On the first day’s journey with our new companion we travelled about seven leagues, five of which were accomplished in the morning, and two in the evening. The Villa de Icó is in a southerly direction, bearing a little to the west of Aracaty, the distance between them being about two hundred and forty miles. The Senhors Pinto accomplished the journey in five days and a half, but it took me three days longer; which delay I did not regret, as I travelled more at my ease, and was enabled to make collections by the way, that I could not have done had I accompanied them. On this day’s journey I observed that the country was gradually rising; where visible, the soil consisted of a reddish coloured clay, but many large tracts were covered with gravel which gave them the appearance of having been at one time the bed of an immense river. In other places beds of gneiss, forming elevated ridges were seen cropping out, the strata being nearly vertical. About half an hour after we began our journey, we passed a large lake on the left side of the road, called Lagoa grande; it is about a league long, and nearly as much broad, and abounds in fish and wild duck. Carnahuba palms were now becoming less frequent, but they were succeeded by a vegetation of a very opposite character; in situations somewhat sandy, a dwarf kind of Cassia often occurs, as well as two or three species of Croton, but these, in common with the herbaceous vegetation, were already much scorched up; in the gravelly places the principal production is a beautiful erect species of Evolvulus about a foot high, with small leaves and numerous blue flowers, giving it much the appearance of the common flax. On the more elevated tracts, woods are seen consisting of low trees and shrubs, principally a subarboreous species of Mimosa, and a Combretum; these woods are nearly all deciduous, the heat and drought producing the same effect on their foliage, as the cold in northern regions, these are called by the inhabitants Catingas; no large trees are to be seen, but in the more open parts of the country, a low wide-spreading species of the Chrysobalanaceous tribe is not uncommon, affording shade not only to travellers, but to the cattle which pasture in those districts; it was under one of these trees that we halted during the heat of the day, and dined on part of a large green lizard that I shot the evening before.
The remainder of our journey was through a country very similar to that just described; but a low evergreen Zizyphus tree, and a few large species of Cactus now gave a different character to the landscape. On the afternoon of the 12th the appearance of the country was still further diversified by our approach to a mountain range about sixteen leagues in length, running in a direction from S.W. to N.E.; this is called the Serra de Pereira, a name derived from the number of trees of that name said to grow on it. The appearance of this high land was a great relief to the eye, after having been so long accustomed to a nearly level country. On the same evening I saw for the first time a troop of oxen with loads on their backs; there were about a dozen of them, all large and well fed animals, going down to Aracaty with dried hides; such a sight was afterwards not uncommon. The further we proceeded inland, the greater appeared to be the effect of the drought; and in consequence of this I added but little to my botanical collections; but among the few plants that were in flower I observed a very fine species of Angelonia (A. biflora, Benth.) bearing long spikes of large bluish coloured flowers, and which is now common in English gardens, raised from seeds which I sent home. So little are the birds here annoyed by man, that flocks of pigeons of various sorts, parrots, paroquets, &c., remained without stirring on the branches of the small trees under which we passed; and cranes of different species as well as many other water birds, did not move from the margins of the small lakes till the horses nearly approached them; the same was nearly the case with two kinds of ravens, called by the inhabitants Gavião and Gavião vermelho; these latter exist in great numbers living upon what carrion they may pick up. While we were resting during the heat of the day, I frequently took my gun to shoot parrots and pigeons, which we stewed for dinner, and were more relished than our usual fare of dried beef, although the flesh of parrots is both brown, dry, and tough. Some of the pigeons, as before observed, are not larger than sparrows, and one of these which frequently alights on the roofs of houses, may be heard, particularly during the morning, calling out most distinctly “Fogo pegou, Fogo pegou” for hours together; in Portuguese this means “the gun missed fire,” an apparently teazing exclamation of the bird, not unaptly applied to the guns of the country people which seldom take effect. This I suspect is the same bird that Waterton speaks of under the name of “Will-come-go.” Shortly before we reached the Villa de Icó, we met a party of ladies and gentlemen, on horseback, and I was not a little surprised to see the manner in which the former were mounted, en cavalier, which, in nine cases out of ten, is the way in which females travel in the interior.
