Travels in the Brazils, 93 



came lately to this place, found great advantage in the peculiar 

 method of catching fish with the twigs of the Tingi-tree, 

 which the great Condamine, has shewn to he the practice 

 on the river Amazon^ it is as follows : they cut off twigs from 

 the Tingi-tree, split them at the end, bind them in bundles 

 and whirl them in the water, particularly where the water has 

 a slight fall ; in the mean time, these make a sort of hedge 

 across the same and thus the fish collected to that spot are 

 easily taken, for they become stupified and driven over to the 

 other side, die, or are so stunned as to be taken up 

 with the hands. The plant with which this violent operation 

 is performed, is a sort of Genus Paidlinia, and Jacquinia obo- 

 vata (a shrub with red berries and inverted oval leaves;) 

 they grow in the bushes on the coast and are named 

 from their productions, Tinguy da Praya. They mentioned 

 here that a sea-monster, never before seen, had been lately 

 killed by an Indian. Jfciad feet which resembled the human 

 hand, was very large, and a quantity of oil was drawn from it; 

 the head and hands were sent to the Governor of Capitania. 



All our endeavours to procure more accurate information 

 concerning this animal were fruitless, for the very skeleton 

 had been destroyed ; it appeared however, from the account, 

 that it was the Phoca or Manati species. 



The wood through which the Saüanba flows, is called in the 

 ancient Indian dialect Jpyapqtang, in which the Coroados and 

 Puris dwell ; Ave were also told that another tribe the Xipotes 

 dwell higher up betwixt the Rio Doce and the Saüanha, 

 but the information received from persons residing only in 

 the towns of these different tribes is very unsatisfactory and not 

 to be depended upon. 



From Saüanba forwards to Mucuri the sea coast is nearly 

 bare of Indian families, their speech is throughout Portuguese, 

 and they have laid by their bows and arrows for the musquet. 

 Their dwellings also differ but little from the Portuguese settlers, 

 and their chief employment is fishing and cultivating their 

 plantations. 



A few miles northward lies the great fishing river Pyrakä- 

 assu at the Barra (or mouth) of which is a small PovoaQao, 

 of a few houses, called Aldea Velha; further on is a con- 

 siderable village of the Jesuits, who at present have a nu- 

 merous assemblage of Indians under their government. Their 

 principal subsistence is on fish and mussels , and at present 

 there is on the other side of the river an immense heap of mus- 

 sel-shells lying together ; this eating of shell-fish is supposed 

 by many authors to have been the custom of the ancient inha- 

 bitants. Wc arrived at Aldea Velha in the cool of the evening ; 



