A history of the Brazil

by James Henderson

Guianna forms the eastern and southern portion of the region denominated Terra Firma, confined on the north by the ocean and the river Oronoco; on the south by the Amazons; on the east by the ocean; and on the west by the rivers Hyapura and Oronoco.

The Portuguese Guianna, which includes that belonging to the French since 1809, comprises the southern part of that vast province and celebrated island, and is bounded on the north by the Spanish possessions and Surinam: the other boundaries are those already mentioned. It is nine hundred miles in length from east to west, and three hundred at its greatest width, and extends from 6° north to 4° south latitude. The days and nights, with very little variation, are equal all the year, and the climate is exceedingly warm. The territory is not generally fertile, and has more of a flat than mountainous aspect. In many parts of the interior it is very stony, with indications of ancient volcanos. It is irrigated by many navigable rivers, some of which originate in an extensive range of mountains, of no great altitude, prolonged with the Amazons from east to west, but at a considerable distance from it.

Trees are only of magnitude in the vicinity of the rivers and in the substantial and humid soils. The most useful are those of the clove, pechurim, capivi, Indian rubber, and cocoa.

Minerals of iron have been found; there are symptoms of silver, and some stones of estimation.

North Cape (Cabo do Norte) is the principal cape, situated in 2° north.

Islands.—Terra dos Coelhos is between the mouths of the Aruary and the Carapapury, with a channel on the west and the ocean on the east, on which side is the point called North Cape above mentioned.

Maraca is an island eighteen miles in length, with proportionable width, a little to the north-west of the Coelhos. It has in the centre a large lake, stored with fish, and its eastern coast is assailed by the Pororoca.

Between Macappa and North Cape a narrow channel is formed by the islands which range along the coast; and here is remarked a singular phenomenon, denominated pororoca, (the same term we have already described as given to the contention of the waters at the mouth of the Mearim, in the province of Maranham,) which continues three days, at the periods of the change and full moon, when the tides are at the highest. An immense volume of water, twelve to fifteen feet in height, rolls from one beach to the other, followed by a second, and third, and sometimes a fourth, of equal magnitude, with little interval, and with such prodigious rapidity that it destroys every thing opposed to its overwhelming course. The tide, in place of gradually rising in six hours, reaches its greatest height in one or two minutes, with such a terrific noise that it is heard seven or eight miles off.

The island of Penitencia, called Baylique by the Portuguese, in consequence of the tossing which the canoes here sustain from the sea, is six miles long, and sixty south of North Cape.

The islands of Croa are five in a file, separated by narrow channels, and lie to the south-west of Baylique. The whole are flat, and covered with mangroves, where there is an infinity of musquitos and insects.