158 



STAY AT CAPITANIA, 



town, a third battery of seventeen or eighteen guns, a few of which 

 are brass. The town is built rather unevenly, on pleasant hills, and the 

 river flowing past it is here every where enclosed within high moun- 

 tains, partly consisting of rocks, which are in many places naked 

 and steep, and covered with creeping plants. The beautiful surface of 

 the broad river is broken by several verdant islands, and the eye, as it 

 follows its course up the country, every where finds an agreeable point 

 of repose in lofty, verdant, wood-covered mountains. 



On our arrival we took up our abode at Villa Velha do Espirito 

 Santo, because at that place there was good pasturage for our 

 cattle. Thence we went in large boats to Cidade de Victoria, but 

 owing to a strong wind blowing from the sea, and the breadth of the 

 river, not without danger. The governor, to whom we paid our re- 

 spects, received us, to appearance, very politely. We applied to him 

 for quarters in the country, near the town, on which he assigned to us 

 a good convenient house at Barra de Jucu at the mouth of the little 

 river Jucu, about four leagues from the town. This house belonged to 

 Colonel Falcao, commander of the regiment of militia of this district, 

 and also one of the greatest planters in this part of the country. 



Here I again found news from Europe, for to this town, but no 

 farther, a post comes by land from Rio de Janeiro. While we were 

 employed in perusing the agreeable and long-expected accounts 

 from home, a crowd of people of all colours surrounded us, and 

 made the strangest remarks on our country and the object of our ex- 

 traordinary visit : here too, as every where else, we were taken for 

 English, On our return to Villa Velha, we found some of our people 

 ill of fever, which spread so rapidly, that in a few days most of them 

 were seized with it. This disorder was ascribed to the water : but it 

 is doubtless occasioned jointly by the climate and the provisions. We 

 however soon restored our people with Peruvian bark, and took pos- 

 session, as soon as possible, of our abode at Barra de Juc6, where 



