■ mmimm mm - - mm 



■HH 



108 



LEAVE 1TAMARACA. 



men who had refused to hear mass ; the fellow 

 waylaid the old officer one evening, and gave 

 him several blows of which he died. The soldier 

 absconded, and was not again heard of. The 

 guns were in a very bad state, and the usual 

 supply of powder was merely sufficient for the 

 salutes on days of gala ; there were indeed some 

 heaps of balls, upon which the rust surpassed 

 the quantity of sound iron. 



In the course of this year some of my friends 

 from Recife came to see me ; I had been often 

 at Amparo, and at the houses of several other 

 planters ; but I do not particularly mention any 

 of these visits, for they did not discover any 

 thing new. I went to Recife three or four times. 

 After the commencement of the rains in 1815, 

 I left Itamaraca with Manoel about four o'clock 

 one afternoon, having been detained thus late 

 by unforeseen occurrences. The weather was 

 fine, and as the moon would rise early, I thought 

 that the evening would be pleasant ; but when 

 we were about three leagues from the island, 



the rain began to pour; and when we reached 

 the plantation of Inhaman, which is half a league 

 farther, we were completely wet through. Im- 

 mediately beyond this place, the road is on one 

 side bordered by a steep hill, from which the 

 water ran down in such great quantities, that the 

 horses were nearly up to their knees in it; how- 

 ever we gained the great cattle track, and stopped 



