conceived he had, from the measures which he adopted of engaging two or three blacks to embrace an opportunity of murdering the friar, severing the head from the body, and divesting him of his sacerdotal robes. The discovery of the body was made under circumstances that did not involve those who found it in any difficulty; but it is possible that an innocent individual finding a dead person, unacquainted with the customs of the country, might be subjected to some inconvenience; and I had almost got into such a predicament myself. Not far from the Campo de St. Christovao, a beach leading to the point of Cajú affords an interesting view of the bay. I had just entered upon it one evening, in September, on horseback, when I was startled at the appearance of a dead man extended upon the sand, which the receding tide had just deposited there: he was very well dressed, in the habit of a sailor, and, the hair being of an auburn colour, I concluded he was the mate of an English ship. My endeavours to procure the aid of some Portuguese at a short distance were unavailing; no one would approach; and two or three persons in a cabriolet, who passed close by, regarded me and the dead sailor with indifference. I also addressed myself to the next person who came up on horseback; he dismounted, and I immediately found that he was an Englishman: he turned the body over, when the face appeared terribly mangled; he suggested that the property upon the person should be secured, which amounted to upwards of one pound in Portuguese money, a silver watch, a gold brooch, and other things, of which an account was taken and delivered to my care, with which I purposed going directly to the minister of police, and to request that the body might be taken care of, as it was impossible to get any one in the neighbourhood to take it in, or even come near the place. After paying two negroes to move the body from the beach, and place it under a hedge, I set off to carry my intentions into effect. On the road to the city I met an English gentleman, to whom I stated the matter; he requested me by no means to go to the police-office, as I should unquestionably be detained and lodged in prison till I proved that I was not the cause of the man’s death. This information deterred me from proceeding farther; but the idea that this unfortunate individual might have a wife, children, and friends at home, determined me to prepare an account of his person, with a view of posting it at the custom-house next morning, which might have led to an identification of his person. I previously called upon Mr. Harrison, a highly-respectable and long-resident merchant here, and he effectually convinced me of the hazardous consequences of a further interference in it. One gentleman said, “If you see a dead body, gallop off;” another, “If you perceive a dispute, from which one of the parties is likely to lose his life, fly, or you may be compelled to prove that you were not accessory to his