106 



PROVINCE OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 



its channel of discharge denominated the Corrego do Jacare, between the town 

 of St. Salvador and the mouth of the river Muriahe. Lake Cima is five miles 

 long, and more than sixteen hundred fathoms at its greatest width, compre- 

 hending the gulf called Pernambuca. 



The fine campos, or plains, of this district would certainly become the Elysium 

 of Brazil, if its territory, rich in soil, were divided into certain portions and 

 delivered to a people animated with a spirit of agricultural improvement. But 

 the same unfortunate circumstances which we have previously described to exist 

 in the donation of lands, concur, unhappily, to place those campos, at least the 

 greater part, in the hands of three proprietors ; namely, the Benedictine monas- 

 tery of Rio de Janeiro, the purchaser of the ex- Jesuitical possessions, and a 

 titular. 



St. Salvador, or Campos, is a large, populous, and flourishing town, situ- 

 ated upon a plain on the right margin of the Parahiba, eighteen miles distant 

 from the ocean, and four below the mouth of the Muriahe. Besides the 

 mother church, it has a house of misericordia, three hermitages dedicated to 

 the Lady of Rosario, Boa Morte, and Lapa ; also two Terceira orders of St. 

 Francisco and Carmo, and a hospital. The youth of this place are instructed 

 by persons having the usual high sounding titles of royal professors of the pri- 

 mitive letters and Latin. Justice is administered by a head magistrate, denomi- 

 nated a Juiz de Fora,* (a judge without.) An account recently taken of the 

 population of this town states it to contain eleven hundred and fifty families, 

 w^hich may be fairly computed to comprise twelve thousand souls. 



The town of St. Joam da Parahiba derives the name from its church and the 

 river upon which it is situated, and is distant about two miles from the sea, in 

 front of the extremity of a small island. Sugar constitutes the riches of its 

 inhabitants, who do not exceed fifteen hundred ; and it is the port fi-om whence 

 the principal produce of the Campos, consisting of that article, is shipped in 

 coasting vessels to the capital. 



Eight miles up the Maccah6 is situated the parish of the Lady of Neves, 

 which originated in an establishment of a tribe of Garulho Indians, but now 

 almost extinct, and succeeded by whites, who fell timber and are farmers of 

 the same necessaries of life as their predecessors. 



* This denomination originated in Portugal, where the judge was prohibited from having any juris- 

 diction within his native town. Hence it is applied to judges in the Brazil, universally, without the 

 capital. ' • 



