_First Donatory--Shipwreck of Persons intended for its
Colonization--Establishment of the French--Retaken--Foundation
of Capital--Taken by the Dutch--Retaken--Agricultural
Company--Boundaries--Rivers, Ports, and Islands--Mineralogy
--Phytology--Zoology--Indians--Povoaçoes--City of Maranham--
Commerce--Exports of Produce._
John III. was more peculiarly attentive to the prosperity and
improvement of the Brazil, than any other of the Portuguese sovereigns,
with the exception of the present monarch, John VI. whose salutary
administration of power in the Transatlantic part of his dominions,
may be regarded as the result of those important events in Europe,
which led to the removal of the Royal Family to this region, and the
consequent introduction of a more liberal intercourse with other
nations. But these benefits are but the dawnings of future civilization
and improvement.
John III. in pursuance of his good wishes towards the Brazil,
determined to partition the coast into capitanias, and that denominated
Maranhao, was presented by his Majesty to the historian Joam de Barros.
It is probable that this part of the coast had acquired that name from
the circumstance of V. Y. Pinson, after his discovery of Cape St.
Augustin, having entered a gulf or the mouth of a great river, which
was unquestionably the Amazons, and whose waters not possessing the
saline qualities of the ocean, he called Mara-non, (not sea.) Hence
followed the Portuguese denomination of this territory Maranhao, and
Maranham by the English, resulting from the false notion which the
Portuguese at first entertained that it was the great river. Its
donatory, Joam de Barros, being a man of noble spirit, and determined
to do the utmost for the colonization of this important donation,
united with his own inadequate means those of the Cavalheiros Fernando
Alvarez and Ayres da Cunha. It was unanimously agreed that Ayres da
Cunha should be intrusted with the settlement of the colony, which
sailed from Lisbon in 1535, consisting of nine hundred persons,
including two sons of the donatory, with the important addition of one
hundred and thirteen horses.
This armament, comprising ten vessels, and considered the most powerful
that had sailed for a long period from the Tagus, was unfortunately
wrecked upon the shoals which surround the island of Maranham. Some
persons escaped to the island of Medi or Boqueirao at the entrance
of the bay; but which not being adapted for the foundation of the
colony, they abandoned and returned to Portugal by the first vessel
that appeared, excepting one individual, a blacksmith, called Pedro,
or Pero, who remained among the Indians, and rendered himself highly
important and exceedingly useful to them, in consequence of the variety
of instruments he constructed of the iron taken from the fragments of
the wreck that were washed upon the beach. A daughter of a cacique, or
prince, was bestowed upon him in marriage, by whom he had two sons,
both called Pedros, or Peros, from which the Indians thought the
Portuguese all had this name, and they usually gave that nation the
appellation of Peros.
The severe disappointment which Barros sustained, not only in the
loss of his property but of his two sons, by this terrible disaster,
deterred him from making any further attempt. And the same monarch gave
this territory to Luiz de Mello, and furnished him with three ships and
two caravels, that he might the more effectually execute his project,
which was to penetrate by the river Amazons as far as the eastern
mines of Peru. He was not, however, much less unfortunate than Ayres
da Cunha, the whole of the armament being lost near the same place,
excepting one caravel that escaped, and with which he returned to
Lisbon. These misfortunes attending the vessels that entered even the
best anchorage place of this province discouraged all those persons who
were capable of colonizing its fertile land, but did not prevent its
being visited by other nations.
In the year 1594 M. Rifault, a Frenchman, entered the port of Maranham
with three sail, where he left Charles Vaux and a small number of
his crew. This weak colony was reinforced in the year 1612 by M.
Ravardiere. Two years afterwards Jeronimo d’Albuquerque Coelho was
despatched from Pernambuco by order of the governor, Gaspar de Souza,
to expel those intruders, over whom, after some attacks, he gained
very little advantage, by a capitulation which he entered into with
them. Alexandre de Moura, who arrived there the following year with a
strong force, proposed, instead of the capitulation, the evacuation
of the place by the French, to which their commander, from the weak
condition of the colony, was under the necessity of acceding. This
event, occurring on the 1st of November, induced Moura to give the name
of Todos os Santos to the island, which it did not however long retain.
Jeronimo d’Albuquerque was left here by Alexandre de Moura with the
post of captao-mor, and was instructed to found a povoaçao and continue
the conquest of this new province on account of the government. He
preferred the situation which had been selected by the French, where
he commenced the capital, in the increase and defence of which he was
occupied till the year 1618, when he died, and was succeeded by his
son, Antonio d’Albuquerque, as temporary governor for more than a year,
when Domingos da Costa Machado was appointed to this situation. In
the beginning of his government Jorge de Lemos arrived there with two
hundred families from the Azores, in three vessels, at his own cost.
