of cows, and make some butter and cheese. The cows are of a large size,
and afford the greatest quantity of milk in summer; that, however,
which they supply in the winter is the best; the portion which in the
first season yields four cheeses, in the winter produces eight. The
major part of the breeders of cattle give them salt; an animal which
is lean receives a greater ration, in order that it may fatten more
expeditiously. It is observed, that sheep begin to die after they have
pastured ten years, in whatever situation they may be. Immediately on
the first symptom of the disease, which is known by the retiring of the
animals towards the door of their dono, as if praying for a remedy, it
is requisite to remove them to another part, and when not more than a
league distant from their former pasture, the contagion will cease.

The northern division of this province comprehends the following towns,
viz.:-- In the comarca of St. Paulo:

    St. Paulo
    Santos
    St. Vincente
    Itanhaen
    St. Sebastian
    Villa da Princessa
    Ubatuba
    Parnahiba
    Mugi das Cruzes
    Jacarehi
    St. Joze
    Thaubate
    Pindamonhangaba
    Guaratingueta
    Lorena
    Cunha
    Parahitinga
    Jundiahy
    Tibaya
    Braganca
    Mugi-Mirim

In the comarca of Hitu:

    Sorocaba
    Itapitininga
    Itapeva
    Appiahy
    Hitu
    Porto Feliz
    St. Carlos

St. Paulo is a city in a state of mediocrity, but agreeably seated
upon land somewhat elevated at the angle of the confluence of the
Tamandatahi, with the Hynhangabahu, which washes it on the western
side, and the former on the eastern. It is nearly two miles from
the Tiete, which passes to the north, forty miles north-west from
Santos, which is its port; seven miles to the south of the Tropic;
and three hundred and fifty fathoms above the level of the ocean. It
is ornamented with a house of Misericordia, various hermitages, and
three hospitals; a convent of Benedictines, another of Franciscans, a
third of slippered Carmelites, two recolhimentos for women, a house
of permutation, various open spaces or squares, three good bridges of
stone, with others of wood, and divers fountains; however, the best
water is afforded by the rivers. Some streets are well paved. The
edifices are generally formed of what is termed _taipa_, which
consists of twofold wooden planks, constituting the frame, filled
in with earth, and white-washed. This city is the residence of the
governor of the province, and the ouvidor of the comarca, or district,
who fulfils also the duties of crown judge, &c. There is a Juiz de
Fora, who also executes the functions of an Attorney General, auditor
of the military, and deputy to the junta of the treasury. It has some
masters, who have the high-sounding denomination of royal professors
of the primitive letters, Latin, rhetoric, philosophy, dogmatical
theology, and morality. The inhabitants, in number from thirty-five
to forty thousand, are divided between two parishes, one being of the
cathedral, the chapter of which consists of fourteen canons, including
four dignitaries of archdeacon, archpriest, chanter, and treasurer-mor.
The other has a church called Santa Efigenia. The Jesuits commenced
this city, in the year 1552, with the foundation of a college, in
which they celebrated the first mass on the day of the conversion of
the apostle with whose name it was consecrated in 1554, and which
afforded the subsequent name of St. Paulo to the town and province.
This structure now constitutes the palace of the governor. Senhor Joao
Carlos de Oainansen at present fills that situation. Six years after
the first establishment of the Jesuits here, St. Paulo acquired the
denomination of a town. Its first inhabitants were a horde of Guayana
Indians, with their cacique or chief called Tebireca, who lived in the
aldeia of Piratinin, near the small river of the same name, not far
from the new colony, which, in consequence, took the appellation of
St. Paulo de Piratininga, and retained it till the year 1712, when it
was dignified with the title of city, and in 1746 was further honoured
by being made the seat of a bishopric. The Indians were soon augmented
by a great number of Europeans, whom they called _Emboabas_, in
consequence of their legs being covered, and which conveyed to the
minds of the Indians a resemblance of certain birds with feathered legs
so called by them. The alliances of the new settlers, with the Indians,
soon produced a third class of people, to whom they gave the name of
_Mamelucos_, with which the establishment received a considerable
increase; and the city at this day comprises upwards of four thousand
houses, with the number of inhabitants previously mentioned, one half
of which are computed to be whites. The salubrity of the climate, and
the abundance and moderate value of all the necessaries of life, give
it the decided preference for the foundation of an university, if the
views of the government become enlightened enough to promote such an
establishment in the Brazil. The body, and consequently the mind, of
the student would here have more vigour for literary application, than
in the warmer or more northern climates of this region, and books or
libraries would receive less damage from the destructive prey of
insects. St. Paulo is considered a most healthy situation; and I have
known the valetudinarian of Rio de Janeiro, contemplate a change to
its moderate and invigorating climate, as exceedingly desirable. There
are a great number of quintas or shacaras in its suburbs. Among the
fruit trees which embellish them, the _jabuticaba_ is not rare,
affording a fine and excellent fruit. The oranges are not of good
quality, and the tree sustains considerable injury in years of much
frost. The same may be said of the coffee and banana trees, as well as
of mandioca and the sugar cane.

Santos, considerable, populous, commercial, and advantageously situated
upon the northern side of the island of St. Vincente, was erected
into a town in 1545, and possesses a house of Misericordia, which is
the most ancient of the Brazil, a Franciscan convent, an hospicio (or
entertaining house) of Bentos, another of slippered Carmelites, and
various chapels; the ex-Jesuitical college of St. Miguel, after being
much dilapidated, was renovated for the military hospital. A Juiz de
Fora presides over the senate. The houses are solid and of stone; and
the female part of their inmates are celebrated for making excellent
lace. This town was sacked by the Dutch, and upon another occasion by
the English. Its port, the entrance to which is defended by various
forts, is capable of receiving large ships, and it is the depositary
of much sugar, rum, coarse cottons, coffee, hides, and bacon, which
articles constitute its exports. The produce of rice and coffee are
alone abundant. The winter is always a very rainy season.

Seven miles to the south-west, on the southern coast of the same
island, upon the entrance of the bar of its name, is situated St.
Vincente, the most ancient town of the province, in former times
flourishing and famous, but now sunk into insignificance, in
consequence of Santos being better adapted for commerce, to which it
has removed from this town. Its inhabitants are mostly fishermen.

Fifteen miles to the west of Santos is the small arraial of Cubatam,
upon the northern margin of the river which affords its name, and from
which it sustains great damage at the period of the greatest floods.
Every thing that descends from the serra above, and destined for the
town, is here embarked. A project of uniting this island with the
terra-firma has been proposed by means of a calcada, or paved way,
across the channel of St. Vincente, which, if carried into effect, will
prevent many shipwrecks. At the bar of Bertioga there is an armaçao, or
establishment for whale fishing.

Itanhaen, a small place, erected into a town in 1561, possesses a
Franciscan convent, and is situated near a mount, upon the northern
margin of the bay from which it borrows its name, and which it
frequently exchanges for that of the Lady of Conceiçao, the patroness
of its church. Farinha, rice, and timber are exported from hence.

The town of St. Sebastian, so called from the patron of its church, is
yet inconsiderable, with indifferent houses, and streets of sand. It
is seated upon the straight of Toque-Toque, in front of the island of
its name, near the embouchure of a small river, and at the commencement
of a fertile plain, where agriculture might be rendered flourishing
in all its branches, and which was for many years almost abandoned,
in consequence of the farmers being prohibited from exporting their
productions to those places where they would have derived the greatest
advantage from them. About three miles to the east, in an agreeable
situation, there is a Franciscan convent, and near to it an arraial,
denominated Bairro. The women are occupied in potteries, the men in
fishing, and in the culture of various necessaries of life.

Villa da Princeza, so created in 1809, is situated upon the northern
coast of the island of St. Sebastian, near the chapel of Nossa Senhora
of Luz, which for the present serves as its mother church, as well as
for all the inhabitants of the island. This island is appropriated to
the culture of the sugar-cane and tobacco, which are esteemed the best
of the province, and their exportation is considerable. On the eastern
part of the island there is an armaçao for whale fishing.

Ubatuba, a small town, with a church, and a chapel of the Lady of
Conceiçao, is situated near the mouth of an inconsiderable stream,
on the verge of a fertile plain, irrigated by various torrents. Its
inhabitants are fishermen, and cultivators of mandioca, rice, and
coffee. It is nearly thirty miles to the north-east of the town of St.
Sebastian, and near the boundary of the province. Between this town
and the afore-mentioned arraial of Bairro, is the bay of Flamengos,
also that of Inquiriquere, both of which are capable of receiving many
ships. Into the latter, which is the most westerly, the river of the
same name discharges itself, and affords a disembarrassed navigation
for only three miles.

Paranahiba, an inconsiderable town, is situated upon the left margin
of the river Tiete, about twenty miles distant in a westerly direction
from St. Paulo. It has a church, and an hospicio of Bento Friars; and
its inhabitants, with those of the adjacent districts, breed large
cattle, and raise a diversity of the necessaries of life.

Mugi das Cruzes is a considerable town, abundantly supplied with the
necessaries of life, and enjoys a good situation, about two miles
from the Tiete, thirty-five east-north-east of St. Paulo, and forty
north of Santos. It has a church, dedicated to St. Anna, a convent of
shod Carmelites, a hermitage of Bom Jesus, and a Terceira order of
Carmo. The houses are of taipa. The inhabitants breed cattle, and form
extensive plantations of the coffee tree, the produce of which, with
some rum, constitutes their wealth.

Near thirty miles to the north-east of Mugi das Cruzes, the small town
of Jacarehi is situated, upon the right margin of the river Parahiba,
with a church. The passage across the river here is much frequented.

The town of St. Joze is ten miles to the north of Jacarehi, takes the
name of the patron of its church, and is situated near the Parahiba,
upon land which constituted part of a fazenda of the Jesuits, its
founders.

Thaubate is one of the most considerable and best situated towns of the
province. It is upwards of one hundred miles to the north-east of St.
Paulo, seventy from Mugi das Cruzes, forty from Jacarehi, and three
from the Parahiba, near a small stream. Besides the church dedicated to
St. Francisco, it has a convent of the same saint, a Terceira order,
and the chapels of the Lady of Pilar and Rosario. Almost all the houses
are of taipa, and few with one story. Its inhabitants, whose ancestors
were antagonists of the Piratiningans of St. Paulo, cultivate the
necessaries of life and tobacco, raise pigs and poultry in considerable
quantities, and sugar cane in small plantations. They manufacture
handsome mats and hand-baskets, which are sent to different parts.
Near the embouchure of a small river, and close upon the margin of the
Parahiba, is the inconsiderable arraial of Tremembe, with a chapel of
Bom Jesus. At the distance of from ten to fourteen miles is the parish
of Cassapaba, a new dismemberment of the preceding town.

Pindamonhangaba, a town in a state of mediocrity, is well supplied,
particularly with fish, and advantageously situated in a plain, on the
right margin of the Parahiba. It possesses a church of the Lady of Bom
Successo, and a hermitage of St. Joze. It is more than ten miles to the
north-north-east of Thaubate; and its inhabitants, who are considered
prudent and industrious, cultivate every article of subsistence
peculiar to the country, and breed large cattle.

Guaratingueta, situated upon the right bank of the Parahiba, which
affords it an ample supply of fish, is a considerable town, about
twenty-five miles to the east of Pindamonhangaba, embellished with
a large church, dedicated to St. Antonio, a chapel of the Lady of
Rosario, and another of St. Gonçalo. The houses, similar to those of
St. Paulo and other places, are constructed of _taipa_. Its
inhabitants cultivate much tobacco, and breed hogs and large cattle.
Cotton cloths and sugar are the principal branches of commerce. About
two miles distant from it is the famous and much visited chapel of the
Lady of Apparecida.

Lorena, a middling town, upon the right margin of the Parahiba, ten
miles east of Guaratingueta and seven above the mouths of the Imbauhi,
which flows from the Mantiqueira mountains, and of the Bocaina, which
comes from the south, is situated at the passage to Minas Geraes
denominated Porto do Meyra, and has a church called Piedade: Guaipicure
was its primitive name.

In the district of Lorena, where legumes and rice grow abundantly, and
large quantities of hogs and poultry are bred, the parish of St. Anna
das Areas is situated. It has been recently dismembered of that portion
of territory now constituting the parish of Bannanal.

A league below Lorena there is another passage to the province of Minas
Geraes, called Porto da Cachoeira.

Cunha, formerly Facao, is yet an inconsiderable town; but, from its
advantageous situation upon a serra in the vicinity of the Jacuhy,
and about twenty-five miles north of Parati, is susceptible of much
improvement. It has a church, of which the Lady of Conceiçao is the
patroness. The climate is salubrious, and the nights of June and
July are fresh, and even the natives feel them cold. Hitherto the
flowers and fruit trees of Europe have prospered better here than in
any other situation of the torrid zone. In its environs there are
extensive groves of majestic pines, and the inhabitants raise the
common productions of the country, abundance of Indian corn, and large
quantities of poultry and pigs. An indifferent road or track connects
this town with Parati, and would, if made equally easy and secure with
those of the arraial of Cubatao, for the transport of its productions
to St. Paulo and Santos, become a flourishing district.

Parahitinga, a medium town, and well situated upon the left bank of the
river which affords it the name, is seven miles above the embouchure
of the Parahibuna and forty north of the town of Ubatuba. St. Luiz is
the patron of its church, which, with an extensive bridge over the
river that bathes it, are the only objects worthy the observation of
the traveller. The inhabitants breed a great number of hogs, which
constitute the principal branch of their commerce.

