

SEARA-MEIRIM. 



129 



the cottage from being deserted began to fall, 

 it would have been supposed that its inhabitants, 

 like many others, had decamped, and no enquiry 

 would be made about the direction they had 

 taken ; such is the rambling disposition of the 

 people in general, and the state of this part of 

 the country, at the period of which I speak. 

 They have nothing to make them remain upon 

 one spot, neither comfort nor security. 



In the afternoon we advanced as usual, and 

 passed some deserted cottages, but towards the 

 close of the day arrived at some that were in- 

 habited, and at dusk put up near to two or 

 three that stood together, after having crossed 

 the Seara-Meirim for the last and forty-second 

 time. This river takes its sources from the 

 mountains to the northward, in the same direc- 

 tion as those of the river A9U, of which I shall 

 have occasion to speak. The Seara-Meirim falls 

 •into the Potengi, and perhaps some branches 

 of it bend their course as far as the Paraiba. 

 The face of the country presents one continued 

 flat, from Pai Paulo to the place at which we 

 left the river ; the soil is a loose sand, which 

 is sometimes, though rarely, intermixed with 

 black earth. The trees are thinly scattered, 

 and, at the time that I travelled, were without 

 leaves. The river winds like the coils of a 

 serpent; to have followed them would have 

 been endless ; it sometimes fills after heavy rain, 



vol. 1. K 



