AND JOURNEY TO THE RIO DOCE. 



161 



present on his horse. The great forest of Aracatiba formed an awful 

 wilderness ; the parrots flew away with loud screams, and the voices 

 of the saiiassu monkeys were heard all around. Parasitic plants, some 

 of them of the most extraordinary kinds, interlace the tall gigantic 

 trunks, so as to form an impenetrable thicket : the splendid flowers 

 of the fleshy plants, the drooping festoons of the ferns, which twined 

 round the trees, were now shooting forth with the utmost luxuriance ; 

 young cocoa-palms every where adorn the underwood, especially in 

 damp places ; here and there the cecropia peltata, w ith its silver grey 

 annulated stems, formed separate thickets. From this solemn gloom 

 we unexpectedly came into an open country, and it caused us an 

 agreeable surprise, when w e all at once beheld the large white build- 

 ing of the fnzenda de Aracatiba, With, its two little towers, situated on 

 a beautiful green level spot at the foot of the lofty Morro de Araca- 

 tiba, a rocky mountain overgrown with wood. This estate has four 

 hundred negro slaves, and very large plantations, especially of sugar, 

 in the neighbourhood. The sons of the colonel reside on separate 

 fazendas not far from this place. 



Arapatiba is the greatest fazenda that I met with during this 

 journey : the building has an extensive front of two stories, and a 

 church ; the negro huts, with the sugar-mill, and the farm-buildings, 

 lie at the foot of a hill, near the house. About a league off, on a 

 romantic spot upon the river Jucu, entirely surrounded with lofty 

 primeval forests, there is a second fazenda, called Coroaba, which 

 belongs to another proprietor. The governor had commenced the 

 building of a church at St. Agostinho, not far from Coroaba, on 

 which account he was residing on the spot. At this place there is a 

 military post as a check upon the savages ; the soldiers were at this 

 time engaged in making a road to Minas Geraes, and an officer had 

 already undertaken a journey thither, by order of the governor, to 

 open a communication through the woods. The government has 



Y 



