_Colonization--Boundaries--Indians--Taken by the Dutch--
Restored--Mountains--Mineralogy--Zoology--Phytology--Rivers
and Lakes--Povoaçoes._
It is not recorded whether the territory of this province had any other
donatories besides the unfortunate Joam de Barros and Luis de Mello,
nor is the precise epoch known of the foundation of the prezidios, or
garrisons, from which commenced the colonization that existed upon the
coast in 1603, when Captain Pedro Coelho de Souza, arrived there by
orders of the governor of the state, with eighty Portuguese and eight
hundred Indians, in various caravels, for the purpose of destroying the
alliance Mons. Bombille, a Frenchman, had formed with the celebrated
Mel Redondo, principal chief of the Serra Hibiapaba, from which
considerable injury resulted to the prezidios. He received some people
from them to enable him the better to execute the project, which he
accomplished by subjecting this Indian to the Portuguese crown. On
his return, Pedro Coelho entered the river Jaguaribe, merely with the
intention of making some observations; but discovering a great number
of advantages which it presented, he determined to commence a city
there with his party: and having ordered his family to join him from
Parahiba, he continued occupied in the foundation of the colony with
the name of Nova Lisboa, (New Lisbon;) but shortly afterwards he was
obliged by the Indians to desist from the undertaking, and returned to
Parahiba.
Duarthe d’Albuquerque Coelho, writer of the war of Pernambuco, where he
was donatory, affirms from ocular testimony, that Martim Soares Moreno,
who belonged to the principal _prezidio_ of Siara, came in the
year 1631, to succour him against the Dutch, with an auxiliary force of
Indians, in whose language he was well versed, and was named the first
governor of that prezidio by the King: it being also certain that he
commanded it in 1613, when, leaving in his place Estevam de Campos, he
accompanied Jeronymo d’Albuquerque in the first attempt against the
French who were established in the island of Maranham; but it does
not appear whether he was the commandant or not at the period when
Capt. Pedro Coelho arrived there. The district, however, was colonized
very slowly, in consequence of the deficiency of good ports, and those
advantages calculated to attract a numerous colony.
This province, which took the name of one of its small rivers,
in consequence of the first establishment being founded near its
embouchure, is confined on the north by the ocean, on the south by
the cordillera of Ararippe or Cayriris, which divides it from that of
Pernambuco, on the east by the provinces of Rio Grande and Parahiba,
and on the west by that of Piauhy, from which it is separated by the
Hibiapaba serra. It is computed to be about three hundred miles at its
greatest length and width.
The whole was principally in the power of the numerous nation of
_Potiguaras_, (although there were the _Guanacas_ and _Jaguaruannas_,)
divided into various hordes. The main part of them were Christianized
by the exertions of the Jesuits, for which purpose they had an hospicio
in Aquiraz, whose ruins are now called Collegio. The first catechists
of this people were two Capuchin missionaries left here by Frey
Christovam, from Lisbon, the first friar of Para, at the entreaties of
Martim Soares Moreno.
The face of the country is almost generally uneven, without any deep
valleys, and with few mountains of considerable elevation, if we
except the branches of the Great Cordillera, with which it is in great
part surrounded. The territory principally consists of a sandy, arid,
and sterile soil, partially wooded. Upon the serras alone are to be
discovered extensive woods, the soil being substantial and fertile, and
there the best plantations of produce are formed, the remainder of the
country serving as pasturage for large quantities of cattle bred there.
The winters are irregular, and commonly dry, some years passing without
any rain, the consequences of which are many fatalities. This scourge
upon the country is said to be repeated about every ten years, with
some exceptions. The heat is intense in the flat parts of the central
districts. In 1792, a drought commenced, which lasted four years,
during which time all domestic animals perished, and many people. Honey
was for a long time the only aliment, which produced various epidemics,
and swept off many thousand persons throughout the province. Seven
parishes were completely deserted, without there remaining a single
soul.
In 1632, two Dutch vessels of war arrived upon the coast with the
intention of making an easy conquest of it, through the medium of an
intrigue with the Indians; and, for the accomplishment of this project,
four Indians were ordered to penetrate into the interior, who, with
many others, had been taken in the bay of Trahicao, and sent to
Amsterdam, where they learned the Batavian language. Two of them being
discovered, through the activity of Domingos da Veyga, commandant of
the presidio, were immediately executed as an example to the others;
and the Dutch, despairing, in consequence, of succeeding in their
undertaking, set sail again for Pernambuco.
Five years afterwards, the Indians of this country, hearing of the
great successes of the Dutch, on the arrival of Count Nassau at
Pernambuco, deputed two messengers to offer submission and obedience
to them in case they wished to make themselves masters of the
presidio, the commandant of which had concluded his days, and the
soldiery were in a sufficiently diminutive state. Four vessels were
immediately despatched, with two hundred soldiers, and the Dutch,
without difficulty, possessed themselves of this province in the year
1637, which they retained without any considerable advantage for some
years, and, on giving it up, did not leave, as in some other places,
any public works of utility. The Indians, who spontaneously united with
them, undoubtedly expected to have met with that in the new conquerors
which they could not find in the first; but it does not appear that
they were quite so satisfied, as they retired to the southern lands
in the vicinity of the cordillera. The missionaries of the Protestant
religion, it would appear, did not please them so well as the spells,
rosaries, ceremonies, and parade, accompanied with music, all so
imposing on the imagination, and with which the Jesuits allured them
from the savage life.
