halted
at a place near the foot of the Serra da Santa Brida, where only a few
small trees grew, which were barely sufficient to shelter us from a
powerful sun. This Serra is a branch of the same range as that on which
the Villa de Arrayas is situated, and runs in a north-west direction to
within about two leagues of the Rio da Palma; at its highest part it is
not more than a thousand feet above the level of the surrounding
country. In the afternoon we again made a short stage of about a league
and a half, and encamped for the night under some small trees, by the
side of a clear rivulet that flows from the Serra. On this journey we
met with some showers of rain, and when we arrived at the place of our
encampment, a heavy thunder- storm came rolling along the Serra towards
us from the south-east, which made us regret that we were under the
necessity of sleeping in the woods; fortunately, however, as it
approached near to us, it turned off suddenly towards the north, after
which we had the advantage of a beautiful night. Our route on this
journey was through a large flat open valley, bounded on the north and
east by the Serra de Santa Brida, and on the south and east by another
range called the Serra de Buriti. This valley consists of large open
campos abounding in tree-lilies, and is but thinly wooded except on the
margins of small streams that flow from the mountains. Next morning we
made a journey of two leagues through a similar country, and arrived
early in the forenoon at the fazenda de Santa Brida, which belongs to a
person for whom I brought letters from the Vigario of the Arraial de
Conceicao. He does not, however, reside here, and the only house we
found was one belonging to the vaqueiro who has charge of the cattle.
As the pasture was good, we remained here till the following day, in
order to give the horses a little rest.
We
left early in the morning, and at a short distance from the fazenda,
crossed a small river which was well wooded along its banks with large
trees, particularly the Jatoba (Hymenaea). In this river, as in all those within this province, the electric eel (Gymnotus electricus) is very common; they are of all sizes, from a foot to six feet in length, and are frequently caught on the lines
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