Jundiahi is a middling and flourishing town, one mile distant from the
left bank of the river from which its name is borrowed, thirty-five
miles to the northnorth-west of St. Paulo, and the same distance
to the east-north-east of Hitu. It has a good church of Our Lady
of Desterro, an _hospicio_ of Benedictines, and a bridge over
the river, which is stocked, amongst other fish, with those called
_jundias_, from which it derived the name. Its inhabitants raise
cattle, mules, horses, and large quantities of the sugar cane, and have
for the extraction of its juice various _engenhos_, or works;
also abundance of legumes and Indian corn, with which they furnish the
caravans passing from Goyaz.

Tibaya, or Atibaya, situated near the river of the same name, has
a church called St. Joam, is yet small, and is thirty-five miles
north-north-east of St. Paulo, an equal distance east of Jundiahi, and
as far west of St. Joze. The inhabitants raise feijao, Indian corn,
wheat, and hogs.

Bragança, which is ten miles to the north-east of Tibaya, is yet
inconsiderable, but the inhabitants are said to live in abundance,
raise pigs in large quantities, wheat, Indian corn, and legumes.

Mugi-Mirim, situated on the road of Goyaz, upon the river of the same
name, which a little below unites itself with the Mugi-Guassu, is
in a state of mediocrity, and well supplied with the necessaries of
life, particularly fish and meat. It has engenhos of sugar, farms of
cattle, and only one church, dedicated to St. Joze. Upon the northern
bank of the Mugi-Guassu, where this river traverses the road to the
town of Mugi-Mirim, is the arraial and parish which takes its name,
with a church of the Lady of Conceiçao. Its inhabitants are farmers of
mandioca, feijao, and Indian corn, and breeders of cattle and hogs. The
parish of Franca is the most northern of the province; the inhabitants
extend themselves to the margin of the Grande, breed cattle, and
cultivate those necessaries which the territory best affords. The
church is dedicated to Nossa Senhora da Conceiçao.

Sorocaba is situated where the river of its name traverses the royal
road of Curytiba to the capital, from which it is distant sixty miles
to the west. It is a flourishing and considerable town, ornamented with
a church of the Lady of Ponte, a recolhimento of women, an hospicio
of Bentos, and a hermitage of St. Antonio. Its actual population is
composed of seventeen hundred and seventy-seven families, of which
two-thirds are whites; they breed cattle and horses, and cultivate
cotton, sugar, and Indian corn, with the most common necessaries of the
country, but their principal profits arise from trafficking in cattle,
which come from the southern districts. In its environs there are
calcareous stone and good flint stone. The royal fabric of Hipannema,
distant about seven miles, and established near a small stream of the
same name, for the reception of the produce of rich mines of iron
in the serra Guarassoiava, will tend to render this town still more
considerable. Many years ago a mine of silver was discovered in the
district of Guarassoiava, which was abandoned, in consequence of its
poverty and difficult extraction.

Itapitininga, yet an inconsiderable town, and well situated in a vast
and delightful plain near the royal road, is two miles from the right
bank of the river from which it has the name. It is embellished with
a church of the Lady of Merces, is well provided with water, and is
about forty miles to the south of Sorocaba. The people who inhabit
it cultivate wheat, legumes, and abundance of Indian corn. The peach
and grape are plentiful and of good flavour, and, as in most other
cultivated districts of this province, the breed of cattle is numerous.

Itapeva, situated near the royal road, or _estrada real_, as
it is denominated, in the vicinity of the Verde, is at present
inconsiderable; it has a church, dedicated to St. Anna.

Appiahi, a town of the same class as the preceding, is at a great
distance from the road, near the source of the river from which it
derives its name, and in the vicinity of a morro, from whence, at its
origin, much gold was extracted. It has one church.

Hitu, a large and flourishing town, is the head of the comarca of its
name, having a church of the Lady of Candellaria, a Franciscan convent,
an hospicio of slippered Carmelites, an hospital of Lazars, with its
hermitage, others of Bom Jezus, the Lady of Patrocinio, and Santa Rita.
All its buildings are of _taipa_, and some streets are paved. It
has the usual royal professors, and is situated twenty-five miles to
the north-north-east of Sorocaba, sixty to the west-north-west of St.
Paulo, and two from the left margin of the Tiete, which forms at this
situation a large and interesting fall, by the name of which this town
is designated. Excessive heat is experienced here in the summer months.
The soil in the environs is peculiarly adapted to the culture of the
sugar cane, of which there are extensive plantations, constituting the
riches of its inhabitants, who also raise cattle and divers necessaries
of life.

Porto Feliz, formerly called Araritaguaba, is a moderate town, with
houses of wood, seated upon the left margin of the Tiete. It has a
church of the Lady May dos Homens, (Mother of Men,) is nearly eighteen
miles to the west of Hitu, and twenty-five to the north-north-west of
Sorocaba, and is the port of the navigators to Cuiaba. The inhabitants
are cattle-breeders, and cultivate the cane, feijao, and Indian corn.

St. Carlos, now so named from its church, but originally called
Campinas, is situated near a small stream, something more than a league
from the Tibaia, and six to the north of Hitu, and does not at present
surpass mediocrity, but is well supplied and enjoys facilities for
becoming more considerable. It is a land abounding with waters and
wood, consequently well adapted for the culture of the cane, of which
there are at present some rich plantations, also of wheat, feijao, and
Indian corn. It is upon the road from Jundiahi to Mugi-Mirim; from the
latter it is eight leagues distant in a direct line. Its district is
bounded on the west by the new parish of Percicaba, whose church is
situated in a delightful plain that terminates in a small hill upon
the southern margin of the river that affords it the name, and near a
beautiful cascade of great height, which presents a barrier to further
navigation. Rich in majestic woods, and of great fertility, it is
favourable to various branches of agriculture, particularly the cane,
of which there are plantations and engenhos.

                               CHAP. X.

                       PROVINCE OF MATTO GROSSO.

   _First Explorers--Gold discovered--Two Brothers appointed
   for the purpose of exacting the Fifths on Gold--Their
   atrocious Conduct--People attracted here by the Fame of
   Gold--Destruction of a Party by the Indians--Payagoa and
   Guaycuru Nations discovered--Their Alliance--Their fatal Attacks
   upon the Portuguese--Their Disunion--Continued Hostilities
   of the Guaycurus--Conflicts with them--Attempts to make
   Peace with the Indians--Treachery of the Guaycurus--Severe
   Drought--Arrival of a Governor--Promotes the Navigation to
   Para--Extent and Boundaries.--Division into Districts--District
   of Camapuania--Mineralogy--Phytology--Rivers--Zoology--Various
   Indian Tribes--Povoações.--District of Matto Grosso--Mountains
   --Mineralogy--Phytology--Zoology--Rivers--Capital.--District
   of Cuiaba--Mineralogy--Phytology--Zoology--Rivers--Povoações
   --Indians.--District of Bororonia--Indians--Rivers--Lakes.--
   District of Juruenna--Indians--Rivers--Forts.--District of
   Arinos--Indians--Rivers.--District of Tappiraquia--Indians--
   Rivers.--Lands of these Districts fertile and auriferous._

The Vincentistas having reduced the Guanhana, and Carijo nations,
they began to make incursions beyond the Paranna, in pursuit of other
Indians equally pusillanimous, and less numerous. Aleixo Garcia and his
brother or son, accompanied by a numerous band of domestic Indians,
having passed the Paraguay, and penetrated to the proximity of the
Andes in the middle of the sixteenth century, were the first known
discoverers of the southern part of this vast province; and Manuel
Correa, a Paulista (as well as the others) having passed the Araguaya,
a considerable time afterwards, penetrated to its northern part.

It will be difficult perhaps, to ascertain the names of the other
certanistas, or commandants of bandeiras,[20] who visited this
territory in quest of Indians, during the interval from its discovery
to the year 1718, when Antonio Pires de Campos, also a Paulista,
proceeded up the river Cuiaba in search of the Cuchipo Indians, who
had an aldeia, where at this day is situated the hermitage of St.
Gonçalo. In the following year Pascoal Moreira Cabral advanced up the
river Cuchipo Mirim, and very soon discovered granites of gold. He
left here a portion of his company to accumulate as much as possible
of it, and proceeded higher up the river, with the greater part of the
bandeirantes, as far as the situation at present called Forquilha,
where they caught some young Indians ornamented with pieces of gold,
which proved that the country abounded with that metal; they were most
diligent in their searches after it, and collected a considerable
portion. Returning to the party left behind, they descended with them
the river below, to the aldeia which Antonio Pires had visited the
preceding year, where each one exhibited the quantity of gold he had
collected. Some found themselves possessed of one hundred oitavas,
(2dwt. 7⅜gr. each,) others of half a pound weight, and many more of
smaller portions, but they were generally well satisfied; those who
accompanied Captain Moreira Cabral had exceeded the rest in good
fortune. He had for his own share one pound and a half of gold. The
whole party greatly lamented the want of mining instruments, as they
were compelled to use their hands in removing the earth or sand. They
soon began to construct cabanas, or dwelling places upon the margins of
the rivers, determined to persist as long as the precious ore lasted.
A few weeks had only elapsed, when another bandeira arrived at the new
establishment, having been upon the margins of the river St. Lourenço,
where they received intelligence of this discovery, and determined to
augment the party.

The whole now consulted upon the circumstances attending their
situation, and resolved to despatch Joze Gabriel Antunes to the city
of St. Paulo, with samples of gold, and tidings of their success; also
to announce to the governor their solicitude to receive the necessary
instructions for the common weal and service of his Majesty. On the
same day, the 8th of April, 1719, on which this resolution was formed,
the party unanimously elected Captain Pascoal Moreira Cabral for
their _guarda mor regente_ until the arrival of orders from the
governor of St. Paulo, investing him with much authority, and promising
him implicit obedience. Antunes consumed many months, from the various
difficulties which beset his way, before he reached St. Paulo, where
the new discovery of the mines being divulged, numerous persons took
their departure for them the following year, in various caravans, none
of which arrived at Cuiaba without loss; many died on the way of fevers
and different disasters. The misfortunes and losses which the numerous
bandeiras, that continued to bend their course towards this province,
annually sustained, were the result of ill-regulated measures, and the
absence of judicious combinations for preventing disorder upon the
march, and obviating the palpable neglect of proceeding without fishing
instruments, which would have preserved many from famishing, and
without fire arms for shooting game, or defence against wild animals
and the natives.

In the same year the arraial or establishment was removed to the
situation of Forquilha, where Cabral had found a better vein of gold;
and in the following, one Miguel Sutil, from Sorocaba, having taken up
a station with his party upon the margin of the Cuiaba, two Carijos,
or domestic Indians, sent into the woods in search of honey, brought
him at night twenty-three pieces, _folhetas_, or lamina, of gold,
which weighed one hundred and twenty oitavas, stating that there was
more in the wood where they had found it. Sutil, highly delighted, next
morning went with his European comrade, Joam Francisco, called by way
of nickname Barbado, and all his domestic establishment, conducted by
the two Carijos to the place where they had found the precious metal,
and which is the present site of the town of Cuiaba. Here they spent
the day, gathering with their hands all the gold upon the surface of
the ground, or thinly covered, and desisting only with the termination
of daylight; they assembled late at their bivouacs, when Sutil found
that he had accumulated half an arroba, or sixteen pounds weight, of
gold, and Barbado upwards of four hundred oitavas. This adventure
becoming known at the arraial of Forquilha, caused its removal to the
situation where Sutil and Barbado had been so successful, and where it
was calculated that four hundred arrobas of gold were collected in one
month, without the excavations exceeding four fathoms in depth.

In this same year the governor Rodrigo Cezar de Menezes arrived at
St. Paulo, whose first concern was to exact the payment of the royal
fifths upon this metal. With this intention he nominated two brothers,
resident at St. Paulo, of distinguished birth and fortune, Lourenço
Leme to the situation of Procurador of the Fifths, and John Leme to the
post of Master de Campo of the same mines. Those two individuals, in
consequence of the liberty with which they had always triumphed over
the laws, were imprudently selected; and now considered themselves
more than ever authorised to consult with impunity their own caprices.
On arriving at the arraial, they adopted the most violent and absurd
measures, and wished to expel from the mines all those who were not
Paulistas. The chaplain remonstrating against this injustice, they
ordered a shot to be fired at him, which, erring in its object,
killed one of his friends. Actuated by the same lawless spirit, they
ordered one Pedro Leite to be inhumanly insulted at the time he was
hearing mass, merely from some feeling of jealousy entertained against
him. These and other atrocities, which they committed, induced the
governor-general to transmit orders for their being arrested and sent
prisoners to St. Paulo. They received intimation of this circumstance
from one of their relatives, and on the arrival of the Master de Campo,
Balthazar Ribeiro, to execute the commands of the governor, they had
already fortified themselves in a remote place, accompanied by their
partizans, where an attack was ineffectually made upon them. In a
short time, however, after the loss of some lives on both sides, they
fled to the interior with a great number of their followers, but were
pursued until Lourenço Leme was killed by a shot, and his brother taken
prisoner, and subsequently sent, with a summary of his crimes, to the
city of Bahia, the relaçam of which city ordered him to be executed in
1724.

The prodigious amount of quintos, or fifths, which were received at St.
Paulo in the year 1723, and the termination of the jurisdiction of the
rapacious Lemes, excited an universal spirit in that city for mining.
Every one was desirous of becoming a miner of Cuiaba, notwithstanding
the calamities attached to so laborious and prolonged a voyage. Of more
than three hundred persons, who in the year 1725 departed from St.
Paulo, with upwards of twenty canoes, only two white men, and three
negroes escaped. All the rest were killed or made prisoners in an
encounter which they had with an Indian armada (the Payagoas) in the
river Paraguay, in front of the embouchure of the Harez. Although the
Paulistas knew that the Payagoas were celebrated mariners, they were
totally ignorant of this nation possessing so numerous a fleet.

