CRATO TO PIAUHY.
Preparations for the journey—Leaves Crato—Passes
Guaribas—Reaches Brejo grande—Discovers more fossil
fishes—Passes Olho d’Agoa do Inferno—Arrives at Poço
de Cavallo—Crauatá—Cachoeira—Marmeleira—Rosario—Os
defuntos—Lagoa—Varzea da Vaca—Angicas—Crosses the
boundary line of the province of Piauhy—Arrives at San
Gonsalvo—Campos—Lagoa Comprida—Difficulties of the Road—Reaches
Corumatá—Conabrava—Arrives at Boa Esperança, a large estate
owned by an excellent clergyman—Is now in the midst of the
great Cattle Districts—Nature of the Country described—Marked
into two Kinds, Mimoso and Agreste—Passes Santa Anna das
Mercês—San Antonio—Cachimbinho—Vegetation of the surrounding
Country—Reaches Retiro—Buquerão—Canavieira—Crosses the River
Canindé and arrives at Oeiras, the Capital of the Province of
Piauhy.
After my return to Crato, all my collections were despatched for the
coast by the 10th of January in order to be shipped for England, and I
prepared every thing in readiness for our journey, which I was assured
might now be undertaken with safety, as it had rained nearly every day
since the beginning of the month. I was, however, prevented from leaving
so soon as I had anticipated, owing to the necessity of dismissing my
servant Pedro. He had now been about a year in my service, and as he
was intelligent and useful, and we had travelled together more like
companions than master and man, and as he had moreover acted with great
kindness and attention to me during several slight illnesses, I always
treated him with much indulgence, and certainly would not have parted
with him, had he not returned that indulgence with ingratitude. For some
time before this, he had conducted himself as if he imagined I could not
do without him. It was on a Saturday that I intended to leave Crato, and
on the morning of that day, I sent him to purchase several articles for
our journey, but he did not return till two o’clock in the afternoon.
Being still desirous of starting, I told him to fetch the other men who
were to accompany us, and to bring the horses from the pasture; in reply,
he said that he would go for them, but that I might start with them
myself, as he did not intend to leave Crato till Monday; this being more
than I could reasonably bear, I instantly discharged him. Fortunately
at this very moment, I had a visit from a young Englishman, Mr. Edward
Walker, who had come up to Crato while I was at Barra do Jardim, to take
charge of a Rapadura Engenho in the absence of the owner, who, although
a man upwards of forty years of age, was about to proceed to the College
of Olinda, in order to study for the church. During two years before
this, Mr. Walker had been travelling over the interior of Ceará, and in
the north of Piauhy, selling European goods, but about two months before
he came to Crato, he had been robbed of all he possessed, and had no
other resource left than to accept of the situation he then held, so
that he might earn the means of enabling him to reach the coast. That
occupation not being to his taste, he at once offered to accompany me
as my assistant; I had therefore to purchase two additional horses for
him and his trunks, and as there was some difficulty in procuring such
as would answer our purpose, it was not until the fifteenth of the month
that we could leave Crato. The day previous to my departure was occupied
in taking leave of my good friend Capt. João Gonsalvez, his wife, and
daughter, and of my other friends.
It was four o’clock in the afternoon before we could start, and we passed
the night at an Engenho, called Guaribas, at the foot of the Serra de
Araripe, its distance being about a league and a half westward of Crato.
On the following morning we resumed our journey soon after daybreak, and
shortly afterwards ascended the Serra during a heavy shower of rain, over
a part considerably lower than that a few leagues to the eastward. The
breadth of the Serra here is about thirty miles, the first half was very
similar to other parts of it which I had previously visited, being quite
level and open, the vegetation consisting of rather large and thinly
scattered trees, and in many parts covered with an abundance of low
shrubs. The most common tree here was a fine species of _Vochysia_, which
I had only met with sparingly before, and which has a fine appearance,
from its dark green, shining leaves, and spikes of bright yellow flowers,
which terminate the branchlets. The more westerly portion is very thickly
wooded with small trees, large tracts of which are burned down every
year, to allow of a more abundant supply of herbage for the cattle and
horses which are sent here to pasture during the dry season. When about
half way across, we halted under a tree to breakfast, having brought a
large calabash full of water for the purpose of making tea, but we might
have saved this trouble as we found an abundant supply in the hollowed
stump of a tree; it was found to be of good quality notwithstanding
that one or two frogs were swimming about in it. The western descent is
very gradual, and ends in a long narrow ravine, which leads into Brejo
Grande, a large valley surrounded on all sides, except to the westward,
by branches of the Serra. Towards the western extremity of this valley,
we arrived at the house of Colonel Manoel do Barros de Cavalcante; I had
been requested by his son who lives in Crato, to visit him, as he had
been very ill for several days. He is the chief person in this district,
which is not very thickly populated, where he officiates as justice of
the peace (Juiz de Paz); on visiting him I soon found that he suffered
from a severe attack of acute rheumatism, for which I bled him freely,
and administered the usual remedies. In a marshy place near the head of
the valley of Brejo Grande, we passed a large group of beautiful palm,
which I had met with in only a few instances below Crato, but which I
afterwards saw in the greatest abundance in the swamps of Piauhy and
Goyaz; it is called Buriti by the inhabitants, and is the _Mauritia
vinifera_ of Martius. This palm is not only the most beautiful, but one
of the loftiest in the country; the leaves are fan-shaped, and form
a large round ball at the top of the stem, after the manner of the
Carnahuba. It produces a great number of nuts about the size of a small
egg, covered with rhomboidal scales arranged in a spiral manner; between
these scales and the albuminous substance of the nut, there exists an
oily pulp of a reddish colour, which the inhabitants of Crato boil with
sugar and make into a sweet-meat. In Piauhy they prepare from this pulp
an emulsion, which, when sweetened with sugar, forms a very palatable
beverage, but if much used, it is said to tinge the skin of a yellowish
colour. The juice of the stem also forms a very agreeable drink, but to
obtain it, the tree must be cut down, when several holes about six inches
square, three deep, and about six feet apart, are cut in the trunk with
a small axe, which in a short time become filled with a reddish coloured
liquid, having much the flavour of sweet wine. During my travels in
Piauhy, we used occasionally to cut down these palms in order to obtain
the juice.
