IN VAUIOUS PARTS OF Tllli GLOBE. l7o 



the south of the Equator ; its thick fleshy trunk is sometimes 

 eaten. 



About 20 leagues beyond Jauni we entered a large forest 

 which extends to within a short distance of the town of Matto- 

 Grosso, and to which the province and its capital no doubt owe 

 their name. Tiie large number of Palms and Arborescent Ferns 

 wiiich grow in tliis forest give it a very picturesque appearance ; 

 the Iriartea (Catisar), Euterpe, and Attalea compta, here 

 called Uaua-assu, are particularly abundant ; it is crossed by the 

 Guapore, one of the principal tributaries of the Eio Madeira. 

 Between this river and the town, which is distant from it about 

 12 leagues, I did not find any water except one small pool 

 called Buriti ; this is the more extraordinary, seeing that in the 

 rainy season the whole of this country is under water and one 

 immense lake. 



I entered Matto-Grosso, or Villa-Bella, on the 13th of 

 August and left it on the 2oth. The ancient capital of one of 

 the largest provinces of Brazil is nothing better than a heap of 

 ruins already encroached upon by the forest ; the same may be 

 said of all the other Brazilian towns which depended for their 

 prosperity solely on their mines. The Guapore, after making 

 an immense bend, reappears immediately on the west of the town, 

 where I crossed it for the second time on my road to Casalbarco : 

 this village, wliich is not more than 8 leagues from Matto-Grosso, 

 is situated on the little river Barbado, and is tiie last the tra- 

 veller meets with on quitting Brazil for Bolivia. Here I saw 

 the Victoria regia still in flower; I was then only 11 leagues 

 from the frontier, where a well, hidden in the brushwood, shows 

 the traveller tliat he is no longer in the empire of Brazil. I was 

 again among the Campos, which I had never seen so gay. A 

 fire had just exerted its vivifying influence on the soil, and a 

 carpet of delicate green had replaced the grass which the scorch- 

 ing rays of the sun had burnt. Tiuvas, with their masses of 

 flowers, the golden heads of the Cara'ibas, and of another white- 

 flowered, sweet-scented Bignoniad, formed on every side im- 

 mense thickets which were crowned by the elegant plumes 

 o{ Attalea compta; in one place was a Jacaranda, with its long 

 violet-blue corolla ; in another was the Pefrcea, with its snow- 

 white inflorescence ; on every side, in short, the eye fell ufton 

 masses of brilliant and harmonious colours : a rich frame enclos- 

 ing the finest vegetation on the face of the globe, but with it 

 many dull and monotonous sides and many scenes of abject 

 misery. 



It was on tlie 29th of August that I finally quitted Brazil and 

 entered Bolivia. The province of Chiquitos, where I then was, 

 forms p;u-t of the department of Santa Cruz, and extends from 



