TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



265 



the rainy season, that the animal and vegetable 

 kingdom revive, and appear in their greatest per- 

 fection. In such an expedition to the interior, we 

 had been preceded of late years by several travel- 

 lers. Mawe, who came from Buenos Ayres to 

 Rio de Janeiro, by way of S. Paulo, had continued 

 from hence his journey to Tejuco, in the Diamond 

 district ; Von Eschwege, setting out from his resi- 

 dence, Villa Rica, had penetrated westward from the 

 Rio de San Francisco to Rio Abaite, where he 

 worked a lead mine ; his serene highness the 

 Prince of Neuwied was at that time travelling along 

 the sea-coast from Rio to Bahia, with Messrs. Frey- 

 reiss and Sellow; Auguste de Saint Hilaire who had 

 travelled a year before with Mr. LangsdorfF to Villa 

 Rica, after the latter had been obliged to return on 

 account of business, and visited several other parts 

 of the province of Minas, the Indian settlements of 

 Passainha, Tejuco, and the Rio de S. Francisco, at 

 Salgado, was just then on his return to the capital. 



Considering these men as our predecessors, and 

 on a review of all written and verbal information, 

 it appeared to us the most advisable first to un- 

 dertake a journey to the southern capitania of S. 

 Paulo, by which we chiefly designed by degrees to 

 accustom ourselves to the climate of hot countries, 

 and to make ourselves at the same time acquainted 

 with the southern temperate zone. From the pro- 

 vince of S. Paulo we intended to travel through the 

 interior of Minas Geraes as far as to the river San 



