was superior to the common run of men. It may be said
there exists no limit to the blindness of interest and selfish
habit. I may mention one very trifling anecdote, which at
the time struck me more forcibly than any story of cruelty.
I was crossing a ferry with a negro, who was uncommonly
stupid. In endeavouring to make him understand, I talked
loud, and made signs, in doing which I passed my hand near
his face. He, I suppose, thought I was in a passion, and
was going to strike h im ; for instantly, with a frightened
look and half-shut eyes, he dropped his hands. I shall never
forget my feelings of surprise, disgust, and shame, at seeing
a great powerful man afraid even to ward off a blow,
directed, as he thought, at his face. This man had been
trained to a degradation lower than the slavery of the most
helpless animal.
A p r i l 1 8 t h .—In returning we spent two days at Socego,
and I employed them in collecting insects in the
forest. The greater number of trees, although so lofty, are
not more than three or four feet in circumference. There
are, of course, a few of much greater dimension. Senhor
Manuel, was then making a canoe seventy feet in length
from a solid trunk, which had originally been 1 1 0 feet long, and
of great thickness. The contrast of palm-trees, growing amidst
the common branching kinds, never fails to give the scene an
intertropical character. Here the woods were ornamented by
the Cabbage Palm—one of the most beautiful of its family.
With a stem so narrow that it might he clasped with the
two hands, it waves its elegant head at the height of forty
or fifty feet above the ground. The woody creepers, themselves
covered by other creepers, were of great thickness :
some which I measured were two feet in circumference.
Many of the older trees presented a very curious appearance
from the tresses of a liana depending from their boughs, and
resembling bundles of hay. If the eye was turned from
the w’orld of foliage above, to the ground beneath, it was
attracted by the extreme elegance of the leaves of the ferns
and mimosie. The latter, in some parts, covered the surface
with a brushwood only a few inches high. In walking
across these thick beds, a broad track was marked by the
change of shade, produced b)’ the drooping of their sensitive
petioles. It is easy to specify the individual objects of
admiration in these grand scenes; but it is not possible
to give an adequate idea of the higher feelings of wonder,
astonishment, and devotion, which fill and elevate the
mind.
A p r i l 1 9 t h .— Leaving Socego, during the two first day.s,
we retraced our steps. It was very wearisome work, as the
road generally ran across a glaring hot sandy plain, not far
from the coast. I noticed that each time the horse put its
foot on the fine siliceous sand, a gentle chirping noise was
produced. On the third day we took a different line, and
passed through the gay little village of Madre de Deos.
This is one of the principal lines of road in Brazil; yet it
was in so bad a state, that no wheel vehicle, excepting the
clumsy bullock-waggon, could pass along. In our whole
journey we did not cross a single bridge built of stone; and
those made of logs of wood were frequently so much out of
repair, that it was necessary to go on one side to avoid them.
AU distances are inaccurately known. The road is often
marked by crosses, in the place of milestones, to signify
where human blood has been spiUed. On the evening of
the 23d we arrived at Rio, having finished our pleasant
little excursion.
During the remainder of my stay at Rio, I resided in a
cottage at Botofogo Bay. It was impossible to wish for any
thing more delightful than thus to spend some weeks in so
magnificent a country. In England any person fond of natural
history enjoys in his walks a great advantage, by always
having something to attract his attention ; but in these fertile
climates, teeming with life, the attractions are so
numerous, that he is scarcely able to walk at all.
The few observations which I was enabled to make were
almost exclusively confined to the invertebrate animals. The