Maranhão

“ At its departure from Lake Lauricocha the youthful river starts toward the northeast for a distance of five hundred and sixty miles, and does not strike to the west until it has received an important tributary—the Panta. It is called the Marañon in its journey through Colombia and Peru up to the Brazilian frontier—or, rather, the Maranhao, for Marañon is only the French rendering of the Portuguese name. ”

“ One thing is very certain, the authorities cannot multiply educational facilities any too rapidly in this country, nor give the subject any too much attention, especially as regards the rising generation of both sexes. So far as we could learn by inquiry, or judge by careful observation, the ignorance of the mass of the people is simply deplorable.
Maranhão is situated about fourteen hundred miles north of Rio Janeiro, with which port it carries on an extensive coasting trade. ”

“ One of the best known residents of Maranhão is a hardy American who came down twenty years before to set up in Caixas the first cotton-mill in North Brazil—though cotton had been grown there for more than a century. There he married, became a power in the cattle and mining industries, and established a line of river-steamers to that principal town of the interior. Brazil, as he put it, is an easy country in which to make a living, but a hard one in which to make a fortune. ”

“ In the distant provinces, particularly on the banks of the Maranhão, it is still practised, and white men set out for the woods, to seek their fortunes; that is, to hunt Indians and return with slaves. The consequence was, that all who could escape, retired to the remotest forests; and there is not one to be now found in a state of nature, in all the wooded region. ”

“ The heat, however, is greatly modified on the coast by the south-east trade winds, and the climate is generally considered healthy, though beri-beri and eruptive diseases are common on the coast. The coast itself is broken and dangerous, there being many small indentations, which are usually masked by islands or shoals. The largest of these are the Bay of Tury-assú, facing which is the island of São João, and several others of small size, and the contiguous bays of São Marcos and São José, between which is the large island of Maranhão. ”

“ In Maranhão, which belongs to the coast region, open spaces or campos appear, though the state is well wooded and its forests have the general characteristics of the lower Amazon. South-east of the Parnahyba the coast region becomes dryer and more sandy and the forests disappear. The coast and tide-water rivers are fringed with mangrove, and the sandy plain reaching back to the margin of the inland plateau is generally bare of vegetation, though the carnahuba palm (Copernicia cerifera) and some species of low-growing trees are to be found in many places. ”

“ Agriculture has also greatly declined, the state producing for export only a comparatively small quantity of cotton, rice, sugar and aguardiente. Besides São Luiz, the capital of the state, the principal towns, with the population of their municipal districts in 1890, are: Caxias (19,443) , Alcantara (4730) , Carolina (7266) , Grajahú (11,704) , Tury-assú (8983) and Viana (9965) . ”

“ The river Marañon rises about 100 m. to the north-east of Lima. It flows through a deeply-eroded Andean valley in a north-west direction, along the eastern base of the Cordillera of the Andes, as far as 5° 36′ S. lat.; then it makes a great bend to the north-east, and with irresistible power cuts through the inland Andes, until at the Pongo de Manseriche [2] it victoriously breaks away from the mountains to flow onwards through the plains under the name of the Amazon. Barred by reefs, and full of rapids and impetuous currents, it cannot become a commercial avenue. ”

“ THE FIRST ADMIRAL OF BRAZIL TO THE INHABITANTS OF MARANHAM. The auspicious day has arrived on which the worthy and public-spirited inhabitants of Maranham have it in their power at once to declare the independence of their country, and their adherence to their patriotic monarch, Pedro Primiero, whose protection has afforded them the glorious privilege of freemen—that of choosing their constitution and enacting their laws by their own representatives assembled to decide upon their own affairs in their own country. ”

“ The voyage of M. de la Condamine, in 1793, down the Maranon, from the province of Jaen de Bracamoros, to the Atlantic Ocean, threw a great light on the geography of this famous river, since which period no traveller of any note has undertaken this dangerous and fatiguing journey, for scientific purposes alone. A stronger motive than the mere love of science induced a lady to venture herself on the immeasurable expanse of the Maranon. ”

“ The waters of the sea for a large area round about are no longer salt but fresh, and pleasant to the taste. The Indians call this river Maragnon. [6] Other tribes give it the names Mariatambal, Camamoros, or Paricora. In addition to the rivers I have before mentioned, the Darien, Rio Grande, Dobaiba, San Matteo, Veragua, Boiogatti, Lagartos, and Gaira, there are also others which water the country. ”

“ Then the river divided into two important branches, which flowed off toward the Atlantic, one going away northeastward, the other eastward, and between them appeared the beginning of the large island of Marajo. This island is quite a province in itself. It measures no less than a hundred and eighty leagues in circumference. Cut up by marshes and rivers, all savannah to the east, all forest to the west, it offers most excellent advantages for the raising of cattle, which can here be seen in their thousands. ”

“ Above 6° S. Lat. the Marañón turns sharply east, flowing with northerly and southerly deviations, receiving in its course many tributaries before and after breaking through the East Cordillera of Peru at the Pongo de Manseriche. Here the waters of the previously broad river pass through an extraordinary chasm 3 miles long and 100 feet wide. The walls are not 2000 feet high as often stated; in one or two places they may rise 40 feet perpendicularly, but usually they are wooded slopes, rising in a single locality perhaps 2000 feet. ”

“ True, Maremma was so lonely, so wide, so virgin in its water-fed greenery, so severed by its season of disease from all the moving world, that such a life here was less strange than it would have been elsewhere, and the native mountaineer in the hillside woods, and the shepherd from the north on the rich grasslands, were nomads as utterly as ever were their forefathers in days when Pan and Faunus were the gods of the forest and pasture. ”

