the mosquitos, \Yhicli during the

day had comfortably housed themselves under the awning and in
The latter, howthe nooks of the ajojo, began to sing and stmg.
ever, after a few minutes rose and departed ; only a few unusually

pertmacious passed with us the night.

Presently, as the sun

disappeared, hosts of large ruddy bats (noctiliones) wheeled with

The

their jerking flight, aud skimmed the surface of the stream.
to 68°

—

70° (F.), and the high wind

thermometer speedily fell
combined vdth the saturated atmosphere made us tremble with
cold.
At the same time it effectually silenced the frog concert.
Oct. 15.
This furious weather is, they say, the effect of the
On the
full moon, and the wind shows no sign of weariness.
right bank a block of mountains rise suddenly from the *'Baix-

—

To the left
The upper parts

ada," or plain, and prolongs itself down the stream.

abrupt Sobrado, with cones and outliers.

is the

were bro^m, and the lower skii'ts were alread}- turning green

;

the

hasty drainage probably causes this exceptional phenomenon.

M. Halfeld makes the material "Itacolumite with hydrate of iron
and pyrites, " the sign of auriferous formation. The name is
derived from a feature which will be

common further on, a tall

pile of white stone, emerging from the bush, and not unlike a tvro-

storied house.

As we a2:>proached (7*25 a.m.) the low and sandy

Ilha da Tapera (do Muniz) an " olho de boi" drove us across the

waves, which swept over the raft platform, and in a few minutes

amongst the shallows to the left. Here we
passed the day, imprisoned by the north-east wind. Happil}^ I
had with me a few pocket classics, the woe of my youth, the
neglect of my manhood, and the delight of my old age, and with
Hafiz and Camoens, Horace and Martial, occupation was never

we found

shelter

wanting.

Beyond Remanso the channel bends round du'ectly to the east,
and runs in long reaches, with more or less of northing, but
seldom trending towards the west. The wet weather will now
cease

;

the rainy season will break in mid-November, and last

only four months

;

and the showers, which in other parts begin

and end the true rains, are often absent.

The skies will be clear

'

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

348

ultramarine, and

the

evaporation excessive ;

again curl up, and ink will dry in the pen.
first

[chap, xxiit,

book-covers will

The sensation w^as at

that of a St. Martin's summer,* and, though we

had been

threatened with all manner of sufferings from the sun, I judged
the climate to be very healthy.

On the other hand we are enter-

ing a funnel, a fine conductor of wind, and barcas sometimes take

108 miles f between this and Joazeiro.
The gale will sometimes last even through the night, and I find
in ni}' journal that every day's Trade is w^orse than the da}^ before.
fifteen days to cover the

The draught increases because the land becomes more sandy, and
Below Remanso also
we miss upon the Coroa the diamantine ''forma^ao," and this
there are frequent tracts of rich Jacutinga.

suggests that sometimes the supply of the upper bed is not washed

Of the granite and carbonate of lime I

from a great distance.

will speak when we reach their limits.

Oct. 16.

—Despite the head wind we

set out at dawn.

Passing

the Ilha Grande do Zabele, a monster of an island, we saw in the

stream lumps of whitish rock, which proved to be pure limestone. J
After two hours we were driven to take refuge on the right bank.

Here the land is inundated, and the short manioc must be taken
uj) before the floods.
The plots were defended against cattle with
a wealth of timber.
The marshy soil i)roduces the largest and
spiniest ''Tucums;" the stems were at least thirty feet high,
double the normal size, and the thorns were strong enough to
pierce a cow's hide. This Palm (Astrocaryum tucum)§ is so unlike
a palm that Sellow would not admit it into the family, and at first
sight the stranger feels disposed to agree with him.

It is found

growing upon the seaboard, and extending to altitudes of 1000
* Tlie pilots, indeed, called it the
vobreaks the rainy season
about December or January.
In Peru it
'

'

ranhico," which

happens about Christmas
called " El Verano do Nino "
;

hence

it

is

— the Summer

the Babe.
The Simniards, be it remarked, are far more poetical in thought
and feeling than the Portuguese it is the
of

;

Arab versus the Roman. On the other hand,
the Portuguese have produced far better
poets than the Spaniards.
+ The pilots who, I have said, always
exaggerate distance, make 40 instead of
36 leagues from Remanso to Joazeiro, and
18 instead of 16 to Sento Se.
i M. Halfeld (Relatorio, p. 117) calls
them " Rochas Vivas," whatever that may

mean,
§ This is the Toucoun of P. Yves d'Evreux (1613).
It is mentioned by Piso
and Manoel Ferreira da Camara (Descrip9am fisica da Comarca dos Ilheos).
Arruda (Cent. Plant. Peru.) has a poor oijinion
of the fibre, and his description has been
analysed by Koster (Api:)endix, vol. ii.).
John Mawe attempted it, and was duly
criticised by Prince Max. (i. 118).
In the
Compendio da Lingua Brazilica, by F. 11. C.
de Faria (Pard, Santos e Filhos, 1858), we
find that the Tupys called the fruit of the

Tucum,
Avrites
it

" Tucuma
Mr. Bates (i. 121)
Tucuma; and the Peruvians call

" Chambira."

;

CHAP. xxiiT.]

EX- VILLA DO PILAO AP.CADO TO SEXTO

349

SE".

where it prefers sliad}^ ground. Usually the ''frele palmier"
is from twelve to sixteen feet in height and five to six inches in
diameter.
The hard black nut produces an edible almond the
fibre is drawn by folding the foliole and pulling out the nervature
feet,

;

of the

parenchyma with a peculiar knock.

The

novice

who

ignores the twist is sure to break the leaf before the threads are

drawn out naked, and a practised hand makes onl}^ one-eighth of
The practice is, doubtless, derived from the
" Indians," who make their bow-strings of '* tucum" fibre, cotton,
Maceration was tried and failed, as the leaf
or Bromelia-bast.
decayed at the end of a week. On the Brazilian seaboard Tucum
thread is used for fishing-nets, and bales of the greenish yarn pass
as mone}^, with the average value of 2 § 000 per pound.
On the
Sao Francisco River the Tucum is also valued by seine-makers.
The leaves when young make good mats and baskets, and when
old, thatch.
We cut down many of these prickly palms for
walking-sticks.
They are strong, heavy, and elastic, polishing to
a fine dark colour, like those of the Brejalmba palms (Astrocaa pound per diem.

ryum Ayri).
Here we struck upon and followed a cattle path leading west.
The surfiice was sandy, with platforms of slabs or lumps, compact
or scattered, of carbonate of lime, almost marble, ready to make
Nothing could be finer than the soil, which in
We were charmed by the
X^laces was flooded by the late rains.
vegetation.
The " Inga" Mimosa was hanging itself about with
soft white balls, whilst the Jua (Zizyphus) and the Favelleiro in
bud gave out the most grateful odour. The Pao Pereira* (a Casthe bark is used for
suvia) bore apple-like flowers
it gives wax
fevers; and an extract of it kills, like mercury, the " bernes" that
appear in the wounds of cattle. The leguminous "Pao de Collier"
a shell road.

;

;

(Spoon-tree), a congener of the far-fiimed "Brazil-wood," turns
u]) its holh'-like leaves, as the frizzly fowl does its feathers.

The

Convolvulus displays especial beauties, and the species of Bignonia(?) known by the general term " Acoita Cavallo," or " Switch
horse," overrun the trees, forming splendid canopies Avith delicious

perfume.

and

One bears trumpet blossoms of the finest mauve colour,

the other, silver-gold with leek-green leaves, is a delight to

the eye.

We shall often see them down-stream. Many of the
*

Or Pereiro

:

it is

mentioned by the System.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

350

[chap, xxiii.

The Cactus was everywhere, from

growths had a spicy odour.

the Turk's Fez to the tall Chandelier, nor were the Bromelias less
in force. The aloe-formed species (Vellozia Aloifolia) was putting
forth long spilves of deep-pink flower, tipped with purple and hght
Another, called by the general term Caraua, (Bromelia
blue.

had whitish-green transversal rings upon the darkgreen surface, and a terminal spur, sharp as a scorpion's sting,
which reminded me of the '' Hig" of Somali -land. This species
produces the best white fibre for hammocks, and it is stronger
variegata),

when not macerated in water.
Presently w^e reached the base of the '' Serrote do Tombador."
It is a detached buttress, now a common feature, and, from
different points of view% it appears circular, pjTamidal, or cunei-

want of comparison. The
material is magnetic iron,* of which traces are found in the
and it is based upon limestone, its
clay of the river bank
The ore v>^as almost pure, and large fragments
natural flux.
might have served as anvils it broke into rhomboids, glittering
with finely diffused mica, and it was banded with the whitest
quartz, and here and there faced with a paste of i^udding stone.
The needle was so much affected by it, that we w^ere compelled
Eock crystal, the ^' flower of
to take the sun for our guide.
silver," was scattered about, and quartz seamed with black mica
form

;

it

looks higher than

it

is for

:

;

glittered like galena.

A sharp ridge, striking east and west, crested the hill, wdiich
may be 250 feet high
easily ascended

;

the northern flank

from the

is precipitous,

south and from

but it

the

south-east.

The Mimosas and thorny trees become rare as w^e

ascend, and

is

presently disappear, the Bromelia

dwindles to

three

inches in length, without, however, any abatement of
rious thorns

;

or

four

its inju-

the cjdindrical cactus is mostly in decay, and from

the irregular cleavage of the hill-top, the Macambira raises
tall

flower spikes waving in the air.

salamanders for sun-heat, had here
passed the earths of the little

its

Iguanas and lizards, real
made their homes. We

Moco coney, and bleached shells

common. At this season, unfortunately, all are dead, and the young race will not appear till the
(No. 4), rare below, above

rains set in.

A pair of fine pearl-grey hawks, with white waist*

Ferro Oliglsto, M. Halfekl (Eel.

p. 118).

;

CH.\p. XXIII.]

ARCADO TO SEXTO SE".

EX- VILLA DO PILAO

351

coats (Falco plumbeus ?), screamed at us, hovered over our heads,

and seemed prepared to do battle probably the nest was near.
These bh'ds have a rapid flight, and are said to be good
:

hunters.

From the summit we had a view which disclosed at fii'st glance
The yellow stream flowed

the gigantic scale of the denudation.*

band at our feet, through a plain subject to floods,
and with a mmimum breadth of six leagues. It was buttressed
by a number of deceptive cones, like that upon which we stood
some grey-coloured with limestone, others dark with oligiste, and
their superior hardness had preserved them from the common
destruction.
Both sides of the valley were highlands to the
north the forms were less regular, and the softer portions had
been worn away. On the south appeared three long terraces
curving into several bays below the horizontal surfaces of the
upper heights long white hues of perpendicular wall, lil^e sea
chfis, capped their slopes, regular as if laid out by the hand.
Descending the hill, we found the wind breaking the current
in a broad

;

;

into backward-rolling yellow 3^east.

Occasionally taldng shelter

under a Girao of four posts with fascined top, we collected the
zebra'd snail-shells scattered over the fields.
They were met
with chiefly in the Maniba,t the dwarf manioc, which ripens in
six or seven months.
At 2'30 we embarked, but shortly after''
wards an opalescent Olho de boi," crowning a thin column of
ram which was falling in little sheets all around, drove us to an
anchorage under '' As Queimadas." Here the bank, twentv-two
feet high, is cut into broad steps by the floods which spread two
miles into

the

countr3\

The people

attribute the extensive

caving in | of the side, where, by-the-bye, the river forms a gut,
to the gambols of the monster " Minhocao" in the daj's that were.

No one, however, would afiirm that he had seen the "Worm."
The little
people

fish,

settlement contains about

thatched huts, the

breed cattle, sheep, and long-legged pigs, cultivate

* "Tliey reminded me of Mr. Bates'
of flat-topped hills between
Santarim and Para, in the narrow part of
the valley near AlmejTim, rising 800 feet
above the present level of the Amazons."
f Usually "jManiba," or "Maniva," is
the stalk of manioc, the root is "mandioca," the juice is " manipuera," and the
leaves aro " mani:3oba. " The latter is prodescription

fifty

bably

the

''manacoba"

v/liicli

Gardner

applies to a large si^ecies of the Jatropha.
The root was the staff of life to the Brazilian "Indians," and the civilised race

has inherited from them an immense terminology descriptive of the plant: a volume might easily be filled Avith it.
X " Desmoronamento. " M. Halfeld (Eel.
p. IIP) also heard this legend.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

352

[chap, xxiit.

maize and manioc, and send to Remanso fruits, oranges, and
Despite the sunset of purest
limes, grown upon the other bank.
3^ello\v gohl, the high east wind blew all night, and lowered the

The repose was not com-

mercury to shivering point, 68° (F.).

fortable, the tender-canoe bumped unceasingly against the "Eliza,"

and the latter rocked like that great sliij) which admitted the cow
into the ladies' cabin the village drunkard periodically visited us,
asking for fire till the small hours, and the dog Negra received
;

him with furious barkings.
Oct. 17.

—A

fine sk}^ and heat-promising

sun were perfect con-

AVe i)assed on the right bank the Fazenda do
Monteiro, a clearing with tiled huts. Behind it is the Morro do
ditions for a gale.

Monteiro

;

it is

a cone seen from the west, from the east a saddle-

back with smaller adjunct the colour is grey, and we picked up
onl}^ sandstone and ferruginous quartz. After three hours of vain
struggling, we anchored at Trahiras on the southern bank; here
;

also is a Morro, which yielded Itacolumite and quartz.*

On the

opposite side, the Serra do Pico w^ith the conical Morro do Chifre
form a segment of an arc, whose hollow is to the stream. It is a
low mass with " flancs tourmentes " and cups which, due to

weathering, suggest parasitic craters
its

;

a large ypoeira flows past

southern base.

Resuming our task in the afternoon, we were soon driven to
the Fazenda do Oliveira, six leagues from Sento Se.
The place
swarmed with negrolings and poultry, amongst which were a
tame Jacu (Penelope) and a peacock, which surprised us with
its melancholy cry.
A fine fat pig (capado) was offered for
10 $000. The proprietor, Lieut.- Col. Antonio Martins, stalked
about the premises, but did not address us as we brought no
introductory letter had he been a Paulista or a Mineiro, we
should have seen more of the inside, less of the outside, of his
;

house.
October 18.

The

—An awful

stillness

at

dawn was

bad sign.
we grounded
a

had greatly fallen during the night
heavily at the outset, and we had hardly turned the point when
the cuttingly cold east-wind set in, and drove us ashore, whilst
the deep blue cloud-bank threatened to keep us *' in quod."
All our attem^^ts to break prison were unavailing till the afterriver

;

*

Here M. Ilalfehl iownd

vcinf< of chlorite

and pyrites.

;

CHAP. xxiiL]

EX- VILLA DO PILAO

ARCADO TO SEXTO St.

353

noon, when the increased heat xiroduced flows shiftmg to the
south.
We i^assed the thatched huts, with here and there a
tiled house, called ''As Ai-eas " and " dos Carapinas,"* backed
b}^ high waves

After working

of white sand.

five houi's to

cover

nine miles, we were driven to the right bank, near the Povoacao

da Lagoa.
A swamp behind it swarms with water-fowl, and
on the northern or oj^posite bank is a little stream, the Barra das
Itans.f

October 19.

— This day's weather reflected that of yesterday.

We set out at 5 a.m., and were soon forced to lay up under the
shelter of a Coroa.

On the northern bank, rising from chocolate-

coloured bush, was a white-capped dome with a bald ridgey head,

and further

to

the east, the Pico de

Santarem, a sharp

little

Here the crew sold part of their stock to a stout young
fellow, the main of whose dress consisted of a bit of leather.
He can always catch fish and sell it when caught, and he
professed the profoundest indifference for amlhing but straw hats
cone.

and sweetmeats. The sands supplied us with an abundant collection of live and dead shells (So. 3).
At 1*40 P.M., when the fiercest gusts had blown themselves out,
we again began to wind between the island, sandbanks, and
The right bank,
shoals, which rendered steering a difficult task.
populous with villages and farms, was very rich land canoes
were fastened to the beach, and i^iles of wood, cut and squared,
Here the stream was overhung with a
stood ready for sale.
The
shrub, whose homely form we had but lately remarked.
it is, however, a dwarf
peo]ole call it Mangui (here Hibiscus)
willow, which grows in beds, and supplies strong and supple
mthes. The leaves are spiny at the edges, somewhat like the
the rest of the shrub
holl}', but by no means so well armed
reminded me of the Amazonian Salix Humboldtiana (Willd.),
;

;

;

according to Mr. Spence t the onl}^ species of true willow known in
the hot equatorial plains.

As we advanced the

showed a

river

* "Carapina" in the Lingiia Geral is
it is possibly an
translated Carpiiiteiro
"Indian" corrujjtion of the latter word
;

;

but it is popular in Minas Greraes and on
the Sao Francisco.

t Also written Itans and Intanhas.
Itan in Tupy means a shell generally.
VOL.

II,

.

clear channel,

and we

J (Journal, p. 90, R. Geog. Soc. vol.
Mr. Davidson remarked
xxxvi. of 1866. )
that evei-jiihing is thorny in these lands,
I did not neglect to
even the -willow.
,

collect

specimens of this curioixs

unfortunately they were lost,

A A

shmb

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

354

[chap. XXIII.

passed on the right bank the barras or mouths of two streams,
The former drains a
"da Ypoeira," and " de Sento Se."*
west-south-west, and the

by the
southern highlands. At 4 p.m., after again wasting five hours
over nine miles, we came to an anchorage- -the Porto de Sento
lagoon to

the

latter is

fed

Se.
* In

Mr. Keith Johnston's ma]^ we
helow Sento Se the month of a long
dotted line, the " R. do Salitre," which,
with a course of some 35 leagues, drains
the western counterslopes of the
Serra
Cliapada Diamantina. " The people assured
me that the stream falling in above Seuto
find

'

'

Se is of very limited extent
and, as will
be seen, the Riacho do Salitre enters the
main artery close above Joazeiro. Here
the influents greatly diminish in number
and importance
the
flanking ranges
ajiproach the river valley, and render it very
difierent from the higher stream.
;

:

—

CHAPTER XXIY.
FROM THE VILLA. DE SEXTO SE TO THE CACHOEIRA DO
SOBRADIXHO AND THE VILLA DO JOAZEIRO.
Ninth Teavessia, 18^ Leagues.

—

sento s^ described.— ixdolexce of people. the porto.— the women.
long delays by winds. pretty country. village near the ilha
de santa anna. we attack the cachoeira do sobradinho, the
first break after 720 miles. our life on the river.— precautions
for health. rkach the villa do joazeiro.

—

—

—

—

—

O prospecto, que os olhos arrebata
Na verdura das arvores frondosa,
Faz que o erro se escuse a meu aviso
De crer que fora hum dia Paraiso,
Cara. 7, 75.

The

*'

Porto de Sento Se"* consists of fishermen's huts in a

row, separated by a tall

wooden cross

;

a few of the tenements

are tiled, most of them are thatched, and the walls show a watermark three feet high. All have small compomids growm with
shrubs, especially the Castor-plant. The soil is w^hite and sandy,

and the floods penetrate deep into the land.
understand wdiy the

first

It is difficult to

dwellers did not prefer the opposite

bank, where, a few yards higher up, the channel

is

clean, and

there are two undulations wliich the waters can never reach.

We

Walked to the Villa de Sento Se, about a mile (1550 yards) to the
south-west.
The poor dry i^lam, now coarse yellow sand,
becomes during the rains a stream bed we saw the weeds of the
It was sprinkled with
last floods adhering to the shrub-stems.
:

*

M. Millivet(Greog. Diet.) has graimnati-

cized and nonsensed the word to" Santa Se,"

which has been adopted by Mr. Keith Johnston.

M. Halfekl, following the pronuncia-

tion, wi-ites it indifferently Santoce, Sentoce,

Centoce, in the Map Sento Se.

There are

many similar names on this part of

the
Prepece (before
Sento Se, like Sahara, wa.s the
noticed).
name of an Indian Cacique to whom the
lands belonged, and I have followed tho
spelling adopted by the Sento Se family.
stream,

as

Ura^e

and

A A 2

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

356

[chap. xxiv.

the Carnaliuba palm, which seems to delight in these situations of

extreme wet and excessive aridity. On the left of the path was a
bit of water which, with its neat border of trees and its central
looked

islet,

artificial ;

the silent spoon-bill paced

away

delicate rosy coat, and the noisy harlequin plover fled

in his

screaming

as we aj^proached.

The Villa is at the margin of this " dry swamp;" to the south
and west the horizon

is

fringed with Carnahubas, showing the

About half a league behind it are two
lumpy hills gashed into red and grey quarries, and lined and
patched with Avhite quartz and sandstone. Here they form cliff's
course of the stream.

and walls, there they are detached buttresses the general colour
is that of the sunburnt flat, and they seem to reek with heat.
This Serra do Mulungu * is, aj)parently, an offset from the Serra
do Brejo, which up-stream showed its white cliff-walls, and which
now bends from south-west to north-west. The material is
granite piercing through the sandstones and secondary formations
we are fast descending to the rock-floor, the core of the
land, and we begin to know without being told that we must be
;

;

approaching a succession of Rapids.

The entrance to the Villa was via the prison, a tiled roof, lath
and plaster walls (pao a pique), and iron bands nailed to a
Opposite it stood the Church of S. Jose, remarkable onl}^ for its excellent bricks, and for the " Cantaria" quartzose granite, with spots of black mica in the blue-grey matrix t
with the exception of the wandering block shown to us at the
Brejo do Solgado, it is the first upon which we have lighted

window frame.

;

since we left the coast ranges.

Hence it will extend at intervals

down the Sao Francisco.

all

By the side of the church, facing north-west, and raised above
and white-washed houses
behind is a scatter of palm-thatched huts, and the only neat
tenement is that of the Vigario. The travelled " Menino " bitterl}^ scoffed at this attempt at a Villa, where we found fresh
meat and rum, but could not buy even the pepper of the country.
the

*

floods,

are

half a

dozen

Mulungu (probal)]y an African word)
the name of a thorny leguminous ti-ee
with beans of a lively red and black like
(but much larger than) those of the Abrus
precatoi'ius.
They are mashed and applied
to the wounds of animals when the "bicho"
is

tiled

has entered,
+ M. Half eld (Rel. 124)

calls

the rock

and declares that he
found in it jiyrites which may prove auri**

gneiss-granite, "

ferous.

VILLA DE SENTO Sfi TO JOAZEIRO.

CHAP. XXIV.]

357

Signs of a smithy appeared upon the ground,* but no symptoms
of an oven

;

here they prefer the Pao de Milho, an unleavened

Seven days' bread," of maize-floiu* kneaded T\ith boiling water.
Other favourite dishes are " faroffa," or "passoca," pounded meat
mixed with farinha, fuba, or even bananas.
*'

The life of these country places has a barbarous uniformity.
The people say of the country " e muito atrasado," and they
show in their proper persons all the reason of the atraso.
every man's object to do as

as he

little

It is

can, and he limits his

utmost industry to the labours of the smallest Fazenda. These
idlers rise late and breakfast early, perhaps with a sweet potato
and a cup of the inevitable coffee sometimes there is a table,
;

often a mat is spread upon the floor, but there is alwa3^s a cloth.
"
It is then time "ku amkia," as the Sawahilis say, to " drop in

upon neighbours, and
talk.

The hot hours

to slay time with the

are

spent in the

smallest of small

hammock, swinging,

dozing, smoking, and eating melons.

Dinner is at 2 p.m., a
more substantial matter of fish, or meat, and manioc with vegetables at times, and everywhere, save at Sento Se, with peppersauce.
Coffee and tobacco serve to shorten the long tedious
hom*s, and the evenmg is devoted to a gentle stroll, or to ''tomar
a fresca," that is, sitting in a shady spot to windward of the
house and receiving visits. Supper ushers in the night-fall, and
on every possible occasion the song and drum, the dance and

dram are prolonged till near daybreak. Thus they lose energy,
they lose memory, they cannot persuade themselves to undertake
anything, and

all

exertion seems absolutely impossible to them.

At Sento Se the citizens languidly talk of a canal which is to be
brought from the Rio de Sao Francisco at an expense of £1680.
But no one di*eams of doing anything beyond tallying. " Govern-

ment " must do everything for them, they will do nothing for
themselves.

After a day or two's halt in these hot-beds of indo-

lence, I begin to feel lilce one of those who are raised there.

Returning to the Porto we amused ourselves with prospecting
We heard of two elders who could give information,
both however were absent, and the nearest approach to manhood
in the place was a youth in a suit of brown holland and a wideawake of tiger-cat skin. We hunted up, however, an intelligent
the people.

*

The

iron,

of Joao Nunez,

we were

told, is brought from the neighboxiring Fazenda de Sento Se
upon the stream of that name.

THE HIGHLANDS OF TlfE BRAZIL.

358

[chap. xxiv.

Moradora (habitantess) who did her best to enlighten us.
The washerwomen, officially called white, worked nude to the
waist the subsequent toilette was a shift that exposed at least
one shoulder, and displayed the outlines more than enough, a
skirt and a bright cotton shawl often thrown over the head.
The
feet were bare, but the hair, which was admirably thick and
glossy, was parted in the centre and combed out straight to below
the ears, where it fell in a dense mass of short stiff ringlets, reminding one of Nubia. Some women and many of the children
had erect hair, a " Pope's head," a fluffy gloria standing out
old

:

eight incheF, lil^e the "mop" of a Somal, or a

Papuan negro.
One girl had taken for her pet a leaden-coloured, hairless dog,*
whose naked skin had a curious effect when compared with the
head of its mistress. The only trace of occupation was the
twanging of a Jango, or African music-bow, which, in the hands
of a boy, produced a murmur which was not unpleasant.

Before night a small

which had been weatherbound, and which the little raft had beaten, came in racing, and
regulating by horn and song the measured dip of their long
sweeps. During the floods they can drop down from Remanso
to Joazeiro in twenty-four hours, now they will have spent nine
days.
This is the last trip of the year, and all are anxious to
end it. Most of the barcas had women on board in toilettes as
fleet of barcas,

simple as those ashore.

The patrao on the other hand often
wore old clothes manifestly of French build, a sign that we are
nearing civilisation.
October 20.
asleep

;

—We

set out at 3 a.m.,

when the barcas were

all

the thermometer showed 78° (F.), which encouraged us

to expect Mormaco, clouded and windless weather.

We were not

disappointed in a good working day.
On the right, and lying
from south-west to north-east, was the Serra da Cumieira,t

shaped Uke a vast pent-roof two days ago we saw distinctly its
snowy-white cliff walls resembling " Palisades " of dolomite,
and terminal ramps slightly concave.
It is prolonged by the
;

Morro do Frade, a similar formation, which takes its name from
a single pike or organ-pipe standing out from the abrupt preci* Prince Max (i. 219) informs ns that
he never saw a specimen of these hideous
canines, which are now not uncommon at
B'dh'ni.
He refers to Humboldt (Ansichten
der Natur, p. 90), who mentions them in

Spanish South America.
+ From Cume, a top or ridge-beam, thus
we say the Comb of a hilh The Cumieira
(M. Halfeld, p. 126, Comieira) is opposed
to the

" Caibros "

or rafters,

which sup-

VILLA DE SENTO SE TO JOAZEIRO.

CHAP. XXIV.]

359

pice.
The shapes of the mountains now change to the plateaux
and quoins, the ledges, bluffs, and uptilted cliffs of a granitic
country
these are probably ramifications from the primitive
;

ranges nearer the coast.

The river is of noble

breadth, 4870

and its right bank about the Sitio da Gequitaia * was pleasant to look upon.
Near the water-side, plentiful as Hibiscus
on the higher stream, rose in bushes of tender, velvet}^ verdure,

feet,

dotted with decayed leaves of dull gold, the large trumpet-shaped

and mauve-coloured flowers of the Sensitive Canudo, wliich, however, with all its beauty serves only to poison cattle.

On more

elevated ground, and sprinkled with the Carnahuba, were fields of

the dwarf Maniba-manioc and

where ate their fill unusually
fine horses and asses.
The fences of the wax-palm frond effectually keep out the destructive water-hog (Capivara) and extend
to the stream-brink, with passages here and there left open to
the water.
The countrvman is evidently more industrious than
the townsman, and I was surprised to see so many evidences of
civilisation, where all is supposed by Pdo de Janeiro to be a
barren barbarism.
ha}",

Since morning dawned we observed outcrops of rock in midstream, and on both sides

M. Halfeld calls

''

;

they are probably limestone, which

Near Encaibro is a deposit of

Pedras Vivas."

Fiu^ther down,
where we landed for breakfast, the bank was red with iron and

calcareous matter to a certain extent quarried.

mottled with pj-rites

;

along the brink lay bits of calcareous tuff,

water-washed into curious shapes, tliigh-bones, knuckles, cii'cles,
bulges, and spinal processes.
Nearly opposite us was the Riacho
da Canoa, said to flow near a rich Salina hence probably the
;

neighboiu'ing chapel, neatly tiled and white-washed like a bridecake, towards which parties of people in

Sunday garb were pad-

dling their canoes.

The sun, nearly overhead, waxed hot, and it stung.

Yet under

the flimsy awning the heat tempered by the breeze never ex-

At 2 p.m. we saw on
the left bank the Casa Nova, a large white and tiled house near
the left jaw of its " riacho." t
It was fronted by a long sandbar,
ceeded 87° (F.), and on shore 90°

port

the

"ripas"

or

thin

longitudinal

strips under the tiles.

*

M. Halfeld writes Giquitaia, and trans-

latesit (Rel. 126) "pimentasoccadacomSal."

+ Above Casa Nova IMr.

Keith

John-

ston places the " E, Casa Nova," which he
makes the frontier line between Bahia and

(F.).

Pemambiico, running about twenty leagues
from the great river, nearly due west to
the long dividing range between the Valleys
of the Sao Francisco and the Paranahyba.

As

will

be seen,

the

frontier

2ilst, not the 234th league.

has laid it do"WTi con-ectly.

is

in

the

M. Halfeld

";;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

3G0

[chap. xxiv.

which the waters had partially covered, and a dwarf vegetation
grew ap]5arentl3' from the depths. Below it the bank was green
the
with the sweet Capim Cabelludo * the Capim d'Agua
Taquaril, a thin bamboo used for small pipings and fireworks,
and the Zozo, or Soso, a kind of Pistia, like the P. stratiotes
of the Central African lakes.
The pebble -banks and the sandbars are grown with the Angari, also called Jaramataia or Jarmnataia, which springs up even when nearly covered with water
this stiff and woody shrub, resembling a strong osier, will extend
;

:

The wild Guava (Araga) is familiar

as far as the Great Rapids.

to us since the mid-course of the

smooth

About sunset
immense breadth,

Rio das Velhas.

the Sao Francisco was a grand spectacle, of

heaven and
earth.
The typical formation now appeared clearly developed
on both sides we no longer see the rule of rolling, rounded
as

and reflecting,

oil,

steel mirror,

like a

;

hills

and waves that characterise the Highlands of the Brazil

yet there are ridges that continue in

many parts to be stone-

faced and white-banded above.

In front a distant block, the
Serra do Capim, showed behind it a dwarf rounded block which
glittered like snow in a Swiss summer.
Again, off the Fazenda
do Mathias on the right bank, we sighted a low Serrote, lumpy
as a camel's back.

This day we had accomplished thirty-three miles in nine
hours, an unusual feat, and at sunset we anchored near the left
bank above the Ilha de Santa Anna. We prepared for pleasant
repose, when the north-east

came down upon us, and swept the
the only change was from

wavelets over what we called om- deck

;

bad to worst via worse, and vice versa till nearly dawn.
October 21.
The wind was " damnado," as the pilots ex-

—

pressed

it,

the stream

again

fell,

and,

despite

the

increased

we made no headway. We therefore
anchored once more on the left bank, and went forth to " hunt
provisions, which are now becoming scarce with us.
The margin
velocity of the current,

showed scatters of granite and lime, with a strew of broken
shells, and some good specimens of massive laminated quartz of
the purest white.
The surface of the river plain is sandy and
the heavy rains last but four months with two of light showers
yet the soil, enriched by the calcareous matter below, supports
flocks of sheej) and goats.
Here the convolvulus with fleshy
;

Tliis useful growth is unknown to the higher stream
it
the roughness of the stem and of the under surface of the leaf.
:

derives

its

name from

—
VILLA DE SEXTO SE TO JOAZEIRO.

CHAP. XXIV.]

361

and pink trmnpet-flower (Ipomcea arenosa), was a reminiscence of the African coasts. We soon stnick upon a bushpath leading to a couple of huts, where good cotton was growing
in a fenced field.
Yet the people were in rags and rags, though
we think Httle of them in England, here startle the eye the
women had not taken the trouble to weave the tree wool almost
within hand-reach of theii* doors.
There was a Girao-garden of
lavender and geranium for decorating the hair, but no one had
leaves,

;

:

planted oranges or melons, bananas, or vegetables

was to be had.
it

not even rice

The country can produce all the wants of life

bears nothing

the people should be well off

;

I compared theii*

tatters.

:

—they are in

state with those a few leagues higher

up, and can explain then* inferiority only by

some difficulty of

communication.
After wallving 400 3'ards we crossed the inundated low land,
and reached what may be called the true coast. Here the lise
was strewed with water-washed " cascalho " and angular ''gurgulho " in regular lines. The soil was di-ier than usual, and
amongst the Cactacese towered high the Mandracuru, or Mandacui'u (C. brasiliensis, Piso).

feet

It is a singular growth, often thii'ty

high with two of diameter, and the huge limbs, garnished

with

stiff

thorns, stand

The wood is a

bolt upright.

bright

3"ellow coloiu' ^ith longitudinal white streaks ; it is excellent for

roof-rafters (Caibros), and further
dles.

down it makes the best pad-

The weight, however, renders it unwieldy, and the newly-

cut wood falling into the water sinks like lead.

—

In the evening anything for a change
down-stream to the Santa Anna village.
!

—we dropj^ed two miles
Here it is proposed,

during the dry season, to station the steamer wliich, diuing the

he at Joazeii'o, nine leagues distant. At x>resent it
is a lump of pauper huts raised but little above the bank, whose
iron-stained and water-rolled pebbly beds accompany us some
way down. For four patacas (1 S 140) * we engaged a pilot for
the Rapids, called do Sobradinho or de Vidal Affonso.f
During
this
the last 720 miles we have seen nothing but a wind-ripple
is the portal of a new region, and the river will offer ever-increasing difficulties, culminating in an impossibility.
We examined
floods, will

;

* Barcas

pay 4 $ 000, and when

lost

nothing.

old

+ "Sobradinho"
nerally

than the Sobrado.
Concerning the
name, "Vidal Alfonso," at present
found only in books, I cannot offer the

si^e

cro-miing

a

is

hill,

rock -boulder, geand of smaller

least infonnation.

"

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

362

[chap. xxiv.

Opposite Santa Anna

carefully the lay of the land and stream.

mere sandstrip, backed b}^ the Ilha do
Junco, or de Santa Anna, an inhabited and cultivated island
The channel
nearly four miles long, by one and a half broad.
the
Santa Anna
running from west to east, trends at the end of
island to the south-east, and breaks over scattered rocks for
is the

Ilhote do Junco, a

about one league, rendering the whole of the right-hand channel
unnavigable.
On the left bank the Serras da Cachoeira and do

Sobrado approach the stream with a la}^ from north-east to southwest.
Upon the opposite side the Serrote do Tatauhy springing
from the south-east completes the head of a broad arrow with
The latter has
the Serra da Castanhera * from the south-west.
a roof-ridge outline slightly bent in the middle, and near the
stream projects a white knob, the Serra do Capim. The reefs
are nothing but the subaqueous prolongations of these aerial
granitic lines.!

—Despite wind and sun, and " solemn warnings," —the
people caution us against accidents, and I " take blame," —we
Oct. 22.

shipped the pilot Jacinto Jose de Souza, and set out at 2 p.m. to
attack the Cachoeira do Sobradinho.

Painning in an hour down

we
came to the head of the Ilha da Cachoeira a thin strip of wellwooded island about four miles long, with a narrow channel
between it and the left bank.
The main stream, still flowing on the right, is broken by a number of tufty islets
the
pilot declares that it would be suicide to attempt this gridiron
of reefs trending from north-east to south-west, forming the
the smooth water to the north of the Ilha de Santa Anna,

—

—

;

Cachoeira do Junco, and ending in the

fierce

Cachoeira de

called

the Bra9o da

Tatauhy.

The

navigable Chenal on the

Cachoeira or do Sobradinho

;

left

is

the upper mouth, 200 yards broad,

presently narrows to half that width, and the general trend
south-east,

with shiftings to the

south and east.

smooth water ends, and the current greatly
however, exceeding six miles an hour. |
*

M.

Halfelcl

calls

it

the

" Sen-a do

Sacco do Meio.

+ Behind this broad arrow, and forming,
as it were, its shaft, is the Serra do Salitre
or do Mnlato, which resembles in gentle

brown ramp and upper white

bluff the

Serra da Cumieira below Sento Se.

When

is

Here the

increases,

never,

The first obstacle was

approaching Joazeiro, the highest part of
this range seems to be capped by a bonnet,
like the " Pintor " of Chique-Chique.
+ Of course I mean at the time when
we passed it. Even then the six miles maybe diminished to an average of four miles an
hour.

—

CHAP. XXIV ]

VILLA DE SEXTO SE TO JOAZEIRO.

363

a pyramid in mid stream, with a platform of rock " en caboclion,"
projecting from the left bank.

The material is a large-grained

brown-grey granite, often iron-stained and veined with quartz
it has large holes, in which the salt-maker evai)orates the saline
water which he has obtamed by straining the mould.
;

Immediately below the pyramid, the canal is again split by two
The upper is of low vegetation
islets, the Ilhotas da Cachoeu*a.
and in these x>laces the Joazeiro and
the lower supports trees
the Jatoba, the only growths of any importance, are nobly developed by the exceedingly damp air. In 1857 the head of the
second Ilhota was cut off by the cmTent, which also washed away
a slice of the left shore proper, upon which were fom* houses.
Unless arrested by the granite, it will go still further, and thus
;

;

—

Natm-e will be her own engineer. The clear way leaves to the
left the upper Ilhota, whose head is garnished with lumpy rocks,
and strikes, as usual, the apex of a triangle here two small
breaks, passed within four minutes, make the water eddy and boil
on both sides. The largest stones are on the right, where an
:

and they might easily be removed by blasting.
Below the second Ilhota is the true Cachoeira do Sobradinho,
denoted by a fine clump of " Cupped " trees on the long island to
the right
the left bank shows houses and fences extending aU
islet is forming,

;

This chief obstruction is a wall built across
stream, with a central breach* where the water breaks in two
Here barcas prefer cordelling they are assisted by the
j)laces.
willing country people, who stand upon a low rock on the left
side
but accidents are by no means unfrequent. f We turned

way down.

the

;

;

stern on, and changing paddles for poles, took, the wind being in
our teeth, the left side of the breach. The gap between the two

rock slabs, worn into pot-holes, and channelled by water, was so
narrow that we almost scraped sides. The sunken stones below
this point were easily avoided.

After two hours' work we came to the Cachoeii'a do Bebedor,
* M.
the
Half eld calls this part
"Caixao " he makes it 570 to T'l feet
broad, and in the dries almost too naiTOw
The greatest
for barcas to pass through.
:

of the rock above water is 8-60
the current is 4-17 miles per hour,
and the height cf fall 3 -6 feet.
+ HereM. Halfeld's barque, the Princeza
do Rio, snapped her tow-rope, and was nearly
lost.
We read in the Relatorio (p. 132)

height
feet

;

"They informei- me that the pilot who
guided my vessel diu'ing its descent of the
rapid perished in the same place." They
assured me that ]\Ianuel Antonio, the pilot
in question, had fallen out of his canoe,
and had been drowmed in smooth water, of
Nothing
course after "liquoring up."
but the gi-eatest^ carelessness can cause an
accident at the Sobradinho.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

3G4

opposite the liamlet of that ilk

;

[chap. xxiv.

here again the snags and rocks

The next was the Cachoeira Criminosa, of
which the worst part is the name here, however, the hlind rocks
offered no difficult}-.

;

are hard to thread, and necessitate frequent passing from side to

AVe are

side.

now at the south-western foot of the

Serra do

Sobrado, a remarkable formation which has long been in prospect.

Seen from Santa Anna, to the south it is a quoin-shaped mass,
with snow}^ lines sloping to the stream and it appears to be on
the right, wdiereas it hems the left bank compressing the channel.
A nearer view shows the lower three-quarters, invested with tall,
thick bush, which dmndles in stature as it ascends
below the
crest are two nearly parallel bluffs of bare rock, inclining tow^ards
the water, and separated by a thicket-grown level.
In the undercliff appeared the dark mouth of a cave
and further down there
;

;

;

is,

they say, a larger tunnel.

The mass wears the look of limestone, based upon the granite
which outcrops in the river.* The peculiarity of asj^ect has
it with sundry legends.
According to the peoj)le, a
" corrente," or large chain, has been found extending from top

su2)x>lied

to

bottom.

chain

;

season,

Our pilot, not an imaginative man, derided

but declared that, at times, especially near the
the

mountain

made

" estrondos,"

or

the

rainj^

loud rumbling

sounds, adding that the last had been sufficient to frighten him.

As I have remarked, tales

of roaring hills are

common in the

Brazil ; perhaps in places the mysterious noises mety be caused

by the sudden elevation or depression of the mountain.
At the foot of the Sobrado we avoided, by traversing to the
right, a succession of small breaks.
A little jump was the last
obstacle, and at 4*25 p.m. we came to the Boca do Brayo, wdiere
the south-eastern end of the Ilha da Cachoeira projects a few
outlying blocks into the main stream of the S. Francisco,

now

Thus we had expended upon the Sobradinho

clean and narroAv.

