The town of Aracaty stands on the east side of the river, and consists principally of one long broad street. It contains four fine churches, and the houses are generally of two stories. The population amounts to about 5000, the mass of whom are very poor. A considerable quantity of dried beef was formerly prepared here for exportation to other parts of Brazil, but this trade has fallen off very much, cotton and hides being now the principal articles of export. Of the former about 5000 bags, or 25,000 arrobas of thirty-two pounds each, are exported annually, and of the latter about 2000. But little cotton is cultivated near the coast, the greater part of it, as well as the hides, being brought from the interior; the transport of these is effected at the end of the rainy season in large waggons, which are generally drawn by twelve oxen. During the time of the rains, the roads are impassable, and in the dry season, neither water nor grass can be procured for the cattle. The river runs close to the town, and at the end of the rainy season, when I was there, was somewhat less than a quarter of a mile broad; but during the height of the rains, it often rises twelve feet above its ordinary level, and then overflows the town. With the exception of a hill situated two and a half leagues to the S.W. of the town, and which rises six or eight hundred feet, and a few sand hills near the coast, the country all round is so flat, that the horizon is about as level as that of the sea. The houses are built of a frame-work made of the stems of the Carnahuba palm filled up with brick. The stem of this useful tree is used by the inhabitants for almost every purpose to which wood can be applied; it is so durable that the lower part, particularly of the full grown stems, lasts for many years, even when exposed to the weather; hence all the enclosures for cattle are made of them, for which purpose they are longitudinally split. The leaves are used for a variety of purposes, such as thatch, pack-saddles, hats, &c.; they also yield a kind of wax, obtained from the young leaves, which are covered with a glaucous bloom, by shaking them after they have been detached from the tree. Each yields about fifty grains of a whitish powder, and when a considerable quantity of it has been obtained, it is put into a pot and melted over the fire. Some years ago, a large quantity of this was sent to Lisbon, but was not found to answer any useful purpose; by the Brazilians it is sometimes used to adulterate common wax. In times of scarcity the young leaves are chopped up, and given to horses and cattle to eat, and the people prepare for themselves a kind of farinha from the inside of the young stems. The rains generally begin here in February, and end about the beginning of June. The whole province is sometimes liable to great droughts (_seccas_), the last of which occurred in the year 1825, during which no rain fell at all. The distress resulting from this calamity was very