SAN ROMAO TO THE DIAMOND DISTRICT. 341
specimens.
This I could well believe, as I found from experience that the men did
not at all relish such labour, being often obliged, in cloudy and rainy
weather, to dry every day several reams, sheet by sheet, over the fire.
The
mulatto, being the ferryman, passed the luggage safely over to the
opposite side of the river in a canoe. We were again annoyed by our too
frequent cause of detention, the straying of one of the horses, which
was not found till near mid-da}', so that we were not able to
accomplish that day more than about three leagues. The country still
continued flat, with the exception of one or two low, dry, gravelly
hills that we passed over; in many places, particularly in the hollows,
it was pretty well wooded with small evergreen trees. The day was very
hot and sultry, and as I suffered much from a severe headache, I was
extremely glad when we arrived early in the afternoon at our
destination, which was a little hamlet, consisting of about half a
dozen houses called As Vargems : we were allowed to take up our
quarters in an open shed belonging to one of the houses, used for the
preparation of farinha de mandiocca, in which process several persons
were then employed. The wheel used for grinding the root was driven by
a small water-wheel, winch, although rudely constructed, answered the
purpose extremely well, and saved much manual labour. The little
streams of water, which are so frequent in the hilly districts of the
province of Minas Geraes, afford the inhabitants great advantages over
those of the dry northern provinces. This was only the second time I
had seen water power applied to such purposes, but in travelling
further south I found it generally used. The people belonging to the
house where we rested, were nearly white, and appeared to be very poor,
but they were very civil and kind.
A
journey of about a league and a half from As Vargems, through a flat
valley, bounded on the right by a high bare rocky Serra, brought us to
another small stream called Bio Inhahy, which, being here of no
inconvenient depth, the horses forded in safety with all the luggage.
On a rising ground a little beyond the river, we observed a large house
close to what appeared to be
Flickr
Stumbleupon
Scribd
