The Camecran Indians are divided into five hordes, distinguished by as many pre-names, namely, Ma-camecran, Crore-camecran, Pore-camecran, Cha-camecran, and Pio-camecran, the whole being very similar in their language and customs. The Ma-camecrans live at present in a state of pacific intermixture with the inhabitants of the new arraial of St. Pedro d’Alcantara, belonging to the jurisdiction of Goyaz.
Forty miles above the mouth of the Moju there is a narrow, winding, and extensive strait, denominated Iguarapemirim, which is a channel of communication between this river and the Tucantins, thus forming an island of thirty-five miles from north to south, and twenty at its greatest width. The Acara, also considerable, affords navigation to the agriculturists upon its adjacent lands, divided into various parishes, and loses its name on entering the Moju by the right, fifteen miles south of the capital. Six miles below this confluence the Moju is nearly a mile in width.
The river Guama, likewise considerable, comes from the east, traversing a fertile country partially inhabited to its source, and is discharged into the bay of Guajara, near the Moju, having received, near forty miles above, the Capim on the left.
The largest island of this province is the Joannes, otherwise Marajo, situated between the Tucantins and the Amazons, with the ocean on the north, and the strait of Tagypuru on the south. It extends ninety miles from north to south, and one hundred and twenty from east to west, is inhabited and watered by various rivers; abounding in cattle, and formerly had the title of a barony.
Its principal rivers are the Anajaz, which issues from a lake, and has a course, to the west, of fifty miles in a direct line. The Arary, something larger, flows from another lake, and discharges itself by two mouths on the eastern side the Mondin, which also runs to the east, and the Atua to the south-east: the whole are navigable with the aid of the tide.
The Nhengahybas, principally masters of this island, and Christianized in part by the Jesuit Antonio Vieyra, were expert mariners, as well as others living upon the adjacent rivers, and possessed a great number of canoes, denominated in their own language igaras, from which they derived the appellation of Igaruanas; and always proceeding in canoes, were distinguished by this name from tribes who lived in woods distant from the water. Under the denomination of Igaruanas were also comprehended the Tupinambas, the Mammayamas, the Guayanas, the Juruanas, the Pacayas, and others. They had small igaras for fishing and proceeding from one neighbouring place to another; but their war igaras were forty and fifty feet long, of one trunk, excavated with stone axes and fire, and were called maracatims, from maraca, the name of a certain instrument made of a gourd, with stones or dried legumes within; and tim, which properly signifies the nose, but translated to imply the beak of a bird, and even the prow of the vessel, in consequence of these canoes having at the head a large vara, or pole, in the form of a bowsprit, to which the maracas were suspended with small cords, clashing together with a loud rattling noise equally warlike and terrific. Their battles were fatal, and decided with the arrow, spear, and club.
The Igaruanas of the lower Amazons were esteemed the very best of rowers, when they were habituated to it from their infancy. It was they who, by the force of the oar, conducted the fleet of Captain Pedro Teyxeira from the bay of Guajara to the sight of the Andes.
With four very large rivers, the Tucantins, the Zingu, the Tapajos, and the Madeira, nature has partitioned this province into as many districts, which it is probable in a short period will form an equal number of comarcas; and, for the disembarrassment of their history and geography, we will describe them as so divided, namely:
| DISTRICTS. | PRINCIPAL TOWNS. | |
| Para Proper |  | Belem or Para. |
| Braganca. | ||
| Collares. | ||
| Xingutania | | Villa Vicoza. |
| Gurupa. | ||
| Melgaco. | ||
| Tapagonia | | Santarem. |
| Souzel. | ||
| Alter do Chao. | ||
| Mundrucania | | Villanova da Rainha. |
| Borba. | ||
| Villafranca. |