( 148 ) 



all the contents of their cargoes are examined with the strictest scru- 

 tiny. In these examinations it not unfrequently happens that a 

 negro has been suspected of swallowing a diamond ; in which case, he 

 is shut up in a bare room until such time as the truth can be proved; 

 The command of this station is entrusted to a major. The inner 

 part of the building consists of apartments for the officers, ranchos for 

 the soldiers, cells for the confinement of suspected persons, and 

 stabling for the mules. In the yard there are numerous posts, to 

 which the cattle are tied while loading or unloading. There is also 

 a vend for the accommodation of travellers. 



Leaving this place, we proceeded through an extensive tract of 

 wood, in which we occasionally observed a few deer, but no birdsj 

 except now and then a green parrot or a wood-pecker. The road, as 

 far as the eye could reach, was bounded on each hand by close con- 

 tinuous thickets, and rarely enhvened by traces of habitation. 1'hose 

 persons who live by the way-side are commonly of the lowest order 

 of people, who settle there with the view of selling refreshments to 

 travellers, and corn for the mules ; they are in general an idle, gos- 

 sipping race : the more respectable classes reside at a distance from 

 the pubhc road. 



We arrived about four in the evening at a farm-house called 

 Madeiras, belonging to Captain Jose Pinto de Souza. The situation 

 is cold and salubrious, the vicinity well-watered, and abounding in 

 fine tracts of arable and pasture land, but deplorably neglected. The 

 owner seemed to prefer ease, with inconvenience, to labour, with com- 

 fort; and, satisfied with the spontaneous bounty^ of nature, cared 

 little about improving it by industry. The house itself was miserably 

 out of repair : its walls, which consisted of lattice-work plastered 

 with clay, were full of holes and crevices, and its roof was in a very 

 crazy and shattered condition. We fared but poorly, and passed a 

 very indifferent night ; often reflecting on the apathy and listless in- 

 dolence of the people : who, thought we, in a cold climate would live 



