At Rapoza I met with Major José Martins de Sousa, to whom I carried letters from his uncle the Barão de Parnahiba. His house was about thirty leagues distant, but having been ordered to raise troops to send to the city, he had made this place the general rendezvous. About four years before this period, he bought a tract of ground, in the district of Parnaguá, amounting to about ninety-six square leagues, for five contos de reis, which he divided into six cattle farms, all of which were now in a flourishing condition. He told me that in the district, of which he was Prefect, there were 1,700 men capable of bearing arms, but all he had been able to raise in the course of a week, were twenty-two. The whole population, he added, were worse than savages, and that no eloquence could prevail on them to rise in defence of their country. He was even afraid that disorders, similar to those which were disturbing the province of Maranham, would not be long ere they reached this district; and he said it was his intention as soon as possible, to take his wife and children down to the city. This, I believe, he shortly afterwards did, and it was well for them that he had this foresight, as about a month after I met him, the district of Parnaguá rose to join the rebels, and the major, who remained behind, had a very narrow escape from falling a victim to the fury of the inhabitants, and the cattle on his estates were nearly all destroyed. During his journey to the city, all his recruits deserted, with the exception of two or three.