12 MARTIUS ON THE BOTANY OF BRAZIT-. 



his fortune to become an author ; and his memory continues 

 to live only with the aged Brazilians, who have never ceased 

 to praise his zeal and activity ; or at Lisbon, where his collec- 

 tions are deposited. Ferreira w^as born at Bahia, on the 

 27th of April, 1756, and having studied at Coimbra, he was 

 despatched in 1783, by the active Colonel and Minister of 

 Marine, Martin de Millo e Castre, in pursuit of Natural 

 History, and with a view to form collections in the provinces 

 of Para, Rio Negro, and Mato Grosso. He was accompa- 

 nied by two draughtsmen, Joaquim Jose do Cabo, and Jose 

 Joaquim Freire, as also by a botanical gardener, Agostinho 

 Joaquim do Cabo. In October, 1783, Ferreira arrived at 

 Para, where, and at the island of Marajo, he spent twelve- 

 months. The following year he went in company of the 

 Governor of Para, Martin de Sousa e Albuquerque, up the 

 Amazon River, and then visited the Rio Negro and Rio 

 Branco, to the north-western boundaries of Brazil. In 

 August, 1788, he sailed up the Madeira River, and after a 

 very troublesome journey of thirteen months, he arrived at 

 Villa Bella, the capital of the Province of Mato Grosso. He 

 arrived at the Villa de Cujaba, in June, 1790, and returned to 

 Para in 1793. Here he shipped his collections, made during 

 these almost ten years of travel, in Zoology, Botany, Miner- 

 alogy, and all his curiosities connected with the Indians, for 

 Lisbon, where he was appointed Director of the Museum of 

 Natural History, and of the Botanic Garden. Of equal im- 

 portance with these collections, were his journals and manu- 

 scripts, full of solid information and accurate descriptions and 

 remarks, but which for reasons unknown to the world, were 

 never published ; a circumstance which plunged this active- 

 minded man into a state of deep melancholy. After his 

 death in 1815, his MSS. came into the possession of Don 

 Felix Avellar Brotero, an anxious, dilatory, and jealous man, 

 who made no use whatever of them. 



At the same school of Coimbra, was educated Joam da 

 Silva Freijo. By command of his government, he under- 

 took first a voyage to the Cape de Verd islands, and after- 



