On several nights, during our stay at the Mission, fires were seen on the Serras at no great distance, and one day, as one of the inhabitants was returning from the woods, he saw an Indian, armed with his bow and arrows, cross the path before him. These circumstances caused the inhabitants to dread another attack, and they were but poorly prepared to meet it. Formerly they used to have a supply of arms and ammunition sent to them every year by the government, but for many years past, these had not been furnished to them, and the old ones were nearly worn out. In cases of necessity, the government can call upon the captains to take the field with their men, and each can raise about forty, able to carry arms. A few of these Indians have guns of their own, which they use in hunting, and their powder is a coarse kind, manufactured by themselves. Some of the shopkeepers in the towns to the south-west, every year go down by the Rio Tocantins to Pará to sell hides and purchase European goods; very frequently some of the young men belonging to Duro hire themselves to work the canoes, and with the money which they receive for their services, purchase at Pará axes and other iron tools; a party of them returned from one of these trips during our visit. During the fortnight we remained in the Aldea do Duro, I was principally occupied in drying the immense collection of specimens obtained in the latter part of the journey across the Geräes and the Chapada da Mangabeira, and in packing up all those which had been procured between Santa Rosa and Duro. I also made many excursions in the neighbourhood of the Aldea, and notwithstanding it was then the end of the dry season, I found it an excellent field for my researches. The sandy marshes yielded me many curious _Eriocaulons_, and beautiful _Melastomaceæ_; while the upland campos produced several species of _Diplusodon_, many _Compositæ_, _Labiatæ_, &c.; but the most common, as well as the most beautiful of the productions of the campos, were a small _Bignonia_ growing in tufts, and scarcely a foot high, bearing numerous large lemon-coloured trumpet-shaped flowers, an _Ipomæa_, similar in habit and about the same size, producing large violet-coloured blossoms (_Ipomæa hirsutissima_, Gardn.) and two erect kinds of _Echites_:[10] in dry rocky places _Amaryllis Solandræflora_, Lindl., was very common, producing abundantly its large yellow flowers.