TO VILLA DE ST. SALVADOR. 



91 



This extensive and level wilderness is inhabited by herds of oxen, that 

 range at liberty, even at the distance of twenty or twenty-five miles 

 from all human habitations. Once or twice a year they are driven to- 

 gether by their owners, the proprietors of the neighhoming fazendas, 

 into a coral, or place surrounded with palisades, where they are counted 

 and marked. We took up our quarters for the night, five leagues 

 from Paulista, in the Coral de Battuba, as it is called, which contains 

 within the fence a roomy clay hut. The neighbouring country is one 

 vast plain, extending farther than the eye can reach. The water 

 frequently stands in its shallow hollows, and forms lagoas, and the 

 whole is covered with short grass, which afibrds food to herds of 

 cattle. If any person approaches these animals, they raise their 

 heads, snuff the air, and gallop away with their tails erected. It is 

 certainly remarkable, how, by the extraordinary activity and care of 

 the Europeans, this useful species of animal is already spread over 

 the greatest part of the globe. In the north, the ox feeds in the 

 frozen forests of birch ; in the temperate zone, in our pleasant grassy 

 vales, between shady woods of beeches ; between the tropics, under 

 palms and bananas ; and in the islands of the South Sea, beneath 

 melaleucas, metrosideros, and casuarhias. This animal, indispensable 

 to civilised man, every where thrives, and increases his wealth and 

 prosperity. 



At the approach of evening, all our scattered hunters assembled 

 round the cheerful kitchen fire, and each of us seemed to look for the 

 reward of his exertions, in the satisfaction of his hunger ; but unfor- 

 tunately our stock of provisions was never more scanty than just 

 now ; here, however, in the midst of herds of wild cattle, it was not 

 possible for a company of hunters to starve : we therefore went into 

 the plain, posted ourselves in a long line, and hoped to kill a heifer ; 

 but night overtook us too speedily ; the cattle were too shy, and 

 single cactus plants, scattered on the heath, wounded our feet ; we 