2 hours 45 minutes, but the wind had always been against us. We
landed Jacinto Jose da Souza on the left bank, and thanked him

good man, careful and
dexterous, and, wonderful to relate, he works without noise.
This obstruction is in its present state, and at this season, fatal
to steamer traffic
during the floods, the only obstacle must be

heartily over a parting '.'tot:" he is a

;

The pilot declared the material to he
marble.
M. Halfeld (p. 133) describes it
as " Itacolumite alternating with strata

of

talcose

schist

and

quartz,

running

south -south -west to north -north -east, with
westerly inclination."

VILLA DE SENTO Sfi TO JOAZEIRO.

CHAP. XXIV.]

the rush of water.

363

Canalising through granitic rock is not likely

and the state of civilisation is here hardly sufficiently
advanced to keep up sluice gates. Removing the scattered rocks
and bars will draw the water into the central thalweg, and make
a safe passage which, when once made, is not likely to be choked.
to pay,

M. Halfeld estimates the expenditure at d939,000, which is, perhaps, the minimum, if at least the tln-ee miles are to be rendered
navigable for tug- steamers throughout the year.

Altogether, the

Cachoeira do Sobradinho, this furthest southern outlier of the
Great Rapids, is equally interesting to the engineer and to the
geographer.

AVe ran down the

which narrows from two miles to a
quarter of that width, and presently we came to another sjTnptom
of rapids, the first rock-islet sighted in the Sao Francisco.
This
*' hog's-back"
amid- stream is the prolongation of a Serrote on
the north bank amongst the broken slabs of the lower part, half
masked by tufty growth, is a cavern with a bad name. The
novelty of the appearance has, as usual, bred fables the boatmen, however ugly, will not sleep here for fear of the Siren with
golden hair, who lies in wait for them.
They know it as the
Ilha da Mae d'Agua but "serious persons," who "disapprove
of" Melusine de Lusignan, call it de Santa Rita, a saintess to
line,

;

;

;

whom the impossible is possible

and who, little known in England, is festivated (July 12) in the Brazil T\dth novenas and
rockets which render the day detestable.
At sunset we anchored
off the sandbar do Lameii'ao
we are now^ within some 9° 20' of
the Equator
the great light is almost overhead, and yet the
weather is cold and gustv. Five small huts within sight on the
left bank marked the Pao da
Historia, the frontier (divisa)
between Bahia on the south, and the Pernambuco Province to the
;

:

;

north.
Oct. 23.

—After an hour and a half of paddling, the wind, from

drove us to anchor on the right bank. Here a
clump of wild figs, tufted with the mistletoe -like Herva de passarmho (Polygonum), and sjiringmg from a bed of soft, short, and
green Graminha, the local Bahiana grass, shaded our mats more
pleasanth^ than any tent.
These delays were inevitable, and the
only remedy was to extract from them as much enjoyment as
mist}^ clouds,

The prospect lent powerful aid.

The

lustrous blue
"
sky deepening through the dark fleshy leaves, was the " glazing
possible.

:

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BKAZIL.

366

[chap. xxiv.

the picture was a grand flood, flavous as Tiber, coursing behind
the gnarled trunks and the buttressed roots of the Gamelleiras.

Humming birds,

Life and action were not wanting to the poem.
little

larger than dragon-flies, red-beaked,

chatoyant green,

now

and with plumage of

at the stranger as they

stared

perched

upon the thinnest twig, then poised themselves with
expanded tail feathers and twinkling wings, whilst plunging their

fearlessly

needle-bills into the flower cup, or tapping its side ; * then darted,

thrown by the hand, to some bunch of richer and virgin
bloom. Compared with the other tenuirostres of the Brazilian
grove, which are, however, more dainty and dehcate than the
tiniest European wren, they w^ere Canova's Venus by the side of
the Sphinx. And the little bodies contain mighty powers of love
and hate they fight as furiously as they woo and no unplumed
biped ever died of " heimweh " so readily and so certainly as the
humming bird imprisoned in a cage.f
AVe rise before dawn, and after a
Our day is as follows
as

if

—

;

:

*'

—

merenda " of coffee and biscuits, or rusks, appl}^ ourselves to

writing up journals, and to arranging collections.

The crew eat

bacon and beans at 7 to 8 a.m. I reserve the process till 11 a.m.,
when the neck of the da3^'s work has been broken. The bow of
one of the canoes is a good place for a cold bath, and there is no
:

better preparation for the hotter hours.

After noon the labour

becomes lighter; and the little industries learned by African
For instance, the manufacture of
travel now come into pla3\
rough cigars with the " fumo de tres cordas," the ''three-twist,"
" Reading up " is decidedly more
brought from Januaria.
pleasant than writing in a rickety raft upon the mattress stuffed
with corn-giumes, which acts table, and the scene- shifting of the
river and of the mountains, combined with the subtle delights of
mere motion, is an antidote to ennui. When the breeze becomes
a gale, we explore the valley for shells and metals, or climb the
hills to enjoy the scener}^ ;

or should the

demon of Idleness get

the up2:)er hand in his own home, we stretch ourselves beneath
the trees, enjoying the perfumed shade, and a life soft as moss,
an approach to the " silent land." About sunset, we feed in the

humblest way, upon rice when there is any, and upon meat or fish
* I have often found tlie lull fuchsia
pierced in the lower pai-t of the cnp.
+ Here the people universally believe
that the hummini^-bird is transmutable into

the humming-bird liawk-moth (Macroglossa
Titan).
Upon this subject Mr. Bates has
treated (i. 182).

ciiAP. XXIV.]

VILLA DE SEXTO SE TO JO AZ GIRO.

367

under similar restricted conditions. Wlien the niglit-birds begin
to awake from their day-sleep, we choose some well-exposed place
where immundicities will not trouble us, and " turn in." It is a
life of perfect ease, the only fear or trouble is lest the dark hours
should be too cold, or the sun too hot, or the wind troublesome
the spes finis is, and should be, the last thing dwelt upon.
Diuing nearl}^ four months' travel down the Eio de Sao
Francisco, with alternations of storm and rain, cold wind and hot
wind, mists and burning suns, I had not an hour of sickness.
Mr. Davidson, it is true, suffered from " chills " but he had
brought bad health to the river, and he improved in condition as
we went. On the other hand, it must be remembered that we
did not travel in the bad season, which is here, as elsewhere,
The prenear Brazilian rivers, the drying up of the waters.
cautions which I adopted were few, and mostly comprised in my
;

;

old rule to alter diet as little

as

possible

;

it

is

my intimate

conviction that, although the sojourner in foreign lands to a

must not attempt to conform to
"
the
manners and customs of the people." As regards diinkingcertain extent may, the traveller

water, the only necessary care is to wash all the jars every night,

and to allow the dej^osit to settle, which it readily does without
alum or almonds. Coffee keeps up the vital heat, and lime-juice
corrects that scorbutic tendency which often accompanies the
loosened state of the waist-band.
On raw mornings, and every
night, I "made it twelve o'clock," with a wme-giass of sphits,
good cognac (so called), when procurable Cachaca when there
was nothing else. We religiously avoided stimulants, even wine

—

and beer, during the day

and two grains of quinine readily corMy chief thought was to be warmly
rected nervous depression.
clothed when sleeping, a precaution learned from the Arabs of
East Africa. The wallv and talk were essentially parts of hygiene
but, above all, activity of mind, "plenty to do," contentment, and
;

;

again, no " spes finis."
Oct. 24.

— The night was of

a stillness so deep, that an unpro-

Not so the next morning.
We passed on the right the Barra do Riacho do Salitre. The

tected candle would have burned out.

small brackish stream can, during the floods, be ascended for
some leagues by canoes.* Here the bank is tall, and wliite with
* ]\Ir. Keith Joimston places a stream far above Joazeiro and another far below
but none near it.

it,

368

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

[chap. xxiv.

and scatters of the finest limestone the land is
hedged with dry
well fenced in, and even the Carnahubal is
Below it we found a labyrinth of rocks sunken and
thorns.
no improvements, however, are here necesabove the sui'face
After being nearly swamped more than once, we passed to
sary.
* at the
port the Ilha do Fogo, and found quarters in a baylet
eastern end of the " Villa do Joazeiro," defended by a low bush
Traders usually anchor further
projecting into the stream.
blocks, layers,

;

;

west.
* Here called the Ressaca or Resaca.

CHAPTER XXV.
AT THE VILLA DO JOAZEIRO.

—

THE VILLA HAS A GREAT NAME LTS'DESERVEDLY. THE VILLA DESCRIBED.^
THE LANDS ABOUT IT.— PRESENT PRICES OP ARTICLES. THE VINE.—
COLONEL SENTO SE AND THE STEAMER " PRESIDENTE DANTAS." — VISITED
THE ILHA DO FOGO.— THE RAILWAYS FROM PERNAMBUCO AND BAHIA TO
JOAZEIRO. RAILWAYS A FAILURE IN THE BRAZIL. — NEGLECT OF WATEIl
COMMUNICATION. —THE BAHIAN STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY AND A
LATERAL TRAMWAY PAST THE RAPIDS THE TRUE SYSTEM FOR EXPLOITING
THE SAO FRANCISCO.

—

—

Eucrespava-se a onda docementc

Qual aiu'a leve, quaiido move o feuo
prado ameno rir costuma,
Imitava as boninas com a escuma.

;

E como

Caraimiru, 6, 44.

I

HAD long heard of this place as the future terminus where

the great lines of rail were to meet ; on the higher Siio Francisco

had been spoken of as a centre of civilization, a little Paris,
and the Provincial Government of Bahia actually ordered a
detailed plan of the place to he made and deposited in its archives.
8o much for the imagination. Now for the realit}'.
Joazeu'o has a family likeness to the Villa da Barra do Rio
Grande. It is a long line of houses fronting the river, which,
here some 2500 feet broad, flows in a straight Ime from west to
The banks are raised 21 to 25 feet above low- water level,
east.
The citizens all
but many of the tenements show flood-marks.
declare that M. Halfeld was in error when he wrote (Relatorio,
p. 140), ''the greatest rise in 1792 was of 45 palms " (upwards of
32 feet) " over the usual height, so that on this occasion the
church was flooded 11 palms deep, and so, more or less, were all
In 1865, they assert, the inundation equalled
the liabitations."
it

that of '92, and, although

it

reached the cemetery, it was two or

three palms below the cliurch and the main square.
VOL.

s B

the highlands OF THE BRAZIL.

;j70

[chap. xxv.

borne of the houses front the stream, especially in the more
civilized western quarter ; the centre shows a ruinous flight of

broad stone steps, and here the abodes turn their backs and their
yard-walls to the water, which has washed off the plaster and
exposed the skeleton of adobe, or palm- wattle, and dab. The

sandy soil requires a foundation of the limestone or the freestone,
of which the country is a quarry; the streets, however, are
totally destitute of pavement, and only the best tenements are
subtended by an embryo bottom of brick. A few trees, under

and small transactions take place, are
scattered over the beach, which is strewed with pebbles, pudding-

whose shade

salt is sold,

stone, and u'on-cemented quartz, in the lowest levels.

The Yilla

has but one sobrado, belonging to some fourteen proprietors, and
even this has not a sign of glass windows.
At the western end there is a cemetery, with whitewashed and
tile-coped walls, including a dwarf chapel.

do Mourao, which fronts the river.

Thence runs the Rua

Behind this thoroughfare lies

the Eua do Acougue, " Shambles Street," and, inland of all, the

Kua da Eecoada, both ragged lines of i^oor huts, mostly thatched.
hand and
extended forefinger of Rio de Janeiro, directing carriages which
way to go, when there is not a carriage within 300 miles.
About midway in the long shallow Ime is the Praca do Commercio, whose loose sand, sj)read ankle deep, forms an excellent
the chief use appeared to be that of an
reflector for the sun
arena for fighting turkej^ cocks. Attempts have been made to
line it with tamarinds, which are now stunted, and with the fleshyThese

streets have the pretension to hoist the white

:

leaved *' Almendreira," or Persian almond,* about eight years old,

but poor compared with those further inland.
princii^al

stores ;

before

1857 there were

Here

fifty-two,

are the

but

many

failures reduced the number to fourteen— not noticing the twenty-

That civilization-gauge, the Post-office, is also a
dry-goods store; the shopbo}^ permitted me somewhat superciliously to inspect the '' dead letters," which reposed in a lid-less

five

''Vendas."

Eau de Cologne box.

The

correio is supposed to go out on the

and the 23rd of each month, and to come in on the
2nd, the 12th, and the 22nd to-day is the 24th, and it gives no
3rd, the 13th,

;

*^

1 have never seen the flower or /ruit of

which resembles the Stercxilire.
It thrives in the lK>t Iminid atmosphere of
this tree,

Pcrnambuco, and was planted possihl.y hy
the old Portuguese on the East African
Coast a^iout Kihva (Quiloa).

—
AT THE VILLA DO JUAZEIEO.

CHAP. XXV.]

371

Here is a single j)harmacy, and the Capitao
who keeps it prescribes his own drugs there is no doctor, and,
consequent!}', there is little mortality.
The people are by no
means a healthy race the height above sea level does not exceed
sign, and wlio cares *?

;

;

1000 feet, yet catarrhs and pleurisies, fevers and pneumonias, not
to mention other diseases, abound.
One of the citoyennes had a
nose i)rolonged like the trunk of a young elej^hant, and an eye to

match

;

the hideous affection was called Cabmigo, or erysipelas.

The head of the square is occupied by the new Matriz of N"
burnt brick, and lime, of course unI had supposed that want of funds was the cause, the

das Grutas,

S'^

finished.

of. stone,

declared that such was not the case
probably it is
" politics." Very mean is the original temple, said to have been

citizens

;

built by the Jesuits and theii"

open windows, or rather holes
thin wooden posts

;

'"'

;

Indian " acolytes.

Above are two

below is a similar pair, railed with

the belfries, as in Sienna of the Earthquakes,

mere walls, with openings in which the bells are slung, and
Beyond the church is the Rua Dii-eita, a slip of a street running off
into space.
Here the river is faced by the Eua dos Espinheiros,
whose small huts and vendas drive a trifling trade a large halftiled shed, sheltering huge wooden screws and new waggons of the
oldest style, represents the docks, where the steamer will be
are

the quaint finials suggest donkey's ears erect in curiosit3\

;

launched

—when she

arrives.

Joazeiro was disannexed from Sento Se, under whose tutelage

became a freguezia, and was created a villa on ]May 18, 1833,
It is now the head-quarters of the arrondissement (Comarca), and
the residence of a Juge de Droit, and of a '' Superior Commandant " it has also a tovai hall and a jail. The municipality is
tolerably populous, exceeding 1500 voters.
The townspeople
were 1328 souls in 1852, and are now about 2000, of whom a
(quarter is servile, whilst the houses, which have not increasedj
number 331, subject to the tax known as the Decima Urbana.
The situation of Joazeiro is, commercially speakmg, good
a pomt where four main lines meet the up stream, the down
stream, the great highway to Bahia, and the road to the Northern

it

;

—

Provinces.

This central site will secure for it importance in the

proposed Province of S3,o Francisco

;

of course

it

expects to be-

come the capital, but what is the use of a capital close to the
frontier?

The position will be that of a great outpost, transmitB B 2

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BBAZIL.

:ir2

ting to the seaboard the i)roduce of

Eastern Go^az.

It liad

[chap. xxv.

Southern Piauhy and of

of okl considerable traffic with Oeiras

and this continues
even since Theresina, ninety leagues further, became the metroI found in port only two barcas, and the exj^ense of transpolis.
port greatly injures trade.
The ''Yiagem Eedonda," on going
and coming to and from Cachoeira city, at the head of steamer
navigation in the Bahian Reconcavo, has lately risen from 15 $000
to 253000, and even to SO^^'OOO per mule, carrying at most
(eighty leagues), formerly cai)ital of l^iauhy,

seven arrobas

— about

10s. per 32

pounds.

The down journey,

via A'illa Nova da Rainha, occupies ten to thirteen days, the fast

travelling bemg eight leagues per diem ;

and it is said that a line
properly laid out would reduce the distance from ninety-two to
seventy leagues.

The lands immediately about Joazeiro, especially on the Bahian
are poor, hard, and dry
the rains last from the end of
October till March, and the fertilizing showers of the dry season

side,

;

are wanting.

The price is somewhat high, two square leagues

can hardly be purchased for less than i'2000.

A little is done in

the way of breeding horses and mules, black cattle, sheep and

and poultry, especially turkeys. Salt and saltpetre,
limestone and sugar with a saline taste, are supplied by the
Riacho do Salitre this stream rises about Pacuhy, receives the
tributes of the Jacobina Nova and the Jacobma Velha, and feeds
the Sao Francisco after a course of forty leagues.
A place called
goats, pigs

:

the Brejo, distant about four leagues to the south-west,
local

**

is

the

celleiro," or granary, and, as this is small, provisions must

be imported from up stream.

It produces in abundance pumjikins
and water-melons, especially at the beginning of the rains the
orange is here small and green, like the wild variet}', it does not
find a proper climate, and below Boa Vista it ceases to grow
the
limes are juiceless, and half pips.
Cochineal is unimproved, and
there is no tobacco, for which the nitrous soil is w^ell adapted.
I
was strongly advised, even by a youth who had lately come up in
three days from Boa Vista, to lay in a stock of beans and manioc,
rice and maize, as nothing was to be found in the starving settlements between Joazeiro and the Great Rapids. The precaution
was taken *' on the chance," but, as will be seen, it was quite un;

;

necessary

;

moreover, it gave considerable trouble.

of husked rice was to be bought, the

price

Not a pound

was high, and the

»

irAp.

AT THE VILLA J)() JOAZEIKO.

XXV.]

.s;;}

aiticle was coarse

and red, fit only for a Kruboy.
Fish was
abundant, and the Surubim, the sahnon of the river, ^Yas hawked
about by bo^'s. Some complain that the increased flow of the
stream, the rocky bottom, and the broken waters, are bad breeding conditions, and that the Sao Francisco is no longer a Mississippi, a father offish.
Others declare, and with truth, that fishermen, not fish, are wanting, that a net is never thro^\^l in vain, and
that the pools, bayous, and ^^^loeiras produce large shoals.
On the opposite or northern side is the Porto da Passagem do
Joazeiro,
little

of late

called

Petrolina de Pernambuco.

It

was

a

chapel, X'' S^ de Tal, and half a dozen tiled houses fronting

the stream, backed by a few huts, and a wave of gi'ound higher

and healthier than the right bank.

The two are connected by a

ferryboat which makes use of the *'vent traversier," and carries
twenty-five to thirty head of cattle.

S 080, horse or mule

Each passenger pays per trip

$ 400 (the load and troojier going free), and

* In the following list of prices it must be remembered tliat here the akjueire
tiriies
1

larger than that of Bahia

alqi;eire beans (in

:

—

1852, 11 $500)

1 alqueire farinha of manioc (6 $400)
1 alqueire salt (12 $000)

is

four

= 20 $000.
= 12$ 000.

= 24 $000.

=

This was the price which I paid, but
arroba (32 lbs.) of lard (7 $680)
10 $000.
it Avas nearly Is. 3d. too much.
1 arroba wheaten flour (0$240)
14$000 to 16$000.
1 arroba biscuit (lt)$O0U)
16$000.
1 arrolja country wax (5 $000) = 6 $400.
Honey is also cheap and plentiful.
1 aiTol)a Carnahuba wax (5 $000).
It is not made now.
1 aiToba Game Seca (3 $400)
6 $ 000 to 7 $000.
1 an-oba cotton uncleaned (2 $560) = 2 $000.
1 arroba cotton, cleaned == 8 $000.
1 an-oba sugar (7 $000) - 4 $000 to 5 $000,
1

=

=

=

1 lb. steel
1 lb.

= 0$4U0.

bar lead or shot = 0$400.

1 lb. saltpetre =-

0$080.

sulphur = 0$320.
1 vara (yard of 43 inches) cotton cloth (0$32<j) = 0%400.
1 vara twist tobacco = 0§.16(i.
1 sugar l)rick (rapadura) of Januaria (0$240) t= 0|1G0.
4 030.
1 sugar brick (small and saltish) of the R. do Salitre =
Tin sheet (folha de Flandres) = 0$24(>.
Plank, wooden (1$ 600) = 2 $000.
1 bottle common Barcelona wine (0$640) = 1|000.
bottle port = 2 $500.
1 bottle vinegar (0$320) = 0$800.
1 bottle corn brandy (of Jacobina, poor) = 0$200.
1 lb.

.

1

= 0$500.
$ 240.
1 bottle sweet oil (1$000) = 1|600.
Per covado (cubit of 26 ^ inches) of Chita cotton cloth averages = 0$2S0.
Kaw hide of an ox or cow (1$280) = 2 $800 to 3$000.
Calf, according to size, from 0$800.
Sheep or goat's skin = 0$320.
1 1)ottle com brandy (S'" Amaro, the be.st)
1 bottle Ricinu.s oil

=

874

THE HTGHLANDR OF THE BRAZIL.

black cattle 0$300.

[chap. xxv.

Matters had clianged little since 1852, when

M. Halfeld rated the annual movement at 7500 to 8000 souls,
10,500 head of black cattle, and 1300 horses and mules, wild and
tame, old and young, intended for the Bahian market.*

My introductory letter was duly sent to the Superior Commandant, Lieut. -Col. Antonio Luis Ferreira, who did not deign
to take the slightest notice of it.

I then called

upon Sr. Jose

Yieira, a young merchant whom we had met up stream

:

his store

was in the Rua do Mourao, or western water street, fronted by a
Of those
black wooden cross on a pedestal of brick and lime.
assembled there none could give me any local information, even
the names of the streets.

Fortunately I made acquaintance with

the Capitao Antonio Eibeiro da Silva, junior, the son of a Portuguese, and born in the place

:

he had travelled in Europe, and he

at once invited us to dinner and chat.

The Capitao spoke of a Gruta, which he described as having a
descent to the mouth like the Mammoth Cave it extends three
;

up the bed of the Riacho
do Salitre. Here are old legends of silver mines near S*^ Anna,
and copper at the Fazenda da Carahyba, eighteen leagues to the
east-south-east.
Our host had found a diamantine formation,

to four miles, and is distant nineteen

covering at least twenty square leagues, in the rich agricultural

and coffee country, of which Jacobina Nova is the centre. He
gave us some excellent " doce " of the sweet potato, which is here
a red variety like beet-root, banded white.
His garden contained
tunnel-work, but
This is a grape-country, and

fine vines four to five years old, trained to a

almost able to support themselves.

nearl}^ every house has its paneiral or arboury : the vines produce
all the 3 ear round an "

Uva durecina," which sells here for 0$240,
and at Bahia for 1$000 per pound. Much has been written
about the Brazil being capable to produce her own wine. This,
I apprehend, will be hardly possible in those climates where the
hot season is also that of the rains. The same bunch will contain

and unripe berries, which make a good vinegar.
Nor is there any cure for the evils endured by this
ripe, half-ripe,

Non habilis Cyathis et inutilis uva Lycseo.

On the other liand, where the wet weather begins with the northing
* The ferry dues
down stream.

are

received

by

tlie

Villa

da Boa

Vistii,

wliicli

we

shall

visit

.•'TAP.

XXV.]

AT THE VILLA DO JOAZEIPvO.

:;7o

of the sun, and where the summer of the southern hemisphere is

dry and sunn}', the grape, I believe, is fated to do good service.
2sLy next visit was to Sr.

Justmo Nunes de Sento

Se, a native

whose name he bears this gentleman introduced me
to his ^-ife and his fair daughters, who after tln^ee months'
of the town

:

experience of Joazeii'o, much preferred Bahia, their birth-place.

The father had been chosen by H. E.

the Councillor Manoel
Pinto de Souza Dantas to superintend the steamer which was

proposed, even in 1865, to plough the

VN^aters

of the Upper Sao

Unhappily for the project, Sr. Dantas took the portfolio of agriculture and public works, vdiilst his successor, the
Provincial President, was by no means earnest in carrj^ing out
Francisco.

the plans of a predecessor.
private opposition.

Sr.

Sento Se complamed much of

A Joazeu'an proprietor, Lieut. -Col. Domingos

Luis Ferreira, had offered for £'1600 to receive the vessel from
the hands of government at the Porto das Piranhas, the present
terminus of steam navigation on the Lower Sao Francisco, to carry

up the sections on horse and mule-back past the Great Rapids, and
then to embark them on barcassas, or lighters.
His friends
resented the rejection of his proposal, and s^iread a report that
the candidate preferred had wasted ^£'6200, that the fragments of
the ''Presidente Dantas" were scattered about the Bahian road,
and that an engineer sent from Pdo de Janeiro to set up the
machinery had, after four months' waiting in vain, returned in
July, 1867.

Then the steamer, wliicli the papers had made to reach Joazeiro,
and which His Excellency expected to begm work not later than
Sento Se aj^peared
to be thoroughly tu-ed of the business, and spoke of raising a
private company for steam navigation of the Sao Francisco. It is
lamentable to see a gTe at thought thus hopelessly frittered away in
September, 1867, was, in fact, nowhere.

Sr.

by private jealousies and by petty individual interests.
this
Much as I deprecate the emplopnent of foreign engineers
detail

m

Empire, where natives can be found, there are cases when the
appointment of a foreigner will not raise up against him a hundred
enemies, as will assuredly happen to the native.
We were delayed at Joazeiro until the two men hired at
Januaria agreed, for a consideration, to place me at Boa Vista
here the people have by no means the best name, and various
tales are told about barquemen robbing their employers, and
:

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

870

[.HAr. xxv,

They drink, niul they are dangerous therefore the men helow Boa Vista are always preferred
Jose Joaquim and Barboza, ''Barba de Veneno," had
to them.
always won my gratitude by keeping themselves below not so the
Menino, who at night had returned to the Eliza on all-fours, like
them

leaving

''in the hirch."

:

:

one of the lower annuals, whilst Agostinho, the slave, was succesIt
sivel}" drooping with " sea- sickness," and unpleasantly surly.
was a wear}^ time, as are all those enforced halts near towns. The
nigger boys splashed in the water around us, and the mulatto

youth came to cheapen and wrangle about straw hats, gugglets, and
orange conserve. We were anchored amongst the washer-women,
who were grotesque objects. One defended her head with a
calabash, forcibly reminding me. of that Triton song by Camoens
(vi.

17)

lie

;

was very ugly,
And for a casque upon his head he wore
The crusty spoils whilome a lobster bore.

In no part of the Brazil had I seen such an excessive display of
shoulder it exceeded the high mode of the Bahian Quitandeira,
or black market woman, and it was truly remarkable after leaving
:

the Province of Minas Geraes.

When tired of shoulders I visited the Ilha do Fogo, that small
Mount, which we liad passed hard above the Villa.
It is an interesting feature, and the first of its kind yet seen, a
St. Michael's

composite river-island of rock terminating down stream in a long
sandspit the level parts were bush-clad, and a splendid Jatoba
The northern arm into
tree added not a little to their beauty.
:

which it divides the Sao Francisco is, though navigable, dangerous
hence probably Joazeiro preferred the right
with sunken rocks
:

bank.

We landed amongst the blocks and boulders of the western end.
The material was a gray granite, coated in places with purplish
had been exposed to great heat there were
various masses of amygdaloid and veins of quartz, but pyrites did
It was easy to scale the tower of broken slabs
not appear.*
about eighty feet high certain enterprising sightseers had cut a
path through the Niacambira Bromelias, and had cleared off the
glaze, like iron that

:

;

Quipa Cactus.
*

^\.

The summit commanded an extensive view

TTalfoM (lesovibes the rock ns qnavtz-veined granite

and pyrites.

:

lie found tale,

of

manganese,

-

AT THi: VILLA DO JOAZEIKO.

rifAP. x.w-.]

:j77

the Sfio Francisco, a panorama of plain studded with lo^v hills and

dwarf ranges, offsets from the great walls of the riverine valley.
East of the Fire-island main heap are two minor outcrops of the

same rock, emerging from the tliorm^ brush.
Joazeiro, I have said, is the j)roposed terminus of two Anglo

Brazilian Railways, that of Pernamhuco and its junior the Baliia.

Both were offsprings of the law of June 26, 1852, decreeing the
concession of the line D. Pedro II. A guarantee of seven per
cent, (five from the Imperial and two from the Provincial Govern-

ments) easily opened the i:)urses of the shareholders.

The reports

of a rich and fertile interior, Avaiting only to be tapped

by the
Rail, determined the direction from the coast towards the Rio de
Sao Francisco.
Works were undertaken with a recklessness

characteristic of great expectations.
Xo general commission
was organised to arrange the sj'stem upon which the great trunk

A staff should have been appointed to

road should proceed.

make

prelimmary studies of the ground this was neglected, and in the Brazil I have seen calculations for cuttings
and embankments based upon a flying survey, whose levels were
taken with the Sympiesometer.
The result was what might be
expected.
The lines were laid out and built with almost everv
serious

:

conceivable defect; they began at the wrong places, and they ran in
the wrong directions

;

they were highly finished where they could

have been made rough

been cheap
for

a

;

song.

;

they were dear where they should have

they had tunnels where the land was to be bought
Thus the estimates were shamefully exceeded,

and the seven per cent, became a snare and a delusion. The
branch roads and feeding lines were not made hence complaints
and recriminations the shareholders were losers, and the Government found itself saddled indefinitely with a huge debt, which it
had calculated to pay off by the increased yield of the railwavs.
Here, and here only, has the steam-horse assisted in uncivilizing
the country by unsettling the communications which before were
bad enough, and are now worse. Here, and here only, the mule
can successfully contend against machinery
anti-Brazilian
writers compare the progress of the country with that of the
sloth, and truly at this rate it will be behind even Canada.
Finally both these main trunks stopped short within a few miles
of the Provincial capitals, where they had commenced and built
:

;

:

their last stations, either in the virgin forest or in Campo ground,

—
THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

nTS

little

fi

hap. xxv.

more productive tlian the favoured regions about Suez.

At

may be said to
stand still, and the Empire has suffered in the money market of

this

moment railway enterprise in the

Brazil

Europe for a maladministration whose blame attaches chiefly to
foreigners.

On the other hand,

steamer navigation has prospered, and

from Joazeiro dov^aiwards, we shall find that the weekly arrival of
a little craft at the Porto das Piranhas* has galvanized the whole
country as far as Crato in Ceara, a radius of 270 miles. Leatherclad men, who would never have left their homes, are now loading
their animals with cotton, and are making purchases of which a
few months before they would not have dreamed. In 1852 M.
Halfeld remarked, ^'by reason of the great rapids on the Sao
Francisco, both above and below the town of Cabrobo, fluvial
traffic has been little

1867, showing

developed."

The description is obsolete in

how vitalizing, even in these

thinly populated

regions, is the effect of improved communication.

I

hope to see

the Bahia Steam Navigation Company (Limited) f increase her
* The first commercial
steamer left Peuedo, August 3, 1867, and x-eached
Porto das Piranhas, August 5, 1867.
f This Company was organized in 1861. Its Articles of Association were approved by
the Inipei'ial Grovernment in 1862, and it dates its proceedings as an English Company
The capital is £160,000, of which about £150,000 has been
from June of that year.
The subsidies granted by the Imperial and Provincial Groveniments amount
paid up.
to £20,000 per annum, equivalent to one-eighth, or 12^ per cent, on the whole capital.
Tlie contract actually in foi'ce extends till 1872, and an Imperial Decree (No, 1232 of
1864) authorises the Government at the end of the above period to revise and extend the
The obligations of the Company
convention and the subsidies for a term of ten years.
comprise communication with the chief ports on the Brazilian sea-board, extending northlikewise
wai'ds from Bahia to Maceio, and south to Caravellas or Sao Jorge dos Ilheos
the internal navigation of the Reconcavo, from the provincial capital to the cities of
Cachoeira, Santo Amaro, Nazareth, Yalen^a, and Taperoa, touching at the intermediate
villages
thirdly, the na\agation of the Rio de Sao Francisco, from Penedo to the Porto
das Piranhas ; and, fourthly, the navigation of the Lakes Norte and Manguaba, in the
Province of Alagoas.
The floating property is represented by the following sixteen
steamers, six of which are employed in the coasting navigation, and ten in the internal,
or bay and river navigation
1. S. Salvador
registered tons, 280
;

;

:

...
...
...
...
...
...
....
...
...
.....
.

.

.

Dantas

(Ton9alves Martins

.

.

Sinimbu

Santa Cruz
Cotinguiba
Sao Francisco
Dois de Julho
Jequitaia
10. Santo Antonio
5.

Boa Viagem

15.
16.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

;

,,
,,
,,
,,

,,
,,
,,
,,
,,

,,

Itaparica

,,

Lucy

,,

Victorina

,,

(building)

,,

fHAP. XXV.]

AT THE VILLA DO JOAZEIRO.

370

She lias taken the right line,
and with energy and economy she must prosper.
small fleet of sixteen to fift}' vessels.

As regards fixed property, the Company possess at the city of Bahia workshops, &c.,
for the repair of the fleet, and suitable stores for materials and coals.
At the city they
have recently completed tlie new landing-piers and recei\-ing-honses for cargo, and they
have constmcted smtable landing-places at all the Bay Ports.
This information was given to me by ]\[r. Hugh Wilson, of Bahia, the energetic and
progress-loving Superintendent.
I have only to hope that his views will be adopted with
its usual liberality by the Imperial Government, and that a tramway will presently connect
the Porto das Piranhas with Joazeiro.
E%adently this should have been the step first
taken ; but should it be the last, we shall not complain.

—

CHAPTER XXVI.
FROM THE VILLA DO JOAZEIRO TO THE VILLA DA BOA VISTA.
Ten'th Travessia,^^ 22 Leagues,

GENERAL REMARKS OX THIS TRAVESSIA, THE GARDEN OF THE SAO FRANCISCO.
rpjjE
TWO BROTHERS." — THE CACHOEIRA DO JENIPAPO. — THE VILLA DA
BOA MORTE, ANCIENTLY CAPIM GROSSO— ITS ORIGIN.— ITS SCANTY CIVILITY.— RESUME WORK.— PRETTY APPROACH TO THE VILLA DA BOA VISTA.
THE CANAL PROPOSED. ALSO ANOTHER CANAL. ARRIVE AT THE VILLA.
— THE COMMANDANT SUPERIOR —RECRI^ITING OF THE CONSERVATIVES.
ORIGIN OF THE VILLA —ITS PRESENT STATE DESCRIBED. ENGAGED A NEW
CREW, THE PILOT MANOEL CYPRIANO AND THE PADDLE ''CAPTAIN SOFT."
— MADE NEW PADDLES FOR THE RAPIDS.
•'

—

—

—

Terra feliz, tu es da Natureza
A filha mais mimosa ella sorrindo
N' um enlevo de amor te encheu d'encantos.
{Pocfiian B. J. da Sllva Guimcwaes).
;

We now enter a country which has left upon me the most
pleasant impressions.
lower garden of the

Bet\veen Joazeiro and

Boa Vista is the

Sao Francisco, perhaps a finer tract
The stream becomes swift,
than that about the Pirapora.
averaging four knots an hour, and though the sunken rocks
present some risk, the travelling is mucli more pleasant, and the
swirling and boihng of the water show that it has a considerable
On both sides there are farms and fields, each with its
depth.
scarecrow frightening the capivaras and the robber birds, and
there is no drought, though the air is intensely dry, the eftect u(
The dew is heavy, and the dry winds carry oft' the
evaporation.
watery particles to form rains on the higher bed. The sloping
banks are all green with manioc, maize, beans and wild grasses.
The yalley is studded with pyramidal hills, of which as man}^ as
they are backed by weaves of ground
five are sometunes in sight
bush
these Catingas Altas + will conthin
covered with thick or
;

;

* Formerly

this

Trave.ssia

extended

twenty-nine leagues to the extinct town of
Santa' Maria (276th league), the terminus
it is
of l)arca navigation dowii .stream
now reduced to Boa Vista (269th league).
;

During the flood.s boats run dowai from
Joazeiro to Boa Vista in twenty-four liours.
f The term is applied to the gi-ound, as
well as to its vegetation,

LiiAP. XXVI.]

VILLA L>0 JOAZEIllO TU BOA V18TA.

tiiiue till Yarzea
;ire

The Cajiieii'o and the Cajii Easteii'o

Redonda.

now coniniun

;

"^

381

the princix)al growths are the cactuses, the

whose dry wood
seiwes for torches; the echino-cactus, Cabeca or Coroa de Frade;
the Xique-Xique, or cylindrical i:)lant, the common flat band nopal,
and the dwarf Quij)u. The bush or undergrowth is chiefly the
Araca (psidium), and the Tiiigui (Magonia glabrata, St. Hilaii'e).
gigantic

Mandracuru, the Facheiro

(faxeiro),

The larger growths are the Pao Pereira (Aspidospermuni) the
legummous Caraliyba, whose large green bitter pods are loved by
;

goats and deer; the leguminous Catinga de Porcof whose leaf

resembles the Barbatimao acacia

;

the Salgueii'o, I and the

Pao

In many
AVe have left behind us

Preto, whose black trunk appears scorched with fire. §
parts fuel is wanting near the stream.

the diamantine ''formacao"

and the iron

we find

fields; here

The
and large outcrops of limestone.
winds are furious at the present season, but they will have no
power belovr Boa Vista here the trees and grasses are bent up
pyrites,

traces of gold

;

stream by their persistency and power. We were told to expect
windy nights, and hot still days we shall have wind night and
The
day, cold and fm-ious by night, hot and furious by day.
mornings are cold and cloudy, but the sun begins to sting at
10
11 A.M. and lasts till late in the afternoon.
;

—

Friday, October 25, 1867.

and dropped

i)ast

—We managed

to set out at 11 a.m.,

Joazeu'o Yelho on the right bank

;

the place

has become superannuated since its desertion by the channel.

The trade whid was moderate, but tourbillons of sand and dustdevils (Eedemoinhos), coursing over the broad river-plain, made
usAirl the awning.
Of the five hills in sight onl}' one block,
white and bushy, approached tlie river, which the many islands,
sand-bays, and islets divided into sundry independent streams,

never less than two.

Bed and purple glazed rocks scattered in

the bed, again gave the familiar sound of the Cachoeii'a.

|

We

grounded once by hugging too fondly the left shore, and for a few
* The tree wlieu 1 \veut i.lu\\ii the river
was not yet in fruit.
+ It has a powerful smell, which, however, hardly justifies the harsh name " pig-

stink."
the
+ It produces a usele.ss fruit
Castrong hard wood is applied to the
vcrnas," or ribs of barcas.
§ The wax exuded by the l.\^rk makes
candles which are exceedingly hard, and if
it
a melted drop fall upon the hand,
:

'

'

removes the skin,
M. Halfeld woukl remove them at an
expense of £340 and £500, and in three
others £GSO, £170 and £720, or a total
This may
of £2,410 in tw^enty miles.
he done in due course of time at present
it is useless to expend one milreis.
A good
Il

;

jiilot

can steer clear of

the

difficulties,

and we went down safely with men who, if
they ever knew this part of the river, had
^p^ite

forgotten it.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

382

[chap. xxsi.

minutes we Imng poised upon the crest of a sunken rock which
The hanks were green with the spiky Capim
gave no sign.
Cahelludo, which is pLnited for dry season fodder if not drowned
;

hy the floods it hists, they tohl me, twenty years.

we anchored off the huts of Mato Grosso on the
Here the course of the Sao Francisco is north witli

After sunset
right hank.

a very little easting, and the hed is no longer so broad as above
Opposite us, or nearly due Avest, is a fine landmark,
Joazeiro.

the Pico da Serra do Aricory, or Ouricory, * attached to a lumpy
Though distant five miles the
line, whose trend is north-west.
features are clearly distinguishable.

October 26.

— The crew, eager to advance, began work

at 5 a.m.,

and we shot rapidly past the Ilha da Manisova ! and other unimportant features wc were, however, driven to anchor from 9 a.m.
The third
to 1.30 P.M. whilst the world was airing and warming.
league showed us the Fazenda do Pontal here on the right or
southern bank a line of scattered cones drives the stream from
Opposite it enters the Riacho do
north-east to south-east.
;

;

Pontal, I and beloAV it stretches the remarkably long island of the
Further down the Bahian side bears the little
same name.

Arraial da Boa Yista and its chapel of N'^ S'^ dos Eemedios. For
many an hour v\'e saw in front the peculiar Serrote dos dous

Irmaos, twin pyramids with gentle, regular and equal slopes on
both sides their cliff' facings of white stone were thrown out by
the now greening ''bush;" and, after sunset, a shadowy grey
;

AVhen the gloaming began we sped by
the Cachoeira da ^Missao, an unimportant break to starboard, and
colour stole over them.

presently we landed on the Pernambuco bank, at a place called the
I had given a
Pontalinha, opposite an islet of the same name.

passage from Joazeiro to a young fellow whose home was here ;
three women came down to the landing-place and carried off', on
then- heads, with

much coquettish recusancy, the few bricks of

sugar and the dozen greybeards of gin which he had brought as
* Also written Aricori aiul Ourieoil (the
in the Lingua Greral the
" and '*y" are equivalent
i
terminations
and are used indifferently, as Tupi or Tupy,

name of a palm)

:

'.'

Guarani or Guarany.

+ This

is

doubtless

the

Manacoba

or

Generally
Jatropha of Gardner.
lyianigoba is the Seringa or Caoutchouctree.
The minor features are the Fazenda
de Paulo Alfonso and a few rocks at the
Barra do Yieira, which do nnt rcfjuire
large

veiiiovinfi;,

f " Pontal," like "Oonieco," i» api»lied
to the head of an islet, especially when the
l)luff.
The Riacho do Pontal
is
comes from the Catingas Altas, and though
much Irroken, it is ascended by canoes
My informants gave it
during the floods.
Mr. Keith
a length of thirty leagues.
Johnston makes the "R. Pontal "drain

point

the dividing ridge.

t"

CH.U'. \xvi.J

ii

stock

ill

VILLA DO JOAZEIKO Tu BOA VLSTA.
trade.

