On the morning we left San Eloi, we did not depart till after breakfast, so that we only accomplished a distance of about two leagues and a half, passing through an elevated level country, large tracts of which were covered with low shrubs, forming that kind of vegetation called Carrasco; we then halted for a short time under a large silk-cotton tree, near an open marshy campo, in which a fine stemless Eriocaulon grew in great abundance. In the afternoon we made another journey of about a league and a half, through an upland, grassy, hilly country, and towards dusk arrived at the fazenda do Sitio, which belongs to the Guarda-Môr, Gonsalvo Christovão Pereira d’Alcami, from whom, though I carried no letter of recommendation to him, I received a most hospitable reception: rooms were immediately prepared for our use; and during the day and a half we remained there, both Mr. Walker and I were entertained at his table. His house, which is an excellent one of two stories, is situated in a hollow, from which the view of the hilly country in the distance is very fine.
I remained here a day longer than I had intended, finding my collection of plants so great that it became necessary to arrange them; this occupied me a whole day, and I had fortunately the assistance of a bright sun-shine, which enabled me to dry all the moist paper, and to place all the specimens in dry sheets. A fine stream flowing from the hills, passes close to the house, and in a walk I took along its banks in the afternoon, I added many botanical novelties to my collection. I was informed by our host, that in the gravel of this stream two or three diamonds had been found, from which it was evident that we were now on the verge of that district, to which this precious stone gives its name.
My collections having been all put into order, I had resolved to resume the journey early next morning, but in this I was disappointed in consequence of one of my horses having strayed into the woods, and therefore our departure was delayed till the afternoon. I had here again the choice of two roads, one winding round the foot of a very high Serra, which, although longer, was much better than the other that passed over the top of the Serra: I preferred the latter on account of the very different vegetation I expected to find there, but as regarded the horses, which were not at all in good condition, the former would have been the better. The Guarda-Môr wished me to remain another night, in order to avoid sleeping on the top of the mountain far from any house; but as we were all much accustomed to this, it gave us no concern, although afterwards we had reason to regret our decision. Shortly after leaving the fazenda, we ascended a Serra of considerable height, barely wooded with a few low shrubs, the greater part of which consisted of three species of Lychnophora. Continuing along the undulating top of this, we reached another ascent, stony and difficult in the extreme for the horses, which terminated in a rocky and rather flat top of considerable length. This place presented quite an alpine appearance; the rugged arenaceous schistose rocks, and even the ground, as well as the small shrubs, had a hoary appearance, from the numerous lichens by which they were covered; and the cold we experienced was quite in unison with the aspect of the country.
With the exception of the elevated ranges of the Organ mountains, this was the richest botanical field I had met with during my long peregrinations. So numerous indeed were the objects that presented themselves on every side, each more beautiful or more curious than the other, that I was obliged to restrict myself in the number of specimens collected, so that I might obtain at least a few of each kind. The shrubs here consisted of different species of Lychnophora, beautiful Melastomacea, a Virgularia covered with rose-coloured blossoms, several Hypti, a Panax, &c.; and among these grew many curious kinds of Eriocaulon, and other small herbaceous plants. The soil here was rather boggy, and numerous little rills of limpid water were flowing down the mountain in all directions. Leaving this flat, we entered upon a third ascent, steeper and more stony than the previous one, which shortly brought us to a flattish, grassy, somewhat shrubby tract.
On this ascent a different vegetation again presented itself, two of the most beautiful of the plants being a species of Physocalyx, a handsome shrub about three feet high, with numerous orange-red flowers, surrounded by a large inflated calyx of nearly the same colour, and a beautiful scarlet-flowered Lisianthus. We proceeded on the flat top of this ridge about half a league, every step yielding some new plant. It was quite dark before we arrived at a place suitable for our encampment; this was a dry, sandy, grassy spot, by the side of the path; there were only a few small trees in the immediate neighbourhood, and the men, by groping beneath them, obtained as many dry sticks as sufficed to make a small fire wherewith to cook our supper.
The sky was quite clear on our arrival, but shortly afterwards a thunder storm was seen gathering to the westward; and no sooner were we laid down on our hide beds, by the side of the fire, than the rain began to fall, and having no shelter of any kind, we were soon completely drenched; the men, in their anxiety to keep the fire alight, held a hide over it till the storm ceased. The flashes of lightning were extremely vivid, and the peals of thunder fearfully loud. After it had passed over, we made ourselves as comfortable as our circumstances would permit, and laid ourselves down, in the hope of not being again disturbed. In this, however, we were sadly disappointed, for shortly after we had fallen asleep, the storm returned in all its fury, leaving us in a far worse state than we had previously been. Those only who have passed a night under such circumstances can imagine the annoyance we experienced; could we have seen the probability of its occurrence, we might have been better prepared for it, but in the middle of the dry season we certainly had no reason to expect so much rain. A third time we laid ourselves down, not to sleep, because that was now impossible, cold and wet as we were, for the fire had been completely extinguished by the quantity of rain that had fallen.
