NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



383 



Indians. We met also, the same day, several other persons, travelling 

 with troops, who came from the remote parts of Brazil, and seemed to 

 be Mestizos, a cast between the Portuguese and Indian blood ; all of 

 them carried a rough sort of sword. 



At the end of the plain we crossed a stream from the Westward, 

 which bears strong marks of occasional violence, and, a little beyond the 

 Widge, saw some Orioles in their pendent nests upon lofty trees. Just 

 as I had stepped into the low brushwood with which the ground was 

 covered, and put the gun to my shoulder, to bring down a bird, my 

 attention was suddenly drawn downwards; there I saw a large snake 

 passing within a few inches of my toe. To start backward was involun- 

 tary, I lowered the piece and wounded him, but he dragged his length 

 across the road and escaped among the bushes, for I thought him an 

 enemy too formidable to be incautiously roused. He appeared to be 

 six or seven feet long, five or six inches round, had a dark brown back 

 and yellowish belly, dashed with black oval spots, which were parti- 

 cularly large on his sides. His eye was exceedingly brilliant, as is the 

 case, I believe, with most of these reptiles, seeming to reflect, as well as 

 to bear, the full splendour of the sun. I have seldom found myself 

 able to look steadily upon them. He moved, as do all Brazilian snakes 

 with which I am acquainted, in horizontal curves, though sometimes 

 represented, in British prints, with vertical ones. When we met at the 

 next station, our people complained of having been molested to-day 

 with an unusual number of these reptiles, and supposed that they had 

 been driven from the mountains by the dry weather, and were in search 

 of water. 



Having travelled in a North-North-west direction, and descended, 

 according to our computation, two hundred and fifty feet, we arrived 

 early at the miserable Rancho of Olaria. The road had been excellent, 

 and by the side of it were several plants not common about Rio de 

 Janeiro. The houses we had seen were good but not grand, one of 

 them, at least, appeared to be the abode of insolence. The slaves, as 

 we passed along, appeared generally well clothed and fed. Places adapted 



