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JOURNEY FROM THE RIO DOCE 



some Indian families here, who in time are to form a settlement : 

 they were previously intended to protect the sea-coast against the 

 savages, and Itaiinas is therefore properly considered as a military 

 station. Some Indians, who happened to be going the same way 

 as ourselves, accompanied us northwards from Itaiinas. They were 

 provided with their fowling-pieces, and perfectly acquainted with the 

 country. We rode through two small streams, the Riacho Doce, and 

 the Rio das Ostras, which are both very inconsiderable, but issuing 

 from a picturesque dark woody back-ground, full of cocoa-palms, 

 form a romantic landscape. 



A little further on, we came to a spot where hostile savages have 

 often been seen. This place bears the name of Os Lenzoes (the white 

 cloths), because on a rocky point, patches of shining white sand 

 are interspersed with grass, and it therefore appears from the sea, as 

 if white cloths were hung up here. The Patachos, who inhabit these 

 parts, had long behpved peaceably, when one of their countrymen 

 was killed, by which they were provoked to renew hostilities. Near 

 the Rio das Ostras, we accidentally found on the sandy beach near 

 the sea, a jacare about five feet in length, which probably wanted to 

 cross by land from one river to the other, and was surprised by us in 

 its journey ; on the right it had the rocky cliff, on the left the sea, 

 and being unable to get out of the way, remained immovable. When 

 much irritated with a stick, it indeed tried to bite, but it might be 

 attacked without danger. This animal, which is so active and quick 

 when young, appears to be very helpless on shore, when it is old, for 

 it crept away very slowly. After proceeding about two leagues we 

 reached the rivulet of Barra Nova, with a little hamlet of a few 

 houses, which are built on a moderately high but steep eminence. 

 We halted at this place to repose during the noon-day heat ; and in 

 the dusk of the evening arrived at the mouth of the Mucuri, not a 



