merchandize, and who were not a little astonished when I told them I had none; this was not the only time I was mistaken for a merchant, indeed after leaving Crato the same mistake occurred at almost every house and village I arrived at, which is not surprising, as the number of people who travel in the interior from house to house, and from town to town, either selling European goods, or exchanging them for horses or cattle, is very great. The Villa de Crato is situated thirty-two leagues to the S.W. of Icó, and nearly in the same parallel as Pernambuco, from which it is distant in a direct line about three hundred miles; it is a small and sufficiently miserable town, being one third the size of Icó. It is very irregularly built, and the houses, with only one exception, are of a single story; it contains two churches and a jail, but one of the former has never been finished, and has remained so long in this state, that it has all the appearance of one that has fallen into decay. The jail is likewise in so ruined a state as scarcely to deserve the name of a prison, although there are generally a few criminals confined in it; it was guarded by two soldiers who performed their duty so easily, that in passing I seldom saw them otherwise occupied than either in playing cards or sleeping in the shade of the building; a serjeant who was confined during my stay in this place for disobedience to his officer, was known almost every night to get out by one of the windows, which have only wooden bars, when after sleeping in his own house, he returned to spend the day in prison. The whole population amounts probably to about two thousand, the greater part of whom are either Indians or their mixed descendants; the more respectable portion of the inhabitants are Brazilians, who for the most part are shopkeepers; but how the poorer races gain a livelihood I am at a loss to determine. The inhabitants of this part of the province, who are generally known by the Indian appellation of Caryrís, are celebrated throughout Brazil for their lawless character; it formerly used to be, and still is, though not to the same extent, a place of refuge to murderers and vagabonds of all sorts from other parts of the country, and although it contains a justice of the peace, a Juiz de Direito, and other officials of the law, they possess but little power, and even if that little be exercised, they run great risk of falling under the knife of the assassin; several murderers were pointed out to me, who walked about quite openly. The principal danger to which they are exposed, is from the friends of the person they have murdered, who follow them to a great distance, and lose no opportunity of seeking their revenge. The state of morality generally among the inhabitants of Crato is at a very low ebb, card playing is the principal occupation during the day, when in fine weather groups of all classes, from those called the great people (gente grande) to the