A history of the Brazil

by James Henderson

Upon the margin of the Mearim, fifty miles from the sea, is the parish of N. Senhora of Nazareth, whose inhabitants raise cattle, cotton, rice, &c. without gaining much wealth.

Tury is a villota, or small town, with only the appearance of an aldeia, but which may become more considerable from its situation upon the large bay of the same name, and the fertility of its adjacent territory, particularly after the pacification of the central Indians. The church is dedicated to St. Francisco Xavier.

Near the mouth of the Tutoya, in an advantageous situation, is the parish of Conceiçao, well supplied with fish and the necessaries of life, having a port capable of receiving sumacas, and possessing greater depth than any other of the Parnahyba.

Considerably to the southward, and two miles from the Parnahyba, is the parish of St. Bernardo d’ Annapuru, cotton being the production of its diversified population.

Vinhaes is a small town, three miles to the east of the capital, situated in the same island, upon a stream of its name, with a church dedicated to St. Joam Baptista. The houses are constructed of wood, and covered with straw, and its inhabitants are Indians, who fish, and cultivate various necessaries of life; they also make mats of miassava for trimming ships and cords of imbe.

Passo do Lumiar is the most populous town of Indians in the whole province, and is in the centre of the island, upon the river St. Joam. The church is of stone, dedicated to Our Lady of Luz, and its inhabitants are of divers nations, cultivating excellent tobacco, rice, mandioca, &c.; they are also woodcutters and fishermen.

In the eastern extremity of the island there is a considerable aldeia, pleasantly situated, with a hermitage of St. Joze, from which the bay already mentioned takes the name.

This island is of medium altitude, the soil in general fertile, and appropriated to different branches of agriculture.

Maranham, or St. Luiz, the capital of the province, is a city advanced to rather more than a state of mediocrity, having about thirty thousand inhabitants; and, although it may be said to rank the lowest among four great commercial cities of the Brazil, yet its amount of commerce is not far short of Pernambuco, and it certainly has maintained a progression of improvement with the latter city, as well as Bahia, since the removal of the Royal Family to this region. It is situated upon the western part of the island of the same name, between the mouth of two streams, rendered important rivers by the addition of the tide, which advances nearly to their origins, and swells them considerably. The one north of the city is called the St. Francisco, as far as the confluence of the Anil with that of Vinhaes, neither of which are more than six miles in extent. The other, on the south, denominated the Maranham, is a handsome current, and receives by its northern margin the Baccanga.

This town was created a bishopric in the year 1676, and is ornamented with a house of Misericordia, convents of slippered Carmelites, of Mercenarios, and of Franciscans; a recolhimento for women, and a hospital. The ci-devant Jesuitical college is converted into the episcopal palace, and its church into the cathedral. The houses have verandas and do not differ from the general style of Portuguese buildings. The streets are paved, and disagreeably crowded with slaves, producing the same ungracious feelings in this respect as are peculiar to all towns of the Brazil. It is divided into two parishes, one of them being attached to the cathedral dedicated to Nossa Senhora of Victoria, and the other to Nossa Senhora da Conceiçao. It has a court of Relacam, which Pernambuco does not yet possess, created in the year 1812, and having a jurisdiction over an extensive district, comprehending not only the comarcas of Maranham, Piauhy, Para, and Rio Negro, but also of Siara, as well as all the other comarcas and judicatures, which, in the provinces referred to, may be created de novo. The members of this Relacam are composed of the governor, the chancellor, and at most of nine dezembargadors, which latter is a title given to those eligible to or holding posts of judicature, ouvidorships, &c. Here is also a tribunal of the Real Fazenda, a Port Admiral, and Royal Professors of the Primitive Letters, Latin, Rhetorick, and Philosophy, similar in their import and effect to those of other places. It is scarcely necessary to observe, after the description of the province, that cotton and rice are the principal exportations from this city. Its cotton has required the repute of being next in quality to that of Pernambuco, and obtains in the British market a price within 1½d per lb. of that cotton, and 1d. per lb. above that of Bahia. The export of cotton from Maranham, the year after the arrival of the Royal Family in the Brazil, was upwards of seventy thousand bags; it fell the two following years to fifty thousand, and the next year to forty thousand, but rose again to sixty thousand in the year 1813, from which period to 1817 its average may be estimated at sixty thousand bags. The following is a correct statement of the exports in 1818 and 1819.