

JAGUARS. 



207 



soon as possible on leaving Aracati, this being 

 the better road; consequently I slept the first 

 night, distant three leagues from that place, at 

 Alagoa do Mato — a small lake which was now 

 nearly dried up. The following morning we tra- 

 velled over the sands, passed a small village near 

 to the shore called Retiro, and slept at Cajuaes, 

 a place we were acquainted with ; and from 

 hence to St. Luzia we followed the same route 

 as in going to Seara. From Cajuaes we passed 

 through Areias, famous for the ghost story, and 

 rested at Tibou, proceeding in the afternoon 

 with the intention of sleeping at the unfinished 

 house on the road to Ilha ; but the night was 

 closing in upon us when we were still two leagues 

 short of it, and for this reason it was thought 

 advisable to stop and pass the night among the 

 brushwood. We had had several showers of rain, 

 occasionally for some days past, and although 

 they were slight, the grass had begun to spring 

 up in some places. The rapidity of vegetation 

 in Brazil is truly astonishing. Rain in the even- 

 ing, upon good soil, will by sun-rise have given 

 a greenish tinge to the earth, which is increased, 

 if the rain continues, on the second day to 

 sprouts of grass of an inch in length, and these 

 on the third day are sufficiently long to be picked 

 up by the half-starved cattle. 



The brushwood among which we had deter- 

 mined to pass the night was low and not close, 



