PROVINCE OF PERNAMBUCO. 



379 



formed by the ardent heat of the sun, appears like hoarfrost. The water of these 

 lakes (and even soft water) filtered through a contiguous earth in wooden 

 vessels, or leather finely perforated, and exposed on boards to the weather, 

 in eight days of heat crystallizes, becoming salt as white as marine salt. Al- 

 though in lands which have proprietors, they are, like auriferous soils, reputed 

 common to all those who wish to benefit by them, and are a great resource for 

 the poor, almost all the salt here produced is transmitted to the centre of 

 Minas Geraes. 



Villa Real de Santa Maria, situated upon an island three miles long, and a 

 great distance below the preceding, has the aspect of an aldeia, with one hundred 

 and sixty families, chiefly Indians, who are hunters, fishermen, and agriculturists, 

 and are exempt from tribute. Their wives spin and weave cotton, and work in 

 the manufactory of earthenware, of which a considerable portion is exported. 



The town of N. Senhora d' Assump^ao takes tne name from the patroness 

 of its church. The inhabitants, comprising one hundred and fifty-four families, 

 are all Indians ; they fish, hunt, and cultivate mandioca, maize, water-melons, 

 hortulans, and cotton. It is at the western extremity of an island eighteen miles 

 long, and the same distance below the preceding town. In front of this island 

 is the middling arraial and julgado of Quebrobo, with a church of Concei^ao^ 

 whose parishioners, about eighteen hundred and twenty-seven families of all 

 complexions, are mostly dispersed over its vast district. Cotton and cattle are 

 their productions. 



Flores, erected into a town in the year 1810, is yet small and in the vicinity of 

 the river Pajehu. A filial chapel of the parish of Quebrobo serves it for a church. 

 The inhabitants draw their subsistence from the breeding of cattle, and the 

 culture of cotton. 



Symbres, formerly Ororoba, is a small town of Chucuru Indians, with some 

 whites and mesticos, cultivators of cotton and the provisions of the country. 

 The wives of the first make earthenware with considerable art, and spin and 

 weave cotton. They utter great lamentations when their husbands do not bring 

 home game from the woods. The church is dedicated to the Lady of the 

 Mountain; and its population consists of four hundred and eighty families. 



The considerable arraial, julgado, and parish of St. Antonio, in the district 

 of Garanhuns, bordering upon the preceding, is of this comarca, having 

 been, with the latter one, dismembered from that of the Recife. Its people 

 grow cotton. . 



3 c 2 



