KOTES ON BRAZIL. 



231 



St. Pedro do Norte consists of about a hundred miserable huts, 

 placed irregularly among loose and lofty hills of sand ; even in what are 

 called the streets, the passengers are up to the ancles. Yet here is 

 shipped the greater part of the produce of the country, from hence all 

 outward-bound vessels must take their clearances, and here are the 

 warehouses for the King's Fifths, a tax levied on all hides exported. 

 Here too is an independent Civil Jurisdiction, a Governor, and subordi- 

 nate Officers ; but the Military are under the direction of the Governor 

 on the Southern side of the harbour. 



Having heard that there were some Indian Sepulchres to the North 

 of the village, I set out to explore them, but could not discover the least 

 trace of any thing of the kind ; if they ever existed, they are probably 

 overwhelmed by the sand. Some heaps of muscle shells, near Mustardos, 

 are also pointed out as marks of the abode of the ancient inhabitants, 

 near the spot. But I have so often been deceived by collections of 

 marine remains in unnatural situations, as immediately to suspect 

 the deductions drawn from them. In this instance, the muscle heaps 

 are I believe, nothing more than the residue of shells collected by 

 the early Portuguese Settlers, which they were accustomed to 

 convert into lime, wherewith to whiten their churches and larger 

 buildings. 



To the East of the village appears an uniform, dreary desert of sand^ 

 blown up into hillsj some of them two hundred feet high. They have 

 generally rounded summits, are steepest on the windward side, and to 

 the leeward throw out spurs, connected by a lower and curved ridge, 

 exhibiting in miniature the contour of our micaceous sand^stone 

 mountains. 



The road proceeds Northward, along the Peninsula lying between 

 the Lagoa dos Patos and the Ocean, one of which is almost constantly 

 in sight. Having proceeded about twelve miles, the land narrows to a 

 single league, and hence is called the Estreito. Near at hand is a village> 

 the first, it is said, which the Portuguese built in this part of the country. 

 It was the Capital until 1750, and seems to have been established a 



