108 



STAY AT VILLA DE ST. SALVADOR, 



mounted. In the gloom of the forest, a number of luminous insects 

 were %ing about, the goat-sucker ( caprimulgus ) screamed, large 

 crickets ( cigarras) were heard at an extraordinary distance, and 

 the singular noise of a host of frogs resounded through the nocturnal 

 gloom of the solitary wilderness. We at length reached a meadow 

 on the bank of the river, and found ourselves suddenly among the 

 huts of the Coroados Indians at St. Fidelis. Our guide immediately 

 rode up to the habitation of the priest, Father Joao, and sent a re- 

 quest to him, through one of his slaves, that he would give us a 

 night's lodging ; but we met with a peremptory refusal, and all our 

 further attempts were fruitless. But for the kindness of the captain 

 in whose house we had been so wtII treated at noon, we should cer- 

 tainly have had to pass the night in the open air. We found shelter 

 in the house of this gentleman, which was quite empty, hung up our 

 nets and slept very comfortably. 



St. Fidelis, on the beautiful banks of the Paraiba, which is here of 

 considerable breadth, is a mission or village of the Coroados, or 

 Coropo Indians, and was founded about thirty years ago by some 

 Capuchin friars from Italy. At that time there were only four 

 missionaries, one of whom still resides here as priest ; a second 

 lives at his mission at Aldea da Pedra, seven or eight leagues higher 

 up the river; the other two are dead. The Indians inhabiting this 

 place belong to the tribes of the Coroados, Coropos and Puris, the 

 last of whom wander about in a savage state, in the great deserts be- 

 tween the sea and the north bank of the Paraiba, and extend toM^ards 

 the west as far as the Rio Pomba, in Minas Geraes*. Opposite to 



* The Corografia Brasilica does not describe with accuracy the state of the Puris on the 

 lower Paraiba ; for it says that these savages are here collected in several villages, which 

 is not the fact. 



