132 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
but without any walls ; and his two sons — youths, 
the one of thirteen, the other of seventeen years — 
used to sling their hammocks between the posts in 
the dry season, when there was neither rain nor 
mosquitoes, for the sake of sleeping al fresco. They 
were reposing thus, on a dullish moonlight night, 
when the younger of the two, happening to wake 
up about midnight, saw a man stealing gently about 
the quintal and approaching his brother's hammock. 
The robber, for such he was, noticed that the lad 
was awake, and to frighten him into silence drew 
his knife across the elder brother's throat. The 
younger, at sight of this, gave vent to a shriek of 
terror, whereupon the villain sprang upon him. 
buried the knife in his body, and fled out of the 
quintal. The wound was in his left side, and though 
deep, had fortunately not pierced any vital organ ; 
yet it was sufficiently severe to confine him to his 
bed for two months. As regards the assassin, 
there is the usual tale to be told — the police failed 
entirely to make him out. The lad had not seen 
his face distinctly — he had only noticed from his 
hair and the colour of his skin that he was a 
mulatto. A free mulatto, who had been twice 
imprisoned for theft, was suspected. This man 
embarked shortly afterwards for Para, and he had 
not been there long when he was detected in some 
crime, for which he was put in prison, and there 
died. 
I do not tell of these crimes because I consider 
them unusually atrocious, or because when I think 
on them I thank God that we Englishmen are not 
as other men are, especially as those Brazilians. 
On the contrary, I acknowledge that the records 
