PROVINCE OF MARANHAM. 



433 



CHAP. XXII. 



PROVINCE OF MARANHAM. 



First Donatory Shipwreck of Persons intended for its Colonization — Establish- 

 ment of the French— Retaken — Foundation of Capital — Taken by the Dutch — 

 Retaken — Agricultural Company — Boundaries — Rivers, Ports, atia Islands — 

 Mineralogy — Phytology - Zoology— Indians — Povoagoes — City of Maranham 

 — Commerce — Exports of Produce. 



John IIT. was more peculiarly attentive to the prosperity and impovement 

 of the Brazil, than any other of the Portuguese sovereigns, the exception 



of the present monarch, John VI. whose salutary administration of power 

 in the Transatlantic part of his dominions, may be regarded as the result of 

 those important events in Europe, which led to the removal of the Royal Family 

 to this region, and the consequent introduction of a more liberal intercourse with 

 other nations. But these benefits are but the dawnings of future civilization and 

 improvement. 



John III. in pursuance of his good wishes towards the Brazil, determined 

 to partition the coast into capitanias, and that denominated Maranhao, was pre- 

 sented by his Majesty to the historian Joam de Barros. It is probable that this 

 part of the coast had acquired that name from the circumstance of V; Y. Pinson, 

 after his discovery of Cape St. Augustin, having entered a gulf or the mouth 

 of a great river, which was unquestionably the Amazons, and whose waters not 

 possessing the saline qualities of the ocean, he called Mara-non, (not sea.) 

 Hence followed the Portuguese denomination of this territory Maranhao, and 

 Maranham by the English, resulting from the false notion which the Portuguese 

 at first entertained that it was the great river. Its donatory, Joam de Barros, 

 being a man of noble spirit, and determined to do the utmost for the coloniza- 

 tion of this important donation, united with his own inadequate means those 

 of the Cavalheiros Fernando Alvarez and Ayres da Cunha. It was unani- 

 mously agreed that Ayres da Cunha should be intrusted with the settlement 



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