PROVINCE OF MATTO GROSSO. 



199 



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 establish- 

 ment 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 sub- 

 terraneous 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 aiid other calamities ; and 

 death stalked in universal triumph. 



The earthquake, which, in October two years afterwards, 1 746, 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, de- 

 scended 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. 



Tm'o 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 disco- 

 vered 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 Pouzo- 

 alegre, 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 



