158 



PROVINCE OF ST. CATHARINA. 



The hermitages are equal in number to the parishes. 

 In 1796, this province was computed to have 

 4,2 J 6 fogos, or houses. 

 23,865 adult inhabitants, exclusive of paid troops. 



3 sugar engenhos, or works. 

 192 distilleries of rum. 



4 engenhos for pounding rice. 

 297 wind and horse mills. 



884 bolandeiras for grinding mandioca. 

 32 tan-pits- 



In the year 1812, the population amounted to 31,530. 



Islands. — The only considerable islands are that which gives the name to 

 the province and that of St. Francisco. The island of St. Catharina, upwards 

 of thirty miles long from north to south, and from four to eight in width, is 

 mountainous, abounding with water, yet in parts covered with woods, and 

 does not want for stone or potters' earth. Between its mountains there are 

 some cultivated plains, of greater or less extent, and also many marshy situa- 

 tions. There are many bays, and they abound with shells. On the eastern 

 side there is a lake two leagues long from north to south, deep in some places, 

 and at a certain part so contracted that it appears like two, united by a neck 

 fifty fathoms wide, having a large bridge. When in the winter it begins to 

 inundate the adjacent low grounds, the inhabitants in the vicinity open a 

 channel to discharge the overflowing water into a bay, situated at a little 

 distance, and which is immediately filled up again by the flowing of the tide, 

 when the current ceases, during which a great quantity of fish enter from the 

 ocean. It consequently affords at all times an abundant supply. At its 

 northern extremity, there is a small river called Vermelho, near which the best 

 water-melons of the province are produced. To the south of the preceding, 

 there are three other lakes: the Lagoinha Grande, the Pantano, and the 

 Lagoinha de Leste. The whole are stored with the same fish as the first. 

 Mandioca and flax are the principal articles of agriculture, which is generally 

 exercised by white men, who also cultivate Indian corn, rice, coffee, vegetables, 

 sugar, and some cotton, which is not of good quality. Some fruit trees from 

 the south of Europe are here naturalized. Water-melons, pine-apples, and 

 oranges are very abundant. The principal streams in this island are the 

 Vermelho, the Ratones, which enters the sea two leagues north of the capital, 

 and the Tavares, three miles south-east of the capital. The country, watered 

 by the last river, produces the best melons in the province. 



