

PAPARI. 



99 



it, aware of its own superiority. The inhabitants 

 seemed by their countenances to partake of the 

 joyful looks of the land they lived in. Papari 

 yet enjoys another advantage ; though it is at 

 the distance of three or four leagues from the 

 sea, a salt water lake reaches it, so that its in- 

 habitants have the fish brought to their own 

 doors. The tide enters the lake, which is never 

 dry, for although the fresh springs which run 

 into it might fail, still it would always preserve 

 a certain portion of water from the sea. The 

 fishermen come up upon their small river janga- 

 das, which do not require more than twelve inches 

 of water. Papari is about five leagues from 

 Cunhaii. Senhor Dionisio introduced me to his 

 lady ; he is a native of Portugal, and she a Bra- 

 zilian. They possessed a small piece of land in 

 the valley, and appeared to be comfortably situ- 

 ated. Papari may contain about three hundred 

 inhabitants very much scattered. In the course 

 of this year, I afterwards heard, that many per- 

 sons flocked to it from other parts, owing to the 

 absolute want of provisions. I went down to 

 the edge of the lake to see the fishermen arrive, 

 the people of the valley had all assembled to 

 receive them ; it was quite a Billingsgate in mini- 

 ature — save that the Portuguese language does 

 not admit of swearing. 



We dined in Brazilian style, upon a table 

 raised about six inches from the ground, around 



jj 2 



