Senhor Gama related a circumstance which occurred during his
ouvidorship here, that affords a tolerably strong evidence of the
deep subtilty practised by some, at least, of the Brazilian holy
fathers, for their personal benefit. A female, residing at no great
distance from Sabara, whose mind was darkened by bigotry, and who was
particularly rigid in all religious observances, no saint day passing
without her exhibiting the utmost devotion, mortified herself in a
peculiar degree on all occasions of fasting, and during Lent always
refrained from eating, with such resolution, that she acquired the
honour of being considered a saint. So strongly was her mind influenced
by this delusion, that she communicated her self-working inspirations
to two or three padres, who lived near. They immediately inflamed her
wild imagination by their countenance, and gave public weight to the
notion, by affirming that her soul would ascend to heaven on a certain
day. Contributions were already talked of for forming an establishment
to be dedicated to Santa Harmonica, the name of the female. The priests
were, of course, to have the administration of the funds. Good Friday
was the appointed day for the consummation of this important event.
The machinery hitherto worked well, and her exhausted appearance,
from continued fasting, warranted the conclusion that her dissolution
was near. It was a subject of general interest, and being introduced
where the ouvidor was present on the evening preceding the intended
conclusion of the drama, he stated that he had not faith in any thing
so ridiculous; and in the event of the female’s death, he would summon
a species of inquest to be held upon the body. A friend or coadjutor of
the priests was present: he left the party and hastened on horseback to
communicate this determination of the ouvidor to the holy brothers. An
effect very contrary to the expectation of her devoted worshippers was
thus produced. She speedily recovered from her saintly indisposition,
and remains, if not in mental, at least in bodily health to this day.
It was ascertained to have been the intention of these priests, founded
on the wicked purpose of deriving advantages from the contemplated
establishment of Santa Harmonica, to have produced, by some means, a
gradual exhaustion of life by the appointed time.
About twelve miles from Sabara there is a lake, two miles long and
nearly one in width, whose crystalline and tepid waters, having been
an antidote in many diseases, acquired it the name of the Holy Lake.
In its centre there are various springs; and when not agitated, its
surface is covered with a pellicle or thin skin of the colour of
mercury, which disappears by blowing upon it, and leaves the lips
silvered over of those who drink it. It is discharged at the northern
extremity by an outlet into the river Velhas, which is five miles
distant.
Fifteen miles north of Sabara, and a mile from the Velhas, is the large
and flourishing freguezia or parish of Santa Luzia, ornamented with
five Catholic temples, and whose inhabitants, amounting to thirteen
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, are well supplied with its
produce of agriculture, mines, and cattle.
Villa Nova da Raynha, created a town in 1714, but better known by its
primitive name of Caethe, which in the Brazilian language signifies an
impervious wood, is a middling place, well and agreeably situated in
plain ground, near a small stream, ornamented with a handsome church
dedicated to the Lord of Bom Successo, a chapel of the Lady of Rozario,
and another of St. Francisco. There are fifteen judicial appointments
here. The revenue of the camara is eight thousand crusades. The
inhabitants, amounting to five thousand two hundred and seventy-one,
are miners, breeders of cattle, and agriculturists; they respire a
salubrious air, raise various European fruits, and form, with the three
parishes of St. Miguel, St. Barbara, and St. Joao de Morro Grande,
containing twenty-nine thousand inhabitants, seventeen companies of
white militia, seven of mulattoes, and some squadrons of free blacks.
It is twelve miles east-south-east of Sabara, and has in its suburbs
good argils and potteries.
Pitangui is in a state of mediocrity, upon the right margin of the
Para, three miles below the confluence of the St. Joao, and is well
supplied with fish, meat, and all the agricultural productions of
the country. It was erected into a town in 1715, has two hermitages,
and a church of the Lady of Pilar; a Juiz de Fora, and an escrivao
of the conductors of gold. The camara has three thousand crusades
of revenue. This town is one hundred miles north of St. Joao d’el
Rey, and nearly eighty west-north-west of Sabara. Its inhabitants,
amounting to nineteen thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and those
of its widely extending district, (including only one other parish,
Nossa Senhora das Dores, with one thousand four hundred and nineteen
persons,) raise large quantities of cattle, horses, hogs, and sheep,
and have extensive plantations of the cotton tree and cane, the rum
from which is considered the best of the province. A rich mine of gold
occasioned numerous disputes and deaths amongst its first dwellers,
who were Paulista miners. There was amongst them one D. R. do Prado,
who gratified his vile and avaricious feelings, by assassinating even
those who did not offend him; such was the lawless state in which those
primitive mining settlements were involved.