It may be proper to remark here, that the first Paulistas who entered
the river Paraguay met with two nations, denominated _Payagoas_,
and _Guaycurus_; both numerous and formidable; the first from its
large armadas, and the second from the dexterity of the natives on
horseback, from which they acquired the denomination of Cavalleiros.
The Payagoas, from time immemorial, were always masters of the
navigation of the Paraguay and its confluents, as far as nature offered
no impediments. The Guaycurus had also always possessed the adjacencies
of the same river, for the space of three hundred and fifty miles at
least.

As it is an indubitable fact, that there were no horses in South
America previous to its discovery by Pinson, in 1500, and that they
were first introduced into this country by its two conquering nations,
Spain and Portugal, it cannot be difficult to define, with tolerable
certainty, the epoch when the Guaycurus first obtained these animals,
which they used at all times, even in their shortest excursions,
and with which they rendered themselves so formidable to all the
circumjacent nations, not excepting the conquerors of the country.
It would appear probable that they first derived the horse from the
colonists of Assumption, rather than from those of Peru. If they
were in former times powerful in war canoes, they only retained a
sufficient number for passing from one to the other side of rivers, on
discovering that the horse was more useful and advantageous for war, or
for depredations upon the distant tribes. Such was the state of those
two nations about the year 1720, when their reciprocal aversion was
converted into a firm alliance, the Guaycurus soon becoming equally
formidable upon both elements, with an establishment of war canoes
little inferior to that of the Payagoas.

They continued to annoy the rising province from the year 1725 to
the year 1768, at which period a disunion occurred, and the Payagoas
descended to the low Paraguay, formed an alliance, or, more properly
speaking, subjected themselves to the Spaniards of the province of
Paranna, where they fixed their habitations, and have lived since 1774,
a little below Assumption. Two causes are said to have influenced the
Payagoas in this separation; the great diminution of numbers which they
had sustained in repeated conflicts with the Spaniards and Portuguese,
and their jealousy of the Guaycurus, who they now found were not less
powerful upon the waters than in the field.

The Guaycurus persevered in the same hostility, although less frequent
and less destructive, as will presently be detailed, till the year
1791, when the principal captains of this nation, Emavidi Channe, who
assumed the name of Paulo Joaquim Ferreira, and Queyma, who took the
name of Joam Queyma d’Albuquerque, accompanied by seventeen of their
warriors, with a Brazilian creole, their slave or prisoner, for an
interpreter, spontaneously came to solicit peace at Villa Bella, where,
in the palace of the governor, and in the presence of the senate, they
made a treaty of perpetual friendship and alliance, agreeing to become
the vassals of his faithful Majesty. Letters-patent, securing to them
the necessary privileges, were granted, which shall be transcribed
when we conclude the history of this important nation. We will now
return to the proceedings of the Paulistas, in reference to the early
colonization of this province.

In the year 1727, the governor Menezes arrived at the new arraial, and
gave it the title of Villa Real (royal town) of Cuiaba. The following
year he left this town, and proceeded up the river Tocoary, to which
was transferred, in 1729, the navigation from the Embotatiu, with the
intention of avoiding, at least in part, the attacks of the Indians.
From this change, however, no advantage resulted, in consequence of the
trifling distance between these two rivers. The first division which
left Cuiaba in the year 1730, with upwards of sixty arrobas (thirty-two
pounds each) of gold, accompanied by Doctor Antonio Alvez Peixoto, who
had accomplished the period of his ouvidorship, was attacked in the
Pantanos,[21] by an armada of eighty war canoes, manned by more than
eight hundred Indians. The pillage lasted for a considerable time, and
only seventeen Christians escaped by swimming to land. It was computed
that these warlike Indians lost more than four hundred combatants on
this occasion. Some gold, which they carried off, with many prisoners,
the Payagoas parted with at such a low price in the city of Assumption,
that an Indian exchanged, with one Donna Quiteria de Banhos, six
pounds weight for a pewter plate. At this period, a singular branch of
commerce flourished in this city, which was in the disposal of cats, at
exorbitant prices; the first pair of those animals that were brought to
Assumption were sold for one pound of gold, and their progeny at thirty
oitavas, and so on, till the augmentation of this race proportionably
reduced their value. The extraordinary value of cats in this place, was
occasioned by the houses and stores of Indian corn, &c. being infested
with prodigious swarms of rats.

In 1730, the Brigadier Antonio de Almeida sent various persons, in
two canoes of war, to procure a quantity of the sugar cane, which had
been observed two years previously, by some certanistas, growing upon
the borders of the river St. Lourenço. This party returned, at the
expiration of two months, with a considerable supply of the cane, of
which a plantation was formed, and it prospered so abundantly, that
in the following year there were numerous planters. The juice of the
cane was generally distilled into spirit, and the demand for it was
so great, that a flagon of it sold at first for ten oitavas of gold.
From the use of this spirit, the pallid aspect of the people gave way
to a better complexion; and the diminution of fevers, as well as the
mortality amongst slaves, became rapidly manifest.

In this same year, an armament of thirty canoes of war and fifty
transports, with six hundred men, two pieces, and a great number of
muskets, were despatched in pursuit of an enemy’s squadron, which had
advanced to the mouth of the Cuiaba, where it made some fishermen
prisoners. This armada having proceeded to the mouth of the Embotatiu,
a division of the Indians was descried, which, with loud yellings,
suddenly disappeared. After a pursuit of several days’ voyage, which
carried it beyond the strait where the waters of the Paraguay are
compressed between two morros, (large rocks,) the armada one morning
unexpectedly encountered an Indian fleet. The Indians, giving the
signal of attack by loud and discordant war-hoops, came furiously to
the onset; but the thunder of the musketry and pieces, which were
discharged upon them at the same instant, as quickly produced a
retrograde movement, and they were pursued in their precipitate flight
by the Portuguese, as far as the aldeia of Tavatim, from whence the
latter returned, after having destroyed a great many canoes found there.

In the year 1732, all the canoes accomplished their destination with
safety; but in the following year, a fleet, consisting of fifty canoes,
was destroyed, and on the arrival of the few persons who escaped at
Cuiaba, a squadron of thirty canoes of war, and seventy of transport,
was equipped, and confided to the command of Lieutenant-General Manuel
Rodrigues de Carvalho.

About the middle of August, 1734, this powerful fleet entered the
Paraguay, and having navigated a month without encountering an enemy,
they one morning discovered at day-break various fires at the bottom
of a bay, apparently difficult of access, towards which, however,
they proceeded in great silence, without being observed, till they
arrived almost within gun-shot. The Indians, perceiving themselves thus
surprised and surrounded, raised a most horrible yell, to which the
Portuguese responded by a discharge of upwards of four hundred muskets,
which occasioned great havoc amongst them. Two hundred and ninety-two
were made prisoners, including wounded and children, who could not
follow the fugitives to the woods. The whole were shortly afterwards
baptized.

In 1735, after the return of this armament from the Paraguay, and the
arrival of a fleet from St. Paulo, consisting of one hundred and twelve
canoes, the mines were divided which Fernando de Barroz (a Sorrocabano)
had discovered three years before, a short distance from the present
site of Villa Bella, the capital of this province, and where the new
colonists died in great numbers from a malignant fever, caused by some
neighbouring stagnant pools. In the following year the numerous fleet
from St. Paulo was attacked by an Indian armada, considerably superior,
at the situation of Caranda, on the day of St. Joze. The conflict
lasted several hours, in which were killed, amongst others, their brave
commandant Pedro de Moraes and Frey Antonio Nascentes, a Franciscan
friar, whose extraordinary powers and intrepidity had acquired him the
by-name of Tiger. Many others distinguished themselves more fortunately
in this conflict, from which they issued conquerors, having caused
a horrible carnage amongst the savages. None, however, displayed
more bravery than a mulatto, from Pindamonhangaba, called Manuel
Rodriguez, and, vulgarly, Manduassu, Manuel the Great, in consequence
of his immense stature, strength, and courage. This gigantic man, who
commanded his own canoe, in which he was accompanied by his wife, of
the same colour, and various slaves, being attacked by two Indian war
canoes, defended himself with such valour and dexterity that neither
were able to board him; at one time he discharged a musket, which his
wife successively loaded for him, at another he wielded a _vara_,
(a long pole for impelling the canoe,) the strokes of which were fatal
to all those who came within his reach. On his arrival at Cuiaba he was
presented with the commission of a captain.

In the same year a road was opened to the territory of Goyaz, (so
called from the Goya Indians,) from whence upwards of fifteen hundred
persons departed, with horses and numerous troops of mules, besides
those who descended by the river St. Lourenço, attracted by the
announcement of gold which had been found in Matto Grosso, from whence,
in fact, eighty arrobas of that metal were despatched the same year
to St. Paulo in eight canoes of war, each furnished with sixteen
chosen men, and commanded by Lieutenant-General Manuel Rodrigues de
Carvalho, who conducted them in security, and put an Indian division to
flight which attacked them at the entrance of the Pantanos. With this
intelligence almost the whole population of Cuiaba left that town for
the newly-discovered mines of Matto Grosso, (Large Woods.) Five hundred
oitavas were paid for negroes, and they were cheap, from the gain which
they afforded.

In 1740 the Indians were again beaten, at the embouchure of the
Tacoary, by the fleet from St. Paulo, commanded by Jeronimo Gonsalves,
(an Hituan,) who arrived at Matto Grosso with a great number of lances,
or spears, that belonged to the Indians who perished in the combat,
he having himself lost four canoes laden with merchandise and slaves.
After his arrival some domestic Bororo Indians brought intelligence
that the Spanish Jesuits had established themselves near the heads of
the Paraguay, reducing into aldeias the Guaraparez tribe.

It being well known that this step was not taken for want of Indians
to convert in the vicinity of their own missions, the Portuguese
counselled them to retire peaceably, which advice was disregarded. The
inconstancy, however, of the catechumens obliged the catechists to
retrace their steps to the aldeias of the province of St. Cruz de la
Sierra, before measures were taken for their expulsion.

In the year 1742 Manuel de Lima descended, with five Indians, three
mulattoes, and a negro, in a canoe, by the Guapore, Madeira, and
Amazons, to the city of Para.

At the same period that Manuel de Lima descended the Madeira, one
Joaquim Ferreira, with other traders, advanced up the Mamore to the
mission of Exaltaçao. The same persons, or others with a similar
intention, returning the following year, found the mission of St. Rosa
newly erected upon the eastern margin of the Guapore, almost in front
of the outlet by which they had entered to St. Miguel the preceding
year. The jesuitical curate determining to impede their navigation
of the river, it was conjectured that, for the better effecting this
project, he shortly afterwards removed the mission of St. Miguel also
to the same side, and founded that of St. Simao further to the north.
It notwithstanding appears that the people of Matto Grosso did not
desist from the navigation of this river.[22]

In 1743 the combined Indians observing certain signals at the mouths
of the Tocoary of a fleet having passed forward, they proceeded up in
pursuit of it as far as the _reducto_ of Sappe, in the vicinity of
the town of Cuiaba, where they killed some fishermen.

A series of such calamities produced a resolution of the ouvidor, Joam
Gonsalves, in a junta with the senate and the principal persons of the
town, to endeavour to obviate hostilities, through the medium of a
firm friendship with the Guaycuru Indians, they not being considered
so inveterate against the Portuguese, whose maledictions fell upon the
Payagoa tribe, attributing to them alone all the injuries they had
sustained. With this intention, a squadron of six canoes of war and
six of transport, was sent, under the command of Captain Antonio de
Medeiros, with a considerable quantity of articles most esteemed by the
Indians, equally for the purpose of making presents as to exchange for
horses. Having arrived at an island in front of a post occupied by the
Guaycurus, the commandant sent an Indian, versed in their language,
with two white soldiers, to the chief of the party, soliciting him to
come to the island, as he was desirous to make him some presents, and
to enter into a negotiation. On the following day the Indian captain
presented himself, with a numerous band of men and women, upon the
beach nearest to the island, and with the three deputies sent two of
his to Medeiros requesting him to come and parley on land, the two
Indians to remain as hostages upon the island. Medeiros immediately
proceeded to the other side with a considerable part of his force,
and an assortment of various articles, with which he complimented the
captain and his relations. He then proposed the projected negotiation,
which was to effect a cessation of hostilities with the Payagoas, and
to barter horses for European merchandise; to all which the Indian
promptly assented.

On the following day a large party of Portuguese passed to the other
side, in order to traffic with the Indians, without any kind of arms,
imprudently confiding in the apparent demonstrations of sincerity which
they had evinced; when, about nine o’clock, those who had remained with
Medeiros in the squadron perceived a tumult amongst the savages, which
convinced them that their comrades were lost. They immediately fired
upon them, when the traitors instantly fled, fifty Christians remaining
dead upon the field. This disaster terminated all hopes of a friendly
negotiation.

In 1744 the Indians were routed by the Paulista fleet, without the
Christians sustaining more loss than one negro, from the wound of a
lance. Notwithstanding the disaster which the savages experienced on
this occasion, they boldly advanced up the Paraguay the same year, as
far as the passage from Cuiaba to Matto Grosso; and, disembarking at an
early hour near the establishment of Joam d’Oliveira, set fire to his
house, and killed several people.

On the 24th of September, in this year, at mid-day, in clear weather,
a subterraneous noise was heard, and the earth immediately quaked,
continuing to experience various tremulous agitations, which produced
considerable alarm in all places of Matto Grosso and Cuiaba. At this
period, a drought already prevailed, which lasted till 1749. All
the woods were parched up, and no longer exhibited any foliage; the
atmosphere was now only the vehicle of smoke; all living creatures
suffered from famine and other calamities; and death stalked in
universal triumph.