During the night it rained very heavily, and in the morning it was still
so wet that we could not resume our journey; indeed, Colonel Barros
strongly recommended us to delay our departure till the following day,
as the river to the west of his plantation would be much swollen by the
rains; besides, the state of the road would not allow us to reach the
place where we proposed to remain for the night. In the afternoon I
visited another deposit of fossil fishes, about a mile distant from the
house, being conducted by one of the colonel’s sons, a very intelligent
youth, and found it to be exactly similar to the others already
described; the few specimens here obtained did not differ from those
found on the eastern side. During this walk I met with a large species of
_Jatropha_, which is frequent in the dry woods, and is known by the name
of Manacóba; it forms a small tree from ten to twenty feet in height,
and the roots, which are far more woody than those of the mandiocca, are
in times of scarcity converted into farinha. The valley of Brejo Grande
is chiefly planted with sugar cane, rice, and mandiocca, but only a very
small part is yet under cultivation.
The weather having continued fine, I took my leave on the following
morning of Colonel Barros, whom I found considerably better. After
expressing himself deeply obliged to me for the relief I had given him,
he wished to make me some compensation, but as I would not accept money,
he insisted on my taking about half a bushel of rice, and a number of
rapaduras, as an addition to our stock of provisions. About a league from
his house we passed through a small hamlet (povoacão) called Santa Anna,
consisting of about half a dozen houses and a small church. The road was
very good all the way, presenting, for the most part, a natural pavement
in the shape of a horizontal bed of limestone in thin layers. After
travelling about four leagues, we reached a place called Olho d’Agoa
do Inferno, situated on a slightly elevated part of a narrow valley,
and consisting of three or four houses. At this place we halted to take
breakfast under the shade of a huge Cassia tree, which was literally
covered with large panicles of golden blossoms. Like the first league of
this journey, the last was found to be very good, but the intermediate
distance passes through a flat country, where for nearly the whole way
the horses sank to their knees in water and mud. We crossed the river
mentioned by Colonel Barros several times, and it was manifest by marks
left by the water on the banks, that it had been greatly flooded the
day before; it was now not more than two feet deep. The lower portion
of the country through which we passed is well wooded, the large trees
consisting chiefly of _Mimosas_ and _Erythrina_ covered with numerous
brilliant scarlet flowers, and the thick-stemmed Barriguda; some of
the latter are of great size, the singularly swollen portion of their
stems measuring about twenty-four feet in circumference, while the
upper and lower parts were not more than eight. The additions made to
my herbarium this day were numerous; one of the most beautiful being a
shrubby species of _Allamanda_, about six feet high, bearing abundance of
large violet-coloured flowers, not unlike those of _Gloxinia speciosa_,
and which I have called _Allamanda violacea_, from the colour of its
flowers, those of all other species being yellow; an infusion of the root
of this shrub is a powerful purgative, and is chiefly used in malignant
fevers. About Olho d’Agoa do Inferno grows in great plenty a new species
of _Coutarea_, which bears large white flowers, and called by the
inhabitants Quina Quina branca, from its bark having been found to be an
excellent remedy in cases of intermittent fevers, which greatly prevail
in the marshy plains of the province of Piauhy. Almost every traveller
who goes into that province carries away a quantity of this bark, and I
remarked that nearly all the trees by the road-side had large portions of
their stems stripped in consequence.
We left Olho d’Agoa in the afternoon, and shortly afterwards entered
a country very similar to that between Icó and Crato, but as the rain
had been falling for nearly a month, everything was quite green. The
rapidity with which vegetation advances in these deserts, after the first
few showers, is quite astonishing; the annual grasses spring up through
the white sand, the trees burst into leaf and bloom, and the perennial
herbaceous plants, which during the drought were apparently destroyed,
throw up their flowering stems in an incredibly short period. In crossing
a small stream on this journey I observed the rock, forming its bed,
to consist of gneiss, cropping out towards the west; beyond this place
sandstone again made its appearance, but scattered over it are an immense
number of large angular blocks of gneiss. After travelling three leagues,
we reached a place called Poço do Cavallo, and put up for the night at
an unfinished house, which, though roofed over, was open at the sides.
Besides ourselves two other travelling parties had also taken up their
quarters here. In a marsh near us a whole legion of frogs were holding
their nightly concert, and so loud was their noise, that I found some
difficulty in going to sleep. Shortly before reaching this place, I
collected specimens of a fine large tree which I afterwards found to be
very common in the district; it belongs to the natural order _Meliaceæ_,
and is called by the Brazilians Cedro, from the wood resembling both in
colour and smell that of the true Cedar; the wood is very much used for
making doors, tables, and various articles of furniture. The leaves and
flowers possessed so strongly the odour of garlick, that the atmosphere
was rendered disagreeable to breathe. The pastures for our horses were
now excellent, the new grass being from four to six inches high, and very
abundant. To the botanist it was quite delightful to travel through
such a country, for nearly at every footstep something new and beautiful
was added to my collections; the only drawback was the difficulty of
preserving the specimens, owing to the great humidity of the atmosphere,
and the want of proper means of drying the paper, as the sun now seldom
shone out brightly.
