r 



314 PROVINCE OF BAHIA. 



trioiis family it remained till the year 1771, when Joseph 1. incorporated it with 

 the crown lands, giving to Don Antonio de Castro, ihe last donatory, the count- 

 ship of Rezende, and an admiralship, with a revenue of five thousand crusades. 

 It is a mountainous country, almost universally covered with wild woods and 

 forests, which produce a diversity of timber for building, cabinet work, and 

 dye-woods. The frequent rains contribute much to the growth of the w^oods, 

 which preserve the soil in a state of moisture. There is scarcely any situation 

 where mandioca, the coffee tree, rice, Indian corn, the sugar cane, and cotton 

 tree do not prosper. They are the principal articles of cultivation. The cul- 

 ture of indigo might be rendered lucrative, as well as cocoa and pechurim. 

 Although the country produces them spontaneously, the latter is not so full 

 grown as that of Para. 



Mountains. — The serra of Aimores originates in this comarca, where it 

 commonly receives the name of Itaraca, and sometimes Goytaracas, or Bayta- 

 racas ; in many parts it is uneven and broken, in some it approaches the sea, 

 and in others stretches far into the interior. Between 4;he rivers Ilheos and 

 Contas it is parallel with and very near to the beach. All the other mountains 

 are ramifications of this; and almost all parts, particularly the Beira-raar, or 

 sea-coast, are dressed in verdant woods. 



Mineralogy. — Granite, limestone, potters' earth, crystals, and gold in the 

 western district of the province. 



Phytology. — Amongst medicinal plants are found ipecacuanha, alcacuz,con- 

 trayerva, (used against poisons,) biitua, Jesuits' bark, jalap, tamarind, milhomens, 

 or basil root,curucu, barbatimao, curcuma, or turmerick, betony. The gum trees are 

 gum-copal, dragons' blood, angelem, and mastick. Amongst the trees of good tim- 

 ber for building are macaranduba, tapinhuati, vinliatica, loiro, jinipapo, ilapicuru, 

 cedar, pitia, liybiculiyba, sassafras, angico, gonsalo-alves, bow wood, oil wood, 

 iron wood, violet wood, sucupira, sapucaya, caixete, corocao de negro, (negro's 

 heart,) and Brazil wood. There are also trees of cupaliiba, suma-uma, cajue-nut, 

 jabuticaba, mangaba, the goyaba, araticu, and a diversity of palms. The Asiatic 

 cocoa-nut tree is very abundant in the proximity of the shore. The piassaba 

 tree, common in the woods, furnishes a lucrative branch of commerce in its flax 

 for cables ; of its nut various turnery articles are made. The 7myha tree, as 

 large as the first, grows in the interior, and sustains with its nuts a variety of birds, 

 principally the arrara, and quadrupeds ; they are little inferior to the cocoa, 

 the inside being very sweet. 



Zoology.— All parts of the comarca are generally deficient in domestic 



