220 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



general occcupation of the country, though, if thereby, together with 

 the abundance of deer which it possesses, it support itself, it certainly 

 proceeds no farther, and exports nothing. It is flanked by the long and 

 narrow Lake of Mangueira, not the one mentioned before, but another 

 of the same name, which extends eighty or ninety miles in a line nearly 

 parallel to the coast, and between which and the Lake Mirim the 

 road passes. 



The Lake Mirim is more than a hundred miles long, and, in 

 general, from- twenty to thirty broad. It is very shallow, and, in the 

 rainy season, widely extends its borders, pouring its surplus water 

 through the river or strait of Gonzales, into the harbour of Rio Grande, 

 flooding the plains, and destroying multitudes of cattle. At such times 

 it also forms a communication with other lakes, which lie near its 

 Northern end. The largest of these is the Cajuba, a kind of fruit- 

 tree, and the most Southerly point, where I have noticed the 

 the Caju tree. About a day's ride beyond the lake stands the small fort 

 of Santa Tereza. 



On a subsequent trip from St. Pedro to the island of Cangazu, 

 the great head, lying at the entrance of the Lagoa dos Patos ; I 

 was accompanied by a friend, in a Plymouth built boat, with four good 

 hands, and a young man who resided near the island, and professed to be 

 well acquainted with the intricate navigation of the river. Neither of 

 the two channels, towards the East, has more than five feet of water. One 

 of them lies along shore, until we reach the extreme point of land ; then 

 runs Southerly a little way, to round a sand-bank, and falls into the 

 course which vessels usually pursue in their way to the harbour. The 

 other stretches from the town, and coasts the opposite island to the 

 South Eastern point, where it becomes very narrow, but lies generally 

 in a line, connecting the church on one side of the water with a round 

 hill on the opposite side. From the place where the vessels lie at anchor, 

 the principal channel Northward is about half a mile wide, and frets 

 away the Eastern shore, until the land closes very considerably. It 