The earthquake, which, in October two years afterwards, 1746, agitated
the territory of Peru, and destroyed the city of Lima, its capital,
was here very sensibly felt; filling every living creature with sudden
dread, but unattended with worse consequences.

Before the conclusion of this same year, the Captain Joao de Souza,
descended the Arinos, Tapajoz, and the Amazons, to Para, and returned
the following year by the Madeira, with European merchandise; after
his arrival, other dealers departed by the same route, which has been
frequented to this day, in spite of the great difficulties to which
this prolonged voyage has hitherto been subject.

Two years had almost elapsed, before the rains had reanimated the face
of the country, given verdure to the foliage of the unbounded woods,
renovated the springs, arrested the ravages of death, and facilitated
journeys by land; when, about the beginning of January, 1751, a
numerous fleet arrived at Cuiaba, accompanied by Don Antonio Rolin de
Moura, as governor of the new province, a Juiz de Fora, (Theotonio
de Sylva Gusmao,) two Jesuits, and a troop of dragoons. At the end
of this year, the governor proceeded to the mines of Matto Grosso,
with the intention of promoting the navigation discovered by Manuel
de Lima to Gram Para, and to compel the retrocession of the Spanish
Jesuits established on the right margin of the Guapore. D. Antonio
Rolin, commanded to found a town in the situation best adapted for
the effectuating those projects, selected for its site a place called
Pouzoalegre, founded and named it on the 19th of March, 1752; and, on
the 25th of November, by order of the bishop of Rio de Janeiro, the
hermitage of St. Anna was converted into its mother church.

With the opening of the roads to Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, and with
the new navigation of Gram Para, that of Camapuan began to be less
frequented. The miners who were interested in proceeding to St. Paulo
by this fatal way never accomplished it, except with a considerable
number of canoes, equipped with chosen men, and armed with the best
instruments of defence; and occasionally accompanied by canoes of war
to a certain situation in the river Tocoary, where they waited for the
Paulista fleet to protect them through the passage of the Pantanos.

Subsequent to the separation, already mentioned, of the two nations,
one of the most disastrous hostilities which the Portuguese
experienced from the Guaycurus was in May, 1775, when they proceeded
up the Paraguay, in twenty canoes, nearly to Villa Maria, where they
assassinated sixteen persons, and carried off many others prisoners.

The foundation of the prezidio, or garrison, of Nova Coimbra, in the
same year, upon the western margin of the Paraguay, ought to have been,
according to the order of General L. d’Alburquerque, forty leagues
further to the south, at the place called Fecho dos Morros, where it
would have contributed to the protection of the navigators of St.
Paulo. The author of the Guaycurus, (written in this prezidio by one
of its governors,) says, that he could but partially embarrass the
passage of the Indians, or prevent the flight of deserters; and that
its founder had committed an error, from whence resulted the entrance
of the Spaniards into the dominions of his faithful Majesty, where they
founded Villa Real, St. Carlos, and St. Joze.

The last hostility which the Portuguese sustained from the Guaycurus,
was the atrocious assassination of fifty soldiers in a plain fronting
Nova Coimbra, in January, 1781, at the time they were bartering some
articles with the barbarians who had been there twice before with
demonstrations of friendship.

The prezidio of Nova Coimbra was besieged in September, 1801, by the
Spaniards, who proceeded from the city of Assumption with four escunas
and twenty canoes. It was the first time that the thunder of contending
artillery had been heard in the centre of South America, and from which
the Guaycuru and Payagoa warriors formed an idea of the European mode
of warfare. The commencement of hostilities produced the following
correspondence between the Spanish and Portuguese commandants:--

“I had the honour, last evening, to contest the fire of the fort under
the command of your Honour; and having ascertained that the force with
which I am about to attack it is much superior to that of your Honour,
which cannot fail to reduce it to the ultimate state of misfortune; and
as the vassals of his Catholic Majesty know how to respect the laws
of humanity, an opportunity is offered, and your Honour is required to
surrender the fort to the arms of the King my master; on the contrary
the cannon and the sword will decide the fate of Coimbra, and its
unfortunate garrison will suffer all the extremities of war, from which
calamity it will see itself delivered, if your Honour complies with my
proposal. Furnish me with your decision categorically, in the course
of one hour. On board of the Escuna, Nossa Senhora do Carmo, 17th of
September, 1801.

                                            “DON LAZARO DA RIBERA.”

                                    “Coimbra, 17th September, 1801.

“I have the honour to reply categorically to your Excellency, that the
inequality of force always was a stimulus which greatly animated the
Portuguese not to forsake their posts, and to defend themselves to the
two extremities, either of repelling the enemy, or burying themselves
below the ruins of forts confided to them. In this resolution are all
the individuals of this prezidio, who have the distinguished honour of
seeing in front of it the exalted person of your Excellency, whom God
preserve.

                                        “RICARDO FRANCO D’ALMEIDA.”

The assailants withdrew with some loss, after being nine days
ineffectually attempting to carry the fort.

This province, which lies between the parallel of 7° where it joins
that of Para, and 24° 30′ of south latitude where it borders upon that
of Paranna, occupies a territory of nearly eleven hundred miles from
north to south, with almost eight hundred at its greatest width, being
more extensive than ancient Germany.

On its western limits it has the Spanish possessions, from which
it is separated by the rivers Guapore, Jauru, and Paraguay, and on
the eastern the river Paranna, which divides it from the province
of St. Paulo, and the Araguaya, which separates it from that of
Goyaz. It comprises nearly four climates, entering twenty leagues
into the temperate zone. A country so extensive necessarily admits
of a considerable variety in every point of view in which it can be
regarded. Nature itself has partitioned it into three grand districts,
or comarcas, of which two are divided into six smaller ones, and their
limits (also natural) will become, perhaps, on some future day, those
appropriated for the formation of the same number of ouvidorias, when
the accumulation of its population may render such a measure desirable.

    The southern district is denominated Camapuania.

                                   { Matto Grosso, on the west.
    The central district comprises { Cuiaba, central.
                                   { Bororonia, on the east.

                                    { Juruenna, on the west.
    The northern district comprises { Arinos, central.
                                    { Tappiraquia, on the east.

                       _District of_ CAMAPUANIA.

The rivers Tocoary, Cochim, Camapuan, and Pardo, the origin of which
approximating, the three first flowing westward and the last eastward,
separate the district of Camapuania into north and south, the northern
limits of which is a chain of mountains, that in the latitude of about
13° extend themselves from east to west, and from whence emanate the
Paraguay and its first branches to the southward, and those which form
the Tapajos and the Zingu to the northward.

This district, which derives its name from the river Camapuan, is
bounded on the west by the river Paraguay; on the south by the Chichuhi
and Igurey; on the east by the Paranna; and comprises a tract of
territory of upwards of three hundred and fifty miles square. It is
a country almost universally flat, and has its woods chiefly in the
vicinity of the rivers. It consists principally either of catingas (not
adapted to agriculture) or plains, and is irrigated by a great number
of rivers, the most considerable of which originate in a range of land
from north to south, of very trifling elevation, and denominated the
serra Amambuhi, dividing the canton into east and west. A vast portion
of the western part is annually submerged by the inundations of the
Paraguay, which in some parts covers more than seventy miles of plain.

MINERALOGY.--Gold, calcareous stone, granite, variety of
argils, diamonds, and other precious stones.

PHYTOLOGY.--The vegetable on which the cochineal breeds, and
the shrub which produces matte, are very common in various situations;
a diversity of palm trees, caju-nut trees, four sorts of excellent
_guabiroba_ fruit, three of the _uvaspiriticas_, the fruit
similar to a grape, and the plant to the strawberry. The Paraguaynians
make various beverages of it.

RIVERS.--The Tocoary, Pardo, Mondego, Igatimy, Correntes,
Ippanne Guaçu, Miamaya, Ivinheima, and the Negro, are the principal.

The river Pardo, (Grey,) so called from the colour of its waters, is
formed by the Sanguexuga and the Vermelho. The latter, of a green
colour, partaking of the hue of its bed, is small, and flows from the
north. The Sanguexuga, (the Leach,) so called from passing near a lake
where they are excellent, originates a few miles to the south-west of
the Camapuan, and is navigable for the space of five or six leagues.
Its water is crystalline and excellent as far as the confluence with
the former. The Pardo is considerable, and so rapid that canoes advance
against its stream by the use of the vara with great labour; water
falls and currents increasing more and more from its centre upwards,
which render the navigation more tedious than any other river which
the Cuiabanos navigate, who consume almost two months in proceeding up
to the situation where the navigation of only two hundred and eighty
miles terminates, computing by water. Its course is winding towards
the south-east, through delightful plains at the commencement, where
the navigator passes the white deer, _anta_, _tamandua_,
wild hog, wolf, fox, emu ostrich, _seriema_, partridge, &c. which
invite him to the diversion of shooting.

These plains continue to the falls of Caiuru Guaçu and Caiuru Mirim,
which are situated about the middle of the extent of this river, with
an interval of three miles one from the other. From this situation
downwards, both margins are clothed with woods, abounding more in honey
than fruits, and only one small fall or current is met with, called
Capoeiras, eighteen miles below that of Caiuru Mirim.

The principal falls of this river are the Caiuru Guaçu, Tijuco,
Tacoaral, Tamandua, Curao, which is the largest of the whole, and
near fifty palms in height, Ballo, Lage Grande, Lage Pequena, Banco
Grande, Banco Pequena. In passing these, the canoes are conveyed by
land;--Caiuru Mirim, Banquinho, Cirga Comprida, Empirucu, Mangaval,
Cirga do Campo, Manuel Rodrigues, Sucuri, Embirucu Mirim, another
called Embirucu, Paredao, Furado, Formigueiro, Pedras d’Amolar,
Vermelho, Tocoarapaia, past all which canoes are dragged by a warp,
with but half a cargo, and double the number of people. There are
others passed with full cargoes, the canoes being impelled by a greater
or less number of men.

Upon the banks of the Pardo, two sorts of the palm are seen, which are
not met with near any of the other rivers of the Cuiabana navigation.
One called _guacuman_, slender and six or seven feet in height,
of which a good bait for fish is made; the other, denominated
_brutiz_, is high and thick with leaves seven feet long. The
Indians, and also the ancient certanistas, made of its fruit a wine,
very similar to that of the red grape in colour and taste.

The principal rivers which enlarge the Pardo are the Anhanduhi Guaçu,
Anhanduhi Mirim, and Sucuri; they join it by the right margin. The last
and smallest disembogues fifty miles below the Vermelho. The first,
rising in the centre of the province, discharges itself into the Pardo,
seventy miles above its embouchure. The Anhanduhi Mirim enters it forty
miles below the Sucuri. Fifteen miles above the mouth of the Vermelho,
is the port of Sanguexuga on the left margin of the river of the same
name, where the canoes, which proceed up the river Pardo, are unloaded
and conducted in _carretas_, (a sort of cart with four wheels,
drawn by six or seven bullocks,) across an isthmus of near ten miles
in width, through plains and woods to the port of Camapuan, on the
left bank of the small river of that name, which originates near the
first, in the skirts of the serro of Sacco. From hence, the navigation
is only with half a cargo, and accomplished with prodigious labour (in
consequence of the shoals and stones of which this river is full) to
the Cochim, where the goods are deposited in _ranchos_, and well
guarded, until the remainder of the cargoes are fetched. Forty miles
are reckoned from the port to the mouth of this river, traversing woods
deficient in fruits and game.

The river Cochim, which originates in the vicinity of the Sanguexuga,
runs violently between sides, formed of steep and frightful rocks,
which in some places are narrowed to four or five fathoms; in other
parts it passes through extensive woods, affording little fruit,
but abounding in game, where two sorts of palm trees, in great
quantities, are observed, the one called _guacuriz_, the other
_bocayuvas_. The principal of twenty-two falls, which interrupt
the navigation of this river, are, Mangaval, five leagues below the
mouth of the Camapuan; Pedra Branca, near thirty miles below the
preceding; and Vare, all requiring double the number of persons to
pass; Culapada, Furnas, Canellas d’Andre Alvez, Avanhandavussu, and
Avanhandavu Mirim, two miles distant from each other; P. Luiz Antonio,
which is very perilous; Jiquitaya; and Cachoeira da Ilha, which is
three miles above the confluence of this river with the Tocoary. The
principal streams which enlarge the Cochim are the Inferno, (Infernal
River,) Sellada, and the Jauru, entering by the right margin; the
Furado, Orelha d’Anta, Joam Bicudo, and the Tocoary Mirim, by the left.
The latter enters near the embouchure of the Cochim.

The Tocoary has its heads near the boundary of Cayaponia, much to
the north of Camapuan. When it receives the Cochim, it is already
considerable, and near this confluence there is a large fall of its
name, where the canoes are relieved of half the cargo, in order to
pass it without danger. A little lower there is another small one,
denominated Belliago, the last of this river, (the ordinary width of
which is here about sixty fathoms,) and also the last of one hundred
and thirteen, which navigators encounter from Port Feliz to Cuiaba.
The greater part of its course is through campinhas, with little wood,
describing continual and short turnings, which give it an appearance to
the navigator of his always being enclosed within a lake. It abounds in
fish; but its waters are impregnated with a fine sand. Amongst other
islands, which it forms, is that of Passaros, (or Birds,) so called on
account of the infinite number that breed in it, and with which its
trees are always laden: it discharges into the Paraguay, through many
channels, which form a great number of islands, generally submerged
during the floods of either river. These islands are denominated
Pantanos, where, amongst other rare birds, is seen a beautiful one
called _anhupocas_. It is the size of the _inhuma_, having
also, like it, a horn upon the head, and spurs to the wings; it sings
from midnight till day. Wild geese are exceedingly numerous, and for
their exclusive sustenance nature here produces a prodigious quantity
of wild rice, and of so large a size that no other bird can swallow it.
Amongst other remarkable trees, on the margins of this river, the most
esteemed is a species of palm tree, thicker round the trunk than the
arms of a man can compass; its nuts, which are the size of an ostrich’s
egg, supply the aliment of the Indian.

