PROVINCE OF ST. PAULO. 



181 



and whitewashed. This city is the residence of the governor of the province, 

 and the ouvidor of the comarca, or district, who fulfils also the duties of crown 

 judge, &c. There is, a Juiz de Fora, who also executes the functions of an 

 Attorney General, auditor of the military, and deputy to the junta of the treasury. 

 It has some masters, who have the high-sounding denomination of royal pro- 

 fessors of the primitive letters, Latin, rhetoric, philosophy, dogmatical theology, 

 and morality. The inhabitants, in number from thirty-five to forty thousand, 

 are divided between two parishes, one being of the cathedral, the chapter of 

 which consists of fourteen canons, including four dignitaries of archdeacon, 

 archpriest, chanter, and treasurer-mor. The other has a church called Santa 

 Efigenia. The Jesuits commenced this city, in the year 1552, with the founda- 

 tion of a college, in which they celebrated the first mass on the day of the 

 conversion of the apostle with whose name it was consecrated in J 554, and 

 which afforded the subsequent name of St. Paulo to the town and province. 

 This structure now constitutes the palace of the governor. Senhor Joao Carlos 

 de Oainansen at present fills that situation. Six years after the first establish- 

 ment of the Jesuits here, St. Paulo acquired the denomination of a town. Its 

 first inhabitants were a horde of Guayana Indians, with their cacique or chief 

 called Tebireca, who lived in the aldeia of Piratinin, near the small river of 

 the same name, not far from the new colony, which, in consequence, took the 

 appellation of St. Paulo de Piratininga, and retained it till the year 1712, when 

 it was dignified with the title of city, and in 1746 was further honoured by 

 being made the seat of a bishopric. The Indians were soon augmented by a 

 great number of Europeans, whom they called Emboabas, in consequence of 

 their legs being covered, and which conveyed to the minds of the Indians 

 a resemblance of certain birds with feathered legs so called by them. The 

 alliances of the new settlers, with the Indians, soon produced a third class 

 of people, to whom they gave the name of Mamelucos, with which the esta- 

 blishment received a considerable increase ; and the city at this day comprises 

 upwards of four thousand houses, with the number of inhabitants previously 

 mentioned, one half of which are computed to be whites. The salubrity of 

 the cHmate, and the abundance and moderate value of all the necessaries of 

 life, give it the decided preference for the foundation of an university, if the 

 views of the government become enlightened enough to promote such an 

 establishment in the Brazil. The body, and consequently the mind, of the 

 student would here have more vigour for literary application, than in the 

 wanner or more northern climates of this region, and books or libraries would 