On my arrival at Icó my friends the Pintos had kindly procured an uninhabited house for my reception; in consequence of the breaking down of the waggon which was bringing up my trunks, &c., and other unforeseen causes, I was detained at this place three weeks, which I the more regretted, as my time could be turned to no useful account, in consequence of the drought that prevailed in the neighbourhood. The town of Icó, one of the most important in the interior of the province of Ceará, is situated in a plain on the east of the Rio Jaguaribe, which here, however, takes the name of Rio Salgado; it is said to contain about 6000 inhabitants; the plain is one of considerable size, being bounded on the east by the Serra de Pereira, and on the west by a much lower range of hills. The town consists of three principal streets, running nearly north and south, intersected by a number of smaller ones. The houses are all built of brick, no timber of sufficient size being found in the neighbourhood; with the exception of about half a dozen, they are all of one story, and white-washed with a kind of chalk found abundantly in the hilly country thirty leagues to the westward. The principal street is broad, and contains some well-furnished shops; it presents four handsome churches, a substantial jail, and a market-place, in which fresh beef, dried beef, farinha, salt, rapadura, gourds, pine-apples, melons, water-melons, oranges, and limes, are every day exhibited for sale; the whole of these fruits are brought from a distance, the immediate neighbourhood of the town producing nothing whatever, the whole country being dry and arid, except during the wet season, which only lasts about four months. At a short distance are seen a number of those low deciduous woods called Catingas, but even these were destitute of leaves, and there was nothing within sight deserving the name of a tree; the river also, which during the rains is of considerable size, judging from the appearance of its bed, was now dry in many places, deep pools only being left here and there, abounding with several sorts of fish, which, however, are soon exhausted. Notwithstanding the number of inhabitants which this place contains, it cannot boast of a single medical practitioner, but there are two apothecaries, whose shops are well stocked with medicines. The greater part of the inhabitants are shopkeepers, who supply the interior with articles of European manufacture, receiving produce in return, which they send down to the coast.
A few days after I arrived here I was visited by most of the respectable inhabitants of the place, and as their calls were shortly returned, I soon gained an extensive acquaintance. One of my most frequent visitors was an old priest, who was very inquisitive regarding all that related to England; one of his first questions was whether I was baptized or not, and in what faith? and when I told him I was a Protestant, he replied, “Ah! then you are a Pagan.” Such was his ignorance! and this I found to prevail with nearly all the inferior priests I met in the interior of the northern provinces, and I had great difficulty in convincing him that the fundamental principles of our respective religions were alike; after this, whenever I was interrogated as to my religious faith, I answered by simply saying I was a Christian, which entitled me to respect. When it became known that I was a medical man I had numerous applications for advice. The most common complaints here, as elsewhere in Brazil, are chronic disorders of the digestive organs, which often terminate in dropsy and paralysis; dysentery, pleurisy, and ophthalmia are likewise not unfrequent, particularly during the dry season, produced, no doubt, by the great difference of temperature between night and day, which more readily takes effect on these people owing to the very thin dresses which they wear; in no case did I see flannel worn next the skin, which is the best preventive against sudden change of temperature. One of my patients was the wife of one of my Portuguese friends, who was attended by her mother, and although her complaint was a dangerous malady of which she afterwards died, the greatest source of regret her parent expressed was the state of leanness to which her daughter was reduced, plumpness being considered the chief point of beauty in the Brazilian fair. One of the greatest compliments that can be paid a lady, is to tell her that she is becoming daily fatter and more beautiful (mais gorda e mais bonita), indeed the greater portion of them soon acquire a tendency to become so, from the sedentary life they all lead.
After remaining about a fortnight I made preparations to leave Icó, as I wished as soon as possible to get up to Crato, another town about one hundred and twenty miles to the S.W., situated at the foot of the mountains which divide the provinces of Ceará and Piauhy, where I was assured I should meet with abundance to reward my researches, as the general temperature was much cooler, and the country well watered with small streams from the mountains. I purchased two additional horses, engaged an experienced guide, and procured whatever was necessary for the journey, when the following incident occurred to prevent my departure. The day before that fixed for our journey, one of my new horses disappeared from the pasture in which it was feeding, if, indeed, a little dried up grass could be so called; as horse-stealing is a very frequent crime in Brazil, I strongly suspected that some one had made free with my animal, but I was assured it had only strayed into a neighbouring Catinga and would soon be found. I immediately despatched Pedro and another man well acquainted with the country, in quest of it, but after two days’ search they could bring me no satisfactory tidings. Having lost all hopes of regaining it, I was about to purchase another, when a man, who had been searching for two of his own stray animals, told Pedro he had seen one answering the description of mine on the Serra de Pereira, about three leagues distant; upon this Pedro and his companion were again despatched in that direction, when they returned in the evening bringing it with them; they found it on an elevated table land feeding along with an immense number of the American Ostrich (Rhea Americana). This was the first of a series of annoyances I met with during my future travels, from my horses either straying or having been stolen; an animal is frequently taken away by some one who wishes to make a short journey, so that after a day or two it will be found in the place whence it was taken; at other times they are removed and hidden for a few days, for the purpose of claiming a reward; and though I was frequently well assured of this imposition, I never refused to pay the money, knowing I should otherwise be worse off. All being now again ready for leaving Icó, I took leave of all my friends, who gave me their hearty wishes for a prosperous journey. The evening before my departure many little presents were sent for my use during the journey, such as little jars of sweet-meats, biscuits of various sorts, prepared from ground rice and Indian corn, roasted fowls, &c.; a custom I found to be almost universal in the north of Brazil.