The following morning set in with rain, but we resumed our journey
about seven o’clock, when it cleared up; we had not, however, gone far
when the rain began again to fall heavily, which, notwithstanding the
protection from my umbrella, soon drenched me to the skin; we were
obliged to travel two leagues before reaching any house, so thinly is
this country inhabited. The place we arrived at was called Crauatá,
consisting of only three very small houses, and as the rain continued
without intermission, we determined to stay, if possible, in one of them
during the remainder of the day; but we found only one room could be
spared, which was so very small, that it would not contain more than my
luggage, much less our party, which now consisted of four persons; our
only remedy, therefore, was to go on in the midst of the rain to a place
called Cachoeira, about a league distant. On our arrival here we found
it consisting of four houses, all, with the exception of one where we
obtained leave to put up, similar to those at Crauatá. This belonged to a
person who had resided four or five years in Philadelphia, about eighteen
years previously, and who still spoke a little English; on finding we
were Englishmen, he gave us a hearty welcome, and all the accommodation
his house afforded, doing all in his power to render us as comfortable as
possible; shortly after our arrival the rain fell in torrents, so much
so, that a small rivulet which we crossed immediately before reaching the
house, soon became impassable for horses, and had we been detained one
hour later, we should have been obliged to remain on the opposite side
without shelter. The rain ceased at four o’clock in the afternoon, but
the very loud thunder which accompanied it continued nearly the whole
day. The road from Poço do Cavallo to Cachoeira passes through an almost
level country; many parts of which are well wooded with large trees,
the most common being a species of _Cæsalpinia_, some large _Mimosas_,
the Cedro, the Barriguda, and another kind which is very common, though
not so large, called by the inhabitants Imbúzeiro; it is the _Spondius
tuberosa_, Arrud., producing abundantly a fruit about twice the size of
a large gooseberry, of an oblong shape, and of a yellowish colour when
ripe; beneath its coriaceous skin there is a juicy pulp, of a pleasant
sweetish acid taste. Like the Mangába this fruit is only fit to eat when
it is so ripe as to fall to the ground, when a large quantity may be
eaten without inconvenience; during our journey to the Campo country of
Piauhy, where it ceases to grow, we were seldom without a daily supply of
it; a dish much esteemed in the Sertão, called Imbuzada, is prepared with
milk, curds, sugar, and the pulpy part of this fruit. The tree throws
out long horizontal roots, which do not penetrate very deeply into the
earth, and upon these are found, at short distances, round black-coloured
tubers about eight inches in diameter, consisting entirely of a white
cellular substance which is full of water; these, which are evidently
intended by nature to supply the vegetation of the tree during the dry
season, are often dug out by travellers for the sake of the water they
contain, each tuber yielding about a pint of excellent quality. Another
wild fruit common here, as it is also about Crato and Pernambuco, is
produced by a tree growing to the height of from thirty to forty feet,
called Pitombeira; it is the _Sapindus esculentus_, St. Hil.; the fruit
is produced in large bunches, resembling in size the common grape; the
outer covering is hard, but the embryo, or kernel, is covered with a
thin transparent, sweetish, acid pulp, which alone is eaten; the kernels
are said to poison turkeys if eaten by them. Next day, the twentieth of
January, we left Cachoeira, early in the morning, and after travelling
about five leagues we arrived at a Fazenda, called Marmeleira, where we
rested during the middle of the day. Shortly after leaving Cachoeira we
began to ascend a small Serra, by a very gradual inclination, but owing
to its rocky nature the road was very bad in many places. This range
consists of gneiss, the stratification of which is nearly vertical; large
blocks of the same kind of rock were very commonly seen along the road,
but on the ascent of a small hill I observed many round blocks of a
coarse whitish-sandstone. On the journey we crossed several rivers, which
although very small, or wholly dried up in the arid season, were now so
much swollen by the recent rains, that we could with difficulty pass some
of them. After crossing the Serra we entered a fine valley about a league
in length, well wooded with large trees, and having a small river running
through the centre of it; the end to the westward was pretty well cleared
of trees, and there is a little hamlet called Rosario, beyond which we
had nearly half a league to travel before reaching our resting-place.
On this journey were found several new species of the beautiful genus
_Angelonia_, one of the most remarkable being a fine climbing shrubby
species (_A. bracteata_, Benth.); on dry rocky places I observed several
kinds of _Cactus_, which are not so common on the western side as they
are on the east of the Serra de Ibiapaba. The genus _Loasa_, so very
common in Chili and Peru, has only few representatives in Brazil; one
which I have called _Loasa rupestris_, was found here in rocky places by
the side of a stream just before we reached our resting-place; like other
species of this genus, the whole plant stings very powerfully, and hence,
in common with other stinging plants, it is called by the inhabitants
Cançançao. As the sun shone out brightly during our stay at Marmeleira,
we were enabled to dry all our clothes and other things that had been
soaked by the rains. Here I prescribed for the mistress of the house,
who was in a very delicate state of health; in return for this we were
abundantly supplied with milk, which at this season is plentiful. In the
afternoon we travelled three leagues further, and towards dusk arrived at
a place consisting of a few small houses called Os Defuntos, near which
is a marsh abounding with frogs; the loud and disagreeable sounds they
produced could only be compared to the half-howling, half-barking noise
of a large kennel of hungry dogs. On some trees near the marsh several
large owls were seen, attracted no doubt by the frogs, which they are
said to destroy in great numbers for food.
