District of Xingutania.
This district is of a quadrangular form, and is bounded on the north by the river Amazons, on the west by the river Xingu, which affords it the name, and separates it from Tapajonia; on the south by the district of Tapiraquia, and on the east by the Tucantins. It is a portion of the province yet little known, and almost wholly inhabited by the posterity of the Aborigines, divided into various nations. The most northern tribes have some intercourse with the Christians of the povaoçoes, situated upon the margins of the rivers which limit the district, and various individuals of them have embraced Christianity. The lands which have been cultivated are fertile, and appropriated to a great variety of hortulans, edible roots, Indian corn, rice, feijao, tobacco, cotton, the sugar cane, and all the fruit trees of the climate.
The cocoa shrub, or tree, grows spontaneously in various situations. In the vicinities of the rivers the aspect of the woods is rendered agreeable by the diversity and thickness of the trees. They are stored with birds and game, which are alike the resource of the indolent savages and the Christians, who hitherto have not introduced the breed of cattle.
Little is yet known relative to the mineralogy of this province, nor of the genius or customs of the central and southern hordes of the natives. A great number of rivers, many of crystaline waters, flow from the centre of this comarca into those which mainly surround it.
The Annapu traverses the country from south to north, and discharges itself in front of the island of Marajo by various mouths; the principal one is spacious, and forms a great bay within. After many days’ voyage up this river, falls are met with, and its bed is strewed with large stones. In the woods which border it there are abundance of clove-trees of the country.
The Pacajaz, properly Pacaya, has an extensive course through a stony bed, and over many considerable falls, at certain distances. Four days’ voyage is required to arrive at the bar of the great river Iriuanna, which unites it on the eastern bank, and a few leagues above the embouchure is the entrance of the channel, which connects it with the Annapu. It runs east of the Annapu, and takes the name of a nation which occupies its adjacent territory, where there is great abundance of clove-trees.
The river Jacundaz, or Hyacunda, is very large, affording an extensive navigation, and discharges itself east of the Pacaya. The Araticu empties itself east of the Hyacunda by a wide channel, which bathes the island of Marago, on the south.
The Areas, which runs into the Amazons, near the northern entrance of the Tagypuru Strait, is navigable for a considerable distance, traversing woods, growing upon extensive plains, and abounding with a variety of game.
The Tacanhunas, so denominated from the tribe of Indians whose territory it irrigates, enters the Tucantins, near the Itaboca.
Villa Vicoza, originally called Cameta, and one of the most ancient towns of the province, is flourishing, and well situated upon the left margin of the Tucantins, ninety miles south-west of the capital, and is a port for the canoes navigating towards Goyaz and the High Maranham, as well as a depository for various productions cultivated within its fertile district. It has a church dedicated to St. Joam Baptista, and was for some time the capital of a small capitania known by the same name. The Tucantins is here ten miles in width, being an archipelago. Fifteen miles to the north-east, which is the direction it takes from this town to the ocean, is the island of Ararahy, or Aragacy, ten miles in length, narrow and flat, dividing the river into two currents, the eastern one improperly called the bay of Marapata, and the western the bay of Limoeira.