PROVINCE OF BAlilA. 



335 



royal masters, and a Juiz de Fora, who is the same individual holding that situa- 

 tion at Maragogipe. The inhabitants are generally manufacturers of earthen- 

 ware. 



Fifteen miles above the Jaguaripe, along the left margin of the same river, is 

 the large and flourishing parish of Our Lady of Nazareth. Large barks arrive 

 here with the tide, and export farinha and other necessaries to the capital. 

 The margins of the Jaguaripe in all this interval, have potteries for earthenware, 

 which constitutes a considerable branch of commerce. 



Joam Amaro, called a town, does not surpass a small aldeia, with houses of 

 wood covered with straw, but well situated near the margin of the Paraguassu, 

 upon the road to the interior, about one hundred and forty miles to the west of 

 Murityba. It has a chapel of St, Antonio, built of stone, and covered with 

 tiles, which served as a mother church to the first inhabitants, whilst the fevers 

 did not compel them to retire. Peter IL (then Regent,) gave to the Paulista, 

 Joam Amaro, licence to found it, together with the senhorio, or lordship, as a 

 premium for having conquered the neighbouring Indians, who at that time had 

 descended to the coast, and destroyed the crops of the inhabitants of Cayru. 



The town of Pedra Branca is an Indian aldeia, situated in a flat portion of 

 territory, upon the serra of the same name, and is eighteen miles west-south- 

 west of the arraial of Ginipapo. The houses are of wood, covered with palms, 

 and the church, dedicated to the Lady of Nazareth, is built of adobe, 

 and roofed with tiles. The origin of it was about the year 1 740, for the 

 habitation of two tribes of Indians, one of them being Cayrirys. It is sur- 

 rounded with large woods. Ants, many of a very large size, are numerous, 

 and do much injury, 



St. Salvador, better known by the name of Bahia, situated upon the 

 eastern side, and near to the entrance of the bay, (or Bahia de Todos os 

 Santos,*) is an archiepiscopal city, and the largest, most commercial, and 

 flourishing in the Brazil, (now excepting Rio de Janeiro,) and is celebrated 

 for having been for more than two centuries the residence of the governors 

 general of this state ; but the government, with the title of a vice-royalty, was 

 transferred to the governors of Rio de Janeiro in the year 1763, This city is 

 the grand emporium of all the produce of its partially populated comarcas, 



* The province is designated, as well as the city, hy the Portuguese word for bay, from the great 

 importance justly attached to its fine bay. 