On the following morning after travelling about five leagues through
a level and rather open country, we arrived at a place called Varzea
da vaca; when about a league beyond Os Defuntos, we passed a fazenda
called Lagoa, belonging to Senhor José Pereira de Hollanda, the person
who without leave took the loan of my horse during my stay in Crato. His
place derives its name from a lake in the vicinity of the house, which
is much frequented by wild duck and other water-fowl. Before reaching
Varzea da vaca, we passed several other fazendas, where large herds of
cattle were seen grazing in the open Campos. Varzea da vaca is a hamlet
consisting of about eight houses, but within the district that bears
that name, they reckon about sixty; the residents are almost all cattle
farmers, some of the poorer families only possessing half a dozen head,
whilst others own upwards of a hundred; they also have small plantations
of Indian corn, rice, mandiocca, and french beans. The inhabitants of the
house in which I was to put up, appeared to be very poor; the building
was small and very ill-constructed, having only a large opening in one
side, that served for entrance, without any door to keep out either
wind or rain; it consisted of only two apartments, the inner one being
occupied by the family, the other one by my party and that of another
traveller who also remained here for the night, which proved to be
stormy; in order to shelter ourselves from the wind which blew in at the
door, I was obliged to hang before it one of the large skins used to
cover the loads on the horses. In the afternoon I shot several birds, and
also met with some curious annual plants which had sprung up in the sandy
Campos.
Leaving Varzea de vaca about seven o’clock on the following morning, and
travelling about two leagues, we halted at a fazenda called Angicas;
I intended to proceed further without stopping, but as it was raining
very heavily I remained here till the afternoon, when the weather having
cleared up, we went on two leagues further to San Gonsalvo, which we
reached about sunset. The country between Varzea da vaca and Angicas is
flat and sandy, being one of those tracts called Taboleiras; in some
places it is covered with a low shrubby vegetation, while in others are
seen numerous large kinds of _Cactus_. Among the many beautiful plants
met with on this journey, was one particularly worthy of notice: it is a
species of _Echites_,[8] growing abundantly on the open sandy places; it
is not more than six inches high, with subulate leaves and pink-coloured
blossoms not unlike those of _Phlox subulata_; it is called by the
inhabitants of the Sertão, Cauhy, and the tuberous root, which is the
size and colour of a large black turnip-radish, is eaten by them when
cooked, and is said to be very palatable; in the raw state it tastes
not unlike a turnip. This root is also a favourite food of the peccary
(_Dycoteles torquatus_, Cuv.), which is very expert at digging them up
with its snout, the sand being in many places full of the holes they had
made for that purpose. About half a league beyond Angicas, a small lake
is seen, which forms the boundary between the provinces of Ceará and
Piauhy. There are two houses at San Gonsalvo both belonging to cattle
farmers, father and son; at the end of the last rains they possessed
conjointly about three hundred head of cattle, but the severe drought
that occurred previous to the setting in of the present rainy season, had
left them only about forty, all the remainder having perished from the
want of water and grass.
Next morning after travelling three leagues and a half through a rather
level and tolerably well-wooded country, we arrived towards mid-day at a
place consisting of three houses called Campos; the tree most abundant on
the road was the Imbuzeira, the fruit of which, called Imbú, was observed
in such great plenty that the ground beneath them was completely yellow;
we ate abundantly of it, and found it very grateful. About a league from
Campos the country abounds with an arboreous species of _Jatropha_, with
small white flowers, and sinuate leaves not unlike those of the holly,
only larger; the footstalks of the leaves are furnished with a few long
pointed prickles, and without being aware of their nature, I laid hold
of a branch to collect a few specimens, but had no sooner done so than
my whole hand felt as if it had been dipped into boiling oil, caused by
the venom of the prickles which in many places had punctured the skin,
and it was intolerably painful for several hours; on my next attempt I
was more cautious, and succeeded in obtaining a few specimens. This plant
is called by the inhabitants Favella, and in the dry season they scrape
down the bark and the wood, which they put into the pools where the large
pigeons and other birds resort; after having drunk of this poisoned
water they either die or become very much stupified, and in this state
are taken and eaten by the people. On this journey we saw a great many
Maccaws (_Araras_) but they would not allow me to come within shot of
them.
In the afternoon we made another journey of about a league and a half,
through a flat sandy country, which yielded me several novelties, and
remained for the night at a large cattle fazenda, called Lagoa Comprida.
This house was one of the largest we had seen since leaving Brejo Grande;
it is situated on the margin of a lake about four hundred yards long,
from which it takes its name; no rivulet empties itself into the lake,
which becomes filled during the rainy season, and if the rains have been
heavy, it does not dry up before the next wet season. By the proprietor I
was informed, that on the previous year very little rain fell, and that
in consequence of this, and of the very great drought afterwards, the
lake dried up before the setting in of the present rains, the result of
which was the death of nearly all the cattle belonging to the fazenda.
The people were still in an almost starving state, and although both
at Campos and here I endeavoured to purchase some provisions for our
own use, nothing was to be had, neither fowls, sheep, goats, pigs, nor
beef; money I found to be of no use. Our next stage was one of three
leagues, and brought us to another fazenda, called Corumatá. The country
was undulating but not hilly, and in many places it was covered with
immense blocks of granite; so large and square are some of these blocks,
that at a distance we mistook a cluster of them for a large village.
