the
heat was quite intolerable. The thermometer in the shade rose to 98°,
and I suffered dreadfully from headache. We did not leave this place
till four o'clock in the afternoon, and having still four leagues to
travel, we reached the Fazenda dos Prazeres a little after sunset. With
the exception of the banks of the river, the whole country through
which we passed, was very much dried up for want of rain.
Our
party was rather a large one. Besides ourselves, there were the
captain, Ms son and lady, and a mulatto girl carrying their child,
which they were taking to get baptized, three of the captain's nephews,
and a black schoolmaster, all from top to toe in leather dresses; and,
besides the blacks on foot who were bringing on the loaded horses,
there were three on horse-back acting as attendants. The lady and her
girl were both mounted on men's saddles, according to the common
custom of the country in the interior. The black schoolmaster was
decidedly far superior to any of his race that I ever met with. He was
a Creole, with a fine expansion of forehead, and had received a good
education; he was a freeman, and his colour did not prevent him from
mixing in the best society in the part of the country to which he
belonged; indeed, the Brazilians are perhaps more free from those
prejudices than any other nation. He was possessed of an immense fund
of wit and humour, the continual flow of which kept the whole party in
good spirits during the journey, notwithstanding the great heat of the
day.
The
Fazenda dos Prazeres stands on a rather elevated knoll in a large
valley, which, at its upper extremity, is marshy and full of Buriti
palms. On the dry sides of the low hills which surround the valley,
there are large forests of that palm called Palmeira, already spoken of
as being common about Crato; and in the Catinga forest, which we rode
through, one or two smaller kinds of palm were common. One of these had
its stem forked at the summit, being the only instance of the kind I
ever met with; the central bud had been destroyed by some means, and
two more arms generated in its stead. The house is large, well
constructed, and by far the best we had seen since leaving Oeiras. The
owner of it,
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