TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



67 



of Villa Bella (17 35) augmented the number of the 

 colonists. In the year 1736 a way by land was 

 opened from Goyaz, the mines of which had been 

 discovered twelve years before, and 1500 persons 

 left the gold mines at tliis place in order to enrich 

 themselves more speedily in Matto-grosso ; at a 

 later period the journey from Cujaba to the river 

 of the Amazons, and to Para (in the year 1742, by 

 Manoel de Lima, on the rivers Guapore and Ma- 

 deira, and in the year 1744 by Joao de Souza on 

 the Arinos and Tapajoz), proved the possibility of 

 an immediate connection between Matto-grosso 

 and Para. The way down the rivers from Porto Fehz 

 continued, however, to be much the most frequent- 

 ed. Even Don Antonio Rolim de Moura, the first 

 governor of Matto-grosso, went by this way to 

 the new province (1751). It was only when the po- 

 pulation of Goyaz increased that the way by land 

 was more used, and that on the Tiete gradually 

 abandoned ; so that at present no more than from 

 six to ten boats go annually from Porto Feliz to 

 Cujaba. 



The capitao mor of Porto Feliz had, in former 

 years, made some journeys thither himself, and 

 gave us a most discouraging description of the 

 fatigues and dangers to which travellers are ex- 

 posed. The vessels (canoas) which are employed on 

 this voyage are made, like the barks in the lakes of 

 Upper Bavaria, of a single trunk of the iberova or 

 mmbouva ; they are from fifty to sixty feet long, five 



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