PROVINCE OF BAHIA. 



309 



CHAP. XV. 



PROVINCE OF BAHIA. 



boundaries — Caramuru — First Donatory — Cruel War of the Indians — The 

 Capitania forsaken — Return of the Donatory — Shipwreck — Slaughter of all 

 but Caramuru — Governor General — Foundation of St. Salvador. — Comarca of 

 the Ilheos — Originally a Capitania — Extent — Fertility — Mountains — Mine- 

 ralogy — Phytology — Zoology — Rivers and Lakes — Povoagocs. — Comarca of 

 Jacobina — Extent — Mineralogy— 31ountains — Rivers — Phytology — Zoology 

 — Povoa^oes. — Comarca of Bahia — Extent —Mountains — Mineralogy — Phy- 

 tology — Zoology — Isla?ids — Rivers — Povoagoes. — St. Salvador — Churches and 

 Convents — Public Buildings— ^Sepulchre of Caramuru s Wife — Negroes — Com- 

 merce — Produce — Exports in 1817 and 1818 — State of Society — Adoption 

 of a new Constitution. 



This province, which comprehends almost all the territory of the ancient capi- 

 tania of its name, with that of the Ilheos, is bounded on the north by the pro- 

 vinces of Seregippe d' el Rey and Pernambuco ; on the south, by those of 

 Porto Seguro and Minas Geraes ; on the west, by the province of Pernambuco, 

 from which it is separated by the St. Francisco ; and on the east, by the Atlan- 

 tic Ocean. It extends from 10° to 16° south latitude, comprising three hundred 

 and fifty miles from north to south, and about two hundred and forty miles in 

 width from the coast to the town of Urubu, situated upon the margin of the 

 St. Francisco. 



Tradition and history announce four remarkable events anterior to the 

 foundation of the capital, from which the colonization of the province com- 

 menced : — the shipwreck of Diogo Alvez Correa, that of a Castilian ship, the 

 disembarkation of its only donatory, Francisco Peyreyra Coutinho, and his 

 unfortunate end. None of the writers on this subject have assigned any distinct 

 epoch to those circumstances, and the discordancy which obtains amongst them 

 veils their relations in obscurity. The Jesuit Vasconcellos was the first who 

 published, one hundred and fifty years after their occurrence, the adventures 



