Preparations for the journey—Leaves Crato—Passes Guaribas—Reaches Brejo grande—Discovers more fossil fishes—Passes Olho d’Agoa do Inferno—Arrives at PoÇo de Cavallo—CrauatÁ—Cachoeira—Marmeleira—Rosario—Os defuntos—Lagoa—Varzea da Vaca—Angicas—Crosses the boundary line of the province of Piauhy—Arrives at San Gonsalvo—Campos—Lagoa Comprida—Difficulties of the Road—Reaches CorumatÁ—Conabrava—Arrives at Boa EsperanÇa, a large estate owned by an excellent clergyman—Is now in the midst of the great Cattle Districts—Nature of the Country described—Marked into two Kinds, Mimoso and Agreste—Passes Santa Anna das MercÊs—San Antonio—Cachimbinho—Vegetation of the surrounding Country—Reaches Retiro—BuquerÃo—Canavieira—Crosses the River CanindÉ and arrives at Oeiras, the Capital of the Province of Piauhy.
After my return to Crato, all my collections were despatched for the coast by the 10th of January in order to be shipped for England, and I prepared every thing in readiness for our journey, which I was assured might now be undertaken with safety, as it had rained nearly every day since the beginning of the month. I was, however, prevented from leaving so soon as I had anticipated, owing to the necessity of dismissing my servant Pedro. He had now been about a year in my service, and as he was intelligent and useful, and we had travelled together more like companions than master and man, and as he had moreover acted with great kindness and attention to me during several slight illnesses, I always treated him with much indulgence, and certainly would not have parted with him, had he not returned that indulgence with ingratitude. For some time before this, he had conducted himself as if he imagined I could not do without him. It was on a Saturday that I intended to leave Crato, and on the morning of that day, I sent him to purchase several articles for our journey, but he did not return till two o’clock in the afternoon. Being still desirous of starting, I told him to fetch the other men who were to accompany us, and to bring the horses from the pasture; in reply, he said that he would go for them, but that I might start with them myself, as he did not intend to leave Crato till Monday; this being more than I could reasonably bear, I instantly discharged him. Fortunately at this very moment, I had a visit from a young Englishman, Mr. Edward Walker, who had come up to Crato while I was at Barra do Jardim, to take charge of a Rapadura Engenho in the absence of the owner, who, although a man upwards of forty years of age, was about to proceed to the College of Olinda, in order to study for the church. During two years before this, Mr. Walker had been travelling over the interior of CearÁ, and in the north of Piauhy, selling European goods, but about two months before he came to Crato, he had been robbed of all he possessed, and had no other resource left than to accept of the situation he then held, so that he might earn the means of enabling him to reach the coast. That occupation not being to his taste, he at once offered to accompany me as my assistant; I had therefore to purchase two additional horses for him and his trunks, and as there was some difficulty in procuring such as would answer our purpose, it was not until the fifteenth of the month that we could leave Crato. The day previous to my departure was occupied in taking leave of my good friend Capt. JoÃo Gonsalvez, his wife, and daughter, and of my other friends.
It was four o’clock in the afternoon before we could start, and we passed the night at an Engenho, called Guaribas, at the foot of the Serra de Araripe, its distance being about a league and a half westward of Crato. On the following morning we resumed our journey soon after daybreak, and shortly afterwards ascended the Serra during a heavy shower of rain, over a part considerably lower than that a few leagues to the eastward. The breadth of the Serra here is about thirty miles, the first half was very similar to other parts of it which I had previously visited, being quite level and open, the vegetation consisting of rather large and thinly scattered trees, and in many parts covered with an abundance of low shrubs. The most common tree here was a fine species of Vochysia, which I had only met with sparingly before, and which has a fine appearance, from its dark green, shining leaves, and spikes of bright yellow flowers, which terminate the branchlets. The more westerly portion is very thickly wooded with small trees, large tracts of which are burned down every year, to allow of a more abundant supply of herbage for the cattle and horses which are sent here to pasture during the dry season. When about half way across, we halted under a tree to breakfast, having brought a large calabash full of water for the purpose of making tea, but we might have saved this trouble as we found an abundant supply in the hollowed stump of a tree; it was found to be of good quality notwithstanding that one or two frogs were swimming about in it. The western descent is very gradual, and ends in a long narrow ravine, which leads into Brejo Grande, a large valley surrounded on all sides, except to the westward, by branches of the Serra. Towards the western extremity of this valley, we arrived at the house of Colonel Manoel do Barros de Cavalcante; I had been requested by his son who lives in Crato, to visit him, as he had been very ill for several days. He is the chief person in this district, which is not very thickly populated, where he officiates as justice of the peace (Juiz de Paz); on visiting him I soon found that he suffered from a severe attack of acute rheumatism, for which I bled him freely, and administered the usual remedies. In a marshy place near the head of the valley of Brejo Grande, we passed a large group of beautiful palm, which I had met with in only a few instances below Crato, but which I afterwards saw in the greatest abundance in the swamps of Piauhy and Goyaz; it is called Buriti by the inhabitants, and is the Mauritia vinifera of Martius. This palm is not only the most beautiful, but one of the loftiest in the country; the leaves are fan-shaped, and form a large round ball at the top of the stem, after the manner of the Carnahuba. It produces a great number of nuts about the size of a small egg, covered with rhomboidal scales arranged in a spiral manner; between these scales and the albuminous substance of the nut, there exists an oily pulp of a reddish colour, which the inhabitants of Crato boil with sugar and make into a sweet-meat. In Piauhy they prepare from this pulp an emulsion, which, when sweetened with sugar, forms a very palatable beverage, but if much used, it is said to tinge the skin of a yellowish colour. The juice of the stem also forms a very agreeable drink, but to obtain it, the tree must be cut down, when several holes about six inches square, three deep, and about six feet apart, are cut in the trunk with a small axe, which in a short time become filled with a reddish coloured liquid, having much the flavour of sweet wine. During my travels in Piauhy, we used occasionally to cut down these palms in order to obtain the juice.
