AND JOURNEY TO THE RIO DOCE. 



169 



towards evening at the military post of Quartel do Riacho. The sea 

 forms many inlets in this part, which give the road an unpleasing 

 uniformity, for no sooner have you passed one promontory than another 

 appears in the distance. We found here several kinds of sea-weed 

 (fucus ) which the sea throws up, but only a few shells. In some 

 groups of rocks in the sea, the bright purple swallow (hhimdo violacea J 

 builds its nest. Upon this coast lie detached dwellings of the Indians 

 at a great distance from each other, and scattered among the thickets. 

 Some of the inhabitants venture in their canoes far out to sea, to 

 catch fish. A small stream, the bottom of which was so soft that our 

 beasts sunk deep into it, detained us a long time : two of our drivers 

 stripping off their clothes sought with our saddle mules, and at last 

 found, a firmer place, and we all got over without accident, though 

 rather wet. It was not dusk when we reached the quartel. 



Quartel do Riacho is a military post, consisting of one officer and 

 six privates, for the purpose of forwarding orders and keeping up the 

 communication with the parts on the Rio Doce. Upon the sea-shore 

 are two houses, one of which is occupied by the families of some of 

 the soldiers, who derive subsistence from their neighbouring planta- 

 tions. The subaltern officer who commanded here was an intelligent 

 man, and gave us much interesting information. From him we re- 

 ceived more accurate details respecting the war carried on in the woods 

 upon the Rio Doce with the hostile tribe of the Botocudos, as we had 

 now arrived on the frontiers of the wildernesses of that nation. The 

 officer himself had been wounded with an arrow in the shoulder, 

 when he served in one of the stations on the Rio Doce ; but he was 

 now quite recovered of this dangerous wound. The tribe of the Bo- 

 tocudos (so called by the Europeans) roves about in the forests on 

 the banks of the Rio Doce, up to its source in the Capitania of Minas 

 Geraes. 



These savages are distinguished by their custom of eating human 



z 