When daylight broke, I found the place where we were encamped to be one of the most lovely that can be conceived, abounding in a variety of beautiful shrubs, and many curious plants. We remained here till noon, in the expectation that the sun would shine with force sufficient to enable us to dry all the things that had been wetted by the rain during the night; but the whole forenoon continuing cloudy, we resolved to pursue our journey. In the morning, immediately after breakfast, I returned with one of my men to the top of the last ascent we had passed the night before; and made several other shorter excursions in the vicinity of the encampment, by which many interesting novelties were added to my collections. We did not start till shortly after mid-day, when, after a fatiguing journey of three long leagues, we arrived at a very recently established gold working called Lavrinha. Our route was entirely along the flat top of the Serra, sometimes passing through large open grassy tracts, abounding in numerous kinds of Eriocaulon, Melastomaceæ, Compositæ, a blue flowered Lupinus, a small Virgularia with pale rose-coloured flowers, great profusion of a purple Vellozia, and the beautiful scarlet-flowered Lisianthus, &c.; and sometimes through rugged tracts thinly wooded with small shrubs, among them numerous Melastomaceæ, many of them with small imbricated leaves, and large rose-coloured blossoms, forming the most elegant little bushes imaginable, in general habit not unlike heaths. Although this journey was very fatiguing to the animals, to me it was exciting and delightful in the extreme; the whole country through which we had passed for nearly two days, was one vast flower garden, where, ‘like a child at a feast,’ I knew not which object to grasp at first: everything was not only new to me, but each more beautiful or more curious than the other. In this upland region a solemn silence reigned, not a single animal of any description having been observed during our progress through it, nor any sound heard except that made by ourselves.
We reached Lavrinha about five o’clock in the afternoon; and although the sun shone brilliantly during the better part of our journey, it was too late to attempt drying any of our things when we arrived. Lavrinha, as I have already stated, is a small gold working, then but recently established. The only buildings near it were a small hut, made of a few posts and poles, covered with Buriti palm leaves, where the overseer slept, and a few sheds of the same materials for the shelter of the slaves; we obtained accommodation in one corner of the former. A small stream that passes close by, but which is only supplied with water in the rainy season, had offered some indications of gold, which induced some rich fazendeiros, among whom were Colonel Virciani and the Guarda-Môr, to form themselves into a society, six months before my visit, with the object of establishing a working; accordingly about forty slaves were sent to carry on the operations, under the directions of the person who first discovered the gold, and who, for his labour, obtained a number of shares in the concern. The vein from which the gold found in this small stream had been washed, was discovered proceeding downwards through a soft white arenaceous schistose rock; and at the period of my visit, they had mined to the depth of about thirty feet. I found them then occupied in washing the material they had taken out, which proved to be very uncertain in its product, some days yielding one, two, and three ounces of gold, but more frequently the amount was less than an ounce. A short time before our arrival, as much as four ounces resulted from a single day’s labour, but it had again diminished to less than an ounce. It appeared to me, from the awkward manner in which the works were then carried on, that they would never turn to profitable account, as the person in charge of the operations was not only quite ignorant of the art of mining, but unacquainted with the most simple operations in mechanics. While employed in the labour of excavating, a considerable amount of water was constantly flowing into the mine from two springs; and this was again drawn out in buckets by hand labour, continued both day and night; whereas a pump of no large diameter would have served to carry off the water more quickly and effectually, and saved the labour of at least ten or twelve men. When I mentioned this to the manager, he told me that no one in the neighbourhood had the smallest idea of the construction of a pump. Even a common winch and buckets would have been far better than the plan here adopted, but such was the low state of their mechanical knowledge, that they knew not how to construct even so simple a machine.
The following day being one of clear sun-shine, we were occupied all the forenoon in drying our wet clothes, and in arranging the large collection of specimens made the day before; and in the afternoon, I took several short walks in the neighbourhood in quest of novelties. Lavrinha is situated on the southern extremity of the Serra, in a hollow, surrounded by rocky hills, somewhat lower than those which form the northern parts of the Serra. Here I again made numerous collections, among which were two fine orchideous plants, both species of the beautiful genus Lælia, one of them bearing violet-coloured, and the other bright yellow flowers. In dry arid clefts in the rocks grew several curious little Vellozias, and Eriocaulons; one of the latter was a branched species about six feet high.
Having so frequently mentioned this curious tribe of plants, I will here make a few observations upon them. When Linnæus published the last edition of his Species Plantarum, in 1764, he described only five species from all parts of the world, while, from Brazil alone, my herbarium contains upwards of one hundred. Only one species is found in Great Britain,—a little grass-like plant, with a single flowering stem about six inches long, bearing a small globular head of minute white flowers. It is found only in lakes in the Isle of Skye, and in the west of Ireland. Very few of the Brazilian plants bear much resemblance to this northern species; for a great number of them are large suffruticose plants, often obtaining a height of from four to six feet, with leafy, very much branched stems, each branchlet terminated by a large white ball, composed of a vast number of smaller heads, placed on peduncles of unequal length. Another remarkable circumstance connected with these strange plants, is the fact, that the greater number of the Brazilian species do not inhabit water, in the manner of our native British one, but grow in the most dry and arid portions of mountainous declivities; many others also grow in parched, flat, sandy places, which are flooded in the wet season; the truly aquatic Brazilian kinds, more or less resemble our own in habit.[17]