APPENDIX I. 



NOTES ON THE PROVINCE OF MINAS GERAES.* 



" OWING to its central position, the province of Minas Geraes 

 continued for a long time unpeopled by others than natives. 



" In the sixteenth century, Sebastian Tourinho and Antonio 

 Bias Adorno arrived in the province by following up the river- 

 banks. Latter in the same century, Marcos de Azeredo Coutinho 

 reached it, starting from Espirito Santo. 



" It was not, however, till the end of the seventeenth and 

 beginning of the last century that adventurers, principally from 

 Bahia and Sao Paolo, some descending by the Parahyba, and 

 others by the Sao Francisco, explored this immense territory, 

 being first attracted by the ambition of enslaving Indians, and 

 then by the abundant mineral riches which gave its name to the 

 province. 



"At first the territory formed part of Sao Paolo, Rio de 

 Janeiro, or even of Bahia, according to the part in which each 

 of the explorers lived. 



" By the arrangement of the Conselho Ultramarino of Sep- 

 tember 23, 1709, it was united to Sao Paolo, and was with that 

 province raised to the position of a chief state. By another 

 provision of December 2, 1720, it was separated from Sao Paolo, 

 and raised to be an independant chief state. Its first governor 

 was Dom Loureno de Almeida, who took possession August 28, 

 1721. 



* Partly translated from " Apontamentos para a Geographia da Provincia 

 de Minas Geraes." H. Laemmert e Ca., Rio de Janeiro, 1883. 



