444 



PROVINCE OF MARANHAM. 



capable of receiving sumacas, and possessing greater depth than any other of 

 the Parnahyba. 



Considerably to the southward, and two miles from the Parnahyba, is the 

 parish of St. Bernardo d' Annapuru, cotton being the production of its diversi- 

 fied population. 



Vinhaes is a small town, three miles to the east of the capital, situated in the 

 same island, upon a stream of its name, with a church dedicated to St. Joam 

 Baptista. The houses are constructed of wood, and covered with straw, and 

 its inhabitants are Indians, who fish, and cultivate various necessaries of life ; 

 they also make mats of miassava for trimming ships and cords of imbe. 



Passo do Lumiar is the most populous town of Indians in the whole pro- 

 vince, and is in the centre of the island, upon the river St. Joam. The church 

 is of stone, dedicated to Our Lady of Luz, and its inhabitants are of divers 

 nations, cultivating excellent tobacco, rice, mandioca, &c. ; they are also wood- 

 cutters and fishermen. 



In the eastern extremity of the island there is a considerable aldeia, plea- 

 santly situated, with a hermitage of St. Joze, from which the bay already 

 mentioned takes the name. 



This island is of medium altitude, the soil in general fertile, and appropriated 

 to different branches of agriculture. 



Maranham, or St. Luiz, the capital of the province, is a city advanced to 

 rather more than a state of mediocrity, having about thirty thousand inhabitants; 

 and, although it may be said to rank the lowest among four great commercial 

 cities of the Brazil, yet its amount of commerce is not far short of Pernambuco, 

 and it certainly has maintained a progression of improvement with the latter 

 city, as well as Bahia, since the removal of the Royal Family to this region. It 

 is situated upon the western part of the island of the same name, between the 

 mouth of two streams, rendered important rivers by the addition of the tide, 

 which advances nearly to their origins, and swells them considerably. The one 

 north of the city is called the St. Francisco, as far as the confluence of the 

 Anil with that of Vinhaes, neither of which are more than six miles in extent. 

 The other, on the south, denominated the Maranham, is a handsome current, 

 and receives by its northern margin tlie Baccanga. 



This town was created a bishopric in the year 1676, and is ornamented with 

 a house of Misericord ia, convents of slippered Carmelites, of Mercenaries, and 

 of Franciscans ; a recolhimento for w^omen, and a hospital. The ci-devant 

 Jesuitical college is converted into the episcopal palace, and its church into the 



