The men soon left us to arrange the loads, which we were doing with all possible expedition, when on turning round, I saw Mimoza running up to me, half crouched and half afraid. I had often wished to purchase this animal, but nothing would induce her master to part with her; he said that he had had her from a whelp, and added, that if he put the pot upon the fire, and then went out with her, he was sure to return by the time it boiled, bringing something with which to fill it. He did not mean that this was literally the case; but thus quaintly he wished to impress the idea of her great expertness in hunting. She followed us, as she found that she was well received. We advanced, and halted at St. Ursula, a fazenda, distant from Açu one league and a half, and here we slept. The roads lay through woods, which were thick and close. From hence to the Seara-meirim, the country was new to me, as I deviated from the road by which I had arrived at Açu, on my way northwards. I now took the shortest road to Natal, but had frequently to cross this winding river.
Whilst I was at dinner, Mimoza was near to me, watching for her share, when suddenly she crept under the bench upon which I sat; I soon saw what had caused this movement, for the old man, the father of her owner, was coming towards us; he said that he came for his son’s dog. I persuaded him to sell her, and when he was going his way, Mimoza ran out from under the bench and fawned upon him. I told him to go on, and invite her to follow him; but upon this she immediately returned growling to her old station under the bench. She had been better treated and better fed with me than when she was with her master. I always fed her myself, and had several times prevented him from beating her.
The next day we passed through the fazendas of Passagem and Barra; the road was over loose stony ground and we crossed one dry marsh. In the afternoon we travelled from S. Bento to Anjicos, which obliged us to pass over some higher ground, which was very stony and painful to our horses. We crossed a small shallow stream several times.
Our next day’s march carried us across more stony ground. The persons to whom we spoke, said that there had been no rain, and indeed this was evident. There was no grass, and the country was yet parched and dreary. The horses had no water at noon, for the well was small, and the spring which supplied it was insufficient for so great a number of beasts. I was thirsty in the afternoon, and therefore left the comboio to follow at its usual pace, and rode on accompanied by Julio; the two dogs likewise would come with us. We entered upon a plain, and now for the second time I saw an ema, a species of ostrich. Notwithstanding my attempts to prevent them, the dogs set off after it, and much against my inclination I was obliged to wait until their return. The bird ran from them with great velocity, flapping its wings, but never leaving the ground. The emas outstrip the fleetest horses. The colour of the one which we saw was a dark grey; its height, including the neck, which was very long, was about that of a man on horseback, and it had that appearance at first sight, when at some distance. The Sertanejos say, that when pursued the ema spurs itself to run the faster; that the spurs or pointed bones are placed in the inside of the wings, and that as these are flapped, the bones strike the sides and wound them. I have heard many people say, that when an ema is caught after a hard chase, the sides are found to be bloody. It is possible that this effect may be produced by some cause similar to that by which a pig cuts its own throat in swimming. The eggs of the ema are large, and although the food which they afford is coarse, it is not unpalatable. The feathers are much esteemed. When the dogs returned we continued our journey; the road led us between high rocks, and after proceeding along it for some time, the dogs suddenly struck from the path, and went up the side of a flat rock, which sloped down towards the road, but was sufficiently low to allow of a horse ascending it. Our horses stopped and snuffed up the air. Julio cried out at the same time “water, water,” and spurred his horse to follow the dogs, and I did the same. Julio was quite correct in what he had supposed, from the direction which the dogs immediately took, and from the stopping of the horses. There was a long and narrow but deep cleft in the rock, which was nearly full of water, clear and cold. The sides of the cleft slanted inwards, and the water was below the surface, so that the dogs were running round and howling, without being able to reach it; the horses too, as soon as we dismounted, and they saw the water, began to paw, and attempted to press forwards to drink. We had brought no vessel with which to take up any of it, and were under the necessity of using our hats to satisfy the horses and dogs. The rest of the party came up after some time; Feliciano was acquainted with the spot, but if the dogs and horses had not pointed it out to Julio, he and I should have missed it. We were delayed considerably in giving water enough to all the horses, as we had no large vessel in which to take it up. I heard from Feliciano, and subsequently from other persons, that these clefts in the rocks are common; but that they are known to few, and those principally of his rank and occupation in life, and that this knowledge enabled them to find plenty of water when others were in great distress. He said, “we never refuse to give information, but we say as little about it as possible.” I travelled until ten o’clock at night, wishing to reach some fazenda, and not to remain in the open air, as there were several heavy clouds flying about, from the look of which we well knew that if the wind abated, rain would come on. We reached a fazenda, and applied for a night’s lodging, which was granted; but upon a survey of the interior of the house, I preferred the open air with all its disadvantages. The place was full of persons who had assembled from the neighbouring estates, in expectation of rain, as they had come to assist in collecting cattle. The fellows were eating dried meat, and had by some means obtained a quantity of rum. I took up my station at a distance from the house, and we scarcely laid down during the night, from the fear of rain, and in some measure that we might be prepared to prevent any of our horses being stolen, as a piece of sport, by the people in the house.
