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page 264 ---temperatures---
From this time it rained more or less every night or afternoon, and lastly,
in November the wet season regularly set in. In this part of South
America it is generally calculated to last from October to March;
and the earlier or later commencement of it in the several places partly
depends upon their latitude, and their natural position, whether nearer
to or more remote from the coast, more or less, elevated above the sea.
At Rio itself,
in 22°54'10' south latitude ,45°5' west longitude of Paris (eastern variation 4°55'), it rains the most in February. During our
stay the changes in the atmosphere were not inconsiderable; in the months
of September, October, and November, the barometer, when at the highest,
was 28.2, 28.30, and 28.20; at the lowest 27.76, 27.85, 27.77: mean height
27.995, 28.031, and 28.034: the thermometer in the two first months was
at its highest points 22°, in the third 23.49° R.; at its lowest
15.49°, 16°, 18°; its mean height was 19.198° , 18.394°,
and 20.49°: the hygrometer gradually rose from 49° to 76°
and 85°, as the rainy season advanced. We did not think it advisable,
considering the shortness of the time allowed us for our travels, to wait
at Rio till this season was past; and though a journey during
the wet months must be doubly fatiguing, we however determined to set
out for the interior as soon as possible, as we considered that it was
precisely with the commencement of the rainy season, that the animal and
vegetable kingdom revive, and appear in their greatest perfection.
page 265 ---explorers---Mawe---Von Eschwege---Freyreiss---Sellow---Saint
Hilare---Langsdorff---itinerary---
In such an expedition to the interior, we had been preceded of late years
by several travellers. Mawe, who came from Buenos
Aires to Rio de
Janeiro, by way of Sao
Paulo, had continued from hence his journey to Tejuco,
in the Diamond district; Von Eschwege, setting out from his residence, Vila Rica, had
penetrated westward from the Rio
de Sao Francisco to Rio
Abaité, where he worked a lead mine; his serene highness
the Prince of Neuwied was at that time travelling along the sea-coast
from Rio to Bahia,
with Messrs. Freyreiss and Sellow; Auguste de Saint Hilaire who has travelled
a year before with Mr. Langsdorff to Vila
Rica, after the latter had been obliged to return on account
of business, and visited several other parts of the province of Minas,
the Indian settlements of Passainha, Tejuco, and the Rio
de Sao Francisco, at Salgado,
was just then on his return to the capital.
Considering these men as our predecessors, and on a review of all written
and verbal information, it appeared to us the most advisable first to
undertake a journey to the southern capitania of Sao
Paulo, by which we chiefly designed by degrees to accustom ourselves
to the climate of hot countries, and to make ourselves at the same time
acquainted with the southern temperate zone.
 
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