Chapter I: Voyage from England to Rio de Janeiro (10)

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.