it had not the slightest motion.' It would indeed be curious if the rocking-stone should be found in Brazil; and it is not unlikely that this may have been one, for Brazil also has its antiquities of this kind, though the fact, perhaps, has never before obtained notice. In the year 1641, Elias Herckman made a journey into the interior, under the Dutch government, in search of mines; and in a part of the country not far from this, he found such monuments as, had they been discovered in Europe, would be assigned to the Druids. The account is of such importance that it should be given in the original words of Barlæus :-'Devitatis montium acclivibus, incessere per planiora, ubi duo lapides molares exacte rotunditatis et stupende magnitudinis visi; quorum diameter sedecim erat pedum, crassities vero tanta, ut è terræ superficie vix media lapidis pars attingi extremis digitis ab erecto posset ; alter alteri superincumbebat, major minori. E centro, miro spectaculo, frutex se attollebat karawata. Quo fini hos congesserint Barbari, in tantâ harum rerum ignorantia, non facile dixerim.' The Dutchman certainly believed this to be a work of art; and if any doubt existed upon this subject, it would be removed by what they found soon afterwards :-Visi iterum magna molis lapides humano labore congesti, quales etiam in Belgio Drantia regio habet, quos nulla vectatione, nulla hominum vi illuc deportari potuisse ob magnitudinem credas; eâ formâ ut Aras referre videantur. In connexion with this curious subject a passage may be noticed which occurs in the present volume.

In the month of November there arrived a priest upon a visit to the vicar, whose exertions are incessant on every subject which relates to the improvement of his country. He had now been staying with a friend in the province of Paraiba, and had made a drawing of a stone upon which were carved a great number of unknown characters and several figures, one of which had the appearance of being intended to represent a woman. The stone or rock is large, and stands in the middle of the bed of a river, which is quite dry in the summer. When the inhabitants of the neighbourhood saw him at work in taking this drawing, they said, that there were several others in different parts of the vicinity, and they gave him the names of the places. It was his intention to return again the following year, and seek them out. I should have brought with me a copy of this curious drawing, if my departure from Pernambuco had not been hastened from unavoidable circumstances. pp. 319, 20.

It would be idle to offer at any guess concerning these sculptures, their existence is certain, and in all probability an accurate account of them will be obtained ere long. Suffice it to observe that the facts thus brought together afford strong indications that the Tupis and Tapuyas were not the first inhabitants of Brazil.

On the second day after leaving the goat-herds, Mr. Koster

reached Açu: Oh!' he exclaims, the joy of again seeing a church of the sight of a regular village and civilized persons, if even these can be called civilized according to European ideas.' From Natal to Açu there is not a single settlement which deserves the name of village, except the deserted Pai Paulo; it is a flat, uncovered, miserable country. Yet even here, were the population numerous enough to render it needful, much might be done toward rendering it more habitable. The acaju and the mangaba grow upon the sandiest and most sterile ground; both trees bear a delightful and wholesome food; cabbage trees also are found here, and a little care in scattering the seeds might in a few years make the traveller certain of finding food during most part of the year. Açu is a small town, containing about 300 inhabitants, and built in a square upon the river of the same name. Mr. Koster calls it a great river, but at this time its bed was dry. The houses are miserable huts, built of mud, and with the earth for the floor. When water is scarce this is a great discomfort, for the Brazilians are remarkably clean in their persons; and never complain of any local disadvantage so much as of the want of a bathing-place. A league from the town is a lake called Piatô, about 12 miles in length and four in breadth.

