Caniço (parish)

Phragmites communis is the scientific name of the common reed (carriço), also called caniço, a plant that grew there in great abundance at the time of the discovery. Frutuoso says: ‘...Ponta de Oliveira... lies seaward of some places called Caniço (‘reed’), because the land there was covered with a reed like slender canes, from which it took its name, albeit in corrupted form, for this plant, which they call carriço, has shoots like long canes. This place of Caniço is the end of the jurisdiction of Machico and the beginning of the jurisdiction of Funchal.’ As Manuel Tomás says in ‘The Island Epic’ (Insulana):

A place hereafter in this reed-bed / By corruption shall be called Canisso. (Hum logar depois neste carriço / Por corrupção se chamará Canisso.)

After the discovery, and to begin the work of colonisation, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira divided the lands of Madeira into two captaincies (see Captaincies), setting their limits and marking out the areas of their jurisdiction. A dividing line running from Ponta de Oliveira to Ponta do Tristão (‘Tristão’s point’) separated the domains of the two captains-donatary. Caniço’s name is therefore linked to this drawing of boundaries, and later the parish (freguesia) had the peculiarity of belonging to the jurisdiction of both captaincies.

Apart from Funchal and Machico, Caniço was one of the first places on this island to be settled, and there the clearing and cultivation of the land began without delay. It had several “settled farmsteads” (fazendas povoadas), one of them with a chantry (capela) and its own private chaplain, even before the parish was created. Some of the first colonists settled here and held much land as sesmaria (royal land grant to settlers on condition of cultivation), and others came later to establish themselves, widening the populated area and the cultivation and working of uncultivated ground. Among the early settlers and grantees were Álvaro de Ornelas, the Genoese Lucas Salvago, João Gavião, Gaspar do Rêgo and Vasco Fernandes Rêgo, Vasco Martins Moniz, Afonso de Viena and others, some of whom we shall discuss individually.

Some of these settlers were of noble origin. They kept their privileges of nobility and founded several entailed houses here. Particularly notable are that of Consolação (‘consolation’), instituted by Álvaro de Ornelas, one of the oldest in Madeira, dating from the end of the 15th century; the entailed estate (morgadio) founded by Vasco Martins Moniz; that of Matos Coutinho; and that of João Afonso.

Within a few years the growing number of new settlers and their immediate descendants formed a very substantial nucleus of population, which soon made the creation of a parish advisable. The densest settlement stretched along both banks of the stream, which was the boundary between the two captaincies. On either side of this watercourse two parish churches were built: the one on the right bank had the Espírito Santo (Holy Spirit) as its patron saint, and the one on the left bank St Anthony the Great. The lands around the first were called Caniço para a Cidade (‘Caniço towards the city’), and those around the second Caniço para Machico (‘Caniço towards Machico’). These names clearly indicated the captaincies to which they belonged.

We have good grounds to suppose that rivalries over jurisdiction, or disagreements between the inhabitants of the two banks of the stream, led to the building of the two churches so short a distance apart, since no plausible reason is known that would justify their construction. They implied the creation of two parishes (freguesias), which existed only in name, for they were always served by a single parish priest, although for some years services were held alternately in the two churches. The various references we have found to the creation of the parish, the stipends (côngruas) of the parish priests, the building and repair of the church, etc., do not refer specifically to either of the two churches, but only to one, without identifying which. This further confirms our view that there was only ever one parish, although its lands belonged to both captaincies. In 1538 the parish priest wrote in official documents: ‘Friar António Pires Cabral, vicar that I am of the churches of Caniço’. So it had been before, and so it remained afterwards, until religious services came to be held permanently in only one of the churches. It seems that the church of St Anthony the Great, on the left bank of the stream, gradually gained a certain pre-eminence over that of Espírito

Santo, the latter being the first to fall into ruin and be entirely abandoned.

Dr Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo gives 1440 as the year in which this parish was created, and it is certainly one of the oldest on the island. The learned annotator of ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra) places the church of Espírito Santo in the captaincy of Machico and that of St Anthony the Great in the captaincy of Funchal, which is not correct, as we were able to establish from documents in the archive of this parish. Did parish services begin in both churches at the same time? And if not, which of the two took precedence in the celebration of worship? We cannot say.

