206 



PROVINCE OF MATTO GROSSO, 



navigable very near to its source in the serra Amambahy. Eighty miles in a 

 direct line from its embouchure is the passage of the Guaycurus, where the river 

 is shallow. Twenty miles lower it receives on the left the small river Bogas ; 

 and thirty-five miles further, on the same side, the Escopil, which is little 

 inferior, and flows from the same serra. 



The name of this fine confluence is Forquilha. It is an advantageous point 

 for the establishment of a colony. From hence to the Paranna, the distance is 

 about thirty-five miles, with only two falls. Ten miles above this point, the 

 first of twenty-one falls is encountered, all of them compressed within the 

 space of ten miles ; from these cataracts upwards, the river has no interruption 

 to a little above the Guaycuru ford, already mentioned. The course is winding, 

 the lateral lands low, and covered with impervious woods. 



The Correntes, which appears to be the same that the Spaniards called Rio 

 Branco, (White River,) is considerable, and enters the Paraguay fifty miles 

 below the Fecho dos Morros, (closing of Rocks.) 



The Ipanne Gua^u, after having watered an uninhabited territory, falls into 

 the Paraguay one hundred miles below the Correntes. 



At no great distance from the Igatimy are the heads of two small rivers 

 called (the northern) Iguaray Assu, and (the southern) Iguaray Mirim, which 

 after uniting, join the Chichuhi, a river that discharges itself into the Paraguay, 

 in the latitude of 24° 12'. Neither the treaty of limits agreed upon in 1751 or 

 1777, mention this river, or any other as the divisionary line ; but from the 

 principal origin of the Tgurey, the ninth article of the latter treaty, says, that 

 the boundary is to continue in " a direct line, by the highest land, to the prin- 

 cipal head of the nearest river which enters the Paraguay ;" and the Chichuhi 

 appears to answer best this adjustment. This river is also called Jejuhy, formed, 

 it is said, by the Grande and Pequena Jejuhy, which after their junction 

 receives on the left the Coruguaty. 



Nearly fifteen miles to the south of the Igatimy, the river Igurey falls into 

 the Paranna, which has formed the limits on that side, between the crowns of 

 Spain and Portugal, since the year 1777. 



Zoology. — There are antas of all colours, wolves, white deer, with all other 

 species of quadrupeds known in the other provinces. The middle of the 

 northern part of this province is called, in the journals or diaries of the cer- 

 tanistas, Vaccaria, (or Cattle Plains,) in consequence of the cattle that were 

 here dispersed when the Paulistas expelled the inhabitants of the city Xerez, 

 and of five neighbouring small aldeias, which formed a small province, of 