Two circumstances occurred to detain us a long time on the road. Having
dismounted to collect some specimens, my horse ran off into the woods,
and it was nearly an hour before he could be taken; and a little further
on, in passing over a sandy piece of ground abounding in ant-hills, the
road gave way while a loaded horse was passing over one of their large
excavations, and as he was more than half-buried in the sand, it was a
long time before we could extricate him. Shortly afterwards, we descended
by an exceedingly bad road, consisting of large blocks of granite, into
a valley through which a small river runs, immediately after crossing
which we arrived at Corumatá. The owner of this farm does not reside on
it, the charge of it being given to a cowherd (vaqueiro). Here again we
could obtain nothing to purchase, but the vaqueiro presented me with a
small piece of dried beef, and abundance of excellent milk; the fazenda,
he told me, produces yearly about two hundred calves; the cattle go at
large in the woods and fields, but at this season, which is the one in
which the calves are produced, the vaqueiro and his assistants, who
are generally slaves, are constantly on the look out for such as may
have calved. The calves are then brought to the house, and put into a
large enclosure called a curral, and as a matter of course the mother
follows. In this enclosure the cows and the calves are shut up together
at night, but during the day, the cows are turned out to feed; this
is a very necessary precaution in such a wild country, to prevent the
mothers straying into the woods; a little milk is taken from each cow
in the morning before being turned out, at night they are not milked at
all; of part of the milk they make a soft kind of cheese, which is much
relished by all classes of society. They had not commenced making it here
generally, but in the evening, one of the herds came to offer a large one
for sale, which I was glad to purchase for the sake of my men. Shortly
after we arrived at this place, a tremendous thunder-storm passed over
us from the westward, followed by torrents of rain, and in a short time
the small river became so much swollen as to be impassable; as the road
to Canabrava, our next stage, passed over this stream, we were obliged to
remain here till the following afternoon, when, on attempting to cross
it, we found it still so deep, that all the loads had to be taken off
the horses, and carried over on the heads of the men. Here a curious
natural object presents itself: on a bare conical-shaped hill about 800
feet high, being the termination of a ridge, called Serra Grande, there
is a stone of immense size placed on the top of another much smaller,
and the point on which it rests appears to be so small, that one is led
to think that a very slight breeze would upset it. Keeping along the
margin of the river, we arrived towards sunset at a place where the road
crosses it twice, occasioned by a sudden bend, but we were informed at
Corumatá, that there was a bye-path in the woods, which would render this
unnecessary. It was now night, and although the moon shone very brightly,
we had some difficulty in finding this path; when we did, it was so much
overgrown with bushes, from being little frequented, that we had much
labour in driving the horses along it with the loads. After toiling about
an hour in this labyrinth, much to our joy we reached the road leading
from the river to the fazenda of Canabrava, where we arrived in about a
quarter of an hour. This is a very large fazenda, and when we asked for
accommodation to pass the night, we were shown to an old shed, the roof
of which, in many places, was much decayed; as soon, however, as the
proprietor learned from my men who I was, he invited me into the house,
and prepared an excellent supper, of which we partook with much relish.
As we left Canabrava early next morning, we expected to reach our next
stage, Boa Esperança, about eleven o’clock in the forenoon, but in this
anticipation we were sadly disappointed. The river runs in a zigzag
direction along a valley which stretches between these two places, and
as the road passes through the centre, we had to cross the stream no
less than eight times in this short distance, although a road might
be made with very little labour, to avoid the river altogether. It is
seldom, however, that travellers are annoyed so much as we were, for
during the arid season the bed of the river is altogether dry. In four
of the passages it was necessary to take all the loads off the horses,
and carry them across on the heads of the men, but in the others, we
managed to avoid this trouble, with the exception of the bundles of
paper containing specimens, which I always caused to be carried over by
one of the men. As we were all obliged to assist in this work, we were
exposed during the greater part of the day to the burning rays of the
sun, nearly in a state of nudity. My legs were very much burned, as were
those of Mr. Walker, so much so, that on the following day they were
completely blistered, and so greatly swollen that I was laid up for
nearly two days. This taught me a lesson to be more cautious in future;
but on this occasion, I thought that as the blacks did not hesitate to
expose themselves to the sun, I might do so also; their skin, however,
I found to my cost, was made of tougher material than mine. By the time
we had crossed the river, for the eighth and last time, it was about
five o’clock in the afternoon, and in ten minutes after, we arrived at
the fazenda of Boa Esperança, in an almost exhausted state, from the
excessive fatigues of the day. We were cheered, however, by the kind
reception we received from its excellent and learned proprietor, the
Reverend Padre Marcos de Araujo Costa, and his adopted son Dr. Marcos de
Macedo, who had only a short time before returned from a visit to France
and England, whither he had been sent at the expense of the Government
to study the manufacture of porcelain, and whose acquaintance I had made
a few weeks before at Crato, his native place. On this journey I added
but little to my botanical collections, but in a moist meadow by the side
of the river, I killed a beautiful boa constrictor, about seven feet
long. Although these reptiles are frequently met with in the dry country,
called the Sertão, they are neither so numerous nor so large as those
found in the swampy plains of Piauhy and Goyaz.
