It may be of interest here to give a brief account of this splendid colonial empire, as it was represented, for the information of the Portuguese Government, by one who had resided seventeen years in the country. In the year 1581 the city of _S. Salvador_, now _Bahia_, contained eight hundred inhabitants, and the whole _Reconcave_, or the coast-line of the surrounding bay, about two thousand, exclusive of negroes and native Indians. Five hundred horse and two thousand foot could be brought into the field; whilst three _caravels_ and fourteen hundred boats were available for the king’s service. The cathedral church could boast five dignitaries, six canons, two minor canons, four chaplains, and one _curé_ and his coadjutor. There were no less than sixty-two churches in the city, together with three monasteries. In this respect _S. Salvador_ had certainly no cause of complaint. The country for two miles round was covered with plantations. In the _Reconcave_ there were fifty-seven sugar-works, the quantity annually exported amounting to about two thousand four hundred hogsheads. Cattle and horses, which had been imported from the _Cape de Verdes_, increased in prodigious numbers. There were persons who possessed forty or fifty brood mares, which might sell at _Pernambuco_ for thirty ducats a-piece; sheep and goats likewise flourished, having been imported from Europe. Oranges and lemons, which the settlers had introduced, had become plentiful. The palm-tree was grown, and likewise the cocoa plant; the melon, the pomegranate, and the vine were not cultivated with such success, being unable to withstand the ravages of the ant. The tea plant had been discovered at _Bahia_, where coffee likewise was grown. Ginger throve so well that in one year four thousand _arrobas_ were preserved. The sugar-cane is indigenous in _Brazil_, and was found in plenty near _Rio de Janeiro_. The parasites which fill up the interstices of the Brazilian forests were put to various uses; their juice was applied for the purpose of tanning, and their branches were woven into wicker-work or beaten into tow. These plants form a remarkable feature in Brazilian scenery. They encircle the trees up which they climb only to regain the ground; the same plant there takes root again, crossing from bough to bough and from tree to tree, wherever they may be carried by such breezes as may pierce the almost impermeable jungle. In some portions of the _Reconcave_ saltpetre was to be found; but for lime the colonists were dependent on oyster shells, which, however, were at some points procurable in great abundance. Fish of various kinds abounded, and oil was extracted from the liver of the shark. At one or two places ambergris was found. The rumours of wealth in the precious metals and stones which were then in circulation have since been amply confirmed. [Sidenote: 1582.]