The Villa de Lavra de Mangabeira is situated on the banks of the Rio Salgado, and contains about eighty or a hundred houses, all small, and many of them falling to decay. Gold is found in the neighbourhood, in a dark coloured alluvial soil a little below the surface; from time to time washings have been established, which have never yielded satisfactory results; the most extensive of these was undertaken about two years before my arrival. The president of the province and some others having formed themselves into a company, sent for two English miners to conduct the operations; they continued their labours to within two months previously, when the work was abandoned. About a year afterwards I met with one of these miners in a far distant part of the country, and from him I learned that the gold exists in too small quantities to repay the cost of its extraction; scarcity of water at times was also another drawback. Here I found, growing in vast quantities on the sandy margins of the river, a species of _Grangea_, which is a powerful bitter, used by the natives as an infusion in dyspeptic cases in the same manner as camomile, which, indeed, it much resembles, and to which they give the same name (_macella_). We left Lavra on the afternoon of the same day on which we arrived, and halted for the night at a small house near the river. On the following morning as we were advancing quietly, one of the horses struck its load against a tree, by which means it was thrown off; thus disencumbered it ran away at full speed among the trees, and was soon followed by the remainder, who in like manner quickly rid themselves of their cargoes; an hour was thus lost in recapturing and replacing the loads, and even while this was doing, one of the animals laid down and began to roll, first breaking the cords by which his burden was held on, and thus a second time freeing himself. I mention this, as an instance of one of the many annoyances to which a traveller in such countries is liable; in these respects horses are more unmanageable than mules. In the northern provinces of Brazil, however, the latter animals are very seldom seen, notwithstanding they have been frequently tried, large troops of them having been brought from the south. All being finally arranged, we continued our journey, and about mid-day arrived at a house on the bank of the river, near the road-side, where I asked permission as usual to pass the middle of the day, but we were told we should meet with better accommodation half a league further on; this was the first time I met with a refusal, and I can only recollect one similar instance during all my travels. After proceeding about a league without the appearance of any house, we halted under some large trees close to the river, where I determined to remain for the night, as the horses had undergone a long morning’s journey. In the evening I took a walk in the neighbourhood, but met with nothing new except a species of _Mikania_ clinging among