I lived about five months among these people, but in no other part of Brazil, even during a much shorter residence, did I live on less terms of intimacy with them or make fewer friends; besides Senhor Mello, the only individual whose house I visited frequently, was another son of the old vicar, Capitão João Gonzalvez, who was the proprietor of a sugar (Rapadura) plantation, about two leagues below the town. I first made his acquaintance from his having consulted me about his wife, who was labouring under chronic ophthalmia; he was a man of an amiable and excellent disposition, and I still look back with pleasure on the hours spent in his house. The eyes of the lady improved much under my treatment, and as she was very communicative and good-natured, we had many long conversations about the manners and customs of our respective countries. The family consisted of two daughters, one of whom was married, and lived at a place I afterwards visited about sixteen leagues distant, the younger one, a fine girl about sixteen years of age, was very shy in making her appearance, so that I did not see her during my first two or three visits; but as her mother afterwards told me, her curiosity to see and speak with an Englishman, at length completely got the better of her reserve, so that afterwards she always appeared when I was there. She was then about to be married to a younger brother of her sister’s husband, having been betrothed to him for many years: it is indeed seldom that the daughters of respectable families are allowed the power of choosing a husband for themselves, the parents always taking care to make the arrangements in such cases.