294 STAY AT THE RIO GRANDE DE BELMONTE, 



but though I was long and often among these savages, and frequently 

 witnessed their interviews with new comers, I never observed, or heard 

 of any thing of the kind. 



The old Captain and his chief friends had taken up their quarters 

 in a shed, open on all sides, and merely covered with a thatched 

 roof, which was designed for the preparation of mandiocca-flour ; 

 here they had kindled a great fire, near the mandiocca wheel and the 

 great stove for drying the flour, and lay around it involved in thick 

 smoke, on the ashes, which gave to their brown skin a grey appear- 

 ance. The Captain himself frequently rose, roughly demanded an 

 axe and went to fetch fuel: from time to time too, he ventured an 

 attack upon us or the Portuguese to obtain flour, or shook the melon- 

 trees to get their fruit. 



These Botocudos, who manifest such irreconcileable hostility on the 

 Rio Doce, are so little feared here on the Belmonte, that people have 

 even ventured to go several days" journey with them into the great 

 woods to hunt, and to sleep with them there in their huts : such ex- 

 periments however are not yet very frequent, as the distrust enter- 

 tained of them cannot easily be quite overcome. This mistrust and 

 the fear of putting themselves wholly in their power are not the 

 only circumstances which make the Europeans averse to such ex- 

 cursions in the woods in company with the savages ; to these must 

 be added their great muscular strength, and ability to endure fatigue ; 

 for our people always returned quite exhausted from every excursion 

 with the Botocudos. Their muscular strength enables them to go 

 very swiftly in the hottest weather, both up and down hill ; they 

 penetrate the thickest and most entangled forests ; they wade and 

 swim through every river, if it be not too rapid ; perfectly naked, 

 therefore not incommoded by clothing, never getting into perspiration, 

 carrying only their bow and arrows in their hand, they stoop with 

 facility ; and with their hardened skin, which fears neither thorns nor 



