PROVINCE OF PARA. 



471 



Its mouth is thirty miles below the Tapajos, and canoes advance up as far as 

 the said lake, whose margins abound in different sorts of birds, that subsist on 

 shell fish. The Uruara, after a short course, is discharged by two mouths below 

 the Curua. 



The Guajara, also of short extent, traverses a very flat territory, where it is 

 divided into various channels, emptying itself by six mouths, generally small, 

 below the Uruara. 



The Uraucu, otherwise Hyuraucu, having a communication with the Guajara, 

 enters the Amazons above the Zingu, with which it also communicates in three 

 places. 



It is not ascertained yet whether there are mines of any ores in the southern 

 part of this district. 



Various aboriginal nations, it is much to be regretted, hitherto occupy this 

 fine district, even to the immediate vicinity of the Portuguese establishments, 

 which do not extend beyond the margins of the rivers that limit it, and whose 

 adjacent territories are thickly covered with majestic woods of trees, whose 

 stems are of immense span and height, the soil being of admirable substance 

 and fertility, and well suited to every branch of agriculture. Nature here pro- 

 duces spontaneously the clove, cupahyba, (or capivi,) pechurim, and cocoa trees, 

 with sarsaparilla, ipecacuanha, jalap, and other medicinal drugs. Amongst 

 other nations who possessed the adjacent lands of the Tapajos, and were dis- 

 persed by the Mundrucus, were the Hyauains, of whom nothing is known at 

 the present day. 



Souzel is a middling town, situated in the skirts of a mount, bordering the 

 Zingu, which is the best supplier of water to its inhabitants, mostly Indians, 

 who are occupied in hunting, fishing, and the cultivation of different articles. 

 It is one hundred and ten miles distant from the Amazons, has an earthenware 

 manufactory, and may become more considerable with the increase of whites, 

 and when the navigation of the river is extended to the districts of Sappiraquia 

 and Arinos. 



Santarem, a large and flourishing town, situated within the embouchure of 

 the river Tapajos, is the port or calling-place of canoes that navigate towards 

 Matto-Grosso and the high Amazons, and also the depository of a great quan- 

 tity of cocoa, whose trees have been carefully cultivated in the surrounding- 

 country, the soil being well adapted for them. 



Its beginning was an aldeia with the name of the river, and founded by the 

 Jesuits for the habitation of an Indian horde. It has a church of Nossa Senhora 



