Pernambu'co, or RECIFE

Pernambu'co, or RECIFE, the busiest seaport of north Brazil, stands at the easternmost point of the coast, in $8^\{\backslash circ\}\; 3\text{'}\; S.$ lat. It consists of three portions, connected by bridges—Recife ('the reef') proper, a Dutch-looking quarter, with narrow, winding streets, the chief seat of commerce, on a peninsula; San Antonio, a modern quarter, with straight, wide streets, on an island between the peninsula and the mainland; and Boa Vista, where are the merchants' villas, on the mainland. The principal buildings and public institutions embrace two arsenals, an observatory, the palace of the Bishop of Olinda (8 miles to the north), a law school, &c. The harbour is formed by a reef lying a quarter to half a mile from the coast, with an opening for vessels drawing 19 feet of water. Since 1890 something has been done towards the deepening of the harbour, the construction of additional quays, docks, and a new breakwater. But still mail-steamers load and unload by means of lighters from the outer (exposed) roadstead. Cottons, machinery, and tobacco are manufactured, and shipbuilding is carried on. There is a lighthouse in the harbour, which is defended by forts. The principal exports are sugar and cotton, with rum, hides, dye-woods, &c.; the principal imports are cottons and woollens, fish and meat, vegetables, minerals, wines, &c. The former fluctuate in value between about £1,500,000 and nearly four times that sum, the fluctuations depending upon the sugar and cotton crops; the imports average from one to two millions sterling. England, the United States, and France have the largest shares in this trade, England supplying about one-half of the imports and taking between one-half and one-third of the exports. Pop. (1878) 94,493; (1898, an estimate) 190,000. Recife was founded by the Spaniards in the second half of the 16th century. Sir James Lancaster captured it in 1595, and the Dutch in 1630. The other two quarters, Mauritstad (now San Antonio) and Schoonizigt (Boa Vista), were laid out by the Dutch Count Maurice in 1639. The Portuguese captured the town in 1654. — The province has a hot, moist climate; produces sugar and cotton; and has an area of 49,625 sq. m. and a pop. of (1872) 841,539; (1898) 1,110,831. Large portions of the interior still remain in a state of nature, uncultivated and covered with forests.