When I left Rapoza, Major Martins gave me a letter to the Juiz de Paz of Parnaguá, and a note to receive the keys of an empty house in which he puts up when he visits the Villa. On our arrival, I found that the Juiz had gone to visit his fazenda, at a distance of six or seven leagues. The vicar and the other padre of the place were also absent, visiting their district. An old lawyer, the schoolmaster, and a shopkeeper were the only persons of consequence we found in the place. The Villa, which is situated on the east side of a large lake, contains in all about a hundred houses, but not more than one half of them are inhabited, as many belong to fazendeiros who only occupy them during the festival times. Owing to the recruiting which was then going on throughout the province, the greater part of the male population had left the Villa and gone to distant places, few being inclined to join the army; women and children only were to be seen, with the exception of a few slaves. The houses are generally built of a coarse wicker-work, and plastered, both inside and out, with a red-coloured clay, which, not being white-washed, gives the town a very strange appearance. The best days of the place seem to have gone by, as many of the houses are falling into ruins; and the church, which stands in a large square and has once been a neat building, is also going to decay, one half of the roof has fallen in, and it seemed to have been in that state for some years. There is not a single regular shopkeeper in the place, the only one that we found there, had arrived some time before from Bahia, and proposed to return as soon as he had sold his goods. Having no competitor, he took advantage of this, and was selling everything at a very exorbitant price. The people, both in the Villa and in the neighbouring fazendas, complained that the revolution in Maranham had prevented the merchants, who yearly visit them, from coming to Parnaguá. These were in the habit of bringing up European goods, salt, gunpowder, &c., which they generally exchanged for horses, cattle, and hides.