NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



353 



moments where I was. He left me, re-entered the church, and quickly 

 returned with a small consecrated image of the Holy Ghost, which he 

 kissed devoutly, and presenting it to me, begged that I would preserve 

 it with care. As, without doubt, he considered the Dove to be a sacred 

 Palladium against danger, and if properly used, as a source of invaluable 

 benefits, for time and for ever, I could not but accept his present with 

 lively feelings of. gratitude. On other occasions, some of them very 

 distressing ones, I have met with affecting instances of Hke good-will ; 

 and gladly record my sincere conviction that the unsophisticated Brazi- 

 lians are by no means wanting in tenderness and generosity. 



Short excursions to different parts of the country, pleasantly occupied 

 me, during my short stay at Pirasenunga. In one of them, the Iguape- 

 zu became an object of a little farther attention. It rises in the mountains 

 upwards of twenty miles above this spot, falls rapidly for the first half 

 of its progress, and then enters a more smooth and level bed, making a 

 considerable display of water, but difficult to ascend on account of its 

 shallowness, and the force of the current. It is subject to great floods, 

 and at such seasons often changes its bed. Its sands are mixed with an 

 unusual quantity of mica, which is frequently mistaken for gold-dust, 

 and gives rise to many exaggerated accounts of the riches of Brazil, 

 and to many vain expectations of meeting with golden lakes. A good 

 and cheerful road accompanies the stream as far as the foot of the serro ; 

 another, lately made, then turning Eastward toward the serro of Canudos, 

 approaches the heads of the Rio St. Joan, and proceeds to the town of 

 that name on the coast of St. Ann's Bay. The summit of the adjacent 

 mountains, said to contain fine pastures, is occupied by a mixed race of 

 people, who subsist by keeping cattle, and are under little controul. — 

 Through their country are several little-known routes to the Pyrahyba, 

 which is reported to be a three days' journey distant. 



We found on this river many Balsas, which are a sort of rafts, 

 composed either of logs of timber or of boards, held together by thick 

 bands, made from the fibres of the cocoa tree or the aloe, and sometimes 



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