Leaving Ignape during the forenoon, in the Dom Affonso, we steamed along the inland sea, known as Mare Pequeno, and really the Bay of Venice cannot present a scene of more simple beauty than this placid sheet of water.
Several cozy-looking dwellings are located very near the margin, and the borders are fringed with green foliage, while here and there an islet is slightly elevated above the surface, and to complete the picture, water-fowls of various plumage are seen either resting upon the water or flying around with evident surprise at the presence of our little intruder.
In the course of the afternoon a heavy rain drove us from the deck into the cabin, and as the shades of evening were closing around us, the steamer reached the villa of Cananea.
Shortly after anchoring, Senor E. H. Street came aboard, and took me ashore to spend the night. We called upon Captain Buhlaw and lady, and also Mr. Hanson and lady, living in the same house. They are favorably impressed with the suitableness of the country for their future residence; and arrangements are already completed by those two gentlemen, for the location of a saw-mill upon the river Guarahu, five miles above its confluence with the Rio Jacupiranga, which proceeds thence thirty miles into the Ribeira de Ignape.
We took tea with these Southern people, and while sitting in that little social group, unfettered by any political domination, my thoughts turned anxiously to the fate of those who remained in the South.
Thursday, January 25, 1866.
We breakfasted with our Southern friends, and relished it the more for being prepared by the hands of the ladies. Mrs. Hanson is quite a young woman with one child, and seems prepared to take life as she may find it, saying that she only wants now to get a place fixed where she could have her own garden, and raise her own poultry, to feel entirely independent.
Mrs. Buhlaw does not seem to adapt herself so readily to this border style of living, yet she is cheerful, and hopeful of the future.
These families are sojourning only temporarily here, until arrangements for their accommodation are completed at some distance in the country.
The villa of Cananea is one of the oldest settlements in Brazil, the fleet of Martin Affonso de Sonza having landed at this place, August 12, 1531, and placed upon the island of Abrigo, at an elevated point known as Morro São Joas, two stone pillars, which are still to be seen.