SOUTH AMERICA, 



ing numerous rivers^ especially towards the heads of 

 the Tocantine; finely watered, the streams abounding in 

 fish, and the earth covered with a variety of valuable 

 woods. The cotton, sugar, and other products of this 

 vast district, instead of being carried over by land 

 across immense chains of mountains, to St. Salvador 

 and Rio Janeiro, will pass down the river to the gulph 

 of Para, as soon as this district of country becomes 

 sufficiently peopled, and some great city, like New- 

 Orleans, rises on its shores. 



Matto Grosso, as has been said, embraces all the 

 upper branches of the great rivers of Brazil, and is the 

 most interior province. Its chief wealth consists in its 

 valuable mines; its distance, at present, being too great 

 for the transportation of heavy articles by land. It 

 however possesses, naturally, the greatest facilities 

 for carrying its produce to market by means of the Pa- 

 raguay, or branches of the Amazon. From this pro- 

 vince, however, as well as from Goyaz, cattle are 

 sometimes driven to the capital. The merchant 

 at Cuyaba, sometimes carries his ingots to Bahia, 

 by the way of Goyazes, or to the metropolis by the 

 same road, or by that of Camapyan; it is ascertained 

 that a trade may be also carried on with the inhabi- 

 tants of Gran Para, by means of the river Tapajos. 

 A number of other communications may be opened; 

 two to the last named port, one by the Chingu, the 

 other by the Rio des Mortes and Araguaya. Two 

 1 others may be opened to St. Paul and the metropolis; 

 the first by the rivers St. Lorenzo, Piquire, Sucurui^ 

 and Tiete;* the second by land, across the Bororo- 



* It is worthy of remark, that nearly all the rivers of Brazil, 

 are much obstructed by falls and cataracts. The Tiete has a great 



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