NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



393 



commonly done amolig this class of people, I appeared to treat the 

 matter seriously, in order to carry on the joke ; when, to my astonish- 

 ment, I found him perfectly in earnest, and was obliged positively to 

 refuse his services. This part of his conduct arose perhaps from another 

 trait in the character of Braziliai) country people, a disposition for wan- 

 dering, and a facility of entering into thoughtless engagements, which 

 they will rue and abandon at the first appearance of any thing irksome or 

 laborious. Indeed what assistance could be expected from a being, who, 

 though surrounded by 'the most pleasing scenes in nature, is too idle 

 to exert himself, and spends two-thirds of his dronish existence upon 

 a couch. 



When inquiring at this platfe about the more distant parts of the 

 country, I was informed that from hence to Pao Grande, a place men- 

 tioned in the Western road from Rio to the Parahyba, was twenty-three 

 miles, and that half way another road turned off to Uva, which was 

 nearly the same distance. To the Eastward, the country might be passed, 

 but beyond the district of Pampulia, the roads were bad, infested with 

 Indians, and contained no established resting places. 



Immediately on leaving this place, we again ascended to a great 

 height by a zig zag road, pleased with the change w^hich we observed in 

 the hues of the forest, whose foliage had become more varied, and dis- 

 played a lighter shade than usual. At the summit we entered upon 

 another valley, equal to the last in beauty, and foimd that it had been 

 lately refreshed by rain. It fell probably from clouds which had been 

 arrested there, by the trumpet-like shape of the country opening toward 

 the North-East, the very point whence the wind had blown ever since 

 we passed the Serro dos Organos, while they passed without distilling 

 showers over those vales, which, lying East and West, cross the 

 settled current of the air. Near the foot of the opposite elevation is a 

 houa(|,^ distinguished by the name of Leandro, a large establishment, 

 with much enclosed and cultivated ground. In front of it stands one of 

 those vegetable productions, whose size astonishes the English Traveller, 

 It is here called a Gamelleiro, because from its trunk are turned those 



3 D 



