PROVINCE OF SEREGIPE D" EL KEY. 



351 



Seregipe, or St, Christovam, capital of the province, the residence of its 

 governor and ouvidor, and having the title of a city, is well situated upon an 

 elevation near the river Paramopama, which is an arm of the Vazabarris, 

 eighteen miles from the sea, but does not surpass a town in a state of mediocrity. 

 It has a convent of St. Franciscans, another of slippered Carmelites, and two 

 Terceira orders attached to them ; a chapel of Our Lady of Rozario, for the 

 blacks ; another of Amparo, for the mulattoes ; a house of misericordia, a good 

 town house, and a large bridge. All the public edifices are of stone. It has 

 royal professors of the primitives and Latin, and abundance of good water. 

 The orange, mango, and banana trees grow in its vicinity. Sumacas come 

 up the river as far as this place to take in sugar and some cotton. This city, 

 which was destroyed by the Dutch on the 25th of December, 1637, eight 

 sugar works then in the province sharing the same fate, had its commence- 

 ment upon the left margin and two miles above the embouchure of the 

 Cotindiba, where yet are the ruins of the church called St. Christovam. It was 

 removed from thence to a site between the river Poxim and the Cotindiba, 

 situated at an equal distance from its first foundation and the place where it 

 now stands. 



St. Amaro, so called from the patron of its mother church, is a small town, 

 thinly populated, and without commerce, although well situated and enjoying 

 salubrious air, about one mile north of the confluence of the rivers Seregipe and 

 Cotindiba. 



Five miles west of it, the aldeia of Moruim, in the extremity of an arm of 

 the Seregipe, is the depot for a considerable quantity of sugar cases, and has 

 a small market on Saturdays. 



St. Luzia, agreeably situated upon a height near the river Guararema, (uniting 

 itself eight miles lower with the Rio Real,) is inconsiderable, has a church 

 dedicated to the same saint, a chapel of the Lady of Rozario, and exports the 

 productions of the surrounding country. 



Ten miles distant from it, the povoa^ao of Estancia, the most populous and 

 commercial of the whole province, without excepting the capital, is situated in 

 a plain upon the left margin of the river Piauhy, abounding with excellent 

 water, and has a chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe, another of Rozario, and 

 a bridge over the river. It is eighteen miles from the ocean, and the sumacas 

 which enter by the bar of the Rio Real anchor in front of it, and export various 

 articles of merchandise. 



