A history of the Brazil

by James Henderson

Atalaya, six leagues distant from the preceding place, three by water, and the rest by land, is in a fertile and wholesome country, possessing excellent water, and having a church of Nossa Senhora das Brotas. Its neighbourhood abounds with ipecacuanha, and cotton is cultivated with the common provisions of the country. The number of its inhabitants, including those of its district, amount to nearly two thousand; part of them are Caboclos,[39] white, and with more regular features than any other known tribe of Indians.

Anadia, a middling sized town, with a church of the Lady of Piety, is fourteen leagues from Alagoas. Its inhabitants are Indians, Europeans, whites of the country, and Mestiços, in number about ten thousand, including those of the district; almost all are cultivators or purchasers of cotton, its principal produce. By the same law, of 15th December, 1815, which gave to the town of Penedo a Juiz de Fora, were created the towns of Maceyo and Porto de Pedras.

Maceyo is a dismemberment of the Alagoas, having a district of more than seven leagues of coast, computing from the river Alagoas to the St. Antonio Grande. In this interval the following rivers run into the sea:—The Doce, which is short, and comes from a small lake; the Paratiji, the St. Antonio Mirim, and the Paripueira, which receives the Cabuçu on the right, near its mouth. Maceyo is becoming a place of some commerce, and will be the emporium of the trade of the comarca of Alagoas. One English establishment already exists here, and shipments are made direct from hence to Great Britain. An European first settling in any of the towns of Brazil, and particularly in places of this class, makes a sacrifice of all the comforts common to well regulated society.

Porto de Pedras is a dismemberment of Porto Calvo; its district embraces nearly nine leagues of coast, occupying the interval from the aforesaid river St. Antonio Grande to the Manguape. The Cumuriji and the Tatuamuhy are the principal rivers that empty themselves upon its shores. The two last towns have each two ordinary judges, and one of orphans; three veradores, or species of aldermen, a procurador of the council, a treasurer, two clerks of the market, an alcaide, with a scrivener of his office, two public scriveners, judicial and notarial, the first of which holds that office in the council, also in the customs, and is market clerk; the second also belongs to the office of scrivener of the orphans.

Poxim, a small town upon the margin of the river of the same name, which enters the sea three leagues to the north-east of Cururippe, has a large bridge, and a church dedicated to Our Lady of Madre de Deos. It is two miles from the ocean, is well supplied with fish, and has in its district the new and yet small aldeia of Our Lady of Conceiçao, so called after the patroness of the chapel which ornaments it; and where upon festival days are assembled six hundred families, dispersed around its neighbourhood. It is situated near the river Cururippe, four miles from the sea; and its good port, where at present is only laden some timber and oil of the mamona, with the fertility of the interior territory, will contribute to render this a considerable place at some future day. The land in the proximity of the shore is sandy, and well adapted to the cajue-nut tree, which, in a short time grows to a large size, and its fruit would furnish a branch of commerce.

Penedo, a considerable, populous, and commercial town, is situated partly in a plain along the bank of the river St. Francisco, and occasionally suffering by its inundations, and partly upon a height at the extremity of a range, which is the first elevated land met with on the northern margin, on ascending this river. Besides the church dedicated to Nossa Senhora of Rozario, there is a hermitage with the same title; another of the Lady of Corrente; others of St. Gonçalo d’Amarante, St. Gonçalo Garcia, and a convent of Franciscans, whose ill appropriated grounds occupy a situation the best suited for the improvement of the povoaçao. It has a royal Latin master, and a good house for the ouvidor. The houses were, till lately, miserable buildings of wood; there are now many of stone, with two or three stories, having portals of a species of grindstone. The river is here near a mile in width, and the highest tide is three feet. The greatest height of the river, that can be remembered, reached twenty feet. It is about twenty-five miles from hence to the mouth of the river. The confessional roll, which is a tolerably correct one, estimates the population at eleven thousand five hundred and four, including that of the district. By a law of the 15th of December, 1805, a Juiz de Fora was granted to this town.

About twenty-five miles higher up, on the margin of the St. Francisco, in a delightful situation, is the parish of Collegio, whose dwellers only amount to ninety families, and are mostly Indians, of three different nations. The Acconans who lived in the district of Logoa Comprida, a few miles higher up the river: the Carapotos, who inhabited the serra of Cuminaty: and the Cayriris, who dwelt in the vicinity of the serra which takes from them its name. The main part of this colony wander about when not occupied in fishing, according to the custom of their ancestors, through a country six miles along the river, and three broad, which was given to them for the purposes of agriculture. The wives of these lazy poltroons work daily in making earthenware, seated on the ground. They begin to make an earthen vessel by working the clay on a banana leaf, placed upon their knees; afterwards it is put upon a large dish, with pulverized ashes, when it receives the form and last finish. Without any assistance from the men, they procure and work up the clay, proceed to fetch the wood in order to set up large fires every Saturday night for hardening the vessels made during the week. The church was a Jesuitical chapel, which the district already possessed.

In this comarca is the considerable arraial of St. Miguel, upon the margin and seven leagues above the mouth of the river of the same name. It has a church of Nossa Senhora of O, whose parishioners amount to fifteen hundred, the main part dispersed.

The western portion of the province is much more extensive than the preceding, but is very thinly inhabited, being a sterile and parched up country, without other rains than those afforded by thunder showers. In all parts, however, are met with portions of ground more or less fertile, which would produce mandioca, Indian corn, feijao, hortulans, cottons, fruits, and the sugar cane. Cattle are generally bred in this vast district, and game abounds in great variety. It was included in the jurisdiction of the ouvidor of Jacobina until 1810, when it became a comarca, receiving the interior portion of that of Recife. It is at present called the ouvidorship of the certam of Pernambuco, the magistrate not having chosen the town for its head, by which it ought to be designated. Cattle, hides, cotton, salt, and gold, are the articles of its exportation.

Rivers.—The Rio Grande and the Correntes are the only considerable rivers.