419 



some breaks in this labour; which I supplied by 

 notes taken a few days after. The following 

 pages are extracts from my journal. Whatever 

 is written while the objects we describe are 

 before our eyes bears a character of truth, I had 

 almost said of individuality, which gives attrac- 

 tion to things the least important. 



In order to avoid useless repetitions, I have 

 sometimes added to this journal the notions I 

 afterward acquired respecting the objects I had 

 described. The more nature appears great and 

 awful in forests traversed by immense rivers, the 

 more we should preserve in our pictures of the 

 scenery that character of simplicity, which con- 

 stitutes the principal and often the sole merit of 

 a first sketch. 



March the 31st. A contrary wind obliged us 

 to remain on shore till noon. We saw a part of 

 some canefielcls laid waste by the effect of a con- 

 flagration, which had spread from a neighbour- 

 ing forest. The wandering Indians every where 

 set fire to the forest where they have encamped 

 at night; and during the season of drought, 

 vast provinces would be the prey of these con- 

 flagrations, if the extreme hardness of the wood 

 did not prevent the trees from being entirety 

 consumed. We found trunks of desmanthus, 

 and mahogany (cahoba), that were scarcely 

 charred two inches deep. 



Having passed the Diamante, we entered a* 

 2 e 2 



