After making our way through the valley, we came to the Porto
Massalu, where a number of trunks of trees, hollowed out and lying
before the few huts situated in the bay, apprized us that the
inhabitants were fishermen. We hired one of these beautiful
conveyances to carry us across the little bay. The passage did not
take more than a quarter of an hour at the most, and for this, as
strangers, we were compelled to pay two thousand reis (4s.).

We had now at one moment to wade through plains of sand, and the
next to clamber over the rocks by wretched paths. In this laborious
fashion we proceeded for at least twelve miles, until we reached the
summit of a mountain, which rises like the party-wall of two mighty
valleys. This peak is justly called the Boa Vista. The view
extends over both valleys, with the mountain ranges and rows of
hills which intersect them, and embraces, among other high
mountains, the Corcovado and the "Two Brothers;" and, in the
distance, the capital, with the surrounding country-houses and
villages, the various bays and the open sea.

Unwillingly did we leave this beautiful position; but being
unacquainted with the distance we should have to go before reaching
some hospitable roof, we were obliged to hasten on; besides which
negroes are the only persons met with on these lonely roads, and a
rencontre with any of them by night is a thing not at all to be
desired. We descended, therefore, into the valley, and resolved to
sleep at the first inn we came to.

More fortunate than most people in such cases, we not only found an
excellent hotel with clean rooms and good furniture, but fell in