2S0 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



more eligible conveyance could be found there, to advance over the 

 mountains to St. Catharine's. This would give me an opportunity of 

 seeing also a little of the Northern Part of Rio Grande. 



I agreed, as is usual in such cases, w^ith a man who was to provide 

 twenty horses for the journey, with a saddle and bridle for my own use, 

 to act as a guide, and conduct me without delay, by a frequented route, 

 in which the necessary supplies and accommodations might the most 

 easily be found. The horses which are not mounted, are commonly 

 driven before the travellers ; a mare being selected for a leader, which 

 being used to the task, will proceed steadily at the rate of seven or eight 

 miles an hour, and from whom the drove will seldom stray. When the 

 ridden or loaded horses are fatigued, the guide turns them loose and 

 supplies their place with others ; and travellers who can bear such 

 exertion will sometimes tire four or five horses in a day. In this mode, 

 it is said, the journey from St. Pedro to St. Catharine's has been per- 

 formed in four days, a distance of as many hundred miles. The Governor 

 was pleased to express much concern for my safety and comfort, and 

 having repeatedly gone over this ground himself, rendered me essential 

 service by his directions. 



The horses were to be ready at the village of St. Pedro do Norte, on 

 the other side of the harbour, between which and the town ferry boats 

 are continually plying. These boats are good ones, yet the passage is not 

 always safe ; for there are no regular tides, and when the wind blows 

 from the South-East, the water is heaped against the beach of the ocean 

 in such a manner that a strong current sets up the harbour. When 

 there has been much rain in the interior, considerable floods come down- 

 ward, and the agitation produced in these different ways, changes the 

 position of sand-banks. I was once upset in the surf; but the people on 

 shore aware of the danger into which we were running, soon rendered 

 us effectual assistance. A short time before I first saw this spot, a part of 

 the shore, on the Eastern side, had been torn away in the night, several 

 houses were thrown down, and their inhabitants perished. Where the 

 houses had stood, there was the next morning thirty feet water. 



