The premises bore traces of the industry and taste of the former occupants: there was a mud-wall round them, encompassing about an acre of ground, which, when perfect, must have given the whole a retired and comfortable appearance; but it was now partly broken down in ruins. The steps leading to the front door of the dwelling were of the lapis ollaris, or pot-stone, of which substance there is a stratum in the vicinity.
Our cattle being ready, we mounted about eleven in the forenoon, returning thanks to our host, and offering to pay for the accommodation we had met with; but the only compensation he required, was a promise, on our part, to pass a day or two with him on our return. The ladies, who had not appeared at breakfast, came out upon the gallery, and very pleasingly and politely wished us a good journey.
Resuming our route, we passed several small farms, and observed that the blight had destroyed all their bananas, and withered their coffee-trees. My thermometer at the time was not lower than 52°, but the damage had been done some days before by a sharp southerly wind. In some parts of the road there were very small inclosures of flax and rye. The country now appeared more open, and the wood-scenery lay at a greater distance. We rode by the side of a barren mountain, which was covered to an extent of three miles with quartz, and produced little or no herbage, except a species of wiry or windle grass, which was much parched by the sun. We descended a declivity tremendously steep, and full a mile in length, at the bottom of which we crossed the Rio das Mortes, here a small rivulet. On its further bank is an _estalagem_, or inn, called Registro Velho, (Old Register) having been originally built as a searching-office, to prevent the smuggling of gold. Proceeding hence, the eye is again relieved from confined wood-scenery by the prospect of a grand amphitheatre of mountains, which are bounded by others of amazing magnitude, covered with forests. On the side of one hill, which we skirted obliquely, I observed several crystallized masses, which, on examination, proved to be clusters of cubes of ferruginous quartz of a dark-brown color. We shortly afterwards arrived at a village called Barbacena, situated on a commanding eminence, in a most fertile country, and apparently containing about two hundred dwelling-houses. While we stopped to take some refreshment, numbers of the inhabitants came to look at us, having never before seen Englishmen, and being on the rack of curiosity to know the objects of our journey. At this place two great roads from the mining country unite, and form the main road to Rio de Janeiro. That to the westward leads from S. João d’El Rey, Sabará, and Cuiabá; the other from Villa Rica, Mariana, Villa do Principe, Tejuco, Minas Novas, &c. Being a sort of half-way station to the capital, and the last open place on the road, it is much frequented by people from different parts of the interior, and has a considerable traffic in various articles, particularly baizes, cotton goods, salt, and iron. Many of the shops were well stocked with English manufactures. The place is governed by an _Ouvidor_, or justice of the peace, and a military officer. In its neighbourhood there is a quarry of soft, whitish granite, from which mill-stones are made; but, from the specimens I saw of it, the material must be very unfit for such a purpose.