This town occupies a flat situation upon the margins of the Vermelho, which divides it into two unequal portions, communicating by three bridges. It is in the centre of the Brazil. Its edifices are neither large, elegant, nor substantial: the principal are the mother church, dedicated to St. Anna, five chapels to the Lady of Boa Morte, Rozario, Carmo, Abbadia, and Lapa; another of St. Francisco; the palace of the governor; the Caza da Camara, (or town house); the Caza da Contadoria, (exchequer); and the Caza da Fundicao do Oiro, (smelting house.) It has a fort, with two pieces of artillery to fire salutations upon occasions of solemnities, a fountain, and a public walk. The heat is intense during the dry season; night breezes, however, are usual, and exceedingly grateful. This town has a tribunal which decides upon the affairs of the province, denominated the Junta de Real Fazenda, a council consisting of five deputies, including the governor, who is the president, the judge, the attorney-general, a treasurer, and an escrivao. It is situated in 16° 20′ of southern latitude. The municipal body of this town, whose revenue amounts to one thousand oitavas of gold, are said to have a _sesmaria_ of land, in a circle around the town of five leagues in diameter. Half a mile distant from the town, there is a hermitage of St. Barbara. Five leagues to the north-west of it is situated the small arraial of Barra, with a hermitage of the Lady of Rozario, at the embouchure of the Bugres. Its territory is auriferous. Eight leagues in the same direction as the preceding is the arraial of Anta and parish of Bom Jesus, with two chapels of the Lady of Rozario and Boa Morte, situated between two small streams, which unite themselves previously to entering the Vermelho, and was founded in the year 1729. The gold which caused its origin is not yet exhausted; but, whether from indolence or any other cause, no one is at present occupied in its extraction. Ten miles to the north of the latter place, near the river Peixe, in a plain, is the arraial of St. Rita, ornamented with a hermitage of the same name. It is actually the port of navigation from the capital to the city of Para. The river discharges itself into the Tizoiras by the left margin, and is only navigable during the rainy season. Thirty-five miles to the north of the arraial of St. Rita, near the river Tizoiras, was founded, in the year 1755, the arraial of the same name, which was the parish of St. Miguel, and flourished whilst cultivation was profitable; but with the apparent exhaustion of gold it began to decay, and from the sterility of the land, and the want of water, it was ultimately forsaken. Cattle are, however, now bred in its district. A species of bird, which the discoverers of the country called _tizoiras_, (or scissors,) in consequence of having a tail similar to a pair of opened scissors, was the origin of its name.