410 



PROVINCE OF Rio GRANDE DO NORTE. 



are raised in tlie vicinity of the capital. The salt-pits employ many people, and 

 their proceeds form a considerable branch of commerce. Villa Nova do Prin- 

 cipe, formerly Cayco, is a middling town, and well situated upon the river 

 Serido, twenty-five miles above its mouth. St. Anna is patroness of the 

 church, and the inhabitants of various complexions drink the water of the river, 

 upon the margins of which feijao, hortulans, Indian corn, and tobacco are 

 cultivated. In its district there are the hermitages of St. Anna do Pe da Serra, 

 of St. Anna do Campo Grande, and of St. Luzia, which are expected to become 

 parishes with the increase of population. 



Portalegre is a considerable town, situated upon the serra of its name, near 

 seventy miles from the sea and eight to the west of the Appody. St. Joam 

 Baptista is the nominal patron of its church, and its inhabitants, composed of 

 Europeans, whites of the country, and Indians, respire fresh and salubrious 

 air, and derive excellent water from two perennial founts. The Indians, whose 

 numbers are much inferior to the whites, aie descendants principally of three 

 colonies, which their conquerors established here, namely the Payacus, who 

 possessed the margins of the Appody, the Icos, who were masters of those of 

 the river Peixe, and the Pannaties, who inhabited the serra of their name. 

 Cotton and mandioca are its exports. 



The eastern limits of the district of this town are common with those of the 

 parish of St. John the Baptist of Appody. In its vicinity, near a stream, below 

 a tree, there is a small spring of tepid water, called Agua do Milho. It is 

 necessary to draw it out with a small vessel into a larger one, when any person 

 wishes to bathe. 



The town of St. Joze, which took the Lady of O. for its patroness, is in a 

 state of mediocrity, agreeably and well situated. Mipibu was its first name, 

 and it is nearly thirty miles south of the capital, fifteen from the ocean, and 

 three from the lake Groahyras. The inhabitants are agricultural Indians and 

 whites. 



About four miles from it is the small povoa^ao of Papary, near the lake of 

 Groahyras, with a chapel of Our Lady of O. and inhabited by whites, who 

 are employed in fishing. 



About two hundred and fifty miles to the east-north- east of Cape St. Roque is 

 the island of f'ernando de Noronha, discovered by a Portuguese of that name, 

 being ten miles long, of proportionate width, generally mountainous and stony, 

 with so few and such small portions of land susceptible of cultivation, that it 

 could not roaintaiu a diminutive colony. In order to impede a contraband 



