The best land of the comarca is that called the Reconcave, from twenty to thirty-five miles in width, immediately surrounding the fine and picturesque bay of All Saints, (the harbour of its capital,) where considerable estates are appropriated to the culture principally of the sugar-cane and tobacco, productions which in no other province of the state are afforded in such quantity; the soil called massapé, black and strong, is deemed the best for the growth of the cane. The winter, or rainy season, commences about the end of March and continues till August, with considerable intervals of summer weather, and never extends to the western extremity, where it rains only with thunder, which is pretty general, and continues whilst the sun is southward of the equator.
Mountains.—The principal serras are from the river Paraguassu southward; the most remarkable are the Giboya, the Itapera, the Mangabeira, the Bocetas, the Gayru, the Pedra Branca, and the Cupioba. On the left of the same river, at a considerable distance from it, is the Camizao, covered with extensive woods, where cotton plantations and other objects of agriculture flourish.
Mineralogy.—Granite, argils of different colours, gold, and iron, but only in small quantities.
Phytology.—Of European trees, the fig only flourishes. The mango tree is very numerous in some situations, and produces fruit in perfection and abundance; the jaca is very common; the mangaba tree is universally known; the jabuticaba prospers only in the woods, and the ambuzo in the catingas. Water-melons are generally very large and good, but melons are bad. There are various sorts of oranges, the best are the embigos, which have no seed, and those called seccas. There are a variety of indigenous spices and peppers, as well as those from Malabar; also ginger, jalap, urucu, angelim, and the opuncia, of which there are various species and names, some are almost of the form of a tree, and produce a fruit resembling a large pear, with a smooth thin skin of a reddish hue, and a white, soft, and cooling pulp, containing seed.
There is a variety of fine timber, such as the jacaranda, vinhatica, masaranduba, piquia, sucupira, sapucaya, paroba, itapicuru, sebastiao d’ arruda, gonsalo alves, bow wood, Brazil wood, brauna, mulberry, whose trunk is used in dying, and the leaves nourish a species of indigenous bombice, or silk worm, the cultivation of which might be rendered lucrative. Amongst various sorts of palm trees, the one best known by that name is the handsomest; its trunk is high and of great thickness, very smooth and straight, with branches of prodigious size, and growing only in the humid soil of the woods. There are also the cupahyba and gum-mastick trees. The cajue-nut tree is very abundant. The cane, mandioca, tobacco, and cotton, are the principal branches of agriculture, which have produced a considerable diminution of the largest forests and woods, particularly in the environs of the Reconcave; the growth of coffee is pretty extensive.
Zoology.—All the wild quadrupeds of the adjoining provinces are known here: sheep and goats are far from being numerous. Cattle, which are bred generally in all parts beyond the Reconcave, are not, even with the addition of those from the comarca of Jacobina, adequate to the supply of the engenhos, the usual consumption, and the furnishing of ships, in consequence of the pastures being generally bad, and the frequent want of water. The deficiency is supplied from the provinces of Piauhy and Goyaz.
The ancient Quinnimura Indians were the first memorable possessors of the Reconcave, or country surrounding the bay of All Saints. They were succeeded by the Tappuyas, which tribe was soon afterwards expelled by the Tuppinas, who came from the certams, whither the others retired; but they never ceased to annoy and to afford great inquietude to their conquerors. The Tupinambas, who were masters of both banks of the St. Francisco, being at war with the neighbouring Tuppinas, dispersed them, and marching forward expelled the last conquerors of the Reconcave, and compelled them to fly in their turn to the certams. The Tappuyas and the Tuppinas uniting, marched upon the Tupinamba tribe, but were effectually repulsed; and from that period to the arrival of the Portuguese in the bay of All Saints, and their final establishment at Bahia, the Reconcave remained in the possession of the Tupinambas. They were divided into various independent hordes and declared enemies on all occasions to the injurers of any one of them. The same idiom prevailed amongst them, and each elected the most powerful individual for its war captain, who in peace received no superior distinction. They were a race of anthropophagi.
The only port of this comarca is the famous bay of All Saints, which is twenty-three miles long from north to south, computing from the point of St. Antonio, to the mouth of the river Pitanga, and near thirty wide from east to west. The island of Itaparica forms two entrances, open to the south, the eastern is about eight miles wide, and the western, called Barra-Falsa (False Bar,) is under two at the narrowest part. The margins of the bay are flat, and beautified in most parts with groves of cocoa-nut trees; the most elevated portion of it presents the site of the capital, St. Salvador, commonly called Bahia.
Islands.—All the islands of this comarca are within the bay of All Saints; that of Itaparica is the largest, being twenty-three miles long from north to south, and ten in the widest part. It is of an irregular form, having a bay on the western side, and a large curving projection on the eastern, with considerable inequality of surface. Its soil in great part is adapted for various branches of agriculture. The cocoa-nut, the mango, the jaca, and orange trees, are abundant; the vine produces in perfection. It is divided into the two parishes of St. Amaro, on the southern side, and Santissimo Sacramento, at the northern extremity; the latter is a considerable povoaçao, the only one in the island, and yet without the title of town, also without regularity, but with a handsome church, a hermitage of St. Gonçalo, a fort, a good anchorage place for small vessels, sheltered from the east winds, and at a short distance an abundant fountain of excellent water. It has also a whale fishery, cord manufactories of the piassaba, (a sort of black rush,) and some alembics. For the instruction of youth there are royal professors of the primitive letters and Latin. This island, which belongs to the Marquis de Niza, and in whose territory the first annual payments in the state began, was given by Thome de Souza to Don Antonio d’ Athayde, Count of Castanheira, and afterwards made part of the capitania, which the King gave to him, comprehending the territory between the rivers Paraguassu and Jaguarype, with thirty-five miles of certam. About two miles distant from the povoaçao there is a chapel called Vera Cruz, which was formerly the mother church.
About three miles north of Itaparica is the island Dos Frades, which is mountainous, and four miles in length; a little to the north of it is the island of Bom Jesus, with a chapel of the same name, and another of Our Lady of Loreto. Further north is the island Das Vaccas, two miles long; to the east of it is that of Menino Deos, which is small. North of Vaccas is the island of Bimbarra, and further in the same direction that of Fontes.