The river Mondego, otherwise Embotateu, originally Aranbahi, is
considerable, and navigable nearly to its origin, which is a short
distance from that of the Anhanduhi Guaçu, and runs into the Paraguay
eighteen miles below the Tocoary. The largest of its tributaries, which
enter by the right margin, is now called the river Verde. The last
confluent of the Mondego, by the southern bank, is the small river
Zezere, which rises near the inconsiderable serra of St. Barbara.

The Ivinbeima, which enters the Paranna by three mouths, flows from the
interior of the province, whither it affords navigation; and receives
by the left the Jaguary, a river little inferior to it.

The Negro, which is considerable, and would appear to be the Sambambaya
of the first certanistas, runs into the Paranna twenty miles above the
northern mouth of the Ivinheima.

The Miamaya, or Miamay, which is considered to be the river formerly
called Amambahy, is large, and enters the Paranna forty miles below the
southern arm of the Ivinheima.

The Igatimy, to which is given one hundred and fifty miles of extent,
is navigable very near to its source in the serra Amambahy. Eighty
miles in a direct line from its embouchure is the passage of the
Guaycurus, where the river is shallow. Twenty miles lower it receives
on the left the small river Bogas; and thirty-five miles further, on
the same side, the Escopil, which is little inferior, and flows from
the same serra.

The name of this fine confluence is Forquilha. It is an advantageous
point for the establishment of a colony. From hence to the Paranna, the
distance is about thirty-five miles, with only two falls. Ten miles
above this point, the first of twenty-one falls is encountered, all of
them compressed within the space of ten miles; from these cataracts
upwards, the river has no interruption to a little above the Guaycuru
ford, already mentioned. The course is winding, the lateral lands low,
and covered with impervious woods.

The Correntes, which appears to be the same that the Spaniards called
Rio Branco, (White River,) is considerable, and enters the Paraguay
fifty miles below the _Fecho dos Morros_, (closing of Rocks.)

The Ipanne Guaçu, after having watered an uninhabited territory, falls
into the Paraguay one hundred miles below the Correntes.

At no great distance from the Igatimy are the heads of two small rivers
called (the northern) Iguaray Assu, and (the southern) Iguaray Mirim,
which after uniting, join the Chichuhi, a river that discharges itself
into the Paraguay, in the latitude of 24° 12′. Neither the treaty of
limits agreed upon in 1751 or 1777, mention this river, or any other
as the divisionary line; but from the principal origin of the Igurey,
the ninth article of the latter treaty, says, that the boundary is
to continue in “a direct line, by the highest land, to the principal
head of the nearest river which enters the Paraguay;” and the Chichuhi
appears to answer best this adjustment. This river is also called
Jejuhy, formed, it is said, by the Grande and Pequena Jejuhy, which
after their junction receives on the left the Coruguaty.

Nearly fifteen miles to the south of the Igatimy, the river Igurey
falls into the Paranna, which has formed the limits on that side,
between the crowns of Spain and Portugal, since the year 1777.

ZOOLOGY.--There are _antas_ of all colours, wolves, white deer, with
all other species of quadrupeds known in the other provinces. The
middle of the northern part of this province is called, in the journals
or diaries of the certanistas, Vaccaria, (or Cattle Plains,) in
consequence of the cattle that were here dispersed when the Paulistas
expelled the inhabitants of the city Xerez, and of five neighbouring
small aldeias, which formed a small province, of which the said city
was the head. The remainder of these animals, almost extinct from the
devastations of the wild beast and the hunter, were augmented in 1797,
by those which the Guaycurus carried off, when they plundered the
Spanish plains of the town of Coruguaty; and also by such as escaped
from the Coruguatynos, who pursued (to the number of upwards of fifteen
hundred) the barbarian pillagers.

Various savage nations have dominion in this country; the Guaycuru
is the most distinguished. At the present day they are divided into
three bodies; one of which, without any alliance with other nations,
live along the western margin of the Paraguay, subdivided into various
hordes: the most southern are called Linguas by the neighbouring
Spaniards; and when they infest the aldeias of the province of St.
Cruz de la Sierra, are there known by the name _Xiriquanos_;
others have the appellation of _Cambaz_. Those who possess the
eastern vicinity of the same river, constitute the other two bodies;
the southern are allied with the Spaniards, the northern with the
Portuguese. The Fecho dos Morros, or an approximating situation, is
the separating line. No difference is remarked of origin, idiom, and
usages, amongst these three portions of Indians, otherwise declared
enemies to each other. The allies of the Portuguese, extending from the
Mondego southward, are divided into seven hordes, or large aldeias,
generally friends to each other, and without the least difference in
any respect. Chagoteo, Pacachodeo, Adioeo, Atiadeo, Oleo, Laudeo,
and Cadioeo, are the names by which they are distinguished. In none
of these aldeias, which would be better designated as large towns,
are there any acknowledged superior to the rest. Each horde is
composed of three classes of persons; the first, are a species of
noblesse, entitled _captains_, and whose wives and daughters
have the distinction of _donas_; the second, are denominated
_soldiers_, or men whose military obedience descends from father
to son; and the third, _captives_ or _slaves_, comprising
the prisoners of war and their descendants. There are but a few of
the first in each aldeia, the second are very numerous, and the
third exceed many times the number of the others taken conjointly.
The captains and soldiers have an intermixed origin, and their title
of gentility is _joage_. The slaves are of various nations,
acquired in war, never undertaken with any other object, than for
the augmentation of prisoners, in the number of which consists the
degree of nobility, or distinction of the captains. These irruptions
are exterminatory, taking away the lives of the elder people and the
liberty of the younger. Such youthful captives soon forget their idiom
and customs, and adopt those of the Guaycurus, and never abscond, as
their masters do not occupy them in any thing. It is reputed highly
degrading for a senhor, or lord, to contract marriage with his slave;
the son treats with contempt the mother who bore him by a slave.

The Guaycurus are of medium stature, well made, healthy, robust, and
appear formed to the most painful and laborious undertakings. They eat
many times in the day, very slowly, and their provisions are generally
over-dressed, and cooked without any attention to cleanliness. They
never suffer from indigestion. They are most particular in the diet
which they use on occasions of their unfrequent indispositions. The
scurvy never makes its appearance, and sudden deaths are never known.
Bodily defects are exceedingly rare; blind persons sometimes are seen,
but none are ever bald. Their teeth are almost universally irregular,
in consequence of not extracting the first teeth of the youth when they
change them, an omission arising from the tenderness with which they
are treated; but they commonly retain them till death, although black
enough, from the prodigious quantity of tobacco which they use. The
women always carry a piece between the under lip and gums. They paint
the body with the dye of the _urucu_ and _jenipapo_, in which
operation much symmetry is preserved. The youth have no certain usage
in the disposal of their lank hair; the aged shave their heads similar
to the lay Franciscans.

The women likewise shave their heads around, and clip the hair, leaving
it three inches in length at the top. Their physiognomy is broad,
and presents nothing agreeable in consequence of the dye which they
introduce into the skin with thorns, forming lines, that commence at
the roots of the hair, and terminate at the eyelids or the cheeks,
and in some instances at the chin, where they give it the appearance
of a chess board, an ash colour being so indelibly fixed, that it
continues through life. They are usually wrapped up in a large cotton
cloth, from the neck to the feet, striped with various colours; the
more ostentatious ornament themselves with shells, the mother-pearl
appearing outwards; some have upon them the figure of their horses,
well drawn in black and white. Below this dress they wear a very wide
girdle, called an _ayulate_; without which a girl from her birth
is never seen. Ornamental strings of silver, in necklaces and bracelets
for the arms and legs, and a plate of the same metal at the breast, are
generally displayed, for the manufacture of which, a stone anvil and
hammer are used. In former times, these ornaments consisted of wood,
such as are yet seen amongst some of the poor.

Early in life they become meagre, and their skins, as well as those of
the men at an advanced age, are remarkably wrinkled.

The men have no other clothing than a narrow girdle, or _cinta_
of dyed cotton, which they tie round the middle of the body; and after
they have had communication with the Europeans, they cover them with
beads of divers colours, forming different devices. They ornament the
head, arms, and legs, with plumes, or feathers, of various colours.
They have the under lip perforated, and a cylinder of wood, almost as
thick as a writing pen, and three inches long, introduced, the richer
class wearing them of silver; and in their ears, half moons of the same
metal. The men are diligent in hunting, fishing, gathering honey and
wild fruits, and in the manufacture of arms and canoes, which they call
_noatek_. The women spin, manufacture clothes, and _cintas_,
or girdles of cotton; and make cords, mats, &c. Both sexes occupy
themselves equally in culinary affairs.

They breed all the species of domestic European birds and quadrupeds
introduced into the country, and some peculiar to this continent,
with great attention and care, in consequence of which the whole are
particularly tame.

Agriculture is held in contempt by them; and meat is their only
aliment, which renders their stock of animals not over abundant, with
the exception of horses, which they never eat. They change the colour
of a green parrot into yellow, by stripping off the plumage, and
applying the dye of the _urucu_, to its unfeathered skin.

From their custom of incessant riding on horseback, their legs are
crooked. They do not use the saddle or stirrups, nor any substitute for
them, and their bridles consist of cords. They break their horses in
water, in order that the rider may not be dismounted, or that his fall
may be less sensibly felt.

Their war-horses are not used for any other purpose, nor do they ever
sell them. The women are mounted on horseback between bundles of dried
grass upon a cloth which serves at the same time for a housing.

The Guaycurus are dreaded and respected by the surrounding nations, in
consequence of the advantage they have in cavalry in their cruel wars,
and the arms which they use, consisting of a club, or staff, of four
to five spans in length, and an inch in diameter; a lance, somewhat
thicker, and twelve feet long; a _trassado_, or large knife, and
the bow and arrow. They are equipped with all those arms, when they
proceed upon their war-horses, in the following manner. They encircle
themselves with a cord, between which and the body, the club is
introduced on the right side, the trassado on the left; with the left
hand they govern the horse, and with the right wield the lance, which
they do not use when they carry the bow and arrow. They also use the
laço in their hunting excursions.

A year does not elapse without their undertaking campaigns against, and
making prisoners of the Guatos, Cayapos, Bororos, Xiquitos, Chamococos,
(the two last are of the province of St. Cruz de la Sierra,) Guaxis,
who dwell about the heads of the Aranhahy, Coroas, Caiavabas, Guannas,
and other tribes. The Guannas are the most numerous, and amongst them
alone is remarked the cultivation of some hortulans and cotton trees.

They content themselves with one wife; but the law is free to both
parties to effect a separation, and contract a new alliance, when one
is disgusted with the other; such separations, however, are very rare.
The ceremony of marriage consists in a plentiful banquet, accompanied
with a rude dance.

They have a general cemetery, which is a large open structure covered
with mats, where each family has a part staked off for its use. Above
the sepulchres of the men are deposited their bows, arrows, and other
arms. Those of distinguished warriors are decked with ornaments. Rich
young females are decorated as if for the bridal day. They have no
religion; and, in place of doctors or surgeons, there are certain
persons denominated _Unigenitos_, who are pretended diviners
and superstitious imposters, absolutely destitute of that knowledge
of medicine or cure of diseases, which belongs to other savages less
distinguished. They cure their patients by smoking or sucking the part
affected, and expectorating into a grave; they do not prescribe any
beverages.

They believe in a creator of all, but to whom they pay no kind of
homage, nor have recourse upon any urgent occasions; and also an
inferior spirit, endowed with the knowledge of futurity, whom they
denominate _Nanigogigo_. They admit the immortality of the soul;
but it would appear, they have no idea of future recompenses being
proportioned to the conduct of life; they imagine that the souls of the
captains and unigenitos are in a state of enjoyment after death, and
that those of the people wander about the cemetery.

The unigenitos acquire most credit by their pretended familiarity
with the Nanigogigo, for which the people consider them privileged.
The _macauhan_ is a bird which produces much auguration amongst
the Guaycurus, when its notes are unintelligible to them; upon such
occasions the subsequent night is a season of inconvenience and labour
to the unigenitos, who occupy themselves alternately in lamentable
singings, or in imitating the notes of various birds, shaking at the
same time a calabash with little stones in it, and in calling upon the
Nanigogigo to interpret the mysterious song of the bird. They practise
the same artifice when they pretend to know whether an invalid will
die or recover, and if good or ill success will attend an ensuing war.

It is considered a beauty amongst these people to have no hair upon the
eyebrows, being particularly careful to extract it on its appearing.

Their language abounds with words and phrases of soft and easy
pronunciation. The women explain themselves at times differently to
the men; for instance, in the expression of “Farewell, I am going,”
the latter say “_sara gigo oipilo_,”--the women, “_sara gigo
ioy_.”

There is nothing more remarkable amongst the Guaycurus than the inhuman
practice of the mothers in destroying the embryo on discovering their
pregnancy, until they arrive at the age of thirty. The reason of this
custom is to avoid the inconveniences annexed to the birth and rearing
of their offspring.

The streets of their villages or towns are straight and wide, the
houses are covered with mats of bulrushes, disposed horizontally in
dry weather, and slopingly in wet weather. Many have two and three
mats, one above the other, with more or less interval, as much for the
exclusion of the rain as for the diminution of the heat. They sleep on
the ground upon hides, and cover themselves with the cloths that the
women spread over the two bundles of grass between which they ride on
horseback.

