NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



261 



useful. The islands are stripped, it is true, of a large portion of their 

 forest honours, a rage for cutting down every thing like a tree still 

 prevails, and they are deformed by smoking lime-kilns. Yet, in spite of 

 these disparagements, they retain so much of their exquisite pristine 

 beauty as to render navigation in the midst of them highly delightful. 

 Though gradually losing the ornaments which now excite our admira- 

 tion ; though the brown projecting rock, which glows in the sun, and 

 enlivens the broad display of foliage, may be so bared as to become an 

 object of disgust ; many of these scenes still surpass the creations of a 

 lively fancy, and can be but poorly imitated by the pencil. No robbery 

 can render them tame and uninteresting, while their visitors carry with 

 them any portion of taste. The shores of the neighbourhood, too, are 

 composed of a hard white sand, are broad, level, and clean; while the 

 country inland is bold and verdant, and, in almost every part, affords 

 something agreeable, on which the eye may rest. 



On a boldly projecting knoll, at about a third part of the elevation 

 of one of the hills, which here present themselves, stand the village and 

 church of St. Lorenzo, famous in Brazilian history for the gallant defence 

 made by an Indian chief against a French brig of war, which attacked 

 the place in 1568. He had only one gun, and probably no other balls 

 than hard rounded stones; yet he had learned so much of the art of 

 using them with effect, as to beat off the assailant with great slaughter. 

 Such balls were not imcommon in this country formerly, and in turning 

 up the soil, near my own house, which was built on the foundation of an 

 old fort, several of them were found, and I have a fragment of one now 

 in ray possession. The battle is described in a minute and spirited way 

 by Vasconcellos. From his description may be gathered the progress of 

 desiccation in the Bay of Santa Anna. Where the brig anchored, and 

 became aground by the falling of the tide, there is not now sufficient 

 water for a boat ; and it seems that, when she was afloat, she retreated 

 Southward over a space which now forms the isthmus between the Bay 

 of Santa Anna and that of Praia Grande. 



]\^ative Indians still inhabit the spot, ?;nd are employed in making 



