104 M ON POX. 



twelve to each of the five bogas who agreed 

 to accompany us. Rode round Monpox, 

 and went to the top of the principal church, 

 whence I had a good view of the city and 

 surrounding country. The former is about 

 half a league long and three hundred yards 

 broad. The only decent-looking houses are 

 in the centre, which is very small ; the rest 

 are mere sheds, inhabited by the lower 

 classes. They are however well laid out; 

 the streets of a good breadth and crossing 

 each other at right angles. The population 

 of this place is about ten thousand persons ; 

 it formerly contained eighteen thousand ; 

 but the miseries of an exterminating civil 

 war have reduced the inhabitants to the pre- 

 sent number. The country surrounding the 

 city is entirely in a state of nature ; I could 

 not discover a cultivated spot near the place ; 

 all was rich and luxuriant, but not through 

 the labour of man. The chief exports are 

 corn, hides, and Brazil-wood. The inhabit- 



