4 



INTRODUCTION. 



where a marble pyramid, executed at Lisbon, marks the hmits, at 

 the mouth of the Jauru? 



The province of Minas Geraes had been already visited by Mawe 

 and Eschwege, and was thus, if not entirely, yet in a great degree, 

 known. On my arrival in Brazil, therefore, I thought it best to 

 select the East coast, which was still quite unknown, or at least not 

 described. Several tribes of the aboriginal inhabitants yet live there 

 in their primitive state, undisturbed by the Europeans, who are gra- 

 dually spreading themselves in all directions. 



The lofty and naked ridge of Middle Brazil, in the provinces of 

 Minas Geraes, Goyaz, and Pernambuco, is divided from the East 

 coast by a broad tract of high forests, which extend from Rio Janeiro 

 to the environs of the Bay of All Saints, about 1 1 degrees of latitude, 

 and which are not yet taken possession of by the Portuguese settlers ; 

 for only a few roads have been hitherto opened, with infinite labour, 

 along the rivers that traverse them. In these forests, where the pri- 

 mitive inhabitants, who are pressed upon at every other point, have 

 till now enjoyed a secure and peaceful abode, we may still find those 

 people in their original state. Such a country, therefore, could not 

 tail to be particularly attractive to a traveller, who did not intend to 

 pass many years in this hot climate. 



The tribes of aboriginal inhabitants, who people these forests, are 

 unknown to us in Europe (Portugal, perhaps, excepted), even by 

 name. The Jesuits, particularly Vasconcellos*, divided all the savage 

 tribes inhabiting the coast and forests, into two classes ; namely, such 

 as dwelt on the coasts, and were brought by the Portuguese, espe- 

 cially the Jesuits, something nearer to European civilisation, whom they 

 styled Indianos inansos, or tame Indians; and such as inhabited the 



* Vide his Noticias Curiosas do Brasil. 



