TO CAPE FRIO. 



55 



the Portuguese, but it is a dangerous one, as it frequently gives 

 occasion to murders. The venda situated on the bank of the lake is 

 kept by these people jointly, and the profits are divided among them : 

 it is therefore scarcely necessary to remark, that travellers have to 

 pay dearer than in other places. About a league from this place lies 

 the parish of Sagoarema, a large Village, with a church. As we had 

 to convey our mules over the lake, which here discharges itself into 

 the sea by a narrow channel, we took up our quarters in an empty 

 house, and availed ourselves of the opportunity to examine the neigh- 

 bouring country. 



Not far from the village, a hill rises on the sea-shore, upon which 

 are the church, the church-yard, and a telegraph. We ascended 

 this hill just as the sun was setting, when a grand and sublime scene 

 presented itself to our view. Before us lay the boundless ocean, 

 breaking in white foam against the foot of the hill on which we stood ; 

 on the right, in the distance rose the mountains of Rio ; nearer to us 

 was seen the long indented coast, and still nearer the Ponta Negra ; 

 behind us were ranges of high woody mountains ; low ground, but 

 also covered with wood, and the broad glistening mirrors of the lakes 

 intervened ; at our feet lay the village of Sagoarema, and on our left 

 the coast, against which the waves dashed with tremendous roar. 

 This vast picture, illumined by the last rays of the departing sun, and at 

 length gradually lost in the mists of evening, awakened in our minds the 

 recollection of our far-distant country. Reclined against the side of 

 a charnel-house, near a heap of skulls piled up beneath . a cross on 

 the moss-clad wall, we indulged in silent reverie. In this first solemn 

 pause we felt most sensibly how many privations the traveller must 

 learn to endure, who, impelled by an irresistible desire of increasing 

 his store of knowledge, finds himself alone in the midst of a new 

 world. The eye endeavoured, but in vain, to penetrate the myste- 

 rious veil of futurity, and imagination arrayed all the hardships that 



