scarlet alternates on its smooth body with black and greenishwhite rings, so that this innocent reptile may be compared to a string of variegated beads.

From Cape Frio, we proceed to the Villa de St. Salvador, on the banks of the Paraiba. In all this country, sugar is very largely cultivated; and sugar-refiners are established here on so large a scale as to employ more than a hundred and fifty slaves: brandy is also distilled from it. Twenty years ago, the Paraiba, and the little river Muriahe which falls into it, had on their banks two hundred and eighty sugar-refineries; many of them very large and profitable.

A little higher up the river, apparantly not more than twenty or five-and-twenty miles from a populous and even opulent city, reside a tribe of savage Tapuyas, called Puris. St. Fidelis was a village selected for a mission, about thirty years ago, by some Capuchin friars from Italy; and one of the holy fathers still lives there. The Indians inhabiting this place belong to the tribes of the Coroados, Coropos, and Puris; the last of whom wander in a barbarous state in the great deserts between the sea and the north bank of the Paraiba, and extend themselves towards the west as far as the Rio Pomba in Minas Geraes. The two former are settled, and somewhat civilized: their houses are good and roomy, constructed of wood and clay, the roofs covered with reeds and palm-leaves; they are fond of finery, but are decently dressed, and speak the Portuguese tongue. At St. Fidelis is a light and spacious church, belonging to an uninhabited monastery; and these Indians are much indebted to the kindness and judicious attentions of the missionaries. The travellers, however, were desirous to become acquainted with the savage Puris in their forests on the other bank of the river, and accordingly forwarded a message announcing the arrival of some strangers who wished to speak to them.

Scarcely had we overtaken the rest of the very numerous company assembled at the foot of the hill, when we perceived the savages issuing from a little valley on one side, and advancing towards us. As they were the first of these people whom we had seen, our joy was great as well as our curiosity. We hastened towards them, and surprized at the novelty of the sight, stood still before them. Five men and three or four women, with their children, had accepted the invitation to meet us. They were all short, not above five feet five inches high; most of them, the women as well as the men, were broad and strong limbed. They were all quite naked, except a few who wore handkerchiefs round their waists, or short breeches, which they had obtained from the Portuguese. Some had their heads entirely shorn; others had their naturally thick coal-black hair cut over the eyes, and hanging down into the neck: some of them had their beards and eyebrows cut short. In general they have but little beard; in most

of them it forms only a thin circle round the mouth, and hangs down about three inches below the chin. Some had painted on their foreheads and cheeks round red spots with urucu (bixa orellana, Linn.); on the breast and arms, on the contrary, they all had dark blue stripes, made with the juice of the genipaba fruit (genipa Americana, Linn.): these are the two colours which are employed by all the Tapuyas. Round the neck, or across the breast and one shoulder, they had rows of hard black berries strung together, in the middle of which, in front, was a number of the eyeteeth of monkeys, ounces, cats, and wild animals. Some of them wore these necklaces without teeth. They have another similar ornament, which appears to be composed of the rind of certain vegetable excrescences, probably of the thorns of some shrub. The men carry in their hands long bows and arrows, which, as well as all their effects, they at our desire bartered for trifles.'

After having given them some bottles of sugar-brandy and a few trinkets, the Prince and his companions took their leave, promising to renew their visit.

'We had scarcely left the house the next morning, when we perceived the Indians coming out of the woods. We hastened to meet them, treated them immediately with brandy, and accompanied them to the forest. When we rode round the sugar-works of the fazenda (country-house), we found the whole horde of the Puris lying on the grass. The groupe of naked brown figures presented a most singular and highly interesting spectacle. Men, women, and children, were huddled together, and contemplated us with curious but timid looks. They had all adorned themselves as much as possible: only a few of the women wore a cloth round the waist or over the breast; but most of them were without any covering. Some of the men had by way of ornament a piece of the skin of a monkey, of the kind called mono (ateles) fastened round their brows, and we observed also a few who had cut off their hair quite close. The women carried their little children partly in bandages made of bass, which were fastened over the right shoulder; others carried them on their backs, supported by broad bandages passing over the forehead. This is the manner in which they usually carry their baskets of provisions when they travel. Some of the men and girls were much painted: they had a red spot on the forehead and cheeks, and some of them red stripes on the face; others had black stripes lengthwise, and transverse strokes with black dots over the body; and many of the little children were marked all over, like a leopard, with little black dots. This painting seems to be arbitrary, and to be regulated by their individual taste. Some of the girls wore a certain kind of ribbons round their heads; and the females in general fasten a bandage of bass or cord tightly round the wrists and ancles, in order, as they say, to make those parts small and elegant.

