438 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



This was the Church of Curral Novo, the disallowed name of the 

 farm where we slept the last night. At a little distance from the sacred 

 edifice, a narrow rill, whose very excellent waters ripple over a bed of 

 quartz in small pieces, supplies the house with a cool and wholesome 

 beverage ; while, at a greater distance, the surrounding downs are varied 

 by slight and easy undulations, in whose bottoms are fine pools, or moist 

 and verdant meadows, where game was seen in abundance. On leaving 

 this spot we were joined by a plain looking farmer, whose countenance 

 did not please me : I therefore rode on before my companions, and, 

 understanding that we were to dine at his house» went to it, and was 

 just putting my horse under a shed, when the owner arrived, and angrily 

 told me, " you cannot stop here, your companions are half a league 

 behind." When on the point of replying, my servant, who had been 

 dispatched after me, arrived, and probably prevented an unpleasant 

 altercation. This, I think, was the only positive incivility which I met 

 with in Minas Geraes. 



All the other travellers were found reclining under a large tree, by 

 the side of a clear stream which flowed toward the North ; their object 

 seemed to be repose rather than any other kind of refreshment, and 

 shelter from the scorching heat. In about half an hour a basket of 

 oranges was brought, by two children, from the house which has just 

 been mentioned, and being all it could afford us, we made a hearty if 

 not a substantial meal. As we were about to mount again, when the 

 sun had somewhat declined, a messenger arrived on horseback, with a 

 written invitation to spend the night, or at least to take our dinner, at a 

 house which he pointed out to us nearly two miles off, on the slope of 

 another hill. After some delay and debate, it was determined to decline 

 the profffered hospitality, and, as we had neither pen nor ink at hsnd, to 

 dispatch one of our new companions, to express our sense of the gentle- 

 man's civility, and to inform him that the troop was too much scattered 

 at that time to admit of a change in the appointed rendezvous. 



A few miles farther brought us to the highest point of the road 

 between Rio de Janeiro and St. John D' El Rey, two thousand six 