In 1621 there was a very great mortality amongst the domestic Indians,
caused by the small pox. Part of this loss was remedied in the same
year by the transmission of forty families, also from the islands
of the Azores, by the provedor-mor, Antonio Ferraira Bitancourt, in
pursuance of an arrangement made with the crown.
Antonio Moniz Barreiros succeeded to this government in 1622, to whom
the senate, in the name of the people, presented a requisition that he
would not consent to the establishment of the Jesuits there, as it was
thought the introduction of their principles among the Indians would
not be favourable to the colonists. He established two sugar works,
in accomplishment of the obligation his father, of the same name, was
under from being appointed provedor-mor of the treasury at Bahia.
Some time before Barreiros began his government the court of Madrid (in
1621) resolved to form the conquests of Maranham into a new state of
the same name, and for its governor was nominated D. Diogo de Carcoma,
whose refusal occasioned the appointment of D. Francisco de Moura. This
individual not going, Francisco Coelho de Carvalho was elected, who
sailed from the Tagus in March, 1624, and disembarked at Pernambuco,
where the irruptions of the Dutch detained him nearly two years, so
that he did not arrive at the capital of Maranham till 1626, having
previously taken possession of the fort of Siara, which then formed a
part of this province. In the following year he visited the province
of Grand Para and entered the bay of Gurupy, where he established a
povoaçao, which he called Vera Cruz, and died in the twelfth year of
his government.
In 1641, when John IV. again had an ambassador at the Dutch court,
which had recognised him as the legitimate sovereign of Portugal, a
Dutch vessel arrived at Maranham, under the pretence of having been
driven there by a violent tempest, and requested that assistance which
in such cases is customary for friendly nations to afford to each
other. The credulous friendship of the governor was taken advantage
of by the Dutch, who suddenly possessed themselves of the capital,
and with facility subjugated the rest of the province; from whence,
however, they were expelled by the Portuguese in 1643.
All the governors of this province had not the titles of
captains-general of the state; occasionally Grand Para enjoyed this
pre-eminence. All proceedings that admitted of appeal after the
sentence of the magistrates, in all the provinces, were always referred
to the court, and their bishops immediately upon creation became
suffragans of the metropolitan of Lisbon.
The subjection of the Portuguese nation to a foreign sceptre, the
pretensions of the Dutch to the Brazil, afterwards the prolonged war
preceding the reversion of the crown, and, finally, the alleged long
existing destructive abuses of the Braganza family, are adduced as
plausible reasons for the unflourishing state of the Brazil for nearly
a century and a half.
With the change of hemisphere the first colonists are also said to
have changed their customs, entering into the pursuits of agriculture
with no spirit, alike regarding improvement and instruction with
indifference, and preferring the idiom of the barbarous Tupinambas to
their own. The various Jesuitical missionaries, however, made great
progress in the conversion of the Indians, and in which they would have
been more successful had not the colonists degenerated so much and
relaxed in their obedience to the laws. The Portuguese language began
to be generally used in the year 1755, and at this epoch agriculture
assumed a more flourishing aspect, in consequence of the creation of
a public company, which included the province of Para. Its capital
amounted to one million two hundred thousand crusades, which was
raised by twelve hundred shares; the possession of ten shares rendered
each individual eligible to the administration of the affairs of the
company, which was decried by some as introductory of ignorance and a
system of destruction.
This province is bounded on the north by the ocean, on the west by the
province of Para, on the south by those of Goyaz and Piauhy, and on
the east by the latter. It is of a triangular form, extending nearly
four hundred miles from north to south on its western side, and about
three hundred and fifty miles from west to east along the coast, lying
between 1° and 7½° south latitude. Its vicinity to the equator renders
the climate hot. The thunderstorms introduce the winter season, which
begin in the southern districts about the month of October, where the
longest day is twelve hours and a half. In the northern part of the
province there is scarcely any difference between the day and night all
the year. The country is mostly uneven, but without any mountains of
considerable elevation. It has large and numerous rivers, and is mainly
covered with woods, affording a variety and abundance of excellent
timber.
RIVERS, PORTS, AND ISLANDS.--About two miles within the bar
of the channel of Tutoya, (the western branch of the river Parnahyba
and the eastern limits of this province,) the river of the same name
is discharged, after a short course, being only of note as far as the
tide ascends. In front of its mouth is a small island, which forms an
anchorage place.
Fifteen miles to the west of Tutoya bar is the Perguicas, which is
large, and affords good anchorage for small vessels within the eastern
point. Following a handsome beach of white sand for about thirty miles,
denominated the Lancoes, and at its termination another of about twelve
miles, covered with mangroves, is the river Marim, which flows through
a fertile soil and is discharged by three mouths. Passing the western
mouth of this river the coast changes its direction to the south-west,
and forms a gulf or bay of about thirty-five miles in extent, in which
is situated the island of Maranham, (twenty miles long from north-east
to south-west, and fifteen at its greatest width,) forming, with the
continent, two bays, one to the east, called St. Joze, and the other to
the west, St. Marcos, each about six miles in width, communicating by a
narrow strait, denominated the river Mosquito, fifteen miles long, and
separating the island from the continent: this island, almost covered
with woods, has some eminences and fifteen perennial streams.
