374 



PROVINCE OF PERNAMBUCO. 



hermitage with the same title ; another of the Lady of Corrente ; others of St. 

 Gon^alo d' Amarante, St. Gon9alo Garcia, and a convent of Franciscans, 

 whose ill appropriated grounds occupy a situation the best suited for the im- 

 provement of the povoa^ao. It has a royal Latin master, and a good house 

 for the ouvidor. The houses were, till lately, miserable buildings of wood ; 

 there are now many of stone, with two or three stories, having portals of a 

 species of grindstone. The river is here near a mile in width, and the highest 

 tide is three feet. The greatest height of the river, that can be remembered, 

 reached twenty feet. It is about twenty-five miles from hence to the mouth of 

 the river. The confessional roll, which is a tolerably correct one, estimates 

 the population at eleven thousand five hundred and four, including that of the 

 district. By a law of the 15th of December, 1805, a Juiz de Fora was granted 

 to this town. 



About twenty-five miles higher up, on the margin of the St. Francisco, in a 

 delightful situation, is the parish of Collegio, whose dwellers only amount to 

 ninety families, and are mostly Indians, of three different nations. The Acco- 

 nans who lived in the district of Logoa Comprida, a few miles higher up the 

 river : the Carapotos, who inhabited the serra of Cuminaty : and the Cayriris, 

 who dwelt in the vicinity of the serra which takes from them its name. The 

 main part of this colony wander about when not occupied in fishing, according 

 to the custom of their ancestors, through a country six miles along the river, 

 and three broad, which was given to them fipr the purposes of agriculture. The 

 wives of these lazy poltroons work daily in making earthenware, seated on the 

 ground. They begin to make an earthen vessel by working the clay on a 

 banana leaf, placed upon their knees ; afterwards it is put upon a large dish, 

 with pulverized ashes, when it receives the form and last finish. Without any 

 assistance from the men, they procure and work up the clay, proceed to fetch 

 the wood in order to set up large fires every Saturday night for hardening the 

 vessels made during the week. The church was a Jesuitical chapel, which 

 the district already possessed. 



In this comarca is the considerable arraial of St, Miguel, upon the margin 

 and seven leagues above the mouth of the river of the same name. It has a 

 church of Nossa Senhora of O, whose parishioners amount to fifteen hundred, 

 the main part dispersed. 



The western portion of the province is much more extensive than the pre- 

 ceding, but is very thinly inhabited, being a sterile and parched up country, 

 without other rains than those afforded by thunder showers. In all parts, 



