PROVINCE OF MATTO GROSSO. 



221 



southern, better known by the name of Xalupoi. On the southern angle of 

 this confluence is situated the city of Santa Fe, in the latitude of 31° 35'. A 

 little further it receives also by the right bank, the Terceiro, or Carcapal, which 

 exceeds three hundred and fifty miles in its course. 



The Paraguay, which from the parallel of 20" inclines a little to the south- 

 south- west, here changes its direction to the east-south-east for the space of one 

 hundred and forty miles, gathering by both margins various rivers, none of 

 them considerable, to the latitude of 34°, where it is united on the left by the 

 river Uruguay, its last important tributary. 



This river, which the Spaniards generally call Rio da Plata, after it receives 

 the Pilco Mayo, becomes many leagues in width, and contains a great number 

 of islands, which vary greatly in extent, principally of a flat aspect, and deno- 

 minated the Parannas. The left margin, from the last confluence, runs to the 

 east as far as Cape St. Mary, and this part of it, at least, is universally known 

 as the river Plate, the right margin of which takes a south-east direction, from 

 the same longitude, for more than one hundred miles to the point of Carretas, 

 where its embouchure is upwards of fifty miles in width. 



The Paraguay has no more falls after it receives the Sipotuba, and is gene- 

 rally of great depth. 



The river Cuiaba has its origin in the same latitude as the Paraguay. The 

 first current which unites itself with it by the western margin is the Cuiaba 

 Mirim, and by the eastern the Casca ; these are followed by many others of a 

 smaller class, which render it navigable for more than seventy miles above the 

 capital, although with much labour, in consequence of many falls, which do not 

 extend below Villa Real, where it begins to be wide and rapid in its current, 

 flowing almost generally through a champaign country, which is submerged 

 during the periodical inundations. Its waters are excellent, well stored with 

 fish, and in the latitude of 17° 20' it falls into the St. Loiiren^o. 



Whilst the floods continue it is customary to navigate over the plains, where 

 the current is less rapid, traversing prodigious plantations of rice, annually re- 

 produced by nature, without any human assistance, or sustaining any damage 

 from the waters, because it grows as the waters increase, always having more 

 than a yard above water, and affording supplies to the passing canoes, into 

 which the ears are bent, and then shook with a pole. 



The piranna fish, commonly called tezoira, (scissors,) and sometimes lanceta, 

 Oancet,) and the arraya, are equally terrible here ; the first in consequence of 

 its formidable teeth, the other from a sting which it has in the tail. 



