TO THE RIO GRANDE DE BELMONTE. 



259 



We staid on this romantic spot of the coast till the full moon rose ; 

 the water had now receded, so that we could ride round the rocks. 

 This coast, from Prado to the Rio do Frade, was but lately con- 

 sidered as very dangerous on account of the savages, and nobody 

 would have ventured to travel here alone. Lindley says the same; 

 but now the people are on friendly terms with the Patachos, and do 

 not fear them: yet as they cannot be wholly trusted, it is always 

 better to travel in a large party. When I travelled this way again in 

 November in the same year, I found, at very low water, extensive 

 banks of sand and calcareous rocks, which stretch far into the sea, 

 and which have probably been chiefly produced by zoophytes. Their 

 surface is divided into regular parallel clefts ; in the holes worn in 

 them by the water, live crabs and other marine animals : the surface 

 of these rocky banks is partly covered with a green moss of the nature 

 of byssus. As the tide continued to ebb, we rode round many rocks, 

 which at high water are quite inaccessible, and the broad mirror of 

 the ocean shone beautifully in the light of the moon. 



In the middle of the night we came to the bank of the Rio do 

 Frade, a small river, which received this name because a Franciscan 

 missionary was drowned in it. Its harra is navigable for large canoes, 

 which can proceed two days journey up the stream, the banks of 

 which are fertile. Twelve leagues to the west appears the Monte 

 Pascoal. Some Indian families are placed on the opposite bank by 

 the ouvidoi\ in order to convey travellers over; the name of Desta- 

 camefite, or military station, of Linhares, has been given to this post, 

 though these people are not soldiers. Their plantations lie scattered 

 in the neighbouring thickets, among which they have their proper 

 dwellings, to be in some measure protected against the sea-winds. 

 At this time however they lived in a hut on the sandy plain near the 

 sea-shore, which afforded very indifferent shelter against wind and 

 weather. 



