226 



STAY AT MOPiRO d'aRARA, 



upon the trees the direction which the woodmen are to pursue) arrived 

 a day earher, and announced the coming of their company. The fol- 

 lowing evening the captain arrived with eighty or ninety men, and 

 took up his quarters with us. A great number of people was now 

 collected within this small compass : the sounds of the guitar, the 

 song, and the dance ( haduca ), were heard till late in the night ; large 

 fu'es illumined the surrounding abatis and the dark forests, and 

 tinged with their red glare the broad surface of the lagoa. The length 

 of the road from Mucuri hither is about seven or eight leagues. The 

 Mineiros had found, near Morrod'Arara, another large /flooa, abound- 

 ing in fish, and in which there are great numbers of jacares ; they 

 had to make a circuit round this lake, and to cross marshes, by which, 

 and similar obstacles, their labour had been much retarded. The 

 various races of men whom the captain had together in his troop, 

 gave to our train a very picturesque and original appearance. Be- 

 sides us Germans and Portuguese, there were in our company ne- 

 groes, Creoles, mulattos, mamelukes, Indians of the coast, a Boto- 

 cudo, a Malali, some Maconis, and Capuchos, all soldiers from 

 Minas Geraes. 



The captain and his people stopped some days at Morro d'Arara, to 

 have the tools and the locks of their guns repaired by our smith. He 

 made his people continue their work every day : they carried the 

 road past our abatis over the ridge of the mountains, and made a 

 path, or picade, from our head-quarters to the new road, which we 

 used in the sequel for hunting. On the 22d of February the captain's 

 people left our habitations to prosecute their work through the forest. 

 Some of us accompanied them for some distance along the new road 

 into the woods. There we reposed under ancient venerable trees, and 

 were regaled by the Mineiros with coohng beverage. This scene is 

 represented in the annexed engraving. We are seen seated in a circle, 

 while Captain Bento Lourenzo, distinguished from the rest by his 



