228 



PROVINCE OF MATTO GROSSO. 



Those who have navigated by the Arinos and Tapajos, state, that it is washed 

 by numerous rivers, almost the whole of which contribute their waters to the 

 enlargement of the two preceding. Its aspect is varied by mountains, and, as 

 far as the eye of the explorer has extended, contains luxuriant and noble 

 woods. 



Amongst the nations under whose dominion it hitherto has remained, the 

 Saccuris are well known, who possess the first territory irrigated by the 

 Arinos; also the Manhares, w^io are wanderers in the land traversed by the 

 river Taburuhina, the first remarkable confluent of the Juruenna on the eastern 

 bank. The Appiacas occupy the centre of the comarca, and have an aldeia 

 with high houses upon the 'right border of the river Arinos. They are a fero- 

 cious people, live by hunting and fishing, and with axes of stone they prepare 

 the timber for the construction of their houses and their canoes. Northward of 

 the last dwell the Cabahibas, who speak the same idiom. It is to be hoped 

 that these tribes, when they begin to experience the ad vantage of iron instru- 

 ments and clothing, which they can derive alone from the navigators of this 

 river, will become more civilized, and contribute to the cultivation of those 

 neglected districts. 



The river Arinos, which took the name of a nation at present unknown, 

 rises near the origins of the Paraguay, and falls into the sublime Amazon under 

 the name of the Tapajos. In 1805, Joam Vieges accomplished on this river 

 almost the same voyage as its first discoverer. Captain Joam de Souza e Aze- 

 vedo ; and in 1812, Antonio Thome de Franca also descended by it, and in 

 the following year proceeded up with his fleet of canoes, laden in the city of 

 Para, being the first individual who performed this voyage, unquestionably less 

 laborious and much shorter than that by the river Madeira. 



The first considerable river united with the Arinos by the right border is the 

 Rio Preto, which rises between the Paraguay and the Cuiaba, and, by the 

 left, the Sumidor, which originates a little to the north of the Sipotuba. This 

 name is given to it in consequence of disappearing, (after a course of many 

 leagues,) beneath a rock, from whence it issues at no great distance below. 

 A canoe confided to the current at the upper side soon appears at the other. 

 Captain Joam de Souza descended by the Sumidor, and others by the Rio Preto 

 embarking upon it at a situation about ten miles distant from the arraial of 

 Diamantino. 



It appears singular that none of these navigators descended by the Arinos 

 from its upper part, which, when it receives the Rio Petro, is larger than that 



