AguaquenteTrahirasSt. JozeSt. FelizCavalcanteConceiçaoArrayasSt. DomingosFlores.
Two miles distant from the confluence of the river Almas with the Maranham, and seventy miles to the north-east of Pilar, is the arraial of Aguaquente, (Warm Water) situated near a large and deep lake of brackish, fetid, and warm water, from which it derived the name. A church of St Sebastiao and a chapel of ourLady of Merces are its only places of worship. It was commenced about the year 1732, in the frontier situation, where some vestiges remain. An epidemical disease, produced by standing and putrid pools of water, occasioned by the floods of the Maranham, led those who wished to escape with life to the place where this arraial is now situated. It was not unusual for fifty to die in one day. A numerous herd of oxen arriving from St. Paulo, for the supply of this arraial, where they were collected at night, and pastured in its environs during the day, was the cause, it is stated, of this contagion ceasing. The gold, which was so abundant at first, induced an assemblage here of twelve thousand persons. Amongst other pieces of considerable size, one was found of forty-three pounds weight, which was transmitted to the court, in the same form that nature presented it. This rarity was placed in the Royal Museum of Lisbon; and became the booty of the French army when in that city. There are some frightful caverns upon the margins of this lake, the outlet from which is a small perennial stream, not experiencing any diminution during the droughts.
Fifteen miles to the east-north-east of Aguaquente is the arraial of Cocal, so called from its great number of cocoa trees, and situated near a small river which loses itself in the Maranham. Whilst gold was abundant this place flourished, but it is now very inconsiderable. The arraial of Trahiras, twenty miles to the north-east of Aguaquente, large and flourishing, is the head of the julgado; it was founded in 1735, upon the left margin, and twenty miles above the mouth of the river that gives it the name. It has a church of Nossa Senhora da Conceiçao, a hermitage of Bom Jesus, and another of Our Lady of Rozario. It is well supplied with meat, fish, and the agricultural productions of the country.
Five miles to the north-east of Trahiras, is the middling arraial of St. Joze de Tucantines, improperly so denominated, being nearly thirty miles distant from that river. It was founded in 1735, near the left margin of the river Bacalhau, and has two hermitages of Our Lady of Boa Morte and of Rozario, and another of St. Efigenia. Its church is the most magnificent temple in the province. There is a brotherhood of the Lord dos Passos[23]privileged by Pope Clement XIII.
About twelve miles to the east of the preceding is the small arraial of Cachoeira, to which a cataract furnished the name, Cachoeira being founded near it, upon the margin of the river, in the year 1736.
Ten miles to the north of Cachoeira is the small arraial of St. Ritta, founded in the same year as the preceding, and possessing a chapel. Twenty-eight miles to the east of St. Ritta is the small arraial of Moquem, near the river Peixe, which is a branch of the Bagagem, having a hermitage of the Lady of Abbadia.
St. Feliz, a well supplied arraial, in a state of mediocrity, and about seventy miles north of St. Joze, is situated near the right bank of the small river of the same name, and less than three miles from the Maranham. It was founded in the year 1736, and has a church called after the same saint, a hermida, or hermitage, of the Lady of Rozario, and one of St. Anna. It is the head of the julgado, and possessed for a considerable time a smelting house for gold. Some of its inhabitants are yet miners; the rest breeders of cattle and cultivators of the necessaries of life.
The Caldas of St. Feliz, (the hot baths or waters of St. Feliz,) otherwise called Frey Raynaldo, are thirty-five miles further to the south, consisting of four springs of tepid, and one of very hot water.
Seven miles to the north of St. Feliz, near the road, there is a mass of black stone, with so frightful and profound a cavern, that no one has yet dared to examine it. Three miles more to the north is situated an aldeia, with a hermida of Our Lady of Carmo, from which it takes the name.
