288 



PROVINCE OF ESPIRITO SANTO. 



CHAP. XIII. 



PROVINCE OF ESPIRITO SANTO. 



Extent — Boundaries — Misfortunes of its Donatories — Spirited Resistance of 

 the Indians — Partial Cultivation — Principally possessed by Indians — Moun- 

 tains — Mineralogy — Zoology — Descents of Indians to the Coast — Phytology — 

 Rivers and Ports — Povoagdes — Island of Ascension. 



This province comprehends three-fourths of the capitania of the same name, 

 given in the year ] 534 to Vasco Fernandez Coutinho, as a remuneration for 

 the services he had rendered in Asia to the Portuguese crown. It extends one 

 hundred and thirty miles from south to north, between the river Cabapuana and 

 the river Doce, its northern hmit ; the width from east to west hitherto remains, 

 in great part, undetermined, in consequence of a considerable portion of this 

 territory yet remaining in the power of the aboriginal natives. It is bounded 

 on the north by the province of Porto Seguro, on the west by that of Minas 

 Geraes, on the south by that of Rio de Janeiro, and on the east by the Atlantic 

 Ocean, 



Authentic documents, as to the precise epoch of its colonization, are not 

 discovered ; the foundation of the town of Espirito Santo, and from which the 

 capitania derived its name, may however be regarded as its commencement. 

 This town (now called Villa Velha, or Old Town,) was the capital until 

 Victoria acquired the pre-eminence. 



It is asserted, by the author of the Geographical Description of Portuguese 

 America, that Coutinho only took sixty persons with him to form the first 

 establishment in his capitania, in which number were included two degradados, 

 or degraded fidalgos, Don Gorge de Menezes and Don Simao de Castello 

 Branco. With this small number he engaged and put the Indians to flight ; 

 founded the primitive capital ; constructed a fort ; and established an engenho. 



Animated with a desire of affording his colony the means of a rapid im- 

 provement, he returned to Portugal, to procure what appeared to him requi- 

 site for the accomplishment of this praiseworthy object, leaving in his stead 

 Gorge de Menezes, who was killed in combat with the natives. Castello 



