The cattle at Coritiva sell at various prices; oxen, much fatter and in better condition than those of the Rio de la Plata or of the Rio Grande de S. Pedro, may be bought for about 14s. or 18s. a head. The horses are in general finer than those of Buenos Ayres; mules for the pack-saddle sell at about 40s. and those for riding at from three to six pounds. There is, however great fluctuation in the prices, owing to the occasional scarcity as well as the occasional abundance of specie.
But to return from this digression to San Francisco. The chief occupations of the inhabitants are the cutting of timber, and other labors connected with ship-building. Vessels of large dimensions, and a number of small craft for coasters, have been built here by merchants of Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and Pernambuco. When this trade is brisk, there is a great demand for the various classes of artisans whom it requires, and many negroes are employed. The wood used is so strong, and holds the iron so firmly, that ships built of it endure many years, and are in greater esteem with the Portuguese and Spaniards than those built in Europe. On this account, the harbour of San Francisco is likely to become of considerable value to Brazil; and as it is connected with Coritiva, the cattle of which have been found superior to those of Rio Grande, there is every probability, that at no distant period the Portuguese navy will be here supplied with salt provisions. This must, however, depend on the completion of the great road over the mountains, to which the present administration have laudably directed their attention, with a degree of zeal commensurate to the importance of the work in a national point of view.
I must not omit noticing another production in this district, which will rise in utility and value as the port of San Francisco improves. Toward the north there are woods of fine large pines, exceedingly hard, tough, and full of resin. They constitute a singular variety of the genus Pinus; the boughs branch off from the upper part of the tree only, and have tussocks of leaves at each extremity. A tree eighty feet high, for instance, will appear without branches to the height of about fifty-five feet; the branches there extend horizontally in every direction, with leaves at their extremities, the lowest and largest to a distance of fourteen or fifteen feet from the stem, and the higher ones gradually diminishing in length towards the top, which ends in a tuft of leaves, as a crown for the whole. These trees are very picturesque, and indeed beautiful; they grow to a sufficient size to serve as masts for ships of two or three hundred tons; I was told there were much larger ones to be found.
