Part 20
Five miles to the north of Itapicu is the island of St. Francisco, six leagues long, and in the form of a bow, the right line of which is nearest the coast; the channel which separates it from the continent is improperly called the river of St. Francisco. The southern entrance is denominated Aracary, is two hundred fathoms wide, has only depth for large boats, and on its outside are the three islands of Remedios and two of Tamboretes. The northern bar, called Babitonga, is fifteen hundred fathoms wide and deep enough for large _sumacas_.[19] At the end of the sixteenth century it was not known that the land between the bar of Aracary and Babitonga was an island; they were thought to be two mighty rivers, the southern called the St. Francisco and the northern the Alagado. The channel, or the pretended river St. Francisco, of a semicircular form, enlarges considerably from both mouths to the middle, where it is three miles wide, and contains a cluster of more than twenty islands. A great number of rivers empty themselves here. The nearest to the bar of Aracary is the Piraque, having a course of five leagues, five fathoms in width at the mouth, and affords navigation to canoes for three miles; next to it is the Pinheiros, still smaller; then the Paraty, which is thirty fathoms wide at the bar, two and a half in depth, and navigable for about a league. The little river Areas, narrow and deep, is navigable for two miles. The great river Areas, up which canoes proceed with the tide for some distance. The river Parannagua, whose origin approximates to that of the Pirango, an arm of the Itapicu: coasting vessels proceed up it a short way, large boats about two miles, and canoes nearly five miles. Next follow the Saguaçu; the two Erirys; the Cubatao Grande, twenty fathoms wide, three deep, and navigable for ten leagues to the high rock of Tromba; the Antonio Felis; the Ribeyrao; the Biguaçu; the Pyrabyréba; the Cavalinhos, by which canoes proceed for a space of ten miles; the Tres-Barras, so called in consequence of being the common embouchure of the three rivers of Furtaenchente, St. Joam, and Tres Barras, the second only being considerable, (its principal confluents are the Maria Bachaara and the Farinhas, which come from the serra of Curytiba, and afford navigation to canoes;) the Barrancos, Bacuhy, Lamen, Batuby, Fornos, Fernandes, Barboza, and the two Jaugarunas, the smaller of which is nearest to the northern point of the bar of Babitonga. The nine last, and several of the others are small, being only of any note during the spring tides. The whole of these rivers generally run tamely between low banks, of a marshy nature, abounding with considerable numbers of the beautiful scarlet _guara_ bird, which delight the eye of the navigators. In some of these rivers are found seed pearls of various colours, also large pearls of an imperfect kind.
The island of St. Francisco is low, watered with various small rivers, and inhabited; on its eastern side there is a narrow lake, ten miles long from north to south, denominated the river Acarahy; and near it another small one. Two leagues north of the bar of Babitonga is the river Sahy Mirim, and the same distance farther the Sahy Grande, both inconsiderable, uniting in one stream a little above their embouchures.
The greatest part of the population of this province is descended from families who came from the Azore Islands, for the purpose of colonizing it. Negroes are not numerous, and mesticos still less so. The aboriginal Patos, whose name the island at first had, penetrated into the continent. The Carijos were the first tribe understood by the Vincentistas, and hence their name was given in common to all domesticated Indians, of whatever nation.
This province has three towns, _viz._
Nosso Senhora do Desterro, in the island of St. Catharina, Laguna, on the continent, St. Francisco, in the island of the same name;
and seven parishes, namely,
St. Joze } St. Miguel } Nosso Senhora do Rozario } on the continent; Santa Anna }
Nosso Senhora da Conceiçao } Nosso Senhora da Lapa } in the island of St. Catharina. Nosso Senhora das Necessidades }
The hermitages are equal in number to the parishes.
In 1796, this province was computed to have
4,216 fogos, or houses. 23,865 adult inhabitants, exclusive of paid troops. 3 sugar engenhos, or works. 192 distilleries of rum. 4 engenhos for pounding rice. 297 wind and horse mills. 884 bolandeiras for grinding mandioca. 32 tan-pits.
