318 



BOM JARD1M. 



companied some of our party to the church. It 

 was crowded ; indeed it is a remark which I 

 was frequently led to make, that on Sundays and 

 holidays, when the peasantry assemble at the 

 church doors, their numbers must astonish those 

 persons who merely pass through the country 

 without opportunities being afforded to them of 

 a more minute examination. The cottages upon 

 the road side do not promise so numerous a 

 population as is on these occasions to be seen ; 

 but from the thickness of the woods and the 

 lowness of the huts, even when a view of the 

 country is by any accident to be obtained from 

 a high hill, the dwellings of the lower orders of 

 people are not to be perceived ; they are scat- 

 tered all over the country ; and narrow paths 

 which appear impassable or nearly so, and are 

 scarcely to be observed, often lead to four of 

 rive huts, situated in the centre of a wood or 

 upon some low ground, adapted to the cultiva- 

 tion of mandioc and maize. 



One company was reviewed at Bom Jardim, 

 and from hence a captain was deputed to con- 

 tinue the review further into the country. We 

 rode this afternoon one league to the house of 

 Captain Anselmo, being so far upon our return. 

 On our way to this place we saw the woods on 

 one side of the road on fire. In the dry season 

 the grass and brushwood become so completely 

 parched, that the least spark sets a whole track 



