TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



87 



Besides these reasons we were chiefly induced by 

 the wish speedily to become acquainted with the 

 original inhabitants of Brazil, a wish which we 

 could not easily gratify on a journey to the former 

 countries : for the Indians, who possessed this dis- 

 trict before the occupation of S.Vicente and S. Paulo 

 by the Portuguese, have all disappeared, except a 

 few whom we met with in the mission of Aldea da 

 Escada, or who live in the parishes of Pinheiros, 

 S. Miguel, Itapearica, and Carapicuyba, (in S, 

 Paulo,) of S. Joao de Peruibe (in Itanhaem), or 

 lastly, of Tocoaquecetuba (belonging to Mogy das 

 Cruces); and the savage nations who dwell between 

 the Tiete and the more northern Rio Grande, as 

 well as the Games in the plains of Guarapuava on 

 the Rio Curitiba, are in very small numbers, and 

 engaged in continual excursions through the forests, 

 where they very unwillingly meet the more power- 

 ful Cajapos coming from Goyaz. It will not appear 

 surprising that the number of the aborigines is so 

 inconsiderable, when it is remembered what dreadful 

 ravages the diseases introduced by the Europeans 

 have always made among them. Even when 

 Anchieta and Nobrega exerted themselves with 

 such paternal care, and so much judgment, to pro- 

 mote civilisation among the Indians on the Pirati- 

 ninga, an epidemical small-pox suddenly carried 

 off two-thirds of the population. * Soon after this, 



* Southey's History of Brazil, vol. i. p. 294. 

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