A LARGE FOREST 
Lagoas ” to which reference has previously been made in 
this chapter. “ The Rio Grande (Rio Parana, Para¬ 
guay), one of the most celebrated in Brazil,” proceeds the 
Carmelite Father, “ is born already swollen by plentiful 
waters (sic) in the interior of terra firma! Near its 
sources it forms a lagoon twenty leagues in circumference.” 
All this is, of course, geographically wrong. The Rio S. 
Francisco has its birth far to the southeast, in Minas 
Geraes, some hundreds of kilometres distant from that 
lagoon and several thousand from the real source of the 
Amazon. 
Also the friar must have mistaken, evidently from 
information received, the sources of the Arinos for the 
sources of the Amazon, which are really located some 15° 
of longitude west. It is nevertheless curious that so far 
back as 1698 the existence of the lagoon should be known 
at all — perhaps they had heard of it from the adven¬ 
turous Paulista Bandeirantes — and that they should 
have placed it nearly in its proper latitude and longitude 
on their maps. Apparently Father John Joseph was 
not aware of the existence of the Great Araguaya and 
Xingu Rivers. Having compiled his map from infor¬ 
mation, he confused those rivers with the S. Francisco 
River. 
Upon descending from the Serra into the valley we 
soon came to a large forest with a luxuriant edge of 
peroba (a word originating, I believe, from the words ipe 
and roba in the Tupi language), which was known in four 
different varieties: viz. the peroba amarella (yellow), 
par da (brown), revessa (knotty), and rosa (rose- 
coloured), technically named: Aspidosperma polyneuron 
M. Arg., Aspidosperma leucomelum Waring., Aspido¬ 
sperma spAspidosperma dasycarpon A. 
Then there were also plentiful garabu and other tall 
trees. Before getting to the edge of the forest I noticed 
among the rocks some beautiful specimens of the apita 
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