About this time I agreed to take a cottage with a small piece of land attached to it, in the neighbourhood of Conception. It was situated upon a shelf of the hill, immediately below the town, and opposite to the village of Camboa. The break in the hill had only space sufficient to admit of the cottage in breadth, so that on either side it must be reached by an ascent or descent. The view from it differed little from that which was to be obtained from the town-hall; save that now to the left, the town and the church were to be seen half concealed among the banana plants and trees. All the lands in this neighbourhood were subdivided among persons of several casts. That which immediately joined mine on two sides belonged to the vicar, and on the third side it was inclosed by the channel, whilst on the fourth, a numerous family of free negroes possessed a small spot covered with coco-trees. These latter people had been much impoverished by the obstinacy of the chief of the family, now deceased, in maintaining a law-suit for many years, about the boundaries of his plot of land. As soon as I took possession, one of his sons wished to commence law proceedings with me, in spite of several awards which had been given against his father. I began to make a fence around the piece of land which I had taken, and he immediately did all in his power to prevent me from accomplishing my object; however, as he saw that whatever he said was of no avail, he set off to Goiana to seek redress by law. This I discovered accidentally in the evening. In the morning at four o’clock I mounted on horseback, and followed him to Goiana, accompanied by Fideles, a creole negro, in the place of Manoel who was disabled for some time by the occurrence which has been related.