PROVINCE OF RIO GRANDE DO NORTE. 



411 



trade with foreign nations, a detachment is maintained here, supplied and 

 annually exchanged from Pernambuco. Some criminals are sent here to pass 

 the period of their degradation, who cultivate a small portion of mandioca, with 

 some fruits from the continent, and breed some cattle, sheep, and goats. The 

 rigid prohibition by the government of the entrance, till recently, of any female 

 to this island with the colony, is a circumstance highly discreditable to their 

 policy. A brother-in-law of General Rego returned from the government of 

 this island when I was at Pernambuco, and from him I understood that females 

 were now admitted into the colony. Rats are here exceedingly numerous, also 

 the rolla bird. There are a great number of wild mountain cats, descended 

 from those which had fled from the houses ; they carry on a continued warfare 

 against the rolla. It has good water, and eight or ten small forts, destined to 

 defend those places where a disembarkation might be effected. In the year 

 1738 King John V. ordered these fortifications to be constructed, after the ex- 

 pulsion of the pirates who had established themselves here. Ships falling short 

 of water occasionally visit this place for a supply. 



To the north, and separated from it by a narrow channel, is the island of 

 Rates, (Rats,) three miles long, less stony, and more woody than the other, 

 and where the degradados have formed plantations of the cotton tree. It is 

 remarked that the animals from which this island derives its name did not exist 

 here some few years ago. In the channel there is a hollow stone, where the 

 sea bursts forth with a loud noise. 



3 G 2 



