It is affirmed that the parish of Nossa Senhora of Conceiçao, in the island of Itamaraca, was the first povoaçao, and also for a considerable period the capital of the capitania; but, as the year of its foundation is not known, we are left in ignorance as to the precise epoch of the disembarkation of the first colonists.
In the short reign of King Henry, in consequence of the incapacity of the donatory to promote its colonization, Joam Tavarez was ordered by the governor-general, Lourenco da Veyga, to proceed to this capitania, for the purpose of founding a prezidio in the island of Camboa, situated in the river Parahiba; which was removed by Captain Fructicozo Barboza to the situation of Cabedello, where being greatly annoyed by the Indians, Manuel Telles, governor of Bahia, despatched Diogo Baldez, in the year 1583, to afford him the necessary succour. The Indians and the French, who were their auxiliars, sustained a defeat; and Francisco Castrejon, commandant of a fort, which he had then constructed, would not recognise Fructicozo Barboza as superior, which induced the latter to retire, and the result was an invasion by the Indians, who compelled Castrejon to desert this post.
On his arrival at Pernambuco, Barboza returned with some companies, and having restored all the fortifications, he gave the origin to a povoaçao, which in the year 1585 was ennobled with the title of city, and called Fillippea. Its population had already arrived at seven hundred families, with twenty sugar works, when the Dutch, who had obtained possession of Pernambuco and Itamaraca, determined to conquer it.
After various attempts, during two years, which were always frustrated, it fell into the hands of General Segismundo Escup, in consequence of the capitulation of the fort of Cabedello, on the 19th of December, 1634, who substituted for it the appellation of Margarida, in honour of a Dutch matron. With its reduction, and the surrender of the fort of St. Antonio four days after, the whole province passed under the dominion of the Dutch, till their evacuation of this part of the Brazil in the year 1654.
It lies between 6° 15′ and 7° 15′ south latitude, and extends two hundred and ten miles at its greatest width from east to west.
The longest day in the year does not exceed twelve hours and a half. The winter commences at the equinox of March, and continues till July, and is never severe. The climate is warm, but refreshed by the delightful breezes with which it is visited from the sea. More than two-thirds of the face of the country, generally uneven, consists of catingas, the remainder is of strong substantial and fertile soils, covered with extensive woods, principally upon serras of the greatest elevation, and in the vicinities of some rivers; and it is only in those latter districts, partially divested of their primitive sylvan shades, that cultivation is to be seen, comprised in plantations of the cotton tree, sugar cane, mandioca, Indian corn, legumes, tobacco, with some rice; and also the hortulans and fruits peculiar to the climate, including the pine-apple, water-melon, banana, and the orange, which are of excellent flavour.
Capes and Islands.—Point Cabedello, south of the embouchure of the river Parahiba; Point Lucena, six miles north of the preceding; and Cape Branco, fifteen miles south of the first, are the principal.
There are no islands upon the coast of this province but in the mouths of rivers or the entrances of bays, and they are generally small.
Ports.—That within the river Parahiba is the most frequented. The bay of Traicao, originally Acejutibiro, in the form of a half moon, with three entrances formed by two small islands, almost eight miles in width, having a small river at the extremity, is deemed the best port of the province, and capable of receiving a considerable number of small vessels. The northern entrance is almost two miles in width. From this bay a reef extends nearly eighteen miles to Cape Branco, between which and the beach there are nine and ten fathoms of depth, where vessels anchor in smooth water, protected from the agitation of the ocean by this recife, which is a portion of the celebrated chain extending along the coast, elevating its head occasionally above the water, as at Pernambuco, and in other latitudes.
The bay of Lucena, on the northern side of the point of the same name, is large, with a good anchorage, but is exposed to winds prevailing from north to east.