XCI. Piauby. ment of Maranhant Piauby was formerly a comarca of Maranham; it is BOOK about four hundred miles from north to south, and seventy of medium breadth; gold, iron and lead have been discovered in this district. Elias Herkmann, a Dutch officer, wrote a journal of his residence in Piauhy; and it is to be regretted that detached parts of his narrative only remain ;* he mentions plains consisting of bright talc, and takes notice of a great many pyramids or cones, that were built by the natives. Portuguese writers inform us that Pinson, Governafter discovering Cape St. Augustin, entered a gulf on the mouth of a great river, (the Amazons,) and as its waters did not possess the saline properties of the ocean, he called it mara non, (not sea,) and at a later period the term Maranham was applied to the province, from the opinions then entertained by the Portuguese concerning the Amazons. Maranham, though of small extent, is important, from the value of its productions; many of its staple commodities are annually imported into different countries; annati, capsicum, pimento, ginger, and the best fruits of Europe grow in great abundance throughout the province.f The chief town, Maranham, or St. Luiz, contains about thirty thousand souls. A colony of Frenchmen, who are said to have founded the city, landed in this province about the year 1612. ment of The military jurisdiction of Grand Para extends over GovernRio Negro, and these two states form together the largest Grand government in Brazil, which is nearly eight hundred miles Para. in length from east to west, and upwards of four hundred at its greatest breadth. Grand Para and Rio Negro have been marked as two distinct provinces in the recent maps of Mr. Arrowsmith. The former district is unhealthy, and covered with thick woods; the dwellings of man are so thinly scattered over it, that they have been compared to islands in a vast ocean. Some of the stations established by the Amazons have been dignified with the name of cities. Grand Para, the chief town, is sometimes called Belem Mawe, 288. Histoire des Missions des PP. Capucins. XCI. BOOK from its tutelar saint, Nossa Senhora de Belem.* The first is its civil, the other its ecclesiastical designation. Mr. Mawe from not paying attention to this distinction, supposed Para and Belem to be two different towns. It is situated on the eastern bank of the Tocantins, near the bay of Guagiza; the part of the river near it is difficult of navigation on account of its quicksands, shoals and opposite grosso. currents. The population amounts to twenty thousand souls; the greater number of the inhabitants are poor and destitute of employment. Their trade consists in rice and different drugs, which are first exported to Maranham, and afterwards to Europe. The excessive warmth of the climate is unhealthy; but the thunder storms and showers, which occur almost daily, cool the air, and render the heat less oppressive. The government of Rio Negro bounded by Guyana, New Granada, Quito and Peru, is still more desolate than Grand Para; there is no town of any conse Matto- quence in the district. The capitania of Mattogrosso is watered on one side by the principal feeders of the Parana, and on the other by those of the Amazons. The banks of rivers are covered with forests of wild cocoa trees, and the different kinds of wood which grow in the lower part of Brazil. The hills, consisting chiefly of sand, are comparatively unfertile. Small pieces of gold are collected from the beds of rivers, and the same metal is found in greater abundance on several plains seldom visited by travellers on account of their unwholesomeness. The city of Cuiabu is situated on the castern bank of a river of the same name, about two hundred and forty miles from its junction with the Paraguay; it contains a population of thirty thousand souls, and is well supplied with fish, fruits, and all sorts of vegetables. Saint Pedro del Rey is about twenty leagues south-west of Cuiabo, and its population amounts to two thousand souls. Viajero Universal, XX. p. 381. Leblond, Traité de la fièvre jaune. XCI. Natives. Our remarks have hitherto been confined to the Euro- BOOK pean settlements in Brazil; but there are besides many indigenous tribes, that have been designated by Portuguese writers under the general name of Anthropophagi. These savages, delighting in cruelty, became, under the government of the Jesuits, social, peaceable and humane; the indefatigable perseverance of their missionaries surThe natives are strong mounted the greatest obstacles. and well made, their complexion is copper-coloured, their hair is black and sleek. Mr. Mawe saw a native chief and fifty of his followers in Canta Gallo, a district northward of Rio Janeiro ;* the dress of the men consisted of a waistcoat and pair of drawers, the women wore a shift and petticoat, with a handkerchief tied round the head after the fashion of the Portuguese; the whole party seemed to be in a wretched condition, and depended chiefly for a subsistence on the produce of the chase. Their skill in the use of the bow was much admired; Mr. Mawe placed some oranges at the distance of thirty