In the year 1812, the population amounted to 31,530.
ISLANDS.--The only considerable islands are that which gives the name to the province and that of St. Francisco. The island of St. Catharina, upwards of thirty miles long from north to south, and from four to eight in width, is mountainous, abounding with water, yet in parts covered with woods, and does not want for stone or potters’ earth. Between its mountains there are some cultivated plains, of greater or less extent, and also many marshy situations. There are many bays, and they abound with shells. On the eastern side there is a lake two leagues long from north to south, deep in some places, and at a certain part so contracted that it appears like two, united by a neck fifty fathoms wide, having a large bridge. When in the winter it begins to inundate the adjacent low grounds, the inhabitants in the vicinity open a channel to discharge the overflowing water into a bay, situated at a little distance, and which is immediately filled up again by the flowing of the tide, when the current ceases, during which a great quantity of fish enter from the ocean. It consequently affords at all times an abundant supply. At its northern extremity, there is a small river called Vermelho, near which the best water-melons of the province are produced. To the south of the preceding, there are three other lakes: the Lagoinha Grande, the Pantano, and the Lagoinha de Leste. The whole are stored with the same fish as the first. Mandioca and flax are the principal articles of agriculture, which is generally exercised by white men, who also cultivate Indian corn, rice, coffee, vegetables, sugar, and some cotton, which is not of good quality. Some fruit trees from the south of Europe are here naturalized. Water-melons, pine-apples, and oranges are very abundant. The principal streams in this island are the Vermelho, the Ratones, which enters the sea two leagues north of the capital, and the Tavares, three miles south-east of the capital. The country, watered by the last river, produces the best melons in the province.
The channel which separates this island from the continent is far from being of uniform width, forming two large ports, almost equal in size, and separated by a straight of two hundred fathoms between two points. The northern and larger port, ten miles wide, having depth for ships of war, is one of the best in South America, and the key to the southern ocean. The wind prevails from the south during the winter, which commences generally in May and ends in October. Thunder-storms are frequent in the summer; all the afternoons here are refreshed by strong sea breezes, rendering the climate of this island equal to any in the world.
Near to the southern point of St. Catharina are six small islands. The three western ones are called the Papagúos, and the eastern the Tres Ismaos. The islands of Moleques, Campeche, Xavier, Aranhas, and Badejo are situated upon the eastern coast of the island of St. Catharina. Near its northern point are three, called the Moleques. Five miles north of the same point are the islands of Arvoredo and Galle. Within the principal port, amongst others, are the islands of Tomarim, near the coast of the continent, and the Ratones, almost in front of the river of the same name, both fortified. In the southern port are the islands of Cardos and Maruhy.
The town of Nosso Senhora do Desterro, the capital of the province, is considerable, populous, and situated on the western side of the island of St. Catharina, upon a bay a little to the east-south-east of the straight, on unequal land between two rocks, traversed by three small rivers, which are passed by various stone bridges. The streets are almost generally irregular, and the houses either of stone or wood. Besides a church, it has the chapels of Menino Deos, Our Lady of Rozario, a Terceira order of St. Francisco d’Assis, and a hospital of charity. The quarters of the troops are good. The senate is presided by a _Juiz de Fora_, and the youth are instructed by royal masters in the primitive letters and Latin, for whose benefit there is a tribute in rum. Potteries afford a branch of industry and commerce. Coarse cloths of linen and cotton, also a mixture of both, are manufactured.
The parish of Nosso Senhora das Necessidades, better known by the name of St. Antonio, is five miles north of the capital, and small, but its situation is particularly pleasant. The inhabitants cultivate sugar, mandioca, Indian corn, some flax, and various hortulans. A little more than three miles to the north is the bay Das Canavieiras (of canes or reeds.) Here the Spaniards disembarked in 1777, and took possession of the island without the least resistance.
