Besides many shorter excursions which I made in the neighbourhood of Natividade, I went several times to the Arraial da Chapada, a village about two leagues to the N.W.; it is about half the size of Natividade, and is situated on one of those low, flat table-lands called Chapadas, and hence its name. The country round it, as about Natividade, has all been turned over in search of gold; but those who formerly employed their slaves on this labour, now find it more to their profit to employ them on plantations. There are still a few old free blacks who get a scanty livelihood by washing the soil. On my visits to this place I was always very hospitably entertained by Captain Baptista, an old Portuguese, who has been settled there for many years, and who is father-in-law to the proprietor of Sociedade. He spoke much of Pohl and Burchell, both of whom remained some time in the Arraial, and with whom he seemed to have been intimate. My visits to this place afforded large additions to my collections, the limestone hills near Sociedade in particular being very rich in plants. During my stay in the Villa de Natividade, I received much kindness from Senhor Zacaria Antonio do Santo, the Juiz dos Orfãos. I had many visits also from a person who lived at a little distance from the Villa, and who at one time had been Juiz de Paz: he was a very good-natured and simple-minded man, as the following anecdote will show. The first time he called on me, he said he wished to speak with me in private: he began by telling me that he had heard the English had the power of divining where hidden gold was to be discovered, and that as much gold was to be found in the Serra, if I would point out where a rich mine existed, he would undertake to work it, and share the profits with me. In almost the same breath he informed me, that a few years ago a Portuguese died in the neighbourhood, who was always considered to be very rich, but that on his decease no money was to be found; now, he said, he fully believed that it was all buried, somewhere near his house, which was now in ruins, and that if I would accompany him there, and discover it, we could without any one knowing it, share it between us. The poor old fellow seemed sadly disappointed when I told him that I had never made such a branch of knowledge my study.