NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



415 



Early the next morning I was aroused by a degree of bustle not 

 well understood, but soon learned that we were in the near neighbourhood 

 of the Patrole, a division of cavalry which keeps moving along the road 

 from the Parahyba to the Register, in order to prevent smuggling. 

 This body is furnished with almost unlimited power over all travellers, 

 which it sometimes exercises in the most arbitrary and wanton manner. 

 My guide had also another point to attend to, for he had brought with 

 him a considerable quantity of heavy goods, particularly iron, which he 

 must dispose of now, or pay duties upon it by weight a few miles further 

 on. When this business was arranged, we mounted, and rodfe together 

 to the place where the Patrole was lodged. So soon as the chief Officer 

 arose I presented my passport, and telling him that my baggage was 

 with the troop, he permitted me to pass on without molestation. 



The road conducted us up an easy and long ascent, having, on the 

 right hand, a fine expansive valley, on the left a lofty bluff hill. In its 

 general outline the country resembled what that between Bradford and 

 Halifax would be were it formed of a red, rich, clayey soil, adorned 

 with Brazilian verdure, beneath a tropical climate. At the summit a 

 passage was cut through the brow of the hill, and turned a sharp angle, 

 which prevented us from seeing many yards forwards ; looking behind 

 us, the view was exceedingly fine, for the vale opened into two ; one 

 of them toward the South, the other to the South-west, and each vieing 

 with the other for the palm of modest beauty. Here was nothing 

 romantic and rough, no grey and naked peaks, no abrupt precipices and 

 projections, but one expansive picture of elegant symmetry. Yet, 

 having proceeded a few yards over the brow, a still more delightful 

 scene burst at once to view. We looked down upon an ocean of mist, 

 through whose surface broke, for many miles round, the tops of innu- 

 merable mountains, ranged like islands upon the bosom of the deep ; 

 all formed by the most delicate hand, painted by the richest pencil, 

 and enlightened by the full splendour of a newly risen sun ; even my 

 Negro Boy, who might have vied with any one, in human shape, for want 

 of sensibility and taste, gazed in silence for a time, and then cried aloud 



