NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



287 



secretly, as to give some colour to the prevailing report of their 

 massacre, which gave rise to the invasion the year after, under 

 Dugue Trouin. 



In a somewhat difFercut direction from Bota Foga, we pass under 

 the precipitous Peak of the Corcovado, along a romantic valley, 

 sprinkled with country houses and gardens, to a gorge of the mountains, 

 near the Northern end of the Lagoa do Freitas. Four small pieces of 

 cannon may possibly have once been useful for the defence of this pass, 

 against an insurrection of the natives ; but now have not the shadow of 

 utility. Here are stationed the waggons which convey gunpowder 

 across the Isthmus from the Lake to the Bay of Bota Foga, where it is 

 again embarked, for the Magazine North of the City. The mills are at 

 no great distance at which powder is made for the Government only, 

 and that in sniall quantities, and of a wretched quality. Nevertheless, it 

 is good enough for a country which expends ten times as much in salutes 

 as in war ; and whose circumstances imperiously require that it be used 

 only in pastime, ceremony, or defence. 



The Lagoa do Freitas and its borders exhibit scenery of the most 

 delicate cast ; it is the Grassmere of Brazil ; and in one point surpasses 

 that beautiful little lake, as a view of the ocean towards the South-East, 

 and of several islands, is compreliended in the picture. This piece of 

 water is about two miles over in every direction, deep, generally fresh, 

 and remarkably clear ; its bed is in some parts rocky, and it abounds 

 with muscles and other small shell fish. It sometimes experiences violent 

 gusts of wind, and when the sea occasionally breaks over its barrier^ many 

 of the fresh water fishes perish, 



About three miles farther, at a small place dedicated to St. John the 

 Baptist, is the Botanical Garden, in Vv'hich, amongst many tropical 

 plants, native and exotic, is found the teartree. When first introduced 

 here, several persons v/ere brought from China to superintend its growth 

 and management ; and it was even supposed, that at no great distance of 

 time, the whole ^luropean marjcet might be supplied from hence. There 

 can be little question j^boiit the qaye taken of it, ajid every observer 



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