PROVINCE OF MATTO GROSSO. 



1^3 



one league distant from the extensive swamp of Pirannema, which becomes dry 

 in the hot season, and affords pasturage for cattle. The houses are of taipa, or 

 adohe, (a species of large brick dried in the sun,) and are white-washed. The 

 soil in its environs is green. The people who inhabit it, and form d^julgado, or 

 village, are miners, are supplied with water from cacimbas, or pits, for want of 

 fountains, cultivate the common necessaries of life, and breed cattle. They 

 also make salt, by the filtering of water through a portion of earth put into 

 hangues, which are made of hides, and subsequently dried by a strong heat. 



Villa Maria, situated upon the eastern bank of the Paraguay, twenty-five 

 miles from the confluence of the Jauru, has a church of St. Luiz ; and is abun- 

 dantly supplied with meat and fish. The situation of this town upon the noble 

 Paraguay, and other circumstances, promise it a future augmentation and splen- 

 dour, which will perhaps not be equalled by any other internal town of South 

 America. Its inhabitants, at present consisting principally of Indians of various 

 nations, cultivate Indian corn, raandioca, legumes, rice, cotton, and breed 

 cattle. There is already one engenho, or sugar-work. The lights universally 

 used are made of the oil of mamona, and of the piquira, a species of fish exceed- 

 ingly numerous, and caught with great facility. The fish called paraputanga 

 and jo«cw, are esteemed the best of the Paraguay and of its first confluents. 



In front of this town is situated the royal fazenda of Cahyssara, where nume- 

 rous droves of cattle and horses are bred, and where a great many tigers have 

 been destroyed. 



The hermitages of Nossa Senhora of Livramento, upon the road of Matto- 

 Grosso, of Nossa Senhora of Prazeres, near the heads of the Cuiaba, of St. 

 Antonio, below the capital, near the same river, and others, are the places of 

 worship of the people who inhabit those districts. Near to the port of the 

 capital, on the eastern bank of the Cuiaba, is a hermitage of St. Gon<jalo 

 d'Amarante. 



Near the left margin of the Jatuba, an arm of the St. Louren^o, upon the 

 Goyaz road, is the aldeia of Boavista, so called from its fine situation upon a 

 height. 



There still exist various hordes of Indians, (all said to be of the Bororo 

 nation,) dispersed within the limits of this comarca and the preceding one. One 

 is designated Coroados, the other Barbados, (bearded,) so called from feigning 

 mustachios or beards with a certain dye. 



Of the Indian nations here found by the conquerors, the only one worthy of 

 remembrance was the Paricis, who were well formed, affable, and much pleased 



