Travels in the Brazils, 



79 



On the Sabbath day, held at Barreiras, the woods were ex- 

 plored, on which occasion the soldiers accompanied and 

 guided us. Our entire booty was confined to some ducks, 

 {Anas viduataj and an interesting new bird,* belonging to the 

 family of the Cotingas. Near the coast swam the great Tarta- 

 rugas, (sea-tortoise,) which in the spring seeks the shore, and 

 raises its round thick head slowly above the surface of the 

 water. The night was accompanied by a violent storm, and 

 the rain descended in torrents, from which the open roof of 

 our abode hardly afforded us the means of sheltering ourselves. 



From the negligence which prevails in keeping up this 

 only road along the coast, and where neither bridges nor 

 passable roads are fornied, we made, on the following dull 

 day, a very unpleasant journey, having run the hazard of 

 losing our best mules in a place close to the huts of the 

 Quartel. As we had still to proceed four leagues in the dis- 

 trict disturbed by the Puris, we provided for a good close 

 order of march, and advanced slowly under military protec- 

 tion, on a firm and even sand-flat, along the high ridges of 

 the shore, which consist of yellow, or white and bay-coloured 

 loam,t and of strata of iron-veined sand-stone. In the defiles 

 and on the heights of the coast, the country is every where 

 surrounded by thick woods, far into which no one dare to go 

 on account of the savages : we, for our parts, had nothing to 

 fear, though our people regarded with horror the place where 

 the Puris had immolated their six victims. After the lapse of 

 some hours we reached, on a low part of the coast, the Po- 

 voacao Ciri, which is now quite deserted. 



The Puris made a sudden incursion here in August 

 last, murdered in the first house three persons, and 

 spread such a terror, that all the inhabitants innncdiately 

 fled. Two houses only on the other side of a small Lagoa 

 continue still occupied, and their armed inhabitants consider 

 themselves safe. The savages, on the occasion alluded to, 

 returned into the woods with the iron utensils and pro- 

 visions which they found in the houses. After this attack, 

 the Serjent Major of Itapemiri7n made an excursion w^ith 

 fifty armed men, into the woods to discover the Puris, and 

 found a convenient path, broad enough for a horseman, which 

 led to some of their iiabitations, and thence farther into the 



* Procrias MelanocephaluSy the head deep black, with one eye, the iris of 

 which is vermillion-coloured ; all the upper parts green-finch coloured ; the 

 under parts yellowish green, with dark stripes ; eight inches seven Inies lono-. 



t According to the researches of Professor Hauman of Gottingen, this 

 fossil, which constitutes a principal material of the greater part of this coast 

 of Brazils, belongs to the hardened Steinmark, with which it agrees in all its 

 «Aaracteristics, and to which also the Saxon Ww^er-Erde is referred. 