The fazenda of Boa Esperança is one of the largest I had yet visited in
Brazil, giving pasture to upwards of 5,000 head of cattle, and several
hundred sheep. Although like all others in the Sertão, it is occasionally
exposed to long droughts, yet there is an abundant supply of water all
the year round, even should no rain fall for more than twelve months.
The river passes at a little distance from the house, and although it
only contains water in the wet season, an abundant supply is obtained at
all times, by means of a high and very strong dam thrown across it at a
place where its banks are somewhat high, and rocky on each side. This
dam, notwithstanding that it has been built more than fifty years, is
still as effective as when first constructed, a circumstance not a little
astonishing in a country like Brazil, where works of this nature are
in general so badly executed. The house is built on a slight eminence,
and as there are about thirty smaller houses behind it belonging to the
slaves, the place has all the appearance of a small village; near the
house the Padre has erected a neat chapel, in which he says mass every
morning to his people.
The country in which this fazenda is situated, (as indeed, the whole
of the eastern portion of Piauhy, and nearly the whole of the province
of Ceará) is called by the inhabitants of the Sertão, Mimoso, in
contradistinction to the central and western portions of Piauhy, to which
the term Agreste is applied. The vegetation of the Campos Mimosos is
characterized in the first place, by the forests being of that nature
called Catinga; these are the forests which I have already spoken of as
losing their leaves in the dry season; it is remarkable that they form
buds like other deciduous trees, but should no rain fall they can remain
for several years without producing foliage. In the second place, as has
been very correctly remarked by Von Martius, the general vegetation of
the Campos Mimosos is distinguished by the tenderness of fibre, rigidity
of leaves, the presence of hairs, stings, or prickles, small flowers,
and thick and frequent milky juice. The grasses of the pastures are for
the most part annual, and generally of a brighter green colour, and have
more tender and pliant leaves than those of the Campos Agrestes, of which
I shall hereafter speak. The cattle reared in the Mimoso country very
soon get fat after the rains have set in, and their flesh is much more
esteemed than that of those which have been fed on the coarse pastures of
the Agreste districts.
Padre Marcos de Araujo Costa is well known throughout the north of
Brazil, not only for his intelligence and learning, but for his excellent
moral character and benevolent disposition; and during the eight days
that I lived in his house I had ample opportunities of verifying the
truth of these accounts. If all the priests in the country were only
half as active, well-informed, and as anxious for the diffusion of
education as he is, the condition of Brazil would soon become very
different from what it now is, and what I fear it will long continue to
be, in the present state of things: the activity of this old man, for he
was then upwards of sixty years of age, was quite surprising, and his
philanthropy was not less so. As the means of education in this large and
thinly-populated country come only within the reach of a very few, he has
regularly for many years past been in the habit of boarding and educating
in his house, free of expense, twenty boys, till they have acquired a
tolerable knowledge of the Latin language, and the elements of philosophy
and mathematics; he is himself an excellent scholar, and possesses a
pretty extensive library of classical and philosophical books; of botany
and natural history he knew enough to render these subjects an amusement
to him; in his library I found nearly all the works of Linnæus, those
of Brotero, and the rare one of Vandelli on the plants of Portugal and
Brazil, which latter he kindly presented to me. He holds no living in the
church, contenting himself with the quiet and retired life of a cattle
farmer, and devoting his leisure hours to the education of his pupils.
During my stay at Boa Esperança I made several short excursions in the
neighbourhood, accompanied by the old Padre and Dr. Marcos de Macedo, and
added many novelties to my collections.
Two days before we left, Senhor Francisco de Souza Martins, one of the
deputies from the province of Piauhy, and nephew to the President of
the province, arrived on his way to Rio de Janeiro, accompanied by his
brother Major Clementino Martins. They came by way of San Bento, which is
the first stage from this place on the road to Oeiras, the capital of the
province. This was our proposed route, but they gave us so bad an account
of the roads, in consequence of the swelling of the rivulets, that I
determined by their advice, to take a different road, which though more
circuitous was said to be much better. The Major and one of the blacks
who accompanied him, were laid up with the ague from continued exposure
to the rains.
On the third of March we made preparations for leaving the residence
of the good old Padre. During our stay we fared most sumptuously, as
every day in the year a fat ox is killed for his use and that of his
establishment; a day or two before our departure one was killed, and
the flesh dried for our use on the journey, so that with other presents
I received from him, our provision boxes were so well filled that we
required little in addition till we reached the city of Oeiras.
After an early breakfast I parted with my kind host, who on account of
his other visitors did not accompany me far, but Dr. Marcos rode with me
for upwards of a league and a half, when we parted with mutual regret,
it being so seldom that one who has a taste for the study of nature,
meets with a kindred spirit in those distant regions; since my return to
England we have kept up a correspondence, and he has sent me specimens of
objects in natural history, many of which are different from those which
my limited stay enabled me to obtain. At the very outset of our journey,
we met with an accident that did not give us a very favourable idea of
the state of the road. At about two leagues from Boa Esperança, three of
the cargo horses plunged up to the middle in a swamp; the surface was
covered with grass, and appeared perfectly solid, but the soil beneath
had become so saturated with water, that it was quite a mass of tenacious
mud. It was with no small difficulty that the animals were extricated;
in leading them across they often sank again; all the loads had to be
carried over, and as we had to lend a hand at this work, we shared the
same fate as the horses, being frequently up to the middle in the mud.
These spots are called Atoleiras by the Brazilians, and are very much
dreaded, as horses are occasionally lost in them; during the day we had
to pass three more quagmires, but none so bad as the first.
