TO THE mo GRANDE DE BELMONTE. 



275 



the Capitania of Minas Geraes, but still the place had scarcely a 

 sufficiency of the necessaries of life, and for money we strangers could 

 have obtained nothing, had not our most urgent wants been supplied 

 by the care of some of our acquaintance among the inhabitants ; 

 from time to time however, the Mineiros bring to this coast in their 

 canoes, provisions and other necessaries, such as millet, bacon, salt- 

 meat, gunpowder, cotton, &c. which partly serve for the supply of 

 Villa de Belmonte, and are partly sent on to Porto Seguro and 

 Bahia. 



The forests on the Belmonte are the chief abode of the Botocudo 

 tribe, which we have so often mentioned, and on whose account the 

 river was formerly not to be navigated without danger. Some ad- 

 venturers indeed at an earlier period proceeded up the river, in 

 canoes made of barrigudo wood; but the Captain Mor, Joao da 

 Sylva Santos, was the first, who in 1804 ventured to sail up it 

 to Villa do Fanado in Minas Novas. He drew up a detailed account 

 of his expedition, in which he was accompanied by Captain Simplicio 

 Jose da Sylveira, the escrivatn, or town-clerk of Belmonte. By 

 order of the Conde dos Arcos, governor of the Capitania of Bahia, 

 the oiividor, Marcelino da Cunha, after having previously treated the 

 savages in a reasonable and prudent manner, concluded a treaty with 

 them three years ago, which put an end to all hostilities on both sides. 

 Only a single chief of those tribes named Jonue, who on account of 

 his restless hostile disposition is called by his countrymen Jonue 

 lakiiam, (the warlike,) has not acquiesced in this agreement: he 

 roves about with his people far up the Belmonte, about the Caxoeira 

 do Inferno, and shoots at the canoes that sail by ; nay he even lives 

 at variance with his countrymen who have made peace with the Por- 

 tuguese. In order to gain the Botocudos, knives, axes and other 

 iron tools, also cloths, caps, handkerchiefs, and other articles were 

 sent to them, and the desired object was thereby attained. Captain 



