Many were the praises which I heard of the late governor of Searà, Joam Carlos, who was appointed to this province before he had arrived at the age of twenty years, and who was at the time I visited Searà captain-general of Mato Grosso. His administration of justice was in general summary, but on one occasion he waved his usual severity; he was informed, whilst playing at cards at the house of Senhor Marcos, which is near to the palace, that a soldier was robbing his garden. He answered, “Poor fellow, great must be his hunger when he runs the risk of entering his governor’s garden—don’t molest him.” Some persons were in the practice of taking doors off their hinges, and other tricks of the same sort, during the night; the governor had in vain attempted to discover who they were, and he resolved at last to wrap himself up in his cloak and to apprehend some of them, if possible, with his own hands. A young man, with whom I was acquainted, had met the governor on one of these nights, he demanded his name and, on discovering who it was, admonished him to be at home at an earlier hour on the following evening. The family of the Feitozas still exists in the interior of this captaincy and that of Piauhi, in possession of extensive estates, which are covered with immense droves of cattle. In the time of Joam Carlos, the chiefs had risen to such power, and were supposed to be so completely out of the reach of punishment, that they entirely refused obedience to the laws, both civil and criminal, such as they are. They revenged their own wrongs; persons obnoxious to them were publicly murdered in the villages of the interior; the poor man who refused obedience to their commands was devoted to destruction, and the rich man, who was not of their clan, was obliged silently to acquiesce in deeds of which he did not approve. The Feitozas are descendants of Europeans, but many of the branches are of mixed blood, and perhaps few are free from some tinge of the original inhabitants of Brazil. The chief of the family was a colonel of militia, and could at a short notice call together about one hundred men, which is equal to ten or twenty times the number in a well-peopled country. Deserters were well received by him, and murderers who had committed this crime in the revenge of injuries; the thief was not accepted, and much less the man who for the sake of pillage had taken the life of another.