The next day we crossed over a plain which was partly without trees and in part covered with brushwood; in going over this last portion I had pushed on with Julio, leaving the comboio to follow us. We had nearly lost our way at the division of several paths; even Julio’s knowledge was insufficient, and had we not met some travellers and enquired of them, I know not how far from the baggage we might have been at night.
On the following morning we advanced again, took water in skins near to some cottages, and at noon stationed ourselves in the bed of a rivulet, where there was good grass, but no water. As the bed was lower than the neighbouring land the very first shower had made the grass spring up, though there had not been rain sufficient to excite vegetation upon its banks. Here the armadillo strayed into some brushwood; Feliciano followed it by the marks of its footsteps over the grass and dry leaves, and brought it back. I am quite confident that he did not see which way it went, and to a person unused to tracing footsteps there appeared to be none. If it had passed over sand, there would not have been any thing extraordinary in discovering the way which the animal had taken, but upon grass and dry leaves so small an animal could make but a most trifling impression. I mentioned at this place accidentally that the skins had spoiled the water, for it tasted of the grease with which they had been rubbed. Feliciano heard me, and took up a small skin that lay empty, which was old and therefore not greasy, and said, “I’ll try to find some for you that is better;” and away he went. In about an hour he returned with the skin full of excellent water. He had recollected a cleft in a rock at some distance, and had gone to see if any yet remained in it.
We slept at a fazenda, and the next day proceeded in the expectation of reaching the Searà-meirim, which we did. This track of country had not recovered from the drought, but the trees were beginning to be cloathed, and the grass under them was in most parts of sufficient length to afford subsistence to our horses. Water was still scarce and bad, but the rain had made it less brackish and more plentiful. We passed over the travessia with all possible haste, as the floods were expected shortly, and sometimes the water comes down, as I have before stated, with great rapidity. There is some danger in being caught by the water upon any of the peninsulas or islands which are formed by its bends, for to be under the necessity of crossing over a stream which runs with much violence, perhaps ten times or more successively, would be too much for almost any horse to bear, and particularly for those which were already fatigued by a long journey. We left the Searà-meirim in four days, passed Pai Paulo, and early on the fifth day arrived again at the dry lake. The people of this place were upon the point of decamping, as the rains were expected or rather had already commenced. We now met several parties of travellers, who had taken advantage of the first rains to pass over this track of country, and who were hastening before the floods came down the river.
January is not properly speaking the rainy season. The rains at the commencement of the year are called the primeiras aguas or the first waters, and continue for about a fortnight or three weeks, after which the weather generally becomes again settled until May or June, and from this time until the end of August the rains are usually pretty constant. From August or September until the opening of the year there is not usually any rain. The dry weather can be depended upon with more certainty from September until January, than from February until May; likewise the wet weather can be looked for with more certainty from June until August than in January. There are very few days during the whole course of the year of incessant rain. What I have said regarding the seasons must however be taken with some latitude, as in all climates they are subject to variation.
The horse I left at the dry lake was faithfully delivered to me, and I continued my journey on the following day to Natal. The governor received me with the same cordiality as before.
I had now left the Sertam, and though it treated me rather roughly, still I have always wished I could have seen more of it. There is a certain pleasure which I cannot describe in crossing new countries, and that portion of territory over which I had travelled was new to an Englishman. From the sensations which I experienced I can well imagine what those are, which travellers in unexplored countries must feel at every step—at every novelty which comes under their view. There is yet much ground upon the continent of South America to be traversed, and I most heartily wish that it had been my fate to be the civilized individual first doomed to cross from Pernambuco to Lima.