ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
drifted into the interior were the worst Portuguese, the 
worst blacks, and the Indians who intermarried with these 
gentry the worst Indians, you can well imagine what tine 
results could be expected from such a breed. 
One trait predominant among these people was the 
unreasonable jealousy of the men over their women. Had 
they been so many Venuses of Milo the men could not 
have guarded them with more ferocity. I am sure it 
would take a brave man indeed, and, above all, a totally 
blind man, to fall in love with the farmers’ wives, 
daughters, or servants of the Province of Goyaz. 
I must say this in favour of my Brazilian men, that, 
whatever other faults they may have had, they always 
behaved in a most chivalrous, dignified way with the 
women-folk we met. Never once did I have to repri¬ 
mand them. 
In the morning, as the cows were driven into the yard 
to be milked, and the calves were being suckled by their 
mothers, and the children, rubbing their sleepy eyes with 
the backs of their hands, scrambled out of the house upon 
their drowsy legs, the girls of the family brought the last 
cups of coffee to us departing strangers. We packed our 
animals, paid the bill, and were off again. 
On April seventh we crossed the Piracanjuga River, 
another tributary of the Corumba, 50 yards wide, flowing 
from northeast to southwest, at an elevation of 2,300 feet. 
One league (6 kilometres, 600 millimetres) farther on we 
crossed another stream flowing east, in its turn a tributary 
of the Piracanjuga. 
One of the most beautiful trees in that region was the 
caneleira , of the family of the Laurineas. Beautiful, too, 
were the oleo pardo and vermelho (Myrocarpus frondosus 
and Myrospermum erythrozylon ). 
We were next treated to a view of an extensive, 
deliciously green valley, most excellent for grazing 
purposes, extending from north to south to the west of 
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