The first donatory was succeeded by his said son, who did not live
to enjoy it long. To Fernam do Campo Tourinho succeeded his sister,
Leonor do Campo Tourinho, widow of Gregorio de Pesqueira, to whom the
king confirmed the capitania by letter of the 30th of May, 1556. Two
months afterwards she sold it, by permission of the Sovereign, to the
Duke d’Aveiro, Don John de Lancastre, to whom the King, in the same
law, granted licence, at his death, to nominate his son, Don Pedro
Deniz de Lancastre, from whose successors it reverted to the crown in
the reign of Joseph I. in a very bad state and with only two towns.
One hundred milreas (about £25) _de juro_, or right, six hundred
milreas (about £150) in money, and two moyos (about seventy Winchester
bushels each) of wheat every year as long as the vendor lived, was
the price stipulated in the writings of the sale. The Jesuits, who
founded a house in the capital in 1553, with the intention of better
reducing the Indians to Catholicism, only left two aldeias entirely
Indian, of which they were the curates. Amongst the most able of those
in the course of two hundred and five years, who became curates in
these missions, many went there to be catechised previous to studying
theology at the college of Bahia, in order to learn more perfectly the
idiom of the Indians, who were not taught the Portuguese language, as
they only treated or had intercourse with the curates, who were well
acquainted with their language.
The Abatyra Indians, at the period before alluded to, destroyed,
amongst other places, the towns of Juassema and St. Andre, founded
by the duke. These Indians, now unknown, are said to be a horde of
the Aimores, or perhaps this was the name by which the Tupininquins
designated them in general. The Aimores are believed to have been a
tribe of northern Tapuyas, who, in ancient times, in consequence of
the wars, proceeded southward, and retired to the west of the serra
which afterwards took their name. The neighbouring nations called them
Aimbores, and the Portuguese, from corruption, Aimores; but, for a
considerable time, they have had no other name amongst the Christians
than Botocudos, in consequence of their custom of perforating the ears
and lips. They always wander about, divided into parties of forty to
sixty families, destroying game, and gathering wild fruits, their
ordinary aliment. Some paint the body, at times, a green colour, at
others yellow; and in order to free themselves from the attacks of the
mosquito, at certain seasons, or in places where they most incommode
them, they varnish the skin with the juice or milk of certain trees.
Their arms are the bow and the arrow barbed on both sides. They have no
other conveyance by water, but jangadas, or catamarans, rudely formed
of the trunks of the jangada tree, and put together with very little
care, with which they cross large rivers. Their combats, like those
of all other Indians, are from ambuscades, and they commonly make the
assault after dark, and only when they judge that they are taking their
enemy by surprise. Some tribes, when they have determined to engage
the foe, leave the aged, the women, and children, in some secure place
in the centre of their district. Their barbarity has always produced
the idea that they are much more numerous than they are really found
to be. The garrisons newly established upon the eastern line of the
province of Minas Geraes, and those in the centre of this, have obliged
many to sue for that peace which had been so frequently offered them,
and which they always rejected, secure in extensive woods, where there
are few, if any, Christian colonists to subdue their wild habits, or
mitigate their savage propensities.
Of all the provinces of the Brazil, this may be said to be the most
backward in cultivation, and in the civilization of the aboriginal
inhabitants. It is almost one wood of fine timber, and different
species of trees, indicating, beyond a question, the great fertility
generally of its soil. The want of good ports capable of receiving
large ships is assigned as the cause of its present condition; but want
of industry, and the requisite energy and spirit of improvement, as
well as the deficiency, it must be allowed, of population, are the real
causes. The Christianized population only possess the parts adjacent
to the ocean, and few days pass in certain months of the year, that
its coasts are not visited by the Indians in search of the eggs of
the tortoise. From these people the _Canarins_ are known, who are the
nearest hordes to the towns of Caravellas, and Villaviçoza. It is said
that they have an establishment of one vast house in the centre of the
country, hid in a valley between two mountains. The _Machacaris_ are
masters of a country washed by the rivers Norte and Sul. In the western
part are known the _Cumanacho_, _Mono_, _Frecha_, _Catathoy_, _Aimore_,
and the _Patacho_ nations; the last are more numerous than all the
others together, and extend themselves, divided into tribes, from one
extremity of the province to the other.
The Aimores are anthropophagi, and the dread of all the other nations
except the Patachos.
From the river Doce, the southern limit of this province, as far as a
league to the north of the Jucurucu, the lands are so flat, that they
scarcely exceed the level of the highest tides. In the whole of this
tract, (more than one hundred miles,) not one mountain, or even small
elevation is seen. From this point nearly to the Buranhen, the shore
is of a green or white colour, and of four to six yards in height;
the remainder of the coast to the river Belmonte is in parts flat, in
others rather more elevated. Fine woods are everywhere seen extending
to the margin of the ocean.
