PROVINCE OF PERNAMBUCO. 



361 



from a rooted propensity, which no art could remove, preferred the savage to 

 the civilized state. Indeed, the opinion is supported by a fact, already alleged 

 in this work, as well as by recent occurrences, in which individuals who have 

 been civilized, on entering their native wilds, have again adopted their former 

 rude habits. 



This province of Pernambuco, which had formerly the title of countship, is 

 bounded on the north by the provinces of Parahiba, Siara, and Piauhy ; on the 

 south by the river St. Francisco, which separates it from Seregipe and Bahia, 

 and by the Carinhenha, which divides it from Minas Geraes ; on the west by 

 the province of Goyaz ; and on the east by the ocean, with seventy leagues of 

 coast from the river St. Francisco to the river Goyanna. 



The river Pajehu, which rises in the serra of the Cayriris, and empties itself 

 into the St. Francisco thirty leagues above the fall of Paulo Affonso, divides 

 it into two parts— eastern and western ; the latter forming an ouvidoria, which 

 comprehends a great portion of the eastern, the sea-coast of which is divided 

 into three comarcas, Northern or Olinda, Central or Recife, Southern or the 

 Alagoas, whose common limits are in the vicinity of Rio Una, which enters the 

 sea forty miles south of Cape St, Augustine. 



This province lies between 7° and 15° south latitude, having a warm climate 

 and pure air. The lands upon the whole extent of the sea-coast are low, with 

 considerable portions of fruitful soil, and although it has many rivers, which are 

 perennial and abundant, yet the inhabitants in many parts suffer from want of 

 water. In the interior of the province the face of the country is very unequal, 

 being in some places mountainous, and very deficient in water, and that which 

 is met with, besides being extremely scarce, is never pure, being of the colour 

 of milk, and drawn from wells where all kinds of animals go to drink, or else 

 from pits dug in the sand. From the town of Penedo to the bar of Rio Grande, 

 which travellers by the windings of the river compute at five hundred miles, there 

 does not run towards the river St. Francisco a single stream in the dry season. 



Mountains. — The serra of Borborema, which is the most majestic in the 

 Brazil, has its commencement near the sea, in the province of Rio Grande, and, 

 after having traversed that of Parahiba from north-east to south-west, turns to 

 the west, separating the western part of Pernambuco from the preceding, and 

 from Siara for a considerable space. It then inclines to the north, dividing the 

 last from the province of Piauhy, varying frequently in altitude and name to 

 its termination, where it is denominated Hibiapaba, in view of the coast between 

 the rivers Camucim and Paranahiba. In some parts it is rocky, in others bare 



3 A 



