The road
lay mostly through valleys covered with large bushes and surrounded
by low rocks. The country wore a general aspect of wildness, and
only here and there were a few scanty pasture-grounds and poverty-
stricken huts to be seen.
The little town of Ponte de Cairas, which we passed, consists of a
few shops and vendas, a number of smaller houses, an inconsiderable
church, and an apothecary's; the principal square looked like a
meadow. Ponte do Pinheiro is rather larger. We experienced here a
very good reception, and had an excellent supper, consisting of
fowls stewed in rice, flour of manioc, and Portuguese wine; we had
also good beds and breakfasts; the whole cost us, however, four
milreis (8s. 8d.).
3rd October. We did not set off till 7 o'clock: here, as
everywhere else in the country, there is no getting away early in
the morning.
The scenery was of the same character as that passed the day before,
except that we were approaching the more lofty mountains. The road
was tolerably good, but the bridges across the streams and sloughs
execrable; we esteemed ourselves fortunate whenever we passed one
without being compelled to stop. After a ride of three hours (nine
miles), we reached the great Sugar-Fazenda {38} de Collegio, which
in its arrangements is exactly like a large country seat. To the
spacious residence is attached a chapel, with the offices lying all
around; the whole is enclosed by a high wall.
Far and wide stretched the fields and low eminences, covered with
sugar canes: unfortunately, we could not see the mode of preparing
the sugar, as the canes were not yet ripe.
A planter's fortune in the Brazils is calculated by the number of
his slaves. There were eight hundred of them on the plantation we
were viewing - a large property, since each male slave costs from six
to seven hundred milreis (60 to 70 pounds).
Not far from this fazenda, to the right of the high road, lies
another very considerable one, called Papagais; besides these we saw
several smaller plantations, which lent a little animation to the
uniformity of the scene.
St. Anna (sixteen miles distance) is a small place, consisting of
only a few poor houses, a little church, and an apothecary's; the
last is a necessary appendage to every Brazilian village, even
though it only contains twelve or fifteen huts. We here made a
repast of eggs with a bottle of wine, and gave our mules a feed of
mil, for which a cheating landlord, Herr Gebhart, charged us three
milreis (6s. 6d.)
Today we did not proceed further than Mendoza (twelve miles), a
still more insignificant place than St. Anna. A small shop and a
venda were the only houses at the road-side, though in the
background we perceived a manioc-fazenda, to which we paid a visit.
The proprietor was kind enough first to offer us some strong coffee,
without milk (a customary mark of attention in the Brazils), and
then to conduct us over his plantation.
