436 



PROVINCE OF MAR AN HAM. 



a povoa^ao, which he called Vera Cruz, and died in the twelfth year of his 

 government. 



In 1641, when John IV. again had an ambassador at the Dutch court, which 

 had recognised him as the legitimate sovereign of Portugal, a Dutch vessel 

 arrived at Maranham, under the pretence of having been driven there by a 

 violent tempest, and requested that assistance which in such cases is customary 

 for friendly nations to afford to each other. The credulous friendship of the 

 governor was taken advantage of by the Dutch, who suddenly possessed 

 themselves of the capital, and with facility subjugated the rest of the province ; 

 from whence, however, they were expelled by the Portuguese in 1643. 



All the governors of this province had not the titles of captains-general of 

 the state ; occasionally Grand Para enjoyed this pre-eminence. All proceedings 

 that admitted of appeal after the sentence of the magistrates, in all the pro- 

 vinces, were always referred to the court, and their bishops immediately upon 

 creation became suffragans of the metropolitan of Lisbon. 



The subjec;tion of the Portuguese nation to a foreign sceptre, the pretensions 

 of the Dutch to the Brazil, afterwards the prolonged war preceding the 

 reversion of the crown, and, finally, the alleged long existing destructive 

 abuses of the Braganza family, are adduced as plausible reasons for the 

 unflourishing state of the Brazil for nearly a century and a half. 



With the change of hemisphere the first colonists are also said to have changed 

 their customs, entering into the pursuits of agriculture with no spirit, alike 

 regarding improvement and instruction with indifference, and preferruig the 

 idiom of the barbarous Tupinambas to their own. The various Jesuitical 

 missionaries, however, made great progress in the conversion of the Indi- 

 ans, and in which they would have been more successful had not the 

 colonists degenerated so much and relaxed in their obedience to the laws. The 

 Portuguese language began to be generally used in the year 1755, and at this 

 epoch agriculture assumed a more flourishing aspect, in consequence of the 

 creation of a public company, which included the province of Para. Its capital 

 amounted to one million two hundred thousand crusades, which was raised by 

 twelve hundred shares ; the possession of ten shares rendered each individual 

 eligible to the administration of the affairs of the company, which was decried 

 by some as introductory of ignorance and a system of destruction. 



This province is bounded on the north by the ocean, on the west by the pro- 

 vince of Para, on the south by those of Goyaz and Piauhy, and on the east by the 



