412 



PROVINCE OF SIARA. 



CHAP. XX. 



PROVINCE OF SIARA. 



Colonizatioti — Boundaries — Indians — Taken hy the Dutch — Restored — Moun- 

 tains — Mineralogy — Zoology — Phytology — Rivers and Lakes — Povoagoes. 



It is not recorded whether the territory of this province had any other dona- 

 tories besides the unfortunate Joam de Barros and Luis de Mello, nor is the 

 precise epoch known of the foundation of the prezidios, or garrisons, from which 

 commenced the colonization that existed upon the coast in 1603, when Captain 

 Pedro Coelho de Souza, arrived there by orders of the governor of the state, 

 with eighty Portuguese and eight hundred Indians, in various caravels, for the 

 purpose of destroying the alliance Mons. Bombille, a Frenchman, had formed 

 with the celebrated Mel Redondo, principal chief of the Serra Hibiapaba, from 

 which considerable injury resulted to the prezidios. He received some people 

 from them to enable him the better to execute the project, which he accomplish- 

 ed by subjecting this Indian to the Portuguese crown. On his return, Pedro 

 Coelho entered the river Jaguaribe, merely with the intention of making some 

 observations; but discovering a great number of advantages which it presented, 

 he determined to commence a city there with his party: and having ordered 

 his family to join him from Parahiba, he continued occupied in the foundation of 

 the colony with the name of Nova Lisboa, (New Lisbon ;) but shortly afterwards 

 he was obliged by the Indians to desist from the undertaking, and returned 

 to Parahiba. 



Duarthe d' Albuquerque Coelho, writer of the war of Pernarabuco, where he 

 was donatory, affirms from ocular testimony, that Martim Soares Moreno, who 

 belonged to the principal prezidio of Siara, came in the year 1631, to succour him 

 against the Dutch, with an auxiliary force of Indians, in whose language he was 

 well versed, and was named the first governor of that prezidio by the King ; it 

 being also certain that he commanded it in 1613, when, leaving in his place 

 Estevam de Campos, he accompanied Jeronymo d' Albuquerque in the first 

 attempt against the French who were established in the island of Maranham ; 



