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OURO PRETO TO RIO DE JANEIRO. 409
by
a person who made use of the house as a decoy for travellers to and
from Minas Geraes, and who, as soon as they fell into his snares, were
robbed and murdered. His house is still standing, but is now
uninhabited; the trap-doors which he employed for these diabolical
purposes are still to be seen in the floor. We shortly afterwards came
in sight of the river, and reached the banks at a place where the
stream rushes with great force through a narrow, rocky channel. We
expected to have been able to pass it here, but were told that we could
not do so for want of a canoe, and were advised to go a league and a
half further up to a place called Sapucaya, which we accordingly did.
The road for nearly the whole distance runs parallel with the river,
through a most magnificent forest, the trees being of great size, and
in general with very straight stems, often rising unbranched to a
height of upwards of one hundred feet.
In
riding along I could not help feeling deep regret, that in these
regions many square leagues of such forests were being cut down and
burned, in order to make room for plantations of coffee. There are no
means of conveying this fine timber to the coast, as the river,
although of considerable flow, is not navigable for rafts, owing to its
many rocky rapids. At this place, I observed the bed of the stream to
be formed of thin strata of Gneiss rocks, cropping out vertically, and
like the course of the river running from west to east.
Sapucaya
is a small hamlet, consisting of a few houses of very recent
construction, which owe their origin to their proximity to a new
bridge, at this time in process of erection across the river, in
connexion with Colonel Leite's new road to the province of Minas
Geraes. We here found a canoe, suited only for foot passengers ;
horsemen, we were told, seldom came this way at this season, owing to
the swollen state of the stream, and the rapidity of its current
rendering it dangerous to swim horses across. We were consequently
advised to go another league and a half farther up the river, to a
place called Porto d'Anta. At Sapucaya we gave our mules a feed of
Indian corn, but we could find no refreshment for ourselves, excepting
a few bananas and a little farinha de
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