Cavalcante, a flourishing arraial, founded in 1740, has a church of St. Anna, two hermidas of the Lady of Rozario and Boa Morte, and is seventy miles to the east of St. Feliz, near a small river which runs to the Parannan, under the name of Rio das Almas. It is the head of the julgado, well provided with water, and has a smelting house transferred from St. Feliz. Its inhabitants form five companies of militia. It has a rich quarry, but deep and difficult to work. It would become important in the hands of an opulent company, and directed by intelligent persons. Cattle are bred within its district. Mandioca, Indian corn, some wheat, and cotton, are the articles of cultivation.
Seventy miles to the north of St. Feliz, and not far removed from the mouth of the river Palma, is the arraial of Conceiçao, with a church of the same name. It is the head of the julgado: the people who inhabit it are miners, breeders of cattle, farmers of such necessaries of life as prosper best in the country, and form four companies of militia. It is very deficient in good water. Within its district is the small arraial of Principe, with a hermitage.
Arrayas is an arraial in a state of mediocrity, head of the julgado, has a church of Our Lady of Remedios, was founded in the year 1740, and is fiftymiles to the north-east of Cavalcante, near the origin of the river from which it derives the name. Its environs are in great part mountainous, and abound with cattle, which constitute the wealth of the inhabitants, who are formed into four companies of militia.
Twenty-five miles to the south-east of Arrayas, near a small river which runs into the Parannan, is the small arraial of Morro do Chapeo, founded in 1779. A neighbouring mount, similar in appearance to a hat, (chapeo,) and from which gold is extracted, was the origin of its name. Cattle constitute the riches of the inhabitants.
Forty miles to the east of Morro do Chapeo, and in the skirts of the serra of its name, is the arraial and freguezia of St. Domingos, in the vicinity of which there is a rock of remarkable height and appearance. Its inhabitants breed cattle, and cultivate a variety of the necessaries of life.
A little to the east, upon the limits of the province, there is a detachment to prevent the embezzlement of gold.
Flores is a middling and well supplied arraial, and head of the julgado, has a church of Our Lady of Conceiçao, and a hermida of Rozario, with a brotherhood of blacks. It is seventy miles to the south-east of Cavalcante, near the right margin of the river Parannan, in a fertile situation. Cattle and horses are the principal riches of its inhabitants.
Within its extensive bounds is situated the aldeia of Matto Grosso, with a hermitage of the Lady of Piedade; and the small arraial of St. Roza, with another hermitage of that saint; and in whose district is a remarkable cavern, with many stalactites, or crystallizations of different forms.
Ninety miles to the south of Flores, and two miles from a lake denominated Lagoa Feia, is the arraial of Coiros, formerly the head of the julgado, which pre-eminence, in 1774, was transferred to Cavalcante. It has a church dedicated to St. Luzia, and a hermida, where the blacks celebrate the festival of Our Lady of Rozario. Within its extensive limits, large herds of cattle are bred.
A law emanated on the 25th February, 1814, for the foundation of a town to be called St. Joam da Palma, in a situation determined upon at the embouchure of the river of the same name, to become the head of the comarca of St. Joam das Duas Barras. In order to give it an immediate commencement, and to accelerate its augmentation, all individuals were exempted from payment of the dizimos for the space of ten years who erected a house for their own habitation in this town, or within the circle marked for its limits. By thesame law, the town of St. Joam das Duas Barras, ordered to be founded by a decree in 1809, was to become subject to this town.
The major part of the cattle bred in this district are consumed in the reconcave of Bahia, and in the comarca of the Ilheos.
This district, to which one of the rivers that traverse it lends the name, is bounded on the north by the district of Parannan, on the south by the province of St. Paulo, on the east by that of Minas Geraes, and on the west by the districts of Goyaz and Cayaponia. It is three hundred and fifty miles from north to south, and one hundred and seventy of medium width.
