CHAP. III.] BAHIA TO THE CAPE. 127 



Amaro. The path ran right np to the edge, and seemed to 

 come to an end but for a kind of irregular crack, full of loose 

 stones which went zigzagging down to the bottom at an angle 

 of about 70°, and we could see the path down below winding 

 away in the distance toward the main road to Santo Amaro. 

 We looked over this cliff, and told Mr. Wilson firmly that we 

 would not go down the side of that wall on horseback. He 

 laughed, and said that the horses would take us down well 

 enough, and that he had seen it done, but that it was perhaps 

 a little too much : so we all dismounted, and put the horses' 

 bridles round the backs of the saddles, and led them to the top 

 of the crack, and whipped them up as they do performing 

 horses in a circus. They looked over with a little ajjparent 

 uneasiness, but I suspect they had made that precarious descent 

 before, and they soon began to pick their way cautiously down, 

 one after the other, and in a few minutes we saw them waiting 

 for us quietly at the bottom. We then scrambled down as best 

 we might, and it was not till we had reached the bottom, using 

 freely all the natural advantages which the Primates have over 

 the SoUdunguli under such circumstances, that we fully appre- 

 ciated the feat which our horses had performed. 



The next part of the J'oad was a trial : the horses were often 

 up nearly to the girths in stiff clay, but we got through it 

 somehow, and reached Santo Amaro in time to catch the regu- 

 lar steamer to Bahia. 



At Santo Amaro a line of tram-ways had lately been laid 

 down, also under the auspices of our enterprising friend, and^ 

 we went down to the steamboat wharves on one of the trucks on 

 a kind of trial trip. The M^agon went smoothly and well ; but 

 when a new system is started, there is always a risk of accidents. 

 As the ti-uck ran quickly down the incline, the swarthy young 

 barbarians, attracted by the novelty, crowded round it, and sud- 

 denly the agonized cries of a child, followed by low moanings, 

 rang out from under the wheels, and a jerk of the drag pulled 



