172 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
by the right bank. This ridge is the eastern Hmit 
of the new Province of Amazonas, which extends 
westward to the Peruvian frontier. According to 
Baena (I.e. p. 230) the Jesuit missionaries founded 
a village of Indians of the tribe Parentins on the 
flat top of the hill ; but it did not last long, for the 
neophytes revolted against their teachers, burnt all 
the houses, razed the church, and buried the bells. 
Local tradition asserts that those subterraneous 
bells may still be heard to ring every Christmas 
Eve. It was late in the evening of the 24th when 
we reached Villa Nova. We found it a miserable- 
looking town, the houses going sadly to ruin ; and 
there was but a single small vessel in the port. It 
stands on a small bay, skirted by a lowish cliff, upon 
which are piled blocks of diorite, like those of San- 
tarem. We went on shore and visited the Vicar — 
Padre Torquato," the celebrated story-teller of 
Prince Adalbert's Voyage up the Xingti. We found 
him a young man — certainly under forty — good- 
looking and rosy — exceedingly courteous in his 
manners, but delighting wonderfully to hear himself 
talk, and therefore not unlikely to be led into the 
relation of marvellous tales, as t7nie, although him- 
self sceptical respecting them. He seemed highly 
flattered to hear that the Prince had made mention 
of him in his travels. 
[See also my Travels on the Amazon, pp. 109- 
10 and 266, and Bates's Natitralist on the Amazon, 
pp. 147-48, for further examples of Padre Torquato's 
character and of his universal kindness to European 
travellers. I may mention here the unfortunate 
habit of altering names of places so prevalent in 
Brazil. At the time here referred to " Villa Nova" 
