144 



JOURNEY FEOM VILLA DE ST. SALVADOR, 



close to the huts of the station was a place where we were in danger 

 of losing some of our best mules. As we had still to travel four 

 leagues, through the district infested by the Puris, between the rivers 

 Itabapuana and Itapemirim, we took care to march in a compact 

 body, and proceeded slowly under military escort, upon a firm and 

 perfectly level sandy plain along the high cliffs of the coast, which 

 consists of yellow or white, and reddish brown clay*, and of strata 

 of ferruginous sand-stone. 



In the clefts or ravines, and on the hioh ridp-e of the coast, the 

 country is every where co^^erecl with forests, into which nobody ven- 

 tures to penetrate far, on account of the savages : we had nothing to 

 fear, having twenty pieces ready to receive them, though our people 

 beheld with horror the spot where the savages had torn in pieces 

 their six unhappy victims. In a few hours we reached, on a low part 

 of the coast, the Povoafao Ci?'i, which is now entirely abandoned. 

 The Puris or other Tapuyas suddenly attacked this place last August, 

 murdered three persons in the first house, and spread such conster- 

 nation, that all the inhabitants immediately fled : only a couple of 

 houses, beyond a small lagoa, are still inhabited, their well armed 

 inmates thinking themselves safe there. The savages carried off such 

 iron utensils and provisions as they could find, and then retired again 

 into their woods. After this surprise, the Sargento Mor ( Major ) of 

 Itapemirim, with fifty armed men, made an excursion into the woods 

 to look after the Puris. He found a broad road convenient for horse- 

 men, which led to some huts, and thence further into the interior ; 

 but met with none of the Indians, and was soon obliged to return, 

 for want of provisions. 



* According to the analysis made by professor Haiisniann of Gottingen, this fossil, which 

 is a principal constituent of a great part of this coast of Brazil, is of the species of litho- 

 marga (stone-marrow), among which the Saxon terra miraculosa is also reckoned. It agrees 

 in all its characteristics with the lithomarga. 



