We started from Picada early, but did not proceed more than a league, being detained on the road by an accident that befell the Indian guide I had hired at Arrayas: he was walking behind another of the men, who was mounted on a spirited young horse, when on a sudden, probably from the sting of some insect, it started, casting up its heels in the air, and after striking the poor Indian a violent blow in the stomach, set off at full gallop, throwing its rider, but without doing him any harm. I sent forward the troop in charge of Mr. Walker, while I remained behind to attend to the Indian who seemed to be in much pain; he was greatly relieved by a little water for which we had to wait a long time before it could be procured, he was then placed on a quiet horse, and led slowly to the nearest house two miles distant, but by the time we reached it, he became so weak that his pulse was scarcely sensible. After giving him a cup of strong warm tea, the only stimulus that was to be procured, his pulse rose considerably, when I bled him in the arm, which relieved him greatly; and he gradually recovered, so that we were enabled to resume our journey in the afternoon of the following day. We stopped at a place called Riachão, which consisted of three houses, about a quarter of a mile distant from each other. Here, for the third time only since I left Arrayas, I was able to purchase some Indian corn for my horses; they stood in much need of it, as the pastures were now very poor, consisting of coarse, dry, innutritious grasses. The inhabitants of this district are so desperately lazy that they scarcely plant sufficient of anything for their own use, notwithstanding the unlimited extent of ground that each family possesses. For several nights before we reached this place, the horses were greatly annoyed by bats, which are very numerous on this Serra, where they inhabit the caves in the limestone rocks; during the night we remained at Riachão, the whole of my troop suffered more from their attacks, than they had done before on any previous occasion. All exhibited one or more streams of clotted blood on their shoulders and backs, which had run from the wounds made by these animals, and from which they had sucked their fill of blood; when a small sore exists on the back of a horse, they always prefer making their incision in that place. The owner of the house where we stopped informed me, that he was not able to rear cattle here, on account of the destruction made by the bats among the calves, so that he was obliged to keep them at a considerable distance in a lower part of the country; even the pigs did not escape their attacks.