Benito was possessed of a cheerful disposition, an active mind, a lively intelligence, and qualities of heart equal to those of his head.

At the age of twelve he was sent into Para, to Belem, and there, under the direction of excellent professors, he acquired the elements of an education which could not but eventually make him a distinguished man.

Nothing in literature, in the sciences, in the arts, was a stranger to him.

He studied as if the fortune of his father would not allow him to remain idle.

He was not among such as imagine that riches exempt men from work--he was one of those noble characters, resolute and just, who believe that nothing should diminish our natural obligation in this respect if we wish to be worthy of the name of men.
During the first years of his residence at Belem, Benito had made the acquaintance of Manoel Valdez.