276 



PROVINCE OF MINAS GERAES. 



stands near the right margin of the Velhas, where this river receives the small 

 stream that affords the town's name, in a low situation, surrounded with moun- 

 tains, and is large, flourishing, well supplied with meat, fish, and the common 

 necessaries peculiar to the country. It has a church of the Lady of Concei^ao, 

 a chapel of Our Lady of O, another of Rozario, and a numerous fraternity of 

 blacks, two Terceira orders of Carmo and St. Francisco. There is a Juiz de 

 Fora, who is head of the orphan establishment; a vicar; the usual professors of the 

 first letters and Latin ; and a smelting house for gold, the expenses of which are 

 forty thousand crusades annually, having the same appointments as that of 

 Villa Rica, with the exception of the engraver of stamps for coining, and the 

 third founder. This town has a good fountain of excellent water in the street of 

 Caquende, and four entrances from the cardinal points, all but one having wooden 

 bridges; the eastern and southern are over the Sahara. The judicial officers 

 are the same here as in the capital of the province ; the annual revenue of the 

 camara, or municipal body, is nine thousand crusades. The heat is here 

 more intense in the hot months than in any other povoa^ao in the province, 

 arising, most probably, from its reflexion from the circumjacent mountains. A 

 register for receiving the royal duties was, in 1712, established in this place, 

 which is thirty- five miles north-north-west of Marianna, seventy north-east of 

 Tamandua, near one hundred south-west of Villa do Principe, and seventy- 

 five north-north-east of St. Joao d' el Key. The inhabitants, and those of six 

 parishes within its district, (viz. Rio das Pedras, St. Antonio, Curral d' el 

 Rey, St. Luzia, Congonhas, and Rapozos,) comprising altogether forty-six 

 thousand three hundred persons, are miners and farmers, and form two regi- 

 ments of cavalry, one with eleven, and the other with eight companies, all 

 whites ; twenty companies of infantry ; a regiment of eleven companies of 

 mulattoes ; and another of seven companies of forro, or free blacks. In the 

 year 1788, the population of Sahara consisted of seven thousand six hundred 

 and fifty-six persons, and eight hundred and fifty houses. In 1819, its inha- 

 bitants did not exceed nine thousand three hundred and forty-seven. 



This comarca, which is nearly as large as England, does not, exclusive of the 

 district of Paracatu, contain more than one hundred and thirteen thousand, three 

 hundred and sixty-four souls. Senhor Gama, who was recently its ouvidor or 

 governor, collected materials, during his triennial government, for a map of the 

 comarca, which he presented to the minister of state at Rio de Janeiro, in 

 expectation that his labours would at least have received some approbation ; but 

 the subject was treated with indiflference. Senhor Gama subsequently made 



