336 JAGUAR1BE. 



the Doce, and asked at a cottage, which was not 

 far distant, if the river was fordable, and being 

 answered in the affirmative, I rode up to its 

 banks and attempted to make my horse enter it, 

 which he refused to do. I made a second and 

 a third trial, when he plunged in swimming : it 

 was with much difficulty that he gained the 

 outermost point of the sand-bank on the oppo- 

 site side. He had passed a bad night, and was 

 not in a proper state to perform this task, nor 

 should I have attempted it if I had known the 

 depth, but I imagined that the tide had suffi- 

 ciently retreated. My clothes were dry before 

 I arrived at home, but I long felt the conse- 

 quences of crossing the Doce. 



About the middle of May I removed to Ja- 

 guaribe. The road to it is through the planta- 

 tion of Paulistas, from whence, after crossing 

 the Paratibi, a narrow path leads to the left 

 through a deep wood for nearly one league. 

 A steep hill is to be surmounted, and its corre- 

 sponding declivity carefully descended. The 

 wood continues to a break in the hill, on the 

 side nearest to Jaguaribe. On reaching this 

 spot there was a view before me, which would 

 in most situations be accounted very beautiful, 

 but in this delightful country so many fine pro- 

 spects are continually presenting themselves, 

 that I opened upon this with few feelings of 

 pleasure at the sight. I cannot avoid owning 

 that the advantages of the place as a plantation 



