[ 258 ] [March, 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE MINES AND THE PROVINCE OF MINAS GERAES 

 IN THE EMPIRE OF BRAZIL, INCLUDING A VIEW OF THE MANNER 

 OF MINING METALS AND PRECIOUS STONES : BY A MINE PRO- 

 PRIETOR. 



Discovery of the Province of Minas Geraes. 



Brazil was discovered by the Portuguese in the year 1493, but it 

 was not till the year 1349 they began to colonize it. They founded the 

 first Povoa9ao* to the south of Bahia, in the place where the town of 

 8t. Vicente now stands. Here they constructed some houses of wood 

 felled in the adjacent forests, and sowed the different seeds they had 

 brought with them from Ein'ope. They next began more minutely to 

 observe the country they inhabited, and in the course of this survey soon 

 encountered the natives, with whom they at first found some difficulty 

 in communicating ; but by degrees the savages became familiar, and 

 finally submitted to the labours of cultivation imposed on them by the 

 Portuguese. 



In the course of time, these agricultural settlers obtained an order 

 from the court of Lisbon to employ the natives as their slaves. The 

 consequence was, that the latter, finding themselves harder worked, and 

 uncompensated for their labour, began to desert their taskmasters, 

 whom they now naturally looked upon in the light of enemies. 



Almost every day a Iresh cargo of Portuguese adventurers of both 

 sexes was disembarked at St. Vicente, and they all eagerly availed 

 themselves of the royal permission to keep slaves. This originated a 

 war between the colonists and the savages, who, inferior in arms, though 

 superior in numbers, retired to the eastern part of the province, where 

 they expected to be secure, by the asperity of the mountains of Manti- 

 gueiro, which served them as a barrier. But the insatiable avidity and 

 ambition of their enemies pursued them thither so closely, that they 

 vi'ere obliged to withdraw as far off as possible to escape their restless 

 persecutors, mIio were unable to remain any length of time in the forests, 

 being obliged to carry all their provisions on their backs. However, the 

 sons of these Portuguese, early accustomed to hunting, began to pene- 

 trate farther through the forests ; and living on game and on the escu- 

 lent roots which abound in the country, they passed indifferently two 

 or three months in the woods. The plundering of the Indians becoming 

 every day more difficult for them, they resolved to explore all the 

 recesses of so extensive a region, and, bj"^ chance, came to the place 

 which has ever since preserved the name they gave it of Hatatnx, derived 

 from the great many lumps of gold, in the shape of potatoes, they found 

 there at the surface of the earth. Highly gratified at this discovery, 

 each took as much gold as he could carry, and they proceeded as quickly 

 as possible with their precious burthen out of the forest, directing their 



* I have been obliged to preserve the original names of divisions of territory, as they 

 wU be frequently met wiih in the course of tlie work. The foUov.-ing is an explanation 

 of them : a ])ro\ ince is divided iiito several Comarca<<, or sub-provinces ; each Comarca 

 is composed of several Povoacoens, or parishes. A parish has generally a villa or two 

 in its limits, and it is in those villas that the judges or magistrates reside. Besides 

 those villas the Povoaqad includes several Jiilgados, or small towns, and a great many 

 villages, called Arraih. 



