TO THE RIVER ESPIRITO SANTO. 



141 



The journey from the Itabapuana northward requires some pre- 

 caution, because the trav eller has to pass over a tract of six or eight 

 leagues to the river Itapemu'im, w^here the Puris have always shewn a 

 hostile disposition. As they had already committed several dreadful 

 murders in this district, it was found necessary to establish a military 

 post, called the quai'tel, or destacamento das barreiras. The steward 

 of Muribecca resolved to accompany us himself to that post. We 

 proceeded through lofty ancient forests, alternating with open sandy 

 tracts, in which we observed numerous traces of the antas, or Ameri- 

 can tapir, and of deer. At length we reached the sea-beach, where 

 we saw an extensive gentle bend of the coast, terminating at a great 

 distance in a tongue of land, where the quartel appeared, standing on 

 the elevated coast. As this tract is often infested by the savages, 

 we had well armed ourselves, and in case of an attack had twenty 

 pieces ready for our defence. Several of our people had even made 

 cartridges, that they might reload the more speedily. The soldiers 

 belonging to the station usually go out and meet travellers, when they 

 observe at a distance a tropa advancing over the white sand of the 

 beach ; accordingly, after we had proceeded about a league along the 

 coast, we met a patrole of six men, most of them negroes or mulattoes, 

 whom the officer of the station had sent to meet us. 



About noon our train reached the station, where the ensign who 

 commanded it gave us a very hospitable reception. This post con- 

 sists of an officer and twenty militia-men, who are armed with mus- 

 kets without bayonets. Upon this eminence, directly over the sea, 

 two clay houses have been built, and some mandiocca and millet 

 planted, for the subsistence of the soldiers. The coast has in this 

 place high perpendicular cliffs of clay (called harreiras ), on the top 

 of which the quartel is erected ; it therefore affords a noble prospect 

 of the sea, as well as northwards and southwards along the coast. 