None of their dwelling places are permanent. They are always near some
river or lake, and continue whilst there are game, fish, fruits, and
pasturage for the cattle. On experiencing any want, in a moment the
town disappears, and the plains, previously covered with thousands of
animals, are deserted. The marches of these caravans are grand and
interesting. On arriving at their destined place, another town rises
almost in a moment, and the surrounding campos, where scarcely a few
deer pastured, are on a sudden covered with numerous horses, oxen, and
flocks of sheep.

They manufacture an inebriating drink with honey and water, called
_chicha_; and to the rum of the Portuguese they give the name of
_nodak_.

Some express themselves tolerably in the Portuguese language, and have
made transitions to the towns or establishments of the province, since
they received the protection and subjected themselves to the Faithful
Crown, in virtue of which, the following patent, previously alluded to,
was granted to them.

“Joam d’Albuquerque de Mello Pereyra e Caceres, of his Majesty’s
council, chevalier of the order of St. John of Malta, governor and
captain-general of the capitanias of Matto Grosso and Cuiaba, &c.
maketh known to all those to whom this my letter patent may come,
that the nation of Indian Guaycurus, or Cavalleiros, having solemnly
contracted perpetual peace and friendship with the Portuguese, for
a term judicially done, in which the two chiefs, Joam Queyma de
Albuquerque and Paulo Joaquim Joze Ferreyra, in the name of their
nation, subject themselves and promise a strict obedience to the laws
of his Majesty, in order to be from this day hence forward recognised
as vassals of the same sovereign; I command and order all magistrates
of justice and war, commandants, and all persons of the dominions of
his Faithful Majesty, to recognise, treat with, and aid them, with all
the demonstrations of friends. And, for the confirmation of the above,
I have ordered the present Letter Patent to be passed to them, with my
signature, and sealed with the signet of my arms, in this capital of
Villa Bella, on the 30th July, 1791.”

The following words will partly show the difference between the
Guaycuru language and the general lingua.

                          GEN. LINGUA.     GUAYCURU.

    Sun                       _Araci_        _A’liga_
    Moon                      _Jaci_        {_Pannay_ (used by
                                            {  the men only)
                                            {_Epannay_ (women)
    White                     _Tinga_        _Lapaca_
    Black                     _Una_          _Nabidre_
    Great                     _Guassu_       _Elodo_
    Brother                   _Enduva_       _Nixo_
    Salt                      _Juki_         _Juki_
    Ostrich                  {_Ema_    }     _Apacanigo_
                             {_Guaripe_}
    Crocodile                 _Jacare_       _Nioxe_
    Horse                     _Cavaru_       _Apolicano_
    Pig                       _Taycu_        _Nigda_
    Dog                       _Jaguara_      _Niknik_
    Wolf                      _Guara_        _Tiglicon_
    Cat                       _Bracaya_      _Perixene_
    Man                       _Apuaba_       _Hulegre_
    Demon, or Evil Spirit     _Anhanga_      _Nanigogigo_
    Diviner                   _Page_         _Unigenito_

The territory through which the Igatimy, Escopil, and Miammaya flow
is inhabited by the Cahans, (people of the wood,) so denominated from
their always living within the precincts of woods, in consequence of
their dread of the Guaycurus, who alone proceed along the plains and
open country, to facilitate the march of their horses.

The Cabans live in aldeias: not more than thirty years ago they had
fifteen of those villages. They paint themselves with the dye of the
_urucu_, perforate the under lip, and insert a cylinder of resin,
transparent as crystal, secured by a small wooden pin at the upper
extremity. The bow and arrow are their arms, made with instruments of
flint and the sharpened teeth of the boar. They cultivate the cotton
tree, the wool of which they spin and weave by a method peculiar to
themselves. Their vesture consists of a sort of _ponche_, in the
form of a sack, made of a piece of cotton cloth of good width, doubled
and sewed in part at the corners, with an opening to introduce the head
and neck through, also two apertures for the arms, and terminating
in two aprons, with a cord round the waist. In the morning they sing
hymns to the Creator, accompanied with extravagant movements; one of
them, with the hands clasped and the body bent, making a circular
movement around the others for a considerable time. Amongst them are
men who are, or pretend to be, at the same time, surgeons, doctors,
diviners, and priests, and, like the latter, carry in their hands a
cross, which custom they have unquestionably derived from the first
Jesuitical missionaries who penetrated into the country, and who used a
_bordāo_, or staff, (perhaps also as an instrument of defence,) in
the shape of a cross. In their district there are woods of wild orange
trees, and prodigious quantities of bees, which do not produce good
honey, but the wax is better than that of the northern provinces.

In the middle of the last century, when the plenipotentiaries of Spain
and Portugal established a boundary-mark upon the Jauru, there lived
in the vicinity of the Fecho dos Morros, a nation of Indians, called
_Bayas_, of which, at the present day, there is no intelligence.

The povoaçoes in this district are the fazenda of Camapuan, with a
hermitage, situated in 19° 36′ south latitude, and Miranda, a prezidio,
founded in 1797, about five hundred yards from the right margin of the
river Aranhahy, near a serra, in a land abounding with game. Upon the
track to Camapuan there is a large lake.

With the foundation of Nova Coimbra the Spaniards commenced in this
province the towns of Villa Real, near the tropic, St. Carlos, on the
margin of the river Appa, and St. Joze, which was demolished by the
Portuguese about twenty years ago.

Near the heads of the Aranhahy there yet appears some vestiges of the
before-mentioned city of Xerez.

                      _District of_ MATTO GROSSO.

This district, which is two hundred and forty miles from north to
south, and two hundred and seventy from east to west on the northern
part, is bounded on the south by the Spanish possessions, on the east
by the Paraguay, on the north by the district of Juruenna, and on the
west by the Guapore. It extends between 13° and 16° 20′ of southern
latitude. The face of the country is undulated with serras of no great
elevation, which, however, attract the sight at a great distance,
with plains more or less extensive, woods, and intermixtures of
_charnecas_, (barren tracts,) and is watered by a great number of
rivers, tributary to the two largest of South America.

The most considerable mountains are on the northern part, and are
branches of the serra of Paricis.

MINERALOGY.--Gold, diamonds, crystals, granite, minerals of iron,
potters’ earth, calcareous stone.

PHYTOLOGY.--The _opuncia_ is common in various situations; in others
the ipecacuanha; indigo grows spontaneously in humid lands; jalap is
well known; also the trees of cupahiba, _almecega_, or gum-mastich,
manna, and dragons’ blood. There is a diversity of excellent timber for
building, and abundance of oranges, _goyabas_, _aracas_, _mangabas_,
pine-apples, water-melons, and bananas, generally of good quality.
The objects of cultivation are Indian corn, mandioca, rice, legumes,
tobacco, cotton, and the sugar cane, as far as it is required for the
consumption of the population.

European merchandise and some Asiatic productions arrive here at an
exorbitant price, and are only procured in exchange for gold.

ZOOLOGY.--All the species of wild quadrupeds which are encountered in
the maritime provinces are here common; of domestic animals cattle only
are numerous; sheep are rare; and, hitherto, there are no breeders of
mules. Here are common the emu ostrich, _sereima_, _mutun_, _jacu_,
_tucano_, parrot, partridge, heron, _guiraponga_, and _jaburu_.

Industry is very limited; and the weaving of coarse cottons, for
labourers, and curing of hides, which exceed the demand, are its
principal objects up to this period.

RIVERS.--The Guapore originates nearly one hundred miles to
the north-east of Villa Bella, and, after eighty miles of southern
course, and nearly the same distance of western, curves towards the
north-west, and afterwards to the west-north-west. Two miles above the
said town it receives by the left the Alegre, which coming from the
east, and rising in the serra of Aguapehy, is joined on the left by
the Barbados, ten miles from its mouth. Ten miles below the capital
the Guapore is united on the right by the river Sarere, which has its
source thirty miles to the west of it; and fifty miles lower, on the
same side, by the Galera, which forms itself to the north-west of
the Sarere. Twenty-four miles further the important river Verde is
incorporated with it; and upwards of one hundred miles in advance, the
river Paragau; after two hundred more, the Baurus or Baure; and twelve
or fifteen further, the Tunama; all four by the left margin, after
having watered a great portion of the province of the Moghos, or Moxos.
Upwards of fifty miles below the mouth of the last river, it is joined
also on the left side by the voluminous river Ubay, or Ubahy, which the
Spaniards formerly denominated the Chiquitos, as it traversed the lands
of the Indians so called, and subsequently the Magdalena, named St.
Miguel, after they had founded in its vicinity the parishes of those
names. To the river Guapore the people of Matto Grosso give the name of
Mamore, as far as its junction with the large one of that name, which
they call Madeira and the Spaniards Mamore. This confluence is one
hundred and ten miles lower down, and one hundred and fifty by water.

The Spaniards commonly give to the Guapore the name of Itenez, which
they continue to it till its confluence with the real Mamore, where
both lose their names, and form the majestic Madeira, which flows
northward till it incorporates with the mighty Amazons. The margins of
the Guapore, or Itenez, are principally swampy, and, with the rivers
which run into it, uncongenial to European constitutions. The rivers
which join it by the right margin, the largest not exceeding one
hundred miles in course, issue from the western side of a continuation
of the serra of Paricis, which prolongs itself with the same river. The
Cabixy, Piolho, Corumbyara, Mequen, St. Simam, and Cautario, follow the
aforesaid Galera.

There are five falls in the Guapore, from the mouth of the Ubahy to
the confluence where its name is lost. Guajuru-mirim, Guajuru-grande,
Bannaneira, Paugrande, and Lages, descending, are the names by which
they are distinguished.

The Jauru, which forms itself in the campos of the Paricis, thirty
miles east of the Guapore, after flowing a long way southward, gathers,
by the right bank, the Bahia and the Aguapehy, inclines to the
east-south-east, and unites itself with the Paraguay, in the latitude
of 16° 24′. It is navigable for a great distance, and runs principally
through a flat country covered with woods. At a short distance from its
margin, there is a nitrous lake, which furnishes a great quantity of
salt.

At the confluence of the Jauru, which is one hundred and seventy
miles south-east of Villa Bella, a magnificent stone of European
marble was erected in 1754, as a boundary mark between the Spaniards
and Portuguese; the arms of each power being turned towards their
respective possessions. This pillar is regarded by the Indians with
admiration. The following is the inscription upon it.

                     Sub Joanne Quinto Lusitanorum
                           Rege Fidelissimo
                     Sub Ferdinando Sexto Hispaniæ
                            Rege Catholico
                     Justitia et Pax osculatæ sunt
                      Ex Pactis Finium Regundorum
                   Conventis. Madriti Idib. Januar.
                               M.DCC.L.

The river Sepetiva, or Sipotuba, which rises fifty miles to the
north-east of the Jauru, runs far along the serra of Tapirapuan, and
unites itself with the Paraguay, after having gathered by the right the
small rivers Juva and Jaraubahiba.

The river Cabacal, much inferior to the preceding, falls into the
Paraguay, a few leagues below the Sipotuba.

The Preto, which is the first considerable river that swells the waters
of the Paraguay, is formed by the St. Anna, and St. Francisco Xavier,
which emanate from the eastern brows of the Tapirapuan Serra, and join
their copious streams at the bottom of a mount, each presenting here
the interesting spectacle of a large cataract. These barriers prevent
the advance of various species of fish, large shoals of which are
observed in the water at their base.

The Barbados, which is extensive, issues also from the serra
Tapirapuan, and enters the Paraguay, a considerable way below the Preto.

The Pary, which took the name of a nation now extinct, originates in
the serra of Tapirapuan, and falls into the Paraguay, between the
Barbados and Sipotuba.

All the rivers of this comarca are of pure, fresh, and crystalline
water.

Villa Bella, the capital of this rich and extended province, is already
in a state of mediocrity, abounding with meat and fish, and is
situated in a champaign country, near the margin of the Guapore. It is
ornamented with a parochial church, Santissima Trinidade, a hermitage
of Nossa Senhora of Carmo, another of St. Antonio, and a permutation,
or smelting house. It is the residence of the governor, and this vast
and very partially cultivated province is now under the jurisdiction
of Senhor Majesse. It is also the residence of the ouvidor, who is
likewise crown judge. The senate is presided by a Juiz de Fora, who
is also procurator of the crown, inspector of the smelting house, and
deputy of the juntas of the administration of the treasury and of
justice. All the houses are constructed of earth, and white-washed. It
is the only parish of the comarca, and in its wide district are the
chapels of St. Anna, of St. Francisco Xavier, of the Lady of Pilar, of
St. Vicente Ferreyra, and of Oiro Fino.

Of this comarca, is the arraial Diamantino, advantageously situated
at the angle of the confluence of the river of the same name, with
the Oiro, ten miles above its entrance into the Paraguay. It has a
hermitage of the Lady of Conceiçao, filial of the mother church of
Cuiaba, from which it is distant one hundred miles to the north-west.
The gold and diamonds in its environs were the cause of its origin a
few years ago. Its inhabitants are miners, breeders of cattle, and
agriculturists.

About ten miles distant is the serra of Mangabeira, partly occupied by
various farmers of Indian corn, mandioca, and legumes.

The northern portion of this comarca is yet possessed by various
aboriginal nations, such as the _Cabyxys_, the _Cautaros_, (which
give their names to two confluents of the Guapore,) the _Ababas_, the
_Lambys_, and the _Urucurunys_, with others approximating to the serra
Paricis, which is an elevated range, with extensive sandy campos, or
plains, upon its widely spreading summit.

