ns of the interior were almost altogether the descendants of
criminal Portuguese, who had been exiled to the country, and intermarried
with the lowest possible class of African slaves. They seemed to feel
strongly their inferiority when facing a European, and imagined--in which
they were not far wrong--the contempt with which, although it was covered
by the greatest politeness, one looked down upon them. That was perhaps
the only excuse one could offer for their vile behaviour, which,
according to their low mental qualities, they liked to display in order
to prove their independence and superiority.

We made our camp in a heavenly spot--barring the devilish _borrachudo_
(mosquitoes)--on the bank of a crystal-like streamlet flowing north
(elev. 2,200 ft.). We were really fortunate to have excellent and
plentiful water all the time. The thermometer went down during the night
to a minimum of 54 deg. Fahr. There were more shivers and moans from my men.
Only Alcides and Filippe behaved in a manly way. The others were in
terror of attacks from the _onca pintada_ (_felis onca_) or spotted
jaguar of Brazil, and of the _terrivel tamanduas bandeira_, a toothless
pachyderm, with a long and hairy tail, long nails, and powerful arms, the
embrace of which is said to be sufficient to kill a man, or even a
jaguar, so foolish as to endeavour wrestling with it. It had a long
protruding nose or proboscis, which it inserted into ant-heaps. A tongue
of abnormal length was further pushed out, and then quickly withdrawn
when crammed with attacking ants. Ants were its favourite food. Although
my men talked all the time of the terrible _bandeiras_, we never had the
good fortune to receive the fond embraces of one.

We had a beautiful sky--perfectly clear--on May 28th, except perhaps a
faint curtain of mist near the horizon to the west. Two of my horses had
unfortunately strayed; and as the men searched the _matto_ with trembling
knees in fear of meeting a _bandeira_ instead of the missing horses, they
were not recovered until late in the afternoon, so that we did not depart
until 4 p.m.

We went up to the top of an undulation (elev. 2,400 ft.), on grey ashes
as usual in the lower part of the hill, and red volcanic sand on the
summit. That afternoon's journey was not unlike tobogganing up and down
all the time--at elevations varying from 2,500 to 2,350 ft.--over domes
of sand, ashes, and eruptive rock, and dykes with depressions, some 100
ft.