TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



71 



objects. According to their accounts, these islands 

 and the banks of the river are inhabited by innu- 

 merable flocks of birds ; the shoals of fish in this 

 river, which come from the Paraguay, are incredible. 

 Palms of singular forms stand upon the banks, 

 alternating with a beautiful vegetation of aromatic 

 grasses and shrubs. The scenery is said to be still 

 more remarkable and pleasing when the travellers 

 have arrived in the canals, between the Pantanaes 

 themselves ; thousands of ducks and water-hens 

 rise in the air on the approach of the boats ; storks 

 of immense size wade the boundless swamps, and 

 divide the sovereignty over the waters with the ter- 

 rible crocodiles ; sometimes they sail for leagues 

 together between thick plantations of rice, which 

 here grows spontaneously ; and thus this solitary 

 tract, which is but seldom animated by a canoe 

 of the Guaycurus engaged in fishing, recalls to mind 

 the plantations and agriculture of Europe. The 

 diversity and grandeur of the scenery announce the 

 vicinity of a great river, and after four or five days 

 journey the navigators reach the Paraguay, which, 

 at this place, is almost a league in breadth, even in 

 the dry season, but during the rains overflows the 

 Pantanaes, and spreads into a vast lake above a hun- 

 dred square leagues in extent. The navigation, 

 though against the stream, is easy here, and the voy- 

 age to the mouth of the Rio de S. Lourenzo or dos 

 Porrudos, is generally made in eight days ; from this 

 they at length reach the RioCujaba,and in ten days* 



r 4 



