The island of St. Aleixo, which is about four miles in circuit, with portions of ground appropriated to the production of various necessaries of life, is five leagues to the south-west of Cape St. Augustine, and a mile distant from the continent.
Ports.—No province has so great a number of ports, though the generality of them are only capable of receiving smacks and small craft. The principal ones are the before-mentioned Catuama; the Recife, which will be described jointly with the town of that name; the Tamandare, which is the best of the whole, in the form of a bay within the river so called. It is securely defended by a large fort, and capable of receiving a fleet, being four and five fathoms deep at the entrance, and six within. It lies ten leagues south-west of Cape St. Augustine.
Jaragua and Pajussara are separated by a point which gives name to the first, where vessels anchor in the summer. The latter one can only be used in winter. They are two leagues north-east of the river Alagoas, and in them people disembark to go to the town of this name, because the river, which formerly afforded passage for smacks, at present will not admit of canoes. It is therefore necessary to go a league by land, and re-embark on the lake.
Cururippe is a beautiful bay, capable of receiving large ships. It is sheltered by a reef, which breaks the fury of the sea. It has two entrances, one to the south and the other to the north; but the anchorage is not generally good. The bay receives the river from which it derives the name. It is a deep and quiet stream of black water, and navigable for canoes some leagues; the least depth is at the mouth. Its banks are covered with mangroves, reeds, and divers trees.
Lakes.—The considerable lakes are the Jiquiba, five leagues long and one wide, brackish, containing fish, and is discharged twelve miles to the north-east of Cururippe; and the Manguaba, ten leagues long and one at the greatest width, is salt, and abounds with fish. It is divided by a straight into two portions, one called Lagoa do Norte, the other Lagoa do Sul, which is the largest. Its channel of discharge is the before-mentioned river of the Alagoas, about a cannon-shot across. Various small rivers here empty themselves. Its banks are cultivated in parts; in others covered with mangoes. In its neighbourhood are various sugar works, the produce of which is transported, with cotton and other articles, in large canoes, to a northern part of the lake, from whence they are carried in carts for the space of three miles to the ports of Jaragua and Pajussara, where the smacks are laden with them for the Recife, or Bahia.
The following are the towns in the three comarcas into which this province is divided.
| COMARCAS. | TOWNS. | |
| Ollinda |  | Ollinda[38] |
| Goyanna | ||
| Iguarassu | ||
| Pau d’ Alho | ||
| Limoeiro. | ||
| Recife | | Recife |
| Serenhen | ||
| St. Antonio | ||
| St. Antao. | ||
| Alagoas | | Porto Calvo |
| Alagoas | ||
| Atalaya | ||
| Anadia | ||
| Maceyo | ||
| Porto de Pedras | ||
| Poxim | ||
| Penedo. |
Goyanna, situated in low ground between the rivers Capibari-mirim, which washes it on the north, and Tracunhaen on the south, a little more than a league above their confluence, is a large, populous, and flourishing town, well supplied with meat, fish, and fruits. It has a church of Our Lady of Rozario, a hermitage of the same name, others of Amparo, Conceiçao, and the Senhor dos Martyrios, a house of misericordia, a convent of slippered Carmelites, a Magdalen, two bridges, and a Juiz de Fora; there is a royal professor of Latin. It has a fair for cattle on Thursdays. A large quantity of cotton is exported; the principal productions of the farmers of its extensive district, where there are above twenty hermitages almost all with chapels. It is sixty miles north-west of Ollinda, and fifteen from the sea. In 1810 it had four thousand four hundred inhabitants, including its district; but the town itself now contains near five thousand.
Seven miles south of the mouth of the river Goyanna, and near the beach, is the parish of St. Lourenço de Tijucopabo, which is augmenting. Thirty-five miles west of Goyanna is the parish of St. Antonio de Tracunhaen, near to this river: its inhabitants cultivate cotton.
Iguarassu is considerable, and the most ancient town of the province. It is honoured with the title of loyal, and has a church dedicated to the companion Saints of Cosme and Damiao, a house of misericordia, a convent of Franciscans, a Magdalen, four hermitages, and is well supplied with fish, meat, and fruits. It is five or six leagues north of Ollinda, and two from the sea, upon the right bank of the river that gives it the name, and which is formed by the small rivers Ottinga, Pittanga, and Taype, that unite themselves above. There is a bridge over it, and canoes arrive here with the tide, but smacks remain two miles lower down. Sugar and cotton are the articles of exportation.