RIO DE JANEIRO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 67 
Senhor Lage is making practicable roads to the smallest 
settlements in his neighborhood. He has not, however, 
been free from the difficulties which men encounter whose 
schemes are in advance of their surroundings. No doubt 
a great part of the dissatisfaction is owing to the fact that 
the road is not so remunerative as was anticipated, the 
advance of the Dom Pedro Railroad having impaired its 
success. Still it must be considered as a monument to 
the public spirit and energy of the men who undertook it. 
Not wishing to interrupt the course of the narrative, I have 
thought it best to preface the story of our journey by some 
account of this road, the building of which is a significant 
fact in the present history of Brazil. I will now take up 
again the thread of our personal adventures. 
Leaving the city at two o'clock in the ferry-boat, we 
kept up the harbor some fifteen miles. There was a cool 
breeze, and the day, though warm, was not oppressive. 
Passing the large Ilha do Governador, the smaller but 
exceedingly pretty island of Paqueta, and many others, 
with their palms, banana and acacia trees, dotting the 
harbor of Rio and adding another grace to its beauty, 
we landed in about an hour and a quarter at the little 
town of Maud.* Here we took the cars, and an hour's 
ride through low and marshy grounds brought us to the 
fcot of the Serra (Rah da Serra)^ where we left the rail- 
road for the post-coach, which runs regularly from this 
station. The drive was delightful, in an open diligence 
drawn by four mules on the full gallop over a road as 
smooth as a floor. It wound zigzag up the mountains, 
* To the Baron de Maua, a leader in the great improvements now going on 
in Brazil, the citizens of Rio de Janeiro o\ve their present convenient road to 
Fetropolis, their favorite summer residence. 
