The town of St. Francisco is of middling size, well supplied with fish and the provisions of the country, with houses mostly built of earth, and a handsome church of stone, dedicated to Our Lady da Graca. It is upon the western beach of the island of that name, about ten miles within the bar of Babitonga, upon level ground, and in a situation well calculated for commerce. Only two streets are paved. The inhabitants, generally whites, are very pale, and almost all farmers of mandioca. The cultivation of Indian corn, rice, sugar, coffee, and tobacco, which might be considerable, is at present very trifling. There are few persons who do not possess at least one canoe. Vessels are built here of good burden. Timber and cordage of _imbe_ are the most important exportations next to farinha (flour of mandioca.) This province, which makes a part of the bishopric of Rio de Janeiro, was till recently under the jurisdiction of the ouvidor of Portalegre, but is now governed by Senhor Alexandre Eloi Portelli. CHAP. IX. PROVINCE OF ST. PAULO. _Boundaries--First Settlement--Mountains--Mineralogy--Rivers and Ports--Islands--Phytology--Zoology--Bugre Indians, Dwellings and Customs--Character of the Paulistas--Division into Comarcas--Comarca of Curytiba--Towns and Productions--Comarcas of St. Paulo and Hitu--Towns and Productions._ This province, formed by the union of a part of the capitania of St. Amaro, with one half of that of St. Vincente, took the name which designates it in the year 1710, when John V. incorporating them with the crown lands by purchase, nominated a governor, with the title of captain-general, in the person of Antonio de Albuquerque Coelho, and the city of St. Paulo for his residence. It is confined on the north by the province of Minas Geraes, from which the serra of Mantiqueira separates it, and by that of Goyaz, from which it is divided by the river Grande; on the south by Rio Grande do Sul, of which the river Pellotas forms the division; on the west by the river Paranna, which separates it from the provinces of Goyaz and Matto Grosso; and on the east by the ocean, and the provinces of Rio de Janeiro on the northern part, and St. Catherina on the southern. Its territory is almost all within the temperate zone, between 20° 30′ and 28° south latitude, comprising four hundred and fifty miles from north to south, and three hundred and forty miles of medium width from east to west; and possessing much variety in the climate, soil, and aspect of the country.