On our return to the village we were met by the padre, who invited us to rest at his house, stopping on the way, at our request, to show us the church. The condition of a settlement is generally indicated by the state of the church. This one was sadly in want of repairs, the mud walls being pierced with more windows than they were originally intended to possess; but the interior was neat, and the altar prettier than one would expect to find in so poor a place as Pedreira appears to be. Perhaps the church was in better order than usual, being indeed in festival trim. Christmas week was not yet over, and the baby Christ lay on his green bed in a little arbor of leaves and flowers, evidently made expressly for the purpose. The padre of this little village, Father Samuel, an Italian priest, who has passed many years of his life among the Indians of South America, partly in Bolivia and partly in Brazil, had not so much to say in favor of the healthfulness of his parish as the padre whom we had seen the night before in Taua Péassu. He told us that intermittent fever, from which he had suffered much himself, is frequent, and that the people are poorly and insufficiently fed. When they have had no recent arrival from Manaos, neither coffee, sugar, tea, nor bread are to be had in the village. As there is no beach here, the fishing is done at a distance on the other side of the river; and when the waters are very high, fish are not obtained even there. At such times the Indians live exclusively on farinha d’agua and water. This meagre diet, though injurious to the health, satisfies the cravings of hunger with those accustomed to it; but the few whites in this solitary place suffer severely. What a comment is this scarcity of food on the indolence and indifference of the population in a region where an immense variety of vegetables might be cultivated with little labor, where the pasturage is excellent (as is attested by the fine condition of the few cows at Pedreira), and where coffee, cacao, cotton, and sugar have a genial climate and soil, and yield more copious crops than in many countries from which large exports of these productions are made! And yet, in this land of abundance, the people live in dread of actual want. The village consists, as I have said, of some fifteen or twenty houses, all of which are at this moment occupied; but Father Samuel tells us that we see the little place at its flood-tide, Christmas week having brought together the inhabitants of the neighborhood. They will disperse again, after a few days, to their palm-houses and mandioca plantations in the forest; and the padre says that, on many a Sunday throughout the year, his congregation consists only of himself and the boys who assist at the service.