                         _District of_ CUIABA.

This district, which takes the name of the river that traverses it
from north to south, is confined on the north by the district of
Arinos, on the west by that of Matto Grosso, on the east by that of
Bororonia, from which it is separated by the river St. Lourenço, which
also limits it on the south, where it terminates in an angle formed by
the confluence of the said river and the Paraguay. It comprises three
hundred and fifty miles from north to south, and little less than two
hundred and fifty at its utmost width from east to west. It has an
agreeable aspect, delightfully varied with spacious plains, superb
woods, extensive _charnecas_, and gently undulating eminences,
often rising to the grandeur of mountain scenery. The greater portion
is fertilized by numerous rivers. The prevailing thunder showers of the
winter season commence in September and terminate in April.

MINERALOGY.--The same minerals are met with here which are found in the
district of Matto Grosso.

PHYTOLOGY.--There are a diversity of trees of excellent timber. Amongst
other medicinal plants, is one called _espigelia_, the _herva de
cobra_, (serpent herb) the _jarrinha_, and various qualities of the
real _quina_, or Jesuits’ bark.

Amongst other fruits of the wood, the quince is well known, the
_jabuticaba_, the _ambuzo_, the _araticumo_, the _guabiraba_, and the
_goyaba_.

Cotton, sugar, Indian corn, mandioca, rice, and legumes, are objects of
agriculture proportioned to the population.

From no part of this district can the superfluity that is produced be
exported with advantage, in consequence of its present tedious and
intricate communication with the maritime provinces.

ZOOLOGY.--Large herds of cattle are bred, as well as horses, some
mules, hogs, sheep, and a very few goats, which hitherto are deemed
useless.

RIVERS.--The most celebrated is the Paraguay, which rises in a plain
upon the serra of Pary, otherwise Lage, (a portion of the extensive
Paricis,) at the situation of the Sete Lagoas, so called from an
assemblage of seven lakes, generally small, a short space intervening
between them, and communicating by narrow outlets. A little below
the last, this river flows through a swampy country in a northerly
direction for a short space, when it winds round by the west and
takes a southern course. The first stream which it receives is the
Diamantino, (Diamond River,) which comes from a distant source, and
brings with it the Corrego Rico, (Rich Channel,) otherwise Rio do Oiro,
(Gold River.) The first large river which joins it is the Jauru. Along
its eastern margin, and in nearly the whole of this great extent, is a
range of elevated lands, which continue twenty-five miles beyond this
confluence, and terminate at the point called Escalvada, where both
margins begin to be flat, and interspersed with lakes. Seventy miles
below the Escalvada point, the western margin begins to be bordered by
a serra of the like number of miles in length, but narrow, and broken
in various parts to admit of the ingress of the waters of three lakes
lying behind it, the outlets of which, thus formed, appear like large
rivers, when the Paraguay at its overflowings makes them a part of its
expanded channel. The northern portion of this serra is called Insua:
the southern, Chaynez; and the central, Doirados. The names of the
lakes are Oberaba, Gahiba, and Mandiore. The first on the north is ten
miles in diameter, and its outlet contiguous to the extremity of the
serra Insua, behind which it communicates with the Gahiba lake, which
is a little larger and ten miles distant to the south, with its outlet,
the same number of miles below the first, dividing the serra of Insua
from that of Doirados.

The Mandiore lake is fifteen miles in extent, and has more than one
channel to the Paraguay, the northernmost of which separates the serra
of Doirados from that of Chaynez, and is twenty miles south of Gahiba,
in front of which the river St. Lourenço discharges its abundant
waters, in the latitude of 18° 45´.

The serra of Chaynez, inhabited at times by the Guanan Indians, is
followed by that of Albuquerque, which is a square mass of an elevated
range from thirty-five to forty miles. On its southern side is situated
the prezidio from which its name is derived. In front of this serra is
the principal embouchure of the Tocoary in 19° 15´.

Eighteen miles further to the south are the mouths of the Mondego. The
Paraguay flows in these parts divided into two channels, formed by a
narrow island seventy miles long; the eastern channel is denominated
Paraguay Mirim.

Thirty-five miles to the south of the Mondego are two high mounts,
one in front of the other, upon the margins of the Paraguay. Upon the
southern skirt of the western mount is situated the before-mentioned
fort of Nova Coimbra.

Thirty-five miles below Coimbra, on the same margin, is the mouth
of the outlet from Bahia Negra, (Black Bay,) which is twenty miles
inland, and comprises eighteen in length from north to south, being the
receptacle of the lakes, and of the aqueous effusions of the plains
lying to the west and south of the Albuquerque mountains. Sixty miles
further the Paraguay receives on the eastern bank the Queyma, which is
said to be the Terrery of the first certanistas.

Eight miles lower, in the latitude of 21°, upon the western margin, is
the morro which the ancient Paulistas called the Mount of Miguel Joze,
upon whose skirt is situated Fort Bourbon. Twenty-five miles by water,
to the south of the mount of Miguel Joze, in the latitude 21° 20´, a
chain of small mountains prolong themselves with the Paraguay, where
its waters are contracted into a narrower space, flowing rapidly in two
channels, separated by a rocky island of considerable length. In this
situation, denominated the Fecho dos Morros, (the Barricado of Rocks,)
and which is the limit between the High and Low Paraguay, terminate
the laky and swampy margins of this majestic river, which commence, as
has been previously noticed, at Escalvada Point, near three hundred
and fifty miles to the north. The width of the river within this
space, during the inundations, which begin in April and continue till
September, is from seventy to one hundred and fifty miles, and forms
an internal sea, which the ancient Vincentistas denominated the Sea or
Lake Xarays, from a nation so called, now not existing, or, at least,
not known by such an appellation. At the time of these awful floods, a
great part of the beds of the rivers of St. Lourenço, Tocoary, Mondego,
and others on the eastern side, as well as the aforesaid lakes on the
western, and the adjacent woods, become portions of this periodical
Caspian, where the elevated lands assume the appearance of islands,
inhabited by an accumulation of birds and wild animals.

At the said Fecho, both margins of the Paraguay begin to acquire
a solid terra firma, particularly the eastern. By this bank are
discharged the small Tipoty, the Correntes, the Rio Branco, (which
appears to be the said Correntes,) the Appa, (which is thought to be
the Pirahy of the ancient Paulistas,) the Guidava, the Ippanne Guassu,
the Ippanne Mirim, and the Chichuhi, where the rugged margin called
Huguruguita commences, and is prolonged for the space of thirty-five
miles to the mouth of the small Suobogo, where begins the bank or coast
of Pataque, of short extent, terminating at the embouchure of the
Tabixu, which, as well as the preceding, enters the Paraguay on the
left.

In the latitude of 25° 22´ is situated the city of Assumption; and
eighteen miles to the south of it, the first arm of the large river
Pilco Mayo is discovered, which originates in the cordillera of the
Andes, in the district of Potoze, whither it affords navigation. Forty
miles lower down is the mouth of the second arm, and fifteen further,
the most southern arm. The course of the Pilco Mayo is not much less
than seven hundred miles.

On the eastern margin, the Piraju, the Cannabe, and the Tibicoary enter
the Paraguay.

In the latitude of 26° 50´, the Rio Verde, or Parsa, otherwise
Colorado, discharges itself, after a course of more than seven hundred
miles from the vicinity of the Andes.

Forty miles further to the south, the grand confluence of the Paranna,
little inferior to the Paraguay, augments the wonder which is excited
by so vast a mass of water. About one hundred miles lower is the
northern branch of the river Salado; and upwards of one hundred and
seventy miles further the southern, better known by the name of
Xalupoi. On the southern angle of this confluence is situated the city
of Santa Fe, in the latitude of 31° 35′. A little further it receives
also by the right bank, the Terceiro, or Carcapal, which exceeds three
hundred and fifty miles in its course.

The Paraguay, which from the parallel of 20° inclines a little to the
south-south-west, here changes its direction to the east-south-east for
the space of one hundred and forty miles, gathering by both margins
various rivers, none of them considerable, to the latitude of 34°,
where it is united on the left by the river Uruguay, its last important
tributary.

This river, which the Spaniards generally call Rio da Plata, after it
receives the Pilco Mayo, becomes many leagues in width, and contains
a great number of islands, which vary greatly in extent, principally
of a flat aspect, and denominated the Parannas. The left margin, from
the last confluence, runs to the east as far as Cape St. Mary, and
this part of it, at least, is universally known as the river Plate,
the right margin of which takes a south-east direction, from the same
longitude, for more than one hundred miles to the point of Carretas,
where its embouchure is upwards of fifty miles in width.

The Paraguay has no more falls after it receives the Sipotuba, and is
generally of great depth.

The river Cuiaba has its origin in the same latitude as the Paraguay.
The first current which unites itself with it by the western margin
is the Cuiaba Mirim, and by the eastern the Casca; these are followed
by many others of a smaller class, which render it navigable for more
than seventy miles above the capital, although with much labour, in
consequence of many falls, which do not extend below Villa Real, where
it begins to be wide and rapid in its current, flowing almost generally
through a champaign country, which is submerged during the periodical
inundations. Its waters are excellent, well stored with fish, and in
the latitude of 17° 20′ it falls into the St. Lourenço.

Whilst the floods continue it is customary to navigate over the plains,
where the current is less rapid, traversing prodigious plantations of
rice, annually reproduced by nature, without any human assistance, or
sustaining any damage from the waters, because it grows as the waters
increase, always having more than a yard above water, and affording
supplies to the passing canoes, into which the ears are bent, and then
shook with a pole.

The _piranna_ fish, commonly called _tezoira_, (scissors,)
and sometimes _lanceta_, (lancet,) and the _arraya_, are
equally terrible here; the first in consequence of its formidable
teeth, the other from a sting which it has in the tail.

From the capital downwards, the most notable streams which fall into
the Cuiaba, are the Tutez on the right; the large and small Caranda on
the left.

Villa Real de Cuiaba, capital of the comarca, considerable, populous,
flourishing, and abounding with meat, fish, and fruits, contains a
church of Senhor Bom Jesus, three chapels dedicated, two also to the
Redeemer, with the titles of Bom Despacho and Passos, and one to
Nossa Senhora of Rozario, and is the residence of a prelate, bishop
_in partibus_, also of a Juiz de Fora, and royal professors of
philosophy and Latin. It is situated near a small river, one mile
distant from the eastern bank of the river from which it derives its
name. All the edifices are of taipa, similar to those of St. Paulo, and
the streets are mostly paved.

The dealers of Cuiaba proceed to barter their bars of precious metal at
Bahia, by the road of Goyaz, or at the metropolis, by the same track,
or by Camapuan; but their trade might more conveniently be carried
on by the river Tapajos, and others of Gram Para, to its capital.
Various ways, in fact, remain to be opened to the transit of the
productions of these fertile districts; two to Para,--one by the river
Xingu, the other by the Mortes and the Araguaya; the same number to
St. Paulo and Rio de Janeiro,--the first by the rivers St. Lourenço,
Piquiry, Sucuriu, and Tiete,--the second always by land, traversing
the districts of Bororonia and Cayaponia, crossing the Paranna between
the confluence of the Parannahiba and the cataract of Urubupunga. The
latter, it is credibly affirmed, would be near three hundred miles
shorter than the route actually frequented by Villaboa.

At Cuiaba, the orange tree is exceedingly abundant, and fructifies with
excellence the whole year. The water-melon, melon, and pine-apple,
are here very good. The principal productions are mandioca, Indian
com, feijao, some cotton, and the sugar cane, the juice of which is
principally distilled into spirit.

Thirty-five miles to the east of Cuiaba is the small arraial and parish
of St. Anna, situated on a plain, upon the serra St. Jeronimo. Every
way that it is approached the ascent is steep and of considerable
length. Its inhabitants rear cattle, cultivate mandioca, Indian corn,
legumes, the sugar cane, and some cotton, which is occasionally injured
by the cold, here sensibly experienced in the nights of July. The
soil has been found well adapted to the growth of wheat, but want of
industry precludes its cultivation.

Fifty miles to the south-west of Cuiaba is the small arraial of
St. Pedro d’el Rey, formerly Poconna, situated upon the verge of a
vast lake, with a hermitage, one league distant from the extensive
swamp of Pirannema, which becomes dry in the hot season, and affords
pasturage for cattle. The houses are of taipa, or _adobe_, (a
species of large brick dried in the sun,) and are white-washed. The
soil in its environs is green. The people who inhabit it, and form a
_julgado_, or village, are miners, are supplied with water from
_cacimbas_, or pits, for want of fountains, cultivate the common
necessaries of life, and breed cattle. They also make salt, by the
filtering of water through a portion of earth put into _bangues_,
which are made of hides, and subsequently dried by a strong heat.

Villa Maria, situated upon the eastern bank of the Paraguay,
twenty-five miles from the confluence of the Jauru, has a church of St.
Luiz; and is abundantly supplied with meat and fish. The situation of
this town upon the noble Paraguay, and other circumstances, promise it
a future augmentation and splendour, which will perhaps not be equalled
by any other internal town of South America. Its inhabitants, at
present consisting principally of Indians of various nations, cultivate
Indian corn, mandioca, legumes, rice, cotton, and breed cattle. There
is already one engenho, or sugar-work. The lights universally used are
made of the oil of _mamona_, and of the _piquira_, a species
of fish exceedingly numerous, and caught with great facility. The fish
called _paraputanga_ and _pacu_, are esteemed the best of the
Paraguay and of its first confluents.

In front of this town is situated the royal fazenda of Cahyssara, where
numerous droves of cattle and horses are bred, and where a great many
tigers have been destroyed.

