Fifty miles to the north-north-west of the preceding, and twenty from the Tucantines, at the angle of the confluence of the small river Sucuriu and the Matança, is the pleasant arraial of Carmo. It was founded in 1741, in the proximity of a serra, ornamented with a mother church dedicated to St. Manuel, and a chapel of the Lady of Rozario. The houses are built of adobe, a sort of brick dried in the sun. Its inhabitants drink the waters of the Sucuriu, which are excellent. They are miners and agriculturists, and cultivate Indian corn, tobacco, cotton, sugar, mandioca, and legumes, with various hortulans and fruits.
Seventy miles to the east of Natividade is the arraial of Almas, a little distance from the river Manuel Alvez and near the road of Duro. Its inhabitants cultivate the necessaries of life and cotton.
Forty miles to the east of the preceding, is the aldeia of Duro, upon the boundary of the province, with a register for preventing the embezzlement of gold. The major part of its dwellers are Christianized Indians, poor and content with their condition, cultivating and collecting only what is absolutely necessary to preserve life.
A few leagues to the north of the aldeia of Duro is that of Formiga, also peopled with Christianized Indians, who are equally indolent, are hunters, and more contented with gathering fruits from the wild trees, than planting others of greater utility.
Between the mouth of the northern river Manuel Alvez and the first peninsula, is the new arraial of St. Pedro d’Alcantara, upon the margin of the Tucantines.
District of Parannan.
This district derives its name from the river which traverses it diagonally. It is bounded on the north by the comarca of Tucantines, on the west by that of Goyaz, on the south by the Rio das Velhas, and on the east by the limits of the province. It is watered by a great number of rivers, interspersed with mountains, and better peopled than the others, although still infested by the barbarians, who advance up the principal rivers. In some districts there are many persons subject from their infancy to a disease in the throat, called bronchocele.
Rivers.—Besides the Parannan and the Maranham, its western and southern limits, we may remark the river Trahiras of the south, the Preto, (both crossed by bridges), the Bagagem, the small Tucantines, the Palma, the St. Feliz, (with a large bridge,) the Trahiras of the north, and the small river Custodio, both of difficult passage even in dry weather; the Gamelleiro, near whose mouth there is a rock of remarkable form and height, and the Bacalhau of considerable width. The whole discharge into the Maranham, except the last, which unites itself with the Bagagem by the left margin, and the Palma which joins the Parannan.
The river Palma is formed by the Palmeiro, Mosquito, and Sobrado. The latter, which is the most northerly, rises in a plain upon the summit of the wide serra of Mangabeira, and a few fathoms it is said, from the origin of the river Ondas, (which runs to the St. Francisco) and seven miles below its source receives the Torno, a considerable stream which issues from among the roots of an over-spreading gamelleira or gamella tree, and has not a mile of course, being as voluminous at the commencement as at the embouchure.
The river Correntes, which is one of the first branches of the Parannan, flows from the serra of St. Domingos, and after some leagues conceals itself for three miles by a subterraneous passage through a mountain, where its waters lose their colour and good quality. The river Galheiro, which descends from the serra St. Domingos to the Parannan, receives a small river, (called the St. Domingos) which runs for a considerable space under ground, being only discoverable in some places through apertures. Amongst other serras may be noted the Viadeiros, which runs parallel with the river Parannan at the distance of eighteen miles. It is bare of vegetation or woods, and is the most elevated of the central ones. From it issues the river Tucantines and the Preto.