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GOVERNOR OF MARANHAM. 



the Governor to St. Luiz. Had it not been for 

 the circumstances in which he was placed, I 

 should have gone down to his residence at Par- 

 naiba ; he has there a most noble establishment, 

 part of which consists of a band of musicians, 

 who are his own slaves ; some of them have been 

 instructed at Lisbon and at Rio de Janeiro. It 

 is through such men as these that improvements 

 are to be expected. I likewise became acquaint- 

 ed with a gentleman who had been imprisoned 

 for a trifling breach of some new port-regula- 

 tion. Any of his friends were allowed free 

 ingress to see him, and I passed some pleasant 

 evenings with him and other persons who were 

 in the habit of assembling there ; he was allow- 

 ed two small rooms in the prison, and was con- 

 fined in this manner for several months. The 

 Ouvidor of the province was also suspended 

 from exercising the functions of his office, was 

 removed from St. Luiz, and imprisoned in one 

 of the forts. The Jtiiz de Fora, the second 

 judicial officer, performed for the time the du- 

 ties of the situation ; he was a Brazilian, and a 

 man of independent character, who spoke and 

 acted freely, notwithstanding the ostensible 

 place he held, and the danger of it under such 

 a government. The master of an English mer- 

 chant-ship, I was told, had been arrested for 

 some breach of port-regulation, and was con- 

 fined in a miserable dungeon for three days, i 



