208 



JOURNEY rilOM THE RIO DOCE 



a little cotton, &c. It sometimes exports 54,500 alqiiicras of flour 

 in a year, which, reckoning the alquiera at the moderate rate of five 

 patacks or florins, makes 272,500 florins. This trade brings hither a 

 considerable number of vessels from Pernambuco, Bahia,, Rio de Ja- 

 neiro, Capitania, and the other ports on the east coast : thirty or forty 

 small vessels are sometimes lying here at once ; and there are frequent 

 opportunities to go, or send letters by the casquelro to Rio. The ves- 

 sels of Pernambuco are chiefly engaged in carrying mandiocca-flour, 

 as this important article is scarce in that part of the country, and dry 

 seasons sometimes occasion a real famine there, as Koster has 

 observed. 



As we intended, after our tour on the Mucuri, where we designed 

 to spend some time, to return to this place, we now stopped only 

 three days, and then set out for the Alcobapa, which flows through 

 the ancient forests to the north of Caravellas. On its banks 

 lies the fazenda of the minister, Conde da Barca, called Ponte 

 do Gentio (bridge of the savages), which we desired to see. We 

 proceeded for some hours up the Caravellas in a boat, and then 

 continued our journey by land. Towards evening we came to the 

 little fazenda de Pindoba, where Mr, Cardoso, the proprietor, very 

 hospitably received us for the night. The country is wild and covered 

 with still unexplored forests, and only here and there a dwelling or a 

 plantation. As our conversation with Mr. Cardoso turned on the 

 country and its natural curiosities, he ordered a stone to be brought, 

 which had been found under ground ; it was a rough sand-stone cut 

 into the form of a small axe. Our host, however, declared it to be a 

 thunder-bolt, which had fallen and penetrated the ground during a 

 tempest ; and he, as well as the other persons present, was highly 

 dissatisfied with our opinion, that it was doubtless an implement made 

 and lost by the savages. The marvellous has always the greatest 

 charms for the uninformed. 



