152 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



And everything was in duplicate. We had just finished 

 on the night of the 29th of February, when a letter came 

 by special courier from the fiscal engineer at Ouro Preto, 

 requiring additional information, which meant another 

 day's work. But we finally sent the whole to the President 

 of the Province on the 2nd of March. 



March 10. — This evening there was a curious and weird 

 atmospheric phenomena — a lunar rainbow, the first I have 

 ever seen. It was very brilliant, a full semicircle, and was 

 backed by a mass of inky black clouds, which were lighted 

 up every moment by lightning. 



Yesterday, being Sunday, I went by invitation to break- 

 fast with Senhor Joaquim Ribeiro,to meet Padre Francisco of 

 Olhos d'Agua, at eleven. He had received a letter from a 

 relation who is a Government official at Ouro Preto, stating 

 that the President of the Province was inclined to reject 

 my plans of the first section, preferring a route vi& the 

 valley of the Paraopeba. This is evidently owing to the 

 influence of the Sao Joao del Rey Railway Company, to 

 which I refer elsewhere. I thereupon went through the 

 pouring rain to the office, and brought back the map. 

 I also produced the Concession, and referred to the official 

 Government Reports on the subject ; and, after a long 

 argument, convinced my hearers — for by that time several 

 other men had come in — that the route I have selected, 

 while entirely according to the Concession, was not only 

 the shortest route to the Corte (Rio de Janeiro), which is 

 important in view of through traffic and extensions beyond 

 Pitanguy, besides those authorized to Sao Antonio dos 

 Patos ; but that it is also the best, and the only one that 

 could conveniently pass by this town, which is the most 

 important one in the neighbourhood. 



I then went on to John Baptist, and he compelled me 



