The _Capitaens-mores_, captains-major, are officers of considerable power. They have civil as well as military duties to perform, and ought to be appointed from among the planters of most wealth and individual weight in the several _Termos_, boundaries or districts; but the interest of family or of relations about the Court, have occasioned deviations from this rule; and persons very unfit for these situations, have been sometimes nominated to them. The whole aspect of the government in Brazil is military. All men between the ages of sixteen and sixty, must be enrolled either as soldiers of the line, as militia-men, or as belonging to the body of _Ordenanças_. Of the regular soldiers, I have already spoken in another place. Of the second class, each township has a regiment, of which the individuals, with the exception of the major and adjutant, and in some cases the colonel, do not receive any pay. But they are considered as embodied men, and as such are called out upon some few occasions, in the course of the year, to assemble in uniform, and otherwise accoutred. The expense which must be incurred in this respect, of necessity, precludes the possibility of many persons becoming members of this class, even if the Government was desirous of increasing the number of militia regiments. The soldiers of these are subject to their captains, to the colonel, and to the governor of the province. The colonels are either rich planters, or the major or lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of the line is thus promoted to the command of one of these; in this case, and in this case only, he receives pay. I am inclined to think that he ought to possess some property in the district, and that any deviation from this rule is an abuse; but I am not certain that the law so ordains. The majors and the adjutants are likewise occasionally promoted from the line; but whether they are regularly military men or planters, they receive pay, as their trouble in distributing orders, and in other arrangements connected with the regiment is considerable.