The reciprocal opposition of two families, each wishing to have the entire administration of the government, led them, with their respective partizans, to open warfare, which would have conducted to the most disastrous results, if the prudence of some ecclesiastics had not disarmed them on the field of battle, by persuading the chiefs to a compromise, by which an equal number of the contending families, from thence forward, were to enter upon the functions of the government.

This compact, accomplished in the year 1654, continued until the middle of the following century, when a cavalheiro, not related to the privileged families, was elected for a judge, which appointment was protested against by them, and finally settled in their favour at Rio de Janeiro, about the time when this individual had completed the term of his jurisdiction. The ability with which he had discharged the duties of the office, convinced the Paulistas that personal merit ought, in conducting the government, to be preferred to the old system.

The antipathy that existed for a long period between the Thaubatenos and Piratininganos, and produced so many duels and disasters; the fatal campaign of 1631; the revolutions caused by the mutual enmity of the two families alluded to; the civil war between the said Paulistas and the European Portuguese, at the commencement of the mining adventures in Minas Geraes; with other animosities, may be regarded as the foundation of the exaggerated charges of want of loyalty, with which many writers have charged this people.

They have a provincial trait which characterises them on their visits to other places. They always wear a sort of capote, or cloak, called a ponche, with an aperture in the centre, through which they introduce the head and neck.

The serra of Jaguary, on the Beira-Mar, or sea-coast, and the river Terere, from the serra above, divide this province into northern and southern, each constituting a comarca, or ouvidoria, designated by the head town, which, till recently, were Paranagua in the south, and St. Paulo in the north.

By a law of February, 1812, the former was changed for the town of Curytiba, where the ouvidor has since resided; and it is the head of this division, denominated the comarca of Paranagua and Curytiba. The other was divided into two comarcas, and the new one was denominated Hitu.

The longest day of the year, which is in December, comprises nearly fourteen hours in the southern part of the province, at which period the inhabitants of the margins of the river Grande, the northern boundary, have not thirteen hours and a half of day.

The comarca of Paranagua and Curytiba, comprises the following towns:—

Curytiba, a considerable and famous town, now the head of the comarca, and ordinary residence of the ouvidor, (head magistrate,) is well situated upon the left margin of a small river, which has a bridge for the accommodation of its inhabitants. It has a magnificent church, called Our Lady da Luz, the hermitages of the Lady of Terco, Rosario, and St. Francisco de Paula, and a Terceira order of St. Francisco de Assis. All its structures are of stone or brick, and the streets are paved.