Seven miles beyond the Marim the Perea discharges itself, and is
navigable for a considerable distance. Almost in front of it is an
island of the same name, near to which is another, called Raza, and not
far distant that of St. Anna. The river Moconandiva follows, and after
it the Mamuna, which is discharged by two mouths, the western one being
called Aragatuba; the interval between it and the Perea, about twelve
miles, is an archipelago. Twenty-eight miles further is discharged
the large river Mony, which originates about twenty-five miles from
the margin of the Parnahyba, and six miles above its mouth receives
the Iguara, which waters a country where the necessaries of life are
only partially cultivated. Three miles west of the Mony is the vast
embouchure of the large river Itapicuru, being the most considerable
of the province. It originates in the district of Balsas, the most
southern portion of Maranham, where it already assumes the appearance
of a large river, running north-east to Cachias, one hundred miles
above which it receives on the left the Alpercatas, of equal size,
and which comes from the territory of the Tymbyra Indians, whither it
affords navigation to canoes. In Cachias it changes its direction to
the north-west, and passes by two parishes of the same name, where the
tide and the navigation of large barks with the sail terminate. Its
current is rapid and the course winding, generally through extensive
woods. The fishermen who use the line about the heads of this river,
occasionally catch a species of small eel whose electric powers are
greater than the _torpedo_, conveying its influence up the line
and rod, and benumbing the arm, so that it cannot be moved; this
electrical effect is attributed to a stone the fish has in its head,
and which is much esteemed by the superstitious, who attach many
virtues to it. Humboldt tried many interesting experiments with this
fish, whose electric fire is exhausted after many discharges; amongst
other trials of its power were the driving horses into a pond and
compelling them to withstand the gradually decreasing shocks of a great
many of them. The two last rivers enter the bay of St. Joze.
About twenty miles further west, at the bottom of the bay of St.
Marcos and the same distance south-west of the capital is the mouth
of the large river Meary, or Mearim, sometimes called Maranham, which
originates also in the southern part of the province, describing
numerous windings, and increasing by the addition of various streams,
among which is the Grajehu. Its bed is deep and wide, and the current
so rapid that it suspends the progress of the tide for a considerable
period, and produces by this opposition an extraordinary agitation
of the waters, which is called _Pororocas_; when the tide has
vanquished its opponent it flows up for three hours with astonishing
rapidity. This phenomenon occupies a space of nearly fifteen
miles, occasioning a loud noise, and there are situations, called
_esperas_, where canoes wait until the tide re-advances, and then
continue their voyage without danger. This large river, which has the
least depth at its extended mouth where vessels can only enter with the
tide, affords navigation to the centre of the province, where a large
fall interrupts it. It traverses the territories of the Gamella Indians
and other barbarous nations. In the vicinity of the sea it flows
through fine campinhas of fertile land, where cattle are raised, a
diversity of the necessaries of life, and cotton. One of its principal
and last confluents is the Pinnare, up which small craft proceed to
the town of Vianna. The coast beyond the Mearim inclines to the north,
forming a bay ten miles in extent, about fifteen miles beyond which is
the bay of Cuma, nine miles long and three wide, open to the east, and
receiving the river Piracunan.
Twenty miles further is the bay called Cabello da Velha, six miles
wide, nearly of equal length, and receiving the river Cururupu. Its
entrance is between two small islands surrounded with dangerous shoals.
In the proximity of the shore, half way between the two last bays,
is a file of five islands, thickly covered with woods; the largest
is about four miles in length. About twenty miles further, the coast
being bordered by the same number of islands, is the embouchure of the
Turynana, which has an extensive course and here affords good anchorage
for small vessels. In front of this is the island of St. Joam, the most
westerly of those alluded to; it is ten miles long from north-east to
south-west, flat, covered with woods, and occupied by birds and wild
quadrupeds. A profound channel, three miles in width, separates it from
the continent; near its north-eastern point there is safe anchorage.
Further westward is the vast bay of Turyvassu, the limits of the
province on the side of Para. It receives a river of the same name,
after flowing a great distance through extensive woods. The Indians,
who, under various appellations had the dominion of the island of
Maranham and the adjoining continent, were Tupinambas, and divided into
small tribes.
MINERALOGY.--Calcareous stone, copperas, alum, iron, lead, and silver,
antimony, amianthus, saltpetre, mineral salt, crystals, grindstone, and
quarries or rocks of granite.
