meaning thing (cara) short (boya) and another one, nameless,
after which extends the Paulista farm, a barren and sandy plain,
unsuitable for any cultivation, although it is clothed with sparse
grass, good for grazing. Henceforth, in a uniform and deserted re-
gion, there are dunes by the sea and lagoons a little further inland,
with brackish water. Melancholy, desert, dryness, solitude, unifor-
mity, this is Saint-Hilaire’s view of the restinga between Macaé
and Barra do Furado, contrasting with the life and movement of
the alluvial plain and with the lushness of the ombrophylous and
seasonal forest. The impressions of the French naturalist about
the south restinga will be extended to the north restinga. Between
Curralinho and Manguinhos, a little distant from the sea, the sand
seemed to him of extreme whiteness, as in the restinga of Cabo
Frio. “Deep solitude everywhere and the monotonous sound of
the waves still made it sadder.”(24). Henceforth, he immerses into
the seasonal forest towards Espírito Santo.
José Carneiro da Silva, a home chronicler, wrote a short
chronicle in 1819 that, despite its fragility in the face of informa-
tion provided by foreign naturalists, became a reference work of
mandatory consultation. In his chronicle the author combines
observations of first and second hands. Regarding the restingas,
he addresses little information. The country (here meaning re-
gion), according to him, was divided in two parts: one of rivers, la-
goons and marshes; another of agricultural lands and meadows.
He named nine rivers, three of which flow into the sea: Macaé,
Paraíba do Sul and Itabapoana. When dealing with Feia lagoon
system, Viscount of Araruama reports its defluents converging
to the Iguaçu River, which reached the sea through the Barra do
Canzoza, considered by him a dead course after the opening of
Barra do furado by the Captain José de Barcelos Machado in
- Repeating the knowledge of the eighteenth century, José
Carneiro da Silva explains that
...the entire country along the coast of the
Sea from Macaé River to Paraíba River is
a continuous meadow with small woods,
which they call capões that split from each
other and widen irregularly to the hinter-
lands. We found the following meadows
in parallel to the coast: Field of Macaé
(Barreto), Geribatiba, Carapebus, Sabões,
Jagroaba or Ubatuba, Furado, Algodoe-
iros, Ponta de S. Tomé, or Boa Vista and
fields of Paraiba River, called Campos da
Praia(25).Imbued with a utilitarian view of nature, the author rec-
ognizes that these meadows are showy and dilated; however,
he affirms that even so they are not suitable for raising animals,
since their herbs do not support better-quality cattle breeds
and lead them to degeneration. Once again is reproduced the
confrontation between the restinga, poor, and the alluvial fields,
fertiles(25).In the 1920s, Father José de Souza Azevedo Pizarro e
Araujo writes the Historical Memories of Rio de Janeiro, seeking
to produce an overview of the entire captaincy. The prelate has
little to add to the words of José Carneiro da Silva, who writes in
1819, regarding Campos, giving the impression of reproducing
knowledge settled in the eighteenth century and even informa-
tion collected by first hand by Couto Reis, who had excerpts of
his manuscript first officially released in 1888 by Augusto de
Carvalho. It is noteworthy that Pizarro and Araujo mention the
reefs of the Cape of São Tomé, known and feared by navigators
since the sixteenth century. Once entering the restingas, how-
ever, the father practically quotes, without quotation marks and
reference, Carneiro da Silva’s page, transcribed above, as was
customary at the time(26).A self-taught naturalist from Sergipe, Antonio Muniz de
Souza was domiciled in Campos in the years 1827 and 1828. He
navigated the little known Muriaé River, beyond the first water-
fall, and the Paraíba do Sul River to São Fidélis. He visited Lagoa
de Cima, painting a beautiful page about it, and walked through
the restingas of northern Fluminense. Regarding the town of
São João da Barra, he informs that it is situated on a sandy, mild
and healthy plain. Accompanying some authors already men-
tioned, warns about the dangers of the mouth of Paraíba do Sul
River, much olders than commonly assumed. Characterizing the
half-moon shape of the northern restinga of the ecoregion, Mu-
niz de Souza writes:This village has a large native field entitled –
Campo da Praia – suitable for raising cattle
and horses, which starts almost from Pon-
tal do Sul, and extends at great distance to
meet other larger meadows, which continue
in parallel to the sea coast; as well, there is
another equal field in Pontal do Norte, and in
both fields cattle are raised. The waters con-
sumed by the inhabitants comes from wells
or cisterns that keep river waters nearly al-
ways saline by the transfer of the sea(27).When entering the south restinga (from Barra do Furado
to Macaé), the traveler notices the changing of the terrain by the
distinctive signs he encounters. Sugar mills are scarce because
the land is no longer suitable for sugarcane cultivation, as they
are sandy. Cattle are also rare. From Quissamã to the Carapebus
lagoon, he crossed a field of native grass and from there, desert-
ed lands until Jurubatiba. In a last move, he marched to Macaé,