66 TWO LONG NARROW PIROGUES WERE THE ONLY VESSELS POSSESSED BY THE ADMIRAL OF THIS INLAND SEA. Page 83. A NAUTICAL EXPEDIENT. 83 ploying the muscular force with which Providence has blessed them. We spent a great part of the evening with our merry friends, and took leave of them, highly pleased with their frankness and good humour. The following morning I rose at five o'clock, for the purpose of visiting a place called the Tijouque-situated a little distance from the city. The freshness of the atmosphere was delicious, and the sky without a cloud; and I made up my mind to accompany a party belonging to the embassy, who had set off without me: my preparations being completed, I sprang on horseback and galloped merrily on the road which leads to the botanical garden→→ bordered all the way by very pretty dwellings of all kinds, and running parallel with the seashore, and the interior lakes which communicate with it. After about an hour's rapid riding I came up with my companions in a most picturesque place, called the Gabia, just as they were about to cross a salt-water lake, named the Lake of Lagoa, which communicates with the sea. We were a very numerous party, and two long narrow pirogues were the only vessels possessed by the Admiral of this inland sea; so in order to accommodate us all, he had recourse to a scheme which it would have cost me some trouble to invent. Placing two large planks upon the two pirogues, and fastening them very securely, he requested us to take our places thereon; while himself and his lieutenant stood upon this somewhat unsteady raft, and rowed us across with the greatest care. The banks of Lake Lagoa are most charming-large mélanostomées, laden with beautifu blue flowers, lave their blooming heads in the water, while the millions of white shells which are attached to the branches of this shrub, look like so many starry petals. But, to confess the truth, I was not able fully to enjoy the beauties of nature, for every time I made the slightest movement, my fellow-travellers, naturally interested in their own safety, as well as in the general security of the party, reminded me very sharply of the advisability of remaining perfectly still, and I found our two hours' passage very long indeed. On disembarking, we came to a coffee plantation, and found the negroes employed there in the act of taking their breakfasts; most of them were men of thirty to forty years of ageblack and shining as polished leather-well-made, muscular, and not overburdened with apparel: some of them were lighting a fire, others seated round it, talking, and eating ears, of Indian corn; and a large number of them were collecting little shell-fish, by the borders of the lake, and cooking them on the hot cinders of the fire, the breakfast being entirely composed of manioc flour, and ears of corn, to which insipid food shell-fish was a very agreeable relish. While we were observing this interesting scene, our horses arrived, and we took the road to the Tijouque, where we arrived in the course of an hour. In the midst of such a country as Brazil, full of grand and magnificent objects-where the streams resemble rivers, and the mountains are but masses of flowery verdure, carrying their peaked heads far above the cloudswhere even the rocks are covered with fragrant vegetation, it is somewhat astonishing that tourists should be so enthusiastic about such a place as the Tijouque, which is merely a pretty stream of water, falling in a cascade over |