A few days after I arrived here I was visited by most of the respectable inhabitants of the place, and as their calls were shortly returned, I soon gained an extensive acquaintance. One of my most frequent visitors was an old priest, who was very inquisitive regarding all that related to England; one of his first questions was whether I was baptized or not, and in what faith? and when I told him I was a Protestant, he replied, “Ah! then you are a Pagan.” Such was his ignorance! and this I found to prevail with nearly all the inferior priests I met in the interior of the northern provinces, and I had great difficulty in convincing him that the fundamental principles of our respective religions were alike; after this, whenever I was interrogated as to my religious faith, I answered by simply saying I was a Christian, which entitled me to respect. When it became known that I was a medical man I had numerous applications for advice. The most common complaints here, as elsewhere in Brazil, are chronic disorders of the digestive organs, which often terminate in dropsy and paralysis; dysentery, pleurisy, and ophthalmia are likewise not unfrequent, particularly during the dry season, produced, no doubt, by the great difference of temperature between night and day, which more readily takes effect on these people owing to the very thin dresses which they wear; in no case did I see flannel worn next the skin, which is the best preventive against sudden change of temperature. One of my patients was the wife of one of my Portuguese friends, who was attended by her mother, and although her complaint was a dangerous malady of which she afterwards died, the greatest source of regret her parent expressed was the state of leanness to which her daughter was reduced, plumpness being considered the chief point of beauty in the Brazilian fair. One of the greatest compliments that can be paid a lady, is to tell her that she is becoming daily fatter and more beautiful (_mais gorda e mais bonita_), indeed the greater portion of them soon acquire a tendency to become so, from the sedentary life they all lead.