From this place, which is an hundred miles from Porto da Estrella, we continued our route next day over a chain of mountains, among which we encountered other falls of the Paraiba nearer its source, and, traversing a tract of close woodland, arrived at a station called the Fazenda do Juiz de Fora. Here we procured fresh mules, and proceeded for a considerable distance on the ascent, when we met with two planters from Minas Novas, who were going to Rio de Janeiro with forty-six mules loaded with cotton, packed in raw hides, each beast carrying two packages. They had been nearly three months on the road. We availed ourselves of their kind offers to carry intelligence to our friends in the capital, and gave them letters for that purpose.
The remainder of our day’s journey afforded few incidents worth notice. We observed several pines of a singular species, which yielded abundance of resin. In one part of the road I shot a most beautiful bird, the name of which I could not learn, but was informed that it flew about much in the night. In another part, we noticed a beast of prey, which was crossing the road before us, and fled at our approach. I killed a small water-snake with two fins near its vent.
We arrived towards evening at the _fazenda_ of Antonio Ferreira, formerly a good house, but now almost in ruins. The owner was not at home; but his old negro-servants provided as handsomely for us as we could have expected them to do if he had been present. We made a tolerable supper of stewed fowls, with the addition of a fine wild turkey, which I had killed in the vicinity. I may here observe, that a traveller in this country should neglect no opportunity of providing for himself with his gun, as he is never certain of palatable fare at the places where he alights.
The surface of the country is in general good strong clay; all the rocks are of gneiss and granite, in the composition of which hornblende predominates. We this day passed the site of the first gold-washing, which is very small, and has been many years abandoned. The rivulets have a great deal of oxide of iron in small grains mixed with the sand in their eddies. In some places the granite is in a decomposing state, and there are large nodules of what the Germans call grünstein, which appear not unlike basalt. The air in these elevated districts is fresh and cool, except from two to four o’clock in the afternoon, when I found it rather hot. In the evening, while amusing ourselves with shooting, we observed a man in a friar’s habit, with a box bearing a picture of the Virgin, fastened to his waist by a belt. His face was overgrown with hair, and his whole appearance exceedingly wild and uncouth. On inquiry, we were informed that this extraordinary figure was a hermit; and that he had embraced this austere life by way of doing penance for some great crime.