After being with the Major four days, since we had left the Seara-Meirim, I saw that it would not be prudent to proceed farther; the accounts from the interior were bad, and we arrived at one estate, of which the cattle were all dying, and the people intending, if there was no rain very soon, to leave their houses. I now judged myself to be distant from the coast not less than two hundred miles. We had advanced northward and westward, and were therefore not far to the southward of Açu, but were to the westward of it. I now resolved to make for it, for my horses might fail, and all the country was in so bad a state, that we might not have found others in a proper condition to go on with us; in fact, as I was not acting from orders, but merely for my own amusement, and as the guide was afraid of proceeding, I did not think I was authorized in persevering; if I had had orders for the purpose, the case would have been altered, and I must have run all hazards. Here, also, desertion was easier in the night, as the country was comparatively inhabited towards Açu—the difficulty was in advancing, and not in retreating. Each cattle estate has a tolerably decent house, in which the owner or herdsman resides, and usually a few smaller habitations are scattered about upon the plain around it. The pens stand near to the principal house, and enable the travellers to distinguish immediately, although at some distance, the site of a _Fazenda_. I heard of a strange custom existing in these parts of the country that are so thinly inhabited, which arises from this state of things. Certain priests obtain a licence from the bishop (of Pernambuco,) and travel through these regions with a small altar constructed for the purpose; of a size to be placed upon one side of a pack-saddle, and they have with them all their apparatus for saying mass. Thus with a horse conveying the necessary paraphernalia, and a boy to drive it, who likewise assists in saying mass, and another horse on which the priest himself rides, and carries his own small portmanteau, these men make in the course of the year between 150 and 200_l._—a large income in Brazil, but hardly earned, if the inconveniences and privations which they must undergo to obtain it are taken into consideration. They stop and erect the altar wherever a sufficient number of persons who are willing to pay for the mass is collected. This will sometimes be said for three or four shillings, but at other times, if a rich man takes a fancy to a priest, or has a fit of extreme devotion upon him, he will give eight or ten _mil reis_, two or three pounds, and it does happen, that one hundred _mil reis_ are received for saying a mass, but this is very rare;—at times an ox or an horse, or two or three, are given. These men have their use in the world; if this custom did not exist, all form of worship would be completely out of the reach of the inhabitants of many districts, or at any rate they would not