NOTES ON BRAZIL* 



517 



side, and balanced by the rest of the frame-work on the other, so that 

 the poor animal was half hidden, and could with difficulty proceed in a 

 right line. The party was travelling from Pitangui to Rio, at the former 

 of which places the gentleman had filled the office of Governor, for the 

 usual term. 



Considering the laws against the private sale of gunpowder, and the 

 jealousy of the government with respect to that article, I could not 

 notice, without surprise, that, as we passed along, an old woman offered 

 us as much as three pounds of that article for sale ; she had it concealed, 

 indeed, among her clothes, and made the offer to us, as strangers, with 

 some little secrecy ; but it seems as though the laws were relaxed, or 

 exercised with less strictness than formerly; and this supposition is 

 confirmed by the fact, which we afterwards learned, that much powder 

 is secretly made, while the demand for fowling-pieces is very consider- 

 able, and the trade in them conducted without reserve. 



One of my horses having lost a shoe, I was glad to meet witli a 

 blacksmitli's shop, where another might be obtained. Several white 

 people were standing about the place, yet I was obliged to order my 

 own servant to take up and hold the horse's foot, for no one else would 

 condescend to do it. One of the operators then, with a very sapient air, 

 having adjusted the shoe, delivered it to another to nail it on. The 

 latter, taking his station directly behind the horse, — in a position where 

 a kick from a restive animal might have gone near to demolish him, — 

 proceeded to fix the shoe in the same style that a ship-carpenter would 

 have nailed it on to the fore-mast. Awkward and ceremonious as these 

 workmen were, I saw them here with pleasure, independent of my own 

 want of their aid ; for a blacksmith is really to be numbered among the 

 most useful of artizans. 



Notwithstanding the dangers of this part of the country, and the 

 perpetual exaggeration of them from the lips of our guide, he suffered 

 me to, leave Sicara alone, nor was I again favoured Avith his company 

 until I had long wandered over wide moors, and through uncertain 

 tracks, where it was out of my power to obtain information, for, 