The figure of the men is in general robust, squat, and often very muscular; the head large and round; the face broad, with mostly high cheek-bones; the eyes black, small, and sometimes oblique; the nose short and broad, and their teeth very white: but some were distinguished by sharp features, small acquiline noses, and very lively eyes, which in very few of them have a pleasing look, but in most a grave, gloomy, and cunning expression, shaded by their projecting foreheads.'

These Puris have no weapons but bows and arrows, which they carry in their hands: the bows are six or seven feet long, and the arrows of an equal length, made of a firm knotty reed; and none of the tribes on this coast have yet learnt the art of poisoning them. At the request of the author and his party, the Puris conducted them to their huts, which were placed in the thickest of the forest. The sleeping-net, which is made of embira, (bass, from a kind of cecropia,) is suspended between two trunks of trees, to which a pole is fastened transversely by a rope of bind-weed (cipo); against which palm-leaves were laid obliquely on the windward side. Near a small fire on the ground, various fruits, arrow-reeds, feathers, &c. &c. were protected by lean, loud-barking dogs. Among all the Brazilian tribes, fire is regarded as so necessary a security against wild beasts, and against damps and colds, that they never suffer it to go out, day or night. The Portuguese on the Paraiba universally assert that the Puris feast on the flesh of the enemies whom they kill; though, when questioned as to the fact, they refused to confess it, and said that the Botocudos only had this custom. A story, however, is told (p. 137.) of a young negro, tending some cattle, being cut off from his companions by the Puris, who are at least confidently charged with having roasted and devoured him. These savages set a high value on their rude knives, which they fasten to a string round the neck, and let it hang down on the back: but, if a manufactured knife be given to them, they break off the handle and make another after their own taste. A single knife purchased the sleeping-net in which one of the Puris lay; and two knives, with a few glass beads and some other trinkets, bought one of their children, who heard of his fate with the utmost carelessness, and left his family without taking leave of them. An indifference to impressions of joy or sorrow is perceptible among all the American tribes, whose inost urgent want is food, although they are capable of enduring hunger for a long time: yet they are excessively greedy and voracious. Among all the tribes of the Tapuyas which the travellers visited, evident proofs appeared that a religious persuasion existed among them. The savages of Brazil believe in various powerful beings, the mightiest of whom they recognize in the thunder by the name of Tupa: but no idols are seen among the Tapuyas.

The exploring party, with their attendant hunters, mules, and packages, now proceeded northward from St. Salvador to the river Espirito Santo. Throughout this district particularly, and indeed

in all Brazil, horned cattle are very numerous; they are likewise large, muscular, and well-proportioned; the hides of Buenos Ayres, Monte Video, Rio Grande, and other provinces of Portuguese and Spanish America, being celebrated for their great size. Numerous and immense herds of wild swine, too, inhabit these ancient forests. The Jacare, or alligator of this country (crocodilus sclerops), lives in all the rivers of Brazil, particularly in those which are sluggish; indeed they are to be found in all marshy places and stagnant creeks; in which situations they are so very numerous, that several of them may be seen at a time, with their heads above water, watching for prey, or basking in the sun among the roots and stumps of trees beside the banks. This animal is much smaller than the crocodile of the Old World, and even than those which inhabit the countries of South America nearer to the equator. That which was shot by one of the hunters measured about six feet; of a greenish-grey colour, with some dark transverse stripes, especially on the tail: the belly was of a bright unmixed yellow. They are sometimes eaten by the negroes; and the flesh of a large species of lizard (the Lacerta teguixin of Linn.) is much prized by the planters who live in these wildernesses, They are hunted by dogs, trained for that purpose, among the woods and thickets; at whose approach the animal darts with the rapidity of an arrow into its subterraneous hole, from which it is dug out and killed by the hunters. Including the tail, these lizards are about four feet long.

