46 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



clay or granite ; and from the vine not being yet 

 sufficiently naturalised. The reason is, that laws 

 formerly existed prohibiting the cultivation of the 

 vine in this country, in order to prevent injury to 

 the Portuguese trade. It is now freely permitted, 

 but there are i'ew persons who avail themselves of 

 the liberty. We rested in Sorocaba only till the 

 cool of the evening, in order to set out for the iron- 

 foundry of S. Joao de Ypanema, which is about 

 two leagues distant. The road to this little place, 

 which we reached at sunset, passes over campos 

 with low hills covered with short grass, and scat- 

 tered dwarf trees, and in the bottoms there is here 

 and there low wood. It is situated on an amphi- 

 theatrical eminence on the banks of the river Ypa- 

 nema, which here spreads out into a lake ; beautiful 

 plains form the foreground, and the iron-mountain 

 of Araasojava (Guarasojava) covered with a dark 

 wood which, on the north-west side, descends into 

 the valley, makes the background of the landscape. 

 The neatly white-washed houses, which lie scatter- 

 ed along the iiill, at the foot of which stand the 

 extensive buildings of the manufactory, and the 

 expression of noisy activity and industry, which 

 reign here, seem to transport the European into 

 some manufactory in a beautiful wild district of his 

 own country. 



We had been recommended by the amiable 

 Colonel Toledo, at S. Paulo, to Signor Francisco 

 XavierFerreira,the accountant of the establishment. 



