26 



1^10 PF. JANEIRO 



of surprise, disgust, and shame, at seeing" a 

 great powerful man afraid e\en to ward 

 -5^\^ik 110' '^^ '^ blow, directed, as he thought, at his 



face. This man liad been trained to a 

 degradation lower than the sla\cr)- of the 

 most helpless animal. 



April i&tk. — In returning we spent two 

 da}-s at Socego, and I cmploj-ed them in 

 collecting insects in the forest. The greater 

 number of trees, although so loft)-, arc not 

 more than three or four feet in circum- 

 ference. There arc, of course, a few of 

 much greater dimension. Senhor Manuel 

 was then making a canoe 70 feet in length 

 from a solid trunk, which had originally 

 been I I O feet long, and of great thickness. 

 The contrast of palm trees, growing amidst 

 the common branching kinds, ne\er fails 

 to gi\-e the scene an intertropical character. 

 Here the woods were ornamented by the 

 Cabbage Palm — one of the most beautiful 

 of its famil)'. With a stem so narrow 

 that it might be clasped with the two 

 hands, it wa\-es its elegant head at the 

 height of fort)' or fifty feet above the 

 ground. The wood)^ creepers, themselves 

 covered by other creepers, were of great 

 thickness : some which I measured were 

 t\\-o feet in circumference. Many of the 

 older trees presented a ver)' curious 

 appearance from the tresses of a liana 

 hanging from their boughs, and resembling 

 bundles of ha)'. If the e)'e was turned 

 from the world of foliage above, to the 

 ground beneath, it was attracted b)- the 

 extreme elegance of the lea\-es of the ferns 

 and mimosje. The latter, in some parts, 

 covered the surface with a brushwood onl)- a few inches high. 

 In walking across these thick beds of mimosa;, a broad track 

 was marked b)' the change of shade, produced b)- the drooping 



^J^.' 



CABEAGIi: PALM. 



