54 



Prince Maximilian's 



stay was therefore of short duration and we hastened to visit 

 what was to us the most interesting curiosity on the Paraiha, 

 a neighbouring tribe of yet more uncultivated Tapuyas. 



We quickly prepared ourselves for this alluring journey, 

 and set out on the 7th of October, leaving our baggage behind 

 us, but accompanied by an officer and a soldier, politely 

 assigned to us as guides by the commander of the districts of 

 S. Salvador, Manoel Carvalho dos Santos, The Paraiba, al- 

 ready laid down in Mawe's little map of his journey to Tejuco, 

 rises in the Capitania of Minas Geraes, flows between the Serra 

 dos Orgdos and that of Mantiqueira, in an easterly direction, 

 and having received the Parakibuna, Rio Pomba, and other 

 contiguous streams, rolls, bounded by mountains, through the 

 vast natural forests till it enters, near its mouth, into the 

 plains of the Goaytaca — Indians. But we were soon deprived 

 oftheviewof the beautiful river, along which our route at 

 first lay, and the banks of which we found ornamented with 

 the Mimosa, the Bignonia, and similar productions of nature. 

 Near the town there stood some lofty palms, which were suc- 

 ceeded by fine meadows and groves. In the pasturages we 

 fjund large flocks of the Crotophaga Am, (Linn.) the Cuculus 

 Guira, {hinn.) or'Annu Brance of the Portuguese. This bird, 

 which is mentioned by Azara under the name of Piririgua, has 

 not been long known in the country of Campos, and seems 

 only to have come down within these few years from the 

 highlands o( Minos to the plains upon the sea. We had abun- 

 dant occasion to be delighted with the beauty and fertility of 

 these regions. A row of large Fazendas occupy the bank of 

 the river, and extensive sugar plantations are intermixed on 

 the lively plains with wide pasture-grounds, where graze large 

 cattle and horses, and some mules. In a meadow, adjoining 

 several dwellings, we beheld with admiration one of those 

 colossal fig-trees, Figueiras, of the Portuguese, which may be 

 esteemed one of the most propitious of Nature's gifts to hot 

 climates. The shade of this stately tree revives the traveller, 

 when he takes up his rest under its incredibly wide-spreading 

 branches covered with shining dark-green leaves. In the 

 higher boughs of this tree we found the curious nest of the 

 little green Todits with a yellow breast. It was of a globular 

 shape, formed of wool, and close at the top, with only a small 

 entrance. In Brazils a far greater number of birds build these 

 close nests than with us ; probably because there the tender 

 fledglings have more enemies. At some miles from S. Sal- 

 vador the mountains began to rise ; and, on the other side of 

 the sugar-cane grounds, we already perceived in the distance 

 the high natural forests. In the woods red spots were conspicu- 



