The Hosts Are Most Ungracious And Disagreeable
In Their Manners; Their Houses And Their Persons
Are Often Filthily Dirty; The
Want of the accommodation of
forks, knives, and spoons is common; and I am sure no cottage
or hovel in
England could be found in a state so utterly
destitute of every comfort. At Campos Novos, however, we
fared sumptuously; having rice and fowls, biscuit, wine, and
spirits, for dinner; coffee in the evening, and fish with coffee
for breakfast. All this, with good food for the horses, only
cost 2s. 6d. per head. Yet the host of this venda, being
asked if he knew anything of a whip which one of the party
had lost, gruffly answered, "How should I know? why did
you not take care of it? - I suppose the dogs have eaten it."
Leaving Mandetiba, we continued to pass through an intricate
wilderness of lakes; in some of which were fresh,
in others salt water shells. Of the former kinds, I found
a Limnaea in great numbers in a lake, into which, the inhabitants
assured me that the sea enters once a year, and
sometimes oftener, and makes the water quite salt. I have
no doubt many interesting facts, in relation to marine and
fresh water animals, might be observed in this chain of
lagoons, which skirt the coast of Brazil. M. Gay [2] has
stated that he found in the neighbourhood of Rio, shells of
the marine genera solen and mytilus, and fresh water ampullariae,
living together in brackish water.
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