84 



SANTA CATHARINA SANTOS. 



July 



but chiefly from their having descended from active and enter- 

 prising, though lawless settlers, who were ejected from other 

 places ; and from a few respectable colonists induced to emi- 

 grate from the Azores. Before I quit the neighbourhood of 

 frequented ports on this coast, one possessing peculiar interest, 

 Santos, ought to be mentioned ; to remind seamen that they 

 may there also obtain any refreshments, and secure their ships 

 in a sheltered creek, quite easy of access. For several leagues 

 round Santos there is an extensive flat, covered with thick 

 woods, but intersected by rivers and salt water inlets, whose 

 banks are lined with thickets of mangrove trees. Inland a 

 mountain range abruptly rises to the height of two or three 

 thousand feet, every where clothed with almost impenetrable 

 forests. The climate is, however, unhealthy in December, 

 January, and February ; and during the whole year there is 

 a great deal of rain. 



Returning to the coast southward of Santa Catharina, I may 

 mention that Cape Santa Martha, and the shores extending 

 northward of it, are high and woody, like the greater part of 

 the coast of Brazil ; but that on the south side of the promon- 

 tory there is a complete change of character : lofty ranges of 

 mountains sinking into low treeless shores, whose outline is as 

 tame and unvarying as that of the former is bold and pic- 

 turesque. 



While sailing along the level uninteresting coast just men- 

 tioned, with a fresh breeze off* the land, we found it bitterly 

 cold, though the thermometer never was below 40°. Faht : so 

 much does our perception of heat or cold depend upon com- 

 parison. Some of our exaggerated opinions as to the coldness 

 of the southern hemisphere may have arisen from the circum- 

 stances under which voyagers usually visit high southern lati- 

 tudes, immediately after enduring the heat of the tropics, and 

 without staying long enough to ascertain the real average tem- 

 perature during a whole year. 



On the 22d of July we were near the river Plata, and as the 

 weather, after sunset, became very dark, with thunder and 

 lightning,- though with but little wind, we anchored in the 



