m 



H 



128 



INHABITED COTTAGE. 



and her two daughters in the hut; the father 

 was not at home. The old woman seemed quite 

 astonished to hear that we had crossed the 

 Seira-Meirim ; she said, she did not know how 

 soon she and her family might be obliged to 

 leave their cottage, as many others had done. 

 She directed the major and my people to a dell 

 at some distance, where dry grass and leaves 

 might perhaps still be picked up ; she said, that 

 it was the last place which could have any, for 

 travellers did not in general know of it, and she 

 and her husband made a point of not discover- 

 ing it. But I paved the way, by making her a 

 present of some farinha, throwing maize to 

 the fowls, and by pouring in an immense num- 

 ber of minhas Senhoras. I had purchased a kid 

 and a fowl, and laid down the money imme- 

 diately. Persons circumstanced as these were, 

 are sometimes robbed in a most unpardonable 

 manner by travellers, who take advantage of 

 their houses, eat their poultry, and leave them 

 without paying ; but considering the entire non- 

 existence of law in these regions, I am onlv 

 surprised that greater enormities are not com- 

 mitted ; however, every man feels it to be his 

 own case, if he has a house and family ; he is 

 aware that on going from home, those he may 

 leave are in the same helpless state. These 

 persons and their property were at the mercy of 

 any travellers ; if they had been murdered, and 



