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short land-passage of a league to the Sarare, the navigator may 

 reach Villa Bella in less than eight days, without any other obstacle 

 than that of the fall formed by the Sarare, three leagues below its 

 source, where it precipitates itself from the Parexis mountains on 

 the western slope : this difficulty may be surmounted in detail, or by 

 at once passing the four leagues, for the Sarare from its fall becomes 

 immediately navigable to the capital of Matto Grosso. A league 

 north of the source of the Sarare is the first head of the river Galera, 

 the second confluent of the Guapore below Villa Bella; and a league 

 east of the same head rises the Ema, a western branch of the Se- 

 curiu, affording equal facility of communication. The Galera has 

 three other sources north of the first in the plains of the Parexis, all 

 ample streams ; the last and most northerly, called Sahara, is distant 

 little more than a league from the source of the river Juina, a large 

 western branch of the Juruena. Thus, by the Juina and the Securiu, 

 with a crossing of five or six leagues, so as to pass the falls of the 

 Galera on the western scarp of the mountain, the Juruena may be 

 connected with the Guapore. 



^ Lastly, the Juruena may be navigated to its upper fall, which is 

 within two leagues of its own source. The fall is formed by two 

 small leaps, the river being, even in this part, thirty yards broad and 

 of great depth ; from hence downwards it flows with great rapidity, 

 yet its falls are not greater, and are more passable, than those of the 

 Arinos. With the same circumstances, and by similar short land- 

 passages, a communication is practicable from the Juruena with the 

 rivers Guapore and Jauru, which are to the eastward of it, although 

 these two rivers precipitate themselves from the south side of the 

 Parexis mountains, where they rise, and immediately form numerous 

 and extensive falls. 



From the geographical position of the Tapajos, it is evident that 

 this river facilitates navigation and commerce from the maritime city 

 of Para to the mines of Matto Grosso and Cuiaba, by means of its 

 large branches, the Juruena and Arinos ; if the short passages over- 



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