176 



STAY AT CAPITANIA, 



Each has its particular Dame, and their number is said to increase 

 the farther you ascend. The water of the Rio Doce, when at its 

 height, is turbid and yellowish, and is universally asserted by the 

 inhabitants to generate fevers. It abounds in fish : even the saw-fish 

 (pristis serraj comes up far above Linhares, and into the lagoa of 

 Juparanan, where it is frequently caught. 



From the forests we heard the cries of numerous monkeys, particu- 

 larly the barbados, the sa'dassus, Sic. Here it was that we first saw 

 in their wild state the magnificent maccaws (psittacus macao, Linn.) 

 which are among the chief ornaments of the Brazilian forests ; we 

 heard their loud screaming voices, and saw these splendid birds soar- 

 ing above the crowns of the lofty sapuccnja trees. We recognised 

 them at a distance by their long tails, and their glowing red plu- 

 mage shone with dazzling splendour in the beams of the unclouded 

 sun. Perroquets, maracanas, maitaccas, tiribas, curicas, camutangas, 

 nandayas, and other species of parrots, flew, loudly screaming, in 

 numerous flocks from bank to bank ; and the large and stately Mus- 

 covy duck (anas nioscliata, Tjnn.) alighted on the branch of a cecro- 

 pia, in the margin of the forest on the bank of the river. The black 

 "skimmer (rynchops nigra. Linn.) sat motionless and with contracted 

 neck upon the sand-banks : toucans and the furucuas, ( trogon 

 viridis, Linn.) uttered their loud cries. These wild animals, and the 

 savage Botocudos, who are now however more rare, are the sole in- 

 habitants of the banks of this river. There are scarcely any settlers ; 

 in two places only a few persons, sufificiently provided with arms for 

 their defence, have fixed themselves. They always carry their guns 

 with them, when they go to their plantations ; and those who have no 

 fire-arms have at least one of the bows called bodoc, to discharge balls 

 and stones. It is but occasionally, and in their roving excursions, that 

 the Botocudos appear in these parts so far down the river. 



Towards noon we reached the little island called from its shape 



