104 



PROVINCE OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 



the best in the Brazil, usually known by the denomination of Campos sugars. 

 Indian corn, feijao, mandioca flour, tobacco, and cotton, are produced only 

 in sufficient quantity for the consumption of the district. All the species of 

 domestic animals are bred, none of them, however, are remarkable for their 

 fecundity. Cattle are not in sufficient number for the consumption of 

 the population, and the working of sugar engenhos. The mules are not 

 so large as those of Rio Grande, and Curitiba, but are superior in strength. 

 Goats and sheep degenerate here. Hogs are not numerous, neither is the pork 

 good. The north and south-west winds generally prevail, and scarcely a day 

 passes, that the atmosphere is not refreshed with a strong breeze from one of 

 these quarters. Part of the timber exported by the river Maccahe, is derived 

 from the woods of this district, which afford a variety of medicinal plants. 



Rivers and Lakes. — We have already described the Parahiba, which is 

 the chief river of this district, and traverses it from west to east. 



The river Muriahe, to which is attributed forty miles of course in a direct 

 line, rises in the serra of Pico, in the territory of the Puri Indians, takes a 

 winding direction to the south-east, until it enters the Parahiba, is navigable 

 for the space of twenty-five miles, and has a fall, where the canoes are dragged 

 over land. When the cultivation of its fertile margins first commenced, (at this 

 day abounding with sugar-works,) its waters were so pestilential, that many 

 who drank of them were attacked with malignant fevers, which either termi- 

 nated their days, or left them through life pallid and diseased. Even the 

 necessaries of life, which grew upon the lands inundated by its floods, were 

 pestiferous. Its largest confluent is denominated the Rio Morto, or Dead 

 River, in consequence of having a very tranquil current, the waters of which, 

 are muddy, from its origin in a morass. The margins of the Muriahe produce 

 a poisonous cipo plant, with long and flexible shoots, called timbo, or tingui, 

 and a tree denominated guaratimho, the infectious qualities of which are at- 

 tributed to the malignancy of its waters. 



The river Maccabu originates in the skirt of the Serra Salvador, little removed 

 from the source of the before-mentioned river St. Pedro. It is serpentine, tran- 

 quil, flows principally through a swampy country to the north-east, discharges 

 itself into the lake Feia, and is navigable, without falls, pretty nearly to its 

 origin. 



The river Imbe, which rises at the base of the above serra, seven miles from 

 the head of the Maccubu, and runs for a considerable space parallel with it, re- 

 ceives near its commencement, by the left bank, three streams, called the Three 

 Jlivers of the North, (which have their origin in the situation of Tres Picos, 



