588 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



some connection with Foreigners, and invites a greater degree of notice. 

 Rio de Janeiro, however, not only wishes to monopolize this trade, but 

 is rightly jealous of separate interests and independent views. 



The Coasting Trade of Brazil, to the North of Hio, will likewise be 

 advantageously divided into districts. Those of Cape Frio and Campos 

 properly belong to Rio de Janeiro, and furnish no communication with 

 the interior beyond their own boundaries. Espirito Santo is precisely in 

 the same case, if we except the fine port from which it takes its name. 



Porto Seguro comprehends some fine rivers, which must shortly be 

 open to general commerce. A land communication has lately been 

 completed between the mouth of the Rio Doce and Minas Geraes, and 

 the Government, in order to promote the same object, has established, in 

 December, 1819, a company, for the purpose of raising a capital to open 

 the navigation of the river. The embarrassments arising from the Indians, 

 who still possess the Interior of this and the neighbouring Provinces, are 

 really insignificant before the growing power of the Monarchy. The 

 shores of the Patixa have already been partly subdued, and vessels 

 have passed up it almost to the Diamond district ; by this communi- 

 cation the article of salt has been lowered, at Tejuca, to half its former 

 price; and those products which the country affords in return will ensure 

 an extensive and growing commerce. Along the Pardo also Posts have 

 been established, which not only at present check, but will finally 

 extirpate or civilize, every horde of Indians in its neighbourhood. 



The District of Bahia has been long known, and has attained nearly 

 all the commercial advantages of which it is capable. Its Interior consists 

 of a broad tract of sandy and arid country, not suitable for human 

 habitation, and therefore affording but few means for the transit of goods 

 to the rich districts of the Tocantines, which lie beyond it. This sandy 

 tract, but little known in Europe, may properly be called the Desert of 

 Jacobina. Pernambuco consists of a narrow tract of rich land along the 

 coast, backed by the same arid country, where the land, rising into lofty 

 mountains, embarrasses still more the communication with the plains 

 beyond. 



Farther to the North, the Provinces are thinly peopled. JMaranham 



