[63] A person of the name of Belfort first planted rice at Maranham, and some of his descendants now reside there in opulence.
[64] “There were five sugar works or engines, as they are called, at Itapicuru, which compounded for 5000 arrobas of their produce. On the island there were six engines in full employ, 1641.”—History of Brazil, Vol.II, p. 9.
[65] He has been removed, was ordered to Lisbon, and ultimately, on his return to Rio de Janeiro, was refused admittance, for a short time, to the Prince Regent.
[66] It is not perhaps generally known, that there are published in London three or four Portugueze periodical works. One of them is prohibited in Brazil, and I have heard it said, that all of them are so situated; but they are principally intended for Brazilian readers, and they find their way all over the country, notwithstanding the prohibition. I have seen them in the hands of civil, military, and ecclesiastical officers, and have heard them publicly spoken of by them. It is said that the Regent reads them, and is occasionally pleased with their invectives against some of the men in power.
[67] About twelve months afterwards, I had an opportunity of being personally known to this man, and found him to be very superior to any individual of his or any other order of friars with whom I have been acquainted.
[68] A British consul has since been appointed to Maranham.
[69] An ouvidor has been appointed to Aldeas Altas, and Piauhi has been raised to the rank of an independent provincial government. These are improvements which shew that regular government is gaining ground.
[70] Before I came away in 1815, a considerable portion of the sand (which was covered by the tide at high water) between St. Antonio and Boa Vista, had been raised, and houses had been built upon it. The principal street of St. Antonio has been paved. The bridge of Boa Vista has been rebuilt of timber; and that between St. Antonio and Recife was about to undergo considerable repair. The hospitals, likewise, were to be improved; and as I have heard since my arrival in England, of the appointment of a most worthy man to the direction of one of them, I trust that this intention has been acted upon.
[71] Vide Appendix.
[72] Bolingbroke says, that instances are frequent of some of the European swine escaping into the woods, where they live wild; and he adds, that their increase has been immense. In another place he speaks of a species of this animal, which is peculiar to tropical America, and is called the warree which he says is about the size of an European hog, and much like it in shape. The porco do mato is not the sus tajassu, which is, I imagine, what Bolingbroke calls the picaree hog.—Voyage to the Demerary, &c. by Henry Bolingbroke, in Phillips’ Collection of Modern Voyages, vol. x. p. 57 and 129.