Being informed that our next day’s journey would be an arduous one, on account of the hilly district through which we should have to pass, we retired to rest betimes, and were stirring at an early hour. We mounted fresh mules, and proceeded along a good road through a rugged and thinly peopled district; in the course of five leagues, we passed over seven very high granite mountains, and eight smaller ones, and at length reached the ferry of the Paraiba, a river considerably larger than the Paraibuna. At the Register belonging to it, which is more extensive and better guarded than the former, all goods are examined and weighed, paying duty according to their weight, whatever be their kind, quality, or value. This regulation bears very unequally upon different articles; salt, for instance, pays nearly _cent. per cent._ iron and lead about the same; while woollens, cottons, and other light goods do not, on an average, exceed eight or ten _per cent._
The commandant of the Register offered us every assistance, and was kind enough to provide us a fresh mule for our baggage. The short time we staid here did not allow much leisure for observation; and, indeed, there was little of novelty to observe. The situation of the Register is pleasant; the country around is well wooded and fertile, though mountainous. The river is almost destitute of fish.
We proceeded about a league and a half farther, through thick woods, and arrived at a place named Rosina de Negra, where we halted for the night. Our next day’s journey presented the same varieties of hill and ravine as those we had already passed. In one part of the road we observed a kind of barracks, consisting of an _estalagem_ and some _ranchos_ or huts, where an officer and about twenty horse-soldiers are stationed; they patrole the road, and are authorised to stop travellers, and make the strictest search of those whom they suspect of having gold-dust or diamonds concealed. Proceeding two leagues, we arrived at the Register of Mathias Barboza, situated in the midst of an almost impervious wood. It was built about sixty or seventy years ago, by the gentleman whose name it bears, and who was an ancestor of the noble family of Sousa.