PROVINCE OF MATTO GROSSO. 



207 



which the said city was the head. The remainder of these animals, almost 

 extinct from the devastations of the wild beast and the hunter, were augmented 

 in 1797, by those which the Guaycurus carried off, when they plundered the 

 Spanish plains of the town of Coruguaty ; and also by such as escaped from 

 the Coruguatynos, who pursued (to the number of upwards of fifteen hundred) 

 the barbarian pillagers. 



Various savage nations have dominion in this country ; the Guaycuru is the 

 most distinguished. At the present day they are divided into three bodies ; 

 one of which, without any alliance with other nations, live along the western 

 margin of the Paraguay, subdivided into various hordes : the most southern are 

 called Linguas by the neighbouring Spaniards ; and when they infest the aldeias 

 of the province of St. Cruz de la Sierra, are there known by the name Xiriqua- 

 ; others have the appellation of Camhaz. Those who possess the eastern 

 vicinity of the same river, constitute the other two bodies ; the southern are 

 allied with the Spaniards, the northern with the Portuguese. The Fecho dos 

 Morros, or an approximating situation, is the separating line. No difference is 

 remarked of origin, idiom, and usages, amongst these three portions of Indians, 

 otherwise declared enemies to each other. The allies of the Portuguese, 

 extending from the Mondego southward, are divided into seven hordes, or 

 large aldeias, generally friends to each other, and without the least difference 

 in any respect. Chagoteo, Pacachodeo, Adioeo, Atiadeo, Oleo, Laudeo, and 

 Cadioeo, are the names by which they are distinguished. In none of these 

 aldeias, which would be better designated as large towns, are there any ac- 

 knowledged superior to the rest. Each horde is composed of three classes of 

 persons ; the first, are a species of noblesse, entitled captains, and whose wives 

 and daughters have the distinction of donas; the second, are denominated 

 soldiers, or men whose military obedience descends from father to son ; and 

 the third, captives ov slaves, comprising the prisoners of war and their descend- 

 ants. There are but a few of the first in each aldeia, the second are very 

 numerous, and the third exceed many times the number of the others taken 

 conjointly. The captains and soldiers have an intermixed origin, and their 

 title of gentility is joage. The slaves are of various nations, acquired in war, 

 never undertaken with any other object, than for the augmentation of prisoners, 

 in the number of which consists the degree of nobility, or distinction of the 

 captains. These irruptions are exterminatory, taking away the lives of the 

 elder people and the liberty of the younger. Such youthful captives soon for- 

 get their idiom and customs, and adopt those of the Guaycurus, and never 



