394 



PROVINCE OF PARAHIBA. 



CHAP. XVIII. 



' PROVINCE OF PARAHIBA. 



Extent — Capitania of Itamaraca — Slow Advancement — Taken by the Dutch — 

 Restoration — Capes and Ports — Rivers — Mountains — Zoology — Phytology — 

 Povoagoes — Capital — Sritish Establishments — Produce. 



This province was originally the capitania of Itamaraca, or rather it compre- 

 hends almost two-thirds of it, not comprising at the present day more than sixty 

 miles of coast, computing from the river Goyanna to the bay of Marcos, which 

 is three miles to the north of the river Camaratiba ; the province of Pernam- 

 buco having taken twenty to twenty-five miles from it on the southern side, and 

 Rio Grande fifteen to twenty on the northern. 



The capitania of Itamaraca was never more than a portion of that whic h 

 John III. gave to Pedro Lopez de Souza in 1534. The other portion of this 

 donation selected in the immediate vicinity of his brother's capitania of St. 

 Vincente, was denominated St. Amaro ; and Itamaraca, being situated at so 

 great a distance from it, experienced less attention, and was so much neglected 

 that, forty years afterwards, there was not an establishment except in the island 

 of Itamaraca, where the colonists did not exceed two hundred families, with 

 three sugar works ; and the French entered without interruption the ports of the 

 continent in search of Brazil wood. 



It is affirmed that the parish of Nossa Senhora of Concei^ao, in the island of 

 Itamaraca, was the first povoa^ao, and also for a considerable period the capital 

 of the capitania; but, as the year of its foundation is not known, we are left in 

 ignorance as to the precise epoch of the disembarkation of the first colonists. 



In the short reign of King Henry, in consequence of the incapacity of the 

 donatory to promote its colonization, Joam Tavarez was ordered by the governor- 

 ' general, Lourenco da Veyga, to proceed to this capitania, for the purpose of 

 founding a prezidio in the island of Camboa, situated in the river Parahiba; 

 which was removed by Captain Fructicozo Barboza to the situation of Cabe- 

 dello, where being greatly annoyed by the Indians, Manuel Telles, governor of 



