1832.] LIVING AT A VENDA. 21 



to unsaddle the horses and give them their Indian corn ; then, 

 with a low bow, to ask the senhor to do us the favour to give us 

 something to eat. " Any thing you choose, sir," was his usual 

 answer. For the few first times, vainly I thanked providence 

 for having guided us to so good a man. The conversation pro- 

 ceeding, the case universally became deplorable. " Any fish 

 can you do us the favour of giving?" " Oh ! no, sir." " Any 

 soup ?" " No, sir." " Any bread ?" " Oh ! no, sir." " Any 

 dried meat ?" " Oh ! no, sir." If we were lucky, by waiting a 

 couple of hours, we obtained fowls, rice, and farinha. It not 

 unfrequently happened, that we were obliged to kill, with stones, 

 the poultry for our own supper. When, thoroughly exhausted 

 by fatigue and hunger, we timorously hinted that we should be 

 glad of our meal, the pompous, and (though true) most unsatis- 

 factory answer was, " It will be ready when it is ready." If we 

 had dared to remonstrate any further, we should have been told 

 to proceed on our journey, as being too impertinent. The hosts 

 are most ungracious and disagreeable in their manners ; their 

 houses and their persons are often filthily dirty ; the want of the 

 accommodation of forks, knives, and spoons is common ; and I 

 am sure no cottage or hovel in England could be found in a 

 state so utterly destitute of every comfort. At Campos Novos, 

 however, we fared sumptuously ; having rice and fowls, biscuit, 

 wine, and spirits, for dinner ; coffee in the evening, and fish with 

 coffee for breakfast. All this, with good food for the horses, 

 only cost 2s. 6d. per head. Yet the host of this venda, being 

 asked if he knew any thing of a whip which one of the party 

 had lost, gruffly answered, " How should I know ? why did you 

 not take care of it ? I suppose the dogs have eaten it." 



Leaving Mandetiba, we continued to pass through an intricate 

 wilderness of lakes ; in some of which were fresh, in others salt 

 water shells. Of the former kind, I found a Limnaea in great 

 numbers in a lake, into which, the inhabitants assured me that 

 the sea enters once a year, and sometimes oftener, and makes the 

 water quite salt. I have no doubt many interesting facts, in 

 relation to marine and fresh water animals, might be observed 

 in this chain of lagoons, which skirt the coast of Brazil. M. 

 Gay* has stated that he found in the neighbourhood of Rio, 



* Annales des Sciences Naturelles for 1833. 



