Foreign Jfotices. 451 



in the afternoon we found that the unfavorable winrl had prevented our 

 perforniiuf; more than half tlie way, and we therefore determined to 

 land at a small fishing villajre, called Pao Ainarello, and there pass the 

 night. It was with some ditfieulty that we obtained a shelter wherein 

 we could sling our hammocks. After meeting with many refusals, the 

 owner of a venda |)ointed us to an empty hut made of cocoa-nut leaves, 

 and permitted us to take possession of it for the night. Hither, there- 

 fore, we moved our lu^saire, and after a supper of stewed fi.-h and fa- 

 rinha slept soundly till day-break, soon after which we took a walk into 

 the country. The soil is very sandy, and we found that all the herba- 

 ceous vegetation had been so dried as to be completely scorched up. 

 One or two small shrul)s were in flower, and in a moist shady place was 

 a tall hlue-l)lossomed Herpestes that was new to me. After breakfast 

 ■we continued our voyage. At this place the reef was about a mile dis- 

 tant from the shore, and distinctly ))erceptible along its whole line, both 

 at high and low water; the ehb tide leaving the rocks bare, and the white 

 surf of the breakers marking its position even at the highest tide. 



" The wind having now shifted somewhat to westward, we were ena- 

 bled to proceed, and as we made much more rapid progress than the 

 preceding day, we reached the island at noon, and landed on the south- 

 east end, at a little villaiie called Pelar. We carried two or three let- 

 ters of introduction, and the first which we delivered obtained us quar- 

 ters, where we remained during our stay. The name of our host was 

 Senhor Alexandre Alcantara, the proprietor of a salt work, of which 

 there are several on the island. 



" Shortly after our arrival we took a walk into the country, in the di- 

 rection of our landlord's salt-pits, and found its whole general appear- 

 ance very different from the vicinity of Pernambuco. Instead of the al- 

 most uniforndy level character of the latter, there is a gentle unduhition 

 of hill and dale. There is not much large timber, the wooded parts 

 generally consisting of small trees and shrubs, which give to many ])arts 

 of the island an aspect more like that of an English orchard than an un- 

 cultivated equatorial island. Some of the views that we olitained from 

 the hills over which we passed, if not the grandest, vere at least the 

 most delightful that I had seen in Brazil. The trees we found to consist 

 chiefly of gempapo {senipa americana,) a beautiful large tree, with dark 

 green foliage and ])ale yellow flowers; the cashew {^'Inacardium occi- 

 deiitale,) of which the curious fruit was ripe, the juice of the larire re- 

 ceptacle on which the nut is placed affording a most grntoful beverage 

 to the wearied traveller; also, a fruit tree, abundant both here and about 

 Olinda, the Mangitaba of the Brazils, which is of small growth, belong- 

 ing to the natural order Apocyne.e, and having n)uch the general ap- 

 pearance of an ordinary aj)plc tree, though its small leaves and droop- 

 ing branches more reseml)le those of the weeping birch. It bears a yel- 

 low fruit, a little streaked with red on one side, about the size of an Or- 

 leans plum, and of delicious flavor, which is brought in irrcat quantities 

 to market. Curalella americana is also common, and we procured both 

 flower and seed of it: the natives call it Cashew brava (wild cashew) 

 from the similarity of its leaves to those of the Anacardiiim. We also 

 saw some fine large trees of a species of Jus^a (?) with long bi[)innatc 

 leaves, and the tips of their branches bearing many grand spikes of 

 small yellow flowers. By fellincr one of the trees we obtained speci- 

 mens of it. Another kind of Juga, with spikes of minute white blos- 

 soms, was also of frequent occurrence. Some of the shrubs that we 

 met with here were particularly beautiful, especially a Byrsoneona, 

 about twelve feet high, of which the broad foliage was woolly, and the 

 inflorescence spicate with bright yellow blossoms; and a Gomphia, of 

 nearly the same size, bearing a profusion of equally golden flowers. 



"During the afternoon we walked along the shore to the northward, 



