104 



STAY AT VILLA DE ST. SALVADOR. 



his journey to Tejuco. It receives several smaller streams, the Para- 

 hibuna, Rio Pomba, and others, and continues its course through the 

 great primeval forests, between rocky banks, till at length it enters, 

 near its mouth, the plains of the Goaytaca Indians. Here the whole 

 country is cultivated and animated ; but beyond these plains, in the 

 vast forests, the banks of the Paraiba are still inhabited by aboriginal 

 tribes, who are but partly civilised and settled. 



Our road lay at first along the river, the banks of which are adorned 

 with beautiful thickets of mimosas, bignonias, and other similar trees. 

 Near the town stand single lofty cocoa-palms : then succeed beautiful 

 meadows, and groves, with detdiched fazendas. We soon lost sight of 

 the river, from which our road turned aside. In the meadows we fre- 

 quently found the spotted cuckoo ( cucitlus gidra, Linn.) or annu hranco 

 of the Portuguese, in company with the ani ( crotophuga ani, Linn.) : 

 this cuckoo has in its shape and mode of living the greatest resem- 

 blance to the a?ii. This bird, to which Azara gives the name of 

 piririgua, has not long been known in the neighbourhood of Campos, 

 and is said to have descended only within these few years, from the 

 high lands of Minas to these low plains on the sea-coast. 



We had frequent occasion to admire the beauty and fertility of 

 this tract. On the bank of the river is a succession of large fazen- 

 das : extensive sugar-plantations alternate in these animated plains 

 with extensive meadows. Fine large oxen and horses pasture in 

 them in great numbers, and also some mules. In the vicinity of 

 several dwellings we admired in a meadow one of those colossal wild 

 fig-trees, the jigueiras of the Portuguese, which are one of the most 

 grateful presents of Nature to hot countries ; the shade of such a 

 magnificent tree refreshes the traveller, when he reposes under its 

 incredibly wide spreading branches, with their dark green shining 

 foliage. The fig-trees of all hot climates have generally vejy thick 

 trunks, with extremely strong boughs and a prodigious crown. I have 