MOUNTAINS.--Those in the central and western parts are unknown. At the
northern extremity of the eastern side only is discovered the serra of
Aimores, the highest portion of which, denominated the Mount of John de
Siam, and the outer portion Mount Pascoal, is seen for many leagues at
sea, being the principal land-mark in this latitude.
MINERALOGY.--Gold, iron, granite, calcareous stone, white potters’
earth, with other argils, amethysts, topazes, and other precious stones.
ZOOLOGY.--Domestic animals are in all parts very rare, if we except the
environs of the capital. In the woods are the deer, boar, _tamandua_,
monkey, _anta_, with various other species of this region, generally
very numerous. Ounces are here in the greatest number, and commit their
depredations upon the sea-coast from April to August, in consequence,
it is thought, of the cold, which makes them desert the western lands,
and seek the vicinity of the sea, where it is warmer. Hunters find
with much facility the _mutun_, _juru_, _macuco_ partridge, _jacu_,
_jacutinga_, _aracuan_, _nhamba_, _capueira_, parrot, and a diversity
of the turtle bird. The _araponga_, _bicudo_, and _sabio_ are well
known. The _pavo_, or peacock, is little larger than the _tucano_,
black, with the breast yellow and red. The _crijoha_ is something
larger than the blackbird, and its change of colours beautiful. The
bees produce honey in the trunks of trees, supplying aliment to a great
many.
PHYTOLOGY.--Amongst many other trees of good timber are the
_vinathico_, _aderno_, _avariba_, _anhuhyba_, _aricurana_, _anhahyba de
rego_, _angelim_, of different colours; also the _biriba_, _buranhen_,
_camacary_, _caixeta_, cedar, cherry, _conduru_, _grapiapunha_,
_guanandirana_, _hoyticica_, _jatahy_; of the _jacaranda_, are the
sorts called _cabuina_, mulatto and white; of the _jucirana_, white
and green; the _jiquitiba_, _inhuhybatan_, and the clove; _ipe_, black
and other sorts; _piqui_, black, yellow, otherwise _mirindiba_; the
_potumuju_, bow wood, oil wood, Brazil wood, _oanandy_, _sapucaya_,
_sobro_, _sucupiracu_, _sucupira acary_, _tatagiba_, white and green
_timbuhyba_; the _jabuticaba_, the _aracaza_, the _pindahyba_, and
various palm trees are well known; the Asiatic cocoa-nut tree is not
very frequent. There is a tree, the leaves of which, when broken,
exhale the aromatic smell of the clove. The tree which produces the
_pechurim_, here improperly called mulberry tree, is rare, and its
fruit not so fine as that of Para. The soil is good for the culture of
mandioca, the most valuable produce of the country; Indian corn, rice,
and legumes grow in some districts. Cotton trees prosper best in the
vicinity of the sea, at least in many situations.
RIVERS, LAKES, AND PORTS.--The river Doce has its heads in the centre
of Minas Geraes, and, flowing through part of that province, leaves it,
already accumulated by its tributary streams into a considerable river,
under the name by which it is here known. After it begins to divide
this province from that of Espirito Santo, it is precipitated in the
space of one league over three falls, denominated the Escadinhas. From
hence to the ocean it is large, serpentine, and handsome, and has many
flat islands. Its waters are muddy in the summer season, in consequence
of the minerals of Minas Geraes with which it is impregnated; and this
appearance is partly caused, it may be inferred, by the auriferous
bed through which there cannot be a doubt, from what has been already
observed, the latter part of its course is impelled. Its waters are
discharged between two points of flat sand of considerable extent; and
this aqueous volume preserves its freshness for a considerable distance
into the ocean, from which circumstance its primitive name was changed
to that of Doce (Soft, or Fresh.)
The St. Mattheus, originally the Cricare, has its source in Minas
Geraes. Soon after entering this province, it runs for the space of
many miles with great violence, occasioned by the impulse it acquires
in descending various falls. A little below this current, which is
supposed to be in the meridian of the Escadinhas, it receives by
the left the large river Cotache, which traverses extensive woods,
inhabited by Indians and wild beasts. It irrigates one of the most
fertile countries of the state, and discharges itself into the sea
thirty-five miles north of the Doce. A little above its embouchure it
receives by the northern margin the St. Anna, which is navigable with
the tide.
