PROVTNCE OF PORTO SEfilJRO. 



305 



houses are of brick or wood, and the streets unpaved. The main part of its 

 inhabitants frequent the fishing of garoupas, which form an important branch 

 of their commerce. It has, as is usual, a royal professor of Latin. Its sur- 

 rounding lands are appropriated to divers productions, none of which are 

 superabundant except fruits. Porto Seguro, it is said, was once larger, but 

 upon the occasion previously referred to was nearly dismantled by the Abatyras, 

 and being rebuilt, again suffered much from the invasions of the Guerens, who, 

 perhaps, would have annihilated it altogether if the celebrated Tateno, a 

 cacique or chief from the river St. Antonio, who was a scourge to the other 

 savages and a friend of the Christians, had not succoured them, in spite of the 

 diseases under which he laboured at the time, and which did not permit him to 

 move, except in a net or rede, carried upon the shoulders of his most robust 

 comrades. The small povoa^oes of Pontinha, Marcos, and Pacatta, the 

 whole upon the northern margin of the river, scarcely separated by small 

 intervals, are so many other parts of this town. 



Villaverde, originally Patatiba, is small but well situated, has a church 

 dedicated to Espirito Santo, (Holy Spirit.) and a municipal house. It is 

 eighteen miles above the capital, upon the southern margin of the same river, 

 near a large lake. It has a profusion of fruits, and abundance of water from 

 fountains. The soil is of great fertility, but is entirely left to the indolence of 

 the Christianized Indians, amongst whom a white is scarcely seen. They 

 export some timber and a little cotton. 



Eighteen miles north of the capital, near the mouth of the St. Cruz, the 

 parish of this name, formerly considerable, has decayed, in consequence of the 

 invasions of the Guerens. It has a church, dedicated to Nossa Senhora of 

 Concei^ao ; and in the vicinity a tree is common, the fruit of which is called 

 the quince. The proximity of Cabralia Bay, and the roads which are expected 

 to be opened from divers points of Minas Geraes, will probably render this 

 povoa^ao a flourishing and considerable place. 



Trancozo is an inconsiderable town, well situated, near the mouth of a small 

 river; the church is dedicated to St. John Baptista, and its inhabitants, 

 almost generally Indians, cultivate cotton and mandioca, and are also fisher- 

 men. It is fifteen miles south of Porto Seguro. 



Prado, situated at the mouth of the Jucurucu, which was its primitive 

 name, is forty miles to the south of Trancozo. A considerable quantity of 

 farinha (flour of mandioca) is exported from hence, at present the only 



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