PROVINCE OF PARAHIBA. 



399 



Parabiba, denominated a city, in a state of mediocrity and populous, is 

 situated upon tbe rigbt bank, ten miles above the embouchure of the river of 

 its name, near the confluence of the small river Unhaby. It is ornamented 

 with a house of misericordia and its hospital ; a convent of Franciscans, ano- 

 ther of slippered Carmelites, and a third of Benedictines ; five hermitages, that 

 of Bom Jesus for the soldiers, Santo Cruz, St. Pedro Gonsalves, Our Lady of 

 Rozario for the blacks, and May dos Homens for the mulattoes ; also two hand- 

 some fountains of good water. It is the capital of the province, the residence 

 of its governor, and of the ouvidor, whose jurisdiction extends also to the pro- 

 vince of Rio Grande. It has its high-sounding royal professors of the primitive 

 letters and Latin, and a junta of real fazenda, (the treasury.) Its only mother 

 church is dedicated to Nossa Senhora das Neves. The Jesuits had a college 

 here, which serves at the present day for the palace of the governors ; they 

 possessed another for recreation, at a distance of five miles on the beach of 

 Tambahu, where there is an entertaining house of Franciscans. The principal 

 streets are paved, and there are some good houses. The river, whose entrance 

 is defended by two frontier forts, a league distant, is here a mile in width, 

 forming a good port for sumacas. Ships can only advance a little higher up 

 than the forts. A Juiz de Fora was granted to this city in the year ] 813. 



The Dutch exchanged its primitive name for that of Friderica, in honour of 

 the Prince of Orange, and presented it with a sugar-loaf for arms, in allusion to 

 the excellent quality of that article, which was made in this district, and in pur- 

 suance of the plan they had adopted of granting similar armorial emblems of 

 some leading object or production peculiar to the districts or capitanias then 

 under their dominion. 



An Englishman, a Scotchman, and an Irishman have recently settled in this 

 city, and it is to be hoped, that an union will exist in their commercial opera- 

 tions, and that they will be induced to go liand-in-hand, thereby precluding that 

 competition, which has been already alluded to as militating so seriously in 

 other places against the interest of the merchant and manufacturer. These 

 establishments were formed in conjunction with the merchants of Pernambuco, 

 and from hence they receive supplies of manufactured goods, the returns for 

 which are transmitted direct to England in sugar and cotton principally. Be- 

 sides, additional sums of specie sent from Pernambuco to those merchants for 

 the purchase of produce, give this city the advantage of disposing of a greater 

 portion of the productions of the province than the amount of British commo- 

 dities consumed in it. During my stay at Pernambuco two or three vessels 