383

Tliey were wild-looking beings,

tlieii'

ver}-

small faces were set in a frame of hair, and their bead}^ even

peeped out from the profusion of mikempt, ^\'itch-like locks.
October 27.
Passing the Two Brothers we were driven to
anchor at the Comeco da Cachoeii'a do Jenipapo, a small break

—

some eight miles above the mam feature of that name. Dela^'ed
between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m., we saw at 3 p.m., on the Bahia side,
the Barra Grande* do Curaca the mouth is about 230 feet broad,
and the right jaw projects into the main artery a large dome of
stone.
The view up-stream discloses a pretty vista of lively
verdure.
About three miles below it is the Cachoeii-a Grande do
Jenipapo, with houses on the right side and rocks dotting the
stream we fomid, however, a clean central way. Far to the
north-east appeared a lumpy hill range with a bro^^ii, gi'een and
white-streaked- surface the bank to starboard showed, alternating
with gTey granitic scliists, large snowy blocks of laminated limestone, whose scatters we repeatedly mistook for human habitations.
At the Barrinha, a httle stream and -sillage further down, two
;

;

;

broken reefs of projecting rock run parallel with each other along
the bed from south-west to

about

fiercely, the current

north-east.

ran veiy

fast,

dashed against a hard head by the pilot.

The wmd tossed us
and we were nearly

He complained of ague,

attributing it to the rising and fallhig of the stream

;

the fact is,

he was sirftermg from over coliee and Jacuba.

As the smi sank low we sighted from afar, on the right bank, a
pictm'esque village, the Villa do Senlior Bom Jesus da Boa Morte,
whose vulgar neighbours persist in calling it Capim Grosso big
grass

—the old

—

name.

original

Fronting

to

north-west and

towards the stream, a white-washed and red-tiled clim'ch in the
Baliian fashion, with pinnacles instead of towers, and a facade

sparkling with imbedded fragments of glazed potteiy, displayed

Along the river were two
Sobrados and a line of v>'liite houses backed by brown huts. The
field-fences extended to the water side, and on the sloi)ing bank
itself upon the crest of a ground-wave.

* Mr. Keitli Jolmstoii ignores it, aucl I
do not think that, despite its fine name,
the stream can claim any importance.
f ^L Halfeld (Rcl. p. 147) says that tlic
rock is Avhite and ash-coloured, vith block
veins traversing the strata in ^va.xj bands
(bichas ondidadas) "of primitive fomiation

rcscml'ling

mai-lilc,

and

as

their

Lreadtli is sufficient for the saw, they may
serve for n-orks of taste, tomb-stones, &c."
Tliose

v-hich I examined

v.ere

an excel-

lent bnilding material,

These are the features v/hich gave rise
the common local names for hills and
mountains, " Sobrado " and " Sobi'adinho.
to

THE HIGHLANDS UF THE BRAZIL.

384

[ciiAr. xxvi.

were two tall shady trees ^ wliicli looked gigantic by the side of the
thorny shrubs. Halfway up the range, and liigli i\nd dry since

many a day, was an old barca, there beached l^y the last floods.

We anchored in a sheltered place below tlie r(jck-i)ile fronting
the church; here however the river is broke)

i

by two islands, the

Ilha do Torres to the south and the ]lho do Giqui (Jequi) hard

by the

left

AVe had scarcely made

bank.

steamer had

spread that a

when a report
down the bank a

fast,

l*uslied

arrived.

posse comitatus of notables, mostly '"bodes" and ''cabras," in
black coats, paletots (a word which here becomes "pnriatoca"),

and white etceteras. Only one man approached whiteness he
was probabty the Professor of First Letters, siud he squatted,
Hindu-like, upon a stone, washing his face with both hands, and
;

towelling

it

his pocket handkerchief.

with

The

disappoint-

ment caused by the ''Ajojo" elicited j)eals of laughter, and the
smallest jokes bawled in the loudest and coarsest of voices.

I

Exceptionally in the Brazil all ignored the presence of strangers, and
the}^ made unpleasant remarks about the certainty of such a
I have, however, been
craft never reaching Varzea Kedonda.

seemed to hear once more the organ of African Ugogo.

threatened with drowaiing ever since leaving Sahara.

Presently,

hearing that a bullock was to be slaughtered, all rushed away,
eagerl}' as a flight of tm'key-buzzards.

Capim Grosso, which deserves to be
was,

till

pression

1853,
of

an Arraial;

Pambu

(•283rd

number 70 and the souls 350.

it

entitled Villa Grosseira,

rose to township by

league).

the

Sup-

The houses may now

The broad streets are not badly

running parallel with the river is
cumbered with hard talcose slate and quartz-banded granite,
which will readily supply building material. The prison, crowded
laid out, and the thoroughfare

with recruits for the war, peering from behind its wooden grating,

and the Camara was denoted by
The church, of burnt brick upon
the papers pasted to the door.
a foundation of gneiss, was out of all proportion to what met the
view.
In the usual square we found a few shops, and an "Aula
was guarded by four

soldiers,

Publica Primeira."

We then walli:ed along the deep, sandy path

to the little cemetery and its

shed-chapel behind the settlement.
Hereabouts began the thorny Catiiigas Altas, where, however,
^

They arc

tllClll.

(•ailed

l)y

the people

" Moqncin :"

tliis

is

all

tliat.

I

cuuM learn aliout

"

VILLA DO JOAZEIRO TO BOA VISTA.

CHAP. XXVI.]

cotton seemed to flourisli.

385

The gi'ound was strewed with ]pebbles

and quartz-blocks of all sizes and colours, and the stone appeared
This place commands a fine view of the Serra
do Eoncador on the other side, where the wind is said to "snore"
fiuiousl3%
About a league and a half to the east is the Serra da
Capivara, a long broken lump, wliich all declare to contain gold,
although the metal has never been worked. Hence, probably,
to be auriferous.

the am-iferous pebbles.

Capim Grosso is the wildest place that we have yet seen; it
did not show a trace of hospitality, or even of civility.
Yet the
Many
of them were on
X)eople seemed tolerably "well to do."
horseback, the saddles were made "coimtry fasliion," with strong
crup2)ers and poitrels for riding up and down hill.
The Caipiras
wore, for protection against the sun, ugly "Sombreiros," and the
swells cocked up one side of the broad brim, and the flap fastened

by a large metal button made a three-cornered hat.
These
"Chapeos de Com-o " are of goat, sheep or deerskin; the latter
is the best, but any ^^ill serve, and they look like the "baboolstained" leathers of Western India.
The women greatly outnumbered the men. We had madvertently made fast near their
bathing- ground; after dark they disported themselves in the
water all aromid us, and debated, giggling, about the advisability
of doffing the innermost garment. The site of Bom Jesus da Boa
Morte is natm'e-favoured, but this was the only merit that we
recognised in the place. I hope that the next travellers may be
justified in giving a better account of it.

October 28.

delayed us

— The Januaria men here found

till

6 a.m.

relatives, and this

After about two and a half leagues we

came to a break, the Cachoeka das Carahybas the river had again
the water had become exceedingly clear, and we easily
foimd the safe Ime near the natm^al stone jetty on the right.
;

risen,

The rains at this point are expected soon to break the weather,
however, has been dr}- since September when there was a short
;

and copious fall.* On the left was the Serra do CiuTal Novo, remarkable for its rounded summits, platform and high demi-pique
The lands on both sides of the stream were of
saddle-back.
exceeding fertility, presenting a most amene and riant appearance.
At the Fazenda de Goiaz, a neat tiled and whitewashed house,
the river began to tm-n from its northerly course to due west* Here called

TOT.

II.

^

"Manga," or " repiquete de Chuva.
c c

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

386

east.

[chap. xxvi.

On tlie left bank at some distance appeared the Pedra

Branca, a wave of bushy highland with a block of white limestone
conspicuous upon its flank. Below it was a brother formation,
the MoiTo da Boa Yista, * apparently two hills, but really three
lumps disposed in a triangle with the base towards the stream.

The nearer

w\as

rise

the further was thinly

capped
clad

with white

with

near the stream;
lil^e a head

Catingas Altas,

At the south-south-west of the latter rose the

becoming bald.

Villa da Boa Vista, our destination.

On the left, and about half a league above the town, we passed
The bank, a "baixada," or low land, is broken
by the Barra Grande da Boa Vista. Here M. Halfeld (Kel. 149
150) would begm the great canal proposed by Dr. Marcos
Antonio de Macedo,t and other "educated men." The waters
the Ilha do Ico.t

—

of the Sao Francisco are to be drained through a channel to the
Eiacho dos Porcos which falls into the Eiacho Salgado, an influent

of the Jaguaribe Pdver, traversing oriental Ceara from southsouth-west to north-north-east. It is a " gigantic project " it
:

and aw^ake
would
from their profound lethargy the people of inner Ceara and their
neighbours of the Parahyba and Piio Grande do Norte provinces.
Unfortunately, at a distance of some forty leagues, the line is cut
by the Serra do Ai-aripe, the dividing line between Ceara and
efl'ectually lay the horrible plague of famine,

M. Halfeld highly approves of the idea if a pass
The people of Boa
(baixada) can be found through the range.

Pernambuco.

Vista had never heard of Dr. Marcos or of his canal, and
when I read out to them the Eelatorio, they laughed. The projector

still lives,

it

is

said, at Crato, in his native province of

Ceara, which should be truly grateful to him for his good intenEven were the canal to fail, the strong current of curtions.

rency

would be generated even by the attempt would

wliicli

doubtless bear fruit.

As I am speaking of canals, it is as well to say that others
have been proposed.

Perhaps the boldest idea

* Alias " Dos Dons Irmaos," although
the people ignore this
there are three
:

name.

+ The Ico or Yco (Colicodendron Ico),
which gives its name to a city on the
Jaguaribe River of Ceara, and which will
become common on the Sao Francisco, is a
shrubby tree with an edible fruit, the
latter resembling the

common Ameixa cr

is

that which

yellow plum of the Brazil, where it has
The leaves are
long been naturalised.
injurious to cattle, producing inflammation
of the intestines and of the kidneys.
The System refers to kitchen salt and castor
oil as remedies.
+ This name is mentioned by Gardner
I do not know if it be the same person,
:

VILLA DO JOAZEIKO TO BOA VISTA.

CHAP. XXVI.]

387

owes its origin to Lieut. Ecluard Jose de Moraes. This officer
was apparently encouraged by " M. Emmery's " report on the
Hudson Eiver and the Lake Champhiin Canal, and by the biilHant pictiu'e of prosperity which M. Michel Chevalier portrays
as the result of canalisation in the United States.
He would
simply take the waters of the Eio Preto, the main affluent of the
Rio Grande,* and throw them into the Paranagua, or Paniagua
lake, near the city of that name on the headwaters of the Gm-geia f

Pdver,

Northern Paranyba.
The distance betv\^een the streams is only twenty leagues, which,
it is reported, might be reduced to fifteen
but unfortunately
the dividing line bars the way.
This difficulty is most naively
alluded to, I and it is confessed that " le Rio-Gurgeia n'ait pas
the

central

great

affluent

of

the

;

encore ete explore."

" Un inconvenient (!) se presente cependant

dans le trace de ce canal, c'est I'existence d'une chaine de montagnes entre la vallee du San Francisco et celle du Parnahiba,

pour cette raison appelee das Vertentes § par le
cjui la trouve la moins elevee de tous ks
autres systemes de montagnes du Bresil.
II est done naturel

et qui a ete

Baron d'Eschwege,

de penser qu'une partie de ce canal pourrait etre souterraine,

cependant rien ne vient prouver ce fait puisqu'une reconnaissance n'a pas encore ete faite dans ce sens peut-etre existe-t-il
une gorge, une depression on Ton pom-ra le faire passer meme a
;

And

attempt

such chimeras as these, the
author would tax the English gold-mining companies in the
Brazil, which have never yet been able to support the smallest
ciel

ouvert."

to

impost.

Compelled to cross from the right bank, through a little break
above the town, we were nearly U2:>set by the violence of the
"raifales."
We succeeded, however, in making fast behmd ^
rocky projection, and I sent without delay my introductory
letter to the Commandante Superior Sr. Manoel Jacomi Bezerra
de Carvalho. He at once called upon us and undertook to find
a pilot and paddle-man. We tallied of the raih'oad projected
from this point to the Porto das Ph*anhas, thereby defeating all
* See chapter 21.

+ In

T\Ir.

Keith

Alagoa Doiirada.
Jolinston,

* '

Grugeia

R."
i Rapport, &c., p, 29.
§ The "Serra das Vertentes" is some
1260 miles to the south we passed it at

Tlie Rio Preto is siipposed to arise in the Serra dos Pj-reneos,
which M. Gerber and others extend from
the headwaters of the Tocantins to the
western valley of the Sao Francisco.

:

C

C

2

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

388

[chap. xxvr.

our visitor declared that the line was sandy and
without hills, whilst its tortuous length can be reduced from
the Eapids

;

seventy to sixty leagues.

Neither he nor any of his friends had

seen the neighbouring Niagara; they have often when riding
down to the i>ort passed it within a few miles. The latest news-

papers dated from early September, and yet we are here only 200
The Commandante presently
miles from steamer navigation.

us in a prodigious hurry, having to superintend the ironing
often whom he called twenty recruits. They were sent to head-

left

quarters at Tacaratu, and we met the returning escort of fom-They were wild-looldng
teen muskets who had escorted them.

and only the chief man had a
the dress was old-fashioned shirts and tight smalls of
horse
strong homespun cotton, leather hats, waistcoats and sandals.
In the evening I saw a wretched '' Conservador " pursued through
the bush by mounted men who presently captured him for the
war. No wonder that these places look like the ruins which the
slave wars have made on the Lower Congo.
The Fazenda da Boa Vista, some five leagues down-stream,
and belonging to the Commandante's grandfather, Jose de Carvalho Brandao, was originally an Aldea, or settlement of Indians,
and the head-quarter village of these parts. Presently a church
was here built, and the huts gathering round it took the name of
"Arraial da Igreja Nova," which is still preserved by the riveIn 1838 it became the Villa da Boa Vista, the head of a
rines.
fellows, servile as well as free,
;

Comarca, and the residence of a Vigario, a Juiz de Direito, a
Its two freJuiz Municipal, and other requisites for self-rule.
fmezias, Santa Maria da Boa Vista, and the Senhor Bom Jesus
da Igreja in the Povoa9cio da Cachoeira do Eoberto on the left
bank of the river, number 6000 souls, an estimate founded upon
the fact that a single parish has 1000 voters.* The town may
contain eighty-live houses, and, at festivals, 500 inhabitants.
They support themselves by breeding cattle, and agriculture, and
they want but little here below we found fresh meat for sale, but
Many spoke to
absolutely nothing else, not even a water-melon.
us of the Serra Talhada, distant some fom-teen leagues from the
;

A rough but ready way of estimating
the population in these outstations is by
the number of voters, which every one
knows.
In some paits a tax is paid upon

doors and windows, but tliis again leads to
errors in counting roofs, or as households
are still termed in wigwam phraseology,

"fires."

;

VILLA DO JOAZEIRO TO BOA VISTA.

CHAP. xxvL]

left

alum and

It is said to contain

bank.

single specimen

was

to

be procured.

389

saltpetre, but not a

One man brought me a

match-box full of iron p3Tites, which being bright and brassy
it is said to come from the western
was for sale as gold
:

countr3\

The toT\^l has, as may be expected, little to show.

We visited

the natural pier at the western end which fronts south-west and

The substance is talcose slate, con-

runs back to the north-east.
taining

much

quartz

with cleavage lines
trending fi^om east-south-east to west-noilh-west, or nearly perdistinctly

stratified,

The harder parts can

pendicular to the direction of the beds.

supply large blocks read}^ cut for building ; in places

it is

soft

and is worn down b}" the footpath which descends it in steps.
Fm-ther to the west large fragments have slipped into the stream.
At the eastern end there is another outcrop -uith strike to the
south-east and dip north-west 35°; and in parts it is spread
without regularity over the steep bank of stone, sand, and stona
dust.
It IS mostly banded with white quartz, and has embedded
Near the stream its surface is revetted with
lines of amygdaloid.
a coat of the darkest chocolate, the usual ferruginous glazing

and must be brought from
down-stream. The highest floods, even those of 1857 and 1865,
the worst on record, did not extend half-wa}^ up the pier.
The
general belief is, that the inundations are diminishing, and with
here, however, iron is not found,

them the fevers.
TVe visited the church of N^ S^ da Conceicao, a t37)ical shape,
tall, narrow like the people
its only charm is its site, a rocky
platform forming the highest ground in the settlement, and front;

ing up-stream.

A whitewashed cemetery appears to the north

or inland, separated b}' a depression, into which the floods enter
"svithout,
is

however, insulating the settlement.

the town showing

AVith the
fronted

a single row, the

South of the church

Eua da beu-a do Rio.

unwisdom here customary, the people have
houses towards the glaring temple and the hot

usual

theii'

stony hill, whilst their back-3'ard compounds and plots of pomegranates and flowers enjoy the charming view, and the breezes

up and down stream.
Looldng south the Serras da
Capivara and the Curral Xovo break the horizon, and the broad

floating

river, with rocks above surface and rocks

through its subject valley.

below water, serpentines

To the south-east are the Serras do

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

390

and do Esteviio

[chap. xxvi.

of the four pyramids one

remarkably acute-angular, whilst further east three laiobs denote the
There are no glass windows even in the richest
Serra dos Gros.
tenements, and the jail, at the eastern end, is a house like the
Pii'iquito

;

is

other houses.

Boa Vista is the terminus of barque -navigation
only ajojos and canoes go

to

;

at this season

Varzea Eedonda.

Here I dis-

missed, with an additional gratuity for extra service, the pilot

Jose Joaquim de Santa and Manoel Felipe Barboza, alias das
Mocas, alias Barba de Veneno, and of late usually kno^vn for
shortness as " Manoel Diabo."
The latter, having quarrelled
with an angry father, had fled his femily, settled a few leagues

down- stream, and had not seen it for fourteen years. He contented himself with writing a letter from Boa Vista, and he set
out contentedly with his friend in a small canoe which will take
at least a month to

make Januaria.

We separated well satisfied,

I hope, with one another.

There was no difficulty in finding men.* The Commandante
du'ected the i:>ilot Manoel C^q^riano to hold himself in readiness
the tariff is 25 $ 000 not bad for five daj^s' work in these regions,
and the new man presently came to see us. He w^as a dark
senior, dating from 1817, but looking at least sixty-five
he
declares that his premature old age has been brought on by a fast
life, and that he has long passed the time v/hen men begin to
He has a queer dr}^ humour, he delights in chaffing the
die.
people upon the banks, he twangs the guitar, he takes snuff as
most boatmen do, but requires a snuft'-pocket like our gTandfathers, and he has a private bottle of country rum wrapped up
carefully as if it were a baby.
He never works except when half
seas over, and I should fear to trust him Vv^hen dead sober he
Is slow to excess, taking five minutes to don his coat and to slip
his feet into his ragged slippers.
Yet he is the only real pilot
that I saw upon the river, he knows it thoroughly, he will be
master on board, and he slangs a recusant paddle with the
unction of an Oxford coxswain in my day.
Certainly no beauty
was M. C, but he was stout-hearted and true.
We soon
learned to confide in his nerve, force and precision.
There was
:

—

;

;

—

* M. Half eld (Eel. p. 61) says that here
it is hard to

canoes,

find

watermen

for rafts

on account of the Rapids.

and
The

extreme laziness of the
however, only fair to confess
that I lost bnt a single day.
sole obstacle is the

people.

It is,

CHAP, XXVI.]

VILLA DO JOAZEIEO TO BOA YLSTA.

391

something more interesting even tlian beauty in liis dano-er-look,
when, working his paddle like the tail-fin of a monstrous fish and
firmly planted in the stern canoe of the rocking and tossino- raft,

he bent slightly forwards, steadily eyeing with straining glance
the gTim wall upon which we were daslung at the rate of twenty
knots an horn*, and, by a few ingenious strokes of the helm at the
exact moment, brought round the bows and almost grazed the
reef,

I gave Manoel C^T^riano carte blanche to choose his oarsmen,
and this was a prime mistake. Like almost all his countrjinen,
he had a certain amiable defect, a constitutional inability to say
''
No," which is often worse than a moral incapacity to use
"Yes." Thus when he was set at in due form by one Jose Alves
Marianno, he objected faintly, he held with him long palavers
Ijdng on the bank, and he ended by engaging Imn.
All this
time he knew the man to be a noted skullv, whose nickname on
the river was Capittio Molle
Captain Soft and whom no one
would engage.
Marianno is, he tells us, a son of Petrolina, by no means a
good locaUty. His immense curly head-mop of jetty colour,
proves an African maternity, and the legal saving " partus
sequitur ventrem " is true in more wa^'s than one.
He smgs

—

well,
is

he has an immense

known to

local

fame.

—

repertoii'e, and, as a repentista, he
Ergo, I i^resume, he has taken the

and Ai'cadian name Mangericiio (Ocj^mum basilicum)
which he pronounces " Majeliciio," and which soon becomes
Manjar de Cao dog's meat. He is hopeless, he drinks like a
whu'lpool, he eats like an ogre, he pretends to faint if pushed to
work, and, if undue persistency be appKed, he loses some of the
taclde.
He loves to '' put on a spurt " vrhere the stream is
poetical

—

swiftest, so as to malve a bump fatal
snufis, chats, chaffs, or chaunts.

seriously angry with the

rascal

;

:

in still water he lolls back,

The worst is that I cannot be
he is abommably good-tem-

upon himself as the greatest fun
Yet it was a relief when he received his 16 §000

pered, and he seems to look
in the world.

and showed us his back.
The next day was a forced halt. The Escrivao of orphans,
Sr. Felipe Benicio Sa e Lira, kindly allowed me the use of his
house and his desk, which made the hours move more nimbly
than they otherwise would. The wind blew strong and contrarj-.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

392

[chap. xxvi.

The pilot had paddled away to his house down-stream, and was
lading in small stores.

We wanted large paddles

;

j^esterday the

only carpenter in the place had been engaged in ironing the
recruits, and till that important operation was concluded he could

not go to the bush and cut down a Mandracurti-cactus. These
paddles look somethmg lilve action, rude and heavy, but strong
and pliant they are perfectly straight, five feet long, and with a
:

leverage of 2

:

1

—the

little

paddles used uivstream are nearly,

equally divided, and the effect is like using a large kitchen-ladle.

"When the work was done, he asked about four tunes its worth,
and he took the opportunity of offering for the Eliza 100 $000.
Had he paid as he charged, he would have said 1:000 $000.

—

CHAPTEE XXVII.
FROM THE YILLA DA BOA VISTA TO VARZEA REDONDA.
Elevexth Teavessia, 45 Leagues.*

The Rapids and the Smooths.
" Les Brdsiliens avant la conqu^te de leur pays par les Europeens etaient au
degre le plus bas de la civilisation." Prince Max, ii. 39G.

Section

I.

THE GOOD RAPIDS TO CABR0B6.

A LITTLE below Boa Vista, the river, after a short and tolerably
clear

northern

sweep,

returns

to

the

eastern

direction,

and

enters upon that Cordilheira of breaks and rapids which will last
for

Earth here begins to show her giant

some thirt}^ leagues.

The bed broadens in many i^laces to a league,
and is worn down to its granitic floor it is a mass of islands and
skeleton bare.

;

islets, all bearing names, of reefs and rocks

sand-scoured, cut and

channelled by the waters, which glaze them to a grislj^ black.
a rule, the bed

is

As

too winding for the wdnds to form high waves,

but this is by no means always the case. The rocky quartzose
highlands, disposed apparently without any system, approach the
channel and throw across it broken walls of stone. The Cachoeiras offer some risk to those descending, but more during the

There are many and sundry triangles of water, and the
old rule of the Pdo das Yellias, namely, to make for the single
apex, will hold good here in some places we must get into broken
water to avoid sunken stones, and sometimes we must run straight
towards a rock, and rely upon helm and current to escape it.
ascent, f

;

*

M. Halfeld, \>j some curious oversight
6), makes this eleventh Travessia
thirty-eight leagues, and reckons the distance from Santa Maria, instead of from
Boa Yista. The pilots stretch the distance
(Rel. p.

namely, sixteen to
fifty-two leagues
Cabroho, and thirty-six to Yarzea Redonda.
+ The people declare that accidents never
take place, but we shall find two wi-ecks en
to

route.

;

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

394

[ciiAr. xxvii.

The only reall}^ bad part will be passed on our sixth day ;* it has
nine rapids, two whuipools, and two shallows, which form, durmg
the space of five leagues, obstructions as serious as the whole
Here a committee of pilots could
coui'se of the Pdo das Velhas.
point out the best line, which might be cleaned, marked, t and

would be far better, however, to abandon
all this part of the stream, and to run a tramway to the Porto
das Pii-anhas, distant 70 72 leagues along the channel.
The beauty of the banks still continues, and houses, farms,
and fields extend down the wdiole way. Gold cascalho, talcose
At this
slate, and quartz, frequently appear on both sides.
season the vegetation is much burned, and the finest trees are

rendered passable

;

it

—

upon the comparatively damp islands.

The nearly total absence

of palms gives to the scene a look of the temperate regions.
Agriculture and stock breeding are the main resources of the

stream is low sunk, they have no idea of
The banks, especially the
the Persian wheel or the Avindmill.
right, are much broken by Alagadicos or swamps, and by Ypoeiras,
which here take the Tupy name Igarape, or Ygarape. The
j)eople, but where the

influents, known by the bright green grass at the mouths, are mere

nullahs, owing to the increased narrowness of the river valley

narrow courses are either dry or slow
strings of pits and pools (Cacunbas and Pocoes), during the rains

at this season their short

they roll terrible torrents.
We were told that during the windless nights a candle might be

was the case only once. The Serras to the
north-east, Araripe and Borborema, obstruct to a certain extent
The Trade changes with the direction of
the thorough draught.
In
the stream, and at this season it invariabty comes up-stream.
the morning we have catspaws, the wind blows strongly during
There
the sunny hours, and woolpack gathers in the afternoon.
is an immense evaporation, causing a constant thirst, and crmn-

used naked

;

this

bling tobacco to dust

:

the wdiole of this section

that distils a copious stream for the higher river.

is

a laborator}^

The rains are

showers,
mostly from the north, sometimes from the south
violent only in March and April, extend between November and
Januar}^, fuiiher dov/n the}^ are fiercest in February and March.
;

* Between the 295tli
league of M. Halfeld,

and the 300th

on the route to Para " (Lieut. Herndon, p.

+ '* Tlie channels are so intricate that we
find, at the bifurcations,

hung on the ])ushes to gixicle the navigators

bits of sail-cloth

333).

CHAP. XXVII.]

BOA VISTA TO VARZEA EEDO^'DA.

395

We now enter the head-quarters of the extinct Jesuit missions,
a land of ruins strange in a coimtiy so 3^oung

;

and we see with

astonishment that more than a century ago the neighboui'hood
was much more advanced than it is at present. The company, it

and departed with confiscation of property from the Portuguese dommions by the celeThe Jesuits abstraction faite
brated law of September 3, 1759.
de leurs mstitutions vraiement nuisibles, et du mal resultant de
will be remembered, was denatiu-alised,

—

leur domination

— certamly taught their converts the

civilisation

of labom", and now the " Aldeados," or villaged Indians, have

allowed their chapels to fall, and are fast relapsing mto savagery.
^Finally, the place of the old Fathers has been but poorly filled by
the Italian and other missionaries, who, of late years, have been
thinly scattered amongst these out-stations.

—Vvlth

infinite trouble we managed
''Menino"
was di-unk, and well
The old
to set out at 11 a.m.
nigh incapable, and the new paddle, " Herb Basil," after a very

Wednesday, October 30, 1867.

short spiu't, began to droop in all save in the matter of singing.

We dropped down between the left bank and the large Ilha
Pequena it shows fenced fields and thatched roofs on four poles,
under which the shepherd shelters himself from the broiling sun.
The sheep and goats are poor and lean at this season, and the
owners ask 1$000 for a bag of bones. On the bushy liiUs to the
north are many sobrados, the usual house-like lumps of wliite
limestone below are scattered tiled huts, with here and there a
large tenement, and the negroes are singing over the task of bush
clearing.
The baijts are of fine quality fi'om the raft we see no
bottom to the soil, and the tap-root stril^es straight d^wn.
This Roca channel, ^^iiich we have taken to avoid the furious
;

;

;

Cachoeira do Ferrete on the right hand, recalls to memory the
Eio das VeUiafe below its confluence with the Parauna stream.
Presently we find on' the right the Ilha da Missao (Nova), and its

broken fane, one of the most southerly establishments of the
Jesuits.
It runs west-east, vdth a convexity to the north, and it
is at least three and a half miles long. Sundry islets rise between it
and the left bank there are fev.- breaks, but the many sunken rocks
The Serrote do Pao Torto on the left
require careful piloting.*
;

*

runs.

pai-t of

bank

Probably M. Halfeld surveyed tliis
He
the stream wlien it was low.
"
talks of sundry Cachoeiras and " Cachopos
{shoals here called baixios, or bancos de
Area), which are mere "Corridas," or

Between tlie Ilha Pequena and tlie

places the Cachoeira do Fuzil,
which, when I passed, can hardly be called
a rapid.
lie

THE HIGHLA:NDS OF THE BRAZIL.

39G

[chap, xxvii.

gave us a taste of its quality ; further down the Morros dos Gros,
the three hillocks

seen from

Boa

Vista,

form a

bluff,

and

approach the channel, which is compressed still more by the
Serra do Estevao* on the other side. Both banks project natural
Above
j^iers of rock, which make the stream dark and swiiding.
the village " Os Gros " is a lump of stone from this enchanted
;

ground the barquemen have often heard the sound of the drum and
As the dangers
the song, and tramp of crowds passing along.
of the bed increase, so will grow the behef in things unseen, till
at last almost every bluff will have its own superstition.
At this point we turned from east to north, and passed between
It contains a ruined
the left bank and the Ilha da Missao Velha.
chapel, N'^ S^ da Piedade, fronted by a cross
formerly it was
popidous and cultivated, now it is inhabited by only one Morador.
" Captain Soft " determined that he had worked enough for that
day it was then 3 p.m. and as I declined to put into the left
bank, where he had friends, he neatly let slip the new paddle of
Cactus, and managed, perforce, to effect a halt. It was useless
to attempt the rapid which we heard roaring downm-stream without
all our gear perfect.
he swam lil^e a fish but
I made him dive
the current was strong, and the heavy timber was, doubtless, soon
;

—

—

—

—

rolled far down -stream.

Missao Velha, and
Manuel Cj^oriano set out at once to cut down a Mandracuru.
Huts and clumps of noble Joazeiro and Quixaba trees gave the
bank a pleasant aspect. The Zozo, or Pistia, formed bright beds
in the water, especially at the mouths of creeks, and in places the
tall Ubaf was apparently planted by the people.
Ledges some
two feet square upon the water slopes, ^^ere laid out with onions,
mint, that made excellent juleps, and the Merti, an edible tuber,
with an Ai'um-like leaf; whilst the forks of low trees bore i^ots of
lavender and flowers for the women's hair.
We were presently hailed by a famihar voice from above, and
we recognised, despite certain borrowed plumes, the jolly face of
" Manoel Diabo." His brothers, hearing that he had left Boa
Vista without visiting his home, indignantly pursued him, and
brought him back, nolentem volentem, to receive his mamma's
blessing.
He had ''loaned" his friend the pilot's black coat and
"We halted on the

left

side, opposite the

* M. Halfeld calls it the Serra do Inhanhum, from the large island at the bend
of the Led.

f This Saccharum is prohahlythe "frecheira," or arrow-cane, of the Amazons
River.

CHAP. xxYii.]

BOA VISTA TO YAEZfiA EEDOXDA.

397

and lie cast them both off when he led us about the
Here the bank is flat, and subject to an excess of
droughts and floods. It is backed by a grey hill of talcose slate,
veined with and passing into quartz below.
The cotton slu'ub
"
foot " is said to produce thu'ty
grows admirably, and each
]3ounds; a little has been exj)orted, but the old ''laAi-ador" complained of a blight which had lately appeared the i:)lant probably
wants new land. Most of the cottages here have looms, which
are, however, superior in notliing to those of Unyamwezi. Cattle,
sheep, and goats looked tolerably tlniving, and the crew found
abmidance of bu'ds the flights of wild pigeons are described to
resemble those of the United States. In the evening the fatted
calf was killed, men and women complimented the truant in
extempore verse, to which he replied ^ith interest and the drum
was not silent till suniise. AVe heard for the last time the Whippoor- Will, his wi'ongs are taken up by another volatile, who ever
slippers,

" Fazenda."

:

;

;

complains, like the

West Afiican bush-dog,

that

the

fire

has

gone out.*
October 31.

— The old

worked hard

pilot

under a shady tree, and even

''

at his carpenteiing

Majelicao " bore a hand

—I had

At lO'SO a.m. we
shook hands all round, and pushed off towards the spot whence
defeiTed breakfast

till

the paddle was read}'.

This upper Cachoeira da Panella do Dom'ado,t
below Boa Yista, has been descended by barcas even
dm'ing the dry season, but it is perfectly capable of doing damage.
We ran to the north of the Illia da Missao Yelha, and, poling up
against a strong current, we passed between it and its northern
neighbour, the Ilha do Serrote.
Then turning poop on, we
dashed down the usual channel, + with the Angicos Island on the
right, and the Cabras on the left, and we escaped without anything more serious than a long gTaze. It was a -^ild and haggard

the roaring came.
the

fii'st

scene, a series of rivers within a river, a tortuous labyrinth of

currents formed by seven large and a multitude of smaller rocks,
through which the " eau sauvage " ran straight as an arrow. The

broom-like shrub, Jarumataia, or xlngari, brown below and green
* The cry is supposed to say, '*Fogo
'pagou " (apagoti).
The rapid of the pot-hole of the
+
Donrado," a fish of this species having
been caught in some "boil" by the first
"Panella" signifies either a
travellei's.
'

'

pot-liole worked by the

or a small

water in tlie rock,

whirlpool, a
depression in the siu-face.

conical

swirling

X There is another channel to the right
of the Ilha

do Serrote, but it appeared to

me very dangerous.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

398

[chap, xxvii.

above, grew in clumps upon the islets and in the shallower v/aters,
and heaps of drift-wood were thrown upon the convenient corners

and ledges.

The rocks, banded with snowy quartz, glazed like

the pigeon's wing, ruled

m straight lines by the several levels of

the water, and in places bored into basins, appeared singularly
Further down, where the flood reposes in depths
characteristic.

studded mth foam, and where the current wheels round in lazy
cii'cles,

we came to the cause of all this disturbance.

On the left

—

bank, without correspondence on the other side, a Serrote 80 90
feet high, and projecting to the north-east, sent a rib of rock clean
across stream from north-west to south-east.

The blufi showed
and split into
the face was lined

strata of hard sandstone striking to the south-west,

brick-like cubes by the perpendicular cleavage ;

with thick and thin ramifications of snowy white quartz,* Vv^hich
everywhere lay in fragments upon the surface. From the south
it

assumed a quoin shape, with a bushy hog'sback declinmg

to

the west.

Beyond the Illia das Marrecas we fell into the main stream. We
had not seen it united since we coasted the Illia Pequena, and now
we found it flowing like Arar " incredibile lenitate." On the left
of this reach, some four miles long, opened the mouth of the
now dry Riacho do Jacare t and its island down-stream. BeloAv
it

the channel passes between the right bank and the Illiota do

Serrotinho, a spine of hard sandstone and white quartz raggedl}^

covered ^^itll trees ; the tail end has clearings and cultivation.
Presently we tm'ned almost due east, and sighted ahead another

mass of obstructions. They are caused by a number of stony cones
on the right bank, and on the left by the Serra das Carahj^bas. This
is a block and outliers of rock, with waves of bush}^ ground
(Catingas Altas), which, contrary to rule in the Brazil, show no
At 1*30 p.m. vv^e passed the Ilha Grande,
tree fringe on the top.
where M. Halfeld gratefully mserts the residence of his pilot,
Cyriaco, whose dexterity and courage he greatly praises. Curious
tales are told of the old man, who seems to have inherited from
his

"Indian" ancestry a coolness of head, a clearness of vision,
The boatmen

and a strength of arm and will quite exceptional.
* M. Halfeld makes the bluff to consist of
mica, iron, and titanium,
f According to the pilot, it comes fx-om

quaiiiz, chlorite,

As Queimadas, distant thirty leagues.

I\I.

Halfeld shows a veiy narrow embouchure.

In Mr. Keith Jolinston it drains the eastern
slopes of the Avestern dividing ridge, heading near the sources of the Caniude, the
river of Oeiras in Piauhy.

CHAP. XXVII.]

BOA VISTA TO VAEZEA EEDONDA.

399

knows every stone in the river, and that he can
travel by night over the wildest dangers, especially when "tornado,"
declare that

lie

We

or slightly *' sprung."
shot dovm. a rocky run between the
Ilha Grande and the ''Ilha de Yilla da Santa Maria," formerly
the end of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh travessia.

Two ajojos, laden with salt bags, and raised hardly foui- inches
above the water, were painfully poling up-stream.

We landed on the island to inspect a ruin which we had seen
from afar.

The soil is of immense fertility * it bore cotton in
:

manioc wherever men had taken the trouble to
plant it the pinhao bravo, or poison croton-nut, which feeds the
tenantiy of the landshells
and fields of Ico trees, whose ancessmall quantities

;

;

;

tors were j^robably planted here

b}'

the Jesuit Fathers.

The

people, ^ith lank hair and broad yellow faces, showing indigenous

blood, v\'ere better clad than those up-stream, and inhabited the

same miserable huts. After a walk of a few hundred yards to the
south-west, we came upon the temple fronting west towards the
right banli and up-stream, where is the finest view.
Monastery,
cluu'ch, and chapel were all a mere shell, and the latter bore
inscribed upon the entrance

RESVRGE
XT IX XO
VISSIMO DIE
1734.

The material was the finest brick, and the maximum size was two
feet square.

It was almost as durable as the ashlar of talcose slate

with which it was mixed, and the chimam, probably shell lime, was

One of the belfries had fallen, and cactus
grew upon the walls where roof and ceiling had been. The dimenof the best quality.!

sions of the clunch were 100 x 25 feet.

There were remnants of
an arch mider the tlu'one (for the Host), and a line of stout, square
piers forming an aisle or sacristy to the north.
The lizard and
the pigeon were the only inhabitants of the grim old ruin.
I left
sometliing
There is
unpleasantly impressive about
it in sadness.
these transitory labours, upon wliicli the lives of men have been

* Below S'''* ]Maria the lands -will become
sandy, less light and rich.
+ Hence the pilasters are called by 'M.
Halfeld (Rel. 156) Coluninas de Pedra. He
In the above-mentioned church
remarks,
'

'

tliey still

inter the defimct,

but with so

little piety, that the corpses, hardly covered

with loose earth, exhale an insnj)portable
fetor,"
The hint has been taken, and we
had not to complain of the atmosphere.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

400

[chap, xxvii.

The whole scene remmded me of the once renowned
City of Wari (Warree) in the Kingdom of Benm.
Kesmning our way, we ran down the Island of Santa Maria,
and presently we came to another great stone-river coursing

wasted.

through the roots of the Serra do Oroco. These hills form a
hollow crescent between the Serra das Carahybas and the water.
The api)earance is made pecuhar by two knobs, which a curtain
connects, and an outlier, the Upper Oroco proper,* ai)proaclies
The stream flowed like a sluice, and in the
the left bank.

Cachoeira de Sao Pedro, where, despite the manful slanging of
the pilot, the paddles preferred looking behind them to working,
we struck heavily. We then threaded our way down the mid
On paper the channels look
stream, though a land of islands.!
like

The

the blue fissures of a glacier.

Illia

de Sao Miguel

showed a deserted temple on a knob of ground. The Ilha de Sao
Fehs disclosed through its dense trees a whitewashed and tiled
chmxh, with belfry and two terminal towers here the saint still
;

resides.

As we emerged from this " belt " the water fell smooth as a
but the prospect was not less wild. On the right
bank the Serra do Aracapa crouched hke a sphinx with jubated

metal plate

;

neck, and from down-stream the head will seem distinctly traced.

We then paddled between the Aracapa Island and the left bank,
where enters the Eiacho da Brisoda (Brigida).t The back water
flows up the green mouth for about two leagues, and the rest of
We found good
the bed at this season is a string of i^ools.
Aracapa,
do
near
the Fazenda of
the
Porto
ground
at
anchorage
The people here breed horses,
that name fronting the island.
mules, and black cattle for the Cabrobo market, and a good ox is
It was a still, quiet evening, favourable for
sold for 20$ 000.
The hoary eastern clouds at nightfall threatenmg
mosquitos.

* There is an Oroco debaixo on the left
bank, about two miles do^\Ti.
f To starboard were successively from
west to east, the Ilha das Almas, do Jua,
de S. Miguel, and da Piedade, with a mass
of others, especially the Ilha Comprida,
To
between them and the right bank.
port lay the Ilha de Sao Felis, which the
pilot called " de Sao Pedro " it had about
midway a hillock (outeirinho), upon whicli
the Chai)el is built, nearly due north of the
rising gi-ound that sujijiorts the ruins of Sao
:

Between S. Felis and the left
the Ilha da Tapera
east of S.
Felis is the Ilha do Aracapa, about four
miles long.
Its channel is miich broken,
and Cascalho appears upon its left bank,
Here the broadest part of the river is neai'ly
Miguel.

bank

is

;

tAvo (geographical) miles,

+ Mr. Keith Johnston calls it "R.
Bregido," and makes it drain, correctly,
I believe, the southern slopes of the dividing range between Pernambuco and
Ceara.

