DAUNTLESS ADVENTURERS 
towns in distant parts of the interior of Brazil owe their 
origin to this great band of adventurers, especially in the 
section of Brazil now called Minas Geraes. The adven¬ 
turers were eventually out-numbered and overpowered by 
swarms of Brazilians from other parts of the country, 
and by Portuguese who had quickly arrived in order to 
share in the wealth discovered by the Paulistas. They 
finally had to abandon the mines which they had 
conquered at an appalling loss of human life. 
The ardour of the Paulistas was quelled but not 
extinguished. About the year 1718 they started afresh 
to the northwest in the direction of the Cuyaba River 
and of Goyaz, where they had learnt that gold and 
diamonds of great beauty were to be found. So many 
joined in these adventurous expeditions that Sao Paulo 
was left almost depopulated. That is how those immense 
territories of Goyaz and Matto Grosso were discovered 
and annexed to Sao Paulo, but eventually, owing to their 
size, these became split up into capitaneas , then into states. 
The Paulistas were great fighters. In 1789 they were 
able to drive away the Spaniards from Rio Grande do 
Sul and force them to retreat into Uruguay. After many 
years of vicissitudes in war and exploration — after 
phases of prosperity, oppression, and even of almost total 
ruin, owing to maladministration and official greed — 
things began to look up again for Sao Paulo, when the 
port of Santos was thrown open to the trade of the world, 
in 1808. The history of Brazil during the last hundred 
years is too well known to be repeated here. 
During the last few years the State of Sao Paulo has 
attained amazing prosperity, principally from the export 
of coffee — perhaps the most delicious coffee in the world. 
Although nearly all the rivers of the State of Sao Paulo 
are absolutely useless for navigation, owing to dangerous 
rapids, the State is intersected by innumerable streams, 
large and small, of great importance for purposes of 
Vol. I. —2 17 