During the night it rained very heavily, and in the morning it was still so wet that we could not resume our journey; indeed, Colonel Barros strongly recommended us to delay our departure till the following day, as the river to the west of his plantation would be much swollen by the rains; besides, the state of the road would not allow us to reach the place where we proposed to remain for the night. In the afternoon I visited another deposit of fossil fishes, about a mile distant from the house, being conducted by one of the colonel’s sons, a very intelligent youth, and found it to be exactly similar to the others already described; the few specimens here obtained did not differ from those found on the eastern side. During this walk I met with a large species of Jatropha, which is frequent in the dry woods, and is known by the name of ManacÓba; it forms a small tree from ten to twenty feet in height, and the roots, which are far more woody than those of the mandiocca, are in times of scarcity converted into farinha. The valley of Brejo Grande is chiefly planted with sugar cane, rice, and mandiocca, but only a very small part is yet under cultivation.
The weather having continued fine, I took my leave on the following morning of Colonel Barros, whom I found considerably better. After expressing himself deeply obliged to me for the relief I had given him, he wished to make me some compensation, but as I would not accept money, he insisted on my taking about half a bushel of rice, and a number of rapaduras, as an addition to our stock of provisions. About a league from his house we passed through a small hamlet (povoacÃo) called Santa Anna, consisting of about half a dozen houses and a small church. The road was very good all the way, presenting, for the most part, a natural pavement in the shape of a horizontal bed of limestone in thin layers. After travelling about four leagues, we reached a place called Olho d’Agoa do Inferno, situated on a slightly elevated part of a narrow valley, and consisting of three or four houses. At this place we halted to take breakfast under the shade of a huge Cassia tree, which was literally covered with large panicles of golden blossoms. Like the first league of this journey, the last was found to be very good, but the intermediate distance passes through a flat country, where for nearly the whole way the horses sank to their knees in water and mud. We crossed the river mentioned by Colonel Barros several times, and it was manifest by marks left by the water on the banks, that it had been greatly flooded the day before; it was now not more than two feet deep. The lower portion of the country through which we passed is well wooded, the large trees consisting chiefly of Mimosas and Erythrina covered with numerous brilliant scarlet flowers, and the thick-stemmed Barriguda; some of the latter are of great size, the singularly swollen portion of their stems measuring about twenty-four feet in circumference, while the upper and lower parts were not more than eight. The additions made to my herbarium this day were numerous; one of the most beautiful being a shrubby species of Allamanda, about six feet high, bearing abundance of large violet-coloured flowers, not unlike those of Gloxinia speciosa, and which I have called Allamanda violacea, from the colour of its flowers, those of all other species being yellow; an infusion of the root of this shrub is a powerful purgative, and is chiefly used in malignant fevers. About Olho d’Agoa do Inferno grows in great plenty a new species of Coutarea, which bears large white flowers, and called by the inhabitants Quina Quina branca, from its bark having been found to be an excellent remedy in cases of intermittent fevers, which greatly prevail in the marshy plains of the province of Piauhy. Almost every traveller who goes into that province carries away a quantity of this bark, and I remarked that nearly all the trees by the road-side had large portions of their stems stripped in consequence.
We left Olho d’Agoa in the afternoon, and shortly afterwards entered a country very similar to that between IcÓ and Crato, but as the rain had been falling for nearly a month, everything was quite green. The rapidity with which vegetation advances in these deserts, after the first few showers, is quite astonishing; the annual grasses spring up through the white sand, the trees burst into leaf and bloom, and the perennial herbaceous plants, which during the drought were apparently destroyed, throw up their flowering stems in an incredibly short period. In crossing a small stream on this journey I observed the rock, forming its bed, to consist of gneiss, cropping out towards the west; beyond this place sandstone again made its appearance, but scattered over it are an immense number of large angular blocks of gneiss. After travelling three leagues, we reached a place called PoÇo do Cavallo, and put up for the night at an unfinished house, which, though roofed over, was open at the sides. Besides ourselves two other travelling parties had also taken up their quarters here. In a marsh near us a whole legion of frogs were holding their nightly concert, and so loud was their noise, that I found some difficulty in going to sleep. Shortly before reaching this place, I collected specimens of a fine large tree which I afterwards found to be very common in the district; it belongs to the natural order MeliaceÆ, and is called by the Brazilians Cedro, from the wood resembling both in colour and smell that of the true Cedar; the wood is very much used for making doors, tables, and various articles of furniture. The leaves and flowers possessed so strongly the odour of garlick, that the atmosphere was rendered disagreeable to breathe. The pastures for our horses were now excellent, the new grass being from four to six inches high, and very abundant. To the botanist it was quite delightful to travel through such a country, for nearly at every footstep something new and beautiful was added to my collections; the only drawback was the difficulty of preserving the specimens, owing to the great humidity of the atmosphere, and the want of proper means of drying the paper, as the sun now seldom shone out brightly.
