NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



477 



about it seemed to be less populous than its commerce had led me to 

 suppose. On becoming better acquainted with it, these erroneous 

 notions were corrected, and though there are few villages in its neigh- 

 bourhood, a great many single houses are scattered in almost all the 

 valleys, some of them attached to considerable farming establishments. 

 These extend through every part of the Comarca, which is itself larger 

 than the whole Kingdom of Portugal, and naturally rich and fertile in 

 a high degree. In my journey I had rode to this place over dry and 

 arid ridges, and was now told that it was the most barren line of 

 country I could have taken ; that to the Westward, and particularly in 

 that part of the country where the collected waters form the Rio 

 Grande, luxuriant perennial meadows exist, where cattle graze at all 

 seasons without hunger, without attendance, and without enume- 

 ration. To the forests of these Western districts new settlers are daily 

 proceeding. These, and the vast tracts of Minas Novas^ to the North- 

 West, furnish the commerce of St. John D 'El Rey, where there is a 

 small market for produce every Thursday. Here I have seen sugar-cane 

 brought from a distance of nine miles, other small articles of produce 

 three times as far, and more important and valuable things reach the 

 place from a distance of many days' journey. 



From March to November the climate is fine and dry ; the air, 

 during the night, being sometimes sharp and frosty, ice is occasionally 

 formed, and snow falls, but neither of them can endure the noon-day 

 sun. This year the dry season broke up in October, and the circum- 

 stance was marked as a very unusual one. In general the rain begins to 

 fall a month later, and, before the close of November, comes down in 

 torrents, attended with violent thunder and lightning. In continued 

 damp weather the air is unpleasantly cold. Rain, here, always comes 

 from the South, and, however heavy the cloud may appear toward the 

 opposite quarter, rain from thence never passes the Rio Dos Mortes. 

 There is a common saying, that it cannot pay the toll established at the 

 bridge which crosses that river, and the people repeat it with some 

 sarcastic feelings. 