Besides the river which affords it the name, and those which serve for its western and southern limits, it contains numerous others. Upon the road of Meia Ponte to St. Paulo, amongst other small ones, are the Capivary, which is forded with difficulty even in dry weather, the Pyracanjuba, the Peixe, (both with bridges,) all three discharging themselves into the Corumba by the right bank; the Braco do Verissimo; the Verissimo, which receives the former; the Parannahiba; and the small stream of Furnas, that flows through a plain, and on a sudden is precipitated twenty fathoms into a profound abyss. A variety of birds build their nests in the cavities of the rock, and rear their young, in sight, and amidst the murmuring sounds of this fine cataract. The Furnas discharges itself soon afterwards into the Rio das Velhas. The two Uberavas,verdadeiro, (the real one,) which runs into the preceding, and thefalso, (or false,) that enters the Rio Grande. The small river Inferno which issues from the serra of Canastra, and enters the Rio das Velhas by the left; the river Quebra Anzoes, that originates on the confines of Minas Geraes, and also unites itself with the Rio das Velhas by the right margin; but none of them reach the road, near which the river Prata and the Tijuco rise, and, after uniting, enter the river Parannahiba a considerable distance below the confluence of the Rio das Velhas.
On the road of Paracatu is met with (besides the afore-mentioned Corumba) the river Areas, the Montes Claros, the Pont’ Alta, (all with bridges,) and the St. Bartholomew. The whole are stored with a diversity of fish, and flow southward.
In the most northern part of the district is the river Almas, the Peixe, which unites with the first by the right, and the Patos, that flows along and to the east of the serra Negra, and afterwards joins the Maranham a few leaguesabove the arraial of Aguaquente. These rivers possess the same fish as the Tucantines.
The territory lying between the two Uberavas is a plain of thirty-five miles in width, without the least elevation above the horizon, and absolutely destitute of wood; but supplying the deer and the emu ostrich.
In the middle of the last century there lived, between the Parannahiba and the Rio Grande, a horde of Bororos, whose cacique was then a Paulista, called Antonio Pirez de Campos, a youth of much subtilty, and well adapted for the management of those savages amongst whom he sought refuge, being driven from civilized society by the extent of his crimes. He died, between the years 1750 and 1760, of a wound which he received in the arm, in an encounter with the Cayapos. His comrades applied medicinally, for many days, hot broiled bacon to the wound, until they conveyed him to a Christianized establishment in Minas Geraes, to try if he could be there cured. They lamented for a month over him as a common father.
Amongst other serras in the northern part is that of Caldas, four leagues square, and flat upon the summit, where there are some lakes and deer.
The principal povoaçoes are Meia Ponte, Santa Luzia, Santa Cruz, St. Domingos, and Desemboque.
Meia Ponte is the largest, most flourishing, and commercial povoaçao in the province, with the exception of the capital, from which it is ninety miles distant to the east, and is situated near the Almas, which there is only an inconsiderable stream. It has a church of Nossa Senhora of Rozario, four hermidas, three dedicated to Our Lady, with the titles of Carmo, Lapa, and Rozario, of the blacks, another of the Lord of Bom Fim, and an Hospicio d’Esmoleres (an alms-house for the entertainment of the travelling brotherhood) of Terra Santa. It was founded in the year 1731, is the head of the julgado, well supplied with meat and fish, and has a royal professor of Latin. Its inhabitants, and those of the environs, cultivate Indian corn, wheat, mandioca, tobacco, cotton, sugar, some coffee, and breed cattle; likewise many hogs. They manufacture certain descriptions of cloth, both of wool and cotton; and hence this place is considered the cradle and centre of the agriculture and industry of the province. The caravans from the capital and from Cuiaba, proceeding to the metropolis, to St. Paulo, or Bahia, pass this way.
About eighteen miles to the east-north-east is the cordillera called Montes Pyreneos, (the Pyrenees.) From its sides flow torrents to the four cardinal points.
Nearly fifty miles to the east of Meia Ponte, in the vicinity of some fine hills,denominated Montes Claros, there is a hermida of St. Luzia, which ornamented the decayed arraial of St. Antonio.
