PROVINCE OF BAHIA. 



Thirty-five miles to the north, upon the same river, is the small arraial of 

 Bom Jardim, with a hermitage of Our Lady of Bom Successo. The people 

 who inhabit it breed cattle, are agriculturists and fishermen. Fifty miles 

 from the town of Urubu is the celebrated chapel of Bom Jesus da Lapa, but 

 which does not correspond with the description given of it by the exaggerating 

 pen of Rocha Pitta. It is a vast cavern, and one of the many curious opera- 

 tions which Nature has displayed in this region, having some similitude to the 

 form of a temple, into which it was converted, being interestingly situated in 

 the skirts of a mount of rock, about a mile in circumference, upon the margin 

 of the St. Francisco. It has an effective chaplain and a good patrimony. Not 

 far from it there is a small povoa^ao. 



Comarca of Bahia. 

 The comarca of Bahia comprises upwards of one hundred and forty miles of 

 coast, computing from the river Jiquirica, which empties itself ten miles west- 

 south-west of Barra-Falsa, to the Rio Real, the northern limit of the province, 

 and one hundred and twenty miles in width, being bounded on the west by the 

 comarca of Jacobina. The face of the country is varied by woods, small hills, 

 a few serras, and catingas, or charnecas, which occupy more than one half of 

 it, and where cattle alone are raised. It is not however without tracts of substan- 

 tial soil, upon the summits principally of the serras, in the profoundest valleys, 

 and in the vicinity of rivers, where fine trees grow, and where (after they are 

 cleared away) plantations are formed of mandioca, tobacco, cotton, and millet. 



The best land of the comarca is that called the Reconcave, from twenty to 

 thirty-five miles in width, immediately surrounding the fine and picturesque 

 bay of All Saints, (the harbour of its capital,) where considerable estates are 

 appropriated to the culture principally of the sugar-cane and tobacco, productions 

 which in no other province of the state are afforded in such quantity ; the soil 

 called massape, black and strong, is deemed the best for the growth of the cane. 

 The winter, or rainy season, commences about the end of March and continues 

 till August, with considerable intervals of summer weather, and never extends 

 to the western extremity, where it rains only with thunder, which is pretty 

 general, and continues whilst the sun is southward of the equator. 



Mountains. — The principal serras are from the river Paraguassu south- 

 ward ; the most remarkable are the Giboya, the Itapera, the Mangabeira, the 

 Bocetas, the Gayru, the Pedra Branca, and the Cupioba. On the left of 



