40 Martius on the Physiognomif of§ie 



jected to the Portuguese yoke, roam about in them as unsettled 

 wanderers. This is the abode of the sluggish Coroado, of the 

 wild Puri, of the cannibal Botocudo, and other less numerous 

 tribes, who live by hunting and fishing, upon nuts and other 

 fruits, or from an inconsiderable cultivation of maize, mandioca, 

 and bananas. Large portions on the borders of this enormous 

 forest, as well towards the side of the sea as towards the districts 

 inhabited by the Portuguese in the interior, in the direction of 

 Minas Geraes, are already brought under cultivation ; but, in 

 the depths of it, colonists have only settled here and there along 

 the large rivers. The fertility is incredible of such virgin woods 

 [matto virgem), in which the stroke of an axe was never heard 

 before. When the trunks have been burnt, and the cleared 

 ground planted with French beans, maize, mandioca, coffee, 

 cotton, or sugar-canes, a return of from 150 to 500 fold is cal- 

 culated on. If the cleared wood be again left to itself, it returns, 

 in a few years, to a state of wildness, and is covered with a thick 

 growth of rapid growing trees and bushes, in Brazil called ca- 

 poeira. 



These primitive woods, according to the accounts of the na- 

 tives, are not prevalent in the northern provinces of Pernambuco, 

 Paraiba do Norte, and Ceara, to an equal extent, as upon the 

 mountains, hills, and valleys of the Serra do Mar, in the middle 

 part of Brazil. The soil of these parched districts, consisting of 

 granite or limestone, appears to be less favourable to such majestic 

 woods, which are here more insulated, and alternate frequently 

 with the Catingas, or woods which periodically shed their leaves. 

 The nearer, however, we approach to the equator, on the north 

 of the rapid river Parnahyha, the moi'e frequently are the pri- 

 mitive forests to be met with. It seems as if the vertical sun lent 

 here double strength to the earth, to send forth from her bosom 

 the largest and most enormous products. Dark as night, and 

 intricate as chaos, an impenetrable wood of gigantic stems ex- 

 tends from the mouth of the Amazons, till far beyond the Por- 

 tuguese territory ou the west. The same exuberance, greatness, 

 and majesty of forms as in the more southern provinces prevails 

 also here ; but the vegetation, under the influence of the most 

 intense heat, of heavy and almost daily rains, and of the wide 

 inundations of rivers, seems to be involved in perpetual change 