The following morning set in with rain, but we resumed our journey about seven o’clock, when it cleared up; we had not, however, gone far when the rain began again to fall heavily, which, notwithstanding the protection from my umbrella, soon drenched me to the skin; we were obliged to travel two leagues before reaching any house, so thinly is this country inhabited. The place we arrived at was called CrauatÁ, consisting of only three very small houses, and as the rain continued without intermission, we determined to stay, if possible, in one of them during the remainder of the day; but we found only one room could be spared, which was so very small, that it would not contain more than my luggage, much less our party, which now consisted of four persons; our only remedy, therefore, was to go on in the midst of the rain to a place called Cachoeira, about a league distant. On our arrival here we found it consisting of four houses, all, with the exception of one where we obtained leave to put up, similar to those at CrauatÁ. This belonged to a person who had resided four or five years in Philadelphia, about eighteen years previously, and who still spoke a little English; on finding we were Englishmen, he gave us a hearty welcome, and all the accommodation his house afforded, doing all in his power to render us as comfortable as possible; shortly after our arrival the rain fell in torrents, so much so, that a small rivulet which we crossed immediately before reaching the house, soon became impassable for horses, and had we been detained one hour later, we should have been obliged to remain on the opposite side without shelter. The rain ceased at four o’clock in the afternoon, but the very loud thunder which accompanied it continued nearly the whole day. The road from PoÇo do Cavallo to Cachoeira passes through an almost level country; many parts of which are well wooded with large trees, the most common being a species of CÆsalpinia, some large Mimosas, the Cedro, the Barriguda, and another kind which is very common, though not so large, called by the inhabitants ImbÚzeiro; it is the Spondius tuberosa, Arrud., producing abundantly a fruit about twice the size of a large gooseberry, of an oblong shape, and of a yellowish colour when ripe; beneath its coriaceous skin there is a juicy pulp, of a pleasant sweetish acid taste. Like the MangÁba this fruit is only fit to eat when it is so ripe as to fall to the ground, when a large quantity may be eaten without inconvenience; during our journey to the Campo country of Piauhy, where it ceases to grow, we were seldom without a daily supply of it; a dish much esteemed in the SertÃo, called Imbuzada, is prepared with milk, curds, sugar, and the pulpy part of this fruit. The tree throws out long horizontal roots, which do not penetrate very deeply into the earth, and upon these are found, at short distances, round black-coloured tubers about eight inches in diameter, consisting entirely of a white cellular substance which is full of water; these, which are evidently intended by nature to supply the vegetation of the tree during the dry season, are often dug out by travellers for the sake of the water they contain, each tuber yielding about a pint of excellent quality. Another wild fruit common here, as it is also about Crato and Pernambuco, is produced by a tree growing to the height of from thirty to forty feet, called Pitombeira; it is the Sapindus esculentus, St. Hil.; the fruit is produced in large bunches, resembling in size the common grape; the outer covering is hard, but the embryo, or kernel, is covered with a thin transparent, sweetish, acid pulp, which alone is eaten; the kernels are said to poison turkeys if eaten by them. Next day, the twentieth of January, we left Cachoeira, early in the morning, and after travelling about five leagues we arrived at a Fazenda, called Marmeleira, where we rested during the middle of the day. Shortly after leaving Cachoeira we began to ascend a small Serra, by a very gradual inclination, but owing to its rocky nature the road was very bad in many places. This range consists of gneiss, the stratification of which is nearly vertical; large blocks of the same kind of rock were very commonly seen along the road, but on the ascent of a small hill I observed many round blocks of a coarse whitish-sandstone. On the journey we crossed several rivers, which although very small, or wholly dried up in the arid season, were now so much swollen by the recent rains, that we could with difficulty pass some of them. After crossing the Serra we entered a fine valley about a league in length, well wooded with large trees, and having a small river running through the centre of it; the end to the westward was pretty well cleared of trees, and there is a little hamlet called Rosario, beyond which we had nearly half a league to travel before reaching our resting-place. On this journey were found several new species of the beautiful genus Angelonia, one of the most remarkable being a fine climbing shrubby species (A. bracteata, Benth.); on dry rocky places I observed several kinds of Cactus, which are not so common on the western side as they are on the east of the Serra de Ibiapaba. The genus Loasa, so very common in Chili and Peru, has only few representatives in Brazil; one which I have called Loasa rupestris, was found here in rocky places by the side of a stream just before we reached our resting-place; like other species of this genus, the whole plant stings very powerfully, and hence, in common with other stinging plants, it is called by the inhabitants CanÇanÇao. As the sun shone out brightly during our stay at Marmeleira, we were enabled to dry all our clothes and other things that had been soaked by the rains. Here I prescribed for the mistress of the house, who was in a very delicate state of health; in return for this we were abundantly supplied with milk, which at this season is plentiful. In the afternoon we travelled three leagues further, and towards dusk arrived at a place consisting of a few small houses called Os Defuntos, near which is a marsh abounding with frogs; the loud and disagreeable sounds they produced could only be compared to the half-howling, half-barking noise of a large kennel of hungry dogs. On some trees near the marsh several large owls were seen, attracted no doubt by the frogs, which they are said to destroy in great numbers for food.
