In passing through a wooded campo (Taboleira coberta) we came upon a large ant-eater (Myrmecophaga jubata), which Mr. Walker followed with the intention of shooting, but his gun missed fire: we all pursued it on foot with sticks, as none of our guns happened to be loaded. I was the first to come up with it, and being well aware of the harmless nature of its mouth, I seized it by its long snout, by which I tried to hold it, when it immediately rose upon its hind legs, and clasping me round the middle with its powerful fore paws, completely brought me to a stand; one of the men now coming up, struck it a blow on the head with a thick stick, which brought it for an instant to the ground. Notwithstanding it was frequently stunned by the blows it received, it always raised itself again and ran off. At last, I recollected the small pistols which I always carried in my jacket pocket, loaded with ball, when by the first shot through the breast it fell dead. It was a very large animal, measuring about six feet without including the tail, which together with the long hair by which it is covered, measured full four feet more. It ran very slowly, owing to the peculiar organization of its fore feet, two of the claws of which are very large and doubled up when it walks or runs, causing one side of the foot to rest on the ground. The proper, or rather principal use of these powerful claws, is to assist in obtaining the white-ant, the food on which he lives. The large clay nests of these insects are very common in those upland campos; and when the ant-bear wants a meal, he attacks one of these hillocks with his fore claws, tears out a portion of the side, and pushes in his long slender tongue, which is covered with a viscid saliva, to which myriads of the ants adhere, and opening his little mouth he draws it in; now shutting his lips, pushes it out a second time, retaining the ants in his mouth till the tongue has been completely exserted, when he swallows them. We afterwards met with numbers of these strange-looking animals.
The small river near which we slept, was full of rounded blocks of limestone, which being very slippery, rendered our passage across it difficult, but fortunately all the luggage was got over in safety. We now travelled for a league through a bare, arid, hilly country, in which almost the only tree that exists, is a small gregarious species of Vochysia, and arrived at the house we expected to reach the night before, where I remained all day in order to preserve the skin of the ant-eater, and to arrange some of my other collections. This place is called Capão da Casca, and consists of but one small miserable hut, entirely formed of leaves of the Buriti palm. It was inhabited by a mulatto, his wife, and three children; there were but two very small apartments, so that we were obliged to sleep on our hide beds spread out on the ground before the house, where our men had kindled a large fire. The house is situated in the mouth of a small wooded valley, and the only cultivated ground I saw was a plantation of mandiocca. The miserable poverty of the family seemed to be entirely owing to the laziness of the man, who was a perfect picture of indolence.
We left early on the following morning, with the intention of making a long journey, as the next house was said to be six long leagues distant, which I set down as equivalent to ten legal ones. Shortly after leaving the house we had to cross a small stream, the bed of which was very boggy, so that one of the horses stuck fast, and in trying to extricate himself fell, together with his load, into the stream. It was some time before the boxes could be taken off, by which time they became quite full of water,—fortunately it was not a load of botanical specimens; but one of the boxes contained the last remains of my stock of paper for packing dried plants, as well as a little box full of the skins of bats and other small quadrupeds, together with some insects, all of which were more or less destroyed. As this was the first horse that attempted to pass, I would not allow any of the others to venture across with their loads, all were unpacked and passed over by the men in safety. By the time everything was again put into travelling order, and we had gone on about half a league, it was mid-day, when we halted under a large tree in the hollow near a wooded marsh. Our first care was to dry all the articles that had been wetted in the morning, which operation was much favoured by the sun that shone brilliantly.
Some of the campos we passed through were covered with a large species of tree-lily, bearing a profusion of beautiful purple flowers. Early in the afternoon we continued our journey, and halted for the night in a wooded campo, a little above a large Buriti swamp, sleeping on a hard bed, there being no place wherein to sling our hammocks, and suffering much from the cold. Although accustomed daily both to privations and fatigue, there was an indescribable pleasure in the wild life we had long been leading; it is true we were deprived of nearly all the comforts of civilized life, but we were at the same time free from all its restraints. When we rose in the morning we knew not where our next sleeping place might be, but the choice was almost always at our command, which however was not made at random, but constantly regulated by some indispensable requisites, such as water and grass for the horses, trees from which to suspend our hammocks, and wood wherewith to make our nightly fire. We had hitherto met with but little difficulty in finding, all these together; but the part of the Serra Geral on which we were now travelling called the Serra das Araras, was in most places so destitute of arboreous vegetation, that trees were seldom met with in combination with other requisites for an encampment.
On arriving at a place where we wished to remain, each person had his own department to attend to. The first thing was to unload the horses, at which all assisted. Mr. Walker and I always saddled and unsaddled our own animals: two of the men then took them to the spot that offered the best pasture, where they were left after fastening their fore legs together with leathern straps to prevent them from straying during the night; these men on their return brought with them as much dry wood as they could carry. Another man was despatched with a large leather bag to fetch water; while Mr. Walker and I arranged the packages together in such a manner that they could readily be covered over with skins in the event of rain; two large trunks put together served as our table, while two smaller ones supplied us with seats. Generally before the men returned, Mr. Walker had kindled a fire, and while supper was preparing, which was also our dinner, for we took only two meals a day, I occupied myself in preparing and changing the specimens collected on the previous days. By the time the water was boiled for our tea, the piece of dried beef which had been put on a wooden spit, and suspended over the hot embers, was ready for our supper, as it required to be little more than heated. The tea, dried beef, and farinha de mandiocca constituted our usual fare; and I am certain that if any of our European friends, who had never seen this kind of provision, could have been suddenly transported to one of our meals, he would have concluded, from the appearance of our food, that we were eating saw-dust and roasted leather. Our greatest comfort was a large stock of excellent tea, which I laid in before leaving Pernambuco, and which fortunately lasted till we reached a more civilized place, where more was procured; this was my only beverage during the whole of this long and protracted journey, and nothing could be more refreshing at the end of a day’s ride under a burning sun.
