NOTES ON BRAZIL. oS7 



sleep in long narrow rooms, at the West end of the building, each of 

 which contains four, or six, or eight couches for single persons. The 

 beds, whenever the King visits Santa Cruz or St. Bento, are brought 

 from the city, and carried back on his return ; otherwise, so little 

 order is there in the royal houses, they might be occupied by some of 

 the filthiest of human beings. 



The interior of Governador has, in general a sandy soil, some little 

 swampy, and some wooded land. Its Botany appears to me worthy of 

 attention, more especially on account of some curious species of parasitic 

 plants comprehended in it. I found here the largest Tarantula, which 

 1 ever saw ; with its extended legs, covering a space of five inches in 

 diameter. 



The small village of Mariangu stands in a low sandy spot, full of 

 pools, and apparently unhealthy. About two miles behind it, rises a 

 perpendicular rock of granite, more than three hundred feet high, on the 

 top of which is the church of Nossa Senhora da Penha, forming a beau- 

 tiful object from many parts of the harbour, and once every year the 

 scene of great festivity. Four miles distant, along the same flat shore, 

 at the mouth of a sliallow but l)road river of the same name, is the 

 village of Irasa. The few poor huts of which it is composed belong, I 

 believe, to the hamlet of Iraja, are placed on a rocky knoll, and enjoy 

 a commanding view of the straits and the bay. A rocky coast and shoal 

 water must here create many difficulties, even for canoas; hence, pro- 

 bably, the name which answers nearly to our vulgar exclamation, — Ah ! 

 Lackaday ! Just off this spot is the small island of Saquet^, forming a 

 pretty feature in the landscape, and furnished, like many other of the 

 islands, with a Quay and a Venda, at which the boatmen stop in their 

 daily course to and from the market in the city. Not far distant is the 

 bro^d Estuary of the Merity, whence the shore rises pleasantly to the fine 

 river Serapui, the borders of which are well cultivated. 



In steering hence to the mouth of the Iguazu, we experienced some 

 difficulty from an extensive bed of mud, stretching out from a low and 



swampy shore. Though soft, it has sufficient tenacity to impede the 



u u 