On the following morning after travelling about five leagues through a level and rather open country, we arrived at a place called Varzea da vaca; when about a league beyond Os Defuntos, we passed a fazenda called Lagoa, belonging to Senhor JosÉ Pereira de Hollanda, the person who without leave took the loan of my horse during my stay in Crato. His place derives its name from a lake in the vicinity of the house, which is much frequented by wild duck and other water-fowl. Before reaching Varzea da vaca, we passed several other fazendas, where large herds of cattle were seen grazing in the open Campos. Varzea da vaca is a hamlet consisting of about eight houses, but within the district that bears that name, they reckon about sixty; the residents are almost all cattle farmers, some of the poorer families only possessing half a dozen head, whilst others own upwards of a hundred; they also have small plantations of Indian corn, rice, mandiocca, and french beans. The inhabitants of the house in which I was to put up, appeared to be very poor; the building was small and very ill-constructed, having only a large opening in one side, that served for entrance, without any door to keep out either wind or rain; it consisted of only two apartments, the inner one being occupied by the family, the other one by my party and that of another traveller who also remained here for the night, which proved to be stormy; in order to shelter ourselves from the wind which blew in at the door, I was obliged to hang before it one of the large skins used to cover the loads on the horses. In the afternoon I shot several birds, and also met with some curious annual plants which had sprung up in the sandy Campos.
Leaving Varzea de vaca about seven o’clock on the following morning, and travelling about two leagues, we halted at a fazenda called Angicas; I intended to proceed further without stopping, but as it was raining very heavily I remained here till the afternoon, when the weather having cleared up, we went on two leagues further to San Gonsalvo, which we reached about sunset. The country between Varzea da vaca and Angicas is flat and sandy, being one of those tracts called Taboleiras; in some places it is covered with a low shrubby vegetation, while in others are seen numerous large kinds of Cactus. Among the many beautiful plants met with on this journey, was one particularly worthy of notice: it is a species of Echites,[8] growing abundantly on the open sandy places; it is not more than six inches high, with subulate leaves and pink-coloured blossoms not unlike those of Phlox subulata; it is called by the inhabitants of the SertÃo, Cauhy, and the tuberous root, which is the size and colour of a large black turnip-radish, is eaten by them when cooked, and is said to be very palatable; in the raw state it tastes not unlike a turnip. This root is also a favourite food of the peccary (Dycoteles torquatus, Cuv.), which is very expert at digging them up with its snout, the sand being in many places full of the holes they had made for that purpose. About half a league beyond Angicas, a small lake is seen, which forms the boundary between the provinces of CearÁ and Piauhy. There are two houses at San Gonsalvo both belonging to cattle farmers, father and son; at the end of the last rains they possessed conjointly about three hundred head of cattle, but the severe drought that occurred previous to the setting in of the present rainy season, had left them only about forty, all the remainder having perished from the want of water and grass.
Next morning after travelling three leagues and a half through a rather level and tolerably well-wooded country, we arrived towards mid-day at a place consisting of three houses called Campos; the tree most abundant on the road was the Imbuzeira, the fruit of which, called ImbÚ, was observed in such great plenty that the ground beneath them was completely yellow; we ate abundantly of it, and found it very grateful. About a league from Campos the country abounds with an arboreous species of Jatropha, with small white flowers, and sinuate leaves not unlike those of the holly, only larger; the footstalks of the leaves are furnished with a few long pointed prickles, and without being aware of their nature, I laid hold of a branch to collect a few specimens, but had no sooner done so than my whole hand felt as if it had been dipped into boiling oil, caused by the venom of the prickles which in many places had punctured the skin, and it was intolerably painful for several hours; on my next attempt I was more cautious, and succeeded in obtaining a few specimens. This plant is called by the inhabitants Favella, and in the dry season they scrape down the bark and the wood, which they put into the pools where the large pigeons and other birds resort; after having drunk of this poisoned water they either die or become very much stupified, and in this state are taken and eaten by the people. On this journey we saw a great many Maccaws (Araras) but they would not allow me to come within shot of them.
