The Xingu being the only one of the larger class of rivers in the Brazil that has not been navigated to its heads, no authentic account is furnished of the aspect of the eastern part of this district from a certain situation upwards.
The navigators of the Tapagos have observed numerous small hills and some mountains at a considerable distance from the Amazons, in whose vicinity the lands are flat, and no considerable river flows from this district into the first, which is itself wide, and full of islands of various sizes, overspread with woods.
The river Zingu, forming the eastern limit of this district, is very wide, and is only found, after eight days’ voyage, to have any falls, demonstrating the gradual elevation of the country towards the interior. The first considerable confluent joining it on the Western side is the Guiriri, which rises in the centre of the district of Arinos: a good distance below this confluence it describes two large and opposite semicircular windings, flowing amongst small eminences.
No large river runs from this district to the Amazons, excepting the Curua, which has an extensive course, and passes the considerable lake of the same name, where it is augmented by the waters of several streams that are there discharged. Its mouth is thirty miles below the Tapajos, and canoes advance up as far as the said lake, whose margins abound in different sorts of birds, that subsist on shell fish. The Uruara, after a short course, is discharged by two mouths below the Curua.
The Guajara, also of short extent, traverses a very flat territory, where it is divided into various channels, emptying itself by six mouths, generally small, below the Uruara.
The Uraucu, otherwise Hyuraucu, having a communication with the Guajara, enters the Amazons above the Zingu, with which it also communicates in three places.
It is not ascertained yet whether there are mines of any ores in the southern part of this district.
Various aboriginal nations, it is much to be regretted, hitherto occupy this fine district, even to the immediate vicinity of the Portuguese establishments, which do not extend beyond the margins of the rivers that limit it, and whose adjacent territories are thickly covered with majestic woods of trees, whose stems are of immense span and height, the soil being of admirable substance and fertility, and well suited to every branch of agriculture. Nature here produces spontaneously the clove, cupahyba, (or capivi,) pechurim, and cocoa trees, with sarsaparilla, ipecacuanha, jalap, and other medicinal drugs. Amongst other nations who possessed the adjacent lands of the Tapajos, and were dispersed by the Mundrucus, were the Hyauains, of whom nothing is known at the present day.
Souzel is a middling town, situated in the skirts of a mount, bordering the Zingu, which is the best supplier of water to its inhabitants, mostly Indians, who are occupied in hunting, fishing, and the cultivation of different articles. It is one hundred and ten miles distant from the Amazons, has an earthenware manufactory, and may become more considerable with the increase of whites, and when the navigation of the river is extended to the districts of Sappiraquia and Arinos.
Santarem, a large and flourishing town, situated within the embouchure of the river Tapajos, is the port or calling-place of canoes that navigate towards Matto-Grosso and the high Amazons, and also the depository of a great quantity of cocoa, whose trees have been carefully cultivated in the surrounding-country, the soil being well adapted for them.