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law, and cannot be augmented. Their principal station is at Villa 

 Rica, where the general resides, who, jointly with the governor, issues 

 all orders respecting them. They form a disposeable force for the 

 general service of the capitania ; they are appointed to guard certain 

 places known to contain valuable products ; also to receive tolls, col- 

 lect tythes, patrole the roads, and search suspicious persons, for 

 which purposes parties of them are stationed at the various guard- 

 houses and registers. They go in quest of felons, guard the prisons, 

 and likewise execute orders to impress men levied for service in Rio 

 de Janeiro. They are employed exclusively in the mining country, 

 which they never quit, except when they escort diamonds and trea- 

 sure to the capital, or are dispatched on any particular service. The 

 regiment is a very fine one, and enjoys so high a reputation, that 

 numbers are continually offering to enlist in it. While I was at Villa 

 Rica nearly two hundred volunteers were serving, without any re- 

 muneration whatever, waiting to be placed on the establishment 

 according to their seniority, as vacancies should occur. This affords 

 the general an opportunity of choosing the most soldier-like men, 

 and those of best character, in which respects it is asserted, and I 

 believe with great truth, that the corps is unrivalled. The officers 

 enter very young, and serve as cadets for a certain period, during 

 which they perform the duty and receive the pay of privates, from 

 whom they are distinguished by a star on the right shoulder, and 

 generally exercise together. They are promoted according to se- 

 niority. 



Besides this force, there is a militia, in which all the male inha- 

 bitants of the capitania are enrolled, and are liable to be called out 

 when occasions require. It is a part of the present policy of the 

 Prince's ministers to stimulate the Creolians to active occupations, 

 by obhging them either to till their grounds, or to enter the ranks 

 and become soldiers. 



The known produce of this vast extent of territory comes next 

 under consideration. On this subject I shall not follow a variety of 