In the afternoon we made another journey of about a league and a half, through a flat sandy country, which yielded me several novelties, and remained for the night at a large cattle fazenda, called Lagoa Comprida. This house was one of the largest we had seen since leaving Brejo Grande; it is situated on the margin of a lake about four hundred yards long, from which it takes its name; no rivulet empties itself into the lake, which becomes filled during the rainy season, and if the rains have been heavy, it does not dry up before the next wet season. By the proprietor I was informed, that on the previous year very little rain fell, and that in consequence of this, and of the very great drought afterwards, the lake dried up before the setting in of the present rains, the result of which was the death of nearly all the cattle belonging to the fazenda. The people were still in an almost starving state, and although both at Campos and here I endeavoured to purchase some provisions for our own use, nothing was to be had, neither fowls, sheep, goats, pigs, nor beef; money I found to be of no use. Our next stage was one of three leagues, and brought us to another fazenda, called CorumatÁ. The country was undulating but not hilly, and in many places it was covered with immense blocks of granite; so large and square are some of these blocks, that at a distance we mistook a cluster of them for a large village. Two circumstances occurred to detain us a long time on the road. Having dismounted to collect some specimens, my horse ran off into the woods, and it was nearly an hour before he could be taken; and a little further on, in passing over a sandy piece of ground abounding in ant-hills, the road gave way while a loaded horse was passing over one of their large excavations, and as he was more than half-buried in the sand, it was a long time before we could extricate him. Shortly afterwards, we descended by an exceedingly bad road, consisting of large blocks of granite, into a valley through which a small river runs, immediately after crossing which we arrived at CorumatÁ. The owner of this farm does not reside on it, the charge of it being given to a cowherd (vaqueiro). Here again we could obtain nothing to purchase, but the vaqueiro presented me with a small piece of dried beef, and abundance of excellent milk; the fazenda, he told me, produces yearly about two hundred calves; the cattle go at large in the woods and fields, but at this season, which is the one in which the calves are produced, the vaqueiro and his assistants, who are generally slaves, are constantly on the look out for such as may have calved. The calves are then brought to the house, and put into a large enclosure called a curral, and as a matter of course the mother follows. In this enclosure the cows and the calves are shut up together at night, but during the day, the cows are turned out to feed; this is a very necessary precaution in such a wild country, to prevent the mothers straying into the woods; a little milk is taken from each cow in the morning before being turned out, at night they are not milked at all; of part of the milk they make a soft kind of cheese, which is much relished by all classes of society. They had not commenced making it here generally, but in the evening, one of the herds came to offer a large one for sale, which I was glad to purchase for the sake of my men. Shortly after we arrived at this place, a tremendous thunder-storm passed over us from the westward, followed by torrents of rain, and in a short time the small river became so much swollen as to be impassable; as the road to Canabrava, our next stage, passed over this stream, we were obliged to remain here till the following afternoon, when, on attempting to cross it, we found it still so deep, that all the loads had to be taken off the horses, and carried over on the heads of the men. Here a curious natural object presents itself: on a bare conical-shaped hill about 800 feet high, being the termination of a ridge, called Serra Grande, there is a stone of immense size placed on the top of another much smaller, and the point on which it rests appears to be so small, that one is led to think that a very slight breeze would upset it. Keeping along the margin of the river, we arrived towards sunset at a place where the road crosses it twice, occasioned by a sudden bend, but we were informed at CorumatÁ, that there was a bye-path in the woods, which would render this unnecessary. It was now night, and although the moon shone very brightly, we had some difficulty in finding this path; when we did, it was so much overgrown with bushes, from being little frequented, that we had much labour in driving the horses along it with the loads. After toiling about an hour in this labyrinth, much to our joy we reached the road leading from the river to the fazenda of Canabrava, where we arrived in about a quarter of an hour. This is a very large fazenda, and when we asked for accommodation to pass the night, we were shown to an old shed, the roof of which, in many places, was much decayed; as soon, however, as the proprietor learned from my men who I was, he invited me into the house, and prepared an excellent supper, of which we partook with much relish.
As we left Canabrava early next morning, we expected to reach our next stage, Boa EsperanÇa, about eleven o’clock in the forenoon, but in this anticipation we were sadly disappointed. The river runs in a zigzag direction along a valley which stretches between these two places, and as the road passes through the centre, we had to cross the stream no less than eight times in this short distance, although a road might be made with very little labour, to avoid the river altogether. It is seldom, however, that travellers are annoyed so much as we were, for during the arid season the bed of the river is altogether dry. In four of the passages it was necessary to take all the loads off the horses, and carry them across on the heads of the men, but in the others, we managed to avoid this trouble, with the exception of the bundles of paper containing specimens, which I always caused to be carried over by one of the men. As we were all obliged to assist in this work, we were exposed during the greater part of the day to the burning rays of the sun, nearly in a state of nudity. My legs were very much burned, as were those of Mr. Walker, so much so, that on the following day they were completely blistered, and so greatly swollen that I was laid up for nearly two days. This taught me a lesson to be more cautious in future; but on this occasion, I thought that as the blacks did not hesitate to expose themselves to the sun, I might do so also; their skin, however, I found to my cost, was made of tougher material than mine. By the time we had crossed the river, for the eighth and last time, it was about five o’clock in the afternoon, and in ten minutes after, we arrived at the fazenda of Boa EsperanÇa, in an almost exhausted state, from the excessive fatigues of the day. We were cheered, however, by the kind reception we received from its excellent and learned proprietor, the Reverend Padre Marcos de Araujo Costa, and his adopted son Dr. Marcos de Macedo, who had only a short time before returned from a visit to France and England, whither he had been sent at the expense of the Government to study the manufacture of porcelain, and whose acquaintance I had made a few weeks before at Crato, his native place. On this journey I added but little to my botanical collections, but in a moist meadow by the side of the river, I killed a beautiful boa constrictor, about seven feet long. Although these reptiles are frequently met with in the dry country, called the SertÃo, they are neither so numerous nor so large as those found in the swampy plains of Piauhy and Goyaz.
