Pará

Pará (official name Belém), a thriving city and seaport of Brazil, capital of the state of the same name, stands on the east bank of the river Pará, 70 miles from its mouth, on a point of land formed by the entrance of the Guandú. The harbour is nearly landlocked by wooded islands, and admits vessels of large size. Pará, as a whole, is a plain-looking commercial town, compactly built, and without straggling suburbs, the dense tropical forest coming close up to the outskirts. The streets are narrow, but regular, well shaded with mangoes and palms, and partly paved; many of the houses, with their blue and white tiled roofs and whitewashed walls, are very pretty. Tram-cars and telephones are in general use, and there is a railway to Bragança (108 miles). The principal buildings are the theatre, the government building, custom-house, and cathedral (1720). The city contains a small fort and botanic gardens. The place is not unhealthy, though the wet season extends over nearly two-thirds of the year. Pará, the headquarters of the 'Amazonian Steamboat Company' and others, is the emporium of the Amazon river-trade, supplying the towns of the interior with foreign goods, and exporting india-rubber, cacao, Brazil nuts, the pirarucú fish, &c. The annual value of the exports exceeds £2,500,000. Pop. 50,600. See Vincent, Around and About South America (1890); and BRAZIL, and books there noted.—The state, bordering on Guiana and the Atlantic, and divided by the Amazon, has an area of 443,650 sq. m., and a pop. (1895) of 335,000. 'Para Grass' is a name given to piassava; see FIBROUS SUBSTANCES.