476 



PRQVINCE OF PARA. 



Paraxiau, and ultimately to its present situation, where it was in the year 1756, 

 when King Joseph gave it the title of town. It always took the name of the 

 situation where it stood, its various removals being caused by the persecutions 

 which the inhabitants experienced from the Mura tribe. 



Contiguous to this town there is a populous aldeia of unchristianized Muras, 

 the descendants of those who formerly annoyed the first inhabitants : they have 

 taken refuge here from the attacks of the Mundrucus. 



Villaboim, yet very small, upon the left bank of the Tapajos, and eighteen 

 miles from the Amazons, is a town well situated : its soil being susceptible of 

 various lucrative branches of agriculture, affords a probability of its future 

 augmentation. The inhabitants are Indians, and the church is dedicated to 

 St. Ignacio. 



Pinhel, a small town, and well situated upon the margin of the Tapajos, 

 fifteen miles above Villaboim, has a church dedicated to St. Joze. Its dwellers, 

 almost all Indians, cultivate what they deem necessary, and pursue hunting 

 and shooting, and collect some of the objects of trade, which nature has pro- 

 duced in its fertile vicinity. 



Villanova de Santa Cruz, ten miles above Pinhel and almost in front of 

 Aveyro, is yet insignificant. The houses which form it are generally very 

 miserable, and its Mundrucanan inhabitants are hunters, fishermen, and cul- 

 tivators only of some necessaries, as is the ease with all the places of this 

 district. The increase of Europeans, however, would, with adequate industry, 

 render its environs abundantly productive in every article of agriculture, the 

 richness of the soil promising the utmost success. 



At a considerable distance above Villa Nova de St. Cruz, upon the western 

 margin of the Tapajos, there is an aldeia inhabited by another horde of Mun- 

 drucus, yet unchristianized, but having their plantations of Indian corn ; while 

 some are already partially clothed, and the women wear a species of dress 

 also of cotton, called a sayote. 



A catechist, a blacksmith, a carpenter, acquainted with agriculture, and a 

 woman-weaver are deemed sufficient to commence a povoa^ao in this fertile 

 country, which, with industry, will doubtless soon become flourishing and use- 

 ful to the state. 



