Cuap. VII. A SITIO. 163 
few inches above high-water mark. This skirts the northern shore for 
a long distance; the soil consisting of alluvium and rich vegetable 
mould, and exhibiting the most exuberant fertility. Such districts are 
the first to be settled on in this country, and the whole coast for many 
miles was dotted with pleasant-looking sitios like that of our friend. 
The establishment was a large one, the house and out-buildings covering 
a large space of ground. The industrious proprietor seemed to be Jack- 
of-all-trades ; he was planter, trader, fisherman, and canoe-builder, and 
a large igarité was now on the stocks under a large shed. There was 
greater pleasure in contemplating this prosperous farm, from its being 
worked almost entirely by free labour; in fact, by one family and 
its dependants. Joao Trinidade had only one female slave; his other 
workpeople were a brother and sister-in-law, two godsons, a free negro, 
one or two Indians, and a family of Mtras. Both he and his wife were 
mamelucos ; the negro children called them always father and mother. 
The order, abundance, and comfort about the place showed what 
industry and good management could effect in this country without 
slave-labour. But the surplus produce of such small plantations is very 
trifling. All we saw had been done since the disorders of 1835-6, during 
which Joao Trinidade was a great sufferer ; he was obliged to fly, and the 
Mara Indians destroyed his house and plantations. There was a large, 
well-weeded grove of cacao along the banks of the river, comprising 
about 8,000 trees, and farther inland considerable plantations of tobacco, 
mandioca, Indian corn, fields of rice, melons and water-melons. Near 
the house was a kitchen garden, in which grew cabbages and onions, 
introduced from Europe, besides a wonderful variety of tropical vege- 
tables. It must not be supposed that these plantations and gardens 
were enclosed or neatly kept: such is never the case in this country, 
where labour is so scarce ; but it was an unusual thing to see vegetables 
grown at all, and the ground tolerably well weeded. The space around 
the house was plentifully planted with fruit-trees, some, belonging to the 
Anonaceous order, yielding delicious fruits large as a child’s head, and 
full of custardy pulp which it is necessary to eat with a spoon; besides 
oranges, lemons, guavas, alligator pears, Abius (Achras cainito), Geni- 
papas and bananas. In the shade of these, coffee trees grew in great 
luxuriance. The table was always well supplied with fish, which the 
. Mara, who was attached to the household as fisherman, caught every 
morning a few hundred yards from the port. The chief kinds were the 
Surubim, Pira-peéua, and Piramutdba, three species of Siluridse, be- 
longing to the genus Pimelodus. To these we used a sauce in the form 
of a yellow paste, quite new to me, called Arubé, which is made of the 
poisonous juice of the mandioca root, boiled down before the starch or 
tapioca is precipitated, and seasoned with capsicum peppers. It is kept 
in stone bottles several weeks before using, and is a most appetising 
relish to fish. Tucupi, another sauce made also from mandioca juice, 
is much more common in the interior of the country than Arubé. 
This is made by boiling or heating the pure liquid, after the tapioca has 
been separated daily for several days in succession, and seasoning it 
with peppers and small fishes ; when old it has the taste of essence of 
anchovies. It is generally made as a liquid, but the Juri and Miranha 
