1832.J THE CABBAGE PALM. 37 



' who was uncommonly stupid. In endeavouring to make 

 ^ him understand, I talked loud, and made signs, in doing 

 which I passed my hand near his face. He, I suppose, 

 thought I was in a passion, and was going to strike him ; 

 for instantly, with a frightened look and half-shut eyes, he 

 dropped his hands. I shall never forget my feelings of 

 surprise, disgust, and shame, at seeing a great powerful 

 man afraid even to ward off a blow, directed, as he thought, 

 at his face. This man had been trained to a degradation 

 lower than the slavery of the most helpless animal. 



April i^th. — In returning we spent two days at Socage, 

 and I employed them in collecting insects in the forest. 

 The greater number of trees, although so lofty, are not 

 more than three or four feet in circumference. There are, 

 of course, a few of much greater dimension. Senhdr 

 Manuel was then making a canoe 70 feet in length from a 

 solid trunk, which had originally been 1 10 feet long, and of 

 great thickness. The contrast of palm trees, growing 

 amidst the common branching kinds, never fails to give the 

 scene an Intertropical character. Here the woods were 

 ornamented by the Cabbage Palm — one of the most beautiful 

 of its family. With a stem so narrow that it might be 

 clasped with the two hands, it waves Its elegant head at 

 the height of forty or fifty feet above the ground. The 

 woody creepers, themselves covered by other creepers, were 

 of great thickness : some which I measured were two feet 

 in circumference. Many of the older trees presented a very 

 curious appearance from the tresses of a liana hanging from 

 their boughs, and resembling bundles of hay. If the eye 

 was turned from the world of foliage above, to the ground 

 beneath, It was attracted by the extreme elegance of the 

 leaves of the ferns and mimosa2. The latter, in some parts, 

 covered the surface with a brushwood only a few inches 

 high. In walking across these thick beds of mimosae, a 

 broad track was marked by the change of shade, produced 

 by the drooping of their sensitive petioles. It is easy to 

 specify the individual objects of admiration in these grand 

 scenes ; but it Is not possible to give an adequate idea of the 

 higher feelings of wonder, astonishment, and devotion, 

 which fill and elevate the mind. 



April i^th. — Leaving Soc6go, during the two first days, 

 we retraced our steps. It was very wearisome work, as the 

 road generally ran across a glaring hot sandy plain, not far 

 ' ntn the coast. I noticed that each time the horse put Its 