On the evening of the second day after leaving Icó, we arrived at the Villa de Lavra de Mangabeira, which is about ten leagues distant. A little beyond Icó the road becomes very rough, frequently ascending and again descending over rocky paths, on which account it is no longer serviceable for the transit of waggons, all further traffic into the interior being now effected either on horseback or, strange as it may appear, upon oxen. The diversity of hill and dale renders this part of the journey less monotonous, and although the herbaceous vegetation was much destroyed by the heat, the greater part of the trees, which are both large and more numerous, still retained their leaves; the most abundant tree that I observed was called by the inhabitants Aroeira; it is a species of Schinus, perhaps S. Aroeira, St. Hil., and reaches to the height of thirty or forty feet; as the stem grows very straight, it is much used in house-building; at this time it was destitute of leaves, but from the ends of its branches were suspended clusters of small fruit of a dark colour, giving it very much the appearance of the European alder when covered with its dark-brown catlins. The other trees consist chiefly of large Acacias and Mimosas, Bignonias of considerable size covered with yellow and rose coloured flowers, a Triplaris, and, the most beautiful of all, a large Jacaranda, the wide-spreading branches of which were densely covered with great panicles of beautiful large blue flowers, not unlike those of the no less splendid Gloxinia speciosa; among these sometimes appear a few solitary Carnahuba palms, but in hollow sheltered places they often occur in groups; large Cacti are not uncommon, and we passed over some elevated open shrubby tracts abounding in a species of Krameria.
The Villa de Lavra de Mangabeira is situated on the banks of the Rio Salgado, and contains about eighty or a hundred houses, all small, and many of them falling to decay. Gold is found in the neighbourhood, in a dark coloured alluvial soil a little below the surface; from time to time washings have been established, which have never yielded satisfactory results; the most extensive of these was undertaken about two years before my arrival. The president of the province and some others having formed themselves into a company, sent for two English miners to conduct the operations; they continued their labours to within two months previously, when the work was abandoned. About a year afterwards I met with one of these miners in a far distant part of the country, and from him I learned that the gold exists in too small quantities to repay the cost of its extraction; scarcity of water at times was also another drawback. Here I found, growing in vast quantities on the sandy margins of the river, a species of Grangea, which is a powerful bitter, used by the natives as an infusion in dyspeptic cases in the same manner as camomile, which, indeed, it much resembles, and to which they give the same name (macella).
