In those times, a dress of the common printed cotton of English or of Portugueze manufacture cost from eight to twelve _mil reis_, from two to three guineas, owing to the monopoly of the trade, by which the merchants of Recife put what price they pleased upon their commodities; other things were in proportion. Owing to the enormous prices, European articles of dress could of course only be possessed by the rich people. However, since the opening of the ports to foreign trade, English goods are finding their way all over the country, and the hawkers are now a numerous body of men. The women seldom appear, and when they are seen do not take any part in the conversation, unless it be some one good wife who rules the roast; if they are present at all when the men are talking, they stand or squat down upon the ground, in the door-way leading to the interior of the house, and merely listen. The morals of the men are by no means strict, and when this is the case, it must give an unfavourable bias, in some degree, to those of the women; but the Sertanejo is very jealous, and more murders are committed, and more quarrels entered into on this score, by tenfold, than on any other. These people are revengeful; an offence is seldom pardoned, and in default of law, of which there is scarcely any, each man takes it into his own hands. This is without any sort of doubt a dreadful state of society, and I do not by any means pretend to speak in its justification; but if the causes of most of the murders committed and beatings given are enquired into, I have usually found that the receiver had only obtained what he deserved. Robbery in the Sertam is scarcely known; the land is in favourable years too plentiful to afford temptation, and in seasons of distress for food, every man is for the most part equally in want. Subsistence is to be obtained in an easier manner than by stealing in so abundant a country, and where both parties are equally brave and resolute; but besides these reasons, I think the Sertanejos are a good race of people. They are tractable and might easily be instructed, excepting in religious matters; in these they are fast rivetted; and such was their idea of an Englishman and a heretic, that it was on some occasions difficult to make them believe that I, who had the figure of a human being, could possibly belong to that non-descript race. They are extremely ignorant, few of them possessing even the commonest rudiments of knowledge. Their religion is confined to the observance of certain forms and ceremonies, and to the frequent repetition of a few prayers, faith in charms, relics, and other things of the same order. The Sertanejos are courageous, generous, sincere, and hospitable: if a favour is begged, they know not how to deny it; but if you trade with them either for cattle, or aught else, the character changes, and then they wish to outwit you, conceiving success to be a piece of cleverness of which they may boast.