AND VISIT TO THE PURIS AT S. FIDELIS. 



103 



observed, that the planters retain their old customs, without enter- 

 taining the smallest notion of improving their condition. Here 

 may be found opulent persons, who send into the capital every year 

 several trains of mules ( tropas J laden with commodities, and per- 

 haps a thousand or fifteen hundred head of oxen for sale ; and whose 

 huts are nevertheless worse than those of the poorest German peasants ; 

 low, of one story, built of clay, and not even white-washed : their 

 whole domestic economy and mode of living is on a similar scale ; 

 but cleanliness in dress is seldom wanting. The breeding of cattle is 

 said to be neglected in the country on the Paraiba, though these 

 plains are so peculiarly adapted to the purpose. Some mules are bred 

 here ; but they are not so strong and handsome as those of Minas 

 Geraes and Rio Grande. The sheep and goats are small ; and swine 

 do not thrive so well as in other districts. I visited the Campos dos 

 Goaytacases, not to collect statistical information respecting those 

 parts (for which I must refer the reader to other works), but to make 

 myself acquainted with what was remarkable in the people or natural 

 productions. As I had soon attained this object, my stay was but of 

 short duration ; and we hastened to visit, what was to us the most 

 interesting curiosity, namely, a tribe of rude savage Tapiiyas still 

 living in the neighbourhood, on the Paraiba. 



Colonel Manoel Carvalho dos Santos, commandant of the district 

 of St. Salvador, and of its regiment of militia, had received us very 

 politely ; when we expressed to him our wish to visit the mission of 

 St. Fidelis, higher up the Paraiba, he had the kindness to give us an 

 officer and a soldier as guides. We quickly prepared for this inter- 

 esting excursion, and set out from St. Salvador on the 7th of Octo- 

 ber, leaving our baggage behind. 



The Paraiba rises in the capitania of Minas Geraes, runs between 

 the Serra dos Orgaos, and that of Mantiqueira, in an easterly direc- 

 tion, and is noted on the small map which Mr. Mawe has given of 