CHAP. XXVII.]

BOA VISTA TO VARZEA REDONDA.

401

wind, and the jacare splashed around us, while the flute and the

song came loud from the shore.
Nov. 1.

—We

set out at 6 a.m., but the gale

soon drove us to

take refuge on the western side of the Aracapa Island, where we

found a few huts belonging to moradores and fishers of the
Trahira.
The low lands are often flooded, but there is a dorsum
of higher ground to which the people can

retii'e.

I utilised the

The liveliness and the free,
motion of the rapid after the smooths above were rather
enjoyable than otherwise
but the process seemed somewhat a
*'
"
tempting of Providence
in the now crazy Eliza, manned by a
crew that would not work. The pilot, who knew the dangers
better, was far more anxious than we were
and he presently
returned with a barqueii'o who, mo^^ennant 10 §000, agreed to
accompany us. Antonio was a stout, dark youth, with a heavy
shoulder and muscular arms. He justified all the good things
said about the people of the river below Joazeii'o.
Having
received a small advance, he crossed the stream to fetch his
sheepskin, and he took his paddle at 11.30 a.m., the old
delay by engaging another paddle.
swift

;

;

*'

Menino " being placed

in

the

stern to

amuse himself with

his kitchen ladle.

We coursed down the end of the wild Aracapa Channel, passing
an islet on the right and the Ilha do Taboleii'o* to the left. Presently we shot through a gate formed b}" several rocks to port, and
to starboard hy an enormous block which had assumed the domed

form into which granite masses are so often weathered.
The
brown above, and below it was japanned to
the semblance of a meteoric stone.
Here, as elsewhere, the
colouring matter does not penetrate the surface except through
fissures. The coat varies but Httle in thickness, and when broken
with a hammer the fragments show that the glaze is easily to be
removed from the stone. I have before alluded to this phenomenon of coloration, which is common to both hemispheres.! A
coloui' was cinereous

long series of observations is required before we can answer the

— " Does the

suspended like sand
and other earthy substances, or are they found in a state of
"
chemical solution ?
Bej^ond the gate with its gTisl}^ tower was a remanso, half boil,

question

* In

]\I.

VOL.

Hiilfeld':^
II.

river hold the oxides

map it is called the Ilha dos Bois.

f Ghap. 15.
T) D

—
THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

[chap, xxvii.

half dead water, which taxed the paddlers' arms.

We then flew

402

through a " violent rapid " formed by rocks between the eastern
end of the Ai^acapa Island and the left bank. It is known by the
descrii:)tiYe name

of Desataca Calcoes "

—loosen your breeches

which is all that requires to be said of it. We then passed on the
bank the Serrote da Ponta da Ilha da Assumpcao, where an
ypoeira setting off to the north-east insulates a tract of ground
three and a half leagues in length by five-eighths of a league in
extreme breadth, more than double the width of the river water.*
The Serrote is a lumpy, half-bald hill, with grey bush scattered
over a whitish surface.
The upper part is banded with scattered
rocks of lighter tint running parallel with the bed, and taihng off
left

down stream.
Perforce we took the main channel to the right or south of
Assumption Island. The bank is mostly of sand based upon hard
clay, and its " Cascalho " extends to the water edge.
The lowtying land has Catingas Altas, where the people fly from the inun-

They remember in 1838 an exceptional flood, which
rose 32 feet.
The soil is said to be good horses are bred in the
island, and black cattle are said to have run wild. The mountams
The broken line of
of the " terra firma " in front form a picture.
the Serra do Milagre contrasts with the lumpy mass of the Serra
da Bananeira, upon which is said to be an " Olho de Agua ;" and
dations.

;

whilst the valley is bone-dr}^, its highlands are fed by rain.

Far

to the left two pyramids, regular as if cut, breed reminiscences of

Cheops and Cephren in a certain valley of the Old World. Seen
from the south-east, these hills lose their venerable appearance,
and become a saddle-back, banal even as is its name, '^ Serrote
do Jacare." f

At 2 P.M. we entered the " spuming rapid " of Cachauhy, called
da AssumpQao to distinguish it from two others down stream. It
is formed at the end of the Ilha

das Yaccas and other complications

Serrote do Salgado, a knob on the right bank.

b}' the

We went

down the breaks where the water danced about the dots of rock,
*

We shall ascend the easternmost part

ypoeira to make Cabrobd.
The
direct route would be by the west, but at
tliis season it is impassable.
The principal
rapids, going down the line, are
1. Bom
Successo
2. Cachauhy
Tucutu
4.
3.
of

this

:

;

;

;

Camaleao
5.
Urubu
Cauam, or
6.
Cauan
7. Fouce
8.
and 9.
Catarina
;

;

;

;

;

The Cachoeira do Graviao, or do Portao.
The latter, about half a league above the
town, is described as a droj) (desiJenhador),
which can be passed only in the height of
the floods.
f None of these names is given by M.
Half eld.
The Jacare appears to be his
Serra do Bendo.

;

BOA VISTA TO VARZEA REDONDA.

CHAP. XXVII.]

403

and safely accomplished the always delicate operation of crossing.
We landed on the Island of Assumption to see the church, j)art
of whose brickwork cumbers the shore in large masses.
Nothing
can save it. In 1852-54 it was 51 feet from the stream, which
has now laid bare the southern side. It was built in 1830 by a
citizen of Cabrobo, whose name is already forgotten
and the
style as well as the material are a long way behind those of the
Jesuits.
It is to be hoped that the next traveller will find a little
more attention given to the dead who are buried in the roofless
;

^1 closure.

The ]3eople collected to see
*'

us.

Apparently inclined to be

saucy," they came with knives and small biixl-bows and arrow^s.

The old savages have all died off, and these are mostly a mixed
hail' comes from Africa.
The pure blood
showed the w^ell-known signs big, round Kalmuk heads, flat
Mongol faces, with broad and distinctly marked cheek-bones
breed, whose curly

—

oblique Chinese eyes, not unfrequentl}^ brides, rather brown than
black,

and dwelling upon objects with a fixed gaze

thick ej^ebrows

;

thin mustacliios fringing the large

;

dark and

mouths full

of pointed teeth ; and small beards, not covering the long, massive

The hair, brought low down over the forehead, w^as that
of the Hindu, jetty and coarser than in the pure Caucasian. The
chins.

nose had an abominable cachet of vulgarity, small and squat, with

broad fleshy nostrils

;

in fact the feature was all that an Arab is

They were well-made men, except that the trunk appeared

not.

somewhat too long and large for the legs, and the shoulders seemed
to

project horizontally just below the ears.

The extremities

showed that delicacy of

size and form which has passed so
remarkably into the Brazilian blood, and the skin was brownyellow and ruddy only where exposed to the light and air.

A glance down the river from the tall bank discloses a grisly
There was the rich golden glow of the unclouded sun now
slanting west, and many a silvery Hne of stream to suggest
sight.

Den Silberbach in goldne Strome fiiessen.

But a purple nimbus with a long grey lappet ahead threatened a
gale of wind, and the richly tinted surface was fanged with murderous black stones. Here the Serrote da Lagoa Yermelha* runs
*

Some call it the SciTti do Miiagrc

;

others the Serru da Lagoa Dourada.

D D 2

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

404

chap, xxa^i.

and extends to it many a hill spur
that reefs the stream. We easily traversed the bed, and stmnbled
through the Cachoeira da Pedra do Moleque, which breaks and
parallel with the right bank,

but at the next place we nearly came to grief.
Here the channel bends to the south-east, and dashes at a hill

boils right across

;

This Alto da Lagoa Dourada deflects it
almost at right angles to the north-east. The water flows down
liill, and we distinctly feel and see the angle formed by the raft
platform.
It is a violent torrent, pouring at a rate of 10 to 12
of stone and red clay.

knots an hour over the rocks, swirling around them, and pro-

In the runs there is a visible
convexity of surface, the waters being heaped up as it were by the
ducing a complication of currents.

and between the torrents are smooth
boils which seem as though produced by underground springs.
As we were entering the worst part, the strong east wind struck
I had
us, and in a minute we were thrown helpless upon a rock.
taken the precaution to secure everj^thing on board with ropes
had not this been done the surges which swept us as w^e heeled
over would have cleared the deck.
The pilot exerted himself
desperately
the men kept their presence of mind, and the
compression of the sides

;

;

;

whose power we were, beneficently sent the Eliza's
head down stream, with no fui'ther injury but a scrape and graze.

ciu-rent, in

Enough for one day.

The storm set in with fury.

We managed

to pass the Serrote da Lagoa Yermelha, and we anchored on the

right bank, a little below the extinct town of Pambu.

This place of unintelligible name lies in a sack of the southern
bank, and to the east of its unimportant Riacho.

The site is a

The ofl'set from the high
w^all to the south-w^est and the huts may number a maximum of
thirtj^-five.
The church, built and dedicated to Santo Antonio
level at the feet of a thicket- clad ridge.

by a rich j^roprietor of Cabrobo, has indulged itself in an architectiu^al eccentricity.
The facades are double, whitewashed in
the rear, brown clay in the front, and the efi'ect is that of a man
with two heads.
We passed the night at the Pedra do Bode, fronting Pambusinho
Island, which was backed by the great Assumpgao.
A clean
patch of sand was dotted with the Oiti da Praia (Pleragina
odorata. Mart.), a bush here considered useless with the wild Ico,
bending under the weight of its fruit and with the Piranha, a
scaly tree, which is green and lively above, whilst the lower parts
;

;

CHAP. XXVII.]

BOA VISTA TO VARZEA REDONDA.

405

Behind the beach rose the rocky and
clayey hill, scattered over with quartz pebbles and red silex that
Passing through the bush we were
resembled Rosso Antico.
attacked by a carrapato-tick, now a novelty, but none the more
suj^ply good dry firewood.

agreeable.

Nov. 2.

—We ran down half a league to the

tail of Pambusinho

and then turned north-westwards into the Braco do Tucutu,
the channel parting the mainland of Pernambuco from its subject,
The latter is here kept in position by
the Ilha da Assumpcao.
face to the east and to the south.
which
ground,
lines of rising
It was a delicious morning; the air was sweet and rain- washed,
and the temperature that of Cairo in the cold season. How
much would be paid for such a day at such a season upon the
All creation looked its best, and the birds,
banks of the Thames
gaily in the bush, especially the tame
sang
unusually numerous,
and familiar red-headed songster of many names.* The ashengrey maracana f \ai\\ the long cuneiform tail, was trooping from
the forest to plunder whatever maize was to be found; and the
fine large blue alcedo, | a king amongst the kingfishers, crossed
Islet,

!

the stream with his " vol saccade," or sat upon the spray of pale-

green glaucous verdui'e, looking out for what he could devour.

The brown-black nimble plotus shot swiftly past us

;

the ichthj^o-

j)hagous era una, § with dark plume and yellow beak shaped like

long wings and the Soco boi
from
its bull-like bellow, looked
(Ardea virescens), so called
Plundering
twice at us before it would take the trouble to fly.
seems here to be the fashion; even the pigs were necklaced with
w^ooden triangles] to temper theu' love of manioc.

the cmdew, heavily flapped

its

;

At this season the lower channel is

clear ;

but during the

height of the chies the Cachoeii'a da Boa Yista, alias da Boca do

Braco, must be troublesome.

The scenery was the usual pistia

and haiiy grass near the water, thin IMimosa growth higher up,
and plantations upon the more elevated lands. Fish was plenti* It is called Cal)e9a Yermelho, Gallo
The "MeCampina, and Tico-Tico Rei.
nino" declared that he had sold for
10 $000, at Rio de Janeiro, a pair (casal)
of these birds, which are prized for their
song.

Psittacus
There are two species
Maca\Taanna and P. Guianensis (Linn. ).
% The people call it " Soco," and de-

f

:

clare that it is fat and good eating.
§ The word is doubtless a corruption of
" Guaraiina, " the " blackbird " but it is
pronounced as above, and many places
upon the river are named from it.
The
;

people praise the flesh of this bird, after it
has been fried in fat.
Locally called Canga (a yoke), or
Cambao, a rustic Portuguese word.
||

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

406

[chap, xxvti.

but the fishermen asked for it exorbitant prices. After four
hours of very laz}^ pohng we turned a corner from south-west to

ful,

north-west, and came upon a chmip of huts and a large compound
httle above was the Porto, where
wall facing towards the stream.

A

a feny plies between the island and the main. It is a broad green
boat, with a short mast made fast to a bench stepped in front.

—

Here we found the usual scene women washing, men filling
their " odres " (water-skins), and "borrachas" (leather bottlebags, with wooden corks), and children splashing and catching
There were man}^ horses, and the cleanthe Piaba and the Piau.
limbed cattle fed upon the heaps of cotton-seed which had been
thrown upon the banks. The other live objects were very lean
pigs, prowling dogs, and poultry, which here includes turkeys
and guinea-fowls.
Ascending the bank I found unexpectedly a large place without
any of the sleepiness which had characterised Joazeiro and Boa
Vista the site is the mainland, in the Comarca of Boa Vista,
Pro\ince of Pernambuco. At present it is a very dry land, the
evaporation curls up the leaves of the orange tree, whilst the tall
And at times it is
stout papaws seem to enjoy the temperature.
;

very w^et

;

the floods enter the settlement, deluging

its floor

of

sandy clay, and driving the people to the Catingas Altas, which

we see scattered about.

The main of the town, which may con-

tain 125 houses and 700 souls, is formed of a large street, or rather

square, running north to south, and containing the dismantled

church of N^ S'^ da Con9ei9ao. The houses are unusually low
and massive, and they use shutters instead of glass windows,
declaring that the road to Bahia is 140 leagues long, and that
many of the stages want water. On the north of the settlement
is

the cemetery.

The centre shows the new Matriz and inevit-

work of a rich devotee, D. Brigide Maria das
Virgens, Vvdiose husband built the now ruined fane on Assumption
both are in the same stjde, and tliis bears the date
Island
The interior is unfinished, showing a ceiling of naked
1844.
there are, however, two pulpits, an organ loft, and
rafters
The Vigario
carpets upon the floor, which show that it is in use.
recites mass every morning, and all the ''respectables" of both
sexes are "expected" to attend with a regularit}^ which reminded
me of the Mosque. Here and there are some decent shops, and
I bought without difficult}^ meat and poultry, rice and water-

able cross, the

;

;

CHAP. XXVII.]

BOA VISTA TO VARZEA REDOXDA.

melons, salt and liquor.

407

A tiled shed represented the market-

place, which was crowded with leather-clad men from the interior,

and broacas of rapadura and
farinha, which will here be exchanged for wet and dry goods.
Here, after some months, I again saw "the Eagle zin " at
work the material comes from the inner highlands to the north,
where yesterday's rain fell. This is a countrj^ of great fertility,
and extends north to the Serra de Araripe,+ distant from Cabrobo
chaffering over their cotton bales*

;

thirty leagues.

mounds

The range is

described to be a succession of

across which there

an easy road,
whilst behind it is the stony Serra de Borborema, which inosculates
with the Ibyapaba Range, separating Ceara from Piauhy. At the
of rich red clay,

is

southern foot of the Ai-arlpe is " Ixu," whose Yillaship has been
transfeiTed to " Granito."
On the northern counterslope are

Crato and the Villa da Barra do Jardim.

In this chalk ranoe
Dr. Gardner first fomid the Ichthyolites which now go by the
name of " Penedo Stones." The nodular and rounded limips of

impm'e fawn-coloured limestone, when split down the middle,
display the skeletons of the Mesosaurus, and fishes belonging to the
recent Cretaceous epoch, t

The people know of then* existence,

and some are still sent to the coast as curiosities.

We at once see the cause of prosperity at Cabrobo.

The land
road between the Villa da Boa Vista and the Varzea Redonda runs
by it, and is met by the highways from Omicory, Crato, and the
Caii'iiys§ to the north and north-east.
The cotton bales are
embarked on rafts or carried down b}^ horses, to the Porto das
Piranhas, distant along the riyer 55 leagues (165 miles).
after long wandering they find a
* The bales averaged five to six arrobas
they were impressed, but made up neatly
enough with "tie-tie."
+ (xardner has described this chalk formation. The name Araripe has been wholly
Sr. Canomitted in Mr. Keith Johnston.
dido Mendes de Almeida has not forgotten
it
he does not, however, show it backed
by the Borborema, which, properly speakOf the
ing, includes the two Cairin'S.
:

:

latter more presently.

Recent cretaceous fishes have been
found by that excellent traveller,
IMr. William Chandless, on the Rio Aquiry,
Most of
an aflluent of the Great Purus.
them, according to Prof. Agassiz, occur
between S. lat. 10° to 11°, and W. long.
(Grr. ) 67° to 69°, in localities from 430 to

X

lately

Then

steamer which ships the exports
650 feet above sea-level.

Here the latitude

of Araripe is about 7° south,
§ This name is locally applied to the
country about Crato and Jardim.
Cairiry,
also written Cariiy (Carirys), Cariri, or
Kiriri, was the name of a Tapuya tribe,
the ancient possessors of Itaparica Island,
in the Bay of S. Salvador.
In 1699 a
Jesuit
missionary,
Luis Vincencio
P.
]\Iariani, published at Lisbon his
"Arte
da (irammatica da Lingua Brasilica da
Nagam Kiriri." Many places hereabouts
bear the name of Cairirey
they were
doubtless localities to which the old savages
emigated.
There are two principal ranges,
the Cairirys Novos, in the Province of
Parahyba do Norte, and the Cairirys Yelhos,
;

in Pemambuco.

THE HiaHLANDS OF THE BRAZIT..

408

to Bahia.

In 1852

—

[chap, xxvii.

54, I have said, all was languishing, where

now we find life and energy.

A good rolling road, but more

mighty impulse to trade by
and the many men relieved from the carrying trade

especially a tramway, would give a
facilitating it ;

would at once become producers.
I called upon the civil young Delegado Sr. Bertino Lopes de
Araujo of Parahj^ba do Norte, who had married and settled in this
During that time he did not remember a
place six years ago.
single assassination, although, of course, quarrels had taken place.
Neither he nor any of his neighbours could exx)lain the word
" Cabrobo," also written " Quebrobo;" all they knew was that the
old Indian name had been given to a Fazenda which presently
became a Villa. The Delegate warned me, as others had done, to
make everything snug on board the Eliza, as we were soon to be
in difficulties.

Section II.

THE BAD RAPIDS TO SURUBAB^.

—After manifold delays—the Delegate was writing
attended mass, and " Majelicao hid himthe
in the nearest brothel —we ran down the narrow arm,

Nov.

3.

letters for us,
self

passed

"

pilot

safely

its

central

" Camboinha," and, after an hour's work,

Banco d'Area,* on the Bahian side below Pambu.
At this point the Rio de Sao Francisco begins the great southsighted the

easterly trend, which

it

will keep, with a

tions, to the end of its journey.

few insignificant varia-

The north-eastern Vento Geral

now becomes a side wind, and sometimes blows almost from
The sun is decidedly hot, clouds gather to the east and
behind.
to the west, we see from afar symptoms of a "repiquete," or
violent shower,

and we therefore expect a gale, if not a rain-

storm.

On the left side a sandy islet hid from us the mouth of the
Riacho da Terra Nova, or do Jequi (Giqui), a nullah of some
Beyond it we entered the Passagem do Ybo, the
importance.!
* It is a clump of huts above a large
sand-bar or beach, known as the Coroa do

Bom Jesus.
t It is said to head about 30 leagues
from its mouth in the Araripe Range, near

Mr.
the place called " Cairirys Novos."
Keith Johnston calls the north-eastern fork
" R- Terra Nova," and the north-western,

" R. S. Domingos."

;

CHAP. XXVII.]

BOA VISTA TO VARZEA REDOX DA.

409

narrowest part of the Sao Francisco, where x)eople can talk from
side to side.

The formation is a deep gorge in the valley line,

which, however, shows no especial features

;

the right is not flooded, whilst the

swept, and a low rib of

left is

loose rock stands up in mid-stream.

95

the banks are sandy,

The water, at this season

— 100 feet deep, swiids in palj^able domes, and foams in shallow

"pots."

A little below the Fazenda do Ybo, and a point project-

ing from the right bank, the 770 feet of stream spread out to

more than

a mile.

The total breadth

of the river below the

narrows is three-quarters of a league, but the greater part of it is
occupied by the Ilha da Yargem, fronted by the main artery, and

backed by its own little branch of the Sao Francisco. Well
inhabited, and with fertile soil, this island, shaped lilve the letter
L, with the angle pointing south-west, is one of the largest, each
limb being about a league and a half long.
Easily passing the narrows, we ran along the left bank between
This is the onl}^ line passable.
it and the Ilha do Estreito.*

Beyond this island the left bank projects a rounded point towards
the concavity of the L, and fills the river with rocks and rapids

the heights are apparently limestone, and again we see along the

At the apex begins the
Cachauhy de Antonio Martins, the second of the name. The

brink iron conglomerate in dark ledges.
roar of this rapid is worse than its bite

;

the foul channel, how-

on the right by the Illia do Cachauhy, and
further down b}- the high and sandy Ilha do Carua.
We then crossed the river from west-north-west at the tail of
the Ilha da Yargem, to the " Largo do Brandao " on the eastsouth-east, a long reach of deep smooth water wliich appeared a
ever, is compressed

''

Remanso " after the swift stream higher up.

A gaunt island,

the Ilha dos Brandoes,t here defends the bed from the rocks of
the left bank, whilst the right bank protects us from the wind.

Opposite the head of the island, and on the Bahian shore, is the

mouth of the Riacho da Yargem, which is said to run twenty
leagues from a height called the Tombador.

Rice fields were on

borders, and boys were pelting the greedy bii'ds with loud cries
At 4 p.m. the pilot said that we must anchor, as
of " diabo."

its

* The Ilha da Boa Vista in ]M. Halfeld's

maps.
f

On the left bank are three Fazendas,

called Brandao, probably from some family

that first settled here.
At the Brandao do
Meio there was a neat white house and a
clump of cocoa-nut trees,

"

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

410

[chap, xxvii.

amongst the Eapids, which will extend
This is by no means the case, but
ten leagues down stream.
Manuel Cypriano's eyes are not now of first-rate quality, and he
does not like to pass broken water either in early morning or in
there is no safe gTound

the evening shades.

We made fast below the Fazenda do Abare,* opposite the head
of the Ilha Grande, a thin strip about two and a half leagues long,

immediately succeeding to that of the Brandoes. The bank is
The little settlement of tiled
here lined with nodules of lime.
and tattered houses had its chapel, and we met no difficulty in
buying a pig and poultry. The crew reproached me for not
having killed a harmless water-snake, and amused themselves
with bulljing an unfortunate frog of large size, which is popularly
supposed to swallow sparks of fire. The boatmen have tales of
the " Sapo" getting to

Heaven by the aid of the birds, and the

animal seems to hold in these regions the position of the spider
on the coast of Guinea, f
Nov. 4. This is the critical day the acme of our rapid-

—

—

troubles

;

we shall pass nine

bad places in 6 to 7 leagues.

The

breadth of the stream is a constantly varying quantity, but
generally it is unusually narrow, the effect of increased slope.

The left bank is a long line of little hills, whilst the right side is
mostly flat and bushy. The profile of the bed is an inclined plane
Long
of rock and gravel, divided into sections by level spaces.
and shoals,
cumber the bed, and the former bear bits of noble forest. There
is something majestic in the aspect of the Sao Francisco, whose

islands and short islands, rocks and reefs, sandbars

turbid waters, here building up, there lieing low,
in silent grandeur, fanned

now flowing

by the gentle breeze, and reflecting

the gold and azure of the sky, assume an angry, sullen, and relentless aspect when

some obstacle of exceptional importance w^ould

bar its mighty path.

Eising with the dawn, but not pushing
the channel formed by the

Illia

* A little below this point is the BarBoth are reminiscences
rinha do Abare.
of the Jesuits, one of whom was called
Abare bebe, the "flying father," because
he was always on the move. They, as well
as the Prelates, took the title of Pay Abare
Gruagu, the Pope being known as Pay Abare
oc(i ete (biggest of all).

The friars of Saint

off till 7 a.m., we took

Grande to the north, and preAnthony were called Abare tucura, father
grasshopper, because the hood
gafanhoto.
reminded the savages of the
f M. Halfeld (Rel. 215) mentions the
Calborge, a singing and amphibious toad,
It has also
which covers itself with froth.
locust or

' *

its legends.

VISTA TO VARZEA REDONDA.

CHAP. XXVII.]

BOx\

sentl}^ scraped

over the shrub -gi*o"s\ai stones as

411

we passed down

Tubarana " Shoal. Its site is
through the middle of the great
at the head of the Ilha da Missao, where this landstrip, also long
and thin, lies parallel mth the Illia Grande. On the right was
the Barra do Tubarana, alias da Fazenda Yelha, another nullah
with a pooly bed. At 10 a.m. we coursed down the middle of the
Cachoeira do Imbuseiro, formed between highland in Bahia,
''

fronted in three tiers by the islet

''

do Meio," and the islands da

Missao and Grande.
Twenty minutes then took us to the ''impetuous Cachoeira of
This is a break right across between Bahia and
the Rosario."
the head of the Ilha do Serrotinho. We hugged the right bank,
and shot an incline of water, wliich made us sit back in the raft
The channel is smooth,
as upon a horse landing after a leap.
general
visibly
lower
a
feature
lucent, and
now
than the
stream, which breaks with a railway rush on both sides.
A heavy
bump was the only damage done here the rule is a bump and a

—

—

;

scrape at least once a day.

After the Bosario we took the narrow channel made by the
right

bank and the Ilha da Barra,

group of three disposed in unicorn
Meio and the Ilha da Patarata.

a

lumpy island, one of a

—the others being the Ilha do

Near an affluent, knovm as
the Barra do Mucurui'e,* the a^\aiing was taken down, and the
thermometer showed in the sun 114° (F.), which made m}^ companion suffer
even the black boys on ashore crouched and
cowered under theii* little awnings of yellow straw. At the tail of
;

the Ilha da Barra was a narrow pre sentty '' flaring out " into a bay.

Looking back through a gap to the north-west, we saw the whitewashed Church of Belem another missioner name upon a driedup plain, backed by a range of wavy hill.

—

11 A.M. brought us to our thu'd

—

trial,

the "furious Cachoeira

"long Sault " of half a mile, with
two distinct breaks. The lower is by far the worse. We rolled
down the mid stream through boiling glassy water, fringed by
rows of surge flowing noisily. At the bottom we shaved the left
bank of the Ilha do Cantagallo, a pyriform plain of sand, with a
of the Cantagallo."

It is a

small rocky " Serrote."

On the right of the channel is the third

* ]\I. Halfeld calls it Barra do Tarraxi.
It is said to rise at a place called the
Imbiiranas, at the Pouta da Serra, and to measure forty leagues.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

412

Cacliauhy (do Pianoro, P. N.),* which
obstructed in

river,

its

is

[chap, xxvii.

always avoided.

The

course, there breaks into waves which

dash with thundering violence against the broken reef, and rush
between the jags of rock in sluices of dazzling velocity.
We have now a clear league ahead without rapids, but requiring
Stones, shallows, and many little runs which the
great care.
pilot calls simply Pedras, stud the bed.

On the left bank is the

Serrote do Papagaio, which has been visible since leaving the
The profile, seen from the west, is the " Phrygian
Ilha da Barra.
"
bonnet," generally known in the Brazil as the " parrot's beak;

from the stream opposite it is a vertical ridge of bare rock, f
Here begins the upper break of the second Cachoeira da Panella
do Dourado, which the i^ilot facetiously calls O testo da Panella,
Below is the '' famous wdiirlpool and rapid " of that
the pot-lid.
name the only sign of a maelstrom was cross-waves from the
left or north-west, but on the downw^ard side of a rock-lump by
which we ran, we were struck full on the beam by a current flying
rather than flowing, and we were once more nearl}^, but only
;

nearly, swamped.

Number 5, the
much
importance it gives a
Cachoeira do Boi Vellio, w^as not of
After a short halt for baling,

we resumed.

;

fair

way

to the right, leaving the heaviest break on the

left.

and the banks were lined with
i^rairie fires, a symptom of expected rains, and
settlements
burnings for new " rogas " appeared all around but they were of
Again the stream became

clear,

;

;

The air
small extent, as the people w^ant grass for their stock.
and
the
surface
than
before,
of
the
land
arid
becomes even more
is mere

dust.

The right shore showed the Arraial da Missao de

Sao Joao Baptista de Rodellas, more curtly called ''AsRodellas ; "

it

w^as

a village of " Caboclos," pauper huts gathering

about a large and well-washed church, backed by a wave of high
ground. In 1852 the temple was in ruins, but a Ca]3uchin
Missioner, Frei Paulino de Lusione, collected ahns, and recon-

The pilot told me an ugly story about some ghostly
man, here stationed, who showed a pronounced i^ropensity for
" Caboclas " (the feminine), under the age of twelve.
One of his
structed it.

* M. Halfeld gives at this jjlace a
Cachauhy de Cima and a Cachauhy de

Baixo.
t In the Relatorio (p. 168)

it is

called

the trend is made from
Serrote da Pedra
north-east to south-west, and the material
is stated to be "gneiss granite" (unstratified gneiss), granite and quartz.
;

BOA VISTA TO VARZEA REDOXDA.

CHAP. XXVII.]

413

victims ran away, and complained to the Delegate of Police, who

and finally compelled the Reverend to quit
the countr3\
There were other tales of dehauchery, cloaked
by sanctity, especially one of holy water, which proved to have a
true or not, they prove that the moderns
pestilent taste of gin
do not secure the respect paid to the ancient Jesuits.
We rested on the left bank opposite Rodellas, and the boatmen bathed to prepare for the finale, an ugly stretch of two
leagues.
The channel widens out, for the last time, to nearly
three-quarters of a league, and bending from the south-west
almost to the south, becomes a mass of islands. Of these eight
at once imprisoned,

;

are considerable tracts of wooded ground. *

At 3.15 we put off from shore, and easily passed tln'ough the
Cachoeira do Urubusinho, which is some hundred 3'ards in length.

On the right was the hill-island do Urubii, a kind of CaregLuzem-Kuz, which from up stream appears like a monstrous
elephant, with white ear and head partly averted, lying down
amongst the trees its spine is a bristling crest of bored and
hollowed stone, f
To the left of this ''hoar rock in the wood "
la}'^ the long thin Ilha da Yiuva
hence we passed directly into
;

;

fmious Cachoeira of the Fura-olho," or gouge-eye.
I
confess to having felt cold hands at the sight of the infamous
''

the

turnings, the whu-lpools which the Relatorio calls the terror of

and the pot-holes some fifteen inches deep in the
water.
Head on, we dashed at the rocks here bare, there shrubclad
and more than once we prepared for the shock often, too,
the pilot giving the raft a broad sheer with the sweep of his
heavy and powerful paddle, carried us safely through places
where we could almost touch death on either side. It was a wild
scene the Eliza swayed and surged to and fro, as she coursed
down the roarmg, rushing waters that washed the platform the
surge dazzled the eyes when it caught the sun, and on the smooth
" Shout, boys,
depths the beams were reflected as by a mirror.
"
cried the old man, in his Cachoeiran element
shout
"I love

na^TLgators,

—

—

;

;

;

;

!

* The islands, beginning from above,
2. Ilha da Viuva,
1. Ilha do Ciiite
are
or dos Cubayos, the latter name confounding it with a smaller feature to the south

—

;

;

4. I. do Jatoba
5.
da Tucurtiba
6. I. da Crueira (sic in
I. de Sao Miguel
map, Cruzcira?) 7. I. do Espinheiro and

3.

I.

;

;

;

;

8.

I.

;

do Surubabe, in the Relatorio called

" Sorobabe " and "Zorobabe. "
Besides
these the Plan shows some thirty-five islets
of larger or lesser size, not including rocks,
f M. Halfeld (Rel. 169) says that the
formation is granitic, and he places the
channel on the right, whereas we pissed to
the right of the " Elephant Islet."

;

414

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

to hear the shout in these places
exchimieci,

with

giapissant

their

Senhora, and ciying,

voices,

O bicho feio

''

" He Fura Olho

"

!

!

[chap, xxvii.

calling

!

" they

upon Nossa

" to the whirlpools and the

ugly-headed, black rocks, whose faces ghstened like the hippopotamus fresh from the deep, and whose necks were cravatted with
bands of rushing white water, a thin and semi-transparent gauze.
We managed " Gouge-eye " in fifteen minutes, and pronounced it
very j^retty shooting when it was ended.
The ground-swell below, not a little lilve the " Gallops Rapids"
of Canada, bore us down between the Ilha da Tucuruba, * and its
outlj'ing rocks on the north-west, to the Pernambuco bank.
We
now enter upon the 299th league, which is said to be the worst upon
the river, but we found it less formidable than that preceding it.
The course begins with a stony break between the left shore and
the Ilha dos Espinhos f a mass of Mimosa tasseled with pink
Presently it passes a small
flowers, and well-armed with thorns.
nameless river-holm on the left, then the Ime hugs the bank
once more it winds amongst
to avoid sunken rocks and shallows
and,
the islet-rocks, above the head of the Ilha do Sorobabe

—

;

;

;

finall}^, it returns

to the left side.

The tide flowed like a mill

would have distanced any steamer
hang back, and the total of two miles

race, and in parts the speed

but we had often to
occupied us twenty minutes.

Then, as the sun began to slope behind the Imbuseiro trees, we
heard just ahead the roar of Surubabe, the ninth and last trouble,
where ends this upper Cordilheira of Cachoeiras, which preface
Manuel Cypriano, whose motto certainly
the Great Papids.
should be festina lente, proi)osed reserving it for to-morrow, but
the day was only 4.40 p.m. old, and for old reasons, I at once

During the floods between December
and May, which, however, are very uncertain, Surubabe is shot
by canoes, and even by small barcas, the only danger being the
rapidity of the run, which dashes them to pieces if they touch.
During the dries a portage for merchandise is always made.
The river has now risen from five to eight palms, | and thus our
negatived the measure.

difficulties are greatly lessened.

* On the left Lank the Riacho da Tucuruha, a mere nulhih, falls in.
+ Others called it "do Espinho." M.
Halfeld's plans name it the I. de S. An-

tonio.

J At Varzea lledonda
that it was four

clared

above low-water level.

tlae

to

people de-

five

fathoms

CHAP. XXVII.]

BOA VISTA TO YARZEA REDOXDA.

415

The Siirubabe, also called the ** Cachoeii-a do Yao,"* began with
our ugly rapid between its island and terra firma. Here the Sao
Francisco "fervet immensusque ruit." Passing this, we landed
on the left bank of the island, above the great obstruction, a wall
of granite, extending right across from east-north-east to westsouth-west, which might easily be opened.
The greater part of
it has a clear fall of two feet, and a reconnaissance determined us
to attempt the right side of the ledge, where the shoot slopes like
the places to which we have been accustomed.
The chief danger
"
upon
the
Vao,"
is the impetus which drives the craft
or gTanitebed just below and in front of the fall the dashing water curls
back in waves two or three feet liigh, and would buiy the in;

truder.

The pilot and two men out with their poles, whilst four of us
manned the rope, making use of the trees where the tow-path was
foul with slippery water-grass, dry shrubs,

and tough fig-roots.

Down went the raft headforemost, dipping deep her platform,
and grazing a boulder on the right side. When she had reached
Manuel Cypriano and his men stopped
progress with their poles, we sprang on board, punted to the left
the bottom of the

fall,

of the " Yao," poled back to the island, and, after another little

which also requked cordelling, we exchanged poles for
Oui* day's
oars, we ran to the left bank, and landed at 5.15 p.m.
work had covered twenty-seven miles instead of fom'teen, the
difficulty,

average since leaving Boa Yista.

Then we passed out of the gloom and torment of the Rapids
into the calmly flowing stream, whose light blue was stained with

the gorgeous red of the western sky.
all

Thus satisfactorily ended

my troubles with cachoeiras upon the Rio de Sao Francisco,

and the sensation was certainly one of great relief. We passed a
X^leasant quiet night upon the water-grass and the iron-stained
Cascalho that banked the smooth channel; under a "dome of
steel Ht up by the stars;" and within hearing of the dead
monotonous crash of the Rapids perhaps my prejudiced ear did
There was
underlying the music of the breeze.
to it injustice
not a trace of dew, which parti}" explained the burnt-up look of

—

—

the land.
* Of the ford,
desert.

or shallow.

M. Halfeld giv'o.s Vuo, which moans aa empty place, or

—

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

416

[chap xxvii.

Section III.

THE SMOOTHS.
PARROT HILL. — CHALK FORMATION SIMILAR TO THAT OF THE AMAZONS RIVER.
— DIAMANTINE DEPOSITS. — ROCK INSCRIPTIONS HITHERTO NEGLECTED.
END OF RIVER TRAVEL,

After

the

" Thousand

Islands "

and

their

terrors, the Sao Francisco is a sightly stream

;

accompanjdng

here, in the pilot's

may fasten a branch to the hows and float safely
The scenery somewhat
down stream to Varzea Redonda.

phrase,

3^011

suggests the valle3^s of the Nile and the Indus
the

dr}^

country

;

but the

artificial

Brazilian river are all to come.

glories

when they reach

of the

far

richer

The area of drainage is narrowed

b}^ mountain-ranges on both sides

;

there are few influents, and

none of importance the breadth of the bed greatly diminishes,
an immense evaporation ever sucking up the waters, and reducing
On the other
their volume where we expect to see it increased.
hand the depth is more considerable, and the flow if not swift is
Hence the ypoeira becomes
steady, making up for want of size.
an unimportant feature, and we miss the long chain of island and
The
islet, built up by the waters in the shallower j^ortions.
climate becomes exceedingly dry, and the three-months' rains do
thorns.
It
not suffice for the sandy thirsty land, rich only
w^ants, however, only water to become fertile as Sindh, and the
canalization of Egypt will be much facihtated by the compound
Agriculture, and even
slope of the lands about the stream.
population, are confined to the banks, where the crops thrive by
not a gourd of water
capillary attraction through the porous soil
is ever bestowed upon the growth, and digging a deep trench,
;

m

;

with a dam to preserve the supply during the dry season, is far
bej^ond the joower of the present generation.

Here we change the wild,
country for the

soft,

stiff,

upright scenery of a granitic

amene, and rounded lines of the sandstone

and cretaceous formations.

The right side shows

" Catingas

Altas " at a short distance, and at times dwarf bluffs facing the

stream; the left is low, and excepting a few scattered lumps, it
stretches uninterrupted to the Serra de Araripe, not visible from
this point.

The water margin, as far as Varzea Redonda,

is

BOA A'ISTA TO VAPvZEA REDOXDA.

CH.vp. XXVII.]

with " Cascallio " of

frequentl}' lined

conglomerate,

sizes;

all

417

some

of fine

of jasper and the
various forms of silex, mossed with hlack lichen, or stained with
fractures easily, others

wliicli

iron, and giving, when struck, a metallic sound.

Here and there

the formation shows points of gold, and the peoj^le

" Gurgullio brabo."

know it as

AVe shall spend three da^^s over the fom-teen

to fifteen leagues along the river which separates us from Yarzea

The Sao Francisco makes a great bend to the north,
covering seven leagues, when across the heel the line is hardl}^
Redonda.
five

miles.

I

had no reason to lament the loss of time

;

this

section miexpectedly proved itself the most interesting part of the

voyage.

—We found the united stream

measure onl}- 300
fathoms (bracas), and its comparative narrowness was set off by a
dorsum swelling on the right side, here a normal featm'e. I was
surprised to see so many signs of labour, cultivation extended to
the water side, and long lines of hedge ran down the gently sloping
It was a peaceful pleasant scene, where nought jarred
bank.
upon the senses, save only an old negro who was paddling a
broken canoe, and cursing like a Celt, because he had lost his
Wherever there is irrigation, maize and sugar can thiive,
hat.
onions and ground nuts yield abundantly, and the sweet potato
attains an unusual size.
The peach-tree abounds, but here as
Nov.

5.

to

elsewhere in the Brazil, as far as m}^ experience extends,

hard and tasteless, fit only for stewing.
liio

das A^elhas the

laburnum 3'ellow

;

it is

As on the uplands of the

characteristic colour

of the flowers

is

a

even the Carahybeii'a now changes its mauve-

coloiu'ed trumpets for gold.

On the left bank we passed the little influent kno^m as Eiacho
do Pao Jahu,* and presently we struck the great northerly bend.
This round turn in the bed is subtended by the Serra do Penedo,t
On the
a long and regular ridge Avitli outlines of sandstone grit.
the material is
north side a dwarf cliff buttressed the stream
coarse arenaceous matter, almost horizontally stratified with perpendicular fractm-e, tinted red and yellow, and in places black
:

it was riddled into holes by the water, and
with iron glaze
displayed long straight lines of imbedded conglomerate, which
;

*

no stream, and
it has
The
only water wells are in the bed.
people declare that it drains the northern
M. Halfeld (Rel. 171)
dividing ridge.

At present

VOL. II.

writes the word as it is pronounced, Pajau.
Mr. Keith Johnston does the same, and
makes it a considerable stream,
t M. Half eld gives "Serra do Penedinho."

E E

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

418

[chap, xxvii.

Our Manuel
been deposited in a calm lake.
Cypi'iano, who had complained of fever during the night, was not
liimself to-day, and we humoured the laziness of the men by
seemed

to have

dropping down in mid-stream.

