PROVINCE OF PORTO SEGURO. 



307 



othev necessaries, produce and export a considerable quantity of farinha, with 

 some flax of ticum, and timber. In its district there are minerals of iron. From 

 this town, a road runs to Villa do Principe in Minas Geraes. 



The town of St. Mattheus, without regularity, upon gently elevated ground, 

 on the right margin, and fifteen miles above the bar of the river so called, does 

 not yet exceed mediocrity, but is well supplied with fish and good water. Many 

 circumstances, however, concur to warrant the expectation of its becoming flourish- 

 ing, when the Indians are reduced. Its inhabitants hitherto respire air infected 

 by the neighbouring swamps, which occasionally produce fevers, terminating 

 sometimes in death. They cultivate feijao, rice, Indian corn, cotton, the sugar 

 cane, and above all mandioca, the farinha of which is exported to a great 

 extent. Many other branches of agriculture would flourish in this district, the 

 fertility of which is perhaps unequalled, and not materially infested with 

 ants. The water-melon is here excellent, and oranges and lemons are 

 abundant. 



Belmonte is a town situated in the angle of the mouth of the river, which took 

 its name, and which injures it occasionally, at the period of the greatest floods. 

 It was first an aldeia of Christian Indians, and consists of three streets, in a line, 

 with houses generally of earth. The church is called Our Lady of Carmo, and 

 the people are of all complexions. 



On the margin of the river Doce, near the outlet of the lake Juparana, is the 

 increasing aldeia of Linhares, to which a vicar was appointed in 1815, in con- 

 sequence of its inhabitants becoming numerous. With the view of impeding the 

 invasions of the savages, as well as commencing new povoa^oes, were recently 

 established the detachments of Arcos, near the margin of the river Belmonte, 

 above the great fall ; Aveiro, upon the river St. Cruz ; Aquiar, in the district of 

 Villaverde ; Linhares, on the river Frade ; Cunha, on the Cramimuan ; Vimieyro, 

 on the Jucurucu ; Obidos, in the district of Alcobaca ; Caparica, upon the river 

 Peruhype ; Araujo, upon the Mucury ; Itahunas, upon the Guaxindiba, which 

 discharges itself four miles north of the St. Mattheus ; and Galveas, above the 

 town of St. Mattheus, upon the margin of the river of that name. All the 

 parochials of this province are in the jurisdiction of the bishopric of Rio de 

 Janeiro. 



In front of the bar of the riv«r Caravellas, and forty miles from the coast, are 

 the islands of St. Barbara, generally known by the name of Abrolhos, four in 

 number, and a short distance from each other; the largest and most easterly is 



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