98 



JOURNEY FROM CAPE FRIO 



plains of the Goaytacases, which extend to the Paraiba, and from 

 which the town of St. Salvador has received its additional name, 

 dos Campos dos Goaytacases. On the green turf of this tract, as well 

 as in all the meadows on the east coast of Brazil, is found the sida 

 carpinifolia, with a shrubby woody stem and a yellow blossom : it 

 grows luxuriantly, and frequently serves as a retreat for a kind of 

 iiiamhu^ to which they here give the name of a partridge*. This 

 kind, which is yet but little known, has, in its colour, some resem- 

 blance to our quail, but is larger ; and leads the spaniel as good a 

 chace as our European partridge, as I had frequent occasion to con- 

 vince myself. After riding till the evening through this country, 

 which is well adapted for pasturage, and on which large herds of 

 cattle were grazing, we at last reached the considerable Abbey of 

 St. Bento, where we expected to find the repose and accommodations 

 with which we had been so long obliged to dispense. This convent, 

 belonging to the Abbey of St. Bento at Rio de Janeiro, possesses valu- 

 able estates and lands. The edifice itself is large, has a handsome 

 church, two courts, and a small garden within, in which beds, fenced 

 round with stone, are planted with balsams, tuberoses, &c. In one 

 of the courts were lofty cocoa-palms ( cocos nucifera. Linn.) loaded 

 with fruit. The convent possesses fifty slaves, who have built their 

 huts near it in a large square, in the middle of which a high cross 

 is erected on a pedestal. There are, besides, a sugar-refinery, 

 ( engenho ) and several farm-buildings. This rich convent possesses 

 also great numbers of horses and oxen, and several corals and fazen- 

 das in the adjacent country. It even receives tithes of sugar from 

 several estates in the neighbourhood. 



M. Jose Ignacio de S. Mafaldas, the ecclesiastic who was at the 

 head of this establishment, received us in a very hospitable manner. 



* This bird is described by M. Temminck under the name of tinamus maculosus. Hist. 

 Nat. Gen. ties Pigeons et des Gallinacees, torn. III. p. 557. 



