208 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



produced so much gold, but have not been worked 

 any farther. The road led us along the Morro 

 into a beautifully romantic landscape, by the side 

 of flowery slopes, adorned with masses of rock re- 

 sembling magnificent ruins. Many small houses 

 stand on the road-side, and the numerous travellers 

 passing backwards and forwards, give this country 

 an appearance of prosperity and European activity. 

 Past the little hamlet Tacoaral, the road was wind- 

 ing, becoming steeper and steeper as it descended, 

 till about a league from Villa Rica, we reached in 

 the valley the larger village of Passagem, the in. 

 habitants of which chiefly subsist by the cultivation 

 and sale of provisions for the capital. The gold 

 mines of this place, especially those in the Morro do 

 S. Antonio, where a chapel, ex voto, was erected to 

 that Saint, were formerly very productive, but are 

 now nearly abandoned. At the bottom of the vil- 

 lage we crossed over, by a small stone bridge, to the 

 riffht bank of the Ribeirao do Carmo, the waters 

 of which diffuse a refreshing coolness in the narrow 

 valley, and then by numerous windings ascended a 

 mountain, from the summit of which we beheld the 

 Cidade de Mariana, in the flat valley filled with 

 rolled pieces of rock, brought down by the Ribeirao 

 do Carmo. 



This town, containing 4800 inhabitants, consists 

 of small cleanly houses, built in pretty regular and 

 broad streets, and makes an agreeable impression on 

 the traveller. Since the year 1745, it has been a 



