460 



PROVINCE OF PARA. 



qiience of tlie similarity of its snout or head to that animal, is the largest, and 

 feeds upon herbs which grow upon the margins, without going out of the river. 

 It is viviparous and gives milk to its young like the whale, and has extremely 

 small eyes ; the flesh is like veal and of a good flavour, of which is also made 

 sausages, called mixiras ; the oil extracted from it not only serves for lights but 

 for seasoning various eatables. The Dutch, when they had a footing in these 

 parts, derived a lucrative branch of commerce from this fish. The pirarucu is 

 large, and esteemed good ; its tongue serves the Indians for a rasp to grate the 

 guarana fruit ; the internal parts, after being dried in the sun, form a good glue, 

 and when reduced to powder exceed every thing for clarifying coffee. Allega- 

 tors are numerous and very large ; and the tortoise is very bulky and abundant, 

 but its shell is of no value : it is amphibious, and deposits at one time more than 

 a hundred eggs in holes which it makes in the sand at a short distance from the 

 water, covering them over ; the heat of the sun hatches them, and the young, 

 disengaging themselves from the sand, immediately proceed to the river; many, 

 however, in this short march, are devoured by the hawk. 



The river Moju, which is spacious and deep, even as far as the tide reaches, 

 originates in the territory of the Camecran Indians beyond the woods, which it 

 afterwards traverses northward until it enters the bay of Guajara. In the forests 

 or woods above mentioned, consisting of most excellent timber, and where the 

 chestnut- tree of the country abounds, there is a great scarcity of game, caused, 

 no doubt, by the continued huntings of the Ammanius, Pochetys, Appinages, 

 and Norogages, tribes of Indians who dwell in the circumjacent country. The 

 want of this resource is the alleged reason for establishments not having been 

 formed in the fertile territory watered by this river, navigable to its centre. 



The Camecran Indians are divided into five hordes, distinguished by as many 

 pre-names, namely, Ma-camecran, Crore-camecran, Pore-camecran, Cha-came- 

 cran, and Pio-camecran, the whole being very similar in their language and 

 customs. The Ma-camecrans live at present in a state of pacific intermixture 

 with the inhabitants of the new arraial of St. Pedro d' Alcantara, belonging to 

 the jurisdiction of Goyaz. 



Forty miles above the mouth of the Moju there is a narrow, winding, and ex- 

 tensive strait, denominated Iguarapemirim, which is a channel of communica- 

 tion between this river and the Tucantins, thus forming an island of thirty-five 

 miles from north to south, and twenty at its greatest width. The Acara, also 

 considerable, affords navigation to the agriculturists upon its adjacent lands, 

 divided into various parishes, and loses its name on entering the Moju by the 