The hermitages of Nossa Senhora of Livramento, upon the road of
Matto-Grosso, of Nossa Senhora of Prazeres, near the heads of the
Cuiaba, of St. Antonio, below the capital, near the same river, and
others, are the places of worship of the people who inhabit those
districts. Near to the port of the capital, on the eastern bank of the
Cuiaba, is a hermitage of St. Gonçalo d’Amarante.

Near the left margin of the Jatuba, an arm of the St. Lourenço, upon
the Goyaz road, is the aldeia of Boavista, so called from its fine
situation upon a height.

There still exist various hordes of Indians, (all said to be of the
Bororo nation,) dispersed within the limits of this comarca and
the preceding one. One is designated _Coroados_, the other
_Barbados_, (bearded,) so called from feigning mustachios or
beards with a certain dye.

Of the Indian nations here found by the conquerors, the only one worthy
of remembrance was the _Paricis_, who were well formed, affable,
and much pleased with the Christians. From their alliances with the
whites and Africans are descended a great part of the _Mamalucos_
and _Curibocas_, who constitute the gross of the population. They
are usually of good morals, and much respected.

                       _District of_ BORORONIA.

This comarca, which borrows its name from the Bororo Indians, who yet
have dominion over the principal part of it, is bounded on the north by
the district of Tapiraquia, on the west by that of Cuiaba, on the south
by Camapuania, and on the east by the province of Goyaz, from which it
is divided by the river Araguaya. It is upwards of four hundred miles
in length from north to south, and of proportionate width, although
very irregular.

The _Bororos_, the _Guatos_, and the _Baccahiris_ are its actual
possessors. The Bororos are the most numerous, although greatly
diminished in comparison with what they were at the commencement of
the conquest; they are divided into various tribes, under different
appellations. The Guatos, who possess the southern part, and are
friendly to the Portuguese, are extraordinary swimmers, fish with
the arrow, and have a great number of canoes, in which they advance
to the Portuguese establishments. The bow, arrow, and a large lance
are their arms; a wide _cinta_, or girdle, manufactured from the
fibres of the _tucum_ palm, is the common vesture of both sexes. The
skin of the ounce generally constitutes their bed, and they are a
people exceedingly indolent. Honey and game form a main part of their
subsistence. The Baccahiris, who occupy the lands in the vicinity of
the river Das Mortes, wage a continued warfare against all kinds of
quadrupeds and birds, their principal aliment. Up to the present time
this horde has never acted with hostility towards the Christians. They
are said to be of a white complexion and docile, from which they are
supposed to be a tribe of Paricis.

RIVERS AND LAKES.--The river St. Lourenço, which originates in
the latitude of about 15°, is already considerable when it traverses
the road of Goyaz; afterwards, it gathers by the left the Parannahiba,
which brings with it the Sucuri, the sources of which are also a
great distance to the north of the said road. A little below this
confluence, where it becomes large, there is a fall, which is the
last, and from hence it continues to the south-west, through a flat
country, augmenting greatly until its incorporation by two mouths with
the Paraguay, which is not superior to it. The eastern embouchure is
distinguished by the name of Rio Chaynez.

Forty miles above the mouth of the Cuiaba the St. Lourenço is joined
by the Piquiri, which is larger, has its heads near the boundary of
Cayaponia, not far from those of the Sucuriu, and receives on the
right the Piaughuhi, which originates in the same parts; on the left,
the Itaquira, which has its source in the proximity of that of the
Jauri-Guassu, a branch of the Tocoary, already mentioned.

A few years only have elapsed since an explorer navigated up the
Piquiri seven days, and did not encounter a cataract. Ancient
certanistas have asserted that the navigation from Porto Feliz to
Cuiaba may be accomplished by the Sucuriu and Piquiri. It is, however,
certain that the voyage from the mouth of the Tiete to the Cuiaba is
more than one-third shorter than by that of Camapuan.

The Rio das Mortes, (River of the Dead,) which took this name in
consequence of many people of the first bandeira dying upon its margins
from fevers, has its numerous heads to the south of the Cuiaba road.
It runs to the north-east and discharges its considerable volume into
the western arm of the Araguaya, where it forms the island of St. Anna.
It affords extensive navigation into the interior of the province.
The Roncador and the great and small Sangradores are the most remote
origins of this river. The first is the most western, and flows a
short distance from an arm of the aforesaid Sucuriu. Between the two
Sangradores there is a spacious lake, called Logoa Grande.

The Rio do Peixe, (River of Fish,) formed by the Raizama and Tacoaral,
which also cross the Cuiaba road, there insignificant, flows
northwards, and ultimately enters the Rio das Mortes.

Twenty-five miles from the Araguaya, near a small stream and the said
road, is situated the aldeia of Insua, with a register.

There existed upon the left margin of the Rio das Mortes, an aldeia,
named Amaro Leite after its founder, which disappeared when the road
was carried in a more direct line further to the south.

                        _District of_ JURUENNA.

This comarca is bounded on the north by Mundrucania, on the west by
the rivers Guapore and Madeira, on the south by the comarca of Matto
Grosso, and on the east by the river which affords its name, comprising
nearly four hundred miles from north to south, and much more from east
to west. Between the Pederneiras and Araras falls, in the latitude of
9° 45′, where the river Madeira curves to the west, there is a point
on its eastern margin, in front of the mouth of the river Abuna, from
which it takes the name, and is the most western land of the Brazil.

This comarca is very little known by the Portuguese, and is in the
power of various barbarous nations. The _Pammas_, who possess
a considerable portion upon the Madeira, are of a white complexion.
The _Tamares_ are masters of the adjacencies of the river Juyna,
the first notable branch of those which enlarge the Juruenna by the
western bank. The _Paccahas_ live to the north of the latter. The
_Sarummas_ farther to the north, along the margins of the said
Juruenna. And, lower down, the _Uhaihas_.

The Juruenna, which is said to take the name of a nation, has its
origin a little to the north of the Jauru. Its course is directed
to the north, and it incorporates by two mouths with the Arinos,
between the parallel of 9° and 10°. Its large volume of water, more
considerable than the river which receives it, shows that it is joined
by numerous other streams in its course. Hitherto, it has not been
navigated by Christians; those who have examined it at the mouths
state, that its waters are particularly clear, and that various islands
are situated in that portion of its bed within view. It is discharged
between two _serrotes_, or hills, of trifling elevation. The
island separating its two mouths is of medium size and moderate
altitude.

The Jamari, and the Giparanna, are the largest rivers flowing from this
comarca into the Madeira. The first rises on the northern skirts of the
serra Paricis, in the territory of the Guaritere Indians, where it is
called the Candeas, waters the lands of the Camarares, who afford their
name to one of its principal arms, and discharges fifty miles below the
fall of St. Antonio. It is said to have a cataract two days’ voyage
above its mouth, and to flow through auriferous lands.

The Giparanna, also called Machado, has its source to the east of the
Jamari, also in the skirt of a branch of the same serra, and soon
begins to be enlarged by small streams, that irrigate the territories
of savage tribes, and falls into the Madeira, nearly thirty miles below
the preceding. In its vicinity there is sarsaparilla, and the cocoa
tree, from which chocolate is made. Eight miles below the mouth of
the Jamari is an outlet of the lake Tucunare, little removed from the
margin of the Madeira. The river Soteiro and the Pacanova descend from
the southern side of the said serra Paricis, and fall into the Guapore,
the Soteiro forty miles below the Ubahi, and the Pacanova seventy miles
further.

Along the banks of the Madeira and the Itenez, the only parts of this
comarca that are well known, abundance of all kinds of game are met
with. Amongst other notable trees that are seen in the large woods here
adjacent to those rivers, is a species of palm, called _ubussu_,
the flower of which supplies an elastic fibrous peel, so interwoven,
that it appears like the production of the loom, and serves as a cap
to the Indian. The _curagiru_ affords a fine scarlet dye. The
cedar is common and very thick, but, like a great many other trees of
excellent timber, of no use, from the almost total want of population
capable of appreciating their value.

In this comarca is situated the fort of Principe da Beira, erected in
the year 1776, upon the right margin of the Guapore, one league below
the mouth of the Tunama, in 12° 20′ south latitude, and one mile above
the situation where the first governor of the province established the
fort of Conceiçao. The land upon which it stands is never inundated by
the river, which rises here at the period of the floods near thirty
feet, and covers with lakes a great portion of the frontier lands, thus
subjecting the garrison to fevers. Three hundred and fifty miles is
computed from this fort to the capital; and by the river, upwards of
six hundred, so considerable are its windings.

Near this fort there is a populous aldeia of Christian Indians; and at
a short distance higher up another, called Leonil, similarly inhabited.
The whole cultivate a diversity of the necessaries of life. They also
hunt and fish.

Five miles below the confluence of the Guapore with the Mamore, upon
the margin of the river Madeira, near the fall of Ribeiram, is the new
parish of St. Joze. The inhabitants are composed of various nations,
with some whites, and are abundantly supplied with fish, game, and the
necessaries of life peculiar to the country.

                         _District of_ ARINOS.

This comarca, which receives its name from the river that waters it
and divides it into two unequal portions, is confined on the north by
Tapajonia, on the west by Juruenna, on the south by Cuiaba, and on
the east by Tappiraquia. Its length is equal to that of the preceding
district, and its width, from east to west, is nearly three hundred
miles. A portion of the most southern part of it is commonly called
Varges, or Vargeria, where, many years ago, a colony of adventurers
settled, but soon afterwards abandoned it, in consequence of the
annoyance they experienced from the Indians, and the want of success
attending their partial operations in mining.

It is a district very little known, although ascertained to be
auriferous. Those who have navigated by the Arinos and Tapajos,
state, that it is washed by numerous rivers, almost the whole of which
contribute their waters to the enlargement of the two preceding. Its
aspect is varied by mountains, and, as far as the eye of the explorer
has extended, contains luxuriant and noble woods.

Amongst the nations under whose dominion it hitherto has remained,
the _Baccuris_ are well known, who possess the first territory
irrigated by the Arinos; also the _Manbares_, who are wanderers
in the land traversed by the river Taburuhina, the first remarkable
confluent of the Juruenna on the eastern bank. The _Appiacas_
occupy the centre of the comarca, and have an aldeia with high houses
upon the right border of the river Arinos. They are a ferocious people,
live by hunting and fishing, and with axes of stone they prepare the
timber for the construction of their houses and their canoes. Northward
of the last dwell the _Cabahibas_, who speak the same idiom. It
is to be hoped that these tribes, when they begin to experience the
advantage of iron instruments and clothing, which they can derive alone
from the navigators of this river, will become more civilized, and
contribute to the cultivation of those neglected districts.

The river Arinos, which took the name of a nation at present unknown,
rises near the origins of the Paraguay, and falls into the sublime
Amazon under the name of the Tapajos. In 1805, Joam Vieges accomplished
on this river almost the same voyage as its first discoverer, Captain
Joam de Souza e Azevedo; and in 1812, Antonio Thomé de Franca also
descended by it, and in the following year proceeded up with his fleet
of canoes, laden in the city of Para, being the first individual who
performed this voyage, unquestionably less laborious and much shorter
than that by the river Madeira.

The first considerable river united with the Arinos by the right border
is the Rio Preto, which rises between the Paraguay and the Cuiaba, and,
by the left, the Sumidor, which originates a little to the north of
the Sipotuba. This name is given to it in consequence of disappearing,
(after a course of many leagues,) beneath a rock, from whence it issues
at no great distance below. A canoe confided to the current at the
upper side soon appears at the other. Captain Joam de Souza descended
by the Sumidor, and others by the Rio Preto embarking upon it at a
situation about ten miles distant from the arraial of Diamantino.

It appears singular that none of these navigators descended by the
Arinos from its upper part, which, when it receives the Rio Petro, is
larger than that river. All the canoes with which those rivers have
been navigated were constructed of the trunks of trees produced upon
their margins, demonstrating sufficiently the substantial nature of the
soil, and its adaptation to all the purposes of agriculture.

In twenty-eight hours of navigation, (performed in the course of four
days,) from the bar of Rio Preto to that of the Sumidor, Viegas met
with nineteen rivers, yet nameless, and almost the whole entered the
Arinos by the right. The largest is a few leagues above the mouth of
the Sumidor, which latter is little inferior to the Arinos.

After an extensive course, the Arinos loses the name, upon
incorporating with the Juruenna, the united waters forming the Tapajos,
properly Tapayo, from a nation of this name, who inhabited its margins
further to the northward. The first considerable river united with
it by the right is the Azevedo, so denominated after its discoverer.
At a great distance lower down is the embouchure of another river
on the right, thirty fathoms in width. A little further two morros
approximate, and contract its bed, and an elevated island divides it
into two channels, through which its waters flow with equal rapidity.

From hence about three hours’ voyage is a cascade of considerable
altitude, the murmuring noise and evaporation arising from which
announce another of the wonders of nature long before it becomes
visible.

Beyond this interesting object is discovered the mouth of another
river, apparently at least equal to the Tapajos, which is here very
wide; but is however almost immediately reduced by two lateral morros
to a little more than one hundred fathoms of width, and after a short
space again presents a more than ordinary expansion, and receives also
by the right margin another river of thirty fathoms in width. It is
about three hours’ navigation from the mouth of one river to the other.

Upon the margin of the Rio Preto, at the place where the canoes
commence their voyage, a povoaçoe is now establishing for the
accommodation of the navigators of the Tapajos.

                      _District of_ TAPPIRAQUIA.

This comarca derives its name from one of its tribes of Indians,
and is limited on the north by Xingutania, on the west by the river
Xingu, which separates it from the preceding district, on the south by
Bororonia, and on the east by the river Araguaya, which divides it from
Nova Beira. It comprises the same length as the Arinos from north to