176 



PROVINCE OF ST. PAULO. 



guese, at the commencement of the mining adventures in Minas Geraes ; with 

 other animosities, may be regarded as the foundation of the exaggerated charges 

 of want of loyalty, with which many writers have charged this people. 



They have a provincial trait which characterises them on their visits to other 

 places. They always wear a sort of capote, or cloak, called a ponche, with an 

 aperture in the centre, through which they introduce the head and neck. 



The serra of Jaguary, on the Beira-Mar, or sea-coast, and the river Terere, 

 from the serra above, divide this province into northern and southern, 

 each constituting a comarca, or ouvidoria, designated by the head town, 

 which, till recently, were Paranagua in the south, and St. Paulo in the north. 



By a law of February, 1812, the former was changed for the town of Cury- 

 tiba, where the ouvidor has since resided ; and it is the head of this division, 

 denominated the comarca of Paranagua and Curytiba. The other was divided 

 into two comarcas, and the new one was denominated Hitu. 



The longest day of the year, which is in December, comprises nearly fourteen 

 hours in the southern part of the province, at which period the inhabitants of 

 the margins of the river Grande, the northern boundary, have not thirteen hours 

 and a half of day. 



The comarca of Paranagua and Curytiba, comprises the following towns : — 



Curytiba Iguape 



Paranagua Castro 



Guaratuba St. Joze 



Antonia Lages 



Cannanea Villa do Principe. 



Curytiba, a considerable and famous town, now the head of the comarca, 

 and ordinary residence of the ouvidor, (head magistrate,) is well situated upon 

 the left margin of a small river, which has a bridge for the accommodation of 

 its inhabitants. It has a magnificent church, called Our Lady da Luz, the 

 hermitages of the Lady of Terco, Rosario, and St. Francisco de Paula, and a 

 Terceira order of St. Francisco de Assis. All its structures are of stone or 

 brick, and the streets are paved. 



Paranagua is a town of some note, built of stone, and previously to the year 

 1812 was the head of the comarca. It has three hermitages, and a church 

 of the Lady of Rosario. Its situation, unhealthy, and presenting nothing 

 agreeable to the view, is ten miles distant from the sea, upon the southern 

 bank of the bay from which it borrows the name, and in front of the western 

 point of the island of Cotinga. It has a permutation or smelting house, a 



