chap. I.] CUREAL DAS FEEIRAS. 11 



the house are cultivated the chief varieties of tea grown in 

 China, with many other rare and curious plants. A visit 

 to the Jardim, with the owner's permission, would well repay 

 you. Another halt is called to collect the party, and then, it 

 may be through a slight mist or cloud, you ride on to the 

 Curral. 



CUERAL DAS FREIEAS. 



You dismount, and are surrounded by a troop of girls 

 begging, and ragged boys and men offering you sticks to as- 

 sist in your ascent. Advance a few steps on the inclined 

 green sward ; what a prospect bursts upon your sight ! for a 

 second or two you are puzzled by the grandeur of the view 

 that presents itself ; you see with your unaccustomed eyes, 

 mountains, trees, sky, at first in unarranged proportions : by 

 degrees things begin to take their places, and you tremble on 

 the brink of an abyss that yawns below you, and points with 

 jagged fingers, uplifted six thousand feet, to a clear blue 

 heaven that seems to smile at your puny wonder. Thin 

 fleeting clouds pass away below, and disclose new beau- 

 ' ties. The church of Librameuto looks like an atom at the 

 bottom of a vast basin, though it stands two thousand feet 

 above the sea. But our point is Pico Grande, and we must 

 linger no longer. The road now assumes a different cha- 

 racter : heretofore we have ascended and descended lulls, 

 steep enough, surely, and trodden roads that seemed slippery 

 and hard enough : but now we long for such again ; large 

 loose stones and solid rocks have taken their place ; a per- 

 pendicular cliff is above you on one side, a precipice below you 

 on the other : one start of your horse would be fatal. Walk- 

 ing is out of the question, unless you are equal to much 



