36 c 2 



COCO-TREE. 



was a display of wax tapers, praying, singing, 

 and music, as is usual. 



The assemblage of persons was very consi- 

 derable ; indeed wherever the surf is not violent, 

 the sea-shore is well-peopled, along the whole 

 extent of coast between Olinda and the bar of 

 the river Goiana ; in many parts the low straw 

 huts are united, or nearly so, in long rows for 

 half a mile together. White-washed cottages 

 with tiled roofs are frequently interspersed ; 

 churches and chapels have been built, and few- 

 intervals of much extent remain unpeopled. 

 The lands are planted with the coco-trees, which 

 is the most profitable plant of Brazil * ; the 

 coco-tree appears to be adapted to the sandy 

 soil of the coast, upon which only very few 

 others will vegetate ; here it flourishes and 

 seems to derive nourishment from its vicinity to 

 the sea, but when it is situated in rich land the 

 the coco-tree droops, and even upon the sandy 

 plains of the interior it does not bear its fruit 

 with the same luxuriance, or reach that height 

 which it attains when exposed to the sea-breeze. 

 These coco-groves, through which the eye can 

 reach for miles, with the hovels composed 

 entirely of the leaves of these trees spread 

 among them, form in some parts very pic- 

 turesque views ; and if, as frequently occurs, 



* Vide Appendix tor a farther account of the coco-tree. 



8 



