42 



WANDERINGS IN 



First in the marsli, and a few vultures soaring over tlie moun- 



JOURNEY. 



— tain's top, shown that it was not quite deserted by animated 



nature. There were no insects, except one kind of fly, 

 about one fourth the size of the common house fly. It 

 bit cruelly, and was much more tormenting than the 

 mosquito on the sea-coast. 

 Lrrow-root. TluH sccms to be the native country of the Arrow-root. 



Wherever you passed through a patch of wood in a low 

 situation, there you found it growing luxuriantly. 



The Indian place you are now at, is not the proper 

 place to have come to, in order to reach the Portuguese 

 frontiers. You have advanced too much to the westward. 

 But there was no alternative. The ground betwixt you 

 and another small settlement (which was the right place 

 to have gone to) was overflowed ; and thus, instead of 

 proceeding southward, you were obliged to wind along 

 the foot of the western hills, quite out of your way. 



But the grand landscape this place aff'ords, makes 

 you ample amends for the time you have spent in 

 reaching it. It would require great descriptive powers to 

 give a proper idea of the situation these people have 

 chosen for their dwelling. 



The hill they are on is steep and high, and full of 

 immense rocks. The huts are not all in one place, but 

 dispersed wherever they have found a place level 

 enough for a lodgement. Before you ascend the hill, 

 you see at intervals an acre or two of wood, then 