PHYTOLOGY.--The Asiatic cocoa-nut tree grows sparingly, and only along
the coast. The pine is common, and fructifies in perfection. From the
fruit of the _mamona_ is extracted almost all the oil which is used for
lights. Here are trees of gum copal, storax, mastick, bensoin, dragons’
blood, the oil of cupahyba, or capivi, the _arariba_, from whose bark
is extracted a beautiful crimson colour, the _barbatimoe_, cajue-nut
_ambuzo_, cocoa, _jabuticaba_, _mangaba_, _aracaza_, _babonilha_,
_butua_, ginger, jalap, ipecacuanha, and the palm. The cane prospers in
many situations, but its culture has been supplanted by that of cotton,
which constitutes the main article of exportation, and the principal
wealth of the country. Amongst resinous trees is also the _sucuba_,
the gum of which passes for the ammoniac of the Levant. The deity who
presides over grain, the lifesustaining Ceres, has here but little
influence, and rice only is cultivated, but to a very great extent;
the soil is equally well adapted to the produce of Indian corn. The
irregularity of the seasons does not permit the cultivation of wheat,
rye, or barley. Water-melons, melons, and pine-apples are excellent.
The indigenous banana tree produces fruit in immense profusion and of
the best quality.
ZOOLOGY.--Cattle, sheep, and goats multiply here better than
in the countries from which they were imported, but do not improve in
size nor in the flavour of their meat, neither are they very numerous,
with the exception of the first. Mules are bred here, also hogs, equal
to the consumption of the country. All the species of wild animals
are met with, peculiar to the eastern provinces. The _moco_ is
numerous in all parts. The birds of the plains, woods, and lakes, known
in the other districts, are common here; and the handsome _guara_
abound in the proximity of the sea. There is in this part of South
America a particular species of silk worm, more prolific than the
ordinary kinds of Bombay or Persia. The colour of the silk is a dark
yellow, and might be rendered a considerable branch of commerce,
in consequence of the facility which would attend its abundant
cultivation, if any adequate attention was afforded to it. The insect
receives its nourishment from leaves of the orange and the pine tree,
or _atta_, which is common in its native country.
All the territory lying between the rivers Itapicuru and the Parnahyba
has been for many years evacuated by the Indians, as well as the
northern part of that to the west of the first river, and is more or
less inhabited by whites, and Christianized Indians, mainly occupied in
the cultivation of mandioca, Indian corn, and legumes, and above all
in the two vegetable articles of exportation, rice and cotton, almost
all the labour being performed by the hands of negroes, who exceed by
many times the number of the others. Families live for the most part
dispersed. A certain proportion of land, where each cultivator dwells,
generally with all his family and slaves, is of itself considered an
aldeia. There are few aldeias compared with the extent of the province,
having any considerable number of families, with the exception of those
which have been created parishes, many comprising sixty miles or more
of district. Excellent nets used for sleeping, and some coarse cottons,
made into dresses, generally for slaves, are manufactured here.
The southern portion of the western district of this province is
still in the possession of the Indians, as well as a great extent
of the central part. The most northern tribe, bordering upon the
Portuguese, are called by them the _Gamel__las_, in consequence of
their prevailing custom of perforating and distending the under lip,
with a sort of calabash, or round piece of wood, which produces some
resemblance to a small gamella, or wooden bowl. They cultivate various
necessaries of life, and live in cabanas, when they are not out upon
their hunting excursions, or gathering wild fruits. Their arms are the
bow and arrow, and a club of hard wood, denominated a _mataranna_,
cornered at the thicker end and pointed at the other.
The Timbyras occupy the country to the south of them, and are divided
into two hordes, one denominated Timbyras da Matta, (of the wood,)
from living in the interior of forests; the other, Timbyras de Canella
Fina, from the delicate form of their legs. They rove in the desert
plains, and are of such amazing velocity, that they equal the swiftness
of the horse. All use a bow made of a species of small club, and
another large one of violet wood, and flat. Those of the woods have in
their territory a large lake, and mines of salt, which they use, and
cultivate mandioca and other necessaries, also some cotton, of which
they make their hammocks. They distil various beverages, more or less
inebriating, which last only for a short time, arising as much from
the quality as the excess with which they use them. From the period
they begin to drink them, till they are finished, are days of folly,
dedicated to tumultuous dancing and dissension.
Proceeding southward, the Manajos are met with, who are of a white
complexion, and occupy a country to the west of Balsas, extending
themselves to the margin of the Tucantins, where they receive the
name of Temembos. In their vicinity dwell the Bus and Cupinharos.
The territory bounding this province and Para is inhabited by the
Gê Indians, who are divided into five tribes, distinguished by the
appellations of Auge, Crange, Cannacatage, Poncatage, and Paycoge, and
almost without any difference of language or customs.