30 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



the road is sunk six or eight feet below the ordinary surface, 

 so that as there is no room to pass the cart, on meeting it 

 you would have to retrace your steps, for the oxen could 

 not turn round. 



Arriving here (Paraopeba) at 4.20, I first presented a 

 letter from Dr. Rebougas to the contractor, Senhor Trajano 

 Machado, asking him to place the engine at my disposal. 

 But it had just gone up the line, and would not be back 

 for an hour. I therefore came over to the hotel, the only 

 house, except the engineer's, within miles, and presented 

 another letter to the man who owns this place. I arranged 

 to take four bedrooms and a sitting-room, for fifty milreis 

 a month, and then had some dinner. Macaroni soup, 

 onions, bad sausages, and feijdes (black beans) failed to 

 satisfy me ; so I ordered half a dozen poached eggs, and 

 wound up with preserved pine-apples and cheese — some- 

 what of a mixture ! Returning to the station, I found the 

 engine was not available till ten o'clock to-morrow, so came 

 back here, not sorry to have a quiet evening to write home ; 

 otherwise the delay is inconvenient, as I have, among other 

 things, to telegraph to London. 



July 3. — Left for Carandahy at eleven on the engine. 

 About half-way we came to a place where, owing to a bad 

 foundation, the soil was being cut away from under the 

 rails to put in a dry stone culvert, never expecting the 

 engine in that direction. The pleasing result was that we 

 had to wait three-quarters of an hour, while the rails were 

 being underpinned and made secure, so that we did not 

 reach Carandahy till 1.15 ; having been two and a quarter 

 hours over eleven miles, and twenty-five hours covering the 

 thirty miles from Queluz ! 



July 5.— Yesterday the luggage arrived at Carandahy, 

 having been only six days en route from Rio de Janeiro ! 



