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after sun-set. 1 was received into a very respectable house, which 

 had the appearance of former opulence. The owner, Captain Bom 

 Jarden, a venerable old gentleman, came to welcome me : on enter- 

 ing into conversation, he informed me that he had emigrated hither 

 from Oporto at the age of seventeen, and had lived here sixty-two 

 years. He was tempted to settle here by the hope of participating 

 in the rich treasures for which the country was then famed ; but he 

 anived two or three years too late : the mines were already on the 

 decline, and he was obliged to turn his attention to agricultural pur- 

 suits, in which he persevered with such success that he was enabled 

 to realize a comfortable independency, and to bring up a numerous 

 family in credit and respectability. It had been well if his neigh- 

 bours had profited by so eminent an example, instead of deserting 

 the country when the gold on its surface disappeared. That many 

 did so was evident from the declining state of the village ; a great 

 number of its houses were falling to decay, others were untenanted, 

 and its population, which formerly amounted to near three thousand, 

 was dwindled to a third of that amount. 



Continuing my journey next day, 1 crossed the ridge of a lofty 

 chain of mountains, abounding with streams, that were much swoln 

 in consequence of the late rains ; one of the largest, called Rio dos 

 Peches, I forded thrice, and entered on a wide champaign country. 

 In many parts I saw large tracts of bare places, where the grit-stone 

 alternated with argillaceous schistus. The next ten miles led through 

 an elevated and fertile plain, intersected with rivulets in every direc- 

 tion, and well calculated for farming, but very thinly inhabited. 

 Early in the afternoon I reached an eminence, from which I had a 

 fine view of Villa do Principe, situated on the rise of a lofty hill op- 

 posite, the base of which was washed by a rivulet called Corvinha de 

 Quairo Vengtems^. On arriving in the town, I was conducted to 



* Four vengtcms are nearly equal to a shilling of our money. When this rivulet was first 

 washed for gold, the quantity produced by each gamella amounted in value to that sum. As 



