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page 234 ---exports from Minas---smuggling---

But besides that, a considerable quantity of coarse cotton stuffs, for clothing for the negroes, and for exportation to Rio Grande do Sul and Buenos Aires, is brought hither, chiefly from the district of Sabara and

Sao Joao d'El Rey, province of Minas Gerais

S. Joao d'El Rey; also cheese, bacon, and cakes of marmalade of quinces: many precious stones likewise come hither from the interior, and we were assured that a great contraband trade is carried on in gold dust and diamonds, though numerous police officers exercise great vigilance to prevent it.

As all the goods which are sent from Rio to Minas, Goyaz, and Mato Grosso, likewise have to go by Porto de Estrella, there is always a great deal of business going on here, and it is therefore very strange that there is not a single good dwelling-house, or even any secure building for the goods. Everybody must submit to take shelter in a wretched scarcely covered shed, where goods are likewise deposited. If the traveller does not carry his provisions with him, as is the usual custom, he must provide himself with what he wants from the shops, of which there are some here, and get his provisions dressed himself. The meal generally consists of beans, boiled with bacon, or of dried beef broiled; for dessert we have banians and cheese. The traveller sleeps upon an ox hide, or on a frame of laths fixed in the earth, and covered with a straw mat, or on his hammock and no covering but his own clothing.

Accommodations on the road from Rio to Minas

page 235 ---Porto de Estrella---road to Minas---Organ Ridge---

Serra dos Orgaos

After our kind conductor had procured the necessary mules and horses for our journey, we left the busy village, and took the road which leads northwards from this place to Minas. We were soon in an entirely new scene; we rode through a low country, in a broad but unpaved road, between hedges of the most various kinds of shrubs in full blossom; on the left hand, we had a range of mountains, covered with thick forests, and before us one connected with it, but higher; the bold projecting masses of rock, wooded only on the sides, give the landscape a character peculiarly grand.

Serra dos Orgaos

On this road, too, as formerly in the neighbourhood of the city, we met with no great plantations, which lie in the forests at a great distance from the road; but some scattered houses with gardens proved to us, that the fertility of this beautiful spot was duly appreciated. The broad valley, gently declining towards the sea, is protected from the cold winds which come from the higher country on the river Paraiba, by the chain of the Organ Ridge (Serra dos Orgaos), and it likewise enjoys the advantage of being doubly warmed by the reflection of the rays of the sun from the mountain. In the lower grounds, the sugar-cane thrives with incredible luxuriance; and we saw a particular proof of the strength of the soil, in some stems almost a foot thick, which having been deprived of the branches and roots, divided into several pieces and fixed in the ground to form a fence, had immediately taken root, and shot out new branches.