120 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



where they can safely pass the channel, which is 

 twelve miles broad, between the four small rocky 

 islands Ilhas Abrolhos. This very frequent navi- 

 gation has caused the Portuguese coasters to 

 examine a series of shallows from nineteen to fifty 

 fathoms, which, beginning to the south of Bahia de 

 todos OS Santos, extend along the coast of the 

 Comarca dos Ilheos from the Baixos de S. Antonio 

 to the mouth of the Rio Grande, in the direction 

 of S.S.E., are connected with the Abrolhos, pro- 

 perly so called, and stretch from their most east- 

 erly end in 18° 38' to 40° south latitude, and 36" 

 west longitude of Greenwich, towards the S.E. 

 to the rocky islands of Trinidad and Martin Vas. 

 One of the sea-faring people with whom we became 

 acquainted at Bahia, compared the formation 

 of the rocks of Trinidad to those of Madeira and 

 the Canaries. He was full of the impressions 

 which had been left upon his mind by the grandeur 

 and boldness of the masses of rock there, which, 

 destitute of vegetation, except at the foot, rise 

 perpendicularly out of the ocean, but above all 

 an immense rocky arch under which the sea 

 breaks with great fiiry. It is, however, very sel- 

 dom that Portuguese vessels go from the Brazihan 

 coast as far as this longitude, and anchor near 

 these inhospitable cliffs to take in water, or to 

 catch turtle which are said to be very numerous 

 there. A French ship which left Europe almost 

 at the same time as ourselves, having bficome 



