Notwithstanding sugar has diminished, the production of cotton is increasing rapidly. In 1816 it was nine thousand bags; in 1819 it reached seventeen thousand bags of five to five and a half arrobas each; and in the year 1820 it was confidently anticipated to reach twenty to twenty-four thousand bags.
The campinhas of this province, which afford cattle to the capital, and in part to Pernambuco and Bahia, when visited by two or three succeeding seasons of drought, entirely lose their vegetation, and the streams disappear, so that a mortality ensues amongst the cattle, carrying them off in great numbers.
The governor of this city is endeavouring to effect some improvement in the roads, or rather tracks, through the province, which are in the same lamentable condition as in all other districts, and it is sincerely to be wished that his efforts may not be fruitless. He has issued orders for all individuals to make roads through their lands.
Ten miles from this city, and upon the margin of the same river, is the considerable arraial of St. Rita, with a hermitage so called.
Pilar do Taypu, forty miles above the capital upon the left bank of the Parahiba, is ornamented with a church of N. Senhora of Pilar. Cariri was its primitive name, when an aldeia of Indians, its first inhabitants, and who even at this day form, with their descendants, the principal portion of its population, cultivating in its environs a good quantity of cotton, mandioca, &c.
Nine miles from it is the arraial and parish of Tayabanna, upon the margin of the same river; and ten miles to the north is that of Cannufistula, with a hermitage; both grow much cotton. Gurunhem is upon a small river of the same name, with a chapel of N. Senhora of Rozario.
Near the Parahiba, and two miles from the town of Pilar, is the parish of St. Miguel; cotton is the wealth of its parishioners.
Alhandra, originally Urathauhy, is a middling town, and well situated near the river Capibary, nine miles north-east of Goyanna, and seven from the sea; it has a church dedicated to N. Senhora of Assumpçao. Its inhabitants are composed of Indians and whites, pure and intermixed, and are agriculturists and fishermen.
Villa do Conde, formerly Japoca, is yet small and without any thing remarkable. It has a church of the Lady of Conceiçao, and is about eighteen miles south of the capital, and near fifteen from the sea. Its inhabitants, Indians, whites, and mesticos, cultivate divers necessaries of life, and draw their water from a good fountain.
The town of St. Miguel, situated near a lake in the proximity of the bay of Trabicao, has the aspect of a small aldeia. Its church is dedicated to the archangel whose name it takes. Its inhabitants are Indians, and draw their subsistence from the same occupations as the preceding places.