The necessary preparations having been completed, we started from Arrayas on the afternoon of the 6th of May, my object being now to reach the Villa de San Romão on the Rio de San Francisco; but instead of proceeding southward along the western base of the Serra Geral as far as the parallel of San Romão, the road usually followed by the people of the country, I preferred the less frequented, and consequently the more difficult route, that leads along the Serra itself. My reasons for adopting this plan were, in the first place, because the low country to the westward had already been travelled over by Pohl and Burchell, and partly by Spix and Martius; and secondly, because I always preferred elevated regions, on account of the greater diversity of vegetation met with in such situations. We were accompanied for about half a league out of the Villa by a few of the more respectable inhabitants. Shortly after the return of my friends, we descended the Serra on which the Villa stands, by a very rocky path, but this descent was not nearly so great as the ascent on the opposite side, and although we now found ourselves in a comparatively flat country, we were still at a considerable elevation. After proceeding half a league, we encamped for the night under some trees by the side of a small stream; here we slung our hammocks, but soon after midnight the cold became so great, from the wind that blew down from the Serra, that we could not sleep; and long before daybreak we were glad to rise, and seat ourselves round a large fire, such as we always made it a rule to burn every night we slept in the open air. A journey of four long leagues on the following day, brought us to the fazenda Gamelleira, where we passed the night under a large fig-tree, there being only one small house belonging to the vaqueiro. This fazenda belongs to a widow lady, Dona Maria Rosa, at whose house we spent some time during the middle of the day. Soon after leaving Gamelleira, we entered a virgin forest quite unlike any I had seen since leaving the Province of Rio de Janeiro, and which I little expected to find in the district where we were now travelling. It contained many large trees, covered with numerous parasitical _Orchideæ_. The forest was about a league in length, after which we entered upon an elevated thinly-wooded tract, where we halted to breakfast under a beautiful shady wild-fig (Gamelleira). In the afternoon we accomplished another two leagues, and passed the night at a fazenda called Mangê, the road leading over a thinly-wooded Chapada.