TO CARAVELLAS, &C. 



199 



very large river, which issues from thick forests ; mangrove bushes on 

 its banks give it a pleasant appearance. 



Villa de St. Jose do Port Allegre, commonly called De Mucuri, is 

 situated on the north bank of the river near its mouth. It is a small 

 place, consisting of thirty or forty houses, in the middle of v^^hich 

 there is a little chapel, and forms a quadrangle, open on the side next 

 to the sea. The houses are small, and almost all of them covered with 

 straw : sheep, swine, and goats feed in the space in the centre. The 

 inhabitants, who are chiefly Indians, are poor, and have no trade ; 

 they sometimes export a little mandiocca-flour, but there are no 

 sugar manufactories here on the river ; only the escrivam of the villa 

 (town clerk) sells some brandy and other necessaries of life. There 

 is also an ecclesiastic here, and two of the inhabitants fill by turns the 

 ofifice of jiiiz (judge), as in all the towns in Bra;;ii. 



Padre Vigario Mendes, the clergyman of ihe place, is the only 

 person in these parts who has a pretty considerable /<7^e?«^/tf . He has 

 some cows there, which supply him with miil:, a great rarity on this 

 coast. Mr. Mendes, to whom we were particularly recommended by 

 the minister, Conde da Barca, received us very politely. The minister 

 possesses considerable tracts of land in these parts on the banks of 

 the Mucuri, and measures were then taking to secure them from the 

 savages. 



The forests of this country abound in the most valuable kinds of 

 wood. In order to turn them to advantage, it was intended to build 

 a saw-miil ; and a millwright from Thuringia, of the name of Kramer, 

 was commissioned to erect it. Almost all the fine species of wood 

 of the whole east coast are here found together : jacaranda, oiticica, 

 jiquitiba, vinhatico, cedro, caicheta, ipe, peroba, putumuju, pao 

 Brazil, &c. But as this country was still wholly in the possession of 

 the Patachos, and the wild beasts, and it was therefore not possible 



