PROVINCE OF MATTO G ROSSO. 



195 



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 de- 

 spatched 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 morn- 

 ing 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 after- 

 wards baptized. 



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