260 



JOURNEY 



FROM CARAVELLAS 



Being always accustomed to ride before the party, I alighted at the 

 bank of the river, which is too deep to be forded, and let my mule, 

 which appeared to be very weary, stand still ; but the animal was 

 impatient to get acquainted with the dwellings on the other side, 

 escaped from me, swam immediately across the river, and induced 

 most of the beasts of burden to follow his example. We now found 

 indeed shelter in the huts of the Indians, but from their wretched 

 condition, little accommodation and refreshment after our ride in the 

 night. All round we hung our wet clothes in the sea-wind, which 

 entered the wretched hut on all sides, and then lay doM^n to sleep on 

 our blankets spread upon the sand. While we were here suffering 

 not a little from cold, we saw the half-naked inmates of the house lie 

 in their hammocks, where the fire, though constantly kept up, could 

 not possibly warm them. The care of tending the fire was left to the 

 woman, and her son, who was grown up, called from time to time to 

 his mother not to neglect her business. The next morning was cool 

 and windy; we packed up our wet clothes, and rode to Trancozo. 

 The ebb being now at the lowest, the sea had left large tracts of flat 

 rocky banks on the coast quite uncovered : some Indians, dwelling dis- 

 persed in the neighbouring thickets, were looking for molluscaj to eat. 

 Several kinds of shell-fish were eaten by them, especially the black 

 edible kind of sea-urchin, f echinus ). After proceeding three leagues, 

 we came to a place where a small rivulet falls into the sea ; it is 

 usually called Rio de Trancozo ; but in the old Indian language was 

 named Itapitanga, (son of the stones,) probably because it issues from 

 stony mountains : it flows through a pretty deep valley, surrounded 

 by eminences with extensive flat tops. On the south side you per- 

 ceive from the low sea-coast the tops of lofty cocoa-palms, and the 

 roof and cross of the Jesuits convent at Trancozo. Some persons 

 sent before led us by a steep road up to the town, where we took up 

 our quarters for the day in the casa da camara. 



