red at
elevations of 2,700 ft., 2,750 ft. and 2,800 ft., with undulating grassy
land between of wonderful beauty.

Having deviated somewhat from our route, we at last descended into a
grassy valley--absolutely flat--the best of all we had seen. It had been
fenced all round. Upon inquiry, I learned that it had been acquired by
the Redemptionist Friars. There is one thing friars certainly know. It
is how to select the best land anywhere to settle upon.

We had travelled 46 kil. 200 m. that day when we arrived at Campinas
(elev. 2,550 ft. above the sea level)--the usual kind of filthy village
with tiny, one-storied houses, more like toys than real liveable
habitations. This time the doors and windows were bordered with grey
instead of blue. On nearing those villages in Central Brazil one
frequently found an abundance of rough wooden crosses scattered upon the
landscape. They marked the spots where individuals had been killed.

In the room where I put up in the village, in the _hospedagem_, or
rest-house, the floor was besmeared with blood, the result of a recent
murder. The shops grew more and more uninteresting as we got farther into
the interior. The difficulties of transport were naturally greater, the
prices rose by leaps and bounds, as we got farther; the population got
poorer and poorer for lack of enterprise. The articles of luxury and
vanity, so frequently seen in shops before, were now altogether absent,
and only bottles of inferior liquor and beer were sold, matches and
candles--that was all. No trade, no industry, no money, existed in those
places. If one happened to pay with a five- or a ten-milreis note (6_s._
8_d._ or 13_s._ 4_d._), one could never obtain change. Frequently, unless
you wished to leave the change behind, you were obliged to carry away the
balance in cheap stearine or beer. I took the stearine. A short distance
from the town was a seminary, with four German friars, very fat, very
jolly, very industrious.

Alcides, one of my men, was by way of being a veterinary surgeon. Here is
how he cured a wounded mule, which, having received a powerful kick from
another animal, displayed a gash 3 in. long in her back, and so deep that
the entire hand could be inserted and actually disappear into the wound.
Francisco, another of my men, having duly and firmly tied the animal's
legs--a sensible precaution--proceeded with his naked arm to search for
_bishus_: anything living is a _bishu_ in Brazil, from an