PROVINCE OF GUIANNA. 



495 



Negro, is the embouchure of the river Cassiquiary, being a channel of one 

 hundred and eighty miles, opened by nature, and forming a communication 

 between the two immense rivers, the Oronoco and the Amazons. 



In 1756, there were only eight missions upon the Rio Negro, viz. Jahu, Pe 

 dreira, Aracary, Camara, Maryua, Bararua, Camaru, and Dary. The first is 

 the nearest, and the last is the most distant from the fort upon the bar of the 

 said river. 



Upon the margins of the Rio Branco are the parishes of St. Maria, St. Joara 

 Baptista, Nossa Senhora do Carmo, St. Fillipe, St. Antonio, St. Barbara, and St. 

 Joaquim with a fort, which is eleven hundred miles distant from the city of 

 Para, and from sixty to seventy days' voyage. The inhabitants are Indians ; 

 and the houses of the whole are covered with palm branches. Amongst the 

 beautiful birds peculiar to the vicinity of the Rio Negro, is one called the gallo 

 da serra, (the cock of the serra,) a little larger than the blackbird, with strong 

 legs, having spurs like a cock, with a similar beak ; its plumage is exceedingly 

 beautiful, of an orange colour, with a bunch of feathers, in the form of a fan, 

 open from the neck almost to the point of the bill, being of the same colour, 

 with a rose-coloured stripe near the border. These birds are very rare. 



Cayenna, a considerable town, and well situated in the northern part of the 

 island, upon the embouchure of the river of the same name, on ground rather 

 elevated, is encircled with walls, which are only of stone on the side of the port, 

 where there is a gate and a wooden bridge. All the edifices are of earth, with 

 two or three steps at the entrance. The palace of the governors is not higher, 

 and is surrounded with orange trees, having a square in front. There is a fort, 

 denominated the Citadel, in the most elevated situation, being almost its only 

 defence. It is the only remarkable town in the ex- French Guianna, which that 

 nation commonly called Equinoctial France, whose northern limit is the river 

 Marony. In the treaty of Utrecht, the river Vincent Pinson, was named as the 

 common limit between Portuguese and French Guianna, the engagement of 

 the French Monarch on this subject was conceived in the following terms : 



" Sa Majeslese desistei a pour toujours comme elle se desiste des a present par ce 

 " traite dans les termes les phis forts, et les plus authentiqnes, et avec toiUes les 

 " causes riquises comme se elles Hoient insertes ici, taut en son tiom, qu ert celui de ses 

 " hoirs, successeurs, et hSriiiers de tons droits et pretentions, queue peat on 

 " pourra prelendre sur la propriele des terres ap^.ellees du Cap du JSord, et 

 " situies entre la riviere des Amasones et celle de lapoe, ou de Vincent Pinson, 



