On the following afternoon, the friar, myself, and a servant, proceeded to Iguaraçu, a small town distant from Recife seven leagues, for the purpose of witnessing the entrance of a novice into the Order of St. Francis. We arrived about nine o’clock at night at the gates of the convent; the friar rang the bell three times, as the signal of the arrival of one of the Order; a lay brother came, and asked who it was that demanded admittance; he was answered, that it was brother Joseph from the convent of Recife accompanied by a friend; the porter shut the gates again, but soon returned, saying that the Guardian, the name given to the principal of a Franciscan convent, allowed us to enter. We were conducted up a flight of steps into a long corridore, at the end of which sat the Guardian, to whom we were introduced; he directed us to the brother who had the management of the accommodations for visitors; this man placed us under the especial care of Frei Luiz, who took us to his cell. Supper was served up, upon which the Guardian came in, helped us once round to wine and made many apologies for the badness of his cook, and also excuses for the want of ingredients at this distance from Recife. The convents of St. Francis are all built exactly upon the same plan; in the form of a quadrangle, one side of which is appropriated to the church, and the remaining three to cells and to other purposes; the former are above, and to be entered from a gallery, which runs round the whole building. The beds with which the friars supplied us were hard, but very acceptable after our ride. The ceremony to be performed on the ensuing morning collected great numbers of persons from all quarters, as it is now very rare. Formerly, of every family at least one member was a friar, but now this is not the custom; children are brought up to trade, to the army, to any thing rather than to a monastic life, which is fast losing its reputation. None of the convents are full, and some of them are nearly without inhabitants.[12]