Chapter II: Maranhao

This government is separated from Para towards the north by the river Tocantin; from Gojas towards the south by the cordillera called Guacucaguia; and from Fernambuca towards the east by the Ypiapaba mountains.

POPULATION.

8,993 Whites;--17,843 Blacks and Mulattoes, freedmen and slaves;--38,937 Indians, either dispersed about the country or inhabiting the ten different hamlets.

PRINCIPAL TOWNS.

St. Louis is the principal town in Maranhao; all commercial business is transacted in this place, which is situated in an island of the same name, and was built by the French in 1612. It is defended by a citadel and several forts, and has an excellent port.

The island of St. Louis is very fertile, and is twenty-six leagues in circumference.

The captainship of Siara is annexed to the government of Maranhao; the principal town bears the same name as the captainship, and contains about ten thousand inhabitants. It is defended by a small fort, and the port, which is likewise small, will only admit very little vessels.

COMMERCE.

The exportation of this government is not answerable to the number of its inhabitants, amounting only on an average to six or seven hundred thousand French livres (25,000 or 29,166l. 13s. 4d.) The finest Brazil amotto grows in Maranhao, which also produces the best cotton in America. Rice succeeds very well in this soil; but all endeavours have been fruitless to naturalize silk-worms.

There is a great breed of horses and horned cattle in Pauchy, a country annexed to this government, in which, however, the sheep degenerate as well as in the rest of Brazil, except, indeed, in the Coritibe. Mines of sulphur, alum, copperas, iron, lead, and antimony are very common in the mountains; but though they are not deep, they have never yet been opened. There are likewise silvermines, which, in 1752 the court had given permission to be worked; this permission was, however, soon after retracted, but for what reason was never yet known.