etched
in every attitude of luxurious ease. After we had rested, the gentlemen
went down to the igarape to bathe, while the senhora and her daughter, a
very pretty Indian woman, showed me over the rest of the establishment.
She had the direction of everything now; for the master of the house was
absent, having a captain's commission in the army; and I heard here the
same complaints which meet you everywhere in the forest settlements, of
the deficiency of men on account of the recruiting. The room I have
described stood on one side of a cleared and neatly swept ground, around
which, at various distances, stood a number of little thatched
houses,--_casinhas_, as they call them,--consisting mostly only of one
room. But beside these there was one larger house, with mud walls and
floor, containing two or three rooms, and having a wooden veranda in
front. This was the senhora's private establishment. At a little
distance farther down on the hill was the mandioca kitchen, with several
large ovens, troughs, etc. Nothing could be neater than the whole area
of this _sitio_; and while we were there, two or three black girls were
sent out to sweep it afresh with their stiff twig brooms. Around was the
plantation of mandioca and cacao, with here and there a few
coffee-shrubs. It is difficult to judge of the extent of these _sitio_
plantations, because they are so irregular, and comprise such a variety
of trees,--mandioca, coffee, cacao, and often cotton, being planted
pellmell together. But every _sitio_ has its plantation, large or small,
of one or other or all of these productions.

On the return of the gentlemen from the igarape, we took leave, though
very kindly pressed to stay and breakfast. At parting, the senhora
presented me with a wicker-basket of fresh eggs, and some _abacatys_, or
alligator pears, as we call them. We reached the house just in time for
a ten-o'clock breakfast, which assembled all the different parties once
more from their various occupations, whether of work or play. The
sportsmen returned from the forest, bringing a goodly supply of toucans,
papagaios, and paroquets, with a variety of other birds; and the
fishermen brought in treasures again for Mr. Agassiz.

After breakfast I retired to the room where we had passed the night,
hoping to find a quiet time for writing up letters and journal. But it
was already occupied by the old senhora and her guests, lounging about
in the hammocks or squatting on the fl