NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



301 



Afterwards we proceeded, by the great road which runs through 

 this estate, to the rich plains of Oitii, formed of soil washed by a noisy 

 rivulet from the Serro of Boa Vista. We crossed the stream, and imme- 

 diately began to ascend by a zigzag path, making fourteen turns, yet so 

 steep that, from the highest point of the ladder, I threw a stone with 

 ease over all the stages. Many cattle, in their way to the city, descend 

 this pass, the elevation of which is about four thousand feet, and some- 

 times severe accidents happen among them from the slipperiness of the 

 path ; when an ox, in the hinder part of a drove, loses his footing and 

 falls, he generally carries with him several others down the precipice, at 

 the bottom of which they perish. On the right of this pass stands a 

 great naked cone, rising nearly two thousand feet higher. The difficul- 

 ties of the descent have led travellers to seek another route to the left, 

 and government has been employed for several years in rendering it 

 passable for carriages. 



From this spot the road advances, nearly sixty miles, to the Para- 

 hyba, running through a broken and thinly inhabited country. The 

 principal places lying upon it are Pao Grande and Uva. Near the latter 

 a circumstance occurred, which shows the Indian character, and the risk 

 attending a settlement on new lands. Two gentlemen having obtained 

 a grant, sent a person, accustomed to the country, to settle upon it. 

 Probably by some means he offended the Indians remaining in the 

 neighbouring woods ; for one day a shot fired at him struck the powder- 

 horn in his waistcoat-pocket, and wounded him in the wrist. Being on 

 horse-back he instantly pursued his assailants, and saw two Indians, who 

 escaped from him in their usual mode. In such cases the fugitive 

 endeavours to reach the brow of a hill little encumbered with wood, 

 where, dropping on his breech, he puts his head between his knees, and 

 his arms round his ankles ; in this state, being nearly as round as a ball, 

 he precipitates himself from the brow, and rolls speedily to the bottom. 

 From this circumstance, I apprehend, the Indians take their modern 

 name of Booticudies, or Butucudies ; a barbarous word, half Tupi, half 

 Portuguese, signifying fallers by the breech. The man who had been 



