The great object of my visit to the north of Brazil was to make a journey from the coast to the high lands which lie on the eastern side of the Rio Tocantins. This part of the country, which I was strongly recommended to visit by Von Martius and others, on account of its botanical riches, is distant from Pernambuco about 1,200 miles, and nearly directly west from it. Although I was desirous to begin this journey I was advised by persons well acquainted with the interior of the country not to undertake it towards the end of the rainy season, on account of the difficulty of finding grass and water for the horses after the period when every thing has been scorched up by the burning sun of the dry season. Nor is the period of the rains less exceptionable for the undertaking of a long journey, since, during the four months which it generally lasts, there are scarcely two consecutive dry days. It was now about the end of January, and as the period of my entering upon my proposed expedition would not be sooner than the end of June or beginning of July, to pass the intervening time I determined to visit Maceio, a small seaport town in the province of Alagoas, about half-way between Pernambuco and Bahia; and from thence to make an excursion to the Rio San Francisco, and, if possible, up that river to the great falls of Paulo Affonço. As no other conveyance was to be had for Maceio, I was obliged to take a passage in a canoe which was going down laden with goods. It was about three o’clock in the afternoon of the 30th of January, 1838, before I could obtain my passport, upon which I immediately embarked, and after undergoing the necessary examination at a custom-house boat, we got outside the reef, and ran down before the north-east trade-wind till seven o’clock P.M., when we came to an anchor for the night, in a small sandy bay about four leagues to the south of Pernambuco. During the passage, we several times ran foul of the stakes of fishing pens, which are common along the coast. I may here describe the nature and appearance of the craft in which I was embarked; it was about forty feet long and three feet broad, being the trunk of a large tree hollowed out; a few feet at each end of it were decked over, and the little cabins so formed were filled with parcels and provisions; when empty they served as sleeping berths for the crew, which consisted of the master and two men. It had a single, long, slender mast, to which a triangular sail was fixed, the lower part of which was stretched out by a long boom; a little below the gunwale on each side were lashed two logs of light buoyant wood, nearly as long as the canoe, of the same kind of which jangadas are made; while these enable her to carry more cargo, they serve also to prevent her from upsetting, and give a place to walk upon, as the cargo, in our vessel, rose two feet above the body of the canoe. It may well be imagined that there was but little comfort in such a conveyance, as