CHAP. IV. PROVINCE OF RIO DE JANEIRO—continued. (continued 2)

Upon the Parahiba, between the town of St. Salvador and the mouth of the river Muriahe, the parish of St. Antonio occupies a delightful situation. It was founded for the habitation of a horde of Indian Garulhos, who have insensibly disappeared. Its district is extensive, and abounds with sugar-works.

Thirty miles above the town of St. Salvador, and two below the last fall of the Parahiba, the aldeia or village of St. Fidelis, is agreeably and secludedly situated. It is an Indian parish, and was founded by three padres, one of whom, two years ago, was still living, and had the whole management of this establishment. A French gentleman, who was shipwrecked at the mouth of the Parahiba, proceeded through the Campos as far as this Indian village. He informed me, that, on leaving the plains cultivated with the plantations of the sugar-cane, he had to traverse a thick wood, rendered more difficult to penetrate by the wild grass and almost impervious underwood at the bottom of the higher trees. After a laborious march of five hours, this gentleman reached the aldeia, which consisted of a stone church, decorated with saints and much finery. It was fronted by the padre’s house at no great distance; both sides of this space were occupied by the huts of the Indians, over whom, from the imposing show of religious ceremony, and occasional personal chastisement, the padre had acquired a perfect command. Part of the Indians were employed in his house for domestic purposes; others in the cultivation of the necessaries of life; some were occupied in fishing in the Parahiba; and others, of proved fidelity, in shooting game in the surrounding woods; and thus subsistence was procured for the establishment. The domestic arrangement, however, of this priest was truly miserable.

The savage Indians frequently carry off by force some of their Christianized brethren, and display an inveterate antipathy to civilization. The tribes on the northern bank of the Parahiba, bordering upon the Portuguese establishments, are considered much more cruel than those on the southern, and have afforded various and recent proofs of cannibalism. On some occasions they lie in ambush near pathways, and, with their arrows, pierce the stranger to the heart, and feast upon his body. A proprietor of a sugar-work was carried off about three years ago, and devoured by them; and since that time three or four negroes have shared the same fate. They are addicted to plunder, and commit at times great devastation amongst the sugar-plantations, advancing in bodies of fifty or sixty from the woods, and cutting down the canes, which they carry off to their retreats. They are great cowards; and, on those appointed to keep watch giving the alarm of the approach of a single individual, they fly precipitately. They are exceedingly alarmed at the report of a gun. Two soldiers, equipped with jackets, stuffed with cotton and quilted, (which are almost impenetrable to the arrows of the Indian,) and with muskets, very recently proceeded from Villa Rica, (in Minas Geraes,) and penetrated as far as this district, through the woods covering the fertile territory on both banks of the Parahiba, to the possession of which the ounce assumes a right as well as the savage.

Of the ancient tribes the Puris is the principal one now remaining in those uncleared regions. It is a lamentable circumstance that the Brazilian government does not adopt some effectual plan to render these extensive and fertile territories of the Parahiba subservient to the wants of civilized man. The absence of comfort in the houses of the planters in the Goytacaze district is very conspicuous, and they have yet much to learn in the school of hospitality.

St. Gonçalo and St. Sebastiam are parishes of this district, both situated upon the Parahiba, and a few leagues distant from the principal town.

The district of Canta Gallo (Singing Cock) is a territory of great fertility, and irrigated by many rivers and smaller streams, which issue from the Organ Mountains, its southern limit, and discharge themselves into the Parahiba, which separates it from Minas Geraes on the north. It is bounded on the east by a continuation of the Organ range, which divides it from Goytacazes; and on the west by the river Piabanha, which separates it from Parahiba Nova. It has mines of gold, for the working of which the first colony was established in the year 1785. The fifths on the gold, rendered to the crown, in the four following years, were above ten thousand cruzades; and the duty upon agricultural productions amounted to eight thousand in the same period.

Amongst its rivers may be remarked the Pequequera, well stored with fish and navigable for the space of twenty miles; the Rio Negro, little less voluminous, and navigable for an equal distance, and also abounding with fish; the Bengales; and one called Rio Grande.

The major part of the territory, up to the epoch of its colonization, was under the dominion of the Coroado Indians, the remains of the ancient Goytacazes, at present not numerous, and allied to the conquerors. Their houses are large, constructed of timber and earth; they are of extraordinary length, covered with grass, or the bark of trees, with one door only, and without a single window. One of these rudely-constructed edifices will contain fifty, sometimes eighty, and even one hundred families. Generally each house constitutes an aldeia; very rarely two are met with together. Every morning, at the break of day, on hearing the song of a species of partridge, called macuco, (which sits upon trees during the night,) they immediately rise, and, although it rains, they go and bathe in the nearest torrent or lake; for which purpose a signal is made by the sound of an instrument formed of a cane.

Their marriage ceremonies consist of a species of banquet, at which all the inhabitants of the aldeia assemble; and generally the whole party become intoxicated. Immediately on being sensible of the approach of labour, the women retire into a wood, where they become mothers without any assistance whatever, and return with their infants, already covered with the juice of certain herbs, to render them less susceptible of cold.

These natives inter their dead in a sitting posture. Formerly the cemeteries of their caciques, or captains, consisted of cylindrical earthen vases, denominated cammucis; some of which have been recently found, containing bones.

These Indians use the bow and arrow only. The arrow is a species of cane, with a point of peculiarly hard wood, exposed to the fire till it acquires the greatest degree of consistency; some, intended for large animals, are formed at the point like a sword; others triangular and quadrangular.

A man who returns to the house after an absence of many days does not say a single word, in compliment, to his family, nor do they receive him in any other manner than if he had only been to fetch water from the fountain.

In 1814 the parish of Santissimo Sacramento was created a town, with the name of St. Pedro de Canta Gallo. Its civil government is conducted by two ordinary judges, three magistrates, and various minor officers. It is a middling town, traversed by a current of good water, which flows to the river Macuco. Its inhabitants, and those of its extensive district, prefer agriculture to mining, and they cultivate the usual necessaries of life belonging to the country.

In this district is the parish of St. Joze de Leonissa, upon the Parahiba, in front of the embouchure of the river Pomba, was created a parish in 1812, and is a povoacāo, abounding with fish and all the necessaries of life. Its inhabitants are yet almost all Indians.

Between the rivers Pomba and Parahiba, about six miles distant from the angle of their confluence, the parish of St. Antonio de Padua was erected, in 1812, in a district well adapted to the culture of various branches of agriculture.

The dwellers of the northern margin of the Parahiba are diocesans of Rio de Janeiro.