The fazenda of Boa EsperanÇa is one of the largest I had yet visited in Brazil, giving pasture to upwards of 5,000 head of cattle, and several hundred sheep. Although like all others in the SertÃo, it is occasionally exposed to long droughts, yet there is an abundant supply of water all the year round, even should no rain fall for more than twelve months. The river passes at a little distance from the house, and although it only contains water in the wet season, an abundant supply is obtained at all times, by means of a high and very strong dam thrown across it at a place where its banks are somewhat high, and rocky on each side. This dam, notwithstanding that it has been built more than fifty years, is still as effective as when first constructed, a circumstance not a little astonishing in a country like Brazil, where works of this nature are in general so badly executed. The house is built on a slight eminence, and as there are about thirty smaller houses behind it belonging to the slaves, the place has all the appearance of a small village; near the house the Padre has erected a neat chapel, in which he says mass every morning to his people.
The country in which this fazenda is situated, (as indeed, the whole of the eastern portion of Piauhy, and nearly the whole of the province of CearÁ) is called by the inhabitants of the SertÃo, Mimoso, in contradistinction to the central and western portions of Piauhy, to which the term Agreste is applied. The vegetation of the Campos Mimosos is characterized in the first place, by the forests being of that nature called Catinga; these are the forests which I have already spoken of as losing their leaves in the dry season; it is remarkable that they form buds like other deciduous trees, but should no rain fall they can remain for several years without producing foliage. In the second place, as has been very correctly remarked by Von Martius, the general vegetation of the Campos Mimosos is distinguished by the tenderness of fibre, rigidity of leaves, the presence of hairs, stings, or prickles, small flowers, and thick and frequent milky juice. The grasses of the pastures are for the most part annual, and generally of a brighter green colour, and have more tender and pliant leaves than those of the Campos Agrestes, of which I shall hereafter speak. The cattle reared in the Mimoso country very soon get fat after the rains have set in, and their flesh is much more esteemed than that of those which have been fed on the coarse pastures of the Agreste districts.
Padre Marcos de Araujo Costa is well known throughout the north of Brazil, not only for his intelligence and learning, but for his excellent moral character and benevolent disposition; and during the eight days that I lived in his house I had ample opportunities of verifying the truth of these accounts. If all the priests in the country were only half as active, well-informed, and as anxious for the diffusion of education as he is, the condition of Brazil would soon become very different from what it now is, and what I fear it will long continue to be, in the present state of things: the activity of this old man, for he was then upwards of sixty years of age, was quite surprising, and his philanthropy was not less so. As the means of education in this large and thinly-populated country come only within the reach of a very few, he has regularly for many years past been in the habit of boarding and educating in his house, free of expense, twenty boys, till they have acquired a tolerable knowledge of the Latin language, and the elements of philosophy and mathematics; he is himself an excellent scholar, and possesses a pretty extensive library of classical and philosophical books; of botany and natural history he knew enough to render these subjects an amusement to him; in his library I found nearly all the works of LinnÆus, those of Brotero, and the rare one of Vandelli on the plants of Portugal and Brazil, which latter he kindly presented to me. He holds no living in the church, contenting himself with the quiet and retired life of a cattle farmer, and devoting his leisure hours to the education of his pupils. During my stay at Boa EsperanÇa I made several short excursions in the neighbourhood, accompanied by the old Padre and Dr. Marcos de Macedo, and added many novelties to my collections.
Two days before we left, Senhor Francisco de Souza Martins, one of the deputies from the province of Piauhy, and nephew to the President of the province, arrived on his way to Rio de Janeiro, accompanied by his brother Major Clementino Martins. They came by way of San Bento, which is the first stage from this place on the road to Oeiras, the capital of the province. This was our proposed route, but they gave us so bad an account of the roads, in consequence of the swelling of the rivulets, that I determined by their advice, to take a different road, which though more circuitous was said to be much better. The Major and one of the blacks who accompanied him, were laid up with the ague from continued exposure to the rains.
On the third of March we made preparations for leaving the residence of the good old Padre. During our stay we fared most sumptuously, as every day in the year a fat ox is killed for his use and that of his establishment; a day or two before our departure one was killed, and the flesh dried for our use on the journey, so that with other presents I received from him, our provision boxes were so well filled that we required little in addition till we reached the city of Oeiras.
After an early breakfast I parted with my kind host, who on account of his other visitors did not accompany me far, but Dr. Marcos rode with me for upwards of a league and a half, when we parted with mutual regret, it being so seldom that one who has a taste for the study of nature, meets with a kindred spirit in those distant regions; since my return to England we have kept up a correspondence, and he has sent me specimens of objects in natural history, many of which are different from those which my limited stay enabled me to obtain. At the very outset of our journey, we met with an accident that did not give us a very favourable idea of the state of the road. At about two leagues from Boa EsperanÇa, three of the cargo horses plunged up to the middle in a swamp; the surface was covered with grass, and appeared perfectly solid, but the soil beneath had become so saturated with water, that it was quite a mass of tenacious mud. It was with no small difficulty that the animals were extricated; in leading them across they often sank again; all the loads had to be carried over, and as we had to lend a hand at this work, we shared the same fate as the horses, being frequently up to the middle in the mud. These spots are called Atoleiras by the Brazilians, and are very much dreaded, as horses are occasionally lost in them; during the day we had to pass three more quagmires, but none so bad as the first.
