( m ) 



Mortes, and other western branches which enter the Rio Grande 

 below. These branches, no doubt, contain unexplored mines ; for 

 there is no physical reason why gold should be found in the rivers 

 that enter the Araguaya on the eastern side, (where, besides Villa 

 Boa, are situated several villages belonging to the capitania of Goiaz,) 

 and not likewise in the branches on the opposite side. It is positive- 

 ly known that the river Das Mortes is auriferous, and hence it is fair 

 to conclude that the smaller streams which flow into it are much 

 more so, for the nearer the source the greater is the quantity of gold 

 found. The mines of one of its western branches were abandoned, 

 not from the absence or scarcity of the precious metal, but because, 

 being remote from the road, and in the midst of a swamp peopled 

 by savages, the few settlers could not get conveniently supplied with 

 arms, implements, and other articles. 



In some of these mines gold above twenty-three carats has been 

 found, but the greater part is only of 17, and of a green colour, being 

 combined with a large proportion of silver. 



The River Chingu^ 



the clearest, and one of the largest and most copious, branches of the 

 Amazon, which it enters on the south side, after a course of three 

 hundred leagues, in lat. 1°42', and long. 53°, seventy leagues west 

 of the city of Pard in a direct line, but one hundred of navigation, is 

 confined in a great part of its course to the capitania of Matto G rosso. 



Its remote sources supply, not only the lands in which rise also 

 the branches and rivers forming to the east and north the upper part 

 of the river Cuiaba, but also that large. space north of the river Das 

 Mortes, intersected by the great road from Goiaz, extending as far 

 as the river Porrudos. There is a tradition among the guides of the 

 Sutaos * of Pir^ and the Indians established on the banks of the 



* Sutao. This is a place understood to be uninhabitable for Europeans, being the re-, 

 sidence of uncivilized Indians, and covered with almost impenetrable woods. 



