He, I Suppose, Thought I Was
In A Passion, And Was Going To Strike Him; 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.
April 18th. - 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 dimensions. Senhor Manuel
was then making a canoe 70 feet in length from a solid trunk,
which had originally been 110 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 be 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 hanging from their boughs, and resembling
bundles of hay.
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