v .>r, 



HBB 



70 



PARAIBA. 



man of property, and a colonel of militia. He 

 was an acquaintance of Senhor Joaquim, and 

 was about to leave the place for one of his sugar- 

 plantations, which he did, giving us entire pos- 

 session of his house, and a servant to attend 

 upon us. 



The city of Paraiba (for much smaller places 

 even than this bear the rank of city in these yet 

 thinly peopled regions) contains from two to 

 three thousand inhabitants, including the lower 

 town. It bears strong marks of having been a 

 place of more importance than it is now, and 

 though some improvements were going on, they 

 were conducted entirely through the means 

 which Government supplied for them, or rather, 

 the Governor wished to leave some memorial of 

 his administration of the province. The prin- 

 cipal street is broad and paved with large 

 stones, but is somewhat out of repair. The 

 houses are mostly of one story, with the ground- 

 floors as shops, and a few of them have glass 

 windows ; an improvement which has been only 

 lately introduced into Recife. The Jesuits' 

 convent is employed as the governor's palace, 

 and the Ouvidor's office and residence also ; the 

 church of the convent stands in the centre, 

 and these are the two wings. The convents of 

 the Franciscan, Carmelite, and Benedictine Or- 

 ders are very large buildings, and are almost un- 

 inhabited ; the first contains four or five friars, 



