On reaching the lobby I was met by a sergeant, who asked me if I wished to speak with his Excellency, and who, on being told that I had letters for him, said that it was his duty to deliver them. After waiting about a quarter of an hour in the lobby, I was shewn into a large room containing two small tables, a sofa, and a few chairs. Here I had not been more than five minutes, when his Excellency made his appearance with my letters in his hand. He told me to excuse him while he read them, as also to pardon his undress, which he wore, he said, on account of the great heat of the day. The dress he had on was certainly one of a very light nature, but was that generally worn in the house by the inhabitants of this province; it consisted of a thin white cotton shirt hanging loose over a pair of drawers of the same material, which reached but a short way below his knees; his legs and feet were bare, the latter being thrust into a pair of old slippers; around his neck were several rosaries, with crucifixes and other appendages of gold attached to them. While he was looking over my letters I could not help scrutinizing the appearance of an individual whose name is more celebrated than that of any other in the north of Brazil, and whose despotic government of the province of which he is President, has gained for him the appellation of ‘The Francia of Piauhy.’ He was low in stature and strongly built, though not corpulent, and his looks bespoke considerably more activity, both of body and mind, than is generally met with in persons of his age in Brazil, for he was then about seventy years old; his head was remarkably large, and, according to the principles of phrenology was pretty well balanced before and behind, but deficient in the region of the moral sentiments, and was of considerable breadth between the ears. In conversation his countenance had a sinister unpleasant expression, notwithstanding that it was generally covered with a half-formed smile. After finishing the letters, all of which he read over very carefully, we entered into a conversation respecting my visit to the province, but I could not make him understand that my collections were for any other purpose than that of being converted into medicine or dye stuffs. That the productions of nature were studied for any other purpose than as regards their mere utility to man, he could not form the slightest idea. As soon as he learned that it was my intention to remain for some time in the city, he sent a person to procure an empty house for my use; and, as it was not furnished, he was kind enough to send me two chairs, a table, and a large earthen pot to hold water.