S44 



NOtES ON BRAZIL. 



district ; such gains do not consist with the manifest condition of the 

 people, and in a few years would diffuse among them a measure of 

 wealth destructive of all social order. 



Off the mouth of the stream are two pretty round islands, or rather 

 rocks, covered with trees. They are called the Guayana, and are 

 inhabited by numerous sea-fowl, from one species of which they borrow 

 their name. Near them are also several extensive weirs, formed by 

 stakes driven into the sand-banks, which form the shoals of the bay. 

 Hence the coast, toward the East, is composed of pleasant hills, with 

 no less pleasant plains in the intervals. 



The next river in our course is the Irirf, (a word signifying shells,) 

 a hundred yards broad at the mouth, and more than commonly abundant 

 in fishes. Its right bank is, for some distance, low, flat, and muddy, 

 forming a soil for the growth of Mangue. About a mile within it we 

 found many Saveiros taking in shells, which are carried away to be 

 converted into lime. Over the bed in which they lie is a stratum of 

 stiff but unconsolidated clay, nearly four feet thick. The bed itself is 

 not more than six or eight inches in depth, and the shells appear as 

 though they had not been long buried, without any marks of decay or 

 petrefaction ; among them is no mixture of clay or sand. Immediately 

 beyond this spot, is some bold ground ; but a little farther onward, the 

 stream makes its way through pestiferous marshes, covered with mangue, 

 and seems occasionally to flow with violence. Where it meets the tide 

 there is a broader expanse of water, with a bank in the midst of it, and 

 the conflux, it is probable, sometimes forms a dangerous whirlpool. At 

 one of the angles of the river, into which we were hurried by the 

 current, we sounded, and found nearly fifty feet of water. Having 

 ascended about eight miles, we got into a sort of gutter, not twice the 

 width of our boat, with marshy ground on each side of it to a great 

 extent. From the roof of our boat we could discern, over the Mangue, 

 the broad sail of a Saveiro, and the tiles of a hut, about four hundred 

 yards distant. We shouted, and fired several shots as signals, for a 

 canoa to come to our relief, for the boat could proceed no farther, and 



