The serra of Barriga is about four leagues distant from the town of Anadia, and twenty from the sea, and is subject to frequent thunderstorms. The occasional and loud noises from its cavities terrify the people of the circumjacent country, and indicate that it has minerals. On its extreme skirts was the fatal band of Africans, called the Quilombo dos Palmares, commenced by three hundred and forty negroes of Guinea, on the occasion of the Dutch disembarking at Pernambuco. They were joined by many others from the neighbouring provinces, and founded the above village, which took the name of Palmares from the number of palm trees which the negroes had planted around it. The village, which was more than a league in extent, was encompassed by a square, consisting of two orders or rows of enclosures of palisadoes, formed of large high trunks of the strongest and most durable wood the country afforded. At equal distances were three strong doors, each having its platform above, and defended by two hundred men in times of assault; the whole flanked by various bulwarks of the same fabric as the walls. Its population amounted to twenty thousand, one-half of whom were capable of taking up arms. They had established an elective and monarchical form of government. The chief was entitled Zumbe, and had his palace more distinguished than the houses of his vassals, which were erected according to the African mode. The most valorous and wise were always selected for this important office. Besides the superior, they had subordinate officers for the administration of justice, which was punctually executed against adulterers, homicides, and thieves.
The slaves who voluntarily came and associated with them had their liberty immediately granted, but those taken by force remained captives. The first incurred the penalty of death if they fled and were taken, a punishment which deserters from the latter class did not experience. Independently of a slight covering the whole were in a state of nudity, except the superiors, who wore such clothes for dresses as the neighbouring people of Quilombo sold to them, together with arms and ammunition, in exchange for provisions. Those only who had been baptized assumed the name of Christians.
Within the square was a vast basin or tank of soft water, well stored with fish, and a high rock, which served them for a watch-tower, from whence they could discover the country all round to a great extent, and could observe the approach of the enemy. The suburbs were covered with plantations of necessary provisions, to protect which there were various hamlets, called mocambos, governed by veteran soldiers.
It is extraordinary that this colony gave much anxiety to the crown, existed for the space of sixty years, and cost much labour to an army of eight thousand men for many months to accomplish its extinction in 1697.
Mineralogy.—Gold, amianthus, stone for water-filters, limestone and grindstone, terra de cores, a sort of plaster for figures, also two or three species of rude marble, and potters’ earth.
Zoology.—All the domestic animals of Spain are bred here. Goats and sheep are less profitable than in the country in which they are natives. The woods abound with all the species of wild animals described in the preceding provinces, excepting the wild dog, in place of which there is the ferret. The hedge-hog has here the name of quandu. The guariba, a species of monkey generally of a red colour, from the river St. Francisco towards the south, is black in this province, and its skin on this account is more esteemed. The tatubola, or armadillo, and the land-tortoise are numerous, as well as the moco, in rocks and stony grounds. Rabbits are very rare. In the open country are the emu-ostrich and the seriema. In the lakes are the colhereira, jaburu, goose, grey and white heron, wild duck, soco, macarico, water hen. In the woods and plains are the jacu, mutun, zabele, enapupe, racuan, arara, parrot, the uru which is a species of small partridge, going always in bands and upon the ground. The bird here called rouxinol, or the nightingale, is very different in its song and plumage from that of Europe. The araponga pours its simple and tender song from the summit of the highest trees. The white-winged dove always avoids strange birds, like other species of its kind. Various sorts of kites and hawks make war upon the other birds. The jacurutu, which is of a large size, has two great horns of feathers, and kills the largest snakes with caution and much dexterity in order to avoid being stung by them. In almost all the rivers there are otters, and no lake is without the alligator.
Phytology.—The cedar, bow-wood, vinhatica, of various colours, the yellow and dark are the most esteemed; the conduru, which is red; barabu, male and female, more or less of a violet or purple colour; pau santo, waved with violet; sucupira and brahuna, both of a blackish colour. The sapucaya affords good masts of a small size, and its towy rind is used by the caulkers. The red camacary, pau d’alho, maçaranduba, angico, coraçao de negro, the pith or heart of which is black and hard: there are many others of fine timber for building. The Brazil wood comes thirty leagues from the interior of the country; here is also the cassia, the carahiba, whose flower is yellow and rather large, constituting delicious food for the deer. This animal, generally feeding beneath the tree upon them, thus becomes an easy prey to the hunter. Amongst the fruit trees and shrubs of the woods are the ambuzo, the cajue, the araçaza, the jabuticaba, the mandupussa, the fruit of which is yellow and grows also round the trunk, like the preceding; the muricy; the cambuhy is a large tree and its fruit about the size of a sour cherry, either red or purple; the piky affords a fruit, from the stone of which is extracted a kind of hard tallow that is used for making imitation candles; the issicariba, which produces gum-mastick, ipecacuanha, and some species of inferior quina, or Jesuit’s bark, to which they give this name; the real one is to be found in the serra Cayriris. The maçanzeira is common in some districts of this province, where it has the improper name of murta.
The comarca of the Alagoas produces great abundance of the best timber in the province; there the canoes are made in which the St. Francisco is navigated. Cocoa-nut tree groves abound in the vicinity of the sea. The mamona is carefully cultivated in some districts, and its oil affords an article of exportation. The opuncia, or palmatoria, is here very common; and the cochineal insect might be cultivated with advantage.
The cotton tree and sugar cane are the principal branches of agriculture, and their productions are the most lucrative. The desire every where of the gain which these two articles afford, unwisely prevents the cultivation of provisions of the first necessity in sufficient quantity for the subsistence of the population. The flour of mandioca is generally scarce and dear, arising in part from the lands in the vicinity of the sea (which alone are fertile) having been given in such liberal portions; so that at the present day they are under the dominion of so few persons that it is calculated that for every two hundred families there are only eight or ten proprietors, or senhores d’engenho, and who generally permit their tenants only to plant the cane. The jangada, a peculiar tree, and one of the most useful in the province, has a trunk commonly straight and scarcely ever attaining a thickness that a man cannot encompass with his arms: it is extremely porous and light. The trunks attached, as already described, constitute the only small craft of the country; fishermen proceed with them to sea out of sight of land, and travellers transport themselves, with their moveables, from one port to another. It is necessary to drag them on the beach at the end of each voyage to dry, in order that the wood may not decay so quickly. The trees which produce the oil of cupahyba are met with in all the woods; also those which produce the gum-copal, the drug benzoin, and the sweet gum storax. The latter is here called the balsam tree; and the honey which the bees make from the sweets of its flower has the smell of cinnamon. Amongst other exotic trees which have been naturalized the precious sandal tree, it is affirmed, would prosper here almost as well as in the island of Timor, and would save to the state many arrobas of gold annually expended in bringing it from India.
The people of the certam catch large quantities of turtle and ring doves with the manicoba-brava, an infusion of which is put into vessels half buried in the sand, in those places where some little water remains after the streams are dried up, and to which those birds are attracted for the purpose of drinking. On taking the infusion, if they do not immediately vomit, they cannot again take wing, but quickly begin to tremble, and expire in a few moments.