280 STAY ON THE RIO GRANDE DE BELMONTE, 



At the fazenda of Ipibura, which belongs to the heirs of the late 

 Captain Mor of Belmonte, I halted for a time, to take in some pro- 

 visions requisite for the voyage, and especially to furnish myself with 

 brandy, which is so necessary against fevers. This fazenda has the 

 only sugar-works on the river Belmonte ; it has indeed, stood still for 

 a long time, but, as it seems, is now to be set to work again. They 

 also make here agoa ardente de camia, (common rum). The banks 

 on both sides of the river are beautiful : tall uba reeds here wave in 

 close plots, with a flower resembling a flag, and the leaves spread out 

 like a fan ; over them rises, as the second gradation, a stripe of slen- 

 der cecropia trees, with silvery annulated stems ; the back-ground is 

 formed in a very picturesque manner, by the thick, gloomy forest, the 

 diversified dark green foliage of which rises high behind in close masses. 

 The bank itself is a thick texture of many kinds of plants, where pale 

 blue and bright violet flowering bind-weeds grow luxuriantly, inter- 

 laced together, and beautiful grasses, especially of the cyperus kind, 

 fill up the remaining space. 



Towards sun-set we landed on a coroa, or sand-bank, near Ipibura, 

 where some people, chiefly Menien Indians, live in scattered dwel- 

 lings. I had here an opportunity to purchase a very beautiful skin of 

 an ounce, lately killed. I should have been glad to have possessed, 

 or at least to have seen, the skeleton of the animal, but the man who 

 had shot it, assured me that he had left it at a great distance in the 

 woods, but that I should find the skull on the Coroa de Timicui, far- 

 ther up the river, where it is likewise usual to halt. Some fishermen 

 who had built their huts at Ipibura gave us eggs of river tortoises, 

 which were quite round, of the size of large cherries, and covered 

 with a hard shining white shell : they have not the disagreeable fishy 

 taste which the eggs of sea turtles have, and are therefore very good 

 eating. The season was now beginning when these eggs are found 

 fresh : they are buried in numbers on all the sand banks, and are 