MOUNTAINS.--The serra of Jaguaribe, with many spiral heads, is to the
east of the river of that name. The serra of Guammame, which commences
near the Jaguaribe, ranges for thirty miles to the west, at a distance
of about eighteen from the coast; that of Siara, with four heads, is
between the river of its name on the east, and the Cahohyppe on the
west. The serra of Mandahu is between the river of the same name on the
west, and the bay of Curu on the east; that of Caracu, having the river
of that name on the west, and the Aracaty-mirim on the east.
The serra Borytamma is behind the morro of Jericoacoara, situated at
the bottom of the bay of this name. The whole serve for land-marks to
the navigators coasting along these shores.
There is also the serra Uruburetama, running north and south between
the rivers Curu and Acaracu; that of Botarite, in the centre of the
province; and that of Merooca, seventy miles distant from the sea.
The serra of Hibiapaba, far from being a single cordon, is formed of
various mountains, which succeed each other, and is in parts bare
and stony; but the main portion is covered with forests of superb
timber, nourished by a soil of much substantiality and fecundity. The
_Tabbajara_ Indians possess the greatest part of it.
MINERALOGY.--Gold in small quantity; minerals of silver and iron,
more or less; crystals, chrysolites, pumice stone, amethysts, magnet,
calcareous stone, granite, saltpetre, white lead, potters’ earth, and
stones of St. Anna, which are applied to females at child-birth.
ZOOLOGY.--There are the ferret, hedge-hog, here called _quandu_, as at
Pernambuco, _praguica_, or sloth, ounce, deer, _coelho_, _guaxinin_,
_quaty_, _pacca_, the wild boar, _capivara_, otter, and all other wild
quadrupeds, peculiar to the neighbouring provinces. The _guariba_
monkeys assemble in large bands upon the thickest trees of the woods,
and make a babbling noise like the loud grating of the Brazilian
waggon. Among other species of birds are common the emu ostrich,
_seriema_, _jaburu_, _colhereira_, _tucano_, _mutun_, _jacu_, torquaze
pigeon, _guiraponga_, _nhambu_, _zabele_, parrot, _urubu_, _sabia_. In
the lakes there are a diversity of ducks, geese, _galeiro_, a diving
bird; and near their margins, the _saracura_, _macarico_, and _socco_.
Bats are very numerous, particularly in years of great drought, and
more fatal to the cattle than the wild beasts collectively, actually
reducing rich farmers to indigence, extensive plains covered with many
thousand head of cattle becoming totally deserted. This animal, worse
than a pestilence, destroys most in the fazendas that have rocks, in
whose caverns they breed, where they cluster together during the day in
large piles, and where also they are better killed, either with fire
or with the gun. Goats and sheep are sufficiently numerous, though not
so much so as they were previously to the fatal drought alluded to;
the latter resist the rainy seasons the best, and are more prolific,
generally having two at a birth, many three, few one, and some four:
goats commonly have two also, many one, but rarely afford three at a
birth. In the vicinity of the river Jaguaribe, the most numerous flocks
of both species are met with. Neither the flesh nor milk of those
animals are held in much repute, and, what is equally singular, the
people are imperfectly acquainted with the art of rendering their skins
a branch of commerce.
PHYTOLOGY.--There are a diversity of trees which afford excellent
timber for building, others for cabinet work, and dyes; also those
which produce benzoin, gum copal and gum mastick; likewise various
species of the palm, of which the _carnahuba_ is the most common and
useful tree in the country; of it houses are formed without any other
ingredient than clay, the trunk serving for the substantial part, and
the leaves in the shape of a fan for the covering; the latter are also
used for mats, hand-baskets, hats, and little panniers. They afford,
besides, sustenance for cattle at the period of great droughts, for,
whilst new, the pith of the trunk is soft, and given to animals in
default of other aliment: a sort of farinha, or flour, is also made
from it, which is a resource in times of famine. In the centre of the
foliage there is a glutinous pod, which, when applied to the fire,
acquires the consistency of wax, of which it has the smell. Its fruit,
which is a bunch of a black colour, supplies sustenance to all living
creatures; and beautiful walking canes are made of its timber, which
become speckled on being polished.
The _oiticica_ is the largest, and has the most abundant foliage of
any tree of the certam. Its cool shade is grateful to man, as well as
all animals of the country, but only grows where its roots can find
water. In the woods the _jabuticaba_ is common, and in the catingas the
_ambuzo_.
The culture of cotton is in the progress of augmentation, and its
produce is the principal branch of commerce, and introduces into the
country the greatest part of foreign commodities, which the necessities
of life or luxury may require. The cane prospers in many districts, but
its juice is almost all distilled into spirit, or reduced into what are
termed _rapaduras_, which are portions of muscovado sugar, in the
form of a brick, which it receives after being put into wooden moulds.
