A period of one hundred and twenty years elapsed without the donatories establishing any colonists in the island of St. Catharina, which, for some time had the name of Isle of Patos. King John IV. gave it, in the year 1654, to Francisco Dias Velho, who was assassinated by an English pirate at the time the establishment began. In consequence of this disaster, the island long remained in its primitive state. Eventually, various colonists from the Azores were established in it, at the cost of the crown.
The climate is delightfully temperate and salubrious, with the exception of certain marshy situations. The face of the country is mountainous, watered by numerous rivers, and overspread with woods. The soil is fertile and well adapted to the culture of mandioca, Indian corn, rice, sugar, coffee, flax, and vegetables. Wheat and barley are likewise grown in some districts. All the hortulans of the south of Europe prosper here, particularly onions.
Mountains.—Camberella, which is upon the southern entrance of the port of the capital, is the highest mountain seen from Santo to the Torres[18] or Towers. The mountain of Bahul is a land-mark for navigators.
Mineralogy.—Calcareous stones, granite, pedras d’amolar, or whetstone. It is said there are indications of gold and other metals.
Phytology.—The oak tree is here more diversified than in the mother country, and excellent for building. The sassafras, cedar, loiro, pau d’arco, and those called guarabu and grapecique, are trees of precious wood, well adapted for cabinet work; likewise the tree denominated here pau d’oleo, having the grain close and nicely waved. The Brazilian pine is numerous in various districts. There are a diversity of medicinal plants; likewise the plant that nurtures the cochineal, which has been fully described by many writers. It is an insect, and feeds upon the leaves of the opuncia; its size is so diminutive at first, that it scarcely can be seen, but it soon moves and fixes upon a part of the plant, from which it does not remove, and becomes gradually covered with a white skin, so that the body, which is scarlet, is no longer seen. In three months it arrives at maturity, and is not larger than a small pea; there are various modes of cultivating it, and great care is required to keep off other insects which destroy it. This is an article of considerable commerce and might be cultivated to a great extent in the Brazil.
Zoology.—Cattle do not abound in consequence of the mountainous nature of the country. Amongst other wild quadrupeds, are well known the deer, the tamandua, the monkey, the boar, the ounce, the anta, the paca, and the quaty. Amongst numerous species of birds are remarked the parrot, the macuco partridge, the rola, or turtle, the guara, and various sorts of the humming bird called colibri, or beija-flor. The lakes abound with wild ducks and geese. An infinite variety of beautiful butterflies are seen in this province, to delight the eye, and engage the research of the naturalist. The air appears filled with floating flowers.
Rivers, Lakes, and Ports.—The first are generally of a short extent. About three miles north-north-east of the Towers is the mouth of the Mampituba, about one hundred fathoms wide, which was called for some time the Martim Affonso. It is not more than seven leagues long, being formed of various streams that descend from the cordillera; its current is violent, but sumacas, or smacks, ascend with the tide twelve miles to the port of Forquilhas. By its northern margin it receives the waters of a lake, which is about five leagues long, and one broad, extending parallel with the sea-coast as far as the Campos das Lagoinhas, from thence it has another outlet to the sea, by a channel called Arroyo Grande.
Near the situation denominated the Conventos, there is a serro of rock moderately elevated, and terminating in a platform near the beach, about six leagues distant from the Mambituba. Six miles further, the river Ararangua enters the sea, and is navigable for the space of five leagues to the Tres Portos, where it is one hundred fathoms wide, and deeper than at the bar, having a rapid current from the month of June to September. Three leagues beyond the preceding, the river Urussanga disembogues, being more extensive, and much more rapid when its waters are high; no vessel can enter its mouth, in consequence of the sea breaking with great violence upon a bank which crosses it. Higher up it is wider, and has four fathoms of depth in some places. This river communicates with a large and deep lake, where the boto and other large fish are seen, which come up from the ocean; it lies northward of the river. Five leagues further is the rock of St. Martha, where the coast changes its direction to the north. Three leagues to the north of the Morro, or rock of St. Martha, is the spacious bay of Laguna, formerly the river Da Lagoa, (of the Lake) which is the mouth of the river Tubarao, and together the outlet of various lakes, prolonged in a chain parallel with the ocean, and at no considerable distance from it. This river rises in the serra that bounds this province, and its current is rapid from April to September. Canoes proceed up it a distance of eight or nine leagues to Porto da Guarda; but sumacas do not pass the mouth of the river Capibary, which joins it by the left bank, and is navigable for a space of eight leagues to Pouzo Alto. On the northern margin of the Tubarao is the outlet of the great lake Laguna, which is five leagues long from north to south, near two at the greatest width, and is of sufficient depth for sumacas, as far as its northern extremity. On the southern bank of the Tubarao, in front of the outlet of the Laguna, is that of the lake of St. Martha, which lake is a quarter of a league square. On its southern side the lake Garopaba discharges itself, is about the same size, and one league distant. Into the latter the outlet of the lake Jaguaruna disembogues, which is two leagues further to the southward, and a little larger. The three together afford a passage to large canoes, as far as the river Congonhas, which is not considerable, and empties itself into the western margin of the latter lake. They are comprehended under the name of the lakes of Camacho, and abound in fish.
On the western side of the Laguna, and near its northern extremity, the river Una discharges itself, and affords navigation to canoes for some leagues, as far as the rock of St. Joam. An arm of this river extends a league and a half to the north, is deep, and terminates in a morass.
In front of the embouchure of the Laguna is the small island of Lobos. Four leagues to the north is the point and port of the Embituba, and two farther is the mouth of the river Piraquera, which is the outlet of the lake of the same name, otherwise Encantada, four miles long and one wide.