Our party was rather a large one. Besides ourselves, there were the captain, his son and lady, and a mulatto girl carrying their child, which they were taking to get baptized, three of the captain’s nephews, and a black schoolmaster, all from top to toe in leather dresses; and, besides the blacks on foot who were bringing on the loaded horses, there were three on horseback acting as attendants. The lady and her girl were both mounted on men’s saddles, according to the common custom of the country in the interior. The black schoolmaster was decidedly far superior to any of his race that I ever met with. He was a Creole, with a fine expansion of forehead, and had received a good education; he was a freeman, and his colour did not prevent him from mixing in the best society in the part of the country to which he belonged; indeed, the Brazilians are perhaps more free from those prejudices than any other nation. He was possessed of an immense fund of wit and humour, the continual flow of which kept the whole party in good spirits during the journey, notwithstanding the great heat of the day. The Fazenda dos Prazeres stands on a rather elevated knoll in a large valley, which, at its upper extremity, is marshy and full of Buriti palms. On the dry sides of the low hills which surround the valley, there are large forests of that palm called Palmeira, already spoken of as being common about Crato; and in the Catinga forest, which we rode through, one or two smaller kinds of palm were common. One of these had its stem forked at the summit, being the only instance of the kind I ever met with; the central bud had been destroyed by some means, and two more arms generated in its stead. The house is large, well constructed, and by far the best we had seen since leaving Oeiras. The owner of it, who died suddenly about a year before, seems to have been not only more industrious, but a person of much greater taste than the generality of the Piauhy fazendeiros. Around the house, and also to a considerable distance from it, there were many fine orange trees loaded with fruit, which being very rare in this province, were highly prized by us. There were also near the house large plantations of plantains and bananas, as also several fine cocoa-nut trees, which were beginning to bear fruit. These trees were the most distant from the coast I had met with in the country; and indeed it is but very seldom they are seen in cultivation inland, the tree being essentially of a sea-side growth. The estate is principally a cattle farm, but in the valley below the house there was a large patch of cane growing, from which they manufacture rapadura; and the soil being favourable for the cultivation of mandiocca, a good deal of it is also grown. The widow, who with her sons now manages the farm, is both active and intelligent, and very hospitable. We remained here two days, during which time many people arrived from various quarters in