Cli. XL] TAME FATVX. 195 



were content to live on in squalid poverty rather than 

 work. 



TTe were so tired, that notwithstanding our miserable 

 and crowded quarters, we slept soundly, but were up at 

 daylight, and soon ready for our journey again, after 

 Rito had made a little coffee, and I had compensated 

 our host for our lodging. The scenery around was very 

 fine, and the place might have been made an earthly 

 paradise. To the north-east a spur of the forest came 

 down to within a mile of the house ; in front were grassy 

 hills and clumps of brushwood and trees, with a clear 

 gurgling stream in the bottom ; and beyond, in the 

 distance, forest-clad mountains. As usual, the family 

 had a pet animal. Before we left, a pretty fawn came 

 in from the forest to be fed, and eyed us suspiciously, 

 laying its head back over its shoulders, and gazing at us 

 with its large, dreamy-looking eyes. The woman told 

 us it had a wild mate in the woods, but came in daily to 

 visit them, the dogs recognising and not molesting it. 

 Our road still lav within a few miles of the dark 



V 



Atlantic forest, the clouds lying all along the first range, 

 concealing more than they exposed. There was a sort 

 of gloomy grandeur about the view ; so much was hidden, 

 that the mind was left at liberty to imagine that behind 

 these clouds lav towering mountains and awful cliffs. 



/ * ' 



The road passed within a short distance of the rock of 

 Cuapo, and, leaving my horse with Bito, I climbed up 

 towards it. A ridge on the eastern side runs up to 

 within about 200 feet of the summit, and so far it is 

 accessible. Up this I climbed to the base of the brown 

 rock, the perpendicular cliff towering up above me ; here 



and there were patches of grey, where lichens clung to 



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