[35] The castor tree is known in Brazil under the same name; indeed, there is much similarity between the seed of this plant, from which the oil is extracted, and the larger kind of tick.
[36] Between two and three years after this journey, I heard again of my friend the Major. I became acquainted with a man who resided at the foot of the Serra do Teixeira, which is beyond the estates of the major’s father. The old colonel was killed by a bull before his own door. The animal had been driven into a small inclosure, and became mad from feeling himself confined. It was necessary to bring him to the ground, which is done in a peculiar manner, by running a short iron prong into a certain part of the thigh. The herdsmen were afraid, and wished to let the beast have time to cool and become less violent; the old man, who was between seventy and eighty years of age, told them, that if they were afraid, he would attack him, and immediately entered the inclosure; but before he could prepare to receive the bull, and was still leaning against the palings, the animal ran at him, and fixed his horns through the old man’s body, with sufficient force to run them into the palings, and in such a manner that before he could extricate himself, one of the herdsmen ran a long knife into his head between the horns, and brought him to the ground; but the old man lost his life.
[37] “Falla a lingua de negro.”
[38] Vide Appendix.
[39] “Deixa estar meu amo.”
[40] I heard in the beginning of the year 1815, that the bar had been completely choaked up during a violent gale of wind from the sea, whilst two coasters were in the river, taking in cargoes for Pernambuco.
[41] This person has since been removed to a province of more importance.
[42] “Mofino como caboclo.”
[43] I heard, from good authority, that there are two instances of Indians having been ordained as secular priests, and that both these individuals died from excessive drinking.
[44] Caboclo he so para hoje.