MUCURI, VlfOZA, CARAVELLAS, &C. 



229 



a red head*, &c. Of insects, we frequently procured the ceramhix 

 longimamis ; and of the class of reptiles, the wood tortoise, jabuti 

 ( testudo tahulata ), Sac. 



After an absence of about three weeks the ouvidor returned with 

 some boats and many people. He brought us the melancholy news, 

 that the savages had on the 28th of February murdered five men, 

 women, and children, about a league from Villa do Port Allegre, on 

 Captain Bento Lourenzo's new road. Some other persons, who on 

 perceiving the large compact body of the savages, had quickly 

 thrown themselves into a thicket, were fortunate enough to escape. A 

 man from Mucuri, who was at work on his plantations in the woods 

 near the spot, had heard the lamentable cries of the unhappy victims ; 

 he, and a young man his son, had immediately taken their guns and 

 hastened to the aid of the sufferers ; but before they reached the scene 

 of the murder, the father discharged his piece, on which the savages 

 immediately fled. They found the murdered persons weltering in 

 their blood, without any sign of life, pierced with many arrows, and 

 covered with numerous small wounds inflicted with the points of 

 arrows : a child, which had hid itself behind a bush, had escaped 

 unnoticed, and gave an account of the particulars of the mournful 

 event. As the savages did not retire after this outrage, but still 

 hovered about the plantations of Mucuri, these were abandoned by 

 the owners, who all sought refuge in the town. The ouvidor' had 

 immediately given orders for an expedition, and collected armed peo- 

 ple for the purpose from St. Matthew's, Villa Verde, Porte Seguro, 

 and other places, after which he himself returned to Morro d'Arara. 

 He then repaired with ten or fifteen persons to the new ,road, and 

 remained there two days in the forest, to level a watercourse for the 



* Psittacus mitratus; with a short tail 7 inches 8 lines long; fine bright green with dark 

 blue quill feathers ; the head down to the neck and the eyes scarlet. 



