the
animals; it is also part of his business to examine the feet of the
mules, when the troop halts, to ascertain the state of their shoes, and
replace those which have been lost; the situation of Arrieiro is
generally held by a free mulatto, and to him also the sale and purchase
of goods is often entrusted. The roads in Brazil are so narrow that the
animals are obliged to go singly, one before the other, and so much are
they accustomed to this, that even when the road is broad enough for
many to go abreast, they still persist in the habit they have acquired
of following one another. The troop is sub-divided into divisions
(lotes) of seven mules each, which are separately managed by a driver
(tocrado), who goes on foot, and is generally a negro. Erom As Borbas
we made a journey of about three leagues and a half, through a hilly,
rocky, uninteresting country, and arrived at a place called Tres
Barras. Shortly before reaching it we passed the Arraial de Milho
Verde, but at a short distance to the south, at a place called Viio, we
crossed a small river over an old half-rotten wooden bridge. At this
place there are a few poor looking houses, the owners of which are
principally diamond washers; one of them showed me a few diamonds, all
of which were very small, and not nearly equal in colour to those found
near the Cidade Diamantina; one was jet black, a colour that not
unfrequently occurs.
Leaving
Tres Barras, another journey of three leagues and a half brought us to
the Cidade do Serro. The road leads through a hilly undulating country,
evidently much lower than that in the Diamond district which we left
behind at Tres Barras; it had now lost its barren rocky
appearance, the greater part of the rounded hills being wooded to their
tops, and occasionally houses and plantations were to be seen in the
hollows. In place of the gravelly soil which exists in the Diamond
district, the red argillaceous ferruginous clay, so common in the
country, again made its appearance. We came in sight of the city when
about a league distant from it, and although much smaller than the
Cidade Diamantina, its elevated situation gives it quite as striking
an appearance. Like it, the greater part of the Cidade do Serro is
built on the slope of a hill, which, however, is of less elevation, and
the
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