A fierce wind presently came up

from the north-east, raising the waves in a few minutes, and
nearl}^ lost us in the safest part of the journey, not an unfrequent
accident with shipping, British and other.
After some difficulty we made the left shore and baled. Here
the tall bank was white with marl, and in the upper levels cotton,
When the gale had
all unheeded, spread the ground with snow.
somewhat abated we struck across stream to the Serrote do Pico,
whose regular dorsum and sliced cliff suggested rapids, but none
were found, the bed being too deep. This lump rises abruptly
out of a sheet of sand crumbled from itself; the lieight is about
110 feet, and the material is the now normal coticular sandstone,
iron-glazed below, and of brick-red and grey-yellow in the upper
The summit is a bluff, and about the middle the slope
parts.
assumes the natural angle, growing a few trees the strata dip
easily to the north or up stream, and the perpendicular fracture
forms at the corners columnar blocks. As we chmbed its kneecrackmg sides, the little Moco-coney came out of his home to
From this point offsets the direct road to
stare and bolt back.
Itacutiara, an hour or two's ride, whereas the stream-way will
;

require from us three days.

We took the right of the Illia da Tapera, the only island as yet
flat, green, and

wooded, it was remarkable
near the arid red ground, and the thin dry bush of the bank.
Farther down the Bahian side showed us the Povoa9ao da Tapera
seen below the Kapids ;

do Yalentao
pleasant
bullies

—the

*'

Village of the Buins of the Kuffian."

The

name is descriptive of the old inhabitants, a race of

muito

''

enthusiasmados "

expressed himself.

The

tall

— as the

well

pilot

magniloquently

white-washed

boasting church, that does not set off the

little

and

belfry-

hov6ls, is said to

be a deception, tumble-down inside.*
Dust-devils flew about in front of us, and sheets of distant rain

gave us a hint to take the bank; we made fast in the "nick of
time." Whilst everything around us, even the j)innate leaves,

was i)rofoundly calm and still, rose the roaring of a mighty wind
*

M. Halfeld (Rel. 173) Bpeuks of it as a "vistosa igi-eja."

;

CHAP. XXVII.]

BOA VISTA TO YAEZEA REDONDA.

419

from the nortli-east, and columns and mists of brown-yellow silt
came charging down upon us as though we had been in the Yalley
of the Indus.
Tlien the gale tore through the w^oodland, ploughing the smooth surface of the water and rushmg \dolently upstream. The meteor, which brought with it only a few thin dro^^s
of rain, appeared to be, like the African tornado, merely local.

An independent squall was seen further down.
to work romid, again striking us

It took an hour

from the south-west

at 4 p.m.

We were then, however, securely embayed in a shallow bight protected by reeds, near a little settlement called Sabuica.

The night

brought Avind and violent rain, which kept the mosquitoes quiet
our crew, however, seemed to fear them less than the "Besouro

Grande," a large black and j^ellow^ insect like our bumble-bee,
and they declared that its stmg causes fever. To-day we saw
for the fii'st time under the Gurgulho bravo, agates and on}Tj:es,
banded with red and yellow.
Nov. 6. We resumed our way down the right bank, which
was lined with ledges of dark Cascalho. Presently the stream
began to bend from north-east to east, the effect of ground
waves on the left bank, especially the Serrote do Ambrosio, whose
white ridge and light greenery, seen through the morning mist,
were easily to be mistaken for a giant tree. We then made a
*'travessa braba,"* rendered fiercer by the sunken rocks, to the
Kiacho dos Mandantes on the left bank the dry nullah at whose

—

;

mouth the grass had been cut for fodder, becomes an ;s^ioeira
dming the rains. Here the channel bends gradually from east
to

south-south-west;

the

cause

is

the

Serra do

Papagaio, a

block through which the stream appears to have broken, and

which was formerly continued to the Serra do Penedo, passed
3'esterday.
From up-stream the *' Parrot's Pange" looked like a
*'
Castle Hill," with a tall, ruined tower on the right, connected by
a curtain with a smaller donjon to the left, and trending from eastnorth-east to west-south-west.
We went down cautiously under
pole, and presently landed to examine the chain; at the same time
a fmious south-easter came up and rendered jprogress impossible.

At the foot of the Castle Hill is a nullah flowing in from the
and formerly it supplied the banded stones (pedras lavradinhas), for which the place is celebrated; now, however, it is

east,

A " dangerous crossing."
E E 2

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

420

[chap, xxvii.

choked with sand. We walked to a stony slope further north,
and found on the riverward face, specimens of flint and coloured
The most common form was
quartz that soon filled our bags.
the red and j-ellow-banded pebble, like those so common about
Cambay in Western India a few were striped white and black.
There were also well-stained blood-stones onyxes fit for cameos;
cats'-eyes, as in the streams of Ceylon; ''water-drops" (quartzum
nobile); crystallized quartz, fragments of rock crystal, and a
Formerly the valued stones were in
coarse opallme formation.*
great abundance, but for years they have been carried off, and we
;

;

met a rival collector in the shape of a Brazilian youth.
I then worked my way to the Castle Hill, crossing sundry
ridges that w^ere crested with upright slabs, like the vertebrse of
monster snakes. The broken surface bore nothing but stones

The
and thorns, the usual species of Cactus and Bromelia.
ascent of the lower tower gave us some trouble even Shakspere's
;

]Mark Antony, in matters of physique the beau-ideal of a traveller
as of a soldier, would have complained of shaky knees and short

The
breath after a two months' diet of manioc, rice and fish.
material is a friable grit, breaking almost with the hand, pierced
by small holes,
stones

;

as

if

worm-eaten, and too coarse for whet-

and more

in the higher parts the particles are smaller

Lines of harder material ramify over the surface,
and rise in alto -relief, forming irregular compartments but even

closely disposed.

;

these crests can be knocked

off w-ith a stick.

The

soft places

and caverns that from afar
resemble a dove-cot. The lower part shows a slightly green discoloration, which at once suggests our upper greensand overlying
the stiff blue "gault;" and the higher walls are grey, red and
have been weathered into

i')ot-holes

yellow, doubtless a ferruginous tint

;

in fact, signs of iron every-

Lightly imbedded in the arenaceous matter,
where appeared.
and evidently deposited by still w^aters, w^ere horizontal bands of
pebbles, smaller sized than those strewn below; hence, doubtless,
comes the diamantine "forma(;ao" which we shall find in such

abundance further down.
Aj)proaching the summit, where the goats had trodden a smooth
* I have already alluded (chap. 21) to
existence of the opal, the only gem which
as yet art has not learned to imitate.
Jose Bonifaccio (Viagem
Min. p.
29)
found near Ipanema of S. Paulo, the

"common opal very like those of Telcobania in Hungary."
I have not yet
seen in the Brazil the quartz with the
harlequin play of prismatic colour, which
is still

so valuaLle.

;

BOA VISTA TO VARZEA EEDONDA.

CHAP. XXVII.]

421

patli upon the friable grit, I worked across the crumbling curtain.

The latter is a "facao de Morro," a narrow sjoine with a fall on
both sides, and in process of rapid degTadation, soon to be level
with the plain.

It

ends in the

taller

donjon, where a large,

upright, and striated block of sandstone, whiter than usual, looks in

The cold, damp sea-breeze
and windy clouds interfered with the prospect from the summit
the

offing like a quartz

''

dyke."

it showed, however, that the lowlands were sandstone flats, from
which rose many little buttresses similar to that upon which I stood.
This formation we first noticed at the narrows of Ybo. Downstream I could see on the left bank the Serrote dos Cami)inhos,
and the substance extended with outcrops of
a sister block
gi-anite and alternation of limestones to the city of Penedo, on
the Lower Sao Francisco. It was noticed by Gardner at Crato in
Ceara, and vestiges of the cretaceous period have been traced
from Maranham to the Upper Amazons. *
Nov. 7. From the Serra do Papagaio a road strikes southeast towards Yarzea Redonda, distant four leagues by land
and seven by water. The pilots calculate respectively five and
eight, the normal exaggeration of distance, which is measured by
the laziness of the crews and the pace of the wretched nags. We
;

—

cold drizzle, at times lighted b}^ the

set oft' at 4 a.m. in a dark,

on the left bank the Serrote
dos Campinhos (de Baixo) here the sandstone rises bare and it
forms outlying single pillars, weathered to cheese-wi'ings, and
gusts, and, after a league, we passed
;

sometimes resembling "logan stones." The place is known b}^ an
ugh' two-headed rock projecting from the river. The next feature
is Ico on the left bank, backed by its Ypoeii'a, which is said to
breed shoals of fish, f High in front rose on the right banlv the
Serra da Itacutiara, backed by " Catmgas Altas," and fronted
by a similar formation, the "Guixaba" on the opposite side.
The roaring wind again arose and di'ove us for shelter to the
left side
on the bank women smoked thek long reed pipes, with
;

* Dr. Gr. S. de Capendma, a Brazilian
savant, was of opinion that Gardner's
discovery of immense cretaceous deposits
about the north-eastern shoulder of the
South American continent, might be reduced to *' Tauatinga," or degraded felThe journey of Professor Agassiz
spar.
has, however, set that question at rest.
The signs of the cretaceous jjeriod are
ferruginous sandstone deposited upon a

marls and limestones
and compact thick beds of a finer
and
gi-ained soft and coloiu-ed sandstone
lower greensanJ
soft

;

;

;

lastly,

a

gi-eat

dissemination

of

chertz,

It is apparently
and true flint.
barren in organic remains,
+ In this part of the river fish is caught
easily during the diy season, and especially
The people shoot, as
about the rapids.
well as net and hook, the prey.
silex,

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

422

[chap, xxvii.

small clay heads, and fetched water, whilst the men scraped fish,

which they refused to sell. None were in rags as ahoiit Joazeu'o.
The popular skin was yellow rather than sallow the features were
regular and sometimes handsome, the hands and feet were wellformed but large, showing Portuguese blood, and the long, lank
hair was ''Indian," whilst the pointed teeth probably came from
Africa.
All were armed, and some carried pouches of the Mara;

ounce, and very destructive to
Those who passed by on horseback had shoes
with long front leathers, over which the spur strap ran; they used
halters and not bridles, and the stirrups were provided with
caja, a wild cat spotted like the

poultry and kids.

swivels above the instep.

They were not uncivil, but independent

as their ancestry of the

wild,

and,

perniciously frugal, they

Yet the land is good, producing in abundance maize and manioc, beans and ground-nuts,
sweet potatoes, pumpkins and onions, melons and water-melons,
sugar-cane and rice, in the places where it is not flooded by the
stream, whilst cotton rotted, as usual, on the uplands.
Upon this "praia," at the turn of the stream from south-west
to south-east, we again recognized for the first time after an

ignored the wants of civilization.

interval of ninety-three leagues, the true diamantine formation.

Along the water were strewed Imes of the

and black
cattivo, the jett}" ferragem, the square Santa Anna, the Agulha,
here very large, the snowy Ovo de Pomba, the straw-coloured
Siricoria (chrysolite or white topaz), and the feijao, the fava and
the many kinds of polished "caboclos," whose bright lustre is
held to be a good symptom.
Further down stream we met with
it after turning up the large pebbles (gurgulho brabo), and under
the superficial humus it is also spread in a thin sheet.
These
vv'hite

deposits will continue as far as the Cachoeira da Itaparica, eight

leagues below, and there it will again be noticed.

have never beheld a diamond, and their

The people

tramp over what
may prove to be a mine of wealth. When they saw us picking
up shells and pebbles they lamented their "backwardness," but
in the present state of things,

cattle

exploitation is hopeless.

The

90 to 93 miles from the highest station of the
steamer, and it is my conviction that it should be carefull}'
examined.

l^lace

is

only

Two young fellows, Paifino Alves de Sa, and Francisco Maria
de Sa, of the

Engenho Novo

lands, were loitering about

and

BOA VISTA TO YAEZEA REDO^^DA.

CHAP. XXVII.]

423

usual questions, e.g. if the English had a King.
I examined them upon the subject of a " letreiro," or inscription,

asking us

tlie

of which ^\Q had heard up-stream ; thej declared that they knew

the place, and. the sight of a Milreis note easily persuaded them

become

to

my guides.

They shipped on board the

raft

and

assisted us across the Itacutiara break, which can hardly be called

a rapid.

Here the

river,

sweeping round to the

east, passes

between

the long dorsum of the Itacutiara hills and the bluffs of the

*'Guixaba;" the two connect by a ridge of iron-glazed sandstone.
On the right is a clear channel up and down which
boats can pass even by night in the centre is a peculiar mushroom-shaped rock, and between it and the left banlv the bed is
very foul. As we approached the reef, and vv^ere rushing at full
speed with the water, " Captain Soft " let slip the lashing of his
paddle, fell upon his back, and remained there grinning like an
idiot.
The strangers prepared for a cold bath by loosening the
band which held theii' short cutlasses fortunateh^, however, the
old pilot, furiously working the stern paddle, and using the while
language of the most energetic description, drove us safety through
the upper break.
"We landed on the right bank at the Sitio da Itacutiara to the
north of the hills, and walking through a manioc field we reached
;

;

a sandstone wall, locally called a " Talhada."

It bears south-

south-west of the upper break, and forms an angle whose arms
face to the east and the south-east, thus obliquely fronting the
stream.

The material is coarse sandstone with lines

of conglo-

merate, reddish-yellow above and below, glazed as though the
river had once washed it.
Between six and seven feet from the

ground there is a roof- like projection, and above it the rock is
The highest strata in the mountain mass
piled up in blocks.
Under the roof the whole
are cut for querns and whetstones.
wall is covered with characters, varying in size from a few inches
to two feet in length, and they extend about twenty feet on each
side from the apex of the angle.

I was delighted mth my trouvaille, the first of the kind which
I made in the Brazil, and which here has not before been
noticed.* Jacinto Barbosa da Silva, the farm-owner, declared
*

The Relatorio does not

refer

at the end of the present Chajjter.

to

its

existence.

I shall

recur to these inscriptions

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

424

[chap, xxvii.

that it was a roteiro or guide pointing out where treasure is concealed, and such is the general opinion touching these inscriptions.

An Italian traveller in the

grandfather had found that

days of our interlocutor's

directed

it

him to a hole in a neigh-

bouring nullah, and by dropping stones they found the cavity to
be deep. Slaves were sent to work at it, but presently the Avaters

came down and the spot was lost for ever.
We then resumed work, and easily finished with the Itacutiara
break.

On both sides there are little settlements called " Ao

Pe da Serra

:

" * opposite these there is a heavy swirl

string of small whirlpools which have a dangerous look.

and a

A clear

channel, however, is on the right, and boats go down a hollow in
the water with raised rims and strong lateral shoots.

below on the Bahian bank

''written rock," resembling,
first visited ;

it

a

is

cliff

of red-yellow sandstone, a

but somewhat smaller than, that

projects across the stream a similar dark ledge,

much grooved and turned by the floods.

wmds are violent

;

There must be some

break when the
and we observe upon the banks that the Cana-

risk in ascending as

fistula trees,

A little

well as descending this

bent almost at a right angle up-stream, rest for

support their leeward branches on the ground.

At the Pe da

Serra of Pernambuco, a line of red sandstone bluffs faces the
river with outlines of pillared

fragments and rocking stones,

whilst a low i^lain of their own Avastage separates

them from the

bank.

The next feature of importance is called Morros do Sobrado,
because supposed to resemble a house.
a large

On the left bank below

Coroa of sand, thicket and stunted

trees,

extending

across three quarters of the bed, are twin bluffs, tall and yellow,
Stratified and with
show " locas " or caverns of unusual size, whose

separated by a sandstrip, 400 yards long.
cleavage they

black mouths look as
places

for

if

iron faced ; they are favomite nesting

birds, especially

the

large

grey-coloured

hawk

(F.

plumbeus ?) which does so much damage to the young of the
flocks.
Large blocks have fallen into the water, and have received, like the granites, a coat of glaze.
On the right bank a
''
mass of ghstening black Marumbes " runs into the stream like
a bed of fresh lava, contrasting strongly with the red hills, the
loose yellow sands, and the brown Catingas Altas.
*

Thus we have Saint Magnus ad pedem pontis, &c.

BOA VISTA TO VARZEA REDONDA.

cHAr. xxMi.]

425

Presently turning to the north-north-east we sighted one of

The

the most ^picturesque reaches in this joicturesque Yallev.

now

river,

of noble dimensions, bulges out and narrows with

graceful cmwes, and the view down-stream is closed by the long

low ridge of Tacaratii.

The banks, gently shelving, have their

slopes divided b}' hedges of diy thorn, and bear upon the ridgetiled

houses

here

;

grass and corn.

tlie}^

are

sandy, there they are green with

To the right is the hamlet of Casa Nova, con-

some twenty houses, and faced by three magnificent
Cashew trees, whose domed heads of verdure extend their leafy
sisting of

locks almost to the ground.

On the opposite side is the Porto

de Sao Pedro Dias da Yarzea Eedonda *

thundeiing roar of a rapid below

—our destination. The
us that we have

tells

now

finished our voyage.

Here then is the great terminus of navigation on the mighty
Piio de Sao Francisco, down which we have floated some 309
leagues, nearly thrice the length of England.

I felt the calm

which accompanies the successful end of a dubious undertaking,
whilst the beauty of the site and the splendid future which awaits
it,

supplied the most pleasing material for thought.
I now return to the inscription.
These " written rocks " a^^pear to

be

common on the Lower

In this part they are found at Ic6 of the
Below this I
Ypoeii-a, at Itacutiara, and at the Pe da Serra.
heard of them at Salgado, two leagues from the Cm-ral dos Bois
and upon the Brejo, a breeding Fazenda
ferry (320th league)
belonging to the Capitao Luis da Silva Tavares, opposite the
The
Porto das Piranhas and distant six or seven leagues.
people have stories of "Estrondos" and superhumanities which
at the Brejo
wait upon these indications of buried treasure

Sao Francisco.

;

;

there is an " Olho

d'Agua " where the clashing of steel rods is

heard.

were known to the old travellers. Yves
Sainct Bailhelemy,"
d'Evreux, speaking to an acolyte, said
" Tien, voila ce grand Marata qui est venu en ton pays
c'est luy qui fit inciser la Eoche, FAutel, les Images et Escritures qui y sont encore a present, que vous avez veu vous

Such

inscriptions

of

.

* All
call it

that

writers,

the

people

U.

including

Yarzem Redonda.
do

not.

I

HalfelJ,

can only say

Yarzem

and

.

.

Yarzea, however, are synomTnous, signifying water meadows or land occasionally
flooded.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

426

His

autres."

editor,

M. Denis, refers to

[chap, xxvii.

the " grand voyage

pittoresqne " of M. Debret (i. 48), which does not want a certain
tlie rocks are upon the mountain do Anastabia near
interest
;

Yapura, in the Province of Para. Long before him
Koster (ii. Chap. 3)* mentions ''a stone in the Province of
Paraiba upon which were sculptured a great number of un-

the Eio

'

known characters and figures, especially that of an Indian
woman." The rock, which was of great size, lay in the bed of a
nullah, and the people who saw the draughtsman at work told
him that there were many similar features in the environs, and
named the localities. The Count de Castelnau copied inscrip'

tions from rocks on the Araguaya Eiver which were pointed out
to him by the Capitao Mor Antonio Rodrigues Villars t he
:

found them (v. 113

— 114)

at Serpa, i.e.

" pierre gravee," t on the

Lower Amazons, and he alludes to the carved figures on the rocks
of the Eio Negro, and to the rock inscriptions of the rivers
Orinoco and Essequibo. On the Upper Paraguay the huts of the

" Lidians " and the neighbouring tree trunks were covered with
" singular hieroglyphs " of very varied form, but the traveller
could not determine

whether

they

w^ere

mystical writing or

merely copies of marks which the people had found upon stolen
H. I. M. D. Pedro XL, a most diligent student of Bracattle.
zilian antiquities, has collected all the current information upon

the subject of these " incised rocks," and told

them to be the work

Maroon negroes. I
African at home ignores every

of Quilombeiros

cannot accept this view, as the

me that he held

or

species of inscription.

The glyphs found upon the Sao Francisco were much less
European in form than those published by the Eevista Trimensal
The symbols show considerable
of the Brazilian Institute. §
monotony, the most remarkable forms being the hand, the hoof
*

He had his information from a priest

who had \asited a friend in the Parahyba
Province; and he was prevented from
copying the sketch by his leaving Pernamhuco more hurriedly than he had expected.
South ey alludes to this inscription.
t They were seen in 1774: during an
exploration by the Ouvidor Antonio Jose
Cunha Mattos (ItineCabral de Almeida.
rario de Rio de Janeiro ao Para) would
trace the inscriptions to the Jesuits.

X According

to

Mr. Uates

(i.

308) the

of Serpao in the Tupi language,
"Ita-couatiara," signifies striped or painted
rock, from the prettily variegated Tauatinga
clay and conglomerate,
§ The reader will find in the Appendix
a translation of this curious document.
Its allusions to the Great Rapids of Paulo
Alfonso are evident, but the tale of the
deserted city is popularly supposed to be a
A Bahian Padre dedicated himromance.
self for a score of years to the re-discovery,
and died before he effected it.

name

CHAP. XXVII.]

BOA VISTA TO VAEZEA REDONDA.

427

and the old Gothic
My kind friend Dr. (D.C.L.) A. Moreira
double-looped CD.
de BaiTos, President of Alagoas, and M. Carl Krauss found

Tivith

a vertical line

or lines

bisecting

it,

other characters upon the Pdo da Agua-Morta at the village Ollio

d'Agua do Casado, near the Porto das Pii'anhas, and about one
direct league from the Sao Francisco Pviver. The site is a grot from
three to five metres in breadth, ^ith perpendicular walls of hard,

massive granite (syenite ?), from which the mica has almost disappeared, and dyed red by oxide of u'on. M. Krauss believes
I would remark,
that the inscription was made with ii'on tools.
however, that the jade hatchets of the natives were with savage
perseverance capable of dinting the hardest stone.* Mr. C. H.
Williams, of Bahia,

who ascended the Panema influent of the

Lower Sao Francisco, found, two leagues up the bed, characters
traced in red paint upon the under part of a rough granitic slab.
It is much to be desii'ed that all these ancient

photographed

before

they are

obhterated

;

remains may be

at

present

every

digs his Imife-point into

Caipira, instinctively it would seem,
the '' letreu-o " as if in revenge, because
secrets.

it

will not betray its

The interpretation will light up a dark place

in the

and the mere mention of them
wrong to assert " Au miHeu des

pre-historic age of the Brazil,!

shows that the traveller

is

rochers et des arbres gigantesques de ces forets qui defient les
siecles, il ne se trouve pas d'liieroglyphes ou aucune espece de
sigTies graves sur la pierre." I
* It is not easy to understand how tlie
Alsavages worked refractory substances.
most everywhere, however, man has invented the rudiments of a file by means of
In
sand adhering to a gummed thread.
India nephrite was treated with corundiim

or diamond dust,
f The inscriptions on the following pages
are those found by Sr. ]Moreira de Barros and

M. Krauss, to whom my gratitude is due.
X Prince Max. in 1815 1817 (,ii. 314).

—

^lO

ri4

CHAP, xxvii.]
A.

BOA VISTA TO VARZEA REDONDA.

429

— Horizontal Pro j ection.

These characters are found at the bottom of a natural Caldeirao or pot-hole, which
It is about 3 metres in diameter, 4 deep, and
the people call Igrejinha (little church).
^.th of the actual size.
2k above the actual bed of the stream.

—

Gljijhs

foimd

perpendicular
grotto,

1

upon

wall

metre

of

above

the
the
the

stream bed.

Mh of the actual size.

This is also judged to be half the original size.
It is at the bottom of a little
cave whose plane is some two metres above the stream, and which can conceal two
persons.
^th of the natural size.

—

430

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

•^loSV*-

-^>^^

[chap, xxvii.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

CHAP. XXVIl.]

Mr.

C.

H.

Williams

favoiu-ed

characters, which he traced upon the

me
''

witli

a

,431

copy of the

Panema," and these are

the most remarkahle forms.

The subjoined are the normal types of what I observed at the
Itacutiara.

I

Mil

—

CHAPTER XXVIII.
TO THE GREAT RAPIDS.— PAULO AFFONSO.
VARZEA

—

REDONDA

—

THE
RELIEF.
ITAPARICA.

DISMISSAL OF CREW AND CONSEQUENT
described.
MULETEERS OF PERNAMBUCO. — GREAT RAPID OF THE

Brazil's best customer and most natural ally,' Uncle Sam,
sends a few thousands of his energetic children) "might Brazil, pointing" to the
blossoming- wilderness, the well-cultivated farm, the busy city, the glancing
steamboat, and listening to the hum of the voices of thousands of active and
prosperous men, say with pride and truth, Thus much have we done for the
" Lieut.
of civilization and the happiness of the human race.'
" Then "

(when

'

'

advancement

Ilerndon, p. 872.

I LOOKED at Varzea Eedonda for a city, or for a thriving town,

and at best I found onl}^ a wretched Quarteirao, which maj^ contain
a score of houses. The population is confined to a slip of ground
along the river, and for want of water, with millions of gallons
flowing within cannon-shot, the

uplands are utterly neglected.

The whole of the left bank, from the Serra do Papagaio to the
Yarzea Allegre, belonged three generations ago to a Brazilian
landowner, Manoel da Souza. When he died, the eleven leagues'
length was split up into the various fazendas do Atalho, da
All
Varzea Redonda, and further down, da Varzea Allegre.
are still occupied by the multitudinous descendants of the original

proprietor.

The law of genesis, or development, is here carried

out with a peculiar vigour; the sole metier is apparently pere de
famille

—a man who has not his dozen

is

considered a poor devil.

The women bear per head from ten to twenty-five children, and
rare is the hut that does not show a great-grand-parent.
The
effect is due to a

healthy climate, abundant, though coarse pro-

vision, scanty occupation of the body, and yet scantier of what
is

popularly called the mind.

And I must notice, that even as

Bahia was found inferior, as regards

social

life,

to Minas Geraes

CHAP, xxvili.]

TO THE GREAT KAPIDS.

433

and S. Paiilo, so the interior of Pernanibuco lay arear of Bahia,
The latter two,
whilst Sergipe and Alngoas will be behind all.
indeed, might easily be throvrn into one, but for the political
necessity of keeping up as many " government places " as possible.
After arrival I called upon Sr. Jose ^Manoel da Souza, exjustice (inspeitor de quarteiriio), who lives at the Porto do Atalho,

a few yards above the main landing.

He freely offered us the use

of his house, but wishmg to make some last arrangements before

pa3dng off the crew and dismantling the " Brig Eliza," I wished
The night was
to sleej) on board, and regretted my resolution.
furious, and the wind raised waves that nearly beat the old raft to
pieces.

My men having reached the end of theii* work, had the

usual boatman's " spree," hard drinl^ing, extensive boasting, trials
of strength, and quarrelling, intermixed with singing, shouting,

extemporizing verses, and ending in the snores and snorts of
''
Bacchic sleep.
O Menino " swore that we could not, and
should not, advance a step further without him, which ensured
for him the " sack." " Majelicao " complicated matters by stealing

all

the provisions, metal, and loose

woodwork

that

came'

Next morning my ruffians shed tears of contrition, and
cane-rum. The former received 1503000 for his two months

handy.

of work-shirking, and, complaining that he feared alone to face

him the dog
combined
the
The brute

the fierce strangers, was permitted to take with

Negra, who had also ended the voyage.

unpleasant qualities of cowardice and savageness.

be trusted near children and small animals, whilst

from the charge of an angry porker.
rest followed the last glhnpse of

peared en route for Boa Vista.

It could not
it

would fly

Another sensation of deep

my crew's backs as they disap-

The only face which we regretted

to see fade in the afar, was that of the

good old i)ilot.

I would

earnesth' recommend him to the future traveller.

The ex-justice showed us the country round about, and our
The banks near Atalho are a better
first walk was down stream.
site for a

settlement than those below, where the Ypoeu-as pro-

duce extensive insulation, and whose levees can hardly remedy
the evil, especially when the streams fall in from the hills. There

pelded gold some years
The experiment, however, was not repeated. We saw a
ago.
few agates and a hepatic -coloured silex, here known as figado de
gallinha— hen's Hver— which is hard enough, they say, even to
are extensive scatters of Cascalho, that

VOL.

11.

F r

§

:

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

431

[chap, xxviu.

Amongst the usual Catingas Altas appeared
Shady Mariseiro tree, whose fruits were scattered upon the

wear away steel.
the

ground

;

* the Quina-Quina, with convolvulus- shaped flower

pointed leaf, and the Embira, whose bark

is

used for fibre,

and
and

whose ashes make good brown soap. The country, according to
our host, is full of game, ounces, deer, and wild pig (peccari).

We had the usual tales of the man who single-handed slew the
"tiger" with his clasp knife, and of the " Cabollada " that eat
ever3^thing, hawks and lizards.
The higher parts of the bank showed us on the opposite, or
Bahian side, '' Olho d'Agua," pronounced " Oida " a fine hillTo the south, and
block some 800 to 900 feet above sea level.!

—

on the left side, is the Serrote do Brejinho, here called the Serra
It is distant three to four leagues along the
da Itaparica.
stream. A mile and a half below the Porto do Atalho begins the
second and the greater Cordilheira of Rapids, which will extend
The Cachoeira da Varzea
over some twentj^-five leagues.]:
Bedonda, the portal of the unpassable region, is formed by stony
Black rocks appear on the
hills on both sides of the stream.
right of the bed, and boats have passed it, but in great and lively
fear of the panellas, or little whirlpools.

Close to this rapid, and on the

left

bank, is the Varzea Re-

its small chapel, under the invocation of Sao
donda proper
Pedro Dias, bears the date 1862. It is a ground-floor affair,
with a verandah and two shuttered windows, i)ointing to the west.
;

The Vigario resides at Tacaratu, five leagues to the east-southThis is a market-town, which supplies Varzea Bedonda
east.
with provisions.

A fair is held there every Saturday, and the

country-people visit

it

from

afar, riding

in to

chases and to attend the next day's mass.

make

their pur-

It is also connected

by a good road with Bahia, the metropolis, said to be distant
110 leagues.
In 1852, Varzea Redonda boasted only of eight to ten houses
the number has now trebled.
Nothing is easier than building.
The river bed gives the best materials for tiles, and hard woods
^

The fruit, when boiled, is said to tuntc

like almonds.

+ It is on the Bahian side, and beloJigiiig

to the Fregnezia of Curral

dos Bois.

The peo])lc speak highly of it, declaring the
soil to

be excellent, the water abundant.

uud tlie air healthy,
i The muleteers stretch out these 75
miles to 27, and some to 30, leagues,
§ That is 90 to Alagoinhas, and 20 by
Many
railway to S. Salvador da Bahia.
still

prefer this line to the steamers.

TO THE GREAT RAPIDS.

CUAP. xxviii.]

435

Sandstone, of which every hill is a quarry, splits
The finer kinds
natural bricks, ready-made ashlar.

are abundant.

up into
are good whetstones.

I saw

many specimens, in wliich a thin

stratum of sparkling grey-green colour was contained in two
the latter, which soon wears down
laj^ers of brown ironstone
:

hammer. About
eight leagues to the north, at a place called Poco Cercardo, lime
Thus, here again, tiie
is sold at the rate of 2 $000 per alqueire.
tools of steel, is readily knocked

off ^\itli the

calcareous overlies the arenaceous matter.

The climate of Yarzea Kedonda is famed for
have again slept

salubrity.

"We

m the wind and moonlight, in the rain and dew,

with rather improvement of, than mjury to, health. Here, as we
approached that vast ventilating machine, the. Paulo Affonso, the

The north brings tornados of
wind comes from all quarters.
thunder and hghtning the south, " inverno, " i.e. wind and rain
the east, Hght showers, which are considered desirable, and the
;

;

The rainy season opens ^ith storms in
October and early November and the heaviest do^^^lfall is about

west is a dry draught.

;

the close in February and March.

This

is

also the rule

at the

de Sao Francisco, whereas, as I have
remarked, the coast rains of the same latitude begin when here

head of the lower
all is

Pvio

drought.
"

had now been '' home
The planks were given away to our

I dismantled the " Brig Eliza," which
for the last tln-ee

host.

months.

The anchor from Morro Yelho vras left in his

charge,*

and the two canoes bought from the Piaba of Sahara, were here
The next step was to
sold for 1203000 to the host's uncle.
procm-e animals, which were then rare, being, we were told,
The charge for making the
engaged in transporting cotton.

Porto das Ph-anhas by the Tacaratii road, was properly 6 3 000 a
head.
I vainly offered 8 $000, and was asked 10 $000 instead of

The fact
7 §000- for the journey along the stream to Pu'anhas*
is, the ex-justice, remembering that blood is thicker than water,
determined that we should come to terms only mth his cousins.
Neither he nor they, nor any of the neighbours, had seen aught
of the Great Rapids, save the mist-cloud which canopies it, and
the uncle had told me that it was all a "peta," or ''do."

"

The iron was of excellent quality, and

much valued by the peoj^de. The ex- justice

promised to remit tlie value to Bahia, but
I have not heard that he has done so.

r F 2

—
;

THE HIGHLANDS OP THE BRAZIL.

436

[chap, xxviii.

Curiosity here cannot overcome the ohstruction of a few hours'
ride.

The muleteers were not ready till the thu'd day.

The party consisted of the worst men, the worst beasts, and
the worst equipments that I had seen in the Brazil ; and the

disappointment was the greater as Fame has long spoken loudly
If these be fair
in favour of the ''tropeiros" of Pernambuco.
specimens, two of them are not worth one Paulista, or Mineiro
and, dm'ing the march, there were

many

;

unavailing regrets for

the troopers Miguel and Antonio, and for the well-fed mules of

Morro Yelho.

The horses were more stubborn and headstrong

than mules;

they lagged behind; they strayed to enjoy grass

and shelter they rushed forward to prevent being the hindmost,
and sometimes they lay down with their loads. Hence some of
my collections were lost hardly a bottle remained unbroken, and
the best water-j^roofs were pierced by the villanous packsaddles.
The only attempt at correcting the hoof was to i)lace it upon a
plank and to cut down with a formao or chisel. The overcloths
of the saddles were loose, and the stirrups just admitting the
The
toe tips, rendered mounting anything but a pleasure.
would
quadi'upeds were weak from want of forage, and the owners
not buy grain for them. Moreover, they were barbarously treated
and for the first time I saw cruelty done to animals by a
;

;

Brazilian.

The human beings were two and a half, the moiety being
represented by a small bo}^ known as Niger Quim, short for his
name, Joaquim Gomes Lima. He looks like twelve, but claims
and liis gruff voice is in his favour a
strange mixture of man and his father he carries tobacco, flint,
and steel; he knows all the local chaff; he is " i\]) to " every
adult vice
he offers drink to women thrice his date, and yet he
plan's with wild fruits, and he chmbs up the cruppers of the
horses as young Bedouins mount their camels in jA'dj.
The
adults Ignacio Barbosa da Silva, and Joao, popular!}^ known as
**
Joao Caboclo," combine almost every fault of the trooper
intoxication excepted.
The difference between them is that
Ignacio has a merry e3'e, which does not belie his nature, whilst
ver}' vile is the temper of the Caboclo.*
Both are extra lazy.
In the morning I have to turn them out of their hammocks, and
foui'teen years of age ;

;

;

;

* Mofino coino Caboclo (poor devil a."3 a Caljocio) is an old Brazilian proverb.

—

TO THE GKEAT PvAPID.S.

CHAP. XXVIII.]

437

they sleep in the hush when they shoukl be collecting their

During the first night they allowed (as if the}^ had
been Somal) a dog to plunder their meat-hag, rather than take
the trouble to hang it up.
They must diink water after every
two hours the}^ rest after three they put theii' head into every
cottage, and they halt to chat with chance-comers on the road.
They squabble about carrying half a pound of each other's
cargoes, and they use foul language, here b}^ no means a common
practice.
The principal amusement is to couch the staff like a
lance at rest and to dash at the cattle feeding near the path, this
" making a fox," alwa3^s produces a scamper that is ever enjoyed.
On the morning after our start, the Caboclo found his temper,
and loaded his two beasts to return, demanding, when he knew
me to be at his mercy, an additional sum before he would continue the journey.
His beard was in my hand after we had
reached our destination, but I contented myself with making him
3^ellow with fright for the benefit of those to come, and with not
animals.

;

;

paying the money mijustly claimed.
Island of Zanzibar, after

A similar proceeding at the

my return from discovering the Lake

me the absurdity
Yet mere calumny will never deter me from

Regions of Central Africa, proved strongly to
of " public

si)irit."

doing what I there and then did.

Travellers

treated as long as theii" predecessors act

Avill

never be well

upon the principle

— of forgive and forget

— or

******

rather non-principle

at the joiu'ne3''s end,

because it is the journey's end.
^

The cream of the expedition was now to be tasted, but the
enjoyment began with a succession of bitters.* Payment by the
host's uncle delayed departure till noon we could not be allowed
to go fasting, and the sun neared the horizon as we mounted
our wretched nags, and cast a last loving glance upon the graceful curve, and the " cupped trees " of the fair " round reach."
The path lay southwards along the left bank down the old
riverine basin, over Avhich the waters were wont to spread as far
It was deej^ly cut b}"
as the rolling-ground on either side.
;

* The approximate distances of the march were as follows
1.
2.

3.

:

time 3h. 30', miles 9, in the 317th league.
Nov. 10, Varzea Redonda to Itaparica,
324th
0',
6h.
11, Itaparica to Barra do ]\roxot6
,,
15,
,,
,,
,,
,,
326th
2h. 0',
12, Barra do Moxoto to paulo affoxso ,,
5,
,,
,,
,,
,,
Total

nil.

30',

miles 29

"

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

438

[chap, xxvtit.

these must
resemble the higher sites in the Egyptian valley, when " pingui
flumine Nilus " floods. Between the waters are dwarf table^'

tip-overs," svhicli during the rains form islands ;

Iknds, sterile enough, except where the stream has flaked the

sand with hard-baked mud the richest parts are the Brejos and
Brejinhos, little swamps which produce an abundance of cane,
;

cereals, and oil-seeds.

The violent " Vento Geral," here much deflected from
north-east, struck full in our faces.

I blessed

it

the

for the first

During this portion
of the journey, it generally rose with the moon, and blew itself
The climate suggested that which Bruce
out after a few hom^s.
time since the beginning of the last month.

called the '' hottest in the world," 61° (F.) at sunrise, 82° at sun-

and at 3 p.m., 114°, rising even to 120° in the shade.
When the moon hung high in the air, we reached the " Brejinho de Baixo," and were well received b}^ the owner, Manoel
His little sugar-mill stands near a swamp,
Victor da Silva.
which feeds an old but still luxuriant clump of cocoa-nut trees the
fruit was in the best condition for drinking, and the pleasant subacid and highly cooling milli revived memories of Fernando Po.
set,

;

In front of the house rose the Serra da Juliana,* with a prominent knob called Nariz Furado, or pierced nostril ; this is the
eastern limit of the ancient bed. We passed an unusual sight
within hail of a rapid which we had not shot, and which- we were

not to shoot.
Before the shade had cleared away, we were aroused by the

and as the Rosicler, or

local alarum, the cry of the Papansho bird,

morning light, dawned over the hill-tops, we w^ent with our host
Here the stream, whose
to examine the rapids of the Itaparica.t
glossy smoothness we had yesterday admired, falls suddenly into
a convulsion
a little bay on the Pernambuco bank shows where
canoes find the " ne plus ultra," and a few yards bej^ond it, the
Sao Francisco dashes at a grim ridge of black rock and, splitting
The gate
into three foamy white lines, disappears from sight.
is formed by a rounded hill, the Serra do Padre + on the left or
;

* So called from an ancient Moradora.
Morador," I may remark, does not always
mean ".habitant isole " here it is mostly
applied! to a cla»ss for which, we have a
name,
peasant-proprietor,
Lut whose
exirstcnce is' sadly wanted.
;

*

:

+ This name also may be an ornitholoindex in the great bay of S. Salvador (Bahia), the Long Island is called
gical

;

" Itaparica.
t M. Half eld (p. 178)
the Serrote do Brejinho,

calls

this staple

TO THE GREAT RAPIDS,

CHAP. XXVIII.]

nortli-eastern

bank

and on the opposite

:

side

439

by tbe Serra da

Itaj^anca, a long, straight curtain of bluffs, disposed almost per-

In former times they were, parts of a
dam, which, intercepting the stream, contained a lake
the
waters found a " soft place," biu'st through the wall, and formed
pendicularly to the bed.

;

the present Cachoeii*a.

The material of the ridge is

sandstone, lined and pudding'd

with large and small water-worn quartz pebbles, often passing
clean through the blocks.
On the banks are found ii^on-pasted
canga, and large blocks of amygdaloid and boulder conglomerate.

The base is a fine, pink syenite, like that of the Nilotic Cataracts.
\Vliere the violence of the waters extends the rock is iron-plated

with the usual glaze

;

it is

black, as if coated with tar,

and the

aspect is grizly in the extreme.

On the right, or Bahian side, the channel has a perpendicular
fall,* which has

into

it

dashed to pieces all the rafts and canoes drawn
bi accident this feature would be best seen from the
;

slopes of the Itaparica bluff.

A tall, longitudinal hogsback, of

dark and slippery sandstone conglomerate, rises

between the

The latter is divided

south-western and the central channel.

from the third or north-eastern branch by a " mal-paiz " of
polished black rock, radiating heat and fire afar, not unlike a
During the depth of the dries, the jutting-stones
lava-field.
approach one another, and a man with a leaping-pole might cross
dry-footed the whole Eio de Sao Francisco. t
At such times,
also,

the site

is

excellent

for a bridge

;

but in the floods the

whole bed becomes a furious, dashing torrent.

The rocky ridge

extends to some distance on both sides, and here it becomes plain
that lateral canalization should not be attempted. +

plainer

still

when

travelling

alternately rocky and sandy, here dry
will drive the

tramway to the

It vdll be

along the stream, whose banks,

and there much inundated,

skirts of the northern containing*

ridge.