We left Lavra on the afternoon of the same day on which we arrived, and halted for the night at a small house near the river. On the following morning as we were advancing quietly, one of the horses struck its load against a tree, by which means it was thrown off; thus disencumbered it ran away at full speed among the trees, and was soon followed by the remainder, who in like manner quickly rid themselves of their cargoes; an hour was thus lost in recapturing and replacing the loads, and even while this was doing, one of the animals laid down and began to roll, first breaking the cords by which his burden was held on, and thus a second time freeing himself. I mention this, as an instance of one of the many annoyances to which a traveller in such countries is liable; in these respects horses are more unmanageable than mules. In the northern provinces of Brazil, however, the latter animals are very seldom seen, notwithstanding they have been frequently tried, large troops of them having been brought from the south. All being finally arranged, we continued our journey, and about mid-day arrived at a house on the bank of the river, near the road-side, where I asked permission as usual to pass the middle of the day, but we were told we should meet with better accommodation half a league further on; this was the first time I met with a refusal, and I can only recollect one similar instance during all my travels. After proceeding about a league without the appearance of any house, we halted under some large trees close to the river, where I determined to remain for the night, as the horses had undergone a long morning’s journey. In the evening I took a walk in the neighbourhood, but met with nothing new except a species of Mikania clinging among the branches of a Mimosa; and a few shells in the bed of the river. Between this place and Lavra, the course of the river is very tortuous, and being now very nearly dried up, I observed that the inhabitants had planted melons, water-melons, gourds, &c. in it; bananas were now beginning to be cultivated, and almost every house had its own little cotton and tobacco plantation. Every where Argemone Mexicana, the Cardo Santo of the Brazilians, grows in great plenty, the large yellow poppy-like flowers being very beautiful; a handful of the leaves of this plant, together with about a quarter of an ounce of the ripe seeds infused, is used as a draught in jaundice. It was a beautiful evening when I retired to my hammock, which was suspended between two trees, but I had not been long asleep when I was awoke by a strange rattling noise among the leaves, that I soon found to be caused by a heavy shower approaching from the south, which shortly fell upon our encampment in torrents; we were unprepared for such an occurrence, it being then the height of the dry season, and were quickly drenched; my hammock soon became too uncomfortable to lie in, so I got up, wrapt myself in my poncho, and sat down on one of the pack-saddles by the extinguished fire; unfortunately I had no umbrella to afford any shelter, having lost it two days before, at a place where I had dismounted to collect some beetles. The rain continued for about two hours, and not being able to go to bed again, every thing being soaked, I was obliged to remain seated in this position till daybreak, when, after arranging all our humid articles in the best manner, we proceeded on our journey. The morning though cloudy was dry, and there was a feeling of freshness in the atmosphere such as I had not felt since we left the coast; we travelled for nearly a league before we came to a house, so that instead of being only half a league distant from where we were refused accommodation on the previous day, I found it was nearly two; we went on two leagues further, without meeting another habitation, so we halted during the middle of the day beneath some large Jatobá (Hymenæa) trees. This part of the country is very thinly populated; the greater part of the soil being of a gravelly nature, is neither adapted for cultivation, even were water abundant, nor for feeding cattle. It is besides very hilly, some of the ranges being the highest we had yet passed over; from the top of one of the elevations I obtained a fine view of the undulating thinly-wooded country below; scattered here and there were to be seen large pink or yellow Bignonias, or the azure-blossomed Jacaranda, raising their magnificent diadems above the other denizens of the wood; and an occasional plant of Cochlospermum serratifolium, loaded with its large and beautiful yellow flowers, attracts the attention of the traveller. The rocks which I observed during this ride were of a grey coloured clay-slate.
We had not travelled more than half a league in the afternoon, when we were again overtaken by rain, and although the shower lasted but half an hour, it was so heavy, that in a short time water was rushing over the roads, running like streams, and where they were of a clayey nature, especially on the declivity of the hills, they became very slippery. Having carried my poncho beneath my saddle, I put it on, when my appearance caused no little astonishment to some countrymen who passed us, that article of dress being quite unknown among them. It is, however, far superior to their leathern jackets, which are not only uncomfortably warm, by confining the natural exhalations from the body, but soon become soaked in case of rain, and are long drying, whilst with the poncho and my long boots I was nearly dry when the rain ceased. The rocks seen in the latter part of this day’s journey were a rather coarse-grained white sandstone, similar to those I met with on the coast between the Rio de San Francisco and Pernambuco. In many places this rock was exposed to a considerable extent, its only vegetation being a few species of Cactus and Bromelia. In the wooded portions, the atmosphere was loaded with the rich perfume of the flowers of the Cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale), which grew in great profusion. This was the first time I met with this tree at any distance from the coast, but I afterwards found it was not uncommon in the interior. The fruit, however, or rather the thickened peduncle which forms the esculent part, is small, not being much larger than a cherry. Towards dusk we halted at a place where there were two houses, but we could not be accommodated in consequence of two large troops having taken up their quarters before our arrival. As the next habitation was nearly two leagues further, and as the roads were said to be bad, I decided on remaining here and encamping under a wide-spreading Cæsalpinia which grew close by the road-side. Shortly after I had arranged everything for the night, a permission came from one of the houses to sling my hammock there, but I declined this invitation, not considering it prudent to separate myself from my luggage; this step was rendered the more necessary in consequence of a quarrel between Pedro and the guide; the latter was recommended to me as a very useful person for the journey, but he turned out to be a lazy talkative fellow, quite the reverse of Pedro, who was both active and intelligent. The quarrel originated from the guide’s refusing to attend to some duty while the horses were unloading, and, notwithstanding my interference, it ran so high that they threatened to stab each other, the usual way of settling disputes in this lawless country; on taking the horses to pasture they were still talking furiously, and I felt not a little uneasy till they returned. The evening was dark and had all the appearance of rain, but when the moon rose, it cleared up, and became a beautiful night. My hammock and poncho were both too wet to sleep in, so I had to lie down on the top of two trunks for my bed, with my saddle for a pillow, near a large fire we had previously kindled.
