314 
TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO, 
'ugust, 
garde) had asked him if he came a prisoner; that he 
replied, “ No ; he came to attend to his own business/’ 
''Well, then,” said the Delegarde, "as you have not 
been incommoded by this indictment, it is better to 
treat these slanders and quarrels with disdain;” and 
said he to Senhor L., "I would advise you to do the 
same.” And so ended the attempt to punish a man 
who, if one-half the crimes imputed to him were true, 
ought, by the laws of Brazil, to have been hung, or 
imprisoned for life. The poor Subdelegarde, it seems, 
through pure ignorance, committed some informalities, 
and this was the reason why Manoel Joaquim so easily 
and gloriously escaped. 
The best of it is, that there is a special officer in 
Barra and in every other city, called the " Promotor Pu- 
blico,” whose sole duty it is to see that all the other 
officers of justice and of police do their duty, so that no 
criminal may escape or injustice be done, by the laxity 
or connivance of any of these parties. Yet, with all this, 
nothing is easier in the Rio Negro, than for any person 
possessed of friends or money, to defeat the ends of 
justice, 
I now found another unavoidable delay in my pro- 
jected voyage to Barra. A canoe that was making for 
me was not yet ready, and I did not know where to 
obtain one sufficiently capacious to take all my luggage 
and collections ; but, a few days after, a Spaniard, or 
Venezuelano, arrived at Guia with a canoe for Manoel 
Joaquim ; and as he was to return by Marabitanas, I took 
the opportunity of writing to the Commandante, asking 
the loan of his igarite, for the voyage to Barra and 
