310 



CAPITAM-MOB's DWELLING. 



cannot pretend to describe it ; but I have often 

 heard it spoken of, as being extremely destruc- 

 tive to mandioc, and that its flesh is good. This 

 animal is not large, and is not unlike the com- 

 mon hog. * Many criminals and runaway ne- 

 groes are harboured in these woods; The in- 

 habitants of Utinga seem to be shut out from 

 all the rest of the world, as the path which 

 leads from it is not immediately distinguished. 

 The last three leagues, which we traversed in 

 the dark, were covered with almost unbroken 

 woods ; the path through them is narrow, and 

 the branches of the trees cross it in all direc- 

 tions ; our guide rode in front, and many times 

 did his head come in contact with them. 



The dwelling of the Capitam-mor is a large 

 building of one story above the ground-floor : 

 the lower part of which forms the warehouse 

 for the sugar and other articles which the 



* Bolingbroke says, that instances are frequent of some of 

 the European swine escaping into the woods, where they live 

 wild ; and he adds, that their increase has been immense. In 

 another place he speaks of a species of this animal, which is 

 peculiar to tropical America, and is called the warree, which 

 he says is about the size of an European hog, and much like 

 it in shape. The porco do mato is not the sus tajassu, which 

 is, I imagine, what Bolingbroke calls the picaree hog. — 

 Voyage to the Demerary, &c. by Henry Bolingbroke, in 

 Phillips' Collection of Modern Voyages, vol. x. p. 57. and 

 129. 



The tajacu is to be met with at Maranhani, but is not 

 known at Pcrnambuco. 



