The savage Indians frequently carry off by force some of their Christianized brethren, and display an inveterate antipathy to civilization. The tribes on the northern bank of the Parahiba, bordering upon the Portuguese establishments, are considered much more cruel than those on the southern, and have afforded various and recent proofs of cannibalism. On some occasions they lie in ambush near pathways, and, with their arrows, pierce the stranger to the heart, and feast upon his body. A proprietor of a sugar-work was carried off about three years ago, and devoured by them; and since that time three or four negroes have shared the same fate. They are addicted to plunder, and commit at times great devastation amongst the sugar-plantations, advancing in bodies of fifty or sixty from the woods, and cutting down the canes, which they carry off to their retreats. They are great cowards; and, on those appointed to keep watch giving the alarm of the approach of a single individual, they fly precipitately. They are exceedingly alarmed at the report of a gun. Two soldiers, equipped with jackets, stuffed with cotton and quilted, (which are almost impenetrable to the arrows of the Indian,) and with muskets, very recently proceeded from Villa Rica, (in Minas Geraes,) and penetrated as far as this district, through the woods covering the fertile territory on both banks of the Parahiba, to the possession of which the ounce assumes a right as well as the savage. Of the ancient tribes the Puris is the principal one now remaining in those uncleared regions. It is a lamentable circumstance that the Brazilian government does not adopt some effectual plan to render these extensive and fertile territories of the Parahiba subservient to the wants of civilized man. The absence of comfort in the houses of the planters in the Goytacaze district is very conspicuous, and they have yet much to learn in the school of hospitality. St. Gonçalo and St. Sebastiam are parishes of this district, both situated upon the Parahiba, and a few leagues distant from the principal town. The district of Canta Gallo (Singing Cock) is a territory of great fertility, and irrigated by many rivers and smaller streams, which issue from the Organ Mountains, its southern limit, and discharge themselves into the Parahiba, which separates it from Minas Geraes on the north. It is bounded on the east by a continuation of the Organ range, which divides it from Goytacazes; and on the west by the river Piabanha, which separates it from Parahiba Nova. It has mines of gold, for the working of which the first colony was established in the year 1785. The _fifths_ on the gold, rendered to the crown, in the four following years, were above ten thousand cruzades; and the duty upon agricultural productions amounted to eight thousand in the same period.