A history of the Brazil

by James Henderson

Rivers.—The most celebrated is the Paraguay, which rises in a plain upon the serra of Pary, otherwise Lage, (a portion of the extensive Paricis,) at the situation of the Sete Lagoas, so called from an assemblage of seven lakes, generally small, a short space intervening between them, and communicating by narrow outlets. A little below the last, this river flows through a swampy country in a northerly direction for a short space, when it winds round by the west and takes a southern course. The first stream which it receives is the Diamantino, (Diamond River,) which comes from a distant source, and brings with it the Corrego Rico, (Rich Channel,) otherwise Rio do Oiro, (Gold River.) The first large river which joins it is the Jauru. Along its eastern margin, and in nearly the whole of this great extent, is a range of elevated lands, which continue twenty-five miles beyond this confluence, and terminate at the point called Escalvada, where both margins begin to be flat, and interspersed with lakes. Seventy miles below the Escalvada point, the western margin begins to be bordered by a serra of the like number of miles in length, but narrow, and broken in various parts to admit of the ingress of the waters of three lakes lying behind it, the outlets of which, thus formed, appear like large rivers, when the Paraguay at its overflowings makes them a part of its expanded channel. The northern portion of this serra is called Insua: the southern, Chaynez; and the central, Doirados. The names of the lakes are Oberaba, Gahiba, and Mandiore. The first on the north is ten miles in diameter, and its outlet contiguous to the extremity of the serra Insua, behind which it communicates with the Gahiba lake, which is a little larger and ten miles distant to the south, with its outlet, the same number of miles below the first, dividing the serra of Insua from that of Doirados.

The Mandiore lake is fifteen miles in extent, and has more than one channel to the Paraguay, the northernmost of which separates the serra of Doirados from that of Chaynez, and is twenty miles south of Gahiba, in front of which the river St. Lourenço discharges its abundant waters, in the latitude of 18° 45´.

The serra of Chaynez, inhabited at times by the Guanan Indians, is followed by that of Albuquerque, which is a square mass of an elevated range from thirty-five to forty miles. On its southern side is situated the prezidio from which its name is derived. In front of this serra is the principal embouchure of the Tocoary in 19° 15´.

Eighteen miles further to the south are the mouths of the Mondego. The Paraguay flows in these parts divided into two channels, formed by a narrow island seventy miles long; the eastern channel is denominated Paraguay Mirim.

Thirty-five miles to the south of the Mondego are two high mounts, one in front of the other, upon the margins of the Paraguay. Upon the southern skirt of the western mount is situated the before-mentioned fort of Nova Coimbra.

Thirty-five miles below Coimbra, on the same margin, is the mouth of the outlet from Bahia Negra, (Black Bay,) which is twenty miles inland, and comprises eighteen in length from north to south, being the receptacle of the lakes, and of the aqueous effusions of the plains lying to the west and south of the Albuquerque mountains. Sixty miles further the Paraguay receives on the eastern bank the Queyma, which is said to be the Terrery of the first certanistas.

Eight miles lower, in the latitude of 21°, upon the western margin, is the morro which the ancient Paulistas called the Mount of Miguel Joze, upon whose skirt is situated Fort Bourbon. Twenty-five miles by water, to the south of the mount of Miguel Joze, in the latitude 21° 20´, a chain of small mountains prolong themselves with the Paraguay, where its waters are contracted into a narrower space, flowing rapidly in two channels, separated by a rocky island of considerable length. In this situation, denominated the Fecho dos Morros, (the Barricado of Rocks,) and which is the limit between the High and Low Paraguay, terminate the laky and swampy margins of this majestic river, which commence, as has been previously noticed, at Escalvada Point, near three hundred and fifty miles to the north. The width of the river within this space, during the inundations, which begin in April and continue till September, is from seventy to one hundred and fifty miles, and forms an internal sea, which the ancient Vincentistas denominated the Sea or Lake Xarays, from a nation so called, now not existing, or, at least, not known by such an appellation. At the time of these awful floods, a great part of the beds of the rivers of St. Lourenço, Tocoary, Mondego, and others on the eastern side, as well as the aforesaid lakes on the western, and the adjacent woods, become portions of this periodical Caspian, where the elevated lands assume the appearance of islands, inhabited by an accumulation of birds and wild animals.

At the said Fecho, both margins of the Paraguay begin to acquire a solid terra firma, particularly the eastern. By this bank are discharged the small Tipoty, the Correntes, the Rio Branco, (which appears to be the said Correntes,) the Appa, (which is thought to be the Pirahy of the ancient Paulistas,) the Guidava, the Ippanne Guassu, the Ippanne Mirim, and the Chichuhi, where the rugged margin called Huguruguita commences, and is prolonged for the space of thirty-five miles to the mouth of the small Suobogo, where begins the bank or coast of Pataque, of short extent, terminating at the embouchure of the Tabixu, which, as well as the preceding, enters the Paraguay on the left.

In the latitude of 25° 22´ is situated the city of Assumption; and eighteen miles to the south of it, the first arm of the large river Pilco Mayo is discovered, which originates in the cordillera of the Andes, in the district of Potoze, whither it affords navigation. Forty miles lower down is the mouth of the second arm, and fifteen further, the most southern arm. The course of the Pilco Mayo is not much less than seven hundred miles.

On the eastern margin, the Piraju, the Cannabe, and the Tibicoary enter the Paraguay.