When we arrived, there were three priests in the Villa, one of whom died during our stay. These, like most others I met with, instead of being examples of morality to the people, were immoral to an extent almost past belief. The one who died was an old man upwards of seventy-four years of age: he was a native of Santos in the province of San Paulo, and a cousin of the celebrated José Bonifacio de Andrade. Although a man of a very humane and benevolent disposition, and well educated, he left behind him a family of half a dozen children by his own slaves, most of whom, with their mothers, were left in bondage, and were afterwards sold with his other effects for the payment of his debts. The Vigario General was a half-caste, upwards of forty years of age, who had only been ordained a few years before; up to that time he was, and still continues to be, the largest cattle farmer in the district. Having acquired as much Latin from the old priest, as would enable him to mumble over the service of the church, but without the least knowledge of theology, he went to the city of Goyaz, to purchase his ordination from the bishop; a short time afterwards he obtained, by another purchase, the vicar generalship of the district. About a month after my arrival in the Villa, I was sent for to attend a young slave belonging to him, a fine girl about sixteen years of age, who died of puerperal fever, a few days after giving birth to a child, of which he was the father. By the inhabitants, this man was as much detested, as the old priest had been loved and esteemed. Both the soil and the climate of this neighbourhood are far superior to those of Piauhy and Ceará; the rains generally set in about the beginning of October, and continue more or less till April. During the whole of the month of December, and part of January, it rained almost incessantly every day, rendering it quite impossible to stir out; but in the latter part of January and the beginning of February the weather was very fine, with the exception of the afternoons, when there was usually a heavy thunder-storm. The thunder-storms and the rain generally came from the north, north-east, and east, originating probably on the Serras which exist at a considerable distance in those directions. Indian corn and mandiocca are the principal articles cultivated here; but many of the fazendeiros also find it profitable to plant cane, not so much for the manufacture of sugar as of rum, which meets a ready sale. The only fruit trees that are cultivated are orange and lime, and in a few instances the jaca and tamarind.