TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



121 



authorities. It is only runaway slaves, who have 

 an accurate knowledge of the country, and retire 

 to a great distance, that sometimes escape the vi- 

 gilance of this police j we were therefore assured, 

 that as our negro was rude and inexperienced 

 (negro hruto\ we might depend upon his being 

 soon discovered. In fact, he was brought to us 

 on the following day from a neighbouring fazenda; 

 in the reception we gave him, we followed the ad- 

 vice of our host, treating him, according to the 

 custom of this place, very kindly, instead of using 

 harsh language, endeavouring to obliterate the re- 

 membrance of his flight, and giving him a full 

 glass of brandy. Long experience has taught the 

 Brazilians, that this beverage and complete am- 

 nesty have better effect on the temper of new ne- 

 groes than any chastisement. 



The immediate environs of S. Barbara are low 

 woods, and fine grass plains and moors, which are 

 frequented by snipes, goatsuckers, and a kind of 

 owl, and produces a great number of beautiful 

 myrtles, rhexias, melastoma, and labiated flowers. 

 The Sapucahy, the banks of which are overgrown 

 with bushes of inga and sebastiania, meanders 

 sometimes through the plain, and sometimes be- 

 tween low mountain forests, and abounds in fish ; 

 gigantic serpents, a small kind of caiman^ and 

 Brazilian otters are frequent in it. We saw in 

 the woods many of the trees from which the 



