PROVINCE or SOLIMOES. 



477 



CHAP. XXIV. 



PROVINCE OF SOLIMOES. 



Jurisdictioti — Origin of its Name — Boundaries and Extend — Partially knoivn — 

 Division into Six Districts — Rivers — Various Indians — Customs — Povoa- 

 goes. 



The province of Solimoes, and the western part of Guianna, with the 

 western portion of Mundrucania, form a government, subordinate to Grand 

 Para. The eastern part of Guianna is immediately under the jurisdiction of 

 Para. The first Portuguese who proceeded up the Amazons, from the mouth 

 of Rio Negro, gave it the name of Solimoes, by which it is yet designated ; 

 not in allusion to the venoms with which the Indians of these latitudes, 

 as well as those of the low Amazons, infected their arrows, nor to the tribes 

 inhabiting the banks of Rio Negro, who used the same weapon, but to the 

 nation denominated Soriman, and, by corruption, Solimao and Solimoes. 



The province of Solimoes is bounded on the north by the river of the same 

 name, or rather the Amazons ; on the west by the Hyabary, which separates it 

 from the Spanish dominions ; on the south by the same dominions, the divi- 

 sionary line between the two territories having been adjusted by the Portuguese 

 and Spanish commissioners in the year 1751, and ratified in 1757 ; and on 

 the east by the Madeira. 



It is two hundred and fifty miles on the eastern side, from north to south, 

 nearly six hundred miles from east to west, and lies between 3° 23' and 7° 30' 

 south latitude. It is a country but little known excepting along the Madeira, 

 and in the vicinity of the Amazons : it is occupied by numerous Indian nations, 

 speaking divers idioms, and watered by many large and navigable rivers. It 

 produces all the quadrupeds, reptiles, and birds of the provinces, eastward of 

 the river Madeira ; a vast variety of plants and trees known to be of great 

 utility, amongst which are the clove, cupahyba, or capivi, cocoa, elastic gum, 

 puchery, and cotton. It is well known also that the soil is highly adapted to 

 the culture of Indian corn, rice, legumes, the cane, tobacco, mandioco, cofll<% 



