TO THE RIVER ESPIRITO SANTO. 



137 



The Itabapuana, a small river, runs past Gutinguti, and when at its 

 height waters the meadows. The Corograjia Brasilica erroneously 

 calls it the Reritigha, which however is the Benevente ; it rises in the 

 Serra do Pico, not far from the sources of the Muriahe. The ex- 

 tensive forests which surround Muribecca are inhabited by wandering 

 Puris, who here, and about a day's journey further to the north, 

 manifest a hostile disposition. They are supposed, not without reason, 

 to be the same that live on good terms with the planters near St. Fi- 

 delis. No farther back than the August preceding our visit, they at- 

 tacked the herds of the faze?ida here on the Itabapuana*, and shot 

 out of malice thirty oxen and a horse. A young negro tending the 

 cattle was cut off by them from his armed companions, taken 

 prisoner, killed, and as is here asserted, roasted and devoured. It 

 is supposed that they separated the arms and legs, and the flesh 

 from the body, and took them along with them ; for the head of the 

 negro boy, and the trunk stripped of the flesh, were found soon after- 

 wards on the spot, ])ut the savages had precipitately retired into their 

 forests. The hands and feet, which had been roasted and gnawed, 

 were also recognised, and marks of the teeth were said to be still 

 visible on them. The steward, who is exposed to these attacks of the 

 savages, expressed the most inveterate hatred against them, and re- 

 peatedly declared, that he should like to shoot our young Puri. " It 

 is inconceivable," he added, " tliat the government does not adopt 

 effectual measures for the extermination of these brutes ; if we go ever 

 so short a distance up the river, we are sure to meet with their huts." 

 It is certainly disagreeable to have them so near ; but it should be re- 

 collected that the planters, by their previous ill-usage of the aboriginal 

 inhabitants, were the chief cause of their hostile dispositions. In 



* This river is distinguished in several maps by the name of the Comapuam ; some of the 

 inhabitants call it occasionally Campapoana; but its true name is that given in tlietext. 



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