Our first stage from Boa EsperanÇa was the Villa de Santa Anna das MercÊs, and when about two leagues from it, we halted under the shade of an Imbuzeira to dine and to give the horses a rest. The dry rocky places in this neighbourhood were covered with a little gregarious Melocactus, bearing very long recurved spines, and in a moist sandy place I found many pretty annual plants. About sunset we came in sight of the Villa, which is situated on a slight eminence; on entering it, we put up for the night in a large unfinished house belonging to the Padre Marcos of Boa EsperanÇa, but we were glad to retreat from it as quickly as possible, for it was so full of fleas that we were completely covered with them, nor was it till a large fire had been kindled in the middle of the floor, that the place became at all bearable. As both Mr. Walker and I had on very long boots, we suffered much less than the blacks whose legs, from the knees downwards, were bare: I observed that when they were kindling the fire they would hold first one leg and then the other over the flame, and with their two hands stroke them downwards to get rid of these annoying creatures. In other places in Brazil I have met with these insects in abundance in houses which have been shut up for some time, but never did I see them so numerous as they were here; to escape their attacks during the night, we were obliged to sling our hammocks very high, and to undress on the top of a table.
The Villa de Santa Anna das MercÊs, or as it is more commonly called JaicÓz, is situated about five leagues to the west of Boa EsperanÇa, and contains about seventy or eighty houses built in the form of a large square, but only three sides of it were then completed; in the centre of this square there is a very handsome small church. The outskirts of the town contain many huts belonging to the poorer classes, chiefly constructed of the stems and leaves of the Carnahuba palm, which grows abundantly in the neighbourhood; a few shopkeepers and tradesmen, such as tailors, shoe-makers, &c., reside constantly in the town, but the greater number of the houses belong to the neighbouring fazendeiros, who only occupy them during the Christmas and other festivals. Shortly after leaving the Villa, on the following morning, we ascended a low Serra which runs past the northern end of it; like almost all the other Serras which exist in the north of Brazil it is quite level on the top; it consists entirely of a coarse white sandstone very full of rounded quartz pebbles; the latter are also very abundant to a great distance round the Villa, and in many places the roads have the appearance of having been gravelled with them. The breadth of this Serra at the place where we crossed it, is about a league and a half; and it is principally covered with low Mimosas and Croton, which in many places grow so thickly together as to be almost impenetrable. The few open tracts which exist on it afford good pasture during the rains. After descending from this Taboleira, we entered a flat well-wooded country, and having twice crossed a small river which was considerably swollen, we arrived at the fazenda of St. Antonio early in the afternoon; the distance we travelled was only three leagues, but as the next stage was said to be long, and as the accounts we received of the state of the roads were bad, we remained at this place till the following morning. The fazenda of St. Antonio is small, its stock of cattle yielding only about one hundred and fifty calves per annum; many of them, as well as of the full grown cattle, the owner informed me, fell victims to the Ounces which are not uncommon in the neighbourhood. About three months previously he killed a large black one, and the skin and head which he had preserved, showed it to have been an animal of great size and power. This head, as well as those of several others, which from time he had destroyed, were stuck up on the tops of tall posts near the entrance to his curral.
At daybreak on the following morning we left St. Antonio, and after a journey of six long leagues reached a little hamlet called Cachimbinho; the country between the two places is nearly level, and the road one of the worst on which we had yet travelled. The river we forded on the previous day runs to the westward in a zigzag direction, and the road crosses it no less than twenty-seven times, on which occasions, owing to the depth of the water, the loads had to be taken off the horses, and carried over on the heads of the men; we had also to cross several small lakes through which the road passes, and having the mortification to lose our way, it cost us much additional trouble to regain the right track.
Shortly after leaving San Antonio we passed through a forest of Carnahuba palms, in which were several large lakes, which contain water only in the dry season. On the margin of one of these we saw a number of water-fowl, called by the inhabitants JabirÚ (Mycteria Americana, Linn.); these birds, which are nearly related to the adjutants of India, are of immense size; they are of a white colour, with the exception of the head, neck, beak, and feet, which are black; the black skin investing the head and neck is destitute of feathers. We afterwards met with them in much greater abundance by the margins of streams and lakes, where they feed upon small reptiles, fishes, &c. The vegetation of the other parts of the country through which we passed was principally virgin forest, with an underwood of Croton Bauhinia and trailing Mimosa. Near a fazenda called Ambrosia, the road led under some large trees, on one of which I observed some hundreds of Marmoset monkeys. One of these I shot for a specimen; it fell before it was quite dead, and its pitiable screams brought back all its companions to the tree from which they had fled when I fired; here they remained for about ten minutes, when the cries of the wounded one having ceased, they left, and soon disappeared among the branches of the other trees of the forest; it was impossible not to admire the graceful activity they displayed in passing from tree to tree, and from bough to bough.
