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 (povoacao)
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
