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page 153 ---Lagoa
Doirado---Fair---
On this side of the mountain, along the road, no trace of agriculture
was to be seen, but all the campos lay dry and desolate as far as to the fazenda of Canduahy, three miles
from S. Joao, and
to the place called Lagoa Doirado,
which is at the same distance, in the vicinity of which there are several gold-washings, that were formerly very rich. It happened to be a fair
or holiday. Some booths had cottons, calicoes, hats, iron-ware, gunpowder,
& etc. for sale; the negroes who were present formed groups, and played
their music on a wooden instrument with some twisted silk strings, accompanied
by two sticks, which, by being rubbed together, produce a grating sound.
The neighbours by degrees arrived upon mules,
to go to mass; but they seemed to be more interested by the purchase of
the goods offered for sale, to supply their domestic wants, than by the
common amusements. After divine service was over, we continued our journey,
and to our great joy, got out of the dry campos, which were much exposed
to the sun, into a low forest some miles in length. As soon as we had
passed this, we found ourselves in a romantic spot. The campos, diversifies
by grass, shrubs, and some small trees, sometimes rising in hills, through
which narrow valleys wind, sometimes covered with fragments of rocks, resembling ruins, became more and more beautiful and striking.
page 154 ---geology---chapel of S. Eustachio---river Paraopeba---ores---Serra Negra---
After two days' march by the chapel of S. Eustachio, and the
fazenda of Camaboao, we passed the river Paraopeba by a wooden bridge. From this river the labourers have washed a great
deal of iron-sand, which they call tin-sand, and which, on an accurate
analysis, we found to contain admixed chromium and manganese. Senhor Da
Camara, the superintendant of the diamond district, had the goodness,
when we were at Tijuco,
to give us a considerable quantity of it. On our left hand lay the mountains
of Camaboao, then the Serra Negra, which forms the boundary
between
Serra Negra, province of Minas Gerais
the districts of Rio
das Mortes, and of Sabara.
On this tract the granite in several places stands out, and the white
quartz or talc-like mica-slate, in the direction of S.W., is incumbent
on it. A small species of palm* was often scattered on the roadside; it
was just then in flower, and bees of various species hovered about it.
 We left the small hut, which had received us at the Ponte
do Paraopeba, before daybreak, in order to avoid the heat of
noon. The country about us continued to assume a character of grandeur,
which reminded us of the Alps of our native country. All nature
was reanimated; we rode with feelings of pleasure through the morning
mist, and breathed a delicate cool air, filled with the fragrance of the
pretty Alpine flowers, spangled with dew, which were just opening their
blossoms in the grass at our feet.
* Cocos flexuosa, Mart.
Palm. Bras. fol. t. 82.
 
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