This morning we had a melancholy proof of the brutality of recruiting here, of which we have already heard so much. Several Indians, who had been kept in confinement in Pedreira for some days, waiting for an opportunity to send them to Manaos, were brought out to the ship. These poor wretches had their feet passed through heavy blocks of wood, the holes being just large enough to fit around the ankles. Of course they could only move with the greatest difficulty; and they were half pushed, half dragged up the side of the vessel, one of them having apparently such a fit of ague upon him that, when he was fairly landed on his feet, I could see him shake from my seat at a distance of half the deck. These Indians can speak no Portuguese: they cannot understand why they are forced to go; they only know that they are seized in the woods and treated as if they were the worst criminals; punished with barbarity for no crime, and then sent to fight for the government which so misuses them. To the honor of our commander be it said, that he showed the deepest indignation at the condition in which these men were delivered into his hands: he caused the blocks of wood to be sawed off their feet immediately, gave them wine and food, and showed them every kindness. He protested that the whole proceeding was illegal, and contrary to the intentions of the central authority. It is, however, the way in which the recruiting is accomplished throughout this Indian district; and the defence made by those who justify it is, that the Indians, like any other citizens, must fight for the maintenance of the laws which protect them; that the government needs their services; and that this is the only way to secure them, as they are very unwilling to go, and very cunning and agile in escaping. Beside these three men, there were two others; one a volunteer, and the other from a better class, the pilot of the cataract on the Rio Branco. A man so employed ought, for the sake of the community, to be exempt from military service, as few persons understand the dangerous navigation of the river, where broken by cascades. He will doubtless be sent back when his case is represented to the President of the province.