Part 19
The Spaniards on retiring experienced the misfortune of falling into the hands of a similar party, who took them prisoners, and all that was conceded to them, against which the commandant protested, and demanded the fulfilment of the capitulation. The Spanish officer called upon Canto for an adjustment, who replied, that he could not interfere, inasmuch as the party were not subordinate to him, but that he would report the affair to the governor of Rio Grande, and all that he ordered should be executed; the party in the mean time remaining prisoners.
The governor, on receiving the account, ordered Canto to fulfil the capitulation, excepting the article that gave up the artillery; which, he said, ought to belong to his Royal Highness, and to whom he had given a detail of Canto’s valorous deeds, in order that he might be rewarded. In the mean time he made him captain of a new company of militia; and the person who brought the standard a lieutenant, giving him too the liberty of naming for ensign one of his brave companions.
As soon as the people of the other missions had witnessed the comportment of Canto towards the first that had submitted to him, almost all hastened to acknowledge the Faithful Crown. The happy conqueror released them from some public contributions, which were the most heavy upon them, and, freely giving up to them the fruits of their labour, received the name of Liberator.
Shortly after the governor sent Major Joaquim Felis to govern the conquest, with orders to confer with Canto, upon the state of affairs. Having delivered the new province to the commandant, and received a good reinforcement of regular troops, with some militia and volunteers from the serra above, he obtained permission of the governor to pass to the other side of the Uruguay; for which purpose some barks of skins were made according to the fashion of the country.
In the night of the 1st of November, eighty men, chosen from the army, passed the river, amongst whom figured some grenadiers of the regiment of Estremoz; and whose chief was a brave ensign, well known by his surname of Padilha. Part of them took up a position in a wood; others proceeded a little way up the river, keeping near its banks, in order to give more prompt succour to the first on the signal of attack, which began in the morning, against those who first entered the plain. The assailants, together with thirty Spaniards, who came to their succour, were put to flight, but immediately returned in larger numbers, with three field pieces, with which they laboured to open out both their wings. However, the Portuguese did not give them time for a second discharge, but falling intrepidly upon them, they put them to the rout, taking their cannon, nine prisoners, and leaving fifteen dead upon the field.
On the 23d of the same month, almost at midnight, a cannon was discharged in the Passo dos Barros, which is about three leagues below St. Borja, where it was heard; and from whence afterwards arrived an Indian, living in that neighbourhood, with information to the Portuguese, that the Spaniards were stationed in the woods, near the same pass. They remained the rest of the night under arms. The following morning Captain Joze Borges do Canto put himself in march for this point, with his company and some others, amounting to one hundred and ten men; and finding the Spaniards entrenched in the woods on the banks of the river, and not discovering any advantageous mode of attacking them, sent his lieutenant with thirty men dressed in white according to the Indian fashion, which marching at a great distance from the Spaniards, and having gained their rear, began firing upon them. The first discharges were the signal for the captain to invest the fortification, which was abandoned without any resistance, the Spaniards leaving seventy-four prisoners.
Such was the success of the campaign, on the part of the Portuguese, in this district, and the mode by which the Portuguese crown possessed itself of the province of the Seven Missions, which made a part of that of Rio Grande de St. Pedro, until a governor was named to it. It is confined on the north by that of St. Paulo; on the west by that of Paranna; and on the south and east by the province of Rio Grande de St. Pedro.
MOUNTAINS.--St. Martinho, the most elevated portion of the serra, which serves for its eastern limits, and the mountain of St. Luiz, in the vicinity of the town of its name, are the most remarkable mountains.
RIVERS.--Besides the Uruguay and Ibicui, already mentioned, is to be remarked the Hyjuhy, which originates at the base of the mountain of St. Martinho, traverses the province from east to west, empties itself into the Uruguay in front of Assumption, and a few leagues to the north of St. Nicolau, having passed near St. Angelo, a little below which the Hyjuhy-mirim enters it on the left side.
The Toropy rises in the same cordillera and falls into the Ibicui. The Jaquari waters a considerable portion of this province, and falls into the Ibicui four or five leagues below the Forquilha. The Hibipita enters the Ibicui also twenty leagues below the preceding.
The Piratini forms itself in the vicinity of the said serra, passes a short distance from St. Miguel, and runs into the Uruguay a little below St. Nicolau.
PHYTOLOGY.--The Brazilian pine and the cedar are not numerous. The cotton tree, the _matte_, and mandioca, also Indian corn, wheat, potatoes, with other edible roots, are cultivated; likewise, gourds, water-melons, pine-apples, and divers hortulans; and, among fruit trees, the orange, _pitangua_, and peach.
ZOOLOGY.--The animals, both domestic and wild, are the same as those of the adjoining provinces.
The Tappes are a horde of Guaranis, which separated from the latter in former times, and lived for a long period upon the banks of the higher Paranna, where they were at times invaded by the others. It is, however, certain that they occupied the southern part of this province when the Jesuits began to have a knowledge of them. They were esteemed a people, not only less vicious than all other tribes in South America, but the best disposed to receive the evangelical law, most constant after having embraced it, and the best adapted to honour Christianity. These people lived divided into various villages, of which the most populous had the name of the nation. It is not known what were the number of those villages, which the Jesuits reduced to seven; and on this account were denominated _reduçōes_, or reductions, also missions. The names of these seven celebrated missions, are the following, with the number of inhabitants in each at the period of their conquest by the Portuguese in 1801:--
INHABITANTS. St. Francisco de Borja 1,300 St. Miguel 1,900 St. Joam 1,600 St. Angelo 1,960 St. Nicolau 3,940 St. Lourenço 960 St. Luiz 2,350
St. Francisco de Borja, which is the most southern, is two miles distant from the Uruguay, and five leagues from the confluence of Ibicui. It suffered much by an invasion from the Minuanos, a little before changing its dominion. It has many white people.