The parish of Nosso Senhora da Conceiçao is situated about a league to the east of the capital, upon a steep, a little distant from the large lake, enjoying an extensive view of the ocean. Its parishioners cultivate sugar and mandioca, with the other provisions of the country. In this district there is an establishment for whale fishing.
Two leagues to the south of the capital is the parish of Nosso Senhora da Lapa, situated near the mouth of a small river, in the recess of a semicircular bay, and in front of an island. It is commonly called _Robeira_, has abundance of fish, and the provisions of the country.
Laguna is a middling town, advantageously situated upon the eastern margin of the lake from which it derives the name. It is two miles from the bar, near a small hill, from whence descend excellent waters. The form of this place is quadrilateral, with three parallel streets, crossed by others, and a square at one side, in which the municipal house is situated. It has only one church, dedicated to St. Antonio dos Anjos, and a great part of the houses are of stone, some one story high, and whitened with the lime of shells. The inhabitants cultivate the usual productions of the country. The lake is stored with fish, and in the months of November and December a prodigious quantity of _bagre_ (a long fish with a forked tail) enter it, supplying a lucrative branch of commerce. This town is sixty miles south of the capital. From its port, which receives coasting vessels, is exported farinha, rice, Indian corn, timber, and salt fish.
About fifteen miles north of Laguna, and near fifty south of the capital, is the parish of St. Anna, commonly known by the name of Villa Nova, a small place, pleasantly situated upon an elevation near the northern extremity of the same lake, with two ports, one called Porto da Embituba, sheltered on the south and east by a headland of the same name, where there is a small whale fishery, subject to the administration of that of Garopaba. The houses are generally of wood, although there is abundance of stone. Its inhabitants, amongst whom there are many _macilentos_, (meagre or spare,) cultivate the productions common to the country, and a large quantity of flax, having, consequently, more weavers of that article than any other place in the province. Onions are of an extraordinary size, and other hortulans of a fine quality.
The parish of Nosso Senhora do Rozario, which is upon the bay of Brito, between two small brooks, thirty-five miles north of St. Anna, and ten south of the capital, is yet small, and its parishioners cultivate mandioca, Indian corn, and sugar, and also are fishermen. In its district there are hot springs.
Four miles to the south-east of the capital, and one distant from the left bank of the Maruhy, is the parish of St. Joze, upon a bay of the same name, with a pottery of glazed earthenware. The inhabitants grow the same articles as the preceding.
Eight miles north-west of the capital is the pleasant parish of St. Miguel, upon a bay so called, which forms a good roadstead. Its inhabitants cultivate and export a large quantity of rice and farinha, with some sugar. Near this place is the principal establishment for whale fishing.
The town of St. Francisco is of middling size, well supplied with fish and the provisions of the country, with houses mostly built of earth, and a handsome church of stone, dedicated to Our Lady da Graca. It is upon the western beach of the island of that name, about ten miles within the bar of Babitonga, upon level ground, and in a situation well calculated for commerce. Only two streets are paved. The inhabitants, generally whites, are very pale, and almost all farmers of mandioca. The cultivation of Indian corn, rice, sugar, coffee, and tobacco, which might be considerable, is at present very trifling. There are few persons who do not possess at least one canoe. Vessels are built here of good burden. Timber and cordage of _imbe_ are the most important exportations next to farinha (flour of mandioca.)
This province, which makes a part of the bishopric of Rio de Janeiro, was till recently under the jurisdiction of the ouvidor of Portalegre, but is now governed by Senhor Alexandre Eloi Portelli.
CHAP. IX.
PROVINCE OF ST. PAULO.
