I was most anxious to return to Jaguaribe, and about the middle of October was making preparations for the purpose; when the manager arrived from the plantation, with the intelligence that one of his assistants had been attacked two nights before, and nearly killed, by some persons who had been commissioned to perform this deed in revenge of some real or imagined injury which the man had committed. This determined my proceedings; the following morning I set off with the manager and a servant, to see the wounded man. I found him at his father’s house, in most woeful plight; his face was dreadfully lacerated, and his body much bruised; the work had been done by bludgeons, and evidently in fear, else the task would have been performed less clumsily and more effectually. I never could discover by whom the murder was intended, nor the persons who attempted it; they were dressed in leather, like unto Sertanejos; but the sufferer imagined that this costume was made use of as a disguise. Two men sprang out upon him, in a narrow lane which had high banks on each side; he defended himself for some time with his sword, but they overpowered him at last, and his weapon was the only part of his property which they carried off. I removed altogether from Monteiro in a few days; my presence had long been necessary at Jaguaribe, for the mill was at work, and as frequently happens in every country, some of the persons who were employed had not remained empty handed. The poor fellow who had been way-laid, soon returned to the plantation; he told me that every night large stones were thrown violently against his door, between the hours of one and four in the morning. I called the manager the following evening, and both of us being armed, we took our station near to the gate which leads into the field, one being on each side, behind the high bank. We could hear the footsteps of any person long before he could approach us, as the splashing in the rivulet which runs beyond the gate, would give us timely notice. The musquitos gave us much employment; however we remained at our post until half an hour before day break, without seeing any thing; but the practice was discontinued. Two men had arrived early in the night to offer themselves as labourers; they were awake when we returned, had made a good fire upon the ground in the mill (a spacious roof supported upon brick pillars) and were sitting round it upon their heels; we joined them, and here I heard their stories of their own prowess, of charms, and miracles, and other conversation of the same nature, each of them telling something strange which he had seen or heard.[86]