Nowhere had I seen such gigantic " caldeiroes," pans and potsome of them were fifteen feet
holes, turned by the water-lathe
;

*

The height of the drop varies, accord-

for perhaps a mile in breadth, is compressed

ing to season, from 6 to 32 feet the united
altitude of the fall, within half a mile, is
nut less, during the dries, than 55 feet.
+ All the Brazilian rivei-s which I have
visited show these extraordinary narrows,
wlien the water, after ha^nng spread out

to the dimensions of a brook.
Of course
they are always fatal to navigation,
% ]\I. Halfeld justly deprecates a line of
72 geogi-aphical leagues, mostly cut in the
rock, and requiring 108 flood-gates
at an
expense of about 100,000,000 francs

:

;

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZTL.

440

[chap, xxviii.

deej) by half that diameter, and the sides and surface were jetty as

Mr. Davidson, whom the
(lagartixo vellio), from the ease
guides used to call
with which he swarmed up the smooth ridges, and stopped upon
the wall-crests, where they would not venture, fomid in these
natural wells the finest crystals and the best diamantine formathe Itacohimite rock turned into a hole.
'^

tion.

Many similar

old lizard "

are

cavities

doubtless

covered over with

These
by crow-bars.
places should be carefully searched for gems, and some favourite
thin slabs of rock, easity broken

make

of fortune will probabl}-

months.

a

into

''pot

of

money"

in

a

few

The only use to which at present the open cauldrons

are applied is for tanning, their lips are white, and the pits are
full of tainted liquid.

I then walked to below the rapids.

Here the syenite, the

proper material for sphinxes and obelisks, crops out of the white

and tree-scattered sands in smooth, bold, and rounded heaps.
This point shows the meeting of the w^aters, which, spuming and
whirlmg from the prison-walls of iron, rush roaring into one
another's arms.
There is nothing of grace and little of
grandeur in the spectacle all is dark and lurid as a river of the
;

''

Inferno."
Tudo clieio de horror se manifesta,
Rio, Montanha, troncos e penedos

*

*

*

Claudio Manoel da Costa.

The first six miles after the Itaparica led over a land like that of
yesterday.
Then we came to the Pdacho do Monro,* where hillspurs, abuttmg uj^on the stream, afforded us only road, narrow

—

with steep walls, and gutters paved with rolling-stones in
"
fact a
Caminho perigoso."
This bad bit may, I was told, be
gullies,

avoided by following the

''

Desiro do Bom Querer," about half a

league away from the stream.

After working for two whole hours,

the troopers would halt under a tree, ragged as are

bank, at the Porto opposite the Passagem do Jatoba.

now becomes generally re23ulsive, it narrows to

all

on this

The river

the size of the

Upper Rio das Velhas, and the dull, yellow w^aters sullenly
swirl, boil, and foam around and against central and side jags of
* M. Halfeld
(p. 180) calls it tlie Riaclio
ilo

" Murro, " and in liis map, " Muro ;" he

niakes lioth to be corniptions of Moito.
I
give the popular pronunciation.
In the

Mouro or Moor, and Moureria, a
"Moorery," mean a gipsy, and the quarters of the cities or towns to which they
were confined by law.
Brazil,

«

TO THE GREAT EAPIDS.

CHAP. xxviTi.]

or tawny skins

whose black

rock,

patches of challv-white sand.

The

441

contrast
''

unpleasantly with

Passage " is comparatively

safe, and there is a ferry to the Curral dos Bois, on the highway to

Baliia.

Some fine trees appeared upon the far side, sheltering

the village, which showed a scatter of huts,* with a chapel dediThe ferr^^nen sat and stared
cated to Santo Aiitonio da Gloria.
bare-footed and half-savage b.eings in foul leathers, and
All held, disdaining the
chaplets suspended to their necks.

at us,

support of a belt, sheathless, plate-handled knives, equally ready
formerly the ecclesiastics of these
for a friend or an ounce
An " Eu sei ? " * long
regions never went abroad unweaponed.
;

drawn out, as by an Essex boor, was the question that answered
Oh, pshaw! was the token of
every query, and " Au she,"

—

—

dissent.

We resumed the march under what Sr. Ignacio was pleased to
male sun " of ungentle beams. The road
was now deep and sandy, better for man and worse for beast, cut
by diy nullahs, scattered with pink quartz and silex superficially
streaked and banded
and obstructed by blocks of syenite and
porphyritic granite
the Ollio de Sapo, or toad's eye, of Sao
Paulo.
Trees which up-stream bore fruit thi'ee weeks ago, were
call ''sol macho," a

''

;

—

here in flower awaiting ram,

and the river presently resumed

had at Pirapora the depth, however,
w^as great, and this, combined with its s^viftness, and the great loss
by evaporation, explains the shrunken dimensions. J
The moon had risen when we descended the vile bank, and

the dimensions which

it

;

threaded the stagnant pools of the Moxoto or Mochoto, a stream
which rismg near " Cairirys Yelhas " to the northwards, divides
the provinces of Pernambuco and Alagoas.
is

Opposite

its

mouth

a miserable village, which boasts of the last ferry above the

Great Rapids.

AVe slept in the bush, and I felt all that depres-

sion with which one approaches a long looked-for object, whose
fruition appears so fair from afar.

At Yarzea Redonda they had

compared Paulo Affonso with the Itaparica, which certainly did
not reward 1500 miles of such travel, and all had agreed that the
former is grand only between June and September, wdien the
* In 1852 there were 45 houses, with
180 to 200 inhabitants.

do I know?" Emt "How the
phasis is given by the tone as in that most
Pois nao."
useful phi'ase
'

'

+ These

j)laces

seem generally to have

.suggested to the older geographei-s that part
of the water disappeared through subterranean passages.

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

U2

[chap, xxviii.

vrater is at its lowest. I saw no smoke-columns, after hearing that

they were visible from the Serra da Paricornia in the Matinha da

Agua Branca, twenty-four miles off; and after reading Colonel
Accioli, who declares that when condensed by the morning cold,
they may be seen from the Ai^aripe Eange, distant

thii'ty leagues.

Nor could I distinguish within two leagues of our destination the
*'Zoadao," or thunder, which, they affirm, is audible at the Serra

do Sobrado, thirty-nine miles along the stream.

Apparently I was doomed to a bitter disappointment.

Resuming on the next morning our melanctioly way tlu^ough
the province of Alagoas, we could not but remark the nakedness

The huts, ahnost destitute

of the land.

of side-walls or divi-

sions, were mere " taperas,"* ragged as the population, and from

the bridle-path we could see tln'ough them.

In the immediate

vicinity of the Great Rapids there is not a hovel,

and at the last

house on the left bank, near the Riacho do Correa, we asked our
direction from its owner,

Manuel Leandro de Resende.

He

returned a civil answer, saddled his horse, and accompanied us.
I lilted his manner, and engaged

him as a guide.

Hereabouts
the seixd-barbarians are inclined, like the savages of tlie Congo,
dwelling near the " Yellalahs," to force services upon the
stranger visiting the " Cachoeira."
I need liardly say that a
guide, unless he be the rare bird of the right species, often
destroys

all

the pleasure of the spectacle by his

attempts to be
*

''

agreeable."

"Ce mot seul de Tapera, qui designe

une maison abandonnee, inontre que cet
etablissement

condemnable

n'existe plus."

(Castelnau,

We shall presently see that this is
50.)
not always the rv;le.
v.

—

CHAPTER XXIX.
PAULO AFFOXSO, KING OF RAPIDS.

— wie ein Wassersturz von Fels zu Felsten brausfca
Beg-ierig wiithend, nach dem abgnind zu.

Fanst.

Presently we heard a deep hollow sound, soft withal, like the
rumbling of a distant storm hut it seemed to come from below
the earth, as if we trod upon it after another mile the ground
appeared to tremble at the eternal thunder. Sr. Manuel Leandro
led us off to the left of whence came the Voice, and began un;

:

I looked for the
"
promised
Traveller's Bungalow," and saw onh^ the stump of a

loading the mules at the usual halting-place.

post, sole remnant of the house run up to receive

Majesty of the Brazil, who visited the place in

His Imperial

October, 1859.

The site is a bed of loose sand, wliich in the height of the floods
becomes a torrent. We shall afterwards find where it falls into
the main stream.
Our rude camp was pitched under the filmy and
flickering shade of a tall Carahyba mimosa whose trunk, in places
apparently, however, the
peeled of bark, showed many a name
great Smithian Gens has been laughed out of cutting and car\ing
its initials and date
here all were Brazilians.
I should advise those who visit Paido .AiPonso in the dry season
to make at once, ^^Ai\\ the aid of plan and guide, for the Mai da
Cachoeii'a, the '' Mother of the Eapids," where all the waters that
come scouring down with theii' mighty rush are finally gathered
together.
To see cataracts aright, it is best, I think though
opinions upon this point difl'er to begin with the greatest
enjopnent, the liveliest emotion, and not to fritter away one's
pov>^ers, mental and phj'sical, by worldng up to the grandest feature.
Moreover, this one point displays most forcibly the formation
;

—

—

—

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BEAZIL.

444

[chap. xxix.

which distinguishes Paulo Aifonso from nil his great hrethren and
sisterhood.

Stowing my note and sketch-books in a '' Muchlla," or horse's
grain-bag, and hanging it over the guide's shoulder, I struck
" Mal-paiz,"

across the left bank of the river; here a lava-like

The stones, polished as if they

resembling that of the Itaparica.

were miiTors, or marble-slabs, glittered and reflected the burning

sun-beams

in places the ridges are walls of turned

:

and worked

rock that looks like mouldings of brass, bronze, or iron.

Many of

the boulders are monster onjT^es, or granite banded and ribboned

with quartz

:

they are of an infinite variety in size and shape, in

make and hue, rough and smooth, warm-red, rhubarb -j'ellow,
dull-black and polished jet.

Chemin faisant we crossed an Eastern Channel, at this season
almost dry, a thread of water striping the bottom.

It forms with

the main body a large trapeze-shaped Goat Island, which presents
its

smaller end

down stream.

from Niagara, whose regular
little

Paulo Affonso

differs essentially

suppl}' by the inland seas admits

alteration of weight, or size, or strength of stream, except

in the rare winters when

it

is frozen over.

About December, as

the floods run high, this tiny creek * will swell to an impassable
boiling rapid, ending in a fine fall about the " Vampire's Cave."

Upon this " Goat Island," where if there are no goats the walking is fit for them only, are short tracts of loose sand alternating

with sheets of granite, and of

" courtil" of greener grass.
rock on the west

side,

sj'enite,

with here and there a

The walk leads to a table of jutting

where we cling to a dr}^ tree-trunk, and

peer, fascinated, into the ''hell of waters " boiling below.

The Quebrada, or gorge, is here 260 feet deep, and in the narrowest part it is choked to a minimum breadth of fifty-one feet.
is filled with what seems not water, but the

It

froth of milk, a dashing

and dazzling, a whirling and churning surfaceless mass, which gives
a wondrous study of fluid in motion.
And the marvellous disorder is a well-directed anarch}^ the course and sway, the wrestling and writhing, all tend to set free the prisoner from the prison
walls.
Ces eaux mais ce sont des ames it is the spectacle of a
host rushing down in ''liquid vastness " to victory, the triumph
:

!

:

* In M. Halfeld's plan the creek is much larger than it appeared when I visited it
jouniey wius probably made later in the year.

:

his

PAULO AFFOXSO, KIXG OF EAPIDS.

CHAP. XXIX.]

of motion, of momentum over the immoveable.

445

Here the Imni-

noiis whiteness of the chaotic foam- crests, hmied in billows

and

breakers against the blackness of the rock, is bm-st into flakes

There
the surface reflections dull the dazzling crystal to a thick opaque
and spray, that leap half way up the immm^ing trough.

yellow, and there the shelter of some spur causes a

momentary

start and recoil to the column, which, at once gathering strength,

bounds and springs onwards ^\ith a new crush and another roar.
The heaped-up centre shows fugitive ovals and progressive cu-cles
of a yet more sparkling, glittering, dazzHng light, divided b}'
points of comparative repose, like the nodal lines of waves.
struggle and jostle, start asunder, and

interlace

with stedfast purpose ado^wai the inclined plane.
blast hunts

as

They

they dash

Now a fierce

away the thin spray- drift, and putfs it to leeward in

rounded clouds, thus enhancing the brillancy of the gorge-sole.
Then the steam boils over and canopies the tremendous scene.

Then in the stilly an- of

dull

warm grey, the mists surge

up,

deepening still more, by theii- veil of ever ascending vapour, the
dizzy fall that yawns under our feet.

The general efl'ect of the picture
of

all

great

cataracts

—

the

is

— and the same may be said

"realized" idea

of power, of

power tremendous, inexorable, iiTesistible. The eye is spellbound by the contrast of this impetuous motion, this wrathful,

maddened haste to escape, with the frail stedfastness of the bits
of rainbow, hovering above
with the " Table Rock " so solid
;

to the tread, and with the i)lacid, settled stillness of the plain

and the hillocks, whose eternal homes seem to he here. The
fancy is electrified by the aspect of this Durga of Nature, this
evil working good, this life-in-death, this creation and construcEven so, the wasting storm and hurricane
tion by destruction.
purify the air for life
thus the earthquake and the volcano,
while surrounding themselves with ruins, rear up earth, and
:

make it a habitation for higher beings.
The narrowness of the chasm is narrowed to the glance by
tlie tall abruptness, 3'et a well-cast stone goes but a short way
The guide
across, before it is neatly stopped by the wind.
declared, that no one could throw further than three fathoms,

and attributed the fact to enchantment. Magic, I may observe,
it is the natural expresis in the atmosphere of Paulo Aflbnso
sion of the glory and majesty, the splendour and the glamour of
:

i

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

440

[chap. xxix.

the scene, wliicli Greece would have i^eoplecl with shapes of beauty,

and which in Germany woukl be haunted by choirs of flying
The hollow sound of the weight
sylphs and dancing undines.
of whirling water makes it easier to see the lips move than to

We looked in vain for the cause

hear the voice.

:

of cataract

we saw nothing but a small branch, the Cachoeira do Angiquinho of the little Angico Acacia so called from one of the
rock islets. It is backed on the right bank by comparatively
large trees, and by a patch of vividly green grass and shrubbery,

—

—

the gift of the spray drifting before the eastern sea-breeze.

This

pretty gush of water certainly may not account for the muffled

thunder which dulls our ears
it

:

presently we shall discover whence

comes.
I sat over the " Quebrada " till convinced it was not possible to

become *' one with the waters :" what at first seemed grand and
sublime at last had a feeling of awe too intense to be in any way
enjoyable, and I left the place that the confusion and emotion
might pass away. The rest of the day was spent at ^' Carahyba Camp," where the minor cares of life soon asserted their
power. The sand raised by the strong and steady trade wind was
troublesome, and the surface seething in the sun produced a
constant draught we are now at the very head of the funnel, the
vast ventilator which guides the gale to the upper Rio de Sao
Far to seaw^ard we could see the clouds arming for
Francisco.
rain.
At night the sky showed a fast-drifting scud, and an angiy
:

blast dispersed the gathering clouds of blood- thii'sty musquitos.

Our lullaby was the music of Paulo Affonso

;

the deep, thundering

base produced by the longer and less frequent vibrations from the

and from the Rapids the staccato treble of the shorter
wave-sounds. Yet it was no unpleasant crash, the deeper tones
were essentially melodious, and at times there rose an expression
in the minor key, which might be subjected to musical annotation.
I well remember not being able to sleep within ear-shot
of Niagara, whose mighty orchestra, during the stillness of
night, seemed to run through a rex:)ertoire of oratorios and
Falls,

operas

We will
Rapids

now apply

ourselves

to

the

prose

of

the

Great

i

The name, as mostly happens in these regions, is a disputed
point.
Some make ''Paulo Affonso" a missioner-shepherd,

"

PAULO AFFONSO, KINO OF RAPIDS.

CHAP. XXIX.]

4A7

who was liiu'led down the abyss by the wolves, his ''Eed-skin"
Others tell the story of a friar, who was canoeing along
sheep.
the river, when the Indian paddle-men cried, in terror, that
they were bemg sucked into the jaws of the Catadupa he bade
them be of good cheer, and all descended whole.* '* Such
reverends are now-a-days rare," observed Sr. Manuel Leandro
:

with an unworthy sneer.

Sunilarly in the Province of Sao Paulo,

the Tiete river has a fierce Rapid,

"
known as " Avaremandoura

— Cachoeii-a do Padre, or the Eapid of the

Here, accord-

Priest.

ing to Jesuit legend. Padre Anchieta, one of the multitudmous
thaumatm-gi of the Brazil, was recovered from the water " some

and reading his breviary with a Ught in
More sober chronicles declare that the poor man
his hand."
The gigantic cataract of
was cbagged out half drowned. +
" Tequendama," we may remember, has also its mii*acle
it
was opened by the great Bochica, god of New Granada, a barbarous land, that had hardly any right to have a god. Others
hoiu's afterwards, alive

;

in-etend that Paulo

and Affonso were brothers, and the

settlers,

who gave their names to the place.

observe,

that on the right bank of the

Ilha da Tapera, one of the

first

I would, however,

stream,

opposite the

many that break the river iimne-

upper break, is a village of fishermen and
cultivators, whose name, '' Tapera de Paulo Affonso," shows
that it has occupied the site of a ruined settlement, probably
made by the colonist who, happier than Father Hennepin, left
diately above the

his
''

The

mark upon the Great Eapids near which he squatted.

Taperistas " are still o^^Tiers of the right bank

:

the left belongs

one Nicolao Cotinguiba, + of the Engenho do Pinho, and near
" Carahyba Camp" two properties meet.
The Cachoeu'a is

to

in the Freguezia of the Mata da Agua Branca.

The locale

of the Paulo Afi:onso has been very exactly mis-

represented by geographers who ^\Tite geograj)lw for the people. §
* M. Half eld (Rel. p. 18i) tliu.s gives
"Even they relate that a
the legend
friar, whilst crossing the rirer above the
Rapid, was sleeping in the canoe which
carried him the pilot, who was an Indian,
lieing unable to manage the craft, and
being dra'WTi into the stream, went down.
He was never seen again" (a moral, I suppose, pointed against careless pilots, here
:

:

as

common

the

fi'iar,

as

idle apprentices).

' '

But

who neither woke nor felt the

incouveuieuce, floated ashore belo^v
the Rapids, and was ioxmd still sleeping.
When aroused by the people, he i-emembered nothing of what had happened,
+ Quadro Historico da Provincia de Sao
least

Paulo, per J. J. Machado d'Oliveira (p. 58).
t P- N. of a j)lace.
es§ " The San Francisco River
capes through a break between the Sierras
.

.

.

Muribeca and CarjTis, between which latter
ami the Atlantic mm the other chains,

"

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BKAZIL.

448

[chap. xxix.

This sudden break in the level of the bed, this divide between
the Upioer and Lower Sao Francisco, is not formed by a i^rolongation of the Serra da Borborema, nor by the Chapada das
Mangabeiras, nor by Ib3'aj)aba " fim da terra," nor by the Cairirys
old or new, nor by the Serra da Borracha, alias Moribeca, so
imminent in our maps.* The humbler setting of the gem is
a rotting i)lain brown with stone, scrub, and thicket, out of
which rise detached blocks, as the Serra do Eetiro, about three
leagues to the north-west, and to the west the lump}^ Serra do
On the south-western horizon springs, sudden from the
Padre.
flat,

a nameless but exceedingly picturesque rangelet of p^Ta-

midal hills and peaks, here and there bristling in bare rock, and
connected by long blue lines of curtain.
Though our prospect lacks the sublime and glorious natural
beauty of Niagara, tempered by the hand of man, and though
we find in Paulo Affbnso none of the sapphire and emerald tints
that charm the glance in the Horseshoe Falls, still it is original

In "geological" times, the stream must have
even now, extraordinary floods cover
spread over the valley

and peculiar.

;

a great portion of it. f

Presently the waters, finding a rock of

and more liable to decay, hollowed out the actual
*'
Talhadao," or great fissure, and deepened the glen in the
course of ages. We have also here the greatest possible diversity
softer texture

of falling water ;

it

consists, in fact, of a succession of rapids

and a mighty Fall endmg in the Mai da
Cachoeira, upon whose terrible tangle of foam we have just
looked down. If Niagara be the monarch of cataracts, Paulo
Alfonso is assm-edly a king of rapids an English traveller who
had seen the twain, agreed with me in giving the palm to the
latter, as being the more singular and picturesque of the two,
which are both so wondrous and so awful. He had not visited

and

cauldrons,

;

preserving an exact parallelism witli it
141, Physical Geography, from the
(p.
Ilncycloptedia Britannica, by Sir John W.
F. Herschel,
Edinburgh, Black.
Bart.
The geogi-aphy of this most emi1861).
nent astronomer is frequently at fault he
reminds us of the prophets and the inspired writers of })ygone days, who knew
everything about heaven, and vciy little
:

about earth.
* They mostly make the north-eastern
cxtrcmitv of the Moribeca Range hug the

There is no such line visible, and
Rapids.
the people have forgotten even the name
of the old explorer who is mentioned in
Col. Accioli
documents dated 1753-4.
(p. 14) refers to the mountains, and says,
I know not upon what authority, that they
contain silver and copper. In the Appendix
to this volume, the reader will find allusions to INIoribeca.

+ The fullness of the stream alters, I am
told, the

the Falls.

shape of the

lltipids,

but not of

PAULO AFl^OXSO, KING OF KAPIDS.

CHAP. XXIX.]

449

the Itaparica, that foil whose griinness so well sets off its majestic

neighbour.

Nature

not in her grandest

is

suits the shape.

or

armed

terribty

Spines predominate.
with

Jatropha,

arboreous

;

attire,

and

yet the vestment well

There

dark-green

is the

Favelleiro

oak-like

leaves

the Cansancao Maior (Jatropha

urens),

its

a giant nettle, whose white spangles of flowers are scattered in

mimicr}' of snow-flakes
is

we

in force ;

with

its

big red

upon the sombre verdm'e.

see the
fig,

common flat Opuntia, the little Quipa,

the Tiu-k's-head (Cabeca de frade)

of a foot

Melo-

amongst the rocks project

cactus, with the crimson fez, whilst

half-domes

The Cactus

m diameter (C. aphananthemum).

Some

and
the rest are hairy and bald, angular and smooth, giant and
dwarf, lorded over by the immense Mandracuru (C. brasiliensis),
a tree, but strangely different from all our ideas that make up
a tree.
The Bromelias are abundant, especially the Caraua,
banded hke a coral snake, and the Macambira with needle thorns
and flower-spikes three feet tall it is loved by monkeys who,
have

floAvers

quaint as orchids, others are clothed in

flue,

;

they say,

make

pic-nics

to

eat

the

leaves.

The

feathery

elongated Catingueh-o, now tender green, then burnished brown,

remarkable near the dense clusterini**
o verdure of the rounded
Quixabeira, and the Imbuzeii'o with the horizontal boughs, a

is

bush twenty feet high. The Carahyba is the monarch of the
bush, and its leek-coloured leafage, hung with long bitter pods,
and with trumpets of yellow gold, gains beauty seen near the
gay red blossom and the velvety foliage of the " Pmhao bravo,"
and the whitey-green catkins of the thorny Acacia, known as
the Jurema preta.
We also remark the black charred bole of the
Pao preto, by the side of the sweet-scented Imburana, hung
with flakes of light burnished bronze.
The scrub is mostly
the hard Ai'aca-guava with its twisted wood, and the Bom-nome,
whose " good name," I presume, results not from an inedible
berry, but because it is found useful for spoons.
The cattle
straying about the bushes toss their heads, snort, and with
raised tails dash through the tliicket as we approach they are
sleek, clean-limbed,
much more like the wild animal of the
African Gaboon than the Em-opean model of bull and cow.
Thanks to the drift, they find in the dwarf " courtils " more
;

—

succulent fodder
VOL,

ir.

than usual ;

they

suffer,

however,

when not
G G

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BKAZIL.

4^0

[chap. xxix.

penned for the night in the Cahycara,* from ounces and vampires, and they are sometimes poisoned by the pretty, pink, and
innocent -looking blossom, here

known as the " Cebolla brava."

Finish the pictm'e with clouds of spra}'' and vapour, rising from
the abyss, and pouring to leeward an incessant shower of silvery

atoms

;

with the

burnished

stones,

here

singularly

gloomy,

and with gay troops
of birds, especially the Tanager, the hyacinthine Araruna, and
the red and green parroquet, darting and screaming through the
air, whose j^revalent hue is a tliin warm neutral tint.
My next visit began at the -^beginning, and thence we follow^ed
down the left bank, stepping from slippery stone to stone, and
approaching the channel when possible. t Here the Sao Francisco,
running swift and smooth out of the north-west, escaj)es from the
labyrinth of islands and islets, rocks and sands, blocks and w^alls
which squeeze it, and receives on the left a smaller branch, separated from the main b}' a dark ridge.
The two, leaping and
coursing dovni a moderate incline of broken bed, burst into
ragged, tossing sheets of foam-crested wave, and tumble down
the first or upper break, which is about thirty-two feet high.
This kind of " Kideau Fall" is known as the " Vai-Vem de Cima"
the " upper go and come." + The waters are compressed in the
central channel by the stone courses rising thirty to fifty feet
above them, and are driven into a little cove on the left bank.
The mouth of a branch during the floods, now it is a baylet of the
softest sand hemmed in by high japanned walls, and here the
little waves curl and flow, and ebb again, with all the movement
there mirroring the dazzle of the sun-beam

;

—

Also written " Caisf-ara/' and by Six' J.
dc Alencar "Cai9ara:" he derives it from
*'Cai," biu-nt wood, and "Cara," a thing
possessing.
Thus it means the stakes with
fired ends tlirnst into the ground and forming a cattle "kraal," M^here careful owners
shelter their beasts, and where the careless
brand them with the iron once or twice a
'''

t The formation of Paulo Afibnso renders

the "kieve," or hollow dug by the falls,
is 120 palms (86 feet).
The narrowest
part of the chasm is 72 palms.
The first,
or Upper Rapid (Vai-Vem de Cima), is 792
palms, 1 inch ( = 567 feet, 8 inches) above
and the lowest Rapid (Vai-Vem
sea level
de Baixo), opposite the Vam^jire's Cave, is
426 palms, 6 inches ( = 305 feet, 9 inches),
The united height of Rapids and Fall is
365 palms, 7 inches ( = 261 feet, 11 inches),

a Protean feature changing with every
month.
I visited it in mid-November,
when, according to the guide, the water
had risen three to fom- fathoms above the
lowest level.
The arithmetic may be briefly taken
from M. Halfeld. The left Ixmk of the
gorge, called Mai da Cachoeira, is 365 palms
',^261 feet, 7 inches) high, and tlie depth of

The Horseshoe Fall of Niagara is 158
(some say 149) feet high, with a width of
1900 feet, and a discharge of 20,000,000
ciibic feet per minute.
The American Fall
is 162
164 feet high, with a breadth of
908 feet.
The total breadth of the bed is
3225 feet, and of the Avater 2808 feet,
J Of these Vai-Vens (also written Yaevens) there are, as will be seen, two.

year.
.

it

:

1

—

1

PAULO ATFOXSO, KING OF RAPID.S.

CHAP. XXIX.]

of a tide in miniature.

4ol

I timed and felt the pulse of the flux and

no regularity in the circulation. The
place tempts to a bath, but strangers must bear in mind that it is
treacherous, and that cattle drinking here have been entangled
in the waters, from which not even Jupiter himself could save

reflux, but I could detect

them.

The waters then dashing

against the

left

or south-eastern

boulder-pier, are deflected to the south-west in a vast serpentine

and form, a few paces lower down, a similar
Here insufeature; called by our guide ''Half go and come."
lated rocks and islands, large and small, disposed in long ridges
and in rounded tovrers, black, toothed, and channeled, and wilder
far than the Tln'ee Sisters or the Bath and Lunar islands of
of tossing foam,

Niagara,

split

the

hurrying tossing course into

five

distinct

channels of white surge, topping the yellow turbid flood.

The

four to the right topple over at once into the great cauldron.

The fifth runs along the left bank in a colossal flimie or launders,
liigh raised above the rest; meetmg a projection of rock at the
south, it is flung round to the west almost at a right angle.

Here

the parted waters spring over the ledge, and converge in the

chaudiere which collects them for the great fall.

AMien the sun
and moon are at the fiivourable angle of 35°, they produce admirable arcs and semicircles of rainbows in all their prismatic tmtage
from white to red. These attract the eye by standing in a thin
"
arch of light over the mighty highway of the rushing " burnmg
waters

;

guides to cataracts, however, always

make too much of

the pretty sight.

The third station is reached by a 'rough thorny descent, which
might easily be improved, and leads to the water's edge, where
charred wood shows that travellers have

latel}^

nighted in the

Turning to the north-east we see a furious brown rapid
plunging T^ith strange forms, down an incline of forty-nine feet in
half a dozen distinct steps
the flood seems as though it would
sweep us away. At the bottom, close to where we stand, it bends
westward, pauses for a moment upon the billow-fringed lower lip
of the Chaudiere that rises snow-white from the straw-coloured
break, and then the low, deep, thundering roar, shaking the
gromid and '' sui generis " as the rumbling of the earthquake and

place.

:

the hoarse

sumph of the volcano reveal the position of the Great

Cataract,

Tlie trend

is

southerly, and the height is calculated to
G a 2

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

452

be 192

[chap. xxix.

The waters hurl themselves full upon the right-

feet.

hand precipice of the trough -ravine, surge high up, fall backwards,
fling a permanent mistcloud in the air, and like squadrons of white
horses, rush off, roaring and with infinite struggle and confusion,

down the Mai da Cachoeira to the south-east.

is the grandest point of

The latter

view which we prospected from the table-

rock overhanging the fracture.

Paulo Alfonso is always sketched from our third station,* where
we "realize" an unpleasant peculiarity of his conformation; he
has here permitted the eye of man to see the main cataract.
little

further down, there is a partial view from above

;

A

but the

normal central mistcloud curling high and always ascending above
the lower lij) of the cauldron, veils the depth, and we are not
Now much is
satisfied till we have sighted a Fall from its foot.
left to the imagination, and the mystery is so great as to be highl}^
In the depth of the dries

unsatisfactory.

it is,

the}" say, pos-

sible to climb down a portion of the left wall,

and to overlook the
cataract.
I carefully inquired whether it was visible from the
right, or Bahian bank
all assured me that a branch stream
alloAved no approach to the trough-ravine, and all were agreed
A moveable suspensionthat from that side nothing is visible.!
bridge, not, I hope, like that of Montmorenci, could be made to
span the chasm wire-ropes fit to bear cradles, could be passed
across
or ladders might be let down and act as the winding
staircase which leads to the Horseshoe Fall.
At present Paulo
Alfonso is what Niagara was in the days of Pere Fran9ois
Piquet
and we can hardly look forward with pleasure to the
;

;

;

:

time when

have wooden temples and obelisks, vested
terests, 25 cents to pay, and monster-hotels.
it

will

in-

The next station is that with which I have advised the stranger
Thence he must retrace his steps, the trough up is too
rough and broken to be followed. We again crossed the eastern
to begin.

boulder-channel, and walking to the south-east reached, after a

* From, this point also the photographs

are taken, and they afford ]mt a poor idea of
the originaL
M. Halfekl, besides his vignette, gives two lithographs, the first from
our third station, and the second from the

Paredao, opposite the Angiquinho, a place
V hich we shall presently visit.
+ Travellers with more lcis\irc Ukmi I

had, will not take this assertion on trust.
The distance from the Porto das Piranlias,
where the steamer stops, is only 12 leagues,
And if the
easily done in two days.

"Bahian side" be practicable,

it

is

evi-

dently the place for a flight of steps, cut in
the rocky wall of the trough.

I

PAULO AFFOXSO, KING OF J^\PIDS.

fTTAP. XXIX.]

few liimdred yards, a descent formed

b}'

the waters

4->3

wliicli,

in

flood-time, sweep over the hollow '' Carahyba Camping ground,"

and course down a stony incline to rejoin the parent flood. AVe
found the bed bone-dry, a sKppery siu'face of bare rock, dark and
bright after man}' a freshet, vrith here and there steps and deep
crevasses.
There are stagnant pools and corrie-like holes,
with
green
Conferv^e, and rich in landshells.
These hollows
long preserve the rain-water, and though covered with scum-like
aquatic growths, they are dm'ing the diies, a great resource for

The hands must be used as well as the feet in descend-

cattle.

ing, and the noonday sun -^ill peel the palms.

The zigzag led down to a Ressaca or bulge in the left bank of
the river.
Here the torrent is less terrible, but still violent, as
it dashes ag'ainst the south-eastern wall of the trough.
The lii^ht
colour of the precipice, not grown, like the rest of the trough,

with moss, Bromeha, and thorn bush, shows that, despite the

exceeding hardness of the stone, some part has slipped, and more
Sr. Manuel Leandro assured me that it has not changed

will slip.

since the days of his grandfather and his grandmother.

At the trough-foot we reach a baylet formed by the lower ''Go
and come " (Vai-Yem de baixo), another back-water of the
great rushing tide.

People fetching water have fallen into

but have managed to extricate themselves.

it,

No Maid of the Mist,

however, will in these ages be able to ascend the line of maelstroms.
abj'ss

Now the water recovers from the plunge and dive in the

beneath the cascade,

it

continually rebounds, and as

often noticed in the Cachoeiras of the upper bed, there
surface

reall}' level

;

is

we
no

the face seems a system of slightly bulging

domes.

The little inclined ramp of loose stones at the bottom of the
wall is strewed with lumber and with wood brought down by the
its grinding sound and its crash when floods are
last floods
;

high, have been compared with the creaking of the ice at the end

of a Canadian winter.

Light as pumice-stone, the fragments are

rounded off and cropped at both ends by the bruising process,
and the working takes curious shapes, cheeses and shuttles, ninepins and skittles.
Our guide pictm-esquely called the hea23s
" Cidade de Madeira," a cit}- of wood, and in them I recognized
canoe planks and scantUng from the Imperial shed.
The slope ends in a cave opening to the west, and knovrn gene-

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BRAZIL.

454

[chap. xxix.

" Casa de Pedra," speeificanv as the '' Furna do
The
Its appearance is singular.
^lorcego," or Vampire's Grot.
ricaHy as

tlie

entrance, instead of being low, after the fashion of caverns, is a
tall 2'>arallelogrammic portal leaning a little to
it has

its

Hence

the south.

Saintess (uma Santa), who shows herself at times, and

the people have heard martial music, and singing which did not,

they judged, proceed from

mortal wind-pipe.

The

arch

is

formed by a thick table of hard, close-grained granite, spread out
as though it had been lava, and a cleavage-line extends to the
southern corner. Its walls are sandstone, here hard and compact,
there soft and mixed with ochreous iron-stained clay, easily cut
in the days when the now shrunken and sunken stream filled the
trough-ravine with

its

At present the inundations

debacles.*

extend only half-way up the floor, where an " old man" is in proThe level sole is strewed with bat's guano,
cess of degradation.

and with ashes where the people have attempted to smoke out the
blood-suckers. The greatest height is about 90 feet. The eastern
wall overhangs, and the honey-combed upper part shows other
branch caves still forming, Avhilst the western retreats at the easy
angle of 8*^ 9°. I saw no bats in this " Cave of the Winds," this

—

''Devil's Hole;" but the hour of visit was early afternoon, and
its nap.
The mouth of the
The fleec}^, seething, snow-white

the plague was probably enjoying
vault has a singular look-out.

torrent, disposed in vorticose-lozenges and ridges, with its spray
glittering under the sun like myriads of brilliants, strikes upon a

shoulder of polished and intensel}" black rock, whose parallel and

much inclined bands wall the right side of the

crevasse.

This

mass deflects the boiling rapid at nearly a right angle, and sends
it roaring between the cliffs of its deep-narrow chasm adoAvn the
abrupt redoublings which end its course in the world of waters to
the east.
* M. Half eld gives the dimensions 80
palms (57 feet, 4 inches) tall, x 40 j^alms
(28 feet, 8 inches) wide, and 444(318 feet,
2 inches) long. The entrance to the smaller
Eastern fissure is 30 palms (21 feet, 6
inclies) high, broadening to 60 palms (43
feet) inside.
That surveyor elaborately exIts
plains the foraiation of the "Furna. "
line, he says, presents many veins of calcareous spath, of flesh-coloured felspar, and
of quartz vaiying from ^ of an inch to
5 inches in breadth, causing the granite to

saturated witli muriate of soda, from wliicli
The granite showrs,
a little salt is made.
it is true, many dykes, some raised above,
others sunk below, and others level with
the surface ; but their thickness is trifling,
The rocks also contain lime, hence the quantity of landshells which, dead at this season,
But the cave is evistrew the ground.
dently hollowed out in the sandstone grit,
wliich on the left side of the Lower Sao
Francisco, forms hills and ridges, and which
further down alternates with or overlies

lose compactness

limestone.

:

moreovci-, it i^; sometimes

—
rnAP. xxTX.]

PAULO AFFOXSO, KING OF EAPIDS.

455

Our last station is upon the " Pareclao," lower down tlian tlie
Yampii'e's Cave, at the place called '^Limpo do Imperador"
the bush having been cleared away for the Imperial visit. There is
no shade, and water is far off. A tent and barrels, however, would
make all things eas}^, and a traveller encamped upon this Bellevue
would have beneath his eje^ by night as well as by day the most
beautiful if not the grandest scenery of Paulo Affonso.
Here he
stands on a level with the stream above the Upper Rapids, and on
300 feet of perpendicular height over the water, which dashes
curdling and creaming below. To the westwards the vision strikes
full upon the small but gTaceful Angiquinho branch,, which is the
American Falls compared with the Horseshoe, and which remmds
the traveller of the tall narrow Montmorenci.*
Tliis offset is the
fiu'thest line on the right side of the river, in which, about the
Tapera of Paulo i\Jfonso, a mass of long islands precedes the narrows and the rapids. It encloses an " Iris Island," a crag wliich
may easii}" be confomided with the mainland. It is, however,
capped with tree and grass, kept green as emerald by the ceaseless
drift, and made remarkable by the brown plain forming the distance.
Here again the still and silent pictm-e around heightens

the effect of the foamino-, rushino; water.

The flood rolls headlong'

over its own shelf of bro^^^l based on jet-black rock, seen in the
walls which here jut out and there retire.

Dashed to pieces by

the drop, it shows about the centre, with the assistance of a projecting rock, at this season clearly visible, a
Puffs of water-douche,

lookmg as

if

fall

within a fall.

endless mines were being

sprung, rise to half its height, and the infinite globules, " spii-eing

up" in shafts, repeat the prismatic glories of solar and lunar rainbows. At its foot, from the spectator's right hand, or from north
to south, a section of an arch represents the terminal part of the
mysterious cataract, whose upper two-thirds are hidden by a
curtain of rock. This, the main stream, impinges almost perj^endicularly upon the right-hand wall of the trough-ravine, and the
impetus hurls it in rolls and billows high up the face to be tin-own
back shattered, and to add a confusion more confused to the succeeding torrents.

But, subject to the eternal law of gravitation,

a sinuous Ime perforce midulates down the crevasse, which gradually widens, and which puts out buttresses from the right and left.

*

The height of Montmorenci is about 250 feet by 50 feet of bx-eadth.

"

THE HIGHLANDS OF THE BKAZIL.

456

[chap. xxix.

Calmed by the diminished sloj^e, it meets the tall cliffs upon which
we stand, and wheeling from north-west to south-west, it eddies
down the windings of the ravine, which soon conceal it from the
The effect is charming when the moon, rising behind the
sight.
spectator, pours upon the flashing line of cascade and rapid full in
front, a flood of soft and silver}^ light, while semi-opaque shadows,

here purple, there brown, clothe the middle height, and black

glooms hang about the ribs, spines, and buttresses of the chasmfoot.

Not the least interesting part of Paulo-Aftbnso is this terminal
ravine, which reminded

me of the gorge of Zambezian Mosiwa-

tunya, as painted b}" Mr. Baines.

It has given rise to a multitude

of wild fables, especially to the legend of the under-ground river,

an Alpheus, a Niger, a Nile, that favourite theme with the '' old
men."* The black sides, footed b}^ boulders which the force of
the flood has hurled in heaps, and in places cut by small white

streams, preserve their uniformit}', and wall in the stream as far
as the Porto das Piranhas, fort}'- two geograj)hical miles below the
cataract. t

Moreover

the

elevation

profile

shows below the

actual cataract, a kieve or deep hollow, and a long succession of
similar

abj'sses,

prolonged to the same point, and gradually

diminishing in depth, the effect of a secular filling

in.

Niagara

undermining the soft shales that support a hard structure of limestone some ninet}^ feet thick, has eaten back seven miles from
the escarpment known as Queenstown Heights. It is supposed to
have expended 4000 years in reaching its present j^osition, and
to be receding at the rate of a foot per annum.
Here we find a
similar retreat of the waters. According to the guides, a huge mass
of stone above the Chaudiere formed an arch under which birds
This disappeared lil^e the old original "Fall
built their nests.
* The Noticias Ultramarinas of ] 589
(Chap. 20) Biakes the Sumidoixro, or sink,
80 90 leagues above the Cachoeira, which
was then apparently not named. The classical geographical romance soon sjDread afar.
Frei Rio Giuseppe de Santa Theresa (^Istoria
delle guerre del Brazil) wrote " dopo de
aver corso diciotto giornate di paese dentro
di cui si nasconde per lo spazio di dodici
leghe."
Southey (III. i. 44) borrows from
the Patriota and Cazal with reasonable
correctness, he alhides to the "rapids and
falls
one of such magnitude that the
spray is visible from the mountains, six

—

.

.

