I HAD much desired to perform some considerable journey into the less populous and less cultivated part of the country. The chief engineer officer of Pernambuco had intended to visit all the fortresses within his extensive district, and had kindly promised to permit me to accompany him, but unfortunately his projected journey was delayed from some cause connected with his place, until the following season. As I did not know how soon I might be under the necessity of returning to England, I could not postpone my views for this length of time, and therefore made enquiries among my friends and acquaintance, and discovered that the brother of a gentleman resident at Goiana, was about to set off for that place, and would, probably, from thence proceed further into the country, with some object in view connected with trade. It was my intention to advance as far as Seara. I applied to the governor for a passport, which was immediately granted without any difficulty. On the afternoon of the 19th October, 1810, some of my English friends accompanied me to my cottage at the Cruz das Almas, that they might be present at my departure, in the course of the ensuing night. Senhor Feliz, my companion, arrived in the evening, bringing with him his black guide, a freeman. Preparations were made for proceeding upon our journey, and about one o’clock, as the moon rose, we sallied forth. Senhor Feliz, myself, and my English servant John on horseback, armed with swords and pistols; the black guide also on horseback, without saddle or bridle, carrying a blunderbuss, and driving on before him a baggage-horse, with a little mulatto boy mounted between the panniers. My English friends cheered us as we left the Cruz, and remained in my quarters, the command of which I had given up to one of them during my absence. That part of the road which we traversed by moon-light I had already passed over a short time before, and subsequently from frequent travelling, my acquaintance with it was such, that I might have become a guide upon it. [Illustration: Map of the Route]