_Boundaries--First Settlement--Mountains--Mineralogy--Rivers and Ports--Islands--Phytology--Zoology--Bugre Indians, Dwellings and Customs--Character of the Paulistas--Division into Comarcas--Comarca of Curytiba--Towns and Productions--Comarcas of St. Paulo and Hitu--Towns and Productions._
This province, formed by the union of a part of the capitania of St. Amaro, with one half of that of St. Vincente, took the name which designates it in the year 1710, when John V. incorporating them with the crown lands by purchase, nominated a governor, with the title of captain-general, in the person of Antonio de Albuquerque Coelho, and the city of St. Paulo for his residence. It is confined on the north by the province of Minas Geraes, from which the serra of Mantiqueira separates it, and by that of Goyaz, from which it is divided by the river Grande; on the south by Rio Grande do Sul, of which the river Pellotas forms the division; on the west by the river Paranna, which separates it from the provinces of Goyaz and Matto Grosso; and on the east by the ocean, and the provinces of Rio de Janeiro on the northern part, and St. Catherina on the southern. Its territory is almost all within the temperate zone, between 20° 30′ and 28° south latitude, comprising four hundred and fifty miles from north to south, and three hundred and forty miles of medium width from east to west; and possessing much variety in the climate, soil, and aspect of the country.
John III. determining to divide the Brazilian coast into capitanias, at the period that Martim Affonso de Souza was in this new region, presented him, in 1532, with one comprising a hundred leagues of coast, and his brother Pedro Lopez de Souza, who had accompanied him, with another of fifty; but the letter of donation to Martim Affonso was not signed till the 20th of January, 1535, at the time when he had already taken his departure for India. It specified that this captaincy, which afterwards took the name of St. Vincente, should extend from the river Maccahe as far as twelve leagues to the southward of the island of Cannanea, where the bar of Paranagua is situated, excepting a certain portion of ten leagues, computed from the river Curupace, now called Jiquiriquere, to that of St. Vincente. The capitania of Pedro Lopez de Souza, which was denominated St. Amaro, included the said ten leagues. That of St. Vincente had scarcely existed forty years, when it was deprived of half its territory, for the purpose of creating the new one of Rio de Janeiro.
With the change of possessors, the southern limits of both capitanias disappeared, and the jurisdiction of the governors began to extend by degrees over the countries which now constitute the provinces of Minas Geraes, Goyaz, Matto Grosso, St. Catharina, and Rio Grande do Sul, where, through the adventures of the Paulistas, colonies were first planted.
The authority of Herrera would warrant the conclusion that there was a factory at St. Vincente in the year 1527. At all events, the licence which Martim Affonso conceded to Pedro Goes, on the 3d of March, 1533, for the purpose of exporting seventeen captive Indians, free of all duties which it was customary to pay, amply demonstrates that such an establishment had existed for some time previous to the latter year. Martim Affonso found here, as has been already observed, two Europeans, Antonio Rodrigues, and John Ramalho, whom Herrera imagined had escaped from some shipwreck upon the coast; but it would seem improbable that they could of themselves have constituted a factory; as establishments of that kind, formed amongst barbarians, necessarily require a considerable number of persons.
MOUNTAINS.--This province is not mountainous, if we except the eastern part, in the whole extent of which there is a general cordillera, running parallel to the coast, which occasionally receives the name of Cubatam. This serra is not universally of the same altitude, neither does it run uniformly at an equal distance from the sea. It has many broken parts, by some of which torrents descend to the ocean, and others wind into the interior. It abounds in verdant woods, being generally high towards the sea, and is the most elevated land of the province, with the exception of some dispersed mountains in the interior; besides, the largest rivers which irrigate this district have their origin in it, and run westward.
The serra Araassoiava, by corruption Guarassoiava, which signifies the eclipsing of the sun, alluding to the great extent of land obscured by its shade, previously to the sun’s departure. This mountain, which is ten miles in length, and of proportionate width, consists entirely of a pure mineral of iron, and is situated in the district of the town of Sorocaba.
The mount of Araquara, from which are frequent exhalations, and which is reputed to contain gold, is situated upon the right margin of the Tiete, thirty miles below the embouchure of the Piracicaba. This mountain must not be confounded with a serra of the same name, which exists more in the centre of the province.
