On reaching the Villa, which is nearly a league from the foot of the Serra, I found that we had passed the house of Captain Antonio da Cruz, so that we were obliged to turn back half a league, and I felt annoyed for not having sooner made enquiries, as our horses were greatly fatigued after so long a journey, performed during the whole time under a burning sun. On arriving at the house, which is attached to his Engenho, I met with a kind reception from the Captain, as well as from his son, and the lady of the latter, who was the daughter of my Crato friend, Captain Gonsalvez, with both of whom I had been previously acquainted during their visit to the latter place. My horses were immediately sent to pasture, and dinner prepared, for which I felt an excellent appetite after this long day’s ride. Aware of my intended visit, they had kindly prepared an uninhabited house in the town for my reception, to which they would not allow me to go till the following morning after breakfast. The Villa da Barra do Jardim lies south from Crato, bearing a little to the eastward, the valley in which it is situated being about a league in length, and in its widest part about half a league broad; the town is small, in the form of a large square, three sides of which only are completed, and nearly in the centre of this square stands its only church, also in an unfinished state. At the time of my visit the surrounding country was very much burnt up, particularly towards the south; but on the north side of the town, towards the bottom of the Serra, there were many small plantations of cane, watered by small streams which take their rise in the Serra; without these the valley would then have been quite at variance with its name. Here, as around Crato, cane is the principal article cultivated, but in the neighbourhood of the Villa there are two or three very small plantations of coffee, for which the place seems well adapted, judging from their vigorous appearance, and the large crops they were said to yield; the quantity raised in this neighbourhood is not, however, sufficient for its own consumption, what more is required, and indeed the whole that is consumed in other parts of the province, being imported from Rio de Janeiro. Upon asking several of the proprietors of cane plantations why they did not plant coffee in preference, seeing the much greater profit it would bring them, they all replied that, being accustomed to the making of Rapadura, they did not like to risk it for a system of cultivation with which they were but imperfectly acquainted; but the principal cause, in my own opinion, is their lazy and indolent habits, and the great horror they entertain of anything like innovation on the customs of their forefathers; were the country in the possession of an industrious people, this would no doubt become one of the richest districts in the north of Brazil.