402 



PROVINCE OF PARAHIBA. 



archangel whose name it takes. Its inhabitants are Indians, and draw their 

 subsistence from the same occupations as the preceding places. 



MoiJtemor is a vilota, or small town of the descendants of the aborigines, 

 one mde from the northern margin of the Mainanguape, and fifteen from the 

 sea. It had its commencement six miles more distant, where the parish of St. 

 Pedro and St Panlo is situated, for the habitation of the ancestors of its pre- 

 sent inhabitants. The number of whites having greatly increased, and in order 

 to avoid the dissensions which originated with the two hierarchies, it became 

 expedient to separate them ; for which purpose a new aldeia was founded with 

 the name of Preguica, for the establishment of the first, in the situation where 

 the town is. Its church is dedicated to the Lady of Prazeres. The senate 

 of this town resides in the parish of St. Pedro and St. Paulo, better known by 

 the name of Mamanguape, in consequence of being near that river. In the 

 year 1813, when its population and that of its extensive district, had nearly 

 reached fifteen thousand adults, it was dismembered of its western portion 

 for the creation of the parish of N. Senhora of Concei^ao do Brejo d' Area. 



Villa Real. By a law of the 17th of June, 1815, the above new parish of Con- 

 cei^ao, was created a town, with the name of Villa Real do Brejo d' Area, its 

 civil government being assisted by two ordinary judges and three vereadores, or 

 aldermen, with other officers common to tow^ns of the same order. It is seventy 

 miles from Montemor, and cotton is its principal production. 



Villa da Rainha, vulgarly called Campinha Grande, (Large Plain), in conse- 

 quence of being a solitary place, in an extensive plain, one hundred and twenty 

 miles west of the capital, is yet a small town, much frequented, however, in 

 consequence of the royal road, (estrada-real) as it is ludicrously called, of the 

 certam. Paupinna was its name previously to its becoming a town. Its in- 

 habitants drink of a contiguous lake, which failing of water in the years of great 

 drought, obliges them to fetch it upwards of six miles. Its church is dedicated 

 to the Lady of Concei^ao. 



Pombal, a considerable town, speaking comparatively with others of the 

 country, is well situated upon the river Pinhanco, four miles above its mouth, 

 and one hundred and fifty miles south of Villa Nova da Princeza, a town of 

 Rio Grande. It has for nominal patroness the Lady of Bom Siiccesso (good 

 success.) Its inhabitants, mostly whites, live upon the produce of agriculture, 

 and of cattle, which are not numerous. 



Villa Nova de Souza is situated upon the margin of the river Peixe, ten miles 