Near the head of the Jaguariquatu, is the elevated mount of Pirapirapuan, which is discovered at a great distance, and possesses gold. The mountain of Thaho, upon the margin of the Thajahi, is also high, and yields the same metal.
The serra Dourada is situated in the campo of Guarapuaba, to the west of the Tibagi. The serra of Apucaranna, is also in the plains of Guarapuaba.
In the vicinity of the sea is to be remarked Mount Cardozo, on the left of the entrance to the bay of Cannanea. Mount Jurea, by corruption Judea, receives this name in consequence of its appearing like Judea to the travellers, who cannot pass the road leading over the summit without much fatigue. It is a few leagues to the north of the river Iguape, is high, commands an extensive view, and precipitates various torrents, amongst which the river Yerde is conspicuous, forming several cascades.
The serra of Jaguary, which is between the rivers Itanhaen and Una, near the beach, is in great part composed of stone, with trees of more than ordinary magnitude.
MINERALOGY.--There are mines of gold, silver, brass, iron, brimstone, pumice-stone, flint, magnet, calcareous stone, granite, _amolar_, or grindstone, potters’ earth, rubies, diamonds, and a diversity of other precious stones.
RIVERS AND PORTS.--None of the maritime provinces, with the exception of that of Para, present so many navigable rivers, notwithstanding the most important are incapable of conducting the productions of the central districts of the country to the ports of the sea, the whole flowing in a contrary direction to the westward, and are swallowed up by the Paranna; but even the produce of the western districts, if agriculture should at any future epoch flourish there, cannot descend by the Paranna, in consequence of the Seven Falls, (Setequedas). It might, however, be conveyed over land to the point where the river becomes navigable, and from thence to the ports, by overcoming other obstacles in the imperfect mode already practised in these parts.
The principal rivers of this province are the Paranna, the Iguassu, the Parannapanema, and the Tiete.
The Paranna takes this name at the confluence of the Paranahyba, which comes from the centre of Goyaz, and the Rio Grande, which issues from the interior of Minas Geraes, both considerable. After a course of many leagues, and having gathered various streams by both margins, it forms a large and interesting fall denominated Urubu Punga, which is an insurmountable barrier to all sorts of fish; and, consequently, there are in its vicinity immense shoals of divers kinds, which may become a lucrative branch of commerce to the future dwellers near this magnificent cascade, which produces a loud murmur that is heard at the distance of many leagues.
A little below it, the river Cururuhy discharges itself, flows from the interior of Goyaz, and traverses the territory of the Cayapos. About ten miles lower, it receives the waters of the important river Tiete, in front of which embouchure there are two islands, each about ten miles long.
Seven miles further, the river Sucurihu enters it by the western bank, below the mouth of which there is a dangerous current, called Jupia.
Five miles lower, the island of Comprida (Long Island) commences, which is upwards of twenty miles in extent; and eight miles below its southern extremity, the river Aguapehi flows into the Paranna, on the left margin; and fifteen miles further, the Verde, on the western side, in front of its mouth, there are two parallel islands, neither exceeding a league in length.
Thirty-five miles below the preceding tributary, the small river Onca enters it by the same margin; and about fifty miles further, it is increased by the Pardo, which also enters on the right, and affords a communication to Camapuan.
Five miles below this confluence is that of the inconsiderable river St. Anastaçio, which flows from the east. Eighty miles further, the Parannapanema enters, opposite the mouth of which there is an island about seven miles in extent: four miles beyond its southern point, another commences, of ten miles in length; and a little below the latter, a third, which is nearly thirty miles long. Three miles further than the southern extremity of this island, the central mouth of the river Ivinheyma is discovered, which flows from the west.
The Paranna is here little less than seven miles in width, and contains a number of large islands. Near thirty miles below the Ivinheyma, the Ivahi discharges, flowing hither in a westerly direction, and six miles beyond its mouth, is an island near fifteen miles long; in front of its centre, the Amambahy contributes its volume to the Paranna, after a course from the westward.