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see me as a tropeiro. Did you chance, anywhere upon the road, to meet any fazendeiro who wished to replenish his horned stock, or needed a priest?'

I had heard of a lady in the neighborhood, recently deceased, and who, wishing to set herself right with her conscience, or conform to custom, had placed in her will four hundred milreis {two hundred dollars) to be devoted to masses. I did not recollect the lady's name, but I informed the padre in what village she lived, which was only a few leagues distant. I added, to prevent any mistake, that the death had occurred several days before, and that this sum was probably destined to the padre of the neighboring freguezia or parish.

'Never fear, senhor; if it is not too late I will take care of the affair. Moleque!' he cried to his chief herdsman, 'bring me my mule, quick!'

A few minutes later our reverend set off at a brisk trot, in spite of the rain, which still fell in torrents. Leaving the herd in charge of the negro, he went straight to the testamentary executor, and frankly proposed to give him a receipt for four hundred milreis, on payment of half the sum. The proposition was too seductive to be refused, and the executor, making the mere necessary conditions, counted out the two hundred milreis.

Being generally the head of a family, the padre acquires through his domestic sentiments a kindness of heart, which too frequently exists only upon the lips of his austere colleagues of the Old World, His parishioners seem to like his free way of living, and willingly excuse his peccadillos.

A few years ago the officiating priest of Santa Ana, a village situated thirty or forty miles from Rio Janeiro, on the road to Novo Friburgo, declared from his pulpit, in a moment of good humor, that one might boldly refuse to believe there was a hell! Good souls with us would have hid their faces at hearing such frightful blasphemy. The Brazilian is more calm; he reserves his severity for the African bondsmen, and shows the most evangelical indulgence for his own race.. The congregation smiled at each other at this singular declaration, and contented themselves with exchanging a look, as much as to say, Está bebado, (he has been drinking.)

The doutor is, in the eyes of the fazendeiro, a more important personage even than the padre. Since the slave-trade has been interdicted upon the coast of Africa, the price of negroes has advanced to ruinous proportions. An adult slave, at the present time, represents a capital of two contos de reis, or one thousand dollars, and sometimes more. The loss of a negro is therefore a serious one to the planter, and he neglects nothing to restore him when he falls sick. A spacious and well-ventilated hospital, with medical stores from Paris or London, an attendant who never leaves the patients, and who prepares their medicines, sufficiently attest his solicitude. Nevertheless, notwithstanding all these ample precautions, notwithstanding the real skill of the Brazilian physicians, my observation tells me that a negro seldom goes into the hospital except to die there. But this is easily accounted for. The negro never complains of sickness, and is never supposed to be sick till he is at the very end of his career and his strength is gone.

Besides the plantation to which he is attached, the doctor, like the padre, has to attend upon the small proprietors of the neighborhood, who are not rich enough to keep a private physician. Formerly medical men were scarce, for there was no faculty in the country, and young men were obliged to get their education in the schools of France or Portugal. Since the emancipation, things have completely changed. Schools of medicine have been established in the large towns, and professors are found