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14 



THE GOVERNOR. 



spoken, continues along the whole coast between 

 Pernambuco and Maranham, and in some parts 

 it runs at a very short distance from the shore ; 

 and in this case is usually high, remaining un- 

 covered at low water, as at Recife ; but in other 

 places it recedes from the land, and is then 

 generally concealed. It has numberless breaks 

 in it, through which the communication with 

 the sea is laid open. 



Recife is a thriving place, increasing daily in 

 opulence and importance. The prosperity which 

 it enjoys may be in some measure attributed to 

 the character of its Governor and Captain- 

 General, Caetano Pinto de Miranda Montenegro, 

 who has ruled the province for the last ten years 

 with systematic steadiness and uniform prudence. 

 He has made no unnecessary innovations, but 

 he has allowed useful improvements to be intro- 

 duced. He has not, with hurried enthusiastic 

 zeal, which often defeats its end, pushed for- 

 wards any novelty that struck him at the mo- 

 ment, but he has given his consent and counte- 

 nance to any proposal backed by respectable 

 persons. He has not interfered and inter- 

 meddled with those concerns in which govern- 

 ments have no business, but he has supported 

 them when they have been once established. 

 I here speak of commercial regulations and 

 minor improvements in the chief town, and in 

 the smaller settlements of the country. He 



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