Our first stage from Boa Esperança was the Villa de Santa Anna das
Mercês, and when about two leagues from it, we halted under the shade of
an Imbuzeira to dine and to give the horses a rest. The dry rocky places
in this neighbourhood were covered with a little gregarious _Melocactus_,
bearing very long recurved spines, and in a moist sandy place I found
many pretty annual plants. About sunset we came in sight of the Villa,
which is situated on a slight eminence; on entering it, we put up for
the night in a large unfinished house belonging to the Padre Marcos
of Boa Esperança, but we were glad to retreat from it as quickly as
possible, for it was so full of fleas that we were completely covered
with them, nor was it till a large fire had been kindled in the middle
of the floor, that the place became at all bearable. As both Mr. Walker
and I had on very long boots, we suffered much less than the blacks whose
legs, from the knees downwards, were bare: I observed that when they were
kindling the fire they would hold first one leg and then the other over
the flame, and with their two hands stroke them downwards to get rid of
these annoying creatures. In other places in Brazil I have met with these
insects in abundance in houses which have been shut up for some time,
but never did I see them so numerous as they were here; to escape their
attacks during the night, we were obliged to sling our hammocks very
high, and to undress on the top of a table.
The Villa de Santa Anna das Mercês, or as it is more commonly called
Jaicóz, is situated about five leagues to the west of Boa Esperança, and
contains about seventy or eighty houses built in the form of a large
square, but only three sides of it were then completed; in the centre
of this square there is a very handsome small church. The outskirts of
the town contain many huts belonging to the poorer classes, chiefly
constructed of the stems and leaves of the Carnahuba palm, which grows
abundantly in the neighbourhood; a few shopkeepers and tradesmen, such
as tailors, shoe-makers, &c., reside constantly in the town, but the
greater number of the houses belong to the neighbouring fazendeiros,
who only occupy them during the Christmas and other festivals. Shortly
after leaving the Villa, on the following morning, we ascended a low
Serra which runs past the northern end of it; like almost all the other
Serras which exist in the north of Brazil it is quite level on the top;
it consists entirely of a coarse white sandstone very full of rounded
quartz pebbles; the latter are also very abundant to a great distance
round the Villa, and in many places the roads have the appearance of
having been gravelled with them. The breadth of this Serra at the place
where we crossed it, is about a league and a half; and it is principally
covered with low _Mimosas_ and _Croton_, which in many places grow so
thickly together as to be almost impenetrable. The few open tracts which
exist on it afford good pasture during the rains. After descending from
this Taboleira, we entered a flat well-wooded country, and having twice
crossed a small river which was considerably swollen, we arrived at the
fazenda of St. Antonio early in the afternoon; the distance we travelled
was only three leagues, but as the next stage was said to be long, and as
the accounts we received of the state of the roads were bad, we remained
at this place till the following morning. The fazenda of St. Antonio is
small, its stock of cattle yielding only about one hundred and fifty
calves per annum; many of them, as well as of the full grown cattle, the
owner informed me, fell victims to the Ounces which are not uncommon in
the neighbourhood. About three months previously he killed a large black
one, and the skin and head which he had preserved, showed it to have been
an animal of great size and power. This head, as well as those of several
others, which from time he had destroyed, were stuck up on the tops of
tall posts near the entrance to his curral.
At daybreak on the following morning we left St. Antonio, and after a
journey of six long leagues reached a little hamlet called Cachimbinho;
the country between the two places is nearly level, and the road one
of the worst on which we had yet travelled. The river we forded on the
previous day runs to the westward in a zigzag direction, and the road
crosses it no less than twenty-seven times, on which occasions, owing to
the depth of the water, the loads had to be taken off the horses, and
carried over on the heads of the men; we had also to cross several small
lakes through which the road passes, and having the mortification to lose
our way, it cost us much additional trouble to regain the right track.
Shortly after leaving San Antonio we passed through a forest of Carnahuba
palms, in which were several large lakes, which contain water only in the
dry season. On the margin of one of these we saw a number of water-fowl,
called by the inhabitants Jabirú (_Mycteria Americana_, Linn.); these
birds, which are nearly related to the adjutants of India, are of
immense size; they are of a white colour, with the exception of the head,
neck, beak, and feet, which are black; the black skin investing the head
and neck is destitute of feathers. We afterwards met with them in much
greater abundance by the margins of streams and lakes, where they feed
upon small reptiles, fishes, &c. The vegetation of the other parts of
the country through which we passed was principally virgin forest, with
an underwood of _Croton Bauhinia_ and trailing _Mimosa_. Near a fazenda
called Ambrosia, the road led under some large trees, on one of which
I observed some hundreds of Marmoset monkeys. One of these I shot for
a specimen; it fell before it was quite dead, and its pitiable screams
brought back all its companions to the tree from which they had fled
when I fired; here they remained for about ten minutes, when the cries
of the wounded one having ceased, they left, and soon disappeared among
the branches of the other trees of the forest; it was impossible not to
admire the graceful activity they displayed in passing from tree to tree,
and from bough to bough.
