TO THE RIO GRANDE DE BELMONTE. 



265 



against which the awful ocean, with incessant never-varying motion, 

 rolls its hollow-sounding waves. 



In these gloomy apartments of the ancient building, through which 

 the winds whistle, where the Jesuits once exercised their power, we 

 feel with peculiar force the vicissitudes of time. The cells once so 

 animated with busy life, are now desolate, and silent bats harbour in 

 the ancient walls. Of the library, which formerly existed here, not 

 a trace is now left. 



The river of Porto Seguro, called in the ancient Indian language, 

 Buranhem, has a very good harm, or mouth, covered by a projecting 

 reef of rocks, with a stony bottom ; it is deep, and very advantageous 

 to the commerce of the town, which is by no means inconsiderable. 

 There belong to it about forty of the little two-masted vessels, called 

 lanchas, which go out to catch the garupa and inero, two kinds of 

 sea-fish, and always remain from four to six weeks at sea ; they then 

 return, each with a cargo of 1500 or 2000 salt fish, of which the 

 town exports from 90 to 100,000 in a year. Some are consumed in 

 the place itself, and the rest sent to Bahia, and other ports. As the 

 fish are sold upon an average at from 160 to 200 reas a-piece, this 

 trade produces a considerable profit to the town. Yet among the 

 2600 inhabitants, whom it is said to contain, there are very few in 

 easy circumstances, most of them being deficient in the industry 

 requisite to improve their condition. They generally exchange their 

 fish at Bahia, and other places, for various necessaries, and consume 

 a great part of their salt fish themselves, which are therefore their 

 chief subsistence. Hence many persons here are afflicted with 

 the scurvy ; and the traveller, as soon as he enters the town, is im- 

 mediately surrounded by a crowd of poor sickly objects. There is 

 very little agriculture, and but few of the inhabitants possess planta- 

 tions ; so that they procure the chief part of the mandiocca flour 



2 u 