In these deep and pathless forests, the labour of hunting is much aggravated by the myriads of mosquitoes and other insects, which seize without ceremony on the intruder who ventures to molest "their ancient, solitary reign:" but still greater suffering is occasionally endured, when the heat is intense, by the inability to quench intolerable thirst. Nature, however, in her unbounded beneficence, frequently furnishes the vegetable as well as the animal inhabitants of tropical countries with a supply of moisture where it is least expected, and most required. The Stapelia is a genus of plants found in the interior of Africa, which, from its wonderful continence of water amid the severest drought, has been called with an elegant and happy similitude, the "camel of the vegetable world." Naturalists yet hesitate concerning the source of its supply in those torrid regions, where the air and the earth are equally destitute of moisture: but, like the camel, it occasionally imbibes large quantities of fluid, and retains them to supply the deficiency of drier seasons. The Nepenthes distillatoria, or pitcher-plant, indigenous in the island of Java, is found on the most stony and arid situations, where it would wither and perish but for the provident economy of nature.* Oppressed with thirst,

* Mr. Barrow thus describes it: To the foot-stalk of each leaf, and near the base, is attached a small bag, shaped like a pitcher, of the same con

our travellers were taught, by the young Puri whom they had purchased, an infallible method of allaying it; this was to break off the middle stiff leaves of the Bromelias, in the corners of which is found very good water, collected from the rain and dews; and this nectar is caught by applying the plant quickly to the mouth. A species of reed, too, is found on the coast of Brazil, near St. Salvador, but abounds particularly in the Capitania of Minas Geraes, where drinking vessels are made out of its stems. It is called Taquarussa, or the great cane. It grows from thirty to forty feet high: its colossal stems, which are as much as six inches in diameter, shoot upwards, and have a gentle bend at the top; the leaves are feathery; and on the branches are short strong thorns, which render it an impenetrable barrier: This bamboo, however, is extremely welcome to the thirsty hunter; for, on cutting the reed below a joint, the stem of the younger shoots is found to be full of a cool pleasant liquid, though of rather a flat sweetish taste, which immediately quenches the most burning thirst. This remarkable plant, likewise, loves mountainous and dry situations.

Proceeding to the north, towards the Rio Doce, the Creoles and Mulattoes disappear, and Indians are found in a state of civilization. Villa Nova is a large village inhabited by civilized Indians, founded by the Jesuits, who formerly gave instructions in the lingoa geral. The old convent yet serves for the residence of the priest, and still contains some works of that order; which is a rare circumstance, the libraries in all the other convents having been destroyed or dispersed. In this village are included about 1200 persons, and it has a large stone-church; and several settlements exist in this district which were founded by that wonderful society the Jesuits, who generally succeeded in civilizing the Indians in a greater or less degree. The sea-coast, from the Suanha to the Mucuri, is inhabited almost entirely by single families of Indians who speak the Portuguese language; their occupations are agriculture and sea-fishing; they have exchanged their bow and

sistence and colour as the leaf in the early stage of its growth, but changing with age to a reddish purple. It is girt round with a lid, neatly fitted, and moveable on a kind of hinge or strong fibre, which, passing over the handle, connects the vessel with the leaf. By the contraction of this fibre, the lid is drawn open whenever the weather is showery or dews fall, which would appear to be just the contrary of what usually happens in nature; though the contraction is occasioned probably by the hot and dry atmosphere, and the expansion of the fibre does not take place until the moisture has fallen and saturated the pitcher: when this is the case, the cover falls down, and it closes so firmly as to prevent any evaporation. The water, being gradually absorbed through the handle into the footstalk, gives vigour to the leaf and sustenance to the plant. As soon as the pitchers are exhausted, the lids again open to admit any moisture that may fall; and, when the plant has produced its seed, and the dry season fairly sets in, it withers, with all the covers of the pitchers standing open.