On the following day we travelled about five leagues, and shortly after
mid-day arrived at a fazenda called Retiro. The two first leagues led
through a virgin forest, consisting almost entirely of a kind of _Mimosa_
called Angica, (the bark of which is used all over the Sertão for tanning
leather, and a gum which it exudes is said to form the principal food of
the Marmoset monkey,) a _Zizyphus_ (Joazeira), and a few large species
of _Bignonia_, with an underwood of _Croton_, _Bauhinia_, _Lautana_,
_Myrtles_, &c. The road continued quite level, and we frequently passed
the same stream we crossed the day before, without the necessity of
removing the loads. Leaving this forest tract we entered one more open,
and abounding in Carnahubas; in many places the soil was very sandy, and
scant of herbaceous vegetation. At about three leagues from Cachimbinho
we passed through a small hamlet called Samambaia, consisting of about
twenty scattered houses. The principal occupation of the inhabitants is
the manufacture of hammocks, which are sold chiefly to travellers who
pass this way. They are made of cotton, which grows very well in the
neighbourhood. From Samambaia the country still continues very flat
till within a short distance of Retiro, when it becomes more undulating,
exhibiting several ridges of limestone, nearly bare of vegetation, or of
a fine red sandstone, which lies beneath the limestone, full of nodules
of iron-stone, which from the wearing away of the rock are thickly strewn
over the surface; they are of all sizes, from very minute particles to
rounded blocks as large as two fists; they are of a black, or very dark
brown colour, assume a variety of shapes, and, judging from their weight,
are rich in iron.
The fazenda of Retiro stands on a rising ground on the banks of the Rio
das Guaribas, which was one of the largest we had yet encountered, but
from the recent dry weather, the water was so low, that on the following
morning we crossed it without difficulty; its banks exhibited signs of
having but a short time before been very much flooded. A journey of two
leagues brought us to a fazenda called Buquerão, where in consequence of
rain we remained till the following morning, when continuing our route
through a generally flat country, but full of isolated rocky hills,
containing few trees, and a very scanty herbaceous vegetation, we arrived
at the fazenda of Canabrava, after travelling about four leagues. This
estate belongs to Colonel Martins, the father of the two gentlemen whom
we met at Boa Esperança, and brother to the Barão de Parnahiba, the
President of the Province of Piauhy. As I carried letters of introduction
to him from Padre Marcos, I was received with the greatest politeness and
hospitality; here we remained for the night, and the following morning
were not allowed to leave till we had partaken of a breakfast of coffee,
which the Colonel told us was an excellent preventive for ague, which is
very common at this season, in the country we were now about to enter.
The old man was in deep grief at the loss of one of his sons, who but a
short time before had died suddenly at his fazenda, about twenty-four
leagues distant. As several roads led off in various directions a little
beyond the house, he kindly sent a black boy to put us in the right path.
A journey of about five leagues and a half, through a beautiful grassy
country abounding in herds of fine cattle, brought us to a plantation
called Canavieira, belonging to a Major Clementino Martins, whom we met
at Boa Esperança; we saw here a large field of sugar-cane, being the
first we had met with since we left Brejo Grande. As the Major never
resides at this place, the house is a very poor one, and in a very ruined
condition; we were obliged to take up our quarters in a sort of shed,
which formed a great contrast to the comfortable lodgings we had enjoyed
the night before. A day or two afterwards, we found in consequence of
sleeping in this hut, that a number of those little insects called
chigoes (_Pulex penetrans_, Linn.) had got into our feet: they are only
found near dwellings, and are met with in all parts of the country
I visited, from the sea-coast to the high mountains in the Diamond
district. They burrow under the skin to produce their young, the insect
itself dying; they are at first easily detected, by the not unpleasant
tickling sensation they produce in entering the skin, and of course are
easily removed by a pin or the point of a pen-knife. When they have
reached maturity, the abdomen becomes a bag about the size of a small
pea, full of eggs, of a yellow colour, and the spot looks like a fester.
Unless this bag and its contents are carefully removed, a bad sore may be
produced; the feet of careless blacks not unfrequently get into so bad
a state from neglecting to remove these insects, that amputation of the
part becomes necessary.
On this journey I made numerous new and beautiful additions to my
botanical collections; when passing over a low flat hill, the top of
which was rather rocky and bare, I found large patches covered with a
dwarf fruticose _Cuphea_ with small leaves, bearing numerous purple
flowers, and so much did this plant at first sight resemble the heather
of my native hills, that I imagined I had found a species of that genus;
although disappointed, this little incident recalled many pleasant
recollections of home. It is a remarkable fact in the geographical
distribution of plants, and not generally known to those who have not
made that subject their study, that though heaths are very common in
Europe and Africa, not a single species has hitherto been detected on the
American continent, either South or North. This is the more remarkable,
as the great mass of vegetation at the Cape of Good Hope is made up of
these plants, nearly four hundred different kinds having already been
found there. From Canavieira, a journey of six leagues brought us to the
banks of the Rio Canindé, at a place called Passagem de Dona Antonia, and
distant only a league and a half from the city of Oeiras. Our route was
through an almost continued forest of Carnahuba palms, and as the Rio
das Guaribas ran nearly parallel with it, and had recently overflowed
the flat country on each side to a great distance, we found the roads
very bad from the great deposit of mud, which had been left often more
than a foot deep. In many places the palm stems shewed by their muddy
appearance, that the water had covered them to the depth of upwards of
twelve feet. At this season, intermittent and malignant fevers are very
prevalent, from the malaria arising from the vast tracts of country left
dry by the fall of the rivers. It being too late when we arrived to cross
the river and reach the city before dark, we remained with some other
travellers at the ferry-house for the night.
Next morning, the 12th of March, all our luggage was taken over to the
opposite side of the river, in a small canoe, which had to return several
times, and afterwards the horses were swum over one by one. Passing
through the flat sandy country covered with small trees and beautiful
flowering shrubs, we reached the city of Oeiras about eleven o’clock in
the forenoon.