The Mucury, which is considerable as far as the tide advances,
originates in Minas Geraes, and with a rapid current enters the sea
near thirty miles to the north of the St. Mattheus. In the vicinity
of the ocean it traverses a most fertile district, covered with fine
woods, occupied by wild quadrupeds, beyond which it passes through
lands rich in gold and precious stones. This river communicates with
the Peruhype.
The Peruhype, whose mouth is fifteen miles north of the Mucury,
originates in the centre of the province, and is apparently
considerable, with a tide running many leagues up.
Ten miles north of the preceding is the mouth of the channel called the
river Caravellas, but which is only an arm that the sea extends ten
miles to the west, of considerable width, very deep, and beautifully
bordered with mangroves. The entrance is only accessible to small
vessels. About the middle of its extent, there is a spacious channel of
great depth communicating with the Peruhype.
The Itanhem, after a long course, enters the sea fifteen miles north
of Caravellas, and affords navigation for canoes for a considerable
distance.
The Jucurucu, which discharges itself fifteen miles north of the
Itanhem, takes its name at the confluence of the afore-mentioned river
Do Sul, (South) with the Do Norte, (North) which unite about twenty
miles from the sea, and afford navigation to canoes for a considerable
space into the interior of the country. Sumacas advance up this river
as far as the said confluence.
Thirty miles to the north of the Jucurucu is the point Corumbau, by
corruption Corumbabo; three miles further the mouth of the river
Cramimuan, at the bottom of a large bay; and a little further the small
river Juassema, near whose mouth is yet seen the vestiges of the town
so called.
Eight miles north of the Cramimuan is the river Do Frade, (Friar,)
which took its name from the shipwreck of a religious Franciscan. Its
course is through woods, and it is only capable of receiving canoes.
The Buranhen, for a long period here designated only the Cachoeira, in
consequence of a fall, (_cachoeira_,) which it passed about the centre
of the province, enters the sea eighteen miles north of the Frade: its
origin is unknown; but not being considerable, it may be inferred that
its course is not extensive; that portion of it explored flows from the
south-west to the north-east, with many windings. It affords various
sorts of fish, such as are called here _piaus_, _trahiras_, _robalos_,
_acaris_, _piabanhas_, _piabas_, _jundias_, _pitus_, and very large
_prones_ in abundance.
It is followed, at a distance of about eighteen miles by the St. Cruz,
something smaller, and navigable by canoes. It took this name after the
inhabitants of the town of St. Cruz removed to its margin, then called
the Joam de Tyba. They formed the first colony in its vicinity. It is
stored with the same fish as the preceding one.
The St. Antonio, the waters of which are muddy, with an inconsiderable
course, is a few leagues north of the preceding.
The lake Juparana, deep, abounding with fish, interspersed with small
islands, and about fifteen miles in circuit, bordered with fine woods,
growing upon an uneven and fertile country, is twenty miles from the
sea, has an outlet into the river Doce by a narrow and deep channel
five miles in length, and receives a river called Cachoeira, which is
said to be navigable.
Between the mouth of the Doce and the St. Mattheus is the lake Tapada,
of considerable length from east to west but very narrow.
The lake of Medo, (Fear,) very small, is in the proximity of the origin
of St. Antonio and communicates with the Belmonte.
The lake Braco, long and narrow, prolongs itself with the coast,
between the Belmonte and the Mugiquissaba, which is small, and enters
the ocean about eighteen miles south of the first.
The Belmonte, so called after the town of the same name was founded
near its mouth, is formed in Serro do Frio, one of the comarcas of
Minas Geraes, by the waters of the Jiquitinhonha and Arassuahy. When
it traverses the cordillera of Aimores it is contracted between two
mountains of unequal elevation; the northern one, called St. Bruno, is
the highest, and on a sudden descends from a height of more than forty
yards into a whirlpool, whose evaporation exhibits an eternal cloud,
and the loud murmuring of its falling waters is heard sometimes twelve
and fifteen miles off. Continuing for the space of fifteen miles to
the east between rugged margins to a _cachocirinha_, (a little
fall,) it flows through a flat and woody country to the sea, describing
various windings, with a current rapid and wide but of little depth.
Its fish called _tubarõe_ is of an enormous size, and the
_cacoe_ is the smallest of its finny inhabitants. It has many
flat islands within its margins, and does not receive any considerable
stream after it descends the fall.
The Piauhy, which unites the Belmonte below this fall, is the most
abundant amongst those which it receives, after commencing to serve as
a limit to this province.
Cabralia Bay, (where the armada of Cabral anchored,) fifteen miles to
the north of Porto Seguro, and four to the south of St. Cruz, is the
only port of the province where large vessels can enter.
The bay of Concha, near the Mugiquissaba, is a roadstead which might be
rendered capable of receiving vessels of large burden.