As noted above, services were already being held in both churches in 1538. The royal decree (alvará) of 21 February 1558 increased the parish priest’s stipend, which was then set at 8,300 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) a year. The Indice Geral do Registo da Antiga Provedoria da Real Fazenda da Ilha da Madeira reads: ‘royal decree of 25 November 1572 in favour of the vicar Belchior Mourato, granting an increase of 2,200 réis, two moios (dry measure of grain, 60 alqueires) of wheat and one pipa (wine cask and measure, c. 400–500 litres) of wine on top of the 8,300 he already had, so as to have the full salary of 25,000 réis fixed by the Board of Conscience (Mesa da Consciência) for vicars with more than 100 households (fogos, literally ‘hearths’), the moio of wheat being valued at 6,000 réis and the pipa of wine at 2,500 réis’.

Between 1538 and the end of the 18th century the parish priests of this parish were António Pires Cabral, Belchior Mourato, Francisco de Sousa, Jerónimo Teixeira de Góis, Vicente Luís, Jerónimo Gomes de Agrela, André Moniz de Meneses, Manuel Gomes Jardim, João Baptista Spínola, Pedro Pereira da Silva, José Lomelino Barreto and António Francisco Spínola. Father José Lomelino Barreto, who worked so hard for the building of the new church and donated the land needed for it, served as parish priest of Caniço for more than 40 years.

The parish church of Caniço had the office of treasurer, a priest charged with assisting the vicar in the services of worship and especially in their administration. This office was created before 1550, for a royal decree of 6 February of that year increased its salary and fixed it at 6,000 réis in cash and thirty alqueires of wheat a year. By further instruments dated 18 September 1608, 4 July 1653 and 28 September 1668 this stipend was increased again, finally reaching 10,000 réis a year in cash, one and a half moios of wheat and one and a half pipas of wine. The office was abolished by royal decree of 27 December 1676.

The curacy (curato) of this parish was created by royal decree of 20 October 1605 and coexisted for some years with the office of treasurer; its annual stipend was 20,000 réis. Lopo Gomes Vieira, Vicente Luís and Jerónimo Gomes de Agrela were the first priests to hold this office here.

This church also had the office of organist, which received a salary of alqueires of wheat a year.

Of the chapel that stood here, with its own private chaplain, before the parish was created, we can say nothing regarding the year of its construction or the site on which it was built. Nor do we know whether it was turned into the parish church when the parish (freguesia) was created. We are equally ignorant about the building of the churches of Espírito Santo and St Anthony the Great, which stood one on each bank of the stream that divided the two captaincies.

By 1778 the first of these two churches had been completely destroyed and the second was far gone in ruin. Before this time, strenuous efforts had been made to build a new church, but they always came to nothing, and serious disagreements had also arisen over the preferred site, some wanting it on the left bank of the stream and others on the right. The old rivalries were resurfacing. The good offices of the vicar of the time, Father José Lomelino Barreto, who enlisted the support and influence of certain official figures, succeeded in removing every obstacle, and by her order of 3 March the queen commanded the building of the new church, which is the present parish church. The land for it was generously given by Father José Lomelino Barreto; the foundation stone was blessed on 2 August 1779, and the new church was solemnly blessed on 28 October 1783. On a stone tablet on its façade the following inscription can be read: Sancto Spiritui Paraclito atque divo Antonio abbati sacrum Maria 1º. Lusitan. regina fideliss. equestris D. N. J. C. ordinis gubernat aedificavit: insulano tribunali regio curante. Anno )I). IDCCLXXX regni autem IIII. (Sacred to the Holy Spirit the Paraclete and to St Anthony the Abbot: Maria I, Most Faithful Queen of Portugal, governor of the Order of Knighthood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, built it under the care of the island’s royal tribunal, in the year 1780, the fourth of her reign.)

The parish at present has the chapels of Our Lady of Consolation (Nossa Senhora da Consolação) and Madre de Deus (Mother of God); those of Our Lady of Deliverance, Nossa Senhora da Salvação (Our Lady of Salvation) and Our Lady of Succour no longer exist. We refer to all of them in the appropriate place. Gaspar Frutuoso, writing of Caniço as it was in 1590, the year in which he wrote the ‘Longing for the Homeland’, says the following:

“

Almost half a légua further on there is a village of two hundred households (fogos, literally ‘hearths’), with a church dedicated to the Holy Spirit, which is called Caniço, on a stream that runs from north to south, surrounded by many vineyards of many vine varieties and good Malmsey. Seaward of this lugar (settlement ranking between a town and a parish) lies Ponta de Oliveira, where an olive tree was planted as a boundary mark for the division of the two captaincies, which are divided by this stream, that of Machico lying to the east and that of Funchal to the west; and along it, they say, runs the boundary from the southern shore to the other side in the north. For from this Caniço down to the sea it is about a quarter of a légua, where lies the landing place at which everything in this area is loaded. And it is called Caniço de Baixo, in relation to the other, which is called Caniço de Cima.

