PARA1BA. 



77 



the second two, and the third only one. Be- 

 sides these, the city has to boast of six churches. 

 The public fountains at Paraiba are the only 

 works of the kind I met with any where on the 

 part of the coast which I visited. One was 

 built, I believe, by Amaro Joaquim, the former 

 governor, — it is handsome, and has several 

 spouts ; the other, which was only then build- 

 ing, is much larger, and the superintendence of 

 the workmen w T as the chief amusement of the 

 governor. 



We waited upon this gentleman the day after 

 our arrival ; my companion had been acquainted 

 with him in Lisbon, when he was an ensign. 

 His parents were respectable people in one of 

 the northern provinces of Portugal ; he was 

 placed at some seminary for the purpose of 

 being educated for the church, but he escaped 

 from thence, and enlisted as a private soldier in 

 Lisbon. One of the officers of the regiment in 

 which he was enrolled, soon found out that he 

 was a man of education, — having learnt his 

 story, he was made a cadet, as being of good 

 family. He came over in the same ship with 

 the Princess of Brazil, a captain of infantry ; 

 married one of the maids of honour on their 

 arrival at Rio de Janeiro, and in about eighteen 

 months, had advanced from a captaincy to the 

 government of Paraiba, and a commandery of 

 the Order of Christ. We next crossed to the 



