I was obliged to sit constantly upon one of my trunks, with no other shelter from the sun and rain than that afforded by an umbrella. On the shore, close to where we anchored, two large fires were burning, by the light of which we saw several people and three or four huts. I was anxious to land here, to obtain, if possible, a place to sleep on, but the master said he would not go on shore, as he was not on good terms with some of the inhabitants, and did not choose to risk himself among them. After supping, therefore, with the crew on oranges, farinha, and boiled salt-fish, I wrapped myself in my poncho, and lay down on my trunks, and slept, but certainly not comfortably, till morning. At dawn of day we again got under way, and about eight A.M., passed Cape St. Augustino, a rocky point, behind which the land rises from one to two hundred feet above the level of the sea; this is eight leagues to the south of Pernambuco, the intervening country being one continued flat. During the whole of the day we ran down very close to the shore, always keeping between it and the reef. The country is of an undulating hilly nature, wooded with small verdant trees and shrubs, many of the latter covered with flowers. The beauty of the coast, although a little monotonous, was, notwithstanding, some recompense for a day of continued exposure to the sun. At eight o’clock in the evening we again came to an anchor, at a place where the master was well known; here we landed, and I found that my quarters for the night were to be a smith’s work-shop; next day, however, I ascertained that it was the best house in the place, being formed of wicker-work and mud, while the others were composed of stakes and cocoa-nut leaves. The following morning the master of the canoe took me to the house of a relation, about two miles further along the shore, where we met with a kind reception. As some of the cargo of the canoe had to be landed here, and more taken in, we remained here all day, which I did not regret, as it rained heavily till night; on this account I was prevented from making an excursion into the country, although I did not perhaps lose much, as, in one short walk, I found nearly the whole herbaceous vegetation burnt up. The land here rises higher than at any other place between Pernambuco and Maceio, the faces of several low hills, exhibiting a kind of coarse grained sandstone rock, exactly of the same nature as the reef which runs for several hundred miles along the coast both to the north and south of Pernambuco. This reef, which is covered with small shells and coralloid substances, Mr. Darwin supposes either to have been formed by a bar of sand and pebbles formerly existing below the water, which was first consolidated, and then elevated; or by a long spit of sand, running parallel to the coast, having had its central part consolidated, and afterwards, by a slight change in the set of currents, having the loose matter removed, so as only to leave the hard nucleus.