380 



PROVINCE OF PERNAMBUCO. 



In this onvidorship is also the parish of St. Anna do Sacramento do Angical, 

 dismembered from that of Campo Largo, from which it is distant thirty miles, 

 and ten from the margin of the Rio Grande. 



Having concluded the description of the province, we will now proceed to 

 a consideration of its capital, commonly called Pernambuco, (which name is 

 a corruption of Paranabuco, by which the Cahetes designated the port, where 

 at the present day the smallest class of vessels anchor,) and is understood to 

 comprehend two distinct places, the city of Ollinda and the town of Recife, 

 (so called from the reef in front of it,) with an interval of a league, communi- 

 cating by a narrow sand-bank from north to south, also by an arm of the sea 

 that enters the small river Biberibe, which runs along the said sand-bank from 

 one place to the other, and likewise by a road on the main land, at no great 

 distance from the western margin of the same river. 



Recife, which is the official designation of the capital, the government 

 documents being so signed, is large, populous, and commercial, with tolerable 

 houses, handsome churches, a convent of priests of the congregation of Ora- 

 torio, another of Franciscans, a third of slippered Carmelites, an alms and 

 entertaining house of Terra Santa, another of Italian Barbonios, a recolhimento 

 of women, an episcopal palace, and an hospital of Lazarettos. The Jesuits 

 had a college here, which now constitutes the palace of the governors. This 

 town is divided into three portions, or districts, by the river Capibaribe, namely, 

 Recife, St. Antonio, and Boavista. Each of these forms a separate parish, and 

 they communicate by two bridges ; that of Boavista, which is chiefly of wood, 

 and paved, is three hundred and twenty paces long; that of St. Antonio, two 

 hundred and ninety paces across, was in great part of stone, but having given 

 way, the remainder is imperfectly supplied with wood, not admitting of the 

 passage of a carriage, and has been allowed to remain for a considerable time 

 in this condition, so disreputable to the town. At each end it has a stone arch of 

 rather an elegant construction, above which there are small chapels, niches, and 

 saints, where mass is celebrated. In the street, fronting the niches with saints, 

 many of the inhabitants prostrate themselves, at dusk, for some time in a posture 

 of devotion. The bridges are flat and not many feet above the level of the sea. 



The first part, or the Recife, occupies a peninsula, and is the emporium of 

 the town's commerce, the stores of the merchants being situated in it. The 

 tongue of land, or sand-bank before mentioned, which extends itself from 

 Ollinda to the south between the sea and the river Biberibe, terminates here. 



