378 



PROVINCE OF PERNAMBUCO. 



tributaries, and rises in the skirts of the Serra Figuras, which is a continuation 

 of that of Mangabeiro, from whence issue the other branches mentioned, ex- 

 cepting the Riachao. Its first name is the river of Doirados, and its current of 

 clear water is rapidly impelled through a winding bed, edged with steep mar- 

 gins. It passes near the village of Formoza, which has a hermitage of Senhor 

 do Bom Fim, and by the parish of St. Ritta, which is forty miles below the 

 other, and the same distance above the mouth of the river. The Rio Grande, 

 which enters the St. Francisco fifty miles below the confluence of the Preto, 

 is navigable to the mouth of the Ondas, ajid without falls to the Branco, 

 passes the parish of St. Anna de Campo Largo, which is thirty-five miles above 

 the embouchure of the Preto ; it is well stored with the sorubin, crumatan, large 

 doirados, the piranha, piau, martrinchan, and other sorts of fish. Its water has 

 a very different colour from the river which receives it, and remains unchanged 

 for a considerable distance after entering the St. Francisco. 



The towns of this ouvidoria are, 



Barra do Rio Grande Santa Maria Flores 



Pilao Arcado Assump9ao Symbres. 



The town of Barra do Rio Grande is at the northern angle of the confluent 

 which affords it the name, is in a state of mediocrity, well supplied with meat 

 and fish, and has some commerce. The church is dedicated to St. Francisco 

 das Chagas ; and the number of its inhabitants is included in one thousand 

 and thirty-six families. The passage of the St. Francisco, here a mile wide, is 

 much frequented. 



Pilao Arcado, created a town in 1810, is one hundred miles below the pre- 

 ceding, and is well situated near a small hill upon the margin of the St. Francisco, 

 its only resource for water, and whose greatest inundations always visit it with 

 some injury. The church, dedicated to St. Antonio, is new, and solidly built with 

 bricks and lime. The houses are generally earth and wood, and many of them 

 covered with straw. It has three hundred families, which are increasing, and, 

 with those of its vast district, comprise five thousand inhabitants, who cultivate 

 mandioca, maize, vegetables, good melons, and water-melons, upon the margins 

 of the river. The land around it is generally wild and sterile, and alone appro- 

 priated to the breeding of cattle, which are subject to the horrible mortality, pro- 

 duced by frequent droughts. There are a great many small lakes, at various dis- 

 tances from the river, all more or less brackish, and upon whose margins the salt. 