On the following day we travelled about five leagues, and shortly after mid-day arrived at a fazenda called Retiro. The two first leagues led through a virgin forest, consisting almost entirely of a kind of Mimosa called Angica, (the bark of which is used all over the SertÃo for tanning leather, and a gum which it exudes is said to form the principal food of the Marmoset monkey,) a Zizyphus (Joazeira), and a few large species of Bignonia, with an underwood of Croton, Bauhinia, Lautana, Myrtles, &c. The road continued quite level, and we frequently passed the same stream we crossed the day before, without the necessity of removing the loads. Leaving this forest tract we entered one more open, and abounding in Carnahubas; in many places the soil was very sandy, and scant of herbaceous vegetation. At about three leagues from Cachimbinho we passed through a small hamlet called Samambaia, consisting of about twenty scattered houses. The principal occupation of the inhabitants is the manufacture of hammocks, which are sold chiefly to travellers who pass this way. They are made of cotton, which grows very well in the neighbourhood. From Samambaia the country still continues very flat till within a short distance of Retiro, when it becomes more undulating, exhibiting several ridges of limestone, nearly bare of vegetation, or of a fine red sandstone, which lies beneath the limestone, full of nodules of iron-stone, which from the wearing away of the rock are thickly strewn over the surface; they are of all sizes, from very minute particles to rounded blocks as large as two fists; they are of a black, or very dark brown colour, assume a variety of shapes, and, judging from their weight, are rich in iron.
The fazenda of Retiro stands on a rising ground on the banks of the Rio das Guaribas, which was one of the largest we had yet encountered, but from the recent dry weather, the water was so low, that on the following morning we crossed it without difficulty; its banks exhibited signs of having but a short time before been very much flooded. A journey of two leagues brought us to a fazenda called BuquerÃo, where in consequence of rain we remained till the following morning, when continuing our route through a generally flat country, but full of isolated rocky hills, containing few trees, and a very scanty herbaceous vegetation, we arrived at the fazenda of Canabrava, after travelling about four leagues. This estate belongs to Colonel Martins, the father of the two gentlemen whom we met at Boa EsperanÇa, and brother to the BarÃo de Parnahiba, the President of the Province of Piauhy. As I carried letters of introduction to him from Padre Marcos, I was received with the greatest politeness and hospitality; here we remained for the night, and the following morning were not allowed to leave till we had partaken of a breakfast of coffee, which the Colonel told us was an excellent preventive for ague, which is very common at this season, in the country we were now about to enter. The old man was in deep grief at the loss of one of his sons, who but a short time before had died suddenly at his fazenda, about twenty-four leagues distant. As several roads led off in various directions a little beyond the house, he kindly sent a black boy to put us in the right path. A journey of about five leagues and a half, through a beautiful grassy country abounding in herds of fine cattle, brought us to a plantation called Canavieira, belonging to a Major Clementino Martins, whom we met at Boa EsperanÇa; we saw here a large field of sugar-cane, being the first we had met with since we left Brejo Grande. As the Major never resides at this place, the house is a very poor one, and in a very ruined condition; we were obliged to take up our quarters in a sort of shed, which formed a great contrast to the comfortable lodgings we had enjoyed the night before. A day or two afterwards, we found in consequence of sleeping in this hut, that a number of those little insects called chigoes (Pulex penetrans, Linn.) had got into our feet: they are only found near dwellings, and are met with in all parts of the country I visited, from the sea-coast to the high mountains in the Diamond district. They burrow under the skin to produce their young, the insect itself dying; they are at first easily detected, by the not unpleasant tickling sensation they produce in entering the skin, and of course are easily removed by a pin or the point of a pen-knife. When they have reached maturity, the abdomen becomes a bag about the size of a small pea, full of eggs, of a yellow colour, and the spot looks like a fester. Unless this bag and its contents are carefully removed, a bad sore may be produced; the feet of careless blacks not unfrequently get into so bad a state from neglecting to remove these insects, that amputation of the part becomes necessary.
On this journey I made numerous new and beautiful additions to my botanical collections; when passing over a low flat hill, the top of which was rather rocky and bare, I found large patches covered with a dwarf fruticose Cuphea with small leaves, bearing numerous purple flowers, and so much did this plant at first sight resemble the heather of my native hills, that I imagined I had found a species of that genus; although disappointed, this little incident recalled many pleasant recollections of home. It is a remarkable fact in the geographical distribution of plants, and not generally known to those who have not made that subject their study, that though heaths are very common in Europe and Africa, not a single species has hitherto been detected on the American continent, either South or North. This is the more remarkable, as the great mass of vegetation at the Cape of Good Hope is made up of these plants, nearly four hundred different kinds having already been found there. From Canavieira, a journey of six leagues brought us to the banks of the Rio CanindÉ, at a place called Passagem de Dona Antonia, and distant only a league and a half from the city of Oeiras. Our route was through an almost continued forest of Carnahuba palms, and as the Rio das Guaribas ran nearly parallel with it, and had recently overflowed the flat country on each side to a great distance, we found the roads very bad from the great deposit of mud, which had been left often more than a foot deep. In many places the palm stems shewed by their muddy appearance, that the water had covered them to the depth of upwards of twelve feet. At this season, intermittent and malignant fevers are very prevalent, from the malaria arising from the vast tracts of country left dry by the fall of the rivers. It being too late when we arrived to cross the river and reach the city before dark, we remained with some other travellers at the ferry-house for the night.
Next morning, the 12th of March, all our luggage was taken over to the opposite side of the river, in a small canoe, which had to return several times, and afterwards the horses were swum over one by one. Passing through the flat sandy country covered with small trees and beautiful flowering shrubs, we reached the city of Oeiras about eleven o’clock in the forenoon.
