It was four o’clock in the afternoon before we could start, and we passed the night at an Engenho, called Guaribas, at the foot of the Serra de Araripe, its distance being about a league and a half westward of Crato. On the following morning we resumed our journey soon after daybreak, and shortly afterwards ascended the Serra during a heavy shower of rain, over a part considerably lower than that a few leagues to the eastward. The breadth of the Serra here is about thirty miles, the first half was very similar to other parts of it which I had previously visited, being quite level and open, the vegetation consisting of rather large and thinly scattered trees, and in many parts covered with an abundance of low shrubs. The most common tree here was a fine species of _Vochysia_, which I had only met with sparingly before, and which has a fine appearance, from its dark green, shining leaves, and spikes of bright yellow flowers, which terminate the branchlets. The more westerly portion is very thickly wooded with small trees, large tracts of which are burned down every year, to allow of a more abundant supply of herbage for the cattle and horses which are sent here to pasture during the dry season. When about half way across, we halted under a tree to breakfast, having brought a large calabash full of water for the purpose of making tea, but we might have saved this trouble as we found an abundant supply in the hollowed stump of a tree; it was found to be of good quality notwithstanding that one or two frogs were swimming about in it. The western descent is very gradual, and ends in a long narrow ravine, which leads into Brejo Grande, a large valley surrounded on all sides, except to the westward, by branches of the Serra. Towards the western extremity of this valley, we arrived at the house of Colonel Manoel do Barros de Cavalcante; I had been requested by his son who lives in Crato, to visit him, as he had been very ill for several days. He is the chief person in this district, which is not very thickly populated, where he officiates as justice of the peace (Juiz de Paz); on visiting him I soon found that he suffered from a severe attack of acute rheumatism, for which I bled him freely, and administered the usual remedies. In a marshy place near the head of the valley of Brejo Grande, we passed a large group of beautiful palm, which I had met with in only a few instances below Crato, but which I afterwards saw in the greatest abundance in the swamps of Piauhy and Goyaz; it is called Buriti by the inhabitants, and is the _Mauritia vinifera_ of Martius. This palm is not only the most beautiful, but one of the loftiest in the country; the leaves are fan-shaped, and form a large round ball at the top of the stem, after the manner of the Carnahuba. It produces a great number of nuts about the size of a small egg, covered with rhomboidal scales arranged in a spiral manner; between these scales and the albuminous substance of the nut, there exists an