132 



PROVINCE OF RIO GRANDE DO SUL. 



extremity of a peninsula, which forms the eastern side of a bay almost two 

 leagues long, and one wide at the entrance. It is fortified with various batteries 

 towards the sea, and a citadel on the land side. It has a church dedicated to 

 the apostles St. Filippi and St. Tiago, a convent of >St. Franciscans, an hospital, 

 good houses with flat roofs and parapets, and straight streets. The inhabitants 

 enjoy a salubrious air, but are inconvenienced from the want of wood. They 

 drink rain-water, collected in cisterns, which are formed in the inner courts 

 common to the houses, and this water is pure and excellent. There are also pits 

 dug near the sea-side, from whence water is brought in carts for the supply of 

 the town. It is one hundred and thirty miles to the west of Cape St. Mary, and 

 one hundred and twenty east of Buenos Ayres. Its port, at the extremity of 

 which there is a small island fortified, has not sufficient depth of water in all 

 parts for large vessels. The pamperos, which are furious tempests from the south- 

 west, occasion at times very great injury, and the sea here is greatly sub- 

 jected to the influence of these winds. It was taken by the English in June, 

 1807, and given up again at the end of some months. There are a few English 

 establishments here, but the trade is trifling compared with that of Buenos 

 Ayres. The suburbs are thickly inhabited, and have two parochials, both dedi- 

 cated to Our Lady of Carrao. More distant there are two others, Pinheral and 

 Pedras, and their parishioners are breeders of cattle. 



Maldonado is a small town, but which, with much facility, might become 

 very considerable, from the circumstances of its favourable situation upon a fine 

 bay, bearing the same name, and the fertility of its adjacent district. It is 

 adorned by the church of St. Carlos ; and the inhabitants are chiefly descend- 

 ants of the Portuguese. It is fifteen leagues west of Cape St. Mary. 



Pueblo Novo, founded for the habitation of the Portuguese prisoners of Colonia 

 do Sacramento, is two leagues to the north of Maldonado, and has a church 

 called St. Carlos. Near twenty-five leagues to the north of Pueblo Novo is the 

 parish of Nossa Senhora da Concei^ao de Minas. 



St. Domingos Suriano is a small town, well situated near the mouth of the river 

 Negro, in a country abundant in corn and pastures, where large quantities of cattle 

 are bred, which, with lime, are the principal exports. Eight leagues distant from 

 St. Domingos Suriano is the parish of Nossa Senhora das Merces, near the margin 

 of the Negro. About five leagues from the same place upon the St. Sal- 

 vador, is the parish of Espenilho ; and fourteen leagues from Espenilho, that of 

 Viboras. 



