e with a party went for more
provisions, to Rio Doce. The surf at the landing place was so high, that
they were obliged to get into canoes, and leave the boats grappled at
some distance from the beach. A guard of honour and military band
attended them, as on the former day, and they were, moreover, pressed to
dine with the commander of the post, which they gladly did. The
dining-room was a long hut, built of wood and plaited palm leaves. In
the centre, was a long table spread with a clean and very handsome
cloth. The few chairs the place afforded were appropriated to the
strangers, and the rest of the company stood during the meal. To the
strangers, also, were given the spoons and forks, but the want of them
did not appear to incommode the Brazilians. To each person a small
basin of good beef broth, _bien doree_, was served, and for the rest
every man put his hand in the dish. Two principal messes occupied the
centre of the table, one, a platter, containing a quantity of mandioc
flour, raw; and the other a pile of fish, dressed with oil, garlic, and
pimento. Each person began by stirring a quantity of the flour into his
broth, till it acquired the consistence of brose, and then helping
himself to the fish, which was cut up in convenient pieces, dipped it
into the brose, and eat it with his fingers. Around the two principal
dishes, were others of a most savoury nature,--eels fried with sweet
herbs, shellfish stewed with wine and pimento, and others of the same
kind. Into these also each man put his hand indiscriminately, and
dipping his morsel into his basin, set our officers the example of
eating that substitute for wheaten bread, and of swallowing, without
regard to neatness or order, all manner of messes, mixed together, and
touched by all hands. After dinner, a slave handed round a silver basin,
with water and towels, after which a number of toasts were given, and
the entertainment concluded with vivas, when the guard and band attended
the officers to the boats, where the bullocks were ready to embark, and
slaves to carry the English through the surf to the canoes, which
conveyed them to the boats. On their return, I saw for the first time,
the pitanga, a berry of which an excellent preserve is made; it grows
upon a beautiful shrub, scarcely to be distinguished, either in flower
or leaf, from the broad-leaved myrtle; the berry is as large as a
filbert, and divided and coloured like the large red love-apple. Mr.
Dance