St. Luzia, a middling and well supplied arraial, which derives its name from the patroness of the church, is seven miles from the road of Paracatu, and almost at an equal distance from the rivers Pont’ Alta and St. Bartholomew, being eighteen miles, with little difference, from each, in a pleasant and wholesome situation, abounding with water. It is the head of the julgado, has a hermitage of Our Lady of Rozario, produces good cheese and marmalade, and is seventy miles east-south-east of Meia Ponte. In its environs cattle are exceedingly abundant, constituting the wealth of its inhabitants.
St. Cruz, a small arraial, with a church of the Lady of Conceiçao, is the most ancient of the province, and head of the julgado. It is one hundred miles to the south-south-east of Meia Ponte, upon the road of St. Paulo, a little removed from the left margin of the river Pary, and about one mile from the morro of Clemente, abounding with gold, which has not yet been worked for the want of water; because, according to the saying of the miners here, “a mountain of gold is worth nothing, if it has not water.” Its inhabitants are agriculturists and cattle breeders. In its district are thecaldas, or hot springs of the same name, consisting of various fountains, differing in the degree of heat, and little distant from each other. Their waters, which have been efficacious in many diseases, form the small river Caldas.
Almost in the middle of the interval from St. Cruz to Meia Ponte, and also upon the road, is the small arraial of Bom Fim, with a hermitage of that name. The inhabitants are gold miners, breed cattle, and cultivate the necessaries of life.
One hundred and forty miles to the south of St. Cruz is the arraial of St. Anna, two miles distant from the northern margin of the river Velhas, in an agreeable situation, and is the parochial of all the Christianized Indians, who live in those parts, near the road of St. Paulo. It was founded in the year 1741, for the habitation of five hundred Bororo Indians, who came from Cuiaba to succour the Christians against the Cayapos, who carried devastation amongst the Portuguese establishments. They lived here till the year 1775, when they were removed to the arraial of Lanhozo, a horde ofChacriabaIndians remaining in their stead, who were brought from the margins of Rio Preto, in the province of Pernambuco, and who are at present the inhabitants of the place, with some of other nations. They cultivate mandioca, Indian corn, and legumes.
Twenty miles to the north of the parish of St. Anna, and also near the same road, upon the northern margin of the small river Pedras, is situated the aldeia of that name, formerly inhabited by Bororos, but now almost depopulated, in consequence of that horde being removed in 1811 to the new prezidios of Nova Beira. The arraial of Lanhozo above mentioned, founded near the Uberava Falso, no longer exists, its people having united themselves with those of the river Pedras.
The arraial of St. Domingos do Araxa, in a state of mediocrity, modernly erected into the head of the julgado, is situated in a plain traversed by a small stream, and is thirty miles distant from the boundary, and twenty from the river Quebr’ Anzoes, (Hook Breaker.) The wells of excellent water, which save the breeders from the expense of purchasing salt for the cattle, and the considerable portions of fertile land in which various branches of agriculture will flourish, have already invited many hundred families to remove their establishments here, and which will probably in a few years render this parish the most populous one in the province. They already manufacture cotton cloth, and are commencing upon woollens. Large quantities of hogs and cattle are bred.
The arraial of Desemboque, head of the julgado, has a church of Our Lady of Desterro, and is situated upon the left margin of the river Velhas, about thirty-five miles distant from the boundary of Minas Geraes. Its inhabitants breed cattle, and cultivate an abundance of the necessaries of life.
In the year 1812, the arraial of St. Antonio and St. Sebastiao were commenced, with a hermitage dedicated to those saints, near the channel of the Lage, two miles distant from the road of St. Paulo to the east, and one from the left margin of the Uberava Falso. The people who inhabit it cultivate feijao, Indian corn, rice, and cotton, with the fruits and hortulans of the country, and breed cattle.