The produce of coffee, which with industry might become prodigious, is
yet insignificant. The same may be said of the cocoa shrub. Indian corn
is the only grain which prospers in the country.
The _atta_, which is the pine of the southern provinces, is here
abundant, and the best of all in the Brazil, and perhaps in America.
Melons, and water-melons are excellent in many situations, also the
pine-apple. Orange trees are almost useless in some places, and
the banana, or plantain, is rare in consequence of the occasional
deficiency of rain. The _mangaba_ and _araca_ are common in all the
districts, as well as the cajue-nut and the tobacco plant. Cattle,
hides, cotton, and salt, are almost the only articles of exportation.
Formerly a considerable quantity of amber was collected, which the high
tides deposited upon the beach. The bees produce a great abundance of
honey in the cavities of trees. _Quinaquina_, or Jesuits’ bark, is
rarely seen.
RIVERS AND LAKES.--Of the great number of rivers in this
province the only large one is the Jaguaribe, which, in the idiom
of the Indians, means the “river of ounces.” It has its origin in
the serra of Boavista, which is a portion of the Cayriris, in the
district of Inhamu, and runs, like all the others, to the north,
passes the towns of St. Joam do Principe, St. Bernardo, and Aricaty,
and discharges itself into the ocean fifty miles west of the Appody.
Its course through the cattle plains is handsome and interesting;
the tide runs thirty miles, and gives it a majestic appearance. It
has a diversity of fish, a considerable part of which enter with
the inundations into the adjacent lakes, where they are greatly
diminished by the _jaburu_ and other ichthyophagous birds. Its
principal tributaries are the river Salgado, which flows from the same
cordillera, breaks through a mountain which it encounters, passes
by the parishes of Lavras and Icco, and enters its superior by the
right margin, having traversed the district of Mangabeira, where
there is gold, the extraction of which was forbidden. The Banabuyhu,
little inferior to the preceding, comes from the vicinity of the
before-mentioned cordillera, joining its waters to the Jaguaribe a
few leagues below the last confluence, having received, amongst other
smaller streams, the Quixeramuby.
The river Caracu has its heads in the centre of the province, waters
the town of Sobral, and is discharged by two mouths near forty miles
to the east of the bay of Jericoacoara. The tide runs up some leagues,
rendering it navigable for a considerable space.
The river Camucim, which in the interior of the country flows under the
name of Croaihu, and which has one hundred miles of course, originates
in the serra of Hibiapaba, refreshes the town of Granja, and empties
itself twenty-five miles to the east of the last-mentioned bay. It
is navigable for a considerable distance, and has at its embouchure
a commodious anchorage for sumacas, which export from thence a large
quantity of cotton, principally to Maranham.
The river Aricaty is extensive, and enters the sea by two unequal
mouths, denominated Aricaty-Assu and Aricaty-Mirim; the first is the
eastern. The intervening island is four miles in diameter and about
twenty-five east of the Caracu.
The Cahohyppe, which flows into the ocean, fifteen miles to the west
of the capital; the Cioppe, eighteen miles more to the west; the Curu,
which discharges itself twenty miles further in the same direction;
and the Mandahu, nearly fifty miles more, and eighteen to the east of
Aricaty-Assu, are the only others worthy of notice.
In all the rivers of this province there is a species of fish
resembling a skate, with a spur upon the tail, the painful sting of
which, when it does not produce death, leaves the patient with a
terrible wound: the only remedy known is burning with a hot iron or
caustic, when the artery is not affected. The Author of Nature has
beneficently ordained that they confine themselves to the bottom of
dead water, and do no harm to those who bathe in running streams.
The lake of Velho is to the right of the Jaguaribe, with which it
communicates by two channels in the parish of St. Joam, many leagues
distant from the town of Aricaty. The lake of Jaguaracu lies between
the rivers Cioppe and Siara, thirty-five miles from the sea, and the
lake Camurupim, a short way from the eastern margin of the river
Camucim, are the most considerable. Other periodical lakes are to be
remarked, of little depth and considerable diameter, which only exist
whilst it rains, and whose waters, on the return of heat and dry winds,
crystallize into a white and excellent salt.
ISLANDS, CAPES, AND PORTS.--On the extensive coast of this
province there are no promontories or remarkable capes, no ports for
the reception of large vessels, nor islands, except in the embouchures
or beds of the rivers. The shore in some parts is steep, in others flat
and sandy, covered with mangroves, and having in some situations fine
cocoa-nut trees.
The bay of Titoya, with seven miles of mouth and two of depth, is
surrounded by handsome mangroves, full of divers species of crab-fish,
and is situated between the mouth of the Camucim and the limit of the
province. The bay of Jericoacoara, considerable, and pointed out by
the morro of the same name, and the bay of Iguape, surrounded by high
barriers, contracted into a point by a mount on the eastern side, are
the only openings in the land meriting that denomination.
A line drawn north and south, from the river Curu to the southern
limit, divides this province into two parts almost equal.