Around the middle of the 15th century, when the towns (vilas) of Funchal and Machico were created, some ten lugares were also created on this island. These were settlements intermediate between the parish and the town, and the parish of Caniço was among them, which proves its relative importance even at that time. Camacha was separated from Caniço in 1676.

In former times there was a great deal of contact between the Desertas and Caniço, perhaps because the fishermen of this parish frequented the waters around those islands. Although the Desertas were not part of this parish, it was nevertheless at Caniço that boats from the Desertas most often put in, and they even brought there the bodies of those who died on those lonely islands. Until not many years ago, the workers employed there in hunting and fishing were recruited in the parish of Caniço.

Manuel do Nascimento Nóbrega, to whom we shall devote a separate entry, was a native of this parish. Father Jerónimo de Nóbrega was also born here; he sailed for North America and made a considerable fortune there. On several occasions he sent to this island very substantial sums for charitable institutions, amounting to many contos (one million réis) de réis. He also presented the church of his native parish with some rich church furnishings.

Among the events of greatest interest to the history of Caniço are the incidents involving the Liberal and Miguelist troops when they crossed this parish in 1828, and the regrettable episodes that occurred at the time of the supposed meetings of the Parish Council (Junta de Paróquia). As these matters will be the subject of separate entries, we shall not deal with them here.

Among the privileges and rights granted to João Gonçalves Zarco was that ‘ninguem nom faça y moynhos, soomente elle ou quem lhe prouuer’ (no one shall build mills there but he or whom he pleases). It is said that the first mill in Madeira was built in this parish, and there is still a locality there called Azenha (‘water mill’), although we cannot be sure that the name refers to that early and doubtless very rudimentary mill for grinding grain.

Onion growing in Madeira was almost confined to this parish, where the crop was cultivated on a very large scale. It is still the place that produces this crop most abundantly, but its cultivation is at present much reduced. It once produced 30,000 pesos, worth approximately thirty contos de réis, almost all of it for export.

There is a small local industry, which may be considered peculiar to this parish: the making of hats from palm leaves, worn by working men. What they lack in elegance and suppleness they make up for in sturdiness and durability.

There are two schools: one for boys, founded around 1821, and one for girls, of more recent foundation.

Besides the Levada da Serra, Caniço is irrigated by the Levada do Pico do Arvoredo, the Levada de Baixo and the Levada da Azenha. Each is run by an association of heréus (co-owners of the water rights of a levada), and the statutes of the first were published in the Diário do Governo of 31 October 1877. All these water sources rise in Camacha.

The parish is crossed by a stream which rises in the parish of Camacha and takes various names according to the places or localities through which it passes.

It has a passable harbour, Porto dos Reis Magos, where there are about 20 fishing boats. There is a small landing place at Ponta da Oliveira.

The principal localities of this parish are: Tendeira, Moinhos, Assomada, Atalaia e Portinho, Madre de Deus, Zimbreiros, Caniço para Machico, Barreiros, Pedra Mole, Castelo, Serralhal e Amoreiras, Caniço para a Cidade, Vargem, Azenha, Ribeira dos Pertetes, Livramento, Vale, Quinta, Abegoaria and Palheiro do Ferreiro.

In the locality of Barreiros stands the so-called Pico do Telégrafo, which commands fine views; on clear days the channel and the island of Porto Santo can be seen from it.

Caniço is bounded to the north, east, west and south respectively by São Gonçalo and the ocean.

The most central part of this parish is 9 kilometres from the centre of the city and 8 from the town (vila) of Santa Cruz. It belongs to the municipality (concelho) and judicial district (comarca) of Santa Cruz, although the inhabitants have on several occasions sought to have their parish incorporated into the municipality and judicial district of Funchal. Its population is 4,697 inhabitants.