

ARACATI. 



20.5 



from us. He had not known, before he en- 

 quired from these children, that this part of the 

 country was in such a dreadful state of want. 

 The inhabitants had eaten up their own scanty 

 crop, and some of them had even been tempted, 

 by the exorbitant price, to carry their stock to 

 Seara for sale. They had not heard of the sup- 

 ply which had arrived at that place from the 

 southward. We reached Aracati on the fifth 

 day. 



I remained two days at Aracati, that the 

 horses might be brought from the island upon 

 which they had been put out to grass. I expe- 

 rienced fully now what the guide had before told 

 me respecting the horses. They had all lost 

 flesh, and were apparently less fit for work than 

 when I first arrived at Aracati, though doubtless 

 the relief from daily work for so long a period 

 must have rendered them better able to renew 

 it again now. The Spanish discoverers in South 

 America, who understood the business into 

 which they had entered, strongly inculcated to 

 their people the necessity of the steady and 

 regular continuance of their journies, unless a 

 pause could have been m^de for some length of 

 time. * I bought a large dog at Aracati, which 

 had been trained to keep watch over the bag- 

 gage of travellers. 



* Cabeca de Vaea is particularly mentioned. — History '>i 

 Brazil, vol. i. j>. 109. 