Paracatu do Principe is a middling town, famous for its mines, well and
pleasantly situated upon an elevated plain, with straight and paved
streets, having a church dedicated to St. Antonio da Manga, three
hermitages of Our Lady of Abbadia, Amparo, and Rozario, another of
St. Anna, and two good fountains. The houses are built of timber and
earth, and include a royal school for Latin. This town is one hundred
and forty miles from the St. Francisco, and about half a mile from the
small stream of Corgo Rica, which after forty miles of course enters
the Paracatu on the left, near the port of Bezerra. It has decayed much
from its first flourishing condition; the people are peaceable, but
indolent. Cattle and the produce of mines constitutes what wealth there
is amongst them. The vine bears fruit in perfection twice a year. The
pine-apple and orange are abundant and excellent. Around this place
are an abundance of partridges, deer, and other game. The gold has a
fine appearance, but below the proper degree of purity is of difficult
extraction for want of water, and is not allowed to be searched for
at any great distance. Diamonds having appeared in various parts is
the reason of the working of mines being restricted to a few leagues
round the town, upon which circuit are detachments to prevent the
prescribed limits being passed for the purpose of mining. The district
of the town comprises the main portion of the comarca, that is to say,
all the territory lying westward of the river St. Francisco, from the
Carynhenha to the Abayte. Near the confluence of the latter is the
passage from Villa Rica to Goyaz, called Porto Real.
In 1744, when there was no other colony to the west of the St.
Francisco but St. Romao, these mines were discovered, and made known
to Gomez Freyre d’Andrade, governor of Rio de Janeiro, who ordered the
country to be divided according to the prevailing custom. These mines
attracted a great concourse of people here, and their affluence in gold
led to the concurrence of a numerous party in the purpose of expelling
the Indians, whom they at once drove from this extensive district. The
inhabitants of Paracatu, and those of the parishes of its vast circuit,
constitute one regiment of cavalry, seven companies of whites, three of
mulattoes, and two of free blacks.
On the left margin of the river St. Francisco, almost at an equal
distance between the mouths of the Urucuya and Paracatu, is the
considerable arraial and parish of St. Romao, with a church dedicated
to St. Antonio da Manga, a chapel of Our Lady of Rozario, and another
of St. Francisco. It is the head of the julgado, with much commerce,
being the depositary of various productions of the country, and of a
large quantity of salt, which is conveyed by barks and canoes from the
salterns of Pilao Arcado and its vicinity. The river at its greatest
floods enters the streets of this place. Its inhabitants, even the
females, are passionately fond of gambling. Melons and water-melons are
very abundant.
The other parishes of the district of Paracatu are St. Anna dos
Alegres, near the mouth of the river Catinga, a little above the river
Somno; the Lady of Penha, near the Urucuya, a day’s voyage from the
St. Francisco; Carynhenha, Andayha, and the Lady of Amparo do Salgado,
with a chapel of Our Lady of Rozario, which is a flourishing arraial,
and promising a considerable increase. It is five miles from the St.
Francisco. The inhabitants raise cattle, sugar cane, and the cotton
tree.
The district of Paracatu makes a part of the bishopric of Pernambuco.
There is yet within this comarca the arraial and julgado of St. Antonio
do Curvello, otherwise Papagayo, well situated in a plain, refreshed
with salubrious breezes, and near a small stream, which falls into
the Velhas on the left. This is almost eighty miles from Sabara. The
inhabitants of the julgado, amounting to eleven thousand five hundred
and thirteen, are agriculturists and cattle breeders.
In June, 1815, the comarca of Sabara was divided into two, the St.
Francisco serving as a medium limit to them. The northern, western,
and southern limits of the new comarca are the same which till then
constituted the circuit of the district of Paracatu, the head and
only town of the newly created comarca, which took its name. At the
same time was abolished the office of the Juiz de Fora, which had
existed since it was created a town in 1798, the new ouvidor becoming
the intendant of gold. By another law of the 4th of April, 1816, the
julgados of Desemboque and Araxa were separated from the ouvidoria or
district of Goyaz, and annexed to the ouvidoria of Paracatu.
_Comarca of_ SERRO FRIO.
The comarca of Serro Frio takes its name from a mountain, which of
all others is the most celebrated for the riches which it contains.
