30 



RESIDENCE AT RIO DE JANEIRO. 



We landed near St. Lourenzo, and ascended some moderate 

 heights, by a path which leads through thick groves of the most 

 beautiful trees. Lantanas, with their flame-coloured, deep red, or 

 rose-coloured blossoms, mixed with heliconias^ and various elegant 

 shrubs, formed a thicket. On the eminence are situated the dwel- 

 lings of the Indians, scattered in groves of umbrageous orange, ba- 

 nana, melon, and other trees, laden with their exquisite fruit. A 

 painter would here have an ample opportunity of exercising his pencil 

 on the luxuriance of tropical vegetation, and on the rural scenes of 

 an enchanting landscape. 



We found the inhabitants all employed in making earthen vessels 

 of a dark gray kind of clay, which, when baked, assumes a reddish 

 colour : of this they form large vessels, merely by hand, without 

 any wheel ; and afterwards produce the necessary smoothness with a 

 small sea-shell, which they wet with their lips. Both young and old 

 were seated upon the ground. 



The greater part of these people still evidently retain their genuine 

 Indian physiognomy : others, on the contrary, seem to be rather of a 

 mixed descent. The distinguishing characteristics of the Brazilian 

 race, which I first observed here, but in the sequel always found con- 

 firmed, are, a moderate-sized, often small, well-formed body, in the 

 man strong-limbed and muscular : a reddish, or yellowish brown 

 colour : very thick, long, coal-black, lank hair : a broad face, often 

 with the eyes placed rather obliquely, but frequently handsome, 

 with strongly marked features, and for the most part rather thick 

 lips : their hands and feet small and well-formed ; and the men have 

 thin, strong beards. 



The few Indians living here, are all that remains of the ancient 

 large population of this district ; yet this is not properly their home. 

 Rio and the neighbourhood were originally inhabited by the warlike 

 tribe of the Tamoyos. These being partly expelled by the Tupin- 



