AND JOUIINEY TO THE RIO DOCE. 



167 



Coroados and Piiris. We also heard of another tribe, denominated 

 Xipotos, which are reported to inhabit the country higher up, 

 between the river Doce and the Sauanha ; but these statements of 

 the names of different tribes of the aboriginal inhabitants are not to 

 be depended on. Farther on, from the Sauanha to the Mucuri, 

 the sea-coast is inhabited almost entirely by single families of In- 

 dians. They speak the Portuguese language only, have exchanged 

 their bow and arrows for the musket ; even their dwellings differ very 

 little from those of the Portuguese settlers ; their principal occupations 

 are agriculture and the sea-fishery. To the north of the Sauanha, 

 the whole coast is covered with thick woods. In a few hours you 

 come to the river Pyrakaassu (great fish river), as the Indians origi- 

 nally called it. Here at the harra or mouth, is a hamlet of a few 

 houses, which is called Aldea Velha; and rather higher up the river, 

 a considerable village founded by the Jesuits, who collected a great 

 number of Indians on this spot. Their chief subsistence is derived 

 from shell and other fish ; whence great heaps of shells are still found 

 on the bank of the river. Some persons have been inclined to ascribe 

 to them a different origin, but several writers confirm the statement 

 of the savages being great oyster-eaters, and circumstances sufficiently 

 explain the matter ; it cannot therefore be doubted that these ac- 

 cumulations of shells originate from the repasts of the ancient in- 

 habitants of this tract. When, in the sequel, several Portuguese 

 planters settled on the Pyrakaass6, the Jesuits are said to have taken 

 away part of the Indians who previously dwelt here, and founded 

 with them Villa Nova, in order to keep them apart from the Portu- 

 guese. 



We reached Aldea Velha in the evening. After turning a point of 

 land that runs into the sea, we found ourselves all at once by the 

 side of the fine broad river, which issues from its wood-covered banks 

 and falls into the sea. Aldea Velha consists of six or seven straw 



