At this plantation I had often an opportunity of seeing the manner in which Rapadura is made; the expression and boiling of the juice are performed at the same time; the mill is of very clumsy construction, consisting of a frame-work containing three vertical wooden rollers through which the cane is passed to express the juice, which is collected in a receiver below, where it runs into a trough that had been hollowed out of a large tree. The cane requires to be passed three times through the mill before the whole of the juice is expressed: from this trough a portion of the juice is conveyed from time to time into small brass boiling pans, of which there were nine, all placed close beside each other over small openings in the top of an arched furnace, and during the different stages of the operation, as the evaporation proceeds, the juice is poured from one pan into the other, till in the last it acquires the desired consistency; it is then transferred into a large tub, hollowed out of solid wood, called a Gamella, and allowed to cool for some time, when it is finally run out into wooden moulds about the size and shape of our common bricks, although some are made about half this size; after being removed from the moulds, they are allowed to harden for some days, when they are fit for the market; the larger size sell at Crato for about a penny each, in Icó for three halfpence, and in Aracaty for twopence each. Sugar cane, mandiocca, rice and tobacco are the principal articles cultivated in Crato. The ordinary tropical fruit trees grow in and around the town, such as the orange, the lime, the lemon, the banana, the mango, the papáw, the jack, the bread-fruit, and the cashew; grapes, pine-apples, melons and water-melons are also commonly cultivated; these fruits are sold very cheap, thus, oranges a penny per dozen, pine-apples, large and of a fine flavour, twopence each, and large melons may be had at the same price. The country gradually rises from Crato towards the S.W. till it reaches the base of the Serra de Araripe, an elevated table-land forming a semicircle round the undulatory plain in which the town is situated; this Serra is from one and a half to two leagues distant from Crato, and from the numerous springs that rise from its base, may be attributed the great fertility of this part of the Sertão, the small streams from which are diverted in a thousand directions for the purpose of irrigation. At present but a small portion of this fertile district is cultivated, although it would amply repay such labour; the vicinity being but thinly peopled, and the habits of the natives extremely indolent; with very little trouble they can raise all that is necessary to support life, and seem to care for nothing beyond this. Their dress is of the most simple description, and consequently not expensive; when, however, the population becomes more numerous, and civilization shall have multiplied their wants, this district will