4<2 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



fore, to shorten our stay in the city, which was at 

 all events tiresome for naturalists, and to repair to 

 the iron foundry of S. Joao Ypanema, about twenty 

 leagues distant ; the beautiful environs of which, 

 together with the abundance of plants and animals 

 to be found there, had been described to us in 

 very attractive colours by Lieutenant-colonel Varn- 

 hagen, the director of the estabhshment, whom 

 we had met with at Rio de Janeiro. The govern- 

 ment provided us with letters of recommendation to 

 the resident authorities, and our active countryman 

 Mr. Miiller procured us, as tropeiro, a Paulista, who 

 bore a good character as a guide for caravans. Our 

 mules, having been brought back to S. Paulo, from 

 the pasture to which they had been driven during 

 our stay, we departed on the 9th of January, 1818, 

 from this city, which the cordial frankness and hos- 

 pitality of its inhabitants had given us so much 

 reason to remember with sentiments of gratitude. 



The road to Ypanema leads S. S.W., over a hilly 

 and partly cultivated country. To the right lay 

 the mountain of Jaragua, belonging to General 

 Da Franca e Horta in Rio, who had invited us to 

 spend some days there, to examine the formation, 

 and the former gold-washing, which he has 

 again begun to work. This mountain forms one 

 of the most southern branches of the Serra do Man- 

 tiqueira, which, after running for more than fifty 

 miles to the north, disappears in this latitude. 

 The earth washed for gold in this place is a ferru- 



