This town had its commencement upon the river Jamary, from whence it was removed to the mouth of the Giparanna, afterwards to the site of Pancau, or Paraxiau, and ultimately to its present situation, where it was in the year 1756, when King Joseph gave it the title of town. It always took the name of the situation where it stood, its various removals being caused by the persecutions which the inhabitants experienced from the Mura tribe.
Contiguous to this town there is a populous aldeia of unchristianized Muras, the descendants of those who formerly annoyed the first inhabitants: they have taken refuge here from the attacks of the Mundrucus.
Villaboim, yet very small, upon the left bank of the Tapajos, and eighteen miles from the Amazons, is a town well situated: its soil being susceptible of various lucrative branches of agriculture, affords a probability of its future augmentation. The inhabitants are Indians, and the church is dedicated to St. Ignacio.
Pinhel, a small town, and well situated upon the margin of the Tapajos, fifteen miles above Villaboim, has a church dedicated to St. Joze. Its dwellers, almost all Indians, cultivate what they deem necessary, and pursue hunting and shooting, and collect some of the objects of trade, which nature has produced in its fertile vicinity.
Villanova de Santa Cruz, ten miles above Pinhel and almost in front of Aveyro, is yet insignificant. The houses which form it are generally very miserable, and its Mundrucanan inhabitants are hunters, fishermen, and cultivators only of some necessaries, as is the case with all the places of this district. The increase of Europeans, however, would, with adequate industry, render its environs abundantly productive in every article of agriculture, the richness of the soil promising the utmost success.
At a considerable distance above Villa Nova de St. Cruz, upon the western margin of the Tapajos, there is an aldeia inhabited by another horde of Mundrucus, yet unchristianized, but having their plantations of Indian corn; while some are already partially clothed, and the women wear a species of dress also of cotton, called a sayote.
A catechist, a blacksmith, a carpenter, acquainted with agriculture, and a woman-weaver are deemed sufficient to commence a povoaçao in this fertile country, which, with industry, will doubtless soon become flourishing and useful to the state.
CHAP. XXIV.
PROVINCE OF SOLIMOES.
Jurisdiction—Origin of its Name—Boundaries and Extent—Partially known—Division into Six Districts—Rivers—Various Indians—Customs—Povoaçoes.
The province of Solimoes, and the western part of Guianna, with the western portion of Mundrucania, form a government, subordinate to Grand Para. The eastern part of Guianna is immediately under the jurisdiction of Para. The first Portuguese who proceeded up the Amazons, from the mouth of Rio Negro, gave it the name of Solimoes, by which it is yet designated; not in allusion to the venoms with which the Indians of these latitudes, as well as those of the low Amazons, infected their arrows, nor to the tribes inhabiting the banks of Rio Negro, who used the same weapon, but to the nation denominated Soriman, and, by corruption, Solimao and Solimoes.