Information respecting Botanical Travellers, 471 



you when he last came home will best convey an idea of this most 

 insecure looking kind of boat ; and had I not been repeatedly assured 

 that, primitive as the construction appears, these vessels are perfectly 

 safe, I should have felt some hesitation in embarking upon one of 

 them. Having got our luggage, paper, &c. properly placed, so as 

 to be out of reach of the water which constantly washes over these 

 rafts, we commenced our voyage. The wind almost always blows 

 at this season from the north, so that it was right against us, obliging 

 us to beat up so as to keep between the coral reef and the shore, 

 the distance between which varies from a quarter of a mile to two 

 miles, all the way from the town of Receife to the island of Itamanca. 

 At four in the afternoon we found that the unfavourable wind had 

 prevented our performing more than half the way, and we therefore 

 determined to land at a small fishing village, called Pao Amarella, 

 and there pass the night. It was with some difficulty that we ob- 

 tained a shelter wherein we could sling our hammocks. After meet- 

 ing with many refusals, the owner of a venda pointed us to an empty 

 hut made of cocoa-nut leaves, and permitted us to take possession 

 of it for the night. Hither, therefore, we moved our luggage, and 

 after a supper of stewed fish and farinha slept soundly till day-break, 

 soon after which we took a walk into the country. The soil is very 

 sandy, and we found that all the herbaceous vegetation had been so 

 dried as to be completely scorched up. One or two small shrubs 

 were in flower, and in a moist shady place was a tall blue-blossomed 

 Herpestes that was new to me. After breakfast we continued our 

 voyage. At this place the reef is about a mile distant from the shore, 

 and distinctly perceptible along its whole line both at high and low 

 water ; the ebb tide leaving the rocks bare, and the white surf of the 

 breakers marking its position even at the highest tide. 



The wind having now shifted somewhat to westward we were 

 enabled to proceed, and as we made much more rapid progress than 

 the preceding day, we reached the island at noon, and landed on the 

 south-east end at a little village called Pelar. We carried two or 

 three letters of introduction, and the first which we delivered obtained 

 us quarters, where we remained during our stay. The name of our 

 host was Senhor Alexandre Alcantara, the proprietor of a salt work, 

 of which there are several on the island. 



Shortly after our arrival we took a walk into the country, in the 

 direction of our landlord's salt-pits, and found its whole general ap- 

 pearance very different from the vicinity of Pernambuco. Instead 

 of the almost uniformly level character of the latter there is a gentle 



