106 



STAY AT VILLA DE ST. SALVADOll, 



a gloomy dead look, and the more so, as it always stands in thick 

 masses ; the flower however is handsome, large and white. Other 

 beautiful plants are numerous ; among them is an arboraceous cleome, 

 thickly covered with very large beautiful white and rose-coloured 

 tufts of flowers. The road was bordered by deep yellow and white 

 bignonias, and the thickets on the bank were adorned with the upright 

 bushes of the allamanda cathartica. L mn. M ith its large deep yellow 

 blossom. 



When we had proceeded about half way, our guide took us to a 

 neighbouring faze?icla, the owner of which, a captain, very hospitably 

 invited us to dinner. Before his house, which, situated on a gentle 

 eminence, commands the most beautiful view of the river, stood one 

 of those fine trumpet-trees called ipe amarello, covered with large 

 yellow flowers, which break out before the leaves ; its wDod is very 

 strong, and works up well. In the afternoon we continued our 

 journey, but were overtaken by a violent storm, by which the other- 

 wise pleasant road was rendered rather disagreeable. On the bank of 

 the river we ascended a steep mountain called Mori'o de Gamba, rode 

 along its ridge through a thick wood, and when we emerged from it 

 again were surprised with a magnificent prospect of the river below. 

 Among the lofty irregular wooded peaks, the rocky summit of the 

 Morro de Sapateira, of a remarkable form, was particularly distin- 

 guished ; and the contrast which it formed with the green smiling 

 hills on which the inhabitants have erected their cheerful habitations, 

 heightened the charms of this landscape. Immediately below our 

 feet, under a perpendicular rock, lay a small level meadow on the 

 bank of the river, where some houses shadowed by tall cocoa-palms 

 formed a most delightful groupe. The narrow road runs at a con- 

 siderable height along the perpendicular cliff, and then declines again 

 into the valley, where the traveller is regaled at every fazenda with 

 the delicious perfume of the plantations of orange-trees. 