In the summer its sides become sufficiently dry to enable them to be cultivated, but the centre of it is invariably marshy and impassable. The fertility of its sides is very great, affording most plentifully rice, maize, sugar cane, melons, &c. and I saw some cotton trees planted very near to the edge. The lake is filled from the river in the rainy season, and as the lands around it are much higher than the lake itself, the waters which run down from them wash away all vestiges of culti vation, till these again subside, and the same operations are continued the following season. In such dreadfully severe years as that during which I travelled, the people of the district would be starved if this lake did not exist: it enabled the inhabitants of Açu at the time I was there, to remain in their houses. The appearance of abundance, the bright green, the well fed horses and cattle, which we saw as we travelled along its banks, enlivened us all; there was a look of security, a seeming certainty of at least the necessaries of life, let what would happen, which we had not for a long time felt. The parched hills which surround the lake, its beautifully cultivated borders, and the dark and dangerous bogs which compose its centre and prevent the communication of the inhabitants of either bank, formed a very extraordinary scene. No water was to be seen, but the mud was too deep, and not of sufficient consistence for a man to be enabled to wade across; nor could a passage to the other side be effected by means of a raft, for a very trifling weight would make it sink.'-pp. 97, 98.

A few days more brought Mr. Koster to St. Luzia, a village with about 300 inhabitants, upon the river which divides the cap

taincies of Rio Grande and Seara. Here the traveller's passport was demanded with some incivility in the name of the commandant; he answered, that if the commandant had wished to see the passport, he would certainly have sent one of his officers to ask for it. The young man rejoined, that he was the sergeant of the district. To this Mr. Koster made answer, that he could not know him in that capacity, because, instead of being in uniform, he was in the usual dress of shirt and drawers, and moreover his manner was such, that he was resolved not to show it him. The reply was, that he must and should show it; he accordingly went off, and the tra veller and his party prepared their arms, to the amazement and amusement of some of the more peaceable inhabitants. The sequel and the justification of this resistance may best be related in the traveller's own words.

'I soon saw him again, and he was coming towards us, with two or three other persons; I called to him to keep at a distance, telling him that Julio would fire if he did not. This he judged adviseable to do; and as I thought it proper and prudent to advance as soon as possible, we left the place soon after one o'clock, with a broiling sun: therefore we then saw no more of the sergeant. The dry river, upon which this village stands, divides the captaincies of Rio Grande and Seara, consequently there was much reason for the commandant's demand of my passport; but it was necessary to preserve the high opinion generally entertained of the name of Inglez, Englishman, wherever the people possessed sufficient knowledge to understand that the said Inglezes, were not bichos, or animals; and also to keep up my own importance with the persons about me. It would not have answered, to have thus given way to a man who was inclined to make me feel the consequence which he judged his place would allow him to assume. If I had been invited to the commandant's house in a civil way, or if the sergeant bad come to me in bis uniform, all would have gone well. These trifles, though apparently of no importance, weigh very heavily with persons who have made such small advances towards civilization; public opinion is every thing. If the idea of my being a bicho and a heretic had not been counter-balanced by that of rank and consequence, might have had the whole village upon me, and have been deserted by my own people into the bargain.-pp. 103, 4.

There are salt marshes in this part of the country; in one which the traveller crossed, the mud, even in this dry season, was from twelve to eighteen inches deep at the crossing place, and where a horse had left his footsteps the salt had crystallized: it was surrounded by carnauba trees, the palm which produces the vegetable wax. The others are described as being dry and hard at this time, dark coloured and producing no grass; several sea-side plants' grew upon the skirts, and the water which oozed from them was quite salt. The Portuguese are now a scientific people, and there

I

is a liberal spirit in their government which gives reason to hope that the natural history of Brazil may be carefully investigated. Salt lakes and streams abound in the Chaco. Dobrizhoffer attempts to explain this by an odd hypothesis; a shrub grows plentifully in that country, which the Spaniards call la vidriera, probably because its ashes are used in making glass, and which the natives call by a name signifying salt, because they use the ashes for salting their meat and savouring their tobacco: he supposes that these shrubs and the caranday palm communicate a nitrifying principle to the rain which washes their leaves,-aqua pluvia ex illarum foliis decedens per contractam ex iis salsuginem nitri videtur esse semen. Thus he argues from the fact, that where these plants abound, nitre is always found,-overlooking the more natural conclusion that the plants themselves derive their saltness from the nitrous soil in which they grow. Is the caranday palm the same as the carnauba of Brazil? Mr. Koster passed over many salt marshes or plains covered with these palms, growing upon a bare dark soil, and forming with their tall naked stems a dismal scenery. The tree, however, is one of the most useful plants of the Sertam; the pith of its young stem affords a nutritious fecula; the fruit, when properly prepared, has the taste of maize, and is wholesome food. The cattle in severe seasons eat the dry leaves when they fall, and these leaves form a thatch which will last twenty years. Lastly, its wax is likely to form an article of commerce. Has Dobrizhoffer mistaken the small light coloured scales in which this wax is found, for an incrustation of salt, judging only by its appearance?