St. Miguel, situated twenty-five leagues distant from the Uruguay, and thirty east-north-east from St. Borja, is the most easterly, and is considered the capital of the province. A great portion of it was consumed by fire, which its inhabitants set to it in 1756, when they saw the combined armies arriving in order to deliver the province up to the Portuguese crown.
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.
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.
Continuing onward, the river Embahu is met with, which at its mouth is only eight fathoms wide, but it gradually increases to more than eighty fathoms; canoes can proceed up during a day’s voyage.
Two miles farther to the north is the point of Pinheira, which is followed by the gulf of the same name, being the southern entrance to the channel of the island of St. Catharina; its southern extremity is a league to the north of the said point.
Near six miles to the north of Point Pinheira, the Massambu disembogues, being thirty fathoms wide, and of considerable depth, but of short extent: Rio Dom Rodrigo was its first designation. After it follows a small bay, called Brito, and a little farther is the entrance of the river Cubatao, sixty fathoms wide, up which larger canoes proceed during two days’ voyage. In the proximity of this river there are various fountains of hot water, having different degrees of heat: the most distant one, situated five leagues up the river, possesses one hundred and two degrees.
After passing various small rivers, the river Maruhy is met with, as large as the preceding one, and navigable to the place denominated Guarda. Near this river is the bay of St. Joze. A little to the north is a straight, which divides the channel into two almost equal parts; and a little farther is the entrance of the river Biguassu, fifty fathoms in width, and up which canoes proceed for many leagues. The first discoverers called it the river of Patos, in consequence of its constituting a limit between the Indians of that name, who extended themselves as far as the St. Pedro, and the Carijos to the north as far as Cannanea.
The large bay of St. Miguel follows; afterwards, the point of Armacao; and, farther on, that of Ganchos, which lies east and west of the extremity of the island of St. Catharina, and is to the southward of the spacious bay of Tejucas, at the farther end of which the river of the same name discharges itself, being fifty fathoms wide, and affording two days’ navigation. The surrounding country of the bay of Tejucas is a morass or marshy plain in the winter, when its passage is attended with great labour and inconvenience.
To the north of the preceding is the bay of Guaroupas, open to the north-east, not so large, but sufficiently sheltered and capacious for the reception of a squadron of ships; the river Bupeba runs into it, as well as the two Pireques. The intervening land of those two bays is a peninsula, which extends to the sea, terminating in three points, and forming two small bays.
Proceeding northward, the next river is the Cambory-Guassu, rapid at its entrance into the sea, and being twenty fathoms in width. Nearly three leagues farther is the embouchure of the great river Tajahy, which is little less than sixty fathoms in width at the passage a short distance from the beach. It is the only river met with on the road from Portalegre to St. Paulo that flows towards the east; the _sumacas_ proceed up only three miles, launches and large canoes navigate freely as far as the first fall. About one hundred and twenty yards above it becomes navigable for the space of three days, by towing, and as many more with the oar, to the next cataract. It rises between the river Negro and the Correntes, (which run to westward.) In its neighbourhood there are many small mountains. The principal confluents which enlarge it are the Rio de Luiz Alves (which comes from the north-west, runs near the mountain of Bahul, seen from the sea at a great distance, and is navigable for small canoes) and the Tajahy Mirim, which runs from the south-west, navigable for canoes about ten leagues. The whole flow through countries of great fertility.
Five miles farther to the north is the river Gravata, otherwise Iriri-Guassu, thirty fathoms wide, and navigable for canoes. It is followed by the spacious bay of Itapacoroya, where there is an establishment for whale fishing. Proceeding onwards, the Iriri Mirim and the Camboriu are met with, up which canoes also navigate with the aid of the tide. Near to the latter is the Tajuba, a river of a similar class.
Three leagues to the north of the Itapacoroya the river Itapicu disembogues, being fifty fathoms wide, and of considerable depth. Its origin is far back in the province, and affords navigation to small canoes for many leagues, without the interruption of more than one cataract, which is situated ten miles above the mouth. The agitated state of the sea at the mouth of this river does not permit the entrance of any description of vessel. Immediately beyond the bar it forms a lake, called Lagoa da Cruz, two leagues long from north to south, parallel with the beach, and very narrow. Among the rivers which enlarge it are remarked the Piranga, which is received by the left bank, and is navigable by canoes for a space of five leagues; the Upitanga, which joins it by the right margin, and is only navigable for six miles; the Itapicu Mirim, that comes from the north-west and admits of navigation for about fifteen miles; the Jaragua, which flows from the south-west, and appears capable of allowing small vessels to proceed as far as a situation about four leagues above its mouth; and the Braço, which descends from the north-west, and admits of canoes for the space of six miles. All these rivers run by winding courses among mountains and uncultivated territories, thickly wooded, demonstrating the natural fertility of the soil. The Itapicu is supposed to be the river of Dragons, which the discoverers placed to the south of the river St. Francisco in this district.