yards, and they did not miss one; he next showed them a banana tree about eight inches in circumference at the distance of forty yards, and every man struck it with his arrow. Astonished by these repeated proofs of their address, he went with some of them to the chase; they observed the birds sooner than he did; they crept with great ease through thickets and brushwood, and never failed to bring down their game. They ate their meat raw, and were not at the trouble of Like most plucking the feathers from their wild fowl. savages, they are very fond of spirituous liquors, if rum be given them they generally quarrel about it, as each man wishes to have more than his neighbour. Their great aversion to labour prevents them from cultivating the ground or from working for hire; even the gold and silver, with which their country abounds, are never sought for by the natives. The savages observed by Mr. Mawe belonged probably to the tribe of the Boticudos, cudos. The Boti Mawe, p. 303. VOL. V. 69 Mawe's Travels. BOOK who live near the eastern mountains of Minas Geraes. ALthough they were several times conquered, and very cruelly treated by the Paulistas, the first people that penetrated into their territory, they all maintain their independence, and defend their possessions; being unable to contend openly against the Portuguese, they have recourse to stratagem; they sometimes conceal themselves among the branches of trees, and watch an opportunity of discharging their arrows against a negro or European traveller, at other times they dig pits, fill them with pointed stakes, and cover them with twigs and leaves. After having marked out a house, and ascertained its strength, they set it on fire, and fall upon its unfortunate inhabitants while they are attempting to escape. They bear an implacable hatred against the negroes, and evince much delight in eating them; but they are terrified by fire arms, and betake themselves to flight on hearing the report of a gun. Such as have been taken prisoners, could not be subdued either by stripes or kindness; many despairing of ever being able to regain their freedom, refused sustenance, and perished from hunger. The prince regent published a proclamation commanding them to live in villages, and to become Christians; they were offered his protection if they complied, and threatened with a war of The Puris. extermination in the event of their refusal. The Puris inhabit a country in the neighbourhood of the Boticudos; they still resist the Portuguese, and an eye witness informs us that they roast and eat their prisoners. The The Tupis. Tupis, who occupied at one time the whole of Santos and San Paulo, are now reduced to a few wandering bands, that inhabit the confines of the Spanish provinces on the Uuaguay. They speak a dialect of the Guarini language, which is widely spread over all the interior and southern districts of Brazil. The Carigais, or southern neighbours of the Tupis, are considered the most peaceable of the native tribes. The country of the Tupinaques extended *Lettres du prince Maximilien. BOOK XCI. The To Tribes in from the river Guirican to the river Camana, and the Topinambos inhabited the coast between the Camana and the San Francisco; but these two tribes, and several others, are now either extinct, or mingled with the Portuguese set- pinambos. tlers. Some travellers have confounded with the Topinambos two or three fierce and wandering tribes on the banks of the Tocantins. The Petivares are scattered over the north-eastern districts of Brazil; many among them are partly civilized, and acquainted with agriculture. The Molagagos, a wandering tribe on the banks of the Paraguay, are remarkable for their fair complexion and lofty stature.* The tribes on the banks of the Amazons are the Pauxis, the Urubaquis, the Aycuaris, and many others, whose names need not be enumerated. The Cuyabas and Buyazas occupy the central mountains of Mattogrosso; and the Parexis have given their name to an extensive district the interior in South America. The Barbados, on the banks of the Sypotuba, are distinguished by their long beards from the other natives of the new continent. Some of the numerous tribes formerly concentrated on the fertile banks of the Paraguay, have been dispersed or destroyed by the Spaniards, the Portuguese, or the Paulistas; others, at the approach of foreign invaders, fled into countries less favoured by nature, and several thousand natives were removed by the Jesuits to their settlements on the Paraguay and the Parana. So great a number of them entered into alliances with the Portuguese and Spaniards, that there is hardly a man on the frontiers whose countenance does not indicate the traces of his Indian descent. The Guay- The Guaycoros or Indian horsemen are renowned for their strength and courage among the aborigines, on the banks of the Paraguay. They occupy both sides of the river, from Toquari and the mountains of Albuquerque to a distance of a hundred leagues. Armed with bows and long lances, they wage war against the Spaniards and Portuguese; and although often defeated in battle, they have never * Viajero Universal, XXI. 324. coros. |