Upon coming once more in sight of the sea, Mr. Koster felt as if he were at home,-this was an Englishman's feeling. He now entered upon a country where comparative comforts were to be found, and was entertained with magnificent hospitality at Aracati, by Senhor Joze Fideles Barrozo, a wealthy merchant and landed proprietor, to whom he had sent forward a letter from the governor of Rio Grande. The keys of a house were delivered to him as he entered the town, and soon after he had taken possession of it and slung his hammock, three black servants appeared, one bringing a large tray, with an excellent supper, wine, sweetmeats, &c.; a second carried a silver ewer and basin, and a fringed towel, and a third came to know if there was any thing that he wished for which had not been provided? The town of Aracati contains about six hundred inhabitants, and is situated upon the Jaguaribe, about eight miles from its mouth. The river is wide, but the bar narrow and dangerous, and the sand is accumulating in the river. It is subject to great floods, which sometimes enter the houses, on which account they are built one story above the ground floor. From hence he sent back his English servant by sea to Pernambuco, the

man not being equal to the fatigue of such travelling; and hiring horses here, left his own to recover strength for the journey back. To Seara was thirty leagues, over a country which is for the greatest part flat, and consisting of sandy lands covered with brushwood; some fine marshy grounds intervene, which in dry seasons yield the only crops, and the sea renders living comparatively easy in these parts. From Recife to Natal is a computed distance of 70 leagues, from Natal to Seara, 160. Considering the liberal manner in which miles as well as leagues are computed by those who are not 'licensed to deal in post-horses,' the journey will not have been less than a thousand miles.

The first settlement at Seara was made in 1608, as preparatory to forming an establishment at Maranham: the present town stands about three leagues to the southward of the old fort, the remains of which may still be seen. There is neither river nor barbourthe beach is bad and the surf dangerous: but just at this point the reef, which runs along the whole coast from Pernambuco, is rather higher than at the old site, and affords some little protection to ships at anchor. The Villa da Fortalaza do Seara comprises a fort, a town-hall and prison, a custom-house, a treasury, a governor's palace, three churches, and from 1000 to 1200 inhabitants. There are no convents, and from the present state of public opinion in Brazil respecting such institutions, it is not likely that any will be founded there. The dwellings have only a ground floor, and the town, which is built upon heavy sand, is not paved, but there are brick foot-paths before some of the houses, as at Natal. The public buildings are small and low, whitewashed, neat, and well adapted for their respective purposes. The palace is the only house which has boarded floors; but the custom of flooring houses with wood renders them so perilously liable to destruction by fire, that it will probably one day be generally disused.

There are three Indian villages, containing each about three hundred inhabitants, within two or three leagues of Seara. The adjoining country was the scene of some of Vieyra's labours in reclaiming the savages; he and his brethren the Jesuits made the most persevering and virtuous efforts in behalf of this race of men, sparing no labours for their conversion, and contending at the same time for their liberty. They effected much, but the freedom of the reclaimed Indians was not finally established till the Jesuits were overthrown, and in consequence of their overthrow the Indians in many places have relapsed into barbarism, and in none have they made any progress towards a more civilized state. This is clearly proved by the Bishop of Para's Journal of his Visitations in 1784, 1787, and 1788; and the fault lies more in their teachers than in the people themselves. Yet it must be admitted that Mr. Koster's