so call it) which is possessed by the Indians, by a great number of the negroes, and indeed by many individuals of mixed casts in finding out the right roads, often surprised me, but never more than on this occasion. I could not see any thing, but Manoel certainly did feel that he was quite sure of being in the right path, else he would not have spoken so positively; he had a considerable stock of courage; but was always cool and collected. At Agua Fria I passed some of the pleasantest hours of my residence in Brazil. The owner of the place is an English gentleman, to whom I owe many obligations; we were on most intimate terms, indeed I felt as much at home at Agua Fria as at Itamaraca. The spot was in the rudest state when he took possession of it; but although the soil was not propitious, the _sitio_ (settlement) was advancing; he had built a good house, and was erecting out-houses, making fences, and planting useful and ornamental trees. The place had been infested by red ants, but with much labour they had been destroyed, by digging into the ground for the nests. Behind the house there was a lake of considerable extent, which had been formed by the course of a rivulet having been stopped through the accumulation of loose white sand in the part which is now the road; so that the road is higher than the lake on one side, and the land along which the river formerly ran on the other side. When the waters rise in the winter the lake overflows and runs across the road, but during the greatest part of the year the road is dry, or nearly so. If the lake was drained, the settlement of Agua Fria would be worth ten times its present value, for the boundaries of it are the channel of the rivulet. This lake is covered over with reeds, rushes and coarse grass, and the roots of these plants have formed a thick coating over the water, which would not support the weight of a man, but much labour is required to cut through it. There were numbers of _jacarès_ or alligators[141] in this lake, which rendered it dangerous to work in cutting away the rushes, which it was necessary to do, for the purpose of forming an open space in which the horses could be watered and washed, and indeed the grass was eaten by them when other kinds failed in the dry season. I may here mention some others of the lizard tribe. The _camaleam_ (_lacerta Iguana_) is often to be met with; also the _tijuaçu_, which is, I believe, the _lacerta teguixin_; this is very common. There is likewise the _calango_, which is smaller than the other two; these three species are all of them eaten by the lower orders of people. The _vibra_ and the _lagartixa_ are two small species of lizard, which are continually to be seen in all situations; in and upon the houses, in the gardens and in the woods; they do good rather than harm, for they eat flies, spiders, &c. and they are to my eyes very pretty creatures; their activity, and at the same time their tameness, made me fond of them.