PROVINCE OF MINAS GERAES. 



263 



COMARCAS. 



Villa Rica 



Rio das Mortes 



Sahara 



Serro do Frio 



TOWNS. 



C Villa 

 CMarianna 

 / St. Joam d' el Rey 

 I St. Joze 

 I Queluz 

 St. Carlos de Jacuhy 

 j St. Maria de Baependy 

 J Campanha 

 / Barbacena 

 vTamandua 

 ^ Sahara 

 ^Caethe 

 i Pitangui 

 ^Paracatu 

 C Villa do Principe 

 (. Fanado 



.do 



■It 



^ Comarca of Villa Rica. 



•J - The comarca of Villa Rica, otherwise Oiro Preto, (Black Gold,) which is the 

 cleast extensive, and the main part yet uncultivated, is bounded on the north 

 by that of Serro Frio, from which it is separated by the river Doce ; on the 

 west by that of Rio das Mortes ; on the south by the province of Rio de 

 Janeiro ; and on the east by that of Espirito Santo. It comprises one hundred 

 and forty miles from east to west, and one hundred and twenty from north to 

 south. 



( Mountains. — Theserraof Oiro Preto, which is a portion of the Mantiqueira, 

 (its most elevated head, called Itaculume, (the Child of Stone,) is considered 

 I the highest in the province. The serra of Oiro Branco, (White Gold,) to the 

 south of the preceding, the Serra Negra, with mines of iron, and the Serra 

 Lappa are both to the north of the capital. Nearly thirty miles north of Mari- 

 anna is the celebrated Serra Cara^a, so called from having a portion similar to 

 an enormous physiognomy. It is a dismemberment of the grand cordillera, 

 with near fifty miles of circuit at its base, being steep and craggy all around. 

 On a plain about three miles square, in a broken part of its summit, there is a 

 species of monastery, where various hermits dwell, some drawn thither by 

 devotion, and others from persecution ; their habit is a black cassock. They 



