224 



PROVINCE OF MATTO GROSSO. 



with the Christians. From their alliances with the whites and Africans are 

 descended a great part of the Mamalucos and Curibocas, who constitute the 

 gross of the population. They are usually of good morals, and much re- 

 spected. 



District of Bororonia. 



This comarca, which borrows its name from the Bororo Indians, who yet 

 have dominion over the principal part of it, is bounded on the north by the 

 district of Tapiraquia, on the west by that of Cuiaba, on the south by Cama- 

 puania, and on the east by the province of Goyaz, from which it is divided by 

 the river Araguaya. It is upwards of four hundred miles in length from north 

 to south, and of proportionate width, although very irregular. 



The JBororos, the Guatos, and the Baccaliiris are its actual possessors. The 

 Bororos are the most numerous, although greatly diminished in comparison 

 with what they were at the commencement of the conquest ; they are divided 

 into various tribes, under different appellations. The Guatos, who possess the 

 southern part, and are friendly to the Portuguese, are extraordinary swimmers, 

 fish with the arrow, and have a great number of canoes, in which they advance 

 to the Portuguese establishments. The bow, arrow, and a large lance are their 

 arms ; a wide cinta, or girdle, manufactured from the fibres of the tucum palm, 

 is the common vesture of both sexes. The skin of the ounce generally con- 

 stitutes their bed, and they are a people exceedingly indolent. Honey and 

 game form a main part of their subsistence. The Baccahiris, who occupy the 

 lands in the vicinity of the river Das Mortes, wage a continued warfare against 

 all kinds of quadrupeds and birds, their principal aliment. Up to the present 

 time this horde has never acted with hostility towards the Christians. They 

 are said to be of a white complexion and docile, from which they are supposed 

 to be a tribe of Paricis. 



Rivers and Lakes. — The river St. Louren^o, which originates in the lati- 

 tude of about 15°, is already considerable when it traverses the road of Goyaz ; 

 afterwards, it gathers by the left the Parannahiba, which brings with it the 

 Sucuri, the sources of which are also a great distance to the north of the said 

 road. A little below this confluence, where it becomes large, there is a fall, 

 which is the last, and from hence it continues to the south-west, through a flat 

 country, augmenting greatly until its incorporation by two mouths with the 

 Paraguay, which is not superior to it. The eastern embouchure is distinguished 

 by the name of Rio Chaynez. 