“ It was exile for a governor of position to go to them, and they were consequently ruled either by men who went thither for a short time on promotion or who accepted the post of governor in order to make money in the only way by which it could be made—that is to say, by slave-dealing. It is to be remembered, too, that at this period Maranham and Pará were separated from the Portuguese settlements in Southern Brazil by the presence of the Dutch in the intervening provinces adjoining Pernambuco. ”

“ A settler named Barros, into whose territory the Indian penetrated, then built a canoe on which he embarked with the Indian and three slaves upon the river Manoel Alves Grande; this stream in a day and a half carried them into the Tocantins, on which in due time they met a vessel from Pará. After this successful expedition, Barros was employed in opening up a communication along this important route. Throughout Maranham the cultivation of cotton had, for the most part, superseded that of the sugar-cane. The captaincy produces an abundance of fruit of the finest quality. ”

“ Other travellers and explorers contribute to the confusion. This probably arises from the rivalry of the Spaniards and Portuguese. The former accepted the name Marañon in Peru, and as the missionaries penetrated the valley they extended the name until they reached the mouth of the Ucayali; while, as the Portuguese ascended the Amazon, they carried this name to the extent of their explorations. Beginning with the lower river we propose to notice, first, the great affluents which go to swell the volume of the main stream. ”

“ The island of Marajo, situated at the mouth of the Amazon, opposite Pará, and belonging to the province or state of that name, is a hundred and eighty miles in length and about one hundred and sixty in width, nearly identical in size with the island of Sicily, and almost oval in form. One of the principal shore settlements is Breves, on the southeastern corner of the island, which lies somewhat low, and consists of remarkably fertile soil, so abounding in wild and beautiful vegetation and exquisite floral varieties, that it is called in this region "the Island of Flowers." ”

“ A journey of three leagues through a hilly and thinly-wooded country, brought me to the city of Marianna, the situation and appearance of which pleased me very much; it stands on the S.W. side of a broad level valley, on the gentle declivity of a rising ground which skirts the base of the range of the Serra de Itacolumi. It is more compactly built than the towns I have generally seen in Brazil, and as there are several fine and handsome churches, and the houses are mostly large and white-washed, the city has altogether a very noble appearance. ”

“ The Central Cordillera is the true divide, forming the continental watershed. A single river, the Marañon, breaks through in its lower northern part, while 20 coast streams rising in the Central cut the Maritime range; the East Cordillera is fractured by six Peruvian rivers, the Marañon, Huallaga, Perené, Mantaro, Apurimac, Vilcamayu, and Paucartambo, all but the first being affluents of the Ucayali, which some authorities call a tributary of the Marañon. Oftener these two are said to unite to form the Amazon. ”

“ NEITHER the economic future of Peru nor the prospect of realizing the national aspirations can be understood without turning to the map and studying the waterways and the railways. The Marañon, having its source in Lake Lauricocha within the inner slope of the Central Cordilleras, flows in a northwesterly direction till about south latitude 40°, when it turns abruptly northeast. The Ucayali, receiving its initial waters farther south and east of the eastern range of the great Cordilleras, flows north until it joins the Marañon below Iquitos and the two form the mighty Amazon. ”

“ Then the real life of Maremma begins; down from the mountains of the Lucchese and Pistoiese districts labourers troop by the thousand; shepherds come from the hills with long lines of flocks; herds of horses and cattle go daily by the roads; hunters chase the boar and buck, and charcoal burners and ploughmen pour themselves in busy legions over the plains and the woods. ”

“ It was not to be expected that the motley crowd of adventurers of all classes which thronged to the mines should long continue to live together with the same harmony that might be expected from a more settled community; and Minas Geraes soon acquired the unenviable notoriety, which had hitherto belonged to Maranham{174}, of being the most turbulent settlement in Brazil. Its people were divided into two classes, called, respectively, Paulistas and Florasteiros or strangers. ”

“ WAY in Mantua the weather was still chill and cheerless, the waters were still yellow with the snows of winter that melted into mud, the sun that warmed the green Maremma land and set a nest under every tussock of grass, and covered with blossoms every inch of the rich red soil, did not as yet shine on the melancholy city in the midst of the northern plains. ”

“ For purposes of determining Northern Marianas descent, a person shall be considered to be a full-blooded Northern Marianas Chamorro or Northern Marianas Carolinian if that person was born or domiciled in the Northern Mariana Islands by 1950 and was a citizen of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands before the termination of the Trusteeship with respect to the Commonwealth. ”

“ The Marañon, and its tributary, the Huallaga, flowing northward from the Nudo of Cerro de Pasco, water a region of surpassing fertility, in the valleys of which are to be seen every variety of agricultural product. The Marañon receives a great many tributaries from the Occidental range as it flows northward across the Department of Huánuco, turning northwest between Loreto and Ancash, and traversing the Department of La Libertad. ”

“ The forces of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, having delivered the city and province of Bahia from the enemies of their independence, I, in conformity to the wishes of His Imperial Majesty, am desirous that the fruitful province of Maranham should enjoy a like freedom. I am now come to offer to the unfortunate inhabitants the protection and assistance necessary against the oppression of foreigners, wishing to accomplish their freedom, and to salute them as brethren and as friends. ”

“ La Condamine asserts that in the seventeenth century they passed the Maranon between Tefe and the mouth of the Rio Puruz, near the Cano Cuchivara, which is a western branch of the Puruz. These women therefore came from the banks of the Rio Cayame, or Cayambe, consequently from the unknown country which extends south of the Maranon, between the Ucayale and the Madeira. Raleigh also places them on the south of the Maranon, but in the province of Topayos, and on the river of the same name. ”