On the following morning, the eighth of September, we continued our journey, and at eleven o’clock halted under some trees by the river side. Our route was through a richer country than any I had yet seen in the province, it being well wooded with large trees, the greater part of which were in leaf; near the houses, which appeared more numerous than hitherto, grew large plantations of cotton, tobacco, sugar-cane, and mandiocca. On the branches of a large tree by the road-side I collected the first Orchideous plant I had seen during the journey; a long round-leaved kind of Oncidium. The tree on which it grew was the Umari (Geoffroya superba), but only on the under side of the branches, the long leaves hanging down like so many whips, intermingled with its large panicles of yellow flowers. It is called by the natives of the Sertão “Rabo de Tatú,” from the resemblance of the leaves to the tail of the armadillo. Shortly after we halted, I went out with my gun in search of something for my dinner, but could find only parroquets, which were very numerous, flying from tree to tree, and keeping up an almost continual cry of Parroquet—Parroquet. I fired at some which were seated on a tall tree, and one of those which fell being only wounded, kept up a continued scream whenever I attempted to approach it; this being heard by its companions, several hundreds of them again returned to the tree, and having once more fired among them, they were again brought back by the screams of the dying, nor did they cease to re-appear in the same manner till I had killed more than was sufficient for us all to eat. On the afternoon of this day we travelled about two leagues, and rested at a small sugar plantation (Engenho de Rapadura). It being the day of San Gonzalvo, the people were dancing and making merry before the house; I obtained leave from the owner to let me pass the night in the mill, two sides of which were open. On alighting from my horse I laid down my straw hat, containing a silk pocket-handkerchief, on an old log of wood, close to the owner of the mill, but in less than half an hour afterwards, when all my things had been moved inside the boiling-house, the handkerchief had disappeared: no one except my own men and the proprietor had been near us, so that I had every reason to believe the latter had pilfered it, but I did not think proper to take notice of it. This was not the only theft committed here before the morning, for when the horses were being loaded, Pedro discovered that a sack containing my large botanical tin box, and a sheep-skin bag, containing all belonging to him, were not to be found; it had been taken away from my luggage close to my hammock, while we were asleep. The poor fellow, as might be expected, was greatly annoyed at his loss, and it was fortunate, that previously to leaving Icó I had removed a number of my most useful articles from the box to one of my trunks; I had just discovered my loss, when the owner came down to consult me concerning a complaint under which he laboured, but I was too much exasperated to accede to his wishes; he expressed much regret for our loss, and said it was the first time any traveller had been pilfered who had put up at his house. We had not proceeded on our journey more than a quarter of a league, when Pedro told me he would return to the mill and endeavour to recover his clothes, from which I could not dissuade him; the guide and I, therefore, went on alone, and at a distance of three leagues, halted under the shade of a large tree near some small houses. Pedro returned at two in the afternoon bringing his bag with him, and my botanical box, but not the handkerchief; upon his arrival, he took me aside, and told me that just before returning in the morning, a thought struck him that our guide might have been the thief, and if so, that the things would be hidden somewhere near the sugar-mill; it was this conviction that induced him to return, and the result proved that he was right, for, after an hour’s search, in which he was assisted by the people of the place, he discovered my box hidden among some bushes, and his bag buried under the earth at a little distance. I have no doubt that the guide was the thief of all the articles, and had hidden them until his return to Icó. He looked rather confused when Pedro returned, and my first thought was to give him an immediate dismissal without payment, but upon reflection I resolved to take no notice of the matter, knowing the revengeful nature of these people; I was sorry, however, for the incautious manner in which I had treated the proprietor of the mill. The large tree under which we had rested was the first I had seen of a kind that is very common about Crato; it is called Visgeira by the inhabitants, and is the Parkia platycephala of Bentham; it has a very thick stem, and wide-spreading branches, which in some instances nearly reach the ground; the wood is soft and brittle, and consequently not of much value.