Montemor is a vilota, or small town of the descendants of the aborigines, one mile from the northern margin of the Mamanguape, and fifteen from the sea. It had its commencement six miles more distant, where the parish of St. Pedro and St. Paulo is situated, for the habitation of the ancestors of its present inhabitants. The number of whites having greatly increased, and in order to avoid the dissensions which originated with the two hierarchies, it became expedient to separate them; for which purpose a new aldeia was founded with the name of Preguica, for the establishment of the first, in the situation where the town is. Its church is dedicated to the Lady of Prazeres. The senate of this town resides in the parish of St. Pedro and St. Paulo, better known by the name of Mamanguape, in consequence of being near that river. In the year 1813, when its population and that of its extensive district, had nearly reached fifteen thousand adults, it was dismembered of its western portion for the creation of the parish of N. Senhora of Conceiçao do Brejo d’Area.
Villa Real. By a law of the 17th of June, 1815, the above new parish of Conceiçao, was created a town, with the name of Villa Real do Brejo d’Area, its civil government being assisted by two ordinary judges and three vereadores, or aldermen, with other officers common to towns of the same order. It is seventy miles from Montemor, and cotton is its principal production.
Villa da Rainha, vulgarly called Campinha Grande, (Large Plain), in consequence of being a solitary place, in an extensive plain, one hundred and twenty miles west of the capital, is yet a small town, much frequented, however, in consequence of the royal road, (estrada-real) as it is ludicrously called, of the certam. Paupinna was its name previously to its becoming a town. Its inhabitants drink of a contiguous lake, which failing of water in the years of great drought, obliges them to fetch it upwards of six miles. Its church is dedicated to the Lady of Conceiçao.
Pombal, a considerable town, speaking comparatively with others of the country, is well situated upon the river Pinhanco, four miles above its mouth, and one hundred and fifty miles south of Villa Nova da Princeza, a town of Rio Grande. It has for nominal patroness the Lady of Bom Successo (good success.) Its inhabitants, mostly whites, live upon the produce of agriculture, and of cattle, which are not numerous.
Villa Nova de Souza is situated upon the margin of the river Peixe, ten miles above its mouth, thirty-five from Pombal, and has a church of the Lady of Remedios. The inhabitants cultivate legumes, sugar, water-melons, and melons, in the vicinity of the rivers; and on the serras, mandioca, cotton, and Indian corn; in the catingas cattle pasture, and abound with a diversity of game. In the year 1806, there was scarcely an orange tree in the districts of the last two towns, where all the trees are bent to the west, in consequence of the constant and sometimes impetuous east wind that prevails here.
CHAP. XIX.
PROVINCE OF RIO GRANDE DO NORTE.[43]
Contests with Indians—Conquest—Taken by the Dutch—Restored—Extent—Sterility of Soil—Capes and Ports—Mineralogy—Mountains—Zoology—Phytology—Rivers and Lakes—Povoações—Island of Fernando de Noronha.
The conquest of this province, which is a portion of the capitania of Joam de Barros, was commenced in the year 1597, by order of Philip II. with the intention of impeding the exportation of Brazil wood by the French, and of overcoming the Potyguaras, who destroyed the plantations of the colonists of Parahiba, and interrupted the progress of that colony.
D. Francisco de Souza, governor of the state, by orders which he received, supplied what was requisite from the royal treasury. The squadron which was prepared at Pernambuco, and carried with it a Jesuit for an engineer, and a Franciscan to interpret the language of the Indians, directed its course to the mouth of Rio Grande, which was the port most visited by the Corsairs. The enterprise had its commencement by the construction of a wooden fort, near the place where the Fort dos Reys is now situated, and the first commandant of which, Jeronimo d’ Albuquerque, had many obstinate combats with the aborigines for more than a year, until the friendship which he established with Sorobabe, (Great Island,) chief of the Indians, through the mediation of a friendly one of the same tribe, afforded him an opportunity of laying the foundation of the city of Natal, which received this name in consequence of the inauguration of its mother church, in 1599, happening on the same day as the festivity of the birth of our Saviour. The want of better ports, the quality of the land, which did not encourage its colonization, and the Portuguese nation being then under the dominion of the Castilian crown, as well as the inconstancy of the Indians, equally unserviceable as friends, as they were fatal when enemies, concurred to prevent this colony from acquiring any considerable augmentation during thirty years.
The Dutch, after being established in Pernambuco, presented themselves several times before the Fort dos Reys, (of Kings,) which always resisted their attacks, until it was ultimately delivered to them by the treason of a sergeant, a deserter from Bahia, who stole the keys of the fort by night, the commandant being seriously wounded, and communicated to Admiral Ceulio, that the garrison would deliver itself up, according to the conditions offered to the commandant and rejected by him. Ceulio perceiving at day-break a white flag hoisted, proceeded immediately towards the fort, which made very little resistance, in consequence of this traitor, and one Orteguera, also an enemy to the commandant, vigorously counselling him to give it up. With the possession of this fort, the Dutch became masters of the province, which was restored with the others in the year 1654.