[55] Vide Appendix for a further account of this wax.

[56] Vide Appendix for a further account of this plant.

[57] In the year 1813, I was one evening in company, when I heard a gentleman request one of the party to ask the Englishmen who were present, if any of them had ever left a horse upon his plantation. I turned round and recognised the colonel of Cunhàû. The horse was sent to me about a month afterwards.

[58] In the year 1812, I met Feliciano and one of the others, who was his brother-in-law, in one of the streets of Recife. They recollected me, and I was stopped by both of them getting hold of my coat on each side. They asked me if I was going again to travel, for if I was, they said that they were unemployed, and would go with me. Their attack had so much the appearance of being more in violence than in the gladness of old friendship, that one or two of my acquaintance who chanced to pass at the time, stopped and enquired what was the matter, supposing that I had got into some scrape. These fellows literally held me fast, until I had answered all their questions. Their fidelity seems to militate from the general unfavourable character which I have given of the Indians; but unfortunately, individual instances prove very little.

[59] I had imagined that he did not intend to return again into my service; but on my second voyage to Pernambuco, I found him at the house of one of my friends, employed as a household servant, and I heard that he had come down to Recife two days after I had left the place, for the purpose of remaining with me; but as I was gone, he had entered into the service in which I found him. Julio was an exception to almost all the bad qualities of the Indians; and if I was again to travel in that country, I should use every endeavour to have him in company. He belonged to Alhandra.

[60] The information which is contained in this note I had from Captain Juan Roman Trivino, of the Spanish ship St. Joze, of 300 tons burthen. He received orders to proceed from Rio de Janeiro to Maranham, for the purpose of loading cotton, in the commencement of the year 1815. He arrived off the settlement of Searà, and sent on shore for a pilot to take him to St. Luiz; he was informed that none resided at Searà, but that he would find one at Jeriquaqùara, a high hill between Searà and Parnaiba. On arriving near to this place, he discovered an Indian in a canoe fishing, who came on board, and offered to pilot him to St. Luiz. This was agreed to, and they proceeded; but from mistaking the two points of land in the manner mentioned above, the Indian took the vessel into the bay of St. Joze, on the 15th March. They kept the lead going, even before they discovered the error into which they had been led, as is the custom with all vessels bound to St. Luiz. The ship was brought to an anchor off the village of St. Joze, which is situated upon the N.E. point of the island of Maranham, in eleven fathoms water. Whilst they continued in the mid-channel of the bay, they found from eighteen to twenty fathoms. The depth of water regularly decreases from the centre of the bay towards the land on each side; but it contains no insulated sand banks. The ship was at anchor off the village of St. Joze two days; they then proceeded through the channel, which is inclosed on either side by mangroves, and is so narrow in some parts that the yards at times brushed against the branches. The wind was fair, and they sailed through without being obliged to tow or warp the ship. The depth of water varied from five to two and a half fathoms; the bottom was of mud. About halfway through the channel, the tide from the bay of St. Joze and that from the bay of St. Marcos meet. This takes place nearly but not quite opposite to the mouth of the river Itapicuru. They were two days in sailing from the anchorage ground at St. Joze to the island of Taua, which is situated near to the S. W. corner of the island of Maranham. Here the ship came to an anchor in nine fathoms water, with a sandy bottom; the captain sent to St. Luiz for another pilot, as the man who had brought them thus far was not acquainted with the remainder of the navigation. The island of Taua is rocky, and uninhabited, and is covered with palm trees. The village of St. Joze appeared to Captain Trivino to be of considerable size, but, with the exception of two or three, the houses were built of slight timber and of the leaves of different species of palm trees. Its inhabitants were mostly fishermen. He mentioned that he saw a shoemaker at work there. Captain Trivino understood from his pilot that the river Itapicuru is at its mouth 120 yards wide, and that its depth is one fathom and a half.

[61] Joam IV. sent over one Bartholomew Barreiros de Ataide with three miners, one a Venetian and the other two French, to search for gold and silver. After two years’ search up the Amazons they returned to Maranham, and offered to supply the people with iron at a cruzado, about 2s. 4d., per quintal, 128 lbs. weight, if the state would engage to take all that they should produce at that price. The people were afraid to enter into any such contract. The island was so rich in this ore that foreign cosmographers called it the ilha do ferro in their maps, and all who came there with any knowledge of the subject said that it was ore of the best quality. A thing of great importance to Portugal, which bought all its iron, and yet this discovery was neglected.—From a Memoir of Manoel Guedes Aranha, Procurador from Maranham, 1685, in the 6th Vol. Pinheiro Collection of MSS. in the possession of Mr. Southey.

A royal manufactory of iron has been established in the captaincy of St. Paulo, called “The Royal Fabric of S. Joam de Ypanema.” I obtained a knowledge of the fact from two letters in Nos. 45 and 56 of the Investigador Portuguez, a periodical publication published in London. I am sorry to say, that the two letters to which I allude have arisen from some differences existing among the directors of the Fabric.

[62] I have just in time received the following statement of the exportation of cotton from Maranham, from the year 1809 to 1815:

Vessels.Bags.
1809.To Great Britain in5155,835
——To other parts2921,006
1810.To Great Britain3740,684
——To other parts1911,793
1811.To Great Britain3648,705
——To other parts196,053
1812.To Great Britain2935,767
——To other parts294,803
1813.To Great Britain3550,072
——To other parts2710,101
1814.To Great Britain2231,205
——To other parts3414,436
1815.To Great Britain3228,539
——To other parts4922,216