TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 129 



protected against the rain, according to the local 

 circumstances. If there was reason to fear a visit 

 from the ounces during the night, the camp was 

 surrounded on all sides with watch-fires, and care 

 taken, during the day, to procure a sufficient sup- 

 ply of wood. During our march we had had op- 

 portunities to collect observations on the country 

 we had passed through, and on the plants, mine- 

 rals, &c., found in the vicinity of the road. After 

 the caravan was encamped we employed the re- 

 mainder of the day, for similar purposes, in excur- 

 sions in the neighbourhood; and the hours of twi- 

 light and the beginning of the night were spent in 

 writing notes in the journals, in preparing, drying, 

 and packing our collections. This simple mode of 

 life had its peculiar charms, which were increased 

 by reciprocal participation of the pleasures arising 

 from our discoveries, or by conversations in which 

 we often called to mind our distant European 

 friends. Lastly, music, too, made a part of our daily 

 amusement ; for we never lay down to rest till the 

 violin of one of the travellers had played some 

 artless Brazilian popular airs, succeeded by Ger- 

 man melodies, which combined the agreeable sen- 

 sations of the present with the remembrances of 

 our native land. 



Our first encampment after Villa de Campanha 

 was in the Arraial do Rio Verde, a small village 

 situate in a beautiful green plain bounded by 

 woods, on the rivulet Ria Verde which is half 



VOL. II. K 



