8o SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



to them inland is that of the Turiguaras, a people who, though naked, 

 are teachable ; they are great farmers, and the land is productive of 

 corn, cassava, and the other fruit, cereal, and root crops of the Indies, 



216. Beyond this province and next the Rio Capi lives the tribe 

 of the Guaxaras ; although they are peaceable like the others, they 

 are heathen, for lack of priests and ministers of the Gospel to teach 

 and instruct them in the doctrines of our Holy Faith. 



Chapter XXI 



Of the City of Belen, with a Description of Other Provinces about 

 the Maraiion. 



217. The city of Helen was founded by Capt. Francisco Caldera 

 Castelblanco in the year 1615 by the Great Para Channel on the 

 mainland in the Province of the Topinambiis. It has 60 Spanish 

 residents, a parish church. Capuchin and Carmelite convents, and 

 three shrines ; one is of Our Lady of the Rosary, headquarters of 

 the brotherhood of the soldiers of the military force and garrison 

 established by Capt. Benito Macier Pariente, with a roll of 200, when 

 he was Captain Major of that State ; a second shrine is of Santa 

 Lucia ; that of Our Lady of the Manger is in the fort. 



218. This Province of the Topinambus, in which the city of Belen 

 was established, runs as far as the island of Aparcelada and the 

 rivers Miarri and Tapucuru, where over 500 Frenchmen were settled, 

 not counting women and children, with their Viceroy and Capuchin 

 friars. In the year 1614 Capt. Maj. Jeronimo de Alburquerque tried 

 to drive them out of the country, and he had many encounters with 

 them to this end, until in the year 161 5 by order of His Majesty of 

 Brazil with the aid of Gen. Alexandro de Mora, he succeeded, and 

 the Frenchmen, no longer able to resist our troops, left the country 

 and decamped with all their people. At this spot where the French 

 had their settlement, which they called Maranon, lies the island of 

 Todos Santos, with the city of Sao Luiz with 500 Spanish residents, 

 counting the soldiers of the garrison in the fortification of San 

 Felipe. It has a parish church and Carmelite, Capuchin, and Jesuit 

 convents, a hospital of Misericordia, and a shrine of Nuestra Senora 

 del Destierro. 



219. Sixty leagues from the city of Belen in this Province of the 

 Tapinambus or Topinambus, at the site of Caite on the banks of 

 the Rio Guatacapu, there was established by Gov. Francisco de Car- 

 vallo in the year 1627 a settlement of Spaniards, both as a refuge 

 for travelers from the city of Belen to that of Sao Luiz, and to serve 