I was told when I arrived in Brazil, that I should find it necessary to mix either wine or brandy with the water I drank, but a very short experience taught me, not only that they were unnecessary, but decidedly hurtful to those whose occupations lead them much into the sun. Whoever drinks stimulating liquors, and travels day after day in the sun, will certainly suffer from headache, and in countries where miasmata prevail, will be far more liable to be attacked by the diseases which are there endemic. The dried beef of an ox generally lasted us from three weeks to a month, by the end of which time it was scarcely fit to be eaten, becoming as hard as a chip of wood. In moist rainy weather it was very difficult to preserve it, for with the utmost care we could not prevent the breeding of maggots, from which it required to be freed both before and after it was roasted. We were seldom, however, more than a fortnight without provisions of some kind or other, either in the shape of deer, monkeys, armadillos, large lizards, or birds of various kinds.
We started early from the Buriti swamp where we slept, with the expectation of reaching the fazenda do Rio Claro about mid-day, but a little before that time we found, by the direction in which we were going, that we had taken a wrong road. A little after mid-day we came to the S.E. termination of that part of the Serra das Araras on which we had been travelling, whence we had an uninterrupted view of the vast plain that stretches to the south and east, studded here and there with a few small lakes. After descending the Serra by an easy path, we rested during the middle of the day beneath some trees, by the side of a little stream of cool water that came rushing down from the Serra, not knowing where we were, nor when we might meet with any one to give us information. We soon found the track again, and travelling through a flat thinly-wooded country, on an indifferent path, for about half an hour, we arrived at a small house, which we found empty; and a little further on we came upon another in the same state. Following the same path for about an hour, we met a black man and a boy, from whom we learned that we should arrive at a fazenda about half a league further on; we likewise ascertained at the same time that the road we had chosen was a round of about three leagues and a half to the fazenda do Rio Claro, but that it was much better than the one usually travelled; this at least was some consolation for the error we had committed. It was nearly sunset when we reached a small fazenda, called San José, where we put up for the night; the house was not only small, but in a wretchedly ruinous condition, and belonged to a mulatto, who did not seem to be very industrious. The Rio Urucuya, which runs directly east from the Serra Geral, and empties itself into the Rio de San Francisco a little below San Romão, passes close to the house, and is even there of considerable width and depth. On this day’s journey I collected no new plants, being the only instance of failing to do so in my travels since I left the coast.
Next morning, after receiving proper directions for the fazenda do Rio Claro, we left San José, and not long after we started came to a large rivulet which was so deep and muddy that it became necessary for all the luggage to be carried over by the men, and owing to the difficulties of the fording this occupied about two hours. As the stream is narrow, and the banks high on each side, it would not be difficult, in the course of a day, to form a good wooden bridge over it at a trifling expense, for plenty of wood exists close by; but this is scarcely to be expected from those who will not give themselves the trouble of erecting a decent house to live in, notwithstanding they are surrounded by an abundance of materials. When all had been passed over, I found it was then too late to go on until we had breakfasted, we therefore remained here till the afternoon. While at breakfast, an elderly white woman and her son arrived on the opposite side of the stream, and after having crossed it, they remained during the middle of the day in our encampment. We found this woman, notwithstanding her age, to be lively and active, qualities not common among Brazilian women. I learned from her that she was going to a place at a distance of five days’ journey, to fulfil a vow she had made to San Antonio, some short time before, when she was suffering from illness. During our stay at this place, we were greatly tormented with carrapatos. We started early, and shortly before sunset arrived at last at the fazenda do Rio Claro, having passed through a flat, thinly-wooded country, covered with several large coarse kinds of grass.
This fazenda takes its name from a little stream that flows past it, and falls into the Urucuya, about a league further south. Although the house was large and commodious, compared with the generality of others in those parts, the owner, Senhor Manoel Lucas, would not give us accommodation for the night, but sent us to a small open shed in front of the hut of one of his slaves, where we slung our hammocks, after having tied up some hides to keep out a cold wind that blew down from the Serra. The men slept in the open air, on the ground, by the side of a large fire. As I had a great many plants to pack up, and as it was necessary to get two more large hide trunks made to put them in, we remained four days at Rio Claro for this purpose. During our stay we found the proprietor to be no less exorbitant than Captain Faustino, of San João, in the extravagant prices he demanded for the dried hides and Indian corn that I bought of him, and equally inhospitable in his demeanour.
The whole time we remained here, was spent in the shed before mentioned, where we were roasted by day, and starved with cold by night. We found it so extremely cold in our hammocks, for want of a proper supply of blankets, that we rose several times during the night in order to warm ourselves by the fire around which the men slept.