RIO DE JANEIRO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 



67 



Senhor Lage is making practicable roads to the smallest 

 settlements in his neighborhood. He has not, however, 

 been free from the difficulties which men encounter whose 

 schemes are in advance of their surroundings. No doubt 

 a great part of the dissatisfaction is owing to the fact that 

 the road is not so remunerative as was anticipated, the 

 advance of the Dom Pedro Railroad having impaired its 

 success. Still it must be considered as a monument to 

 the public spirit and energy of the men who undertook it. 

 Not wishing to interrupt the course of the narrative, I have 

 thought it best to preface the story of our journey by some 

 account of this road, the building of which is a significant 

 fact in the present history of Brazil. I will now take up 

 again the thread of our personal adventures. 



Leaving the city at two o'clock in the ferry-boat, we 

 kept up the harbor some fifteen miles. There was a cool 

 breeze, and the day, though warm, was not oppressive. 

 Passing the large Ilha do Governador, the smaller but 

 exceedingly pretty island of Paqueta, and many others, 

 with their palms, banana and acacia trees, dotting the 

 harbor of Rio and adding another grace to its beauty, 

 we landed in about an hour and a quarter at the little 

 town of Maua.* Here we took the cars, and an hour's 

 ride through low and marshy grounds brought us to the 

 fcot of the Serra (^Raiz da Servo), where we left the rail- 

 road for the post-coach, which runs regularly from this 

 station. The drive was delightful, in an open diligence 

 drawn by four mules on the full gallop over a road as 

 smooth as a floor. It wound zigzag up the mountains, 



* To the Baron de Mana, a leader in the great improvements now going on 

 in Brazil, the citizens of Eio de Janeiro owe their present convenient road to 

 Fetropolis, their favorite summer residence. 



