NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



451 



people were widely scattered. One of them approaching, when 

 just ready to faint I entreated him to take me by the shortest route 

 possible to a house which then came in sight. There we procured a 

 Cuya of water, and to this moment I remember the unspeakable grate- 

 fulness of the draught. 



Returning to the road the suburbs of St. John soon began to appear. 

 Here we proposed to wait till the rest of the party joined us. In 

 dismounting I happened to cast my eye upon the spot where my right 

 foot would have alighted, and there beheld a snake of the most venom- 

 ous kind ; had my foot touched it, I probably should there, or not far 

 from thence, have ended my journey. In attempting to kill the 

 reptile, we roused another, and the Negro as well as myself were glad 

 to set our feet upon a spot uncovered by herbage. 



The man proposed conducting me about a quarter of a mile further, 

 to the Church of Bom Fim, which stands upon the extreme brow of 

 a hill overlooking the town. " Now Sir," he said, with evident 

 self complacency, " I have obeyed my orders, hither I have conducted 

 you that you might have the best possible view of the place at once." 



At that time the Church was surrounded with no walls or buildings, 



but with a great number of Dob^s, arranged in the manner of new 



made bricks near our kilns. These also are bricks of a much larger 



description, prepared for building, by baking them in the sun, and I 



believe were intended for enlarging the Church. As this, without any 



arrangement of my own, had become the appointed rendezvous of the 



baggage mules, which were far behind, and as it was out of all etiquette 



that I could enter the town with a long beard and dusty boots, I sent 



to it for some milk, and laying myself down upon the steps of the 



Church there fell fast asleep. It was then six o'clock, and I continued 



in sound repose until nearly nine. In the meantime the baggage had 



arrived, a complete dressing room had been prepared for me among the 



bricks, all hands had been set to work to clean the mules and their 



equipage. My favourite Stallion, which had been distressed that morning, 



and changed for a mule, now appeared equipped with his English saddle 



3 L 2 



