St. Joam is three leagues north of St. Miguel. Its mother church is in the centre of a vast square. In the time of its prosperity it had forty streets.
St. Angelo, which is the most northerly, is six leagues to the north of St. Joam.
St. Nicolau, formerly capital of the various reductions upon the right bank of the Uruguay, is situated near that river and a small brook which falls into the Paratini.
St. Lourenço is six leagues to the west of St. Miguel.
St. Luiz is upon the road which goes from St. Lourenço to St. Nicolau, nine leagues to the east of the latter place, and ten to the west of the former. All these reductions, otherwise missions, and which we ought to call towns, as they have a senate, took the name of the patron of their mother churches. The whole were and yet are upon the same plan, the houses of earth, with straight streets, and verandas on the sides, which protect them against the rain and heat, similar to the missions of the Paranna, with which in equal steps they reached a flourishing condition, and fell with them into a state of decay.
Each place has its peculiar Guaranitic dialect, differing little from the others. Many of these Indians understand the Spanish and Portuguese, and express themselves tolerably well in both languages. They exercise almost all the requisite manual occupations and various mechanical arts with intelligence; likewise manufacture coarse woollens and cottons. Matte is the only article of exportation.
In each mission, when governed by the Jesuits, there was a school for reading, writing, and speaking the Spanish language by royal order. There were many Indians who could read Spanish books which they did not understand, as the masters or curates artfully refrained from uttering a word to them, but in Guaranitic. In consequence of which, these crafty preceptors were charged to fulfil the royal determination, by a decree of 1743, but which decree had not the desired effect.
CHAP. VIII.
PROVINCE OF ST. CATHARINA.
Boundaries—Colonization—Productions—Mountains—Mineralogy—Phytology—Zoology—Rivers, Lakes, and Ports—Towns, Parishes, &c.—Agricultural Establishments—Population—Islands—Delightful Climate.
This province, which is a dismemberment of that of St. Paulo, subsequent to the latter receiving the addition of a part of St. Amaro and of St. Vincente, comprehends the island which gives it the name, and a territory of sixty leagues from north to south on the neighbouring continent, reckoning from the Sahy, which separates it from St. Paulo on the north, to the Mampituba, which divides it from the province of Rio Grande on the south; on the west it has the same provinces, the heads of the cordillera, running parallel with the sea, constituting a boundary on that side. Its greatest width does not exceed twenty leagues, occupying the Beira-Mar, or sea-coast, of the greatest portion of the ci-devant capitania of St. Amaro; and lying between 25° 50′, and 29° 20′ south latitude.