NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



483 



were a bright yellow, descending to the scapulars, like the corner of a 

 handkerchief. 



The Captain's house afforded a welcome shelter to men rendered 

 uncomfortable by wind and rain. It is situated in a pleasant bottom, is 

 large, surrounded with offices, and not only the most splendid abode in 

 the neighbourhood, but probably the only one for many miles round. 

 The owner displayed a good and kind heart, united with great apathy 

 and listless habits. He was too indolent to relish refined enjoyment, had 

 lived too long secluded from the world to be stimulated by the common 

 objects of ambition or pleasure, yet whatever his house afforded, — and 

 there was no scarcity in it, — was communicated liberally. We had a plen- 

 tiful table, clean and comfortable rooms, and good beds. The singularity 

 of my apartment entitles it to notice, being not only white-washed like 

 other rooms in the house, but ceiled with a sort of matting, made of the 

 Tacoara, plaited in figures, and stained of various colours ; the white 

 one was fabricated from lime, the red and yellow from clay, the pink 

 and blue from vegetable substances. 



During my stay at St. John, the thermometer had played from 

 60^ to 50°, the weather being generally cloudy, with frequently rain ; 

 here, at five in the afternoon, it stands at 57°. Our course has been 

 North North West, and we are probably six hundred feet above 

 St. John. 



After various little embarrassments, arising from that want of fore- 

 thought so common among Brazilians, and to which my guide had 

 contributed, we passed on, through intricate horse tracks, over a fine 

 grazing country, sometimes divided with hedgerows, and well stocked 

 with cows, brood mares, and sheep ; the latter ugly animals, with long 

 legs, and coarse puckered faces. At the distance of about a league from 

 each other, houses and farming establishments were met with ; one or 

 two of them perfectly new, the rest of older date. At one of the latter, 

 a large house inclosed within high walls, our guide halted, and had a 

 secret conference with a venerable looking man ; to whom, as I after- 

 wards found, he was giving unnecessary and impertinent trouble on my 



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