250 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



Grosso. Towards the year 1680 a certain Manoel de Campos had already 

 visited the Bororo Indians on the southern slope of the plateaux, and he was 

 followed by other traders. The discovery of gold suddenly increased the number 

 of these pioneers, and every year convoys, sometimes comprising hundreds of 

 bandeirantes, set out for this " Promised Land," where, according to report, gold 

 dust was collected by the bushel. But no proper tracks were laid down, and 

 the adventurers, exposed to the attacks of the Indians, with no supplies except 

 the products of the chase and the fisheries, had often to abandon the sick, the 

 feeble, and the wounded to the wild beasts or to the wilder natives. At times 

 whole convoys disappeared, not a soul escaping, and no permanent settlements 

 could be established in these boundless solitudes, where distances were measured, 

 not by miles or ordinary leagues, but by the legoa grande, -averaging from four 

 to five miles. 



To reach the mines of Cuyaba, where is now the capital of the State, the gold 

 hunters first followed the Bio Tieté and the Parana to the Pardo confluence, then 

 ascended the Pardo to its Anhambuhy affluent, thus reaching the Serra de Santa 

 Barbara and the Campos de Yaccaria. Thence their goal was reached by the 

 Kios Miranda, Paraguay, and Cuyaba, the journey occupying many hmg 

 months. 



The Mineiros, rivals of the Paulistas, in their turn reached Matte Grosso by 

 the more direct route across Goyaz and by the valley of the Rio das Mortes. 

 But the mines, as badly worked as elsewhere in Brazil, gradually ceased to attract 

 adventurers, and Matto Grosso had almost been again forgotten, when the era 

 of scientific exploration was ushered in by D'Orbigny, Castolnau, D'Alincourt, 

 and Leverger. Then, after the Paraguay war, various commissions were succes- 

 sively appointed to survey this outlying dependency of Brazil. 



Up to that time Matto Grosso had remained within the commercial sphere of 

 the port of Santos in the land of its first discoverers; but the traffic on this long 

 and costly route was of trifling value. So difficult were the communications, that 

 on the declaration of war, it was found impossible for troops to be despatched from 

 the seaport directly to the aid of the people of Matto Grosso threatened by 

 Paraguay. The expeditionary foi'ce of 3,000 men, which left Rio de Janeiro in 

 April, 1865, did not reach Uberaba in the Upper Parana basin till the following 

 July. Thence it set out across the solitudes, losing one-third of its strength before 

 reaching Miranda, near the Paraguayan .frontier, nearly two years after starting 

 from Rio. Failing to receive the supplies it had expected at the Rio Apa, the 

 little band had to fall back in the face of the enemy, and not more than 700 

 eventually succeeded in reaching a place of safety within the Brazilian lines. 

 All the rest had perished of fever, cholera, wounds, and hardships of all kinds. 



But the ultimate triumph of Brazil over Paraguay opened all the main routes 

 of access to ]\[atto Grosso, and a regular line of steamers was established to ply 

 between Rio de Janeiro and Cuyaba, by the La Plata, Paraguay and Cuyaba 

 rivers. This route, however, was also too long and too costly for trade purposes, 

 the best boats taking not less than thirty-one days for the voyage. 



