704 nieuhopf's brazil. 



are fome, however, who extends its limits farther to the eafl, and to the weft as far as 

 Peru or Guiana, which makes an addition of one hundred and eighty-eight leagues. 

 Some make the boundaries of Brazil to the north the river of the Amazons, to the fouth 

 Rio de la Plata, to the eaft the North Sea, and to the weft the mountains of Peru or 

 Guiana. 



Brazil, thus limited, is divided by the Portuguefe into fourteen diftricls, called by them 

 kapitania, or captainlhips j viz. Paria, the firft of all towards the north ; Maranhaon, 

 Siara, Potigi or Rio Grande, Paraiba, Parnambuko, Tamarika or Itamarika, Seregippe 

 del Rey, Quirimune or Bahia dos todos los Santos, Nhoe-Kombe or Os Ilhos, Pakata 

 or Porto Securo, Rio de Janeiro or Nheteroya, St. Vincent, and Efpiritu Santo. 



Whilft part of Brazil was in our pofTeffion, it might conveniently be divided into the 

 Dutch and Portuguefe Brazil. Each of thefe captainfhips is watered by fome confider- 

 able river or other, befides feveral others of lefs note ; moft of thefe have very rapid 

 currents in the rainy months, and overflow the adjacent country. 



The river of St. Francis, the largeft and moft confiderable in thofe parts, is the com- 

 mon boundary of the captainfhip of Parnambuko and Bahia dos todos los Santos, or the 

 Bay of All Saints. In fome places it is fo broad that a fix-pounder can fcarce reach over 

 it, and its depth is eight, twelve, and fometimes fifteen yards ; but it admits of no fhips 

 of burthen, becaufe its entrance is choked up with fands. 



Its firft fpring is faid to arife out of a certain lake, which being augmented by many 

 rivulets out of the mountains of Peru, but efpecially by the rivers of Rio de la Plata and 

 Maranhaon, exonerates itfelf into the fea. Some of our people went in a fhallop near 

 forty leagues up the river, and found it of a good depth and pretty broad. If we may 

 believe the Portuguefe, there are about fifty leagues from the fea, certain impaflable 

 catarads or water-falls, called by them Kakocras ; beyond thofe the river winds to the 

 north, till you come to its fource in the lake, in which are many pleafant iflands, inha- 

 bited by the barbarians ; as is likewife the (hore round about it. They find good ftore 

 of gold-duft in this lake, but it is none of the beft, being carried thither by the many 

 rivulets which wafti the gold-bearing rocks of Peru : here is alfo moft excellent falt- 

 petre. 



It is obfervable, that in the fummer, and thofe winter months when it rains but fel- 

 dom, this river has more water than in the rainy feafon : the reafon alleged for it is, the 

 vaft diftance from its firft fource, whither the rains that fall from the mountains muft 

 firft be conveyed by many rivulets. All the other rivers near the Receif are fo empty 

 of water during the fummer feafon, that they are rendered quite unnavigable. But the 

 ridges of mountains, which lie not far from the fea-ftiore, exonerate their waters, as well 

 here as in Peru, backward to the weft, and dividing themfelves into two branches ; the 

 firft runs to the north, and joins with the moft large and rapid rivers of Maranhaon and 

 of the Amazons ; the other with the rivers of St. Francis de la Plata and Janeiro. The 

 waters of thefe rivers being confiderably increafed by many rivulets, they exonerate 

 themfelves with fo much violence into the fea, that the feamen meet often with frefh water 

 at a confiderable diftance at fea. 



The increafe of the waters in this river, during the dry feafon, may likewife be attri- 

 buted to the vaft quantity of fnow among the mountains, which being melted by the 

 heat of the fun, occafions the river to tranfgrefs its ordinary bounds ; which in this point 

 is quite different from other rivers, which commonly in the winter-time overflow their 

 banks. 



Six of thofe captainfhips were under the jurifdidion of the Weft India company, be- 

 fore the Portuguefe revolted from the Dutch, which they had conquered with their 

 3 - fwordsj 



