A history of the Brazil

by James Henderson

Fifteen miles higher, the Rio Negro receives the large river Uexie, which waters the territories of the Bannyba, Capuenna, Mendo, and Uerequenna Indians. Between this river and the Icanna, the large serra of Tunuhy prolongs itself. In the vicinity of this confluence is the parish of St. Marcellinoino.

Thirty miles above is the fort of St. Joze of the Marabytannas, also on the southern side, with a povoaçao of Arihiny and Marybytanna Indians, being the last Portuguese colony upon the Rio Negro, which after the Uexie receives no other stream on that side, but the Beturu and the considerable Dimity enters it on the northern.

The canoe-men of Para compute fifteen hundred miles from Para to this fort, and for the accomplishment of the voyage they consume nearly ninety days.

Thirty miles above the forte of St. Joze, on the northern bank of the Rio Negro, is the embouchure of the river Cassiquiary, being a channel of one hundred and eighty miles, opened by nature, and forming a communication between the two immense rivers, the Oronoco and the Amazons.

In 1756, there were only eight missions upon the Rio Negro, viz. Jahu, Pedreira, Aracary, Camara, Maryua, Bararua, Camaru, and Dary. The first is the nearest, and the last is the most distant from the fort upon the bar of the said river.

Upon the margins of the Rio Branco are the parishes of St. Maria, St. Joam Baptista, Nossa Senhora do Carmo, St. Fillipe, St. Antonio, St. Barbara, and St. Joaquim with a fort, which is eleven hundred miles distant from the city of Para, and from sixty to seventy days’ voyage. The inhabitants are Indians; and the houses of the whole are covered with palm branches. Amongst the beautiful birds peculiar to the vicinity of the Rio Negro, is one called the gallo da serra, (the cock of the serra,) a little larger than the blackbird, with strong legs, having spurs like a cock, with a similar beak; its plumage is exceedingly beautiful, of an orange colour, with a bunch of feathers, in the form of a fan, open from the neck almost to the point of the bill, being of the same colour, with a rose-coloured stripe near the border. These birds are very rare.

Cayenna, a considerable town, and well situated in the northern part of the island, upon the embouchure of the river of the same name, on ground rather elevated, is encircled with walls, which are only of stone on the side of the port, where there is a gate and a wooden bridge. All the edifices are of earth, with two or three steps at the entrance. The palace of the governors is not higher, and is surrounded with orange trees, having a square in front. There is a fort, denominated the Citadel, in the most elevated situation, being almost its only defence. It is the only remarkable town in the ex-French Guianna, which that nation commonly called Equinoctial France, whose northern limit is the river Marony. In the treaty of Utrecht, the river Vincent Pinson, was named as the common limit between Portuguese and French Guianna, the engagement of the French Monarch on this subject was conceived in the following terms:

“Sa Majeste se desistera pour toujours comme elle se desiste des à present par ce traite dans les termes les plus forts, et les plus authentiques, et avec toutes les causes riquises comme se elles étoient inserées ici, taut en son nom, qu’en celui de ses hoirs, successeurs, et héritiers de tous droits et pretentions, qu’elle peut on pourra prétendre sur la propriété des terres appellées du Cap du Nord, et situées entre la riviere des Amasones et celle de Iapoe, ou de Vincent Pinson, sans se reserver on retenir aucune portion des dites terres, afin qu’elles soient desormais possedées par sa Majesté Portugaise.]”

The Portuguese and French always gave the name of Vincent Pinson to the river Oayapoek; the latter nation, after Condamine, wished the boundary line to be considered the Aguary, by them called Arauary, which discharges itself near two hundred miles further to the south-east; but the French never had any kind of establishment south of the Oayapoek.[44] The fort of St. Louiz, which changed its name to that of St. Francisco with the revolution, situated fifteen miles from the sea, on the northern margin of the Oayapoek, was always the most southern establishment of Equinoctial France.

By the treaty of Madrid, in 1801, the Portuguese crown, unwillingly ceded the territory north of the Carapanatuba. In the following year, by the treaty of Amiens, the divisionary line received twenty leagues, the river Aguary then serving as the limit, as well as subsequently to the conquest of the country.