PAI PAULO. 



119 



great and improving towns. Julio was now pro- 

 vided with a pair of them, else I hardly know 

 how he could have proceeded. 



We halted at the place appointed, upon an 

 immense plain ; the grass was all gone, and 

 even the hardy trees, the acaju and mangaba, 

 seemed to feel the want of water, for their leaves 

 had begun to fall. The two parties took up 

 their stations under separate clumps of trees ; 

 but upon these plains, the trees scarcely ever 

 grow sufficiently near to each other, to enable 

 the traveller to hang his hammock between two 

 of them. The poor horses were taken to a dell 

 at some distance, to try to pick up what they 

 could find, that had escaped the drought and 

 the traveller. Our allowance of water was not 

 large, and therefore we were afraid of eating 

 much salt meat; we did not pass the night 

 comfortably, for the wind rose, and scattered' 

 our fires, nor did we sleep much, and at four 

 o'clock the horses were fetched to give to each of 

 them a feed of maize. One of them refused to 

 eat his portion. 



The following morning we advanced to Pai 

 Paulo, three leagues further, still crossing the 

 same plain, at the extremity of which we first 

 approached the Seara-Meiiim, and on the oppo- 

 site side from that on which we were, stands 

 the village of Pai Paulo, upon rising ground. 

 This was, without exception, the most desolate 



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