SS Prince Mäoohnüian*^ 



order, provided an interest in the property were secüfe^ to 

 him f the conditions were granted ; but the ringleaders of 

 the slaves murdered him in his bed, armed themselves and 

 founded a republic of blacks in the woods, not easily to be 

 molested. They used the fazenda for themselves, though they 

 did not work much, but lived free and hunted in the forest. 

 With the slaves of this fazenda, those of Engenho Velho also 

 made themselves independent, and a company of soldiers 

 could effect nothing against them. These negroes employ 

 themselves much in seeking some superior productions of this 

 wood, as the odoriferous Peruvian and Copaiva Balsam {Ol€& 

 de Copauba), and also another species. An incision is made in 

 the tree, and on the discharge of the sap, the wound is covered 

 with cotton, which imbibes the resin. There is a belief current 

 in regard to these operations, that the tree must be cut at the 

 full of the moon, and the sap collected at her wane. The 

 negroes bring these products for sale in small wild cocoa-nut 

 shells, the opening of which they close with wax. This 

 balsam is so fine, that in the heat it escapes thro' the shell of 

 the nut. More healing virtues are however ascribed to it in 

 the country than it deserves. * 



The wild negroes of both the fazendas receive strangers 

 kindly, and shew themselves by their conduct to be very 

 different from the runaway slaves in Minas Geraäs and other 

 places; who are there stiled from the villages (Quilombos) 

 which they form in the woods, Gayambolos. These, especially 

 in Minas, fall upon travellers, rob them, and often kill them ; 

 hence particular hunters are there employed with the name 

 of Capitaes do matof, whose sole office is to go out and kill 

 and take the blacks or Gayambolos in their lurking 

 places. 



The commanding officer of the militia at Goaraparim gave 

 us a polite recej)tion, and assigned a house to us for our night- 

 quarters. We sailed in the morning past the villa along the 

 river, flowing in a most picturesque direction between pak- 

 green groves of Mangue-trees, (ConocarpusJ bounded by 

 woody, verdant heights, and having on its northern bank a 

 fishing village. We then rode through large swamps filled 

 with beautiful violet-blossomed Rexea-hushes, and over hills 

 nobly adorned with Airi and other palms, the numerous varie- 

 ties of which afforded endless occupation to our curiosity, till 

 we arrived in the extensive Uba or Fanreed-grounds near the 



* See Murray apparatus medicaminum Vol IV. p 5*2. 

 t In Pernambucco they are styled Capitaes do Cnmpo. Sec Köster* i Tra?» 

 vcis p 399. 