.

leagues distant, like the smoke of a conflagration.

+ It is found with breaks to the Pao de
Assucar, distant sixty-three miles.
Of
course these are rude estimates, Avhich may
have an eiTor of two miles.
From Paulo
Affonso to Porto das Piranhas, the perpendicular and inclined walls that hem in the
fiercely-dashing stream, are often 800 lialnis
At the Cachoeira da Gar(570 feet high).
ganta (of the Gorge), nine miles below the
cataract, the breadth of the stream is only
85 palms (61 feet), and the height of the
trough is 350 palms (250 feet).

CHAP. XXIX.]

PAULO AFFONSO, KING OF EAPIDS.

4-"

and since that time the}' say the
Zoadao, or roar of Paulo Affonso, has not been so loud. A^^plying, therefore, the rule of the Northern Cataract, we cannot assign
to the King of Rapids an age under 2400 years.

Rock" about ten years

ago,

******

My task was done.
away from me.

I won its reward, and the strength passed

Two days of tedious monotonous riding led to

the Porto das Piranhas.

The steamer had just left it, but a

hospitable rece^^tion awaited me at the house of Sr. Ventura Jose

Martins, agent to the Bahian Steam Navigation Company. My
companion hurried awaj^ to catch the American mail at Pernambuco.

I descended the lower Rio de Sao Francisco more leisurely,

under the guidance of Sr. Luis Caetano da Silva Campos of
Penedo, whose amiable Senhora made me feel at home. AVhilst
delayed at " the Rock" I met my excellent friend Dr. A. Moreira
de BaiTos, then President of Alagoas, and visited him at his
Thence, with the aid of Mr. Hugh Wilson, I
capital, Maceio.

found my way to Aracaju and Bahia, and finally I returned via
Rio de Janeiro to Santos (Sao Paulo), alias AVapping in the

Far West.

APPENDIX.

'^

Extract from the Revista Trtmensal of the I^'^TITUTO Histokico e
Geographtco Brasileiro, Rio de Janeiro, July 21, 1865,

Historical account of a large, hidden, and very ancient city, vithout inhahitants,
discovered in the year 1753.

In America
in the interior

adjoining the

Master of Can
and his followers, haWng wandered over the desert country (Sertoes) for ten
years in the hopes of discovering the far-famed silver mines of the great explorer Moribeca, which through the fault of a certain governor were not made
public, and to deprive him of this glory he was imprisoned in Bahia till
This news reached Rio de
death, and they remamed again to be discovered.
Janeiro in the l)eG;imiing of the vear 1754.

After a long and troublesome peregrination, incited by the insatiable greed
of gold, and aknost lost for many years in this vast Desert, we discovered a
chain of mountains so high that they seemed to reach the ethereal regions, and
that they served as a throne for the ^"ind or for the Stars themselves.

The

from afar, chieflv when the sun shone
upon the crystal of which it was composed, forming a sight so grand and so
Rain had set in
agreeable that none could take eyes off these shining lights.
before we had time to enter (in the itinerary) this crystalline man'el, and we
rdittering thereof struck the beholder

saw the water running over the bare stone and precipitating itself fi'om the
high rocks, vrhen it appeared to us like snow struck by the solar rays. The
{uma) shine
agreeable prospect of this
of the waters

and the tranc[uillity

of the weather, we resolved to investigate this admirable prodigy

Arriving at the foot of the ascent ^^ithout any hindrance from
forests or rivers, which might have barred oui- passage, but making a detour
of nature.

round the mountains, vre did not find a free pass to caiTy out oiu- resolution
* Translated by :\rrs. Richard Burton, who begs indulgence, on account of this report
having been written in old Portuguese by rade explorers, and therefore very difficult to
render into English.
All the lines that are not tilled in, are illegible from the age and
decaved state of the original MS.

APPENDIX.

4G0
to ascend these

Alps and Brazilian Pyrenees, and we experienced an inexpli-

cable sadness from this mistake.

"We " ranched " ourselves with ^le design of retracing onr steps the following
day. A negro, however, going to fetch wood, happened to start a white stag
which he saw, and l)y tliis chance discovered a road between two mountain
chains, Avhich seemed cut asunder by art rather than l)y nature.
With the
overjoy of this news Ave began the ascent, which consisted of loose stones
piled up, whence we thought it had once been a paved road broken up by the
injuries of time.

The ascent occupied three good hours, pleasantly, on account

of the crystals, at which we wondered.

Avhich

We halted at the top of the mountain,

commanded an extensive view, and we saw upon a level i^lain new

motiA^es to rouse our admiration.

We discerned a1)0ut a league and a half from us a large settlement, whose
extent couAdnced us that
the Brazil.
it

it

must be some city dependent upon the capital of

We descended soon to the A^alley, Avith the precaution

....

might be in such a case, sending explor

gate the quality and
that they should take good notice

chimneys, this being one of the evident signs of settlements.

We Avaited for the explorers during two days, longing for ncAvs, and only
waited to hear cocks croAV to be certain that it was peopled.

At last our men

returned, undeceived as regards there being any inhabitants, AA'hich puzzled us
greatly.

An Indian of our company then resolved at all risks, but Avith

but lie returned much frightened, affirming that he
did not find nor could he discover the trail of any human being. This Ave
Avould not believe, because Ave had seen the houses, and thus all the explorers
precaution, to enter ;

took heart to folloAv the Indian's track.

They returned, confirming the above-mentioned deposition, namely, that there
no inhabitants, and so Ave determined all to enter this settlement Avell
armed and at daA\ai, A\diich Ave did Avithout meeting any one to hinder our Avay,
and Avithout finding any other road save that Avliich led directly to the great
Avere

settlement.
Its entrance is through three arches of great height, and the
middle one is the largest, whilst the tAvo side arches are less. Upon the largest
and principal Ave discerned letters, Avhich from their great height could not be
coj)ied.

There AA^as one street the breadth of the three arches, Avith upper storeycd
houses on either side ; the fronts of carved stone already blackened ; so
.

.

.

.

inscriptions all open
(d)oors are Ioav of ma(ke)
7ias

.

noting that by the regularity

and symmetiy Avith Avhich they are constructed it appeared to be one long
house, being in reality a great many.
Some had open terraces, and all Avithout
tiles, the roofs being some of burnt bricks and otliers of freestone slal^s.

We

AA^ent through some of tlie houses Avith great fear, and noAvhere could Ave
find a vestige of personal goods or furniture which might by their use or fabric

throAv any light on the nature of the inhabitants.
The houses are all dark in
the interior ; there Avas scarcely a gleam of light ; and as they are vaulted, the
voices of those Avho spoke re-echoed till our OAvn
accents friditened us.

APPENDIX.

4G1

Having examined and passed tkrough tlie long street, we came to a regular
in tke middle of it was a column of black stone of extraordinary
height and size, and upon it was the statue of an average-sized man, with one
hand uj)on his left hamich, and the right ann extended, pointing vdth his forelinger to the North Pole.
In each corner of the said scpiare was a needle
(obelisk I), in imitation of that used by the Romans, but some had suffered illusage and were broken, as if struck by thunder-bolts.
On the right hand of this square was a superb edifice, as it were the principal
house of some Lord of the land. There was an enormous saloon in the entrance,
and still from fear we did not investigate all the hou(ses)
being numerous and the retret
::erdo to form some
mara we foimd o(ne)
8(j[uare, and

.

mass of extraordinary
(per)sons

had difficulty in raising it

The bats were so many that they attacked the people's faces, and made such a
noise that it astonished them.

Upon the principal portico of this street was a

figure in demi-relief carved out of the same stone, and stripped

upwards, crowned with laurels.

from the waist

It represented a young figiKe, and beardless.

Beneath the shield of the figure were some characters, spoiled by time. How(See the Plate, inscription No. 1.)
ever, we made out the foUo'wing.
On the left side of the said Square is another edifice, quite ruined but from
the vestiges remaining, there is no doubt that it was once a temple, for part of
its magnificent frontispiece still appears, and some naves and aisles of solid
stone.
It occupies a large s^^ace of gromid, and on its ruined walls are seen
carvings of superior workmanship, with some figures and pictures inlaid in the
stone, with crosses and difterent emblems, crows and other niinutia?, which
would take a long time to describe.
Follow this edifice large portions of the city totally ruined and biuied
in large and frightful openings of the earth, and upon all this ground not
a blade of grass, tree, or plant was produced by nature, but only heaps of stone
and some coarse rough works, by which we judged
rergao, because still amongst
da oi coi-pses
which
is part of this unhappy
da,
and forsaken perhaps on account of some earthquake.
In front of the said square runs rapidly a mighty and broad river, which
It might be from 11 to 12
Jiad spacious banks and was agreeable to the sight.
fathoms broad, "without considerable turnings, and its banks were free from
trees and timber which the inundations usually bring down.
"We sounded its
depth and found in its deepest parts from 13 to 16 fathoms. On the fiu'ther
side of it are most flourisliing plains, and ^^itll such a variety of flowers that it
would appear as if nature was more bountiful to these parts, making them
produce a perfect garden of Flora. We admired also some lagoons full of rice,
of which we profited, and likewise innumerable flocks of ducks which breed in
these fertile plains, and we found no difficulty in killing them A\'ithout shot,
;

—

....

but caught them in our hands.

AVe marched for three days do^^n the

made a fearful noise from

river, and came upon a cataract which

the force of the

water and the

obst^icles

in

its

APPENDIX.

462

more.

that we thought the mouths of the far-famed Nile could not make
Below this fall the river so spreads out that it appears to he the great

ocean.

It is full of

Ijed, so

peninsulas covered with green turf, with a sprinkling

which make
Here we found

davel.

of trees,

in default of

it if

(nm)ch variety of game

we

(o)ther

many anmials bred there being no huntsmen to chase and persecute them.
To the east of this waterfall we found several deep cuttings and frightful
excavations, and tried its depth with many ropes, which, no matter how long
;

they were, could not touch its bottom. We found also some loose stones, and,
on the surface of the land some silver nails, as if they were drawn from mines

and left at the moment.

Amongst these caverns we saw one covered with an enormous stone slab,
and with the following figures carved on the same stone, which apparently
Upon the portico
(See the inscription No. 2.)
contains some great mystery.
(Inscription
No. 3.)
of the temple we saw others also, of the following form.
About a cannon-shot from the village was a building as it might be
The entrance was by a
of a country-house, with a front 250 paces long.
many
coloured stones which
of
staircase
ascended
a
and
we
large portico,
opened into an immense saloon, and afterwards into 15 small houses, each
with a door opening into tlie said saloon, and each one bore its own
« which waters,
water spout
mCio in the
and adjoinmg
colonnade in a

external courtyard
ra scpiared

cir

by art, and hung

with the following characters. (See the inscription No. 4.)
After this wonder we descended to the banks of the river hoping to discover
gold,

and without trouble

Ave

found

rich

''

upon the surface,
We wondered at the

pay-dirt "

promising great wealth of gold as well as of silver.
inhabitants of this city having left such a place, not having found with all
our zeal and diligence one person in these Deserts who could give any account of
The
tliis deplorable marvel, as to whom this settlement might have belonged.
ruins well showed the size and grandeur which must have been there, and

how populous and opulent it had been in the age when it flourished. But now
was iidiabited by swallows, bats, rats and foxes, w^hich fattened on the
numerous breed of chickens and ducks, and grew bigger than a pointer-dog.
The rats had such short legs they did not walk, but hopped like fleas nor did
they run like those of an inhabited ]3lace.
From this spot a companion left us, who, with some others, after 9
days' good march, sighted at the mouth of a large bay formed by a riA'er,
a canoe carrying two white persons, with loose black hair, and dressed like

it

;

Europeans,
to

-ye

To have

a shot as signal, in order
to fly or escape.

hairy and wild

.

.

....

ga, and they all curl up and invest

One of our companions, called Joao Antonio, found in the ruins of a house a
gold coin, round, and larger than our pieces of Gf 400.
On one side was the

APPENDIX.

463

image or figure ol a yoiitli on his knees, and on the other side a Low, a crown
and an arrow, of which sort (of money) we did not doubt there was plenty in
the said settlement or deserted city, because if it had been destroyed by some
earthquake, the i)eople would not have had time suddenly to put their treasure
in safety.
But it would require a strong and poAverful arm to examine that
pile of iTiins, buried for so many years, as we saw.

This intelligence I send to your Excellency from the Desert of Bahia, and
from the rivers Para-oacii (Paraguassu) and Una. "We have resolved not to
communicate it to any person, as we think whole towns and villages would be
deserted
but I impart to your Excellency tidings of the mines which we have
discovered in remembrance of the much that I owe to you.
Supposing that, of our company, one has gone forth under a different
understanding, I beg of your Excellency to drop these miseries, and to
come and utilize these riches, and employ industry, and bribe this Indian
;

to lose hmiself

and conduct yoiu' Excellency

to

these treasures,

etc.

.

.

chardo in the entrances
bre stone

slabs

.

.

.

(Here follows in the manuscript what is found represented in the plate
underneath, No. 5.)
Primeira.

Secimda.
Terceira.

Quarta.

Quinta.

t

Sexta.

Setima.
Oitava.

Nona.
Inscrij)caes encontradas na cidade

A

abandonada de que trata o manuscripto,

existente na Bibliotheca Publica do Rio de Janeiro.

Inscriptions found in the abandoned City, of which the MSS. to be seen in

the Public Library of Rio de Janeiro, treats.

—

INDEX.
Arassua, Seira de, first view of the, ii. 312
Araucaria, seen only near settlements, i. 76
Araxa, derivation of the word, i. 145
Architecture, ecclesiastical, in Miuas Ge-

Abaete brilliant, discovery of tlie, ii. 153
Aboboras, Serra das, i. 43
Acacia, varieties of, on the Campos, i. 76 ;
the Angico, medicinal uses of the resin
the Jurema, ii. 315
of the, ii. 301
Acaju or Caju, wine made from the, ii. 26
Acary, the armour-plated fish, ii. 252 n., 325
African slave squadron, a useless expense,

raes, sketch of,

;

i.

7

Agave amencana, uses of the, i. 35 n.
Agriculture, rudeness of, i. 59
Air-plants, a feature of the Brazilian forest,
1.

295

John at, i. 147 149 remarkable situalaying the first chain of
tion of, i. 149
railway at, i. 152 gold diggings at, i.
153; grand dinner at, i. 154
Aldea de Paratina, excellent cotton at, ii.
75; inhabitants famous for their chur;

;

;

lishness,

ii.

301

Amador, Manga do, village of, ii. 273
;

length of the,

ii.

217
Angari shrub, the, ii. 360
Anj-'lo- Brazilian Gold ^Mining Company, i.
334
Animal life in the Brazil, i. 5Q
Ant, nests of the, i. 56 foes of the, i. 57
the mad, ii. 194
Anthony, St., the Cave of, described, ii. 313
Anthropology of Minas Geraes, remarks on
the, i. 389
Anum, abuse of the word, i. 56 n.
Araca guava, common on sand-bars, ii. 57
Aracapa, Serro do, ii. 400
Araponga, or blacksmith bird, the, ii. 105
Araripe, Serra de, ii. 407
;

VOL.

[I.

Brazil, i. 180
Assumption, Island of, ruined church on,
ii. 403 ; inhabitants of, ib.
Astrocaryum Tucum, fibre of the, ii. 349
Australia, diamonds found in, ii. SI
in the British
Avalanches, earthen, i. 73
islands, i. 73 n.
;

feast

of,

147; various forms of

i.

the word, ib.
Bahia, Province of, wealthy in diamonds,
ii. 135
analysis of diamantiferous sands
from, ii. 143 n. ; has no popular topo;

graphical works,

Amazons River, vegetation of the Cisandine
Valley of the, i. 292

Aiiuda shrub, the, ii. 57
Armadillo, varieties of the, i. 290
Arraial, meaning of the word, i. 109 n.
tumours
Aroeira tree, uses of the, i. 77
in the joints from sleeping under the, ib.
As Pedras dos Angicos, the village, ii. 253
Assassin, hired, not yet extinct in the

Baal,

ii'6.

Almecegueira, medicinal uses of the balm
of the, ii. 27 n.
Alum, found in caves in the Serra do Machichi,

120

;

Ajojo or raft, the, described, ii. 2
Alagoa Dourada, village of, i. 146; inscription ou cottage at. i. 147; scanty
accommodation at, i. 147; Feast of St.

—

i.

Argemone mexicana, medicinal properties
of, ii. 274

;

280

ii.

Bahia Steam Navigation Company, contract
of the, ii. 378 n. vessels belonging to, ib.
Baldim, Serra do, ii. 29
Bamboo, varieties of the, i. 40 ; food for
cattle, ii. 69
Bananeira, Serra da, ii. 402
Baptism, remarks on, i. 341 n.
inn accommodation at,
Barbacena, i. 68
civility of Dr. Renault of, i. 80
i. 69
population of, i. 81
climate of, ib
revolution at, 1. 82 churches at, i. 8^^
86 cemetery of, i. 86 jail and hospital
campos of, adapted for cattle
at, i. 87
dulness of, i. 98
bleeding, i. 92
Barca of the Rio de Sao Francisco described,
ii. 206
Barque Jaguara, description of the, ii. 8
;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

H H

IXDEX.

43G

or waterman of thtj Sao Fran-

I3arqueiro,

cisco River, described,

in versification of,

ii.

209

ii.

;

facility

210 ; superstitious

of the, ii. 211, 396
Barra, Villa da, approach to, ii. 316; festa
ii.
318 ; civility of Lieutenantat,

Colonel Mariani,
scribed,

ii.

320

;

of provisions at,

ii,

319

the town de-

;

trade of, ii. 322 ; prices
ib. ; a bad site for a

323
Barro diamond mine, visit to the, ii. 132;
discovery and value of, ib.
Earro Preto, diamond diggings at, ii. 90
Earroso, beauty of the village of, i. 101
Bat, the Vampire, i. 107
man bitten by,
i. 107 n.
capital,

ii.

;

;

;

in Para,

;

;

;

;

the, i. 93
Batea used in gold washing, described, i. 133
Batea, Serra da, i. 315
Bauhinia forficata, the, i. 164
Beggars in the Brazil, i. 136
ii.
315
Bee-hives, produce of, i. 95
Bell-bird, the, ii. 85
Big Face Mountain, features of the, i, 309
Bignonias, many kinds of, ii. 28 n.
Birds, gaudy plumage of the, i. 40
of the
Coroa, ii. 179 of the forest, ii. 332, 405
nests of the Leather-jacket, ii. 316
of,

;

;

Batata, or sweet potato, i^ioductiveness of

Births, relative proportion

;

;

;

;

jigmies in the, i. 59; gipsies in the, i.
63 ; national debt of the, i. 91 ; monetary system of, i. 92
probable extinchopeful
tion of slavery in the, i. 269
prospects of the, i. 374; population of,
in 1866, i. 369 n.
climate of the, i, 30
foreigners unpopular in the, ii. 99 ; existence of the diamond in the, formeily
doubted, ii. 108
diamantine lands in
remains of
the, where found, ii. 135
the red-skins in the, ii. 271
railways a
failure in the, ii. 377.
Brejo, Serra do, ii. 174
Ei-ewery at Congonhas de Sahara, i. 196
Bridges, primitive, i. llln.
suspension
bridge in Miuas, i. 428 ; on the Rio das
Velhas, ii. 11
Brig Eliza, christening and departure of
the, ii. 1
description of, ii. 2
crew of
the, ii. 4
provisions for the voyage, ii,
dis3 n.
passengers on board, ii. 5
missal of crew of, ii. 433 ; dismantling

i.

115
Blacksmith bird, the, ii. 105
Eoa i\Iorte, Serra de, i. 165
Boa I\Lorte, Villa da, described, ii. 384
scanty civility at, ii. 385
Boart, remarks concerning, ii, 151
three
kinds of, ii. 152
Boa V^ista, Fazenda da, former owners of
the, ii. 286
Villa da, origin aud present state, ii. 388
Boatmen of the Sao Francisco, ii. 390, 433
;

;

;

;

;

;

of, ii.

435

Bromelia, species of, ii. 350, 449

Broom, golden, i. 163
Brumado, Bio, i. 146

Bucha dos

Paulistas, a powerfully drastic

265
Buckwheat, hardiness of, i. 93
Bura, Serra do, ii. 74
Burity palm, uses of the, ii. 166
Bursera leptophlocos, gum yielded by,
332
plant,

ii.

Buzzard, the Caracar^,
birJ,

i,

i.

ii.

56 ; a tick-eating

160

;

;

Bom

Jardim,

Arraial do,

arrival

at,

ii.

fine diamantation of, ii, 305
304
a
good site for a city, ii. 306
Bom Successo, Fazenda do, visit to the, ii.
69 itinerary from, to S. Joao, ii. 72 n.
Boqueirao, Serra do, ii. 297
Borborema, Serra de, ii. 407
Bougainvillea, the, i. QQ
Braganza diamond, discovery of the, ii.
152
Bramidos, or subterranean roarings, i. 437
;

;

;

Branca, Serra, supposed deposits of plati-

num in the, ii. 296 n.

;

exports to the, ib. ; imports
from England, i. 10 n. ; list of works on
the, i. 13
IS; yellow fever in the, i.
SO ; road rollers, and road locomotives
ib.

;

—

in the,

i.

35; smuggling in the, i. 47

ib.

Cachoeiras, meaning of the word, ii. 35 ;
often easy of removal, ii. 36. On the
Bio das Velhas: de Jacu, ii. 21 ; da
Grande, ii. 65 ; das GalOn5a, ii, 53
;

do
65 da Cerquinha, ii. 67
Landim, ii. 157 das llhotas, ii, 163
do Riacho das
do Gongalvez, ii. 165
Pedras, ii. 167 da Escaramuga, ii. ] 70 ;
dos Dourados, ii.
das Prisoes, ii. 171
On the Sao
173 do Desemboque, ib.
Francisco
de Sobradinho, ii. 363 ; do
das
Bebeda, ib.
do Jenipapo, ii. 383
da Panella do DouCarahybas, ii. 385
de Sao Pedro, 400 ;
rado, ii. 397, 412
the
the impetuous Rosario, ii. 411
de Boi Velho,
furious Cantagallo, ib.
linhas,

ii.

;

;

;

;

;

Brant family, exploitation of diamonds by
the, ii. 125
Brazil, works on the, mostly those of specialists, i. 9
a terra incognita to Europe,

Caatinga, meaning of the word, i. 61n
Cabbage palm, the, i. 55
Caboclos, wars of the, i. 110 ; meaning of
the word, i. 110 n. ; village of the, on the
Parauna, ii. 75.
Cabra (she goat), application of term, ii.
249 n.
Cabrobo, town of, described, ii. 406
Cacha9a, how made, i. 189 ; two kinds of,

•

;

;

;

:

;

;

;

;

;

;

INDEX.
ii.

412

]\Ilnas and
Sao
f;eueral nuisance in
Paulo, i. 159
attacks cattle and horses,
ib.
habitats oP, i. 160 ; remedy for

do Urubusinho, it. 413; of tlie
the Surubabe, ii. 415.
ib.
Lugar da, poltery of the, ii.

;

Fura-olho,
Cachoeirci,

;

;

;

the bites of the, ib.
Carrasco, meaning of the vrord, i. 61 n.
Caiunhanha, Sao Jose da, town of, described, ii. 280 ; trade of, ii. 281

283
Cacboeira, Serra do, ii. 362
Cactus spinosus, indigenous,

Xique-Xique,

329

ii.

;

i.

94

varieties

;

tbe

of,

ii.

Carunhanha River, slate quarry on the, il.
276

449 ; cochineal insect on the
Quipa, ii. 301 wood of the ]\Iandiacuru,
used for roof- rafters, ii. 361
Cacunete fish, the, ii. 305
Caethe, definition of word, i. 291 n.
Caieiro, Kio, i. 100
Caipira, oithography of, i. 186 n.
Cahidium esculentum and sagittifolium, i.
93
Calemba, a medicinal root, ii. 2S1
California, discovery of diamonds in, ii. 81
Camarada, definition of the word, i. 297 n.
Campeiros, wildness of the, ii. 26
301,

329,

;

Casa Branca estate, visit to, ii. 38 ; hospitable reception by Sr. Manoel Francisco,
ii. 39
sugar house at, ii. 40 party of
Americans at, ii. 41
Casa de Pedra, near Sao Joai, description
of, i. 139n.
Cascalho, composition of, ii. 116 n. ; derlva;

;

Cata Branca, gold mines of, i. 131; failure
of, i. 183; Serra de, i. 182
Catas Altas de Mato Dentro, hotel at, i.
312 poverty of, ii. 313
Catinguelro or Stinker, the, ii. 127
Cattle-breeding o.i the Pao das Velhas, ii.
campos of Barbacena adapted f jr, i.
8
92 the favourite industry at Sao Joao
;

huba Palm, ii. 310
Candonga, Morra da, i. 138
Canga, meaning of v/ord, i. 203 n. ; composition of, ii. 116 n
Cannibalism, was a necessity with the Zealander,

;

;

del Bey,

115 n.

i.

;

prevalence of

washing at, ii. 117
Caparosa-ptisane, ii. 32 n.
Capim Angola, the, i. 101 ; Cabelludo, ii.
360
Gordura, i. 55
Capital, field for, in the Brazil, i. 218
Capivi, uses of, known amongst the Indians,
ii. 84
Capoeiro, or second-growth forest, derivaii.

116

;

of the,

i.

;

ib.

Cara-tuber, varieties of the, ii. 9 n.
Carat, derhation of word, ii. 148 n.
Cardo santo or holy thistle, medicinal pro-

274

Carnahuba, or "Was Palm, habitat of the,
value and uses of the, ii. SOJ
ii. 303
candles made from the wax of the, ii.
310 grove of, ii. 333
;

;

;

Carrapato

tick, varieties of the,

i.

284
suoerstition

respecting,

32n.

C. simplicicurnis,

;

ii.

i.

;

Cereals, Brazilian, i, 93
Cerro, definition of word, ii. 110 n.
Cervus campestris, or Prairie deer, il. 127

tion of the word, i. 65 n.
Caprimulgas, varieties of the, ii. 50 n.
Capyvara or wild hog, derivation of the
word, i. 43 n.
habits of the, i. 44 n.
Cara^a, Serra do, grotesque features of the,
meaning of word, ib.
i. 309
Carahyba do Campo, the, ii. 77, 449
Carandahy, Eio, i. 145 ; derivation of

perties of,

from eating poisonous
of,
426 bamboos as food for, ii. 69
Cauira, or wine made from the Sapucaia,
derivation of word, i. 120 n.
Cave of St. Anthony, visit to, ii. 313
Cecropia or Candelabra tree, i. 283 ; uses
Ccdrella odorata,

;

name,

13 i

plants, i.

;

number of slaves at, ib.

i.

death

Cattle,

Canninha, cheapness of, i. 189
Canteiro diamond mine, visit to, ii. 113
expenses and income of the, ii. 115;
theft at,

26

ii.

Cashew showers, ciiuse of, and explanation
of terra, ii. 243
Cassareep, recipe for making, i. 225 n.
Castanhera, Serra da, ii. 362

description of the, i.
medivegetation of the, i. 74, 76
cinal plants of tbe, i. 78 ; exhilarating
air of the, i. 78 ; frequently a network
of paths, i. 156
Canals, projected, ii. 386
Candles made from the v»-ax of the Carna;

;

tiiin of word, i. 203n
Cashew-nuts, use of, amongst the Indians,

Campos or prairies,
70

467

153; a

ib. ;

C.

paludosus,

;

ii.

128
Chacara, meaning of the word, i. 45 n.
Chafaiiz, derivation of word, i. 46 n.
Cliameleon, the Brazilian, ii. 316 n.
Charcoal burners at Morro Yelho, i. 426
Cheese, inferior quality of Brazilian, i. 92.
Cbinchonaceoe of the Campos, i. 78; C.
llemigiana, ii. 28
Chique-Chique, complicated approach to, ii.
326 the town described, ii, 328 the
;

;

fine
Xique-Xlque cactus at, ii. 329
the diamond digging
sheep at, ii, 330
"do Pintorsinho," ii. 336; possesses
every requisite for a capital, 338
Cigarette manufactory at llegistro Velho,
;

;

described,

i.

63

City, ancient, discovered in 175-3,
of,

account

45J— 463
II

li

2

INDEX.

468

tlie Brazils, remarks on tlie, i.
an educated class, i. 407 n.
effect of on
Climate of the Brazils, i. 30
race, i. 391
Coach stages from Juiz de Fora to BarbaBaibacena to Morro Velho,
ccna, i. o4
i. 99 n.
Coach travelling in the Brazil, i. 34
Coal formatiou, the, i. 64 ; mine at Ague
Quente, i. 316
Cocaes, Serra de, i. 306 ; gold mines at, i.
441
Coche d'Agua, i, 187; origin of name, i.
188
Cochineal, attempted exportation of, i, 94 n.
Cochineal insect, indigenous, i. 94 ; on the
Quipa cactus, ii. 301
Cocoa-nut trees plentiful on the coast, ii.
263 ; produce of adult trees, ii. 280
Coffee shrub in the Doce District, i. 6 ;
poorness of the, at Petropolis^ i. 39
Coinage of the Brazil, i. 90
no gold in
circulation, i. 90
Comarca, definition of a, i. 114n.
Comar;;os, tea-jjlantations at, i. 321
Commerce, homage paid to, i. 410
Congonha, application of terra, 1. 167n.
Congonhas de Sabard, i. 194 ; brewery at,
i.
196
Cungonhas do Campo, first view of, i. 165
a Mineiran Loretto, i. 167
oratories
and church at, i. 169 growing stone at,
i.
healthy situa172 College at, ?6.
old qold diggings at, i.
tion of, i. 173
174
Contagem, Serra da, ii. 78
Contagens, establishment of, ii. 78 n.
profits and expenses of, ib.
Copaifera officiaalis, balsam of, ii. 84
Copal, large deposits of, in Minas and Sao
Paulo, i. 126 ; lip ornaments made of,
i. 127

Clergy in

406

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

Coral Snake, varieties of the, ii. 181
Coroa or sand bar, description of, ii. 56
birds and vegetation of the, ii. 57, 179 ;
remarks on the removal of, ii. 58
Corrego, Serra do, i. 138
Corrente, Rio do, navigable for 28 leagues,
;

ii.

295

list

of,

in

IMinas,

399

i.

;

403
Crioulina tree, the, ii. 194
Crocodile, the Brazilian, ii. 177
ratio of, to population,

Crops, rotation of, unknown, ii. 42
Cuiaba, visit to the gold mines of, i. 439
Cuisine, the national, i. 95
Culex penetrans, troublesome bite of the,
ii.

171

ii. 358
Cupim, nests of the, i. 56 enemies of the,
1.57
Curassoa, the, i. 38
Curral d'Jll-Iiei, Morro do, i. 424
Curumatahy River, the, ii. 165 Serra do,

Curaieira, Serra da,

;

;

ib.

Curumatao fish, various names of the,

ii.

33 n.
Curuvina fish, the, ii. 303

Damour,

M., analysis of diamantiferous
sands by, ii. 143 n.
Dantas (the Councillor M. P. de Souza),
proposed steam navigation on the Rio de
Sao Francisco by, ii. 234
Datura, poisonous seeds of the, i. 198
Debt, national, of the Brazil, i. 91
Deer, varieties of, ii. 127
Dentists,

numerous in the Brazil, i. 394

Desmonte, composition of, ii. 113 n.
Diamantina City, first glimpse of, ii. 92
description of, ii. 94
agreeable society
at, ii. 98 ; the Episcopal Seminary at,
ii.
101
a shooting affair at, ii. 102
;

;

;

;

declining prosperity of, ii.
104; climate of, ii. 105; early history

ball at, ib.

of,

ii.

;

106

Diamantiferous sands from Bahia, analysis
of, ii. 143 n.
Diamantine lands in the Brazil, where
found, ii. 135 concession to work, how
obtained, ii. 136
Diamantine deposits on the Sao Francisco,
ii.
284, 286, 339, 374, 422 ; of Bom
Jardim, ii. 306
Diamond cutting at Rio de Janeii'o, ii.
104 n.
smuggling, prevention of, ii.
;

;

82.

Costume, an Englishman's travelling, i. 95
Cotton, cultivation of, less profitable than
sugar, i. 6
a source of wealth, i. 94
plantation on the Rio das Velhas, ii. 14
the valley of the Sao Francisco adapted
for the growth of, ii. 223
fine, grown
at Carunhanba, ii. 279
Cotton-spinning at Morro Velho, i. 242
Crambambali, a native brdle, recipe for
making, i. 155 n.
Crane, the Biazilian, i. 38 ; the Saracura,
ii. 18
big, ii. ol2
Cravinho do Cainpo, the, ii. 78
Creoulo, meaning of term, i. 18n.
;

;

;

;

;

Crimes, ofiicial

Diamond mine at Barro Preto, ii. 90

tools

;

used, ii. 114; gambling nature of mining,
ii.
115; the Canteiro, ii. 113; the
Loinba, ii. 121 ; the Duro, ii. 129
the
;

Barro, ii. 132 of the Pirapora, ii. 204 ;
at Santo Ignacio, visit to the, ii. 336
Diamonds found in California and Austra;

lia, ii. 81 ; will probably be found along
the Serra do Esj inha^o, ii. 104; traditions respecting the discovery of, ii. 106 ;
declared Crown property, ib.
diaman;

tine demarcation established, ib.

;

exis-

tence of, in the Brazil doubted, ii. 108 ;
exports and value of, in 1861-7, ib. ;

INDEX.
powdered, considered by tlie Hiudu as
deadly poison, ii. 118 n. prominent part
taken by tlie Brant family in the exploitation of, ii. 125; derivation of the
word, ii. 1.36 n. prospecting for, ii. 13d;
perfections of, ib. ; debated origin of, ii.
137 index of refraction, ib. ; tests of,
ii.
138
where formed, ib. ; strongly
affected by the electro-magnetic current,
ii.
133 n.
formacao, or stones that accompany, ii. liO-143; shapeof, ii. 144;
colours and flaws of, ii. 14(5; weights of,
ii, 148
price of, ii. 149 about "Boart,"
ii.
151 ; celebrated Brazilian, ii. 152,
;

46'J

Expectoration, a prevalent habit, i. 51
Eye, diseases of the, use of the green juice
of the young branches of the Aroeira ia,
i.

77 n.

;

;

;

;

;

;

153

Fabbrica da Ilba, visit to the, i. 304
Farinha de ]\I;lho, treatment of, ii. 39 n.
Farm-labourers, demand for,
Fazenda, a, defined, i. 44 n.
i.
301

Dourado fish, the, described, ii. 173 n.
Drunkenness, prevalence of, in the interior,
i. 404
Duarte (Sr. Jose Rodriguez), excursion to
the Lagoa Santa with. ii. 29 ; death of,
ii. 34
Dumont (M. ), steam navigation on the Rio
das Velhas begun by, ii. 233
Duro diamond mine, visit to the, ii. 129

interior of a,

Fernam Paes, estate of, i, 193
Ferns, varieties of, i, 27 tree, i. 296
Fete of St. John, celebration of the, in the
;

i.
148
superstitions associated
with the, i. 149
Fevers, treatment of, ii. 191 n.
prevalence
of, in the Forest regions, i. 293
Field labour, on the employment of women
in, i. 392
Fig, the Gamelleira, i. 158
ii. 245
Fire-balls frequent in the Brazil, i. 119 n.
Fire-fly, the Brazilian, ii. 273
Fish, contrivances for catching, ii. 12
the
Piaa, ii. 13 n.
varieties of the Mandiin
or Snorter, ii. 19 n.
the Trahira, ii. 27
the Curumatao, ii. 33
the Piranha or
Scissar, ii. 33
the Loango, ii. 162
the
Dourado, ii. 173 n.
of the Rio de Sao
Francisco, list of, ii. 223, 224
the
Acary, ii. 252 n.
wonderful draughts of,
ii.
276 the Surubim, ib.
abundance
of, in the Sao Francisco, ii. 303-373
the Curuvina, ii. 303 n. ; the Matrincham, ib. the Pira, ib. ; the Ca9unete,
ii. 305
fossil, ii. 407

Brazil,

Doce, Rio, preferred by emigrants, i. 5
Dog, hairless, common at Bahia, ii. 358
D. Pedro Norte del Rey Gold mine, i. 321

7

i.
;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

Earth, doctrine of a central fire in the, i.
251 n.

;

Earth-eating not unknown to the Biazllians, ii. 51 n.
Earthquakes at Jaguara, ii. 30
East Del Rey ]\Iiuing Company, sketch of
the,

i.

435

;

;

;

;

;

Eating, fast, remarks on, ii. 129 n.
Eclipse of the moon, ii. 175
Education, religious, in the Brazil, i. 332 ;
attention paid to, i. 412
Eraa, South American or three- toed, i.
52 n., ii. 296 ; derivation of the word, i.
52 n. ; price of feathers of, in Patagonia,

;

Flowers, number and variety of, in the
Brazilian Forest, i. 291 ; odours of, i.

295
Fogo, Ilha do, visit to,

ii.

376

road-rollers in the virgin, i. 35;
scenery of the, ii. 43 ; impenetrable

Forest,

nature of the Brazilian, i. 294

ib.

Einbira, bark of the, used for fibre,

ii.

434

Emigration, the remedy for overcrowding
lands on the Rio das
in England, i. 7
Velhas suited for, ii. 159
Engenho, or sugar-house, description of a,
;

ii. 40
unEntre Rios, railway station at, i. 41
healthiness of, i. 42
Epiphytes, a feature of the Brazilian forest,
;

i.

;

;

;

number

and variety of flowers in, ib. ; dangers
of the virgin, i. 297
unpleasantly rich
;

in the smaller life, ib. ; Brazilian, bLrds

of the,

ii.

332

Free labour, superiority of, i. 115 n.
Fruits, list of,

i,

93

Funil, Fazenda do, bivouac at,

Furnarius, mud-huts of the,

49
120

ii,

i.

295

Esbarrancado, derivation of the word, i.
73 n.
Espinhago, Serra do, i. 62
Estalagem, the, described, i. 103
Estrella do Sul brilliant, the, ii, 153
Estrema, settlement of, ii, 303
cauliEugenia dysenterica, the, ii. 25
flora, fruit of the, ii. 48
Euterpe edulis yields the finest cabbage
of all the palms, i. 55 n.
;

Gallinace^

of the Brazil, i. 37; accVimatization of the, i. 38
Gamella, the, a bowl for domestic use, i.
103 n. used in gold washing, i. 209 n.
Gamelleira fig, the, i. 158
giant, ii. 245
Game in the Brazil, i. 44 scarcity of, oa
the Rio das Velhas, ii, 13
on the Rio
de Sao Francisco, ii. 241
G-aiapa, a favo-^rite beverage, ii. 41 r.
Garimpeiro, definition of word, i. 210 a.
;

;

;

;

;

INDEX.

470

Gaviao hawk, the, ii. 85
Genipa araericana, juice of the, used by the
ludiaus as a dye, Ji. 68
Gipsies in the Brazil, i. 63 ; numerous in
Minas, i. 163
Giran, application of term, il. 3 n.
Git.iranaboia insect, the, described,

ii.

IC'4 ; the

Villa de,

ii.

196; Sr. Leanii. 197

dro, the Delegate of Police,

Gualaxo, Rio, i. 320
ii. 179
a gull-fair, ii.312
Gupiara, meaning of word, ii. 103 n.
Guigulho, definition of, ii. 112 n.

Gulls, Brazilian,

;

Guyana, rock-inscriptions in, i. i2n.

182 n.
Ghicial

theory,

application

the

to

of,

ii. 218
39, 71 n., 293 n.
Goitre, attacks cattle as well as men,

Brazil,

i.

;

i.

395
hereditary nature of, i. 396
Gold currency withdrawn, i. 90
Gold dust, circulation of, prohibited, i. 89
Gold formation, popular scientific error
;

respecting, i. 202
Gold-mining Companies in the Brazil,

;

i.

"how
215; causes of failure of, ib.
216
Gold-mines
St. John Del Key, i. 133,
230-235
in Minas Geraes,
i.
200,
203
at Alagoa Dourada, i. 153
at
Congoiihas do Campo, i. 174
Casa
Morro da Gloria,
Branca, i. 181 ;
192
Morro de Santa Rita, i. 192
i.
Morro Velho, i. 197, 220, 245 Morro
Vermelho, i. 235 Rossa Grande, i. 288
Gongo Soco, i. 299 Santa Barbara, i.
307 D. Pedro Norte del Key, i. 321 ;
]\Iorro de Maquine, i, 334
Morro de
Santa Anna, i. 337
Passagem, ib.
East Del Key i.
S. Vicente, i. 417;
435
to.ds used in, i. 438
Cuiaba,
;

to get up," i.
:

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

i.

439

ii.

9.

Cocaes,

;

441

i.

;

at Santa Lusia,

Goll Troop at ]\rorro Velho, i. 260
Gold wtight«, table of old Portuguese, i.

205 n.
Gongo Soco, rainfall at, i. 286
Gold
Mining Company, history of, i. 211
214 gold mine at, i. 299 Fabbrica da
Ilha at, i. 304
Gongo River, vaiious names of the, i. 300
;

—

;

;

Gonzaga, pastorals of, i. 364 n.

;

sketch of

the life of, i, 367
remarks on, i. 370
Gordon (M. ), superintendent of the Morro
;

Velho gold mine, hospitable reception bv,
i.

199''

Gossypium arboreum, ii. 14
Gouvea, hospitable reception
vegetation at, ii. 88

ii,

87

;

187; early history of,

of provisions at,
of,
ii.

ii.

191

189; cost
bad climate

ii.
;

manners of inlial)itants,
193; the Serrinha and its view, ii.
ib.

;

free

;

Horses, thrive on the melocactus,
price of, at Chique-Chique,

Hotels, expense

of,

95 ;

i.

ii.

ii.

