100 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



coast, the Red River of the North, or the Kootenay. Back 

 in the forest near Corumba the naturalists had found them 

 very bad indeed. Cherrie had spent two or three days on 

 a mountain-top which was bare of forest; he had thought 

 there would be few mosquitoes, but the long grass har- 

 bored them (they often swarm in long grass and bush, even 

 where there is no water), and at night they were such a 

 torment that as soon as the sun set he had to go to bed 

 under his mosquito-netting. Yet on the vast marshes they 

 were not seriously troublesome in most places. I was in- 

 formed that they were not in any way a bother on the 

 grassy uplands, the high country north of Cuyaba, which 

 from thence stretches eastward to the coastal region. It 

 is at any rate certain that this inland region of Brazil, 

 including the state of Matto Grosso, which we were trav- 

 ersing, is a healthy region, excellently adapted to settle- 

 ment; railroads will speedily penetrate it, and then it will 

 witness an astonishing development. 



On the morning of the 28th we reached the home build- 

 ings of the great Sao Joao fazenda, the ranch of Senhor 

 Joao da Costa Marques. Our host himself, and his son, 

 Dom Joao the younger, who was state secretary of agricul- 

 ture, and the latter's charming wife, and the president of 

 Matto Grosso, and several other ladies and gentlemen, had 

 come down the river to greet us, from the city of Cuyaba, 

 several hundred miles farther up-stream. As usual, we 

 were treated with whole-hearted and generous hospitality. 

 Some miles below the ranch-house the party met us, on a 

 stern-wheel steamboat and a launch, both decked with 

 many flags. The handsome white ranch-house stood only 

 a few rods back from the river's brink, in a grassy opening 