It is limited on the north by the province of Bahia, which also with
that of Porto Seguro confines it on the east; on the south by the
comarca of Villa Rica; and on the west by that of Sabara. It comprises
nearly three hundred miles from north to south, and one hundred and
eighty from east to west. The country is for the greater part very
mountainous, and watered by numerous rivers, with extensive charnecas,
or sterile lands, in the northern part, which only serve for the
breeding of cattle. There are, however, generally portions of land,
more or less considerable, appropriated to the culture of cotton,
Indian corn, rice, mandioca, legumes, tobacco, some rye, and sugar. It
is the richest in precious stones; and has mines of all the metals.
MOUNTAINS.--There is a grand cordillera, (a continuation of the
Mantiqueira,) which does not always retain the same name, altitude, or
direction, breaking in many parts, and stretching out various arms at
divers points, traversing the comarca almost north and south. In the
eastern part there is the serra of Esmeraldas; the serra Branca, which
separates the comarca from that of Sabara for a considerable space, and
afterwards inclines to the north-east to the limit of the province; the
serra of Gram Mogol; that of Peixe Brabo; of Gurutuba, of Conceiçao,
and of Almas.
RIVERS.--The principal are the Jequitinhonha, the Verde, the Pardo, the
Mucury, the Arassuahy, the Sassuhy, the Corrente, and the St. Antonio.
The Jequitinhonha, so celebrated for the prodigious quantity of
diamonds that has been drawn from its bed, rises in the serra of Serro
Frio. After having described many windings, and watered an extensive
country, it receives on the left the Itucambyrussu, which flows from
the west, and traverses the serra of Gram Mogol. Having run for a
considerable space, and inclining to the east, its waters are increased
by the Vaccaria, which enters on the same side, and descends also from
the serra of Gram Mogol, traversing _certams_[24] pastured by cattle.
A few leagues below it is joined on the right by the Arassuahy, which
is superior, and originates also in the Serro Frio, a little to the
east of it, and brings the waters of the St. Antonio, the Itamarandiba,
and the Setuval, with others smaller, whose heads are on the northern
side of the serra Esmeraldas. Some leagues below the confluence of the
Arassuahy, the Piauhy enters, coming from the south-west, through woods
abounding with game that affords food to the savages. This river and
its confluents abound with chrysolites, sapphires, crystals, _pingos
d’agua_, and other precious stones. The Jequitinhonha gathers on the
left the Hottinga, on the right the St. Java, and leaving the province
flows north-east, forming a boundary to the ocean between the provinces
of Porto Seguro and Bahia, where it is discharged under the name of the
Belmonte. All these rivers are stored with the fish called _doirado_,
_piampara_, _piau_, _piabanha_, _trahira_, _sorubin_, and _mandin_,
called also _roncadore_.
The river Verde is large and flows through extensive certams abounding
with cattle, which forms the wealth of many farmers, who live
dispersed, principally in the vicinity of the southern portion of the
serra of Gram Mogol. After a considerable course to the north, it
receives on the right the Guaratuba, which originates near the northern
portion of the last mentioned serra, and brings with it the Pacuhy,
that issues from the serra Pranca, and joins it on the eastern side.
Ten miles below the mouth of the Guaratuba, the Verde Pequeno (small)
enters, which flows from the Morro da Chapeo, a portion of the serra
Almas, taking a westerly course, and forming the northern division
of the province. At this part the Verde runs with little variation
to the west, and continues in the same direction till it joins the
St. Francisco. These rivers water sterile districts, which will never
become populous.
The Pardo forms itself in the vicinity of the serra Almas, runs
south-east, gathering the Preto, which has its source in the serra
Branca, inclines to the east, and enters the comarca of Ilheos, where
it is discharged into the ocean by the name of Patype.
The Mucury, whose principal head springs to the south of the serra
Esmeraldas, after receiving by the left margin the large and small
Preto, and lower, the Todos os Santos on the right, enters the province
of Porto Seguro, where it increases, and falls into the ocean. The
territory which this river passes, (before leaving the comarca,)
and its said tributaries, was formerly possessed by the _Macuni_,
_Panhame_, _Capocho_, and _Machacary_ Indians. At the present day the
ferocious _Aimbores_ are its wandering inhabitants.
The first river Preto, about ten miles above its mouth, gathers on
the left the small stream of Americanas, formed by three rivulets
issuing from the same serra. Near the central one was found in 1811, a
beautiful _aqua-marina_, of more than fifteen pounds weight, and
another of four pounds. The Sassuhy, the Corrente, and the St. Antonio,
are tributaries of the river Doce, and flow through the most southern
part of the comarca.
[Illustration:
_On Stone by C. Shoosmith from a Sketch by Jas. Henderson._
_Printed by C. Hullmandel._