PRELIMINARY EXPLORATIONS. 39 



some grand forest bordering the river. It is very tantalizing 

 riding through these places so engrossed with compass 

 and barometer, taking directions, heights, locations, general 

 lie of ground and descriptions, as to be compelled to 

 neglect and pass by wonderful plants with brilliant purple, 

 yellow, or scarlet flowers, orchids, creepers, and insects, too 

 numerous to mention. The whole time I am on horseback 

 I have my field-book in my hand, with compass, aneroid, 

 and pencil, and am jotting down notes. 



July 15. I have been very busy the last two days 

 portioning out all the instruments, stationery, etc., among 

 the four sections into which the staff is divided ; and among 

 ourselves we have also been exchanging different provisions 

 that we have bought. I, for instance, had two arobas of 

 coffee (about sixty-four pounds, which cost nine milreis), 

 the same amount of sugar (price six milreis), and twenty- 

 five packets of composite candles (150 for fifteen milreis). 

 Part of these I have exchanged for rice, black beans, 

 farinha, and dried cod-fish (baccalhdo}. This latter, though 

 perhaps necessary, I think one of the most disgusting of 

 eatables, and it is very dear. We paid .3 los. for a barrel 

 containing a gross, and when the cask was opened the odour 

 was intolerable ; the fish were " sweating," and had all to 

 be put out in the sun for two days to dry.* 



Three bullock-carts with fifty oxen and a dozen men 

 arrived the day before yesterday for the expedition to 

 Pitanguy, but they are so slow they have not yet got off; 

 in fact, the flight of time is absolutely unheeded by 



* I could not abide this stuff, and gave it all away subsequently ; but I 

 have since heard, at Pernambuco, that when the fish are properly washed (the 

 water being changed two or three times), and then boiled in cocoa-nut milk, 

 they are delicious. 



