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the ghosts of their progenitors haunting the ruins of their departed 

 wealth. 



Ever}' thing about them bore a cheerless aspect ; the houses were 

 ready to fall to the ground through want of repair ; the door-places 

 were overgrown with grass, and the patches of garden-ground that 

 here and there appeared were covered with weeds. The face of the 

 country, too, was entirely different from that which I had passed on 

 my way hither, being universally sterile, dry, and stony. It may 

 well be supposed, from this description, that our accommodations 

 here were of the worst kind : we halted at a miserable abode, where 

 they offered us some mouldy Indian corn and feijones, and, after a 

 great deal of difficulty, procured us a fowl. My servant was obliged 

 to clean all the utensils before they could be used ; and the soldiers, 

 while cooking, were obliged to guard the pot lest some half-famished 

 prowler should steal it. The commandant of the place, with whom 

 we had afterwards some conversation, answered our remarks on the 

 visible signs of starvation in the looks of the villagers, by coolly say- 

 ing, " While they get Indian corn to eat, and water to drink, they 

 will not die of hunger." I was glad to depart from this home of 

 famine as fast as possible, heartily joining in the exclamation which 

 the Portugueze have bestowed upon it : " De las miserias de Itamb^ 

 Senhor nos libre," — (From the miseries of Itambfe the Lord dehver 

 us!) 



After riding about five miles, we came to the River of Ounces, so 

 named from the numbers of those animals which formerly infested 

 its banks. Changing our mules at a village called Lagos, consisting 

 of a few miserable fazendas, we proceeded a league over a most 

 rugged and mountainous road, and passing a ridge, entered on a fine 

 country, presenting to view a grand picturesque mountain nearly a 

 league distant from us ; about mid- way up was a large house, to 

 which Ave directed our course. W e forded a rather deep river called 

 Rio Negro, on account of the blackness of its waters, caused by the 

 decomposition of bituminous or vegetable matter. Its margin, along 