329

;

330

menu of a Bra-

103
Humming-birds, beauty of the, ii. 366
transrautable into the humming-bird
hawk-moth, ii. 366 n.
zilian,

i,

;

Hydrochserus Capybara, Indian name of, i.
43 n.

Ibis, varieties of,

ii.

312

Ibitipoca, Serra da, i. 6Q

Imburaca

(Bursera

leptophlocos),

gum

yielded by the, ii. 332
Imperial Brazilian Mining Association,
history of, i. 211—214
Inconfidents, rebellion of the, i. 346
353;
leaders of the, i. 347; trial and sentence
of the leaders, i. 350 ; execution of Tiradentcs, i. 352
Indigo, grows wiM, i. 94 ; exportation of,
attempted, i. 94 n,

—

i. 318
Inhanu (Caladium esculentura), the, i. 93
Inquisition, a tale of the, i. 135
Inscriptions at Congonhas do Campo, i.
rock, 423—431
known to
169, 170
the old travellers, ii. 425
Insects, sufferings of horses and cattle from
bites of, i. 159
Introductions, value of, i. 99
I[ e Amarello, beauty of the, ii. 28
Ipecacuanha, i. 164
derivation of word,

Inficionada, villagers at,
at,

Grande, Rio, survey of the, ii. 317 n.
Grass burning, vegetation killed by, ii. 73
Grass, Capim Gordura, i.
55 ; of the
Campos, i. 77
Grape, vintage of the, i. 93 ; excellent
brandy ma'le from the raisins, ib.
Guaicuhy, junction of the Rios das Velhas
and Sao Franci?co at, ii. 187 arrival at,
ii.

Hair, effect of climate on human, i. 393;
oil for, used in the Brazil, i. 393 n.
Halfeld, M., estimate by, for clearing the
Rio de Siio Franciso, ii. 230
Hats made from the Aricuri palm, price of,
ii. 301
Hawks, the Gaviao, ii. 85 grey, ii. 350
Heat, internal, of the earth, remarks on, i.
251 n.
Helianthus tuberosus, hardiness of, i. 93 n.
Heron, the Jaburu, ii. 312
Hibiscus, the Mangui, ii. 44
Homoeopathy, in high favour in the Brazil,
ii. 40
establishment of, ii. 40 n.
Hop-plant, climate and soil adapted for
the, i. 94

;

;

;

]64n.
Ipomoea arenosa, the, ii. 3' 1
Iron foundry of M. Monlevade, i. 298
Iron, occurrence of magnetic, ii. 339, 345,
i.

S

;

I^'DEX.
350

ou

of,

(lepo.'jts

;

Rio de Sao

tli9

Francisco, ii. 221 n. ; atGongoSoco, excellence of, i. 306
Itabira do Caropo, tbe Stone Girl of the
prairie, features of, i, 179 ; meaning of

word, i. 179 n.
Itacolumi Peak, visit to,
tion

of,

378

i.

377

i.

Jaboticabeira, fruit of the, ii. 48
Jaboticatuba, Rio, ii. 38 n.
Jacare, or Brazilian crocodile, the, ii. 177
Jacubeiros, meaning of the term, i. 140
Jacutinga, constituents of, i. 132, 301 ;
gold in the, i. 302 ; richness of, i, 304
Jacutupe, description of the, i. 93 n.
Jaguara, derivation of word, ii. 21 n. ;
varieties of the, ih. ; value of skins of

22

ii.

Jaguara, Fazenda de, hospitality of Dr.
Quiutiliano Jose da Silva, ii. 22
description of the, ii. 23; revenues of the,
ii. 24; vegetation
birds
of the, ii. 25
of the, ii. 26
excursion to Logoa Santa
from, ii. 29
hospitality of M. Fourreau,
ii. 31
Januaria, city of, history and present state,
ii. 257
danger of being swept away, ii.
;

;

;

;

;

253
of,

reception at,

;

264

ii.

crew

at,

ih.

civility

;

;

ii.

ii.

259

difficulty

267

;

price

of Sr.

of

;

vegetation

collecting

a

of provisions at

Castano da

I^Ianoel

Souza Siiva, ii. 26
Jararoca viper, the, ii. 181

gum and pods of the,
28
Jatropha urens, medicinal use of, ii. 45 n.
cercas, uses of the, ii. 256
species of,
ii. 449
Jenipapeiro, nauseousness of the fruit of
the, ii. 68
Jequitiba, Fazenda do, liospitality of Col.
fine
i)omingos Diniz Couto at, ii. 47
sugar-cane at, ii. 48
Jequitiuhonha River, ii. 112; various
forms and meaning of word, ib.
Jequitinhonha diamond mines, ii. 113

Jatoba, uses of the
ii.

;

;

Jigger (Pulex),
J

87

;

various names of the,

ii.

description and habitat of, ii. IBS;

painful bite of, ib.
Joazeiro, A ilia do, has a great name undeservedly, ii. 3o9
the villa described,
;

the lands about, ii. 372 ; prices
of articles at, ii. 373 ; vines at, ii. 374 ;
the proposed terminus of two railways,
ii.

370

ii.

377

;

ib.

;

of,

i.

49 ; popu-

fete day at,

i.

52

Juliana, Serra da,

ii.

438

i.

;

;

the,

lation of,

376 ; vegeta-

definition of word,

;

of,

Juiz de Fora, description

KiTCHEX middens at Long Island, i. 23 n.
i.

3S0 geological formations of, ih.
view from, i. 381
Itacolumi, Serra da, i. 278
Itacolumite, composition of, i. 373
Itaparica, rapids of the, ii. 438 ; Serra da,
ii. 439
altitude

;

471

Labour, field for, in the Brazil, i. 263
Lagoa Santa, excursion to the, ii. 30 ho.'?;

pitable treatment at,
at,

ii.

31 ; Dr.

Lund

31

ii.

Lake superstitions, ii. 32 n.
Land,
42

small extent

of, under culture,
i.
from the subdivision of, i,
47; produce of, per acre at Casa Branca,
ii. 42
price of, on the Rio das Veihas,
ii.
159; price of, at Joazeiro, ii. 372
fertility of the, on the Sao Francisco,
ii. 380
Landed property, value of, dependent on
altitude, i. 106
Landslips in the Campos, i. 73
vivid hues
of the, i. 74
Languages, foreign, how to learn, ii. 197
Lapa, Sr. Bom Jesus da, visit to, ii. 2::5S ;
:

benefits

:

;

;

unhealthiness

of settlement,

Holy Cave described, ii. 289
daily receipts at, ii. 290

the
average

ih.',
;

Lapa, Serioie da, form of the, ii. 287
vegetation of, ii. 293
view from, ib.
Lapa dos Urubus, the, ii. 162

;

;

Larceny, unknown amongst the Tupy tribes,
i.

404

Lavado, Rio, ii. 169
League, the old Brazilian, i. 100 n.
Leather, excellence of Brazilian, ii. 192 n.
Leather-jacket bird, nests of the, ii. 316
LeguminosjB of the Campos, i. 76

Leme, Fernando Dias Paes, episode in the
lite of, ii. 30
Lenheiro, Serra do, i. 112
L':'prosy, common in Sao Paulo, i. 395
Liais, iM., estimate by, for clearing the Rio

das Veihas, ii., 229
Life, little safety for, in

Mlnas,

i.

402

Lightning, danger of, i. 118
Lime quarries at Chique-Chique, ii, 327
Lingut d'or, the, i. 89, 93
Lizarl, the Teyu or tree, described, ii.

183 n.
Lliana, the Murderer,

i,

40

;

varieties of,

296
Loango fish, the, ii. 162
Lomba diamond mine, visit to the, ii. 121
defective machinery at, ii. 122
Longevity in the Brazil, ii. 266 n. 273
Lunar action in the Tropics, i. 248
Lund, Dr., researches of, ii. 32
Luso- Latin tongue, richness of the, i. 136 n.
i.

;

JMacahubas das

Fre'.ras,

hospitable

re-

S

INDEX.
ception at, by the Rev. Padre Lana,
15 visit to the Recolhimento, ib.

ii.

;

Macalnibas, Rio, i, 436
]\Iacela do Campo, the, ii. 27
]\Iachichi, Sena do, occurrence of iincrystallised alum in caves in the, ii. 301
IVIachinery in the Brazil, rudeness of, ii.

122
Maize meal, preparations of, ii. 50 n.
tuations in price of the aiqueire

of,

ii.

use of, for cigarettes, i. 68
]\Ialhada Settlement and its receivership,
ii. 227; visit Lt. Louveiro at, ii. 27^;
value of duties levied at, ib. ; bad
climate of, ii. 279
Mamia, the, how made, and uses of, ii. 5 n.
Mandim or Snorter Fish, varieties of the,
ii. 19n.
]\Iandracuru Cactus, wood of the, excellent
for roof- rafters,

ii.

361

Mangarito (Caladium sagittifoliura), the, i.
93
Manioc, the, i. 163
]\[antiqueira Range, the, i. 60
vegetation
;

61

i.

;

altitude

tion of the name,

of,

i.

62

i.

337

;

ib. ;

deriva-

legends of the,

63

i.

pi'ovinre of,

paied with England,
imports into the, i. 44

109

ii.

of,

in

the

of,

com*

67

;

duties en

diamond mines
ecclesiastical

of

sketch,

;

area

4;

i.

architecture in, i. 120 ; large deposits
of copal in, i. 126 ; gipsies numerous in,
i.
]63; gold mining in, i. 200, 211;
no protection for Englishmen in, i.
278; rebellion of the Inconfidents in,
346 353
i.
insurrection in, i. 385
anthropology of, i. 389 ; leprosy and
goitre in, i. 395 ; official list of crimes

—

;

;

i. 400
frequent murders in, i. 402 ;
newspapers of, i. 413
Mimoia dumetorum, ii. 77
Mineiro, meaning of the term, i. 86 n. ;
honesty, i. 260
the, historically viewed,
i. 383
the typical man in the Brazil
ib.
peculiarities of the, i. 392
dres.s
of the, i. 398
morality of the, i. 399 ;
a religious man, i. 406
ceremoniousness of the, i. 411
dialect of the, i.

in,

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

]\raquind Rapids, shooting the, ii. 52
Waracana, species of, ii. 405 n.

Maranhao, Rio, i. 165
Maravilha Mountain, the, ii. 123
]\Iarianna, Rio, i. 337. o56
Marianna, pillory at, i. 323 inn at, i.
324 early history of, i. 326 situation
of, i. 327
the bishop of, i. 328
seminary at, i. 330
Sisters of S. Vincent de
Paul at, i. 331
^Marriage, aversion to, in the Brazil, i. 384;
early age of, i. 397
;

;

;

;

;

;

Martiniere, M. de la, estimate by, for
clearing the Rio de Sao Francisco, ii.

231

412.
Miner, high estimation of the, by Brazilian writers, i. 201
the Brazilian,
rudeness of his system, i. 211 the white
and the brown, i. 262
Mineral waters of Baependy, analysis of,
;

;

i. 138
Mineral wealth of the Valley of the Sao
Francisco, ii. 223
]\lining, reckless expenditure in, i. 184
remarks on Brazilian, i. 208 211 ;

—

ii.

127

Mato, Sitio do, tronco or village stocks at,
ii. 296
Matosiuhos, Arraial de, i. 109, 174;
massaci-e of the Paulistas at, i. 110 fete
of Corpus Christi at, i. Ill
Mat) incham fish, the, ii. 303 n,
Maua Bay, i. 24; supplies Rio with oysters,
;

24

-62

Missionary labours on the coast of Africa
a useless expense, i. 7
]\Ioc6 coney, flesh of the,

;

trip

ib.

Medicinal plants of the Campos, i. 78
Melocactus, the, relished by horses,

ii.

329
^Melons, water, cheapness of,

ii.

274

Menu of a Brazilian hotel, i. 103

excellent eating,

313
Monetary system of the Brazil, i. 92
Monkey, the Guariba, ii. 176
Monvelade's, M., iron foundry at Sao Miguel
ii.

de Piracicaba, i. 20

175 influence of
248
Mormonism, remarks on, i. 115
Morrinhos, N* S* da Concei9ao de, hamlet
ruinous condition of temple
of, ii. 271
at, ii. 272
Morro da Gloria Mine, i. 192
]\Iorro d'Ague Quente, village of, i. 314
discovery of coal at, i. 316
Morro de Santa Anna gold mine, i. 337
Morro Velho, hospitality of Mr. Gordon a*",

Moon, eclipse of the,

Maua Railway, opening of the, i. 25

;

terms, defined, i. 210 n.
Mirage, the, a frequent phenomenon, i. 162
Missionaries and missioners, remarks on,
ii.

]\Iateiro or forest deer, the,

on the,

commonness

rank,

Brazil,

;

]\Iaquine Gold-mine,

i.

92

tLe, i.
[Military

of,

]\Taize leaf,

i.

;

Miuas Geraes,
fluc-

;

89 n.

of the,

Midsummer Day at A!;igoa Dourada, i. 152
Milagre, Serra do, ii. 402
Mil-rcis, depreciation in value of, i. 91
a
financial error, i. 91 n. ; subdivisions of

the, in the Tropics,

ii.

;

i.

;

;

Mertensia dichotoma, a pest of the Brazil,
i. 27 n.
Mesmerism, extraordinary cases of, i. 391 n.

;

IXJJEX.
buiklings at,
i. 220, 236
uuhealthy situation of, i. 222
Casa Grande, i. 22'±;
rainfall at, i. 223
i.

i.

199
221

life at,

;

;

;

;

;

horticultural society at,

lb.

;

library,

i.

religious
water power at, i. 227
muster of the
services at, i. 227
221)
rewards to slaves,
blacks at, i. 230
negro entertainment at, ib.
i.
237
hospital
payment for progeny, i. 238
at, i. 239 moi tality amongst the negroes,
cottoni. 210
state of morals at, i. 211
theatre, i. 213
spinning at, i. 212
itinerary from, to Oiiro Preto, i. 279 n.
villages of Boa Vista and Tinibuctoo at,
i. 423
charcoal burners at, i. 42G
description
l^Iorro Yellio goldmine, i. 197
208
of the minerals of the, 1. 205
amount of ore raised at, i. 207 n. descent
accidents rare, i. 216
into, i. 215
woods used in, i. 247 n. gi-eat size of, L
250 pureness of the atmosphere, ib. ;
miners at work, i. 252 ; spalling and
stamping, 253
255; concentration process, i. 255 ; amalgamation process, i.
257; melting and casting in ingotr>, i.

226

;

;

—

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

—

;

;

;

;

;

—

260
263

;

number of English workmen at, i.

;

free

Brazilians

at,

i.

266

;

slaves

i.
273 routine of work at, i. 271
manumissionof negroes at, i, 276 n. discipline at, i. 277
has no parallel in the
Brazil, i. 278
Morro Verraelho, notices respecting, i. 285
jMortes, Rio das, i. 108

at,

;

;

;

;

Mosquitos, how to keep off, ii. 68 varieties
of the, ii. 172
stings, ii. 297, 317
Mountain tarns, frequent occurrence of, i.
;

;

66
Mulatto households, remarks on, i. 268
Mulberry trees, thrive in the Brazil, i. 94
]\Lules, cost of hired, i. 96
a necessary
evil, ib.
not hardy, nor sagacious, i. 97 ;
price of, ii. 265
Mule troops, the ships of the South American desert, i. 36
;

;

Oil,

use

as food in warm countiies,

of,

ii-

50 n.
Old Squaws' Kiver, origin of name, i. 178
Oleander, luxuriance of the, i. 137
Olive tree, African, i. 126
Oliveira, Fazenda do, incivility of the proprietor, ii. 352
ii. 61 n., 372
Oranges, Brazilian, i. 52
Orange wine, recipe for, i. 88 n.
Orchids, varie;ies of, i. 295
Organ Mountains, derivation of the name,
i. 71
i. 24 n.; altitude of the, ib
Oroco, Serra do, ii, 100
Ostreiculture, remarks on, i. 25
Ostrich, South American or three-toed, i.
52 n., ii. 296.
high pi-i';e
Otter, two species of, ii. 211
;

,

;

of skins, ib.

Ounce, varieties of the, ii. 21 n.

Ounce Rapids, the, ii. 53
Ouro Branco, Serra de, i. 164
Ouro Preto, Serra de, i. 321
Ouro Preto, sitiiation of the city, i. 313 described, i. 314
climate of, i. 345
churches at, i, 355, 363, 371; populaeducational establishtion of, i. 358
public buildings at, i.
ments at, ib.
360 362 the poet Gonzaga and Marilia,
party feeling at, i. 373
i. 364
;

;

;

;

;

—

;

;

Oysters, on the culture of,

25

i.

Padrk, Serra do, ii. 433
Paina do Campo, uses of the, ii. 77
fruit of the
Palm, the Cabbage, i. 55
Licorim, eaten by the macaws, ii. 75 n.
the Burity, ii. 166
the Indaia, ib.
hats made from the Aricuri, ii. 301
Tucum, uses of the, ii. 349
Palmatorio, descri[)tion of the, i. 277 n.
Papagaio, Serra do, ii. 419
Papansho bird, the, ii. 438
Paper currency of the Brazil, i. 90 effects
;

;

;

91
Papyrus, the Bradlian, i. 25
of,

i.

Association,

Para, village of the, ii. 314
Paracatu, Rio, ii. 212
Parahyba, derivation of the word, i, 40 n.
River, i. 41
derivation of
Parahybuna River, i. 42
no longer worked for
the word, ib.

National Guard of the Brazil, i. 67n.
Negro, cannot live in presence of the white

gold, i. 44
Parana-Plata River, length of the, ii. 217
Parateca River, signs of diamonds in the,

]\Iurders,

frequency of, in Minas, i. 402

IMutton, popular prejudice against, i. 36

;

Names, remarks on Brazilian, i. 286 n.
National

Brazilian ^Mining
works of, at Cocaes, i. 441

man, i. 277
Kettle, great in-itation caused by a poison,

314
Newspapers of Minas described, i. 414
ii.

Nicotiana ruralis,
the,

ii.

dislike of mosquitos to

68

Oats, wild, occurrence of, ii. 77
Guinda, the miner town, ii. 92

;

;

ii. 284
Parauna River, the, ii. 75, 160

the,

ii.

76

;

;

ferry on

diaraantine, ib.

297
338
workmen at, i. 340
visit to, i. 339
amount of ore raised at, i. 340; burial

Pan-ots, rare in the Matro Dentro,
Passagem Gold Mine, history of,
;

service at, i. 341
Passagem, the village of, i. 312
Passion-flowers, indigene, s, i. 47

i.
i.

;

;

INDEX.

47 i

Paulo Affoiiso, King of llapius, jourucy to,
437 442 difficulty of procuring borses,
ii,
435; wretched muleteers, ii. 437;

—

Potato, the American, i. 93
Potter^', Barba(?ena hand-made, i. 83
of
the Lugar da Cachoeira, cheajmess of, ii.

;

:

ii.
443 description
444 457
origin of
the name, ii, 447
legend respecting,
ib.
position of, misrepresented by geographers, ib.
height of, ii. 450 n.
probable age of, ii. 4 57
Pedra da Fortaleza, the, i. 43
Pedias, Southern Rio daSj ii. 112 diamond
mines of the, ii. 113
Pedras de furno, manufacture of, ii. S3
Penedo, Sena do, ii. 417
Pepper, varieties of, i. 103n.
an excellent stomachic, i. lOin.
native names
of, i. 104 n.
Petropo'is, altitude of, i. 28 n.
healthy
situation of, i. 31
abounds in mineral
springs, i. 31
population of, i. 33
Pbilodendron grandifolium, range of, ii.
92
Piabanha, Rio, i. 39
Piau fish, varieties of the, ii. 13 n.
Piedade River, the, ii. 173
Piedade, Serradi, i. 425; altitude of the,
i. 437
Pigeon, peculiar variety of, ii. 84
Pigmies in the Brazil, i. 59
Pilao Arcado, hamlet of, described, ii. 342
ruined by private wars, ii. 313
Pillory at ]\lariauna, i. 323
Pinho, Rio do, i. 64
Pintor, Serra do, ii. 331
Piquizeiro tree, the, ii. 262 n.
Pira fish, varieties of the, ii. 303 n.
Piracicava, Rio, i. 318
Piranha fish, the, ii. 33
Pirapora, meaning of the Avurd, ii. 199 ;
Rapids, visit to the, ii. 203
Piumhy, Serra do, meaning of the word, i.
150 n.
Planter, life of the, ii. 39
Plants, medicinal, of the Campos, i. 78
death of cattle from eating poisonous, i.
426
Plata, Rio da, i. 184
Platinum, found in Minas, i. 164
a lost
mine of, i. 165 supposed deposits of,
in the Serra Branca, ii. 296 n.
Poaya, a generic term for Ipecacuanha, i.
164
Poinsettia, the, i. 101
Polygamy, a necessity in the early history
of mankind, i. 1 15 n. morally justifiable
in new countries, i. 406
Ponche, uses of the, i. 147 n.
Pork, a favourite food in young lands, i.
104
Portugal, the most Roman of Latin countries, i. 208
Postal delivery, unknown at Sao Joan, i.
125

advice to visitors,

of the Falls,

;

—

ii.

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

283
of, i. 37
diamonds often
found in the crops of, ii. 146 n.
Punso, the, described, i. 101

Poultry, breeds

;

Campos, description of the,

Prairies or

i.

70
Prata, Eio da, i. 177
Prescription, a valuable, i. 126
Preto, Rio, i. 45
Prickly pear Cactus, the, i. 94 n.
Procnias, species of, ii. 85 n.
Prostitution at Santa Lusia, ii. 10; not so
prevalent as formerly, i. 410 ; in Ntw

York, i. 410 n.
Provisions, p'rice of, at Guaicuhy, ii. 191;
at Villa da Barra, ii. 322 n.; at Joazeiro,
ii.

373

Psittacus, varieties of,
Psoriasis,

ii.

258 n.

successful treatment

of,

i.

47;

common amongst the boatmen of the Sao
Francisco, ii. 269 n.

Quicksilver, discovery of, at Bom Successo, ii. 69
Quilomba, application of the term, i. 145 n.
Quilombeiros, or black banditti, ii. 97
Quinine, the Poor Man's, ii. 28
Quipa cactus, cochineal insect on the, ii.
301 edible fig of, ii. 302, 329
Quixaba tree, the, numerous on the Sao
Francisco, ii. 253
;

Raft employed on

the Rio da Sao Fran2
Raihvaj^s in the ]5razi1, a failure, ii, 377
at Alagoa Dourada, laying the first chain
cisco, described,

ii.

;

of,

i.

152

27 n. ; at Gongo
286
Rainy season, symptoms of the, ii. 177
Ramalho, Kio, confusion respecting the, ii.
285
Rancharia, application of the word, i. 46 n.
Rancho, the, described, i. 102
Rapadura, peculiar to South America, i.
105
Rapids on the Rio das Velhas, not always
dangerous, ii. 37
das Alprecatas, ii.
19 ; the JMaquine, ii. 52; the Ounce, ii.
53
Rapids of the Pirapora, visit to the, ii.
203; a serious obstacle to navigation, ii.
204
Rapids of Paulo Aflfonso, described, ii. 443
Raposos de Sabard, parishry of, i. 281
Rattle-snake, habits of the, ii. 181
Recolhimento or Recluse House at Macahubas, visit to, ii. 15 ; object of the, ii. 1 7
Rainfall in Sao Paulo,

i.

Soco and Morro Velho,

;

i.

;

INDEX.
Rye, hardiness of, i. 93

Recruiting, evils of, ii. 38S
llcdondo, village of, i. IQi
lled-skins, remains of the, ii.
llegistro Velho, Rio do, 1.-68

271

Renianso, Villa do, bad approach to the, ii.
345 the tonm de?cribed, ii. oiQ
Repuxa Estate, a field for minins opera;

tions,

i.

237

the popular drink in J.Iinas, i.
190 a protection against ague, ii. 43
Retiro, meaning of the word, ii. 8
Revue des Deux Mondes, ignorance of, on
Brazilian subjects, ii. 47
Rhamphastus, the large-beaked, i. 40
Rheumatics, use of decoction of leaves of
Restilo,
;

the Ar oeira in, i. 77
Rio Bay, scenery of, i. 20 ; bird's eve view
of, i. 28
Rio Piabanha, i. 39 ; Parahyba do Sul, i.
41
Parahybuna, i. 42 Preto, i. 45
do Pinho, i. 64
do Registro Velho, i.
6S Caieiro, i. 100 das Mortes, i. 108 ;
de Sao Joao, i. 112
Carandahy, i. 145;
;

;

;

;

;

;

;

Brumado, i, 146; Maranbao, i. 165;
da Prata, i. 177 da Plata, i. 184 das
Velhas, i. 191
Gongo, i. 300
Piracicava, i. 318
Grualaxo, i. '310
]\Iarianna, i. 337
Macahubas, i. 43'J; Vermelho, ii. 14; Jaboticatuba, ii. 38;
Parauna, ii. 75, 100
Southern Rio das
Pedias, ii. 112, 174
do Santo Antonio, ii. 156
Cururaatahy, ii. 165
Lavado, ii, 169; Piedade, ii. 173
Sao
Francisco, ii. 214
236: Paracatu, ii.
Pardo, ii. 254
242
Verde, ii. 275
Carunhanha, ii. 276 Rama^ho, ii. 285
do Corrente, ii. 295
Gi-ande, ii. 317
Rio de Janeiro, official list of immigrants
;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

—

;

;

;

;

i. 6
viewed from the
Bay, i. 22; diamond cutting at, ii. 104n.;
return to, ii. 457
Road-rollers, French, in the virgin forest,
;

35
Roads, badness of the, i. 57, 63, 100, 137
costs of repairing, i. oS ; difficulties of
making, il).
Robberies at the diamond mines, ii. 118
Roya or Roghado, meaning of the word, i.
45 n.
Roga Grande, Serra do, i. 283
Rock formations of the Mantiqueira Range,
i. 64
Rock-inscriptions in Guyana, i. 12 n.; at
the Sitio da Icutiara, ii. 423
431 ;
known to the old travellers, ii. 425
Rocks, coloured, ii. 401
i.

;

—

Rodellas, village of, tales of the Jesuits at,

413
Rossa Grande Gold Mining Company, i. 288
Rotulo, Fazenda do, described, ii. 45
Rubiacese, poisonous to cattle, i. 428
Rush, the Tiririca, common on the streams,
ii. 274
ii.

Sahara., distant view of, i. 423; description
of the city, ib. ; high temperature of,
i. 429
local industries, ib. ; history of,
i.
431 ; population of, i. 432 ; victory
of, ib. ; a future for, i. 433
Saddlery, a specialty of Prados, i. 139 n.
S. Bartholomeu, Serra de, i. 282
St. John, Feast of, i. 147 ; Tree of, i. 148 ;
;

bonfires
on the,
associated with the,

ib.

superstitions

;

149
St. John Del Rey Alining Company, sketch
of the, i. 132, 214
St, John Del Rey Gold Mine, past and present of the, i. 230
early workings of,
ib. ;'* improved prospects of the, i. 232
gold produced by the, during the years
1S37-1S66, i. 232n., 235 n.; declaration of dividend, i. 235
fire at, ib.
Salgado, Arraial do Brejo do, its present
state, ii. 266
romantic legend of the
i.

;

;

;

;

people's descent,

ib.

362 n.
26
Salt, largely imported, i. 134
a necessity
in the Brazil, ii. 260
value of, ii. 275
purification of, ii. 322
formation of,
at Chique-Chique, ii. 330
Salt-licks on
the Rios de Sao Francisco
and das Vellias, ii. 51
Salitre, Serra do,

ii.

Salsaparilla, the,

ii.

;

;

;

;

caves of, ou the Rio das Velhas,
process of extracting, ii. 291

Saltpetre,
ii.

12

;

price of,

;

;

into during 1867,

475

ib.

Saniambaia, a pest of the Brazil, i. 27
Sambahyha, medicinal uses of the, ii. 25
Sand-dunes on the t^ao Francisco, ii, 326
Sandstone, flexible, i. 378
Santa JJarbara Gold Mining Co., history of
the, i. 307
Santa Lusia, first view of,

ii. 8
gold diggings at, ii. 9
fight at, ii. 10
Santa Maria, Ilha da Villa da, ruined
;

;

church on, ii, 399
Santa Rita gold mine, mortality of negroes
.

at,

i,

192

Santo Antonio, Strra de, i. 170, 176
Rio
de, ii. 156
Santo Antonio da Cisa Branca, i. 416
Santo Antonio do Rio das Velhas, Arraial
of, i. 191
Santo Ignacio, visit to the diamond diggings
at, ii. 336 ; origin of the diggings, ii.
;

Sao Francisco, Rio de, opening of to the
mercliant ships of all nations, i.4 junction of, wiih the Ptio das Velhas, ii. 1S7 ;
;

name

200 early exii.
201
vegetation of the, ii.
202
diamantine deposits of, ii. 205,
284, 286, 339, 422 trade winds of the,
ii. 208 ; the horse-boat wanted on,
ib. ;
of explained,

plorers,

ii.

;

;

;

;

INDEX.

476
the Barqneiro of the,

ii. 209
source of
21 G; direction and length of
the, ib. ; geology of the, ii. 218; glazed
rocks on the, ii. 219
iron deposits of
the, ii. 221 ; wealth of the valley of
the, ii. 223 ; fish of the, ii. 223, 224,
303 ; considered as a line of communication, ii. 225; estimate for dealing the,
ii. 229
232 steam navigation on the,
ii.
234, 375, 378 ; proposed creation
of a new Province on the, ib. ; " steamboat islands" on the, ii. 251
storms

the,

;

ii.

;

—

;

;

on the,

294, 297, 345, 404; accidents common on the, ii. 324
legends
and superstitions of the, ii.
365 ;
ii.

;

on the, ii. 366
immunity from
sickness on the, ii. 367 the true system

life

;

;

for ex| loiting the,

378

ii.

boatmen of

;

390, 433
the good rapids on
393 fertility of land on the, ii.
380, 399 bad rapids on the, ii. 408 the
smooths on the, ii. 416
rock inscriptions on tlie, ii. 423
Fao Gon^alo of the Good Girls, ii. Ill
Sao Juao d'El-Rei, introduction to Dr.
Lee and Professor Copsy at, i. 113
the
city described, i. 114
census of, i. 115;
uncentral position of, i. 117; revenue
the,

ii.

the,

ii.

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

of,

ib.

;

Library
118';

]\lunicipal
of,

ib.

the

schools,

Palace,

ib.

literary

men

Kxternato,

119

i.

;

;

ib.

;

;

Public
of,

i.

smaller

Casa de i\liseriib.
church of the

{<anta

cordia,

account of,
Sao Francisco, visit to, i. 121—124
J ost Office at, i.
125
atrocious paving
of, i. 128; abundance of water in, ib.
the Igreja Matriz, i. 130
N» S=» de
Carma, church of, ib.
its industry at
alow ebb, i. 133; exports and imports
of, i. 134 n.
beggars at, i. 136; itinerary to, from Bom Successo, ii. 72 n.
Sao Joao, Rio de, i. 112 Serra de, i. 131
Sao Joao de Descoberto, Arraial of, described, ii. 128
Sao Joao do Morro Grande, parishry of, i.
306
Sao Jose, Serra de i. 139
Sao Jos4 d'El-Rei, I\ratriz of, i. 140
;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

—

142; early history of, i. 142; population of, i. 142 n.
failure of gold mine
at, i. 143
trade of, ib.
Jose Bafcilio da
;

;

;

Gama born at, ib.
Sao Paulo, rainfall in the Province of, i.
27 n.
large deposits of copal in, i. 126
gipsies rare in, i. 163
increase of popu;

;

;

lation in, i.

396

Sao Romao, early history of, ii. 244 description of the town, ii. 246
population
;

;

of,

ii,

248

;

well situated for trade,

ii.

249
Sao Vicente, village and mine of, i. 417
Sapucaia tree, the, i. 120
danger of sleeping un ler, ib.
;

Schinus terebinthifolius, decoction of leaves
of, used in rheumatic pains, i. 77
Scissar fish, the, ii. 33 n.
Seasons in the Brazil, i. 21 n.
Sento Se, Villa de, descriheil, ii. 356 ; indolence of people at,
at,

ii.

357

;

the women

358

ii.

Serpents, Brazilian, ii. ISO
Serra dos Orgaos, i. 24; das Aboboras,

i.

43; do Espinhago, i. 62; da Ibitipoca,
i. 66
do Lenheiro, i. 112 de Sao Joao,
i. 131
do Corrego, i 138 de Sao Jose,
i.
139
das Taipas, i. 149; de Ouro
Branco, i. 164
da Boa Morte, i. 165
de Santo Antonio, i. 176 de Casa Branca,
i.
182
de S. Bartholomeu, i. 282
Roca Grande, i. 286; de Cocaes, i. 306
do Cara^a, i. 309
da Batea, i. 315 de
Ouro Preto, i. 321
da Itacolumi, i.
378 dx Piedade, i. 425 do Baldirn, ii.
29 do Buni, ii. 74 da Contagem, ii.
78
do Curumatahy, ii. 165
do Brcjo,
ii.
174
Branca, ii. 296
do Boqueilao, ii. 297
do
de ArassutI, ii. 312
Pintor, ii. 331
da Cumieira, ii. 358
do Cachoeira and do Sobrado, ii. 364;
da Castanhera, ib. do Salitre, ib.
do
Oroco, ii. 400; das Caiahybas, ib. ; do
Aracapa, ib.
Sertao, origin of word, ii. 156 n.
;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

Servants, demand for house, i. 7
Sheep, poorness of, i. 36 ; breeding of, at
Chique-Chique, ii. 330 ; price of animals, ib.
Silk-cotton-tree, the, i.

157

Silkworm,

indigenous species of, i. 94
the Valley of the Siio Francisco adapted

for the,

;

ii.

223

Sincora, Seira de, one of the richest diamond
districts in the Brazil,

ii.

286

Siriema or Serpent bird, i. 57
ii. 26
Slate quarry on the Carunhanha River,
276
;

ii,

Slave labour, inferiority of, i. 11 5n.
the
Southern States could not have been
cleared of jungle without, ib. ; probable
speedy extinction of, i. 269; statistics
;

respecting,

272 n.

i.

—

Slaves imported ia the years 1847
1851,
number of, i. 5 n. ; importation of, prohibited, i. 5
humane treatment of the,
i.
270 ; have many of the rights of
freemen, i. 271
Sloth or candelabra tree, a noticeable
feature in the woodlands, i. 283
Smuggling in the Brazil, i. 47
Snakes, varieties of, ii. 181 ; bites of, how
;

treated,

ii.

182, 274 n.

Sobradiuho, Cachoeira do, estimated expense of making navigable for steamers,
ii.

365

Sobrado, Sena do, ii, 36 t
Society in the Brazil, divisions of, i. 262

INDEX.
Soil, richness of Brazilian, i. 55
Solanacese of the Campos, i. 77
Solitude, pleasures of, ii. 70
Songs, specimens of Brazilian, i. 154
Southerners,
immigration of, into

Brazil,

i.

419

5,

;

Tobacco, excellence of Brazilian, i. 6S, 94 ;
aromatic Brazilian, ii. 68
price of, at
Januaria, ii. 266
Tocantins River, length of the, ii. 217
Tombador, Serrote do, an iron hill, ii. 350
Trahira fish, numerous in the Sao Francisco,
;

the

jjluck and spirit of,

i.

420

27 n., 276
Santa Anna de, ferries at, ii. 59
the village described, ii. 60 ; vegetation

ii.

Spinning wlieel, common in Minas, i. 157
Spirits, ardent, large consumption of, i.

Trabira.s,

405

of,

remarks on, ii. 101
Sponsors in the Brazil, i. 80
Spoonbills, not improved by civilization, ii.
328
Sport, over-love for, in the Brazil, ii. 126
Statuary, excellence of wooden, i. 124
Steam navigation of the Bios das Velhas
and Sao Francisco, ii. 233, 234, 375,
378
Stiuk-plant of the Mississippi Valley, found
on the Sao Francisco, ii. 274
Stocks, village, at the Sitio do Mato, ii.
296
on
Storm, signs of an approaching, ii. 206
the Sao'' Francisco, ii. 294, 297, 345, 404
Stone Age in the Brazil, i. 178
Stones, quaint, ii. 110
Stramonium, alkaloid principle of, well
Spirit rapping,

;

known to the negroes, ii. 97 n.
orthography and derivaSuasuhy, i. 162
tion of word, i. 162 n.
Sugar, culture of, supplanting cotton, i. 6
manufacture of, on the Rio das Velhas,
ii. 41 n.
Sumidouro or Sinker, the, ii. 29
Sunstroke, freedom from, in the Brazil, i.
58
Superstitions, lake, ii. 34 of thebarqueiro,
or waterman of the Sao Francisco, ii.
211, 396
Surubim fish, the, plentiful in the Sao Fran;

;

;

cisco,

477

ii.

276

Suspension bridge, primitive, i. llln,
Minas, i. 428

in

;

;

ib.

—

Travellers in the Brazil, former, i. 1
3 ;
how to make comfortable, i. 187
Travessia, meaning of word, ii. 237
Tree-ferns, extensive range of, i. 296
Tropics, influence of the moon in the, i.
243 depressing influences of life in the,
;

i.

342

Tubers, abundance of, i. 93
Tucum Palm, uses of the, ii. 349
Tupvs, larceny unknown amongst the,

i.

464
Turf, process for compressing, i. 66
Tzetze, grub of the, cattle attacked by,

i.

36; death caused by, i. 37 n.

Uba or arrow-reed, the, ii. 19, 43
Uniao e LiJustria road, i. 35
Urubu, the town of, dangerous climate of,
ii. 299
unfittel for a capital, ii. 300
;

;

vegetation of the country near,

ib.

Urumbeba (Cactus spinosus) indigenous, i.
94

Vampire Bat, the, i. 107; mode of attack
of the,
Vanilla,

i.

108

indigenous,

i.

127;

artificial

fe-

cundation of, i. 127 n.
Vanella cayennesis, the, ii, 179
Vapour bath, rule form of, i. 78 n.
^'arzea Redonda described, ii. 432 ; healthy

climate of, ii. 435
Vegetation of the Cisandine valley of the
Amazons River, i. 292 in the tropics,
killed by grass buraing,
i. 32, ii. 380

Swamps, variety of plants in the, i. 72
Sweet potato, varieties of the, ii. 10 n.

;

;

ii.

Taipas, Serra das, i. 149
Tauatinga, meaning of the word, i. 62 n.
Tea plant, the, formerly cultivated, i. 94
plantations at Comargos, i. 321

;

;

Tejuco, etymology of word, i 112 n.
Theatres, number of, in the Brazil, i. 194

Thermae de Sao Jose, temperature and comi.

;

;

wreck of the first steamer on the, ii. 20

l-i8

a
Tick (Ixiodes), varieties of the, i. 158
attacks cattle
general nuisance, i. 159
habitats of, i. 160
and horses, ib.
;

;

;

;

remedy for the bites of the, ib.
Tiradentes. the leader of the Inconfidents,
i.

ation on the, ii. 1 ; troublesome feacattle breeding on
tures of the, ii. 7
bridges over the, ii. 11, 28
the, ii. 8
saltpetre caves on the, ii, 12 ; fish in
the, ib. ; scarcity of game on the, ii.
13 cotton plantation on the, ii. 14 ;
;

Teixeira, incivility at, i. 180

position of,

73

Velhas, Rio das, headwaters of the, i. 177;
derivation of the name, i. 178; embark-

346 ; execution of, i. 3:'2

;

attempts to turn the bed of the, ii. 36
shooting the Maquine Rapids on the, ii.
52 the Ounce Rapids, ii. 53; cordelling
behaviour of boors on
on the, ii. 61
the Saco do Picao on the,
the, ii. 62
land on the, suited for
ii. 159 ; cheap
;

;

;

;

INDEX.

478
emigrants, ih.
clearing the,

;

ii.

estimate of M. Lai as for

Vellozias or tree-lilies, the, described, ii. 77
Yenda, the, described, i. 102
Verbena virgata, used as a cure for snake
bites,

i.

137

Verde, Kio, a salt stream, ii. 275

Vermelho, Rio, ii. 1-i
Vermin, Brazilian, ii. 171, 187
Vespertilio Naso,
i.

candles made from the
grove of, ii. 833
;
Weights, old Portuguese gold, table of, i.
of the,

ii.

309

;

wax of the, ii. 310

229

sufferings of cattle from,

107

205 n.
Wheat, liable to rust, i. 93 n.
Willow, occurrence of a dwarf, ii. 353
Windy Rivulet, the, ii. 78
Wine, orange, recipe for, i. 88 u.
Wolf, the Guara, ii. 54 n.
Women, on tlie employment of, in field
labour, i. 392

Vespucci, Amerigo, note respecting, ii. 200
Vidigal's (Sr. Francisco Leite) diamond

mine, visit to, ii. 109
Vines, produce and ripening of, ii, 374
Vulture, the Urubu, i. 5(3; ii. 85, 292,

408
ib.

;

;

live in semi-seclusion,

:

i.

treatment of, in various countries,
toilettes of, at Santo Se, ii. 358

Wood age in the Brazil,

i.

178 n.

Worm, the Minhocao monster, ii. 351

333

XiQUEXiQUE
the,

ii,

cactus,

venomous thorns

of

292

Washerwomen, grotesque, ii. 376
Water, abundance of, in the sea-range of
the Brazil, i. 27
Water-hog, the, i. 43; flesh of the, i. 44n.
Wax-palm, habitat of the, ii. £08 ; uses

Yellow Fever in the Brazil, i. 30
of altitude on,

;

effect

31 n.
Ypoeira, the, described, ii. 239
i.

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