In the beginning of June, it was necessary that I should visit Goiana; however I took a circuitous route for the purpose of seeing something new. I was accompanied by an old free man of colour and by Manoel, a faithful African. We slept the first night at Aguiar, the estate of the _capitam-mor_ with whom I had travelled to Bom Jardim; and on the following morning proceeded through several sugar plantations. We rested at mid-day at Purgatorio, a small cotton and mandioc plantation, but we could not purchase any thing of which to make a dinner, and therefore, as was usual on such occasions, we smoked in place of eating. When the sun had declined a little we again set forth. A few of the sugar plantations through which we passed in the afternoon were in a decayed state. We stopped at a cottage, and begged the owner to sell us a fowl but she refused;—we had not eaten any thing this day. I was loath so to do, but I could not avoid saying that she _must_ sell one, that I did not mind the price, but that hunger would not allow me to let her do as she pleased in this case. She fixed upon one, and made me pay exorbitantly for it. We parted in the end very good friends; she offered me some herbs with which to cook the bird, and after this reconciliation we again advanced. By going to Purgatorio we had left the usual direct road—cross roads even in England are not good, so what must they be in Brazil? In one part we were obliged to lean down upon our horses’ necks, and to proceed in this manner for some distance, with the branches of the trees completely closed above. The plantation of Mundo Novo, or the new world, which we reached late in the afternoon, was in ruins; trees grew in the chapel, and the brushwood in front of the dwelling-house rose higher than its roof. I slept at a cottage hard by, which was inhabited by an elderly man and a number of children, large and small. The ill-fated fowl, and another which we had also obtained by the way, were dressed by the daughters of our host. Soon the cooking was effected, and I commenced operations, literally with tooth and nail, upon one of the birds, for there were no knives, forks, or spoons to be had; however I did receive some assistance from my own _faca de ponta_, a pointed knife or dirk, which, though prohibited by law, is worn by all ranks of persons. At night, my hammock was slung under the pent-house; at a late hour a shower of rain came on; our host had a vast herd of goats; these crowded in from the rain, and soon I was obliged, in self-defence, to rise, as I discovered that they had very little respect for me;—my head and some of their’s having come in contact, made me look out for better quarters; and these I found upon a high table, where I remained until the visitors again ventured forth. We proceeded on the morrow, and reached Goiana by the low marshy lands of Catû. The river was scarcely fordable; but we crossed, and on the opposite side the loose mud in the road reached