400 



PROVINCE OF P PvAHlBA. 



were sent from thence in ballast to Parahiba to take in produce, the major part of 

 which was purchased with specie remitted for the purpose, and not with the pro- 

 ceeds of goods sold here. The balance of specie in favour of this city, in its inter- 

 change of commodities with the British merchant, may arise from various causes. 

 The two or three merchants at Rio de Janeiro, who supply the government with 

 naval and military stores, receive bills in payment upon the Provincial or 

 fora treasuries, and the specie thus and by other remittances coming into the 

 Pernambuco market beyond the returns for goods sold, create an extra demand 

 for produce, arising from the impossibility of transmitting those funds to Eng- 

 land in any other way; and thus part of the specie finds its way to this city, from 

 an expectation of its being disposed of to better advantage. Two circumstances 

 concur in producing this result ; — in the first place, a considerable part of the 

 ]iroduce of the province of Parahiba, till very recently, was brought to the 

 market of Pernambuco ; but the measures of the governor to confine the pro- 

 ductions of the district under his jurisdiction to an exit by the head town, in 

 order that the treasury may not be deprived of its revenue, has led to a con- 

 centration of the objects of exportation in this city, a direct transit to England 

 being opened for them by the establishments mentioned, and whose object, in 

 forwarding them at a lower rate than from Pernambuco, is at all events in the 

 second place accomplished by an exemption from consulage duties. 



One of the merchants settled here visited Pernambuco in the early part of 

 1820, whilst I was there, and purchased a cargo of hacalhao, or salt fish, from 

 Newfoundland, being the sixth vessel which had arrived at Recife so laden in 

 the course of two months, and this was the first entire cargo that had sailed 

 from Pernambuco to Parahiba, demonstrating that this city is in a progressive 

 state of commercial improvement. 



In its environs the necessaries of life are cultivated, and the sugar cane, for 

 which there are various engenhos, principally going by water. Towards the 

 interior plantations of the cotton tree are to be seen, especially in the certam of 

 Crumatahu. 



Previous to the revolution at Pernambuco, which is said to have extended 

 its baneful consequences to this province, particularly to the vicinity of this 

 city, where the sugar is principally grown, the export of that article exceeded nine 

 hundred chests annually, each containing fifty arrobas, or sixteen hundred 

 pounds; but in 1819 the amount did not reach much above four hundred chests. 



Notwithstanding sugar has diminished, the production of cotton is increasing 

 rapidly. In 181G it was nine thousand bags; in 1819 it reached seventeen thou- 



