These salt-pits are situated along the margins of broad marshy bottoms, in which are found fish of the same kind with those in the Paraguay. The Salina de Almeida is not far distant from the bank of Jauru, and the great quantity of saline liquid found in it continues three leagues farther to the south, where a junction is formed with another from the west, called Pitas; westward of which are high and dry plains, where are found numerous large circles, formed by a species of palm called Carandas. These plains terminate nine leagues west of the Salina de Almeida, in a large pool or marsh, called Paopique, which runs to the south.
The confluence of the Jauru with the Paraguay is a point of much importance: it guards and covers the great road between Villa Bella, Cuiaba, and their intermediate establishments, and in the same manner commands the navigation of both the rivers, and defends the entrance into the interior of the latter capitania. The Paraguay from this place has a free navigation upwards, almost to its sources, which are scarcely seventy leagues distant, with no other impediment than a large fall. These sources are said to contain diamonds.
The mark placed at the mouth of the Jauru is a pyramid of beautiful marble, brought to this distant point from Lisbon. It bears inscriptions commemorative of the treaty between the courts of Spain and Portugal, by which the respective territories, of which it stands as the boundary, were defined.
The lofty chain of mountains, which extends from the sources of the Paraguay near its eastern bank, border the river opposite the mouth of the Jauru, and are terminated seven leagues below it by the Morro Escalvado in lat. 16° 43′. Eastward of this mount or point, all is marsh, and nine leagues below it there flows into the east side of the Paraguay a deep stream or river, called Rio Novo, discovered in 1786, which may hereafter afford a navigation to near St. Pedro d’El Rey, when the aquatic plants that obstruct its channel are removed. The most distant sources of this river are the rivulets of Sta. Anna, Bento Gomes, and others which cross the great road of Cuiaba to the west of Cocaes. In lat. 17° 33′ the west banks of the Paraguay become mountainous at the north point of the Serra da Insua, which, three leagues to the south, makes a deep break to form the mouth of the lake Gaiba. This lake extends westward, and there is a broad canal of four leagues in extent, which comes from the north, communicating from the above lake to that of Uberava, somewhat larger than the Gaiba, situated exactly contiguous to the Serra da Insua, on its north side. Six leagues and a half below the mouth of the Gaiba, and opposite this mountainous bank of the Paraguay, is the mouth of the St. Lourenço, formerly called Porrudos. Twenty-six leagues above this the river Cuiaba enters its western bank in lat. 17° 20′, and long. 57° 5′: these two rivers are of great extent; that of Lourenço has its sources in lat. 15°, forty leagues east of the town of Cuiaba, receiving (besides the branches crossed by the road from Goyaz) other great streams on its east side, such as the Paraiba or Piquiri, which receives the Jaquari and the Itiquira, all of moderate size, and navigable. The Itiquira has been navigated to its heads, from whence the canoes were dragged over-land to the Sucuriu, which falls into the Parana four leagues below the mouth of the river Tiete on the opposite side. The rivers Itiquira and Sucuriu were found to have fewer and smaller falls than the Taquari, and the land-passage is much shorter and more convenient than that of the Camapuão, so that this navigation is preferable to that by the two last-mentioned rivers: it is attended by only two obstacles,—many Indians, and a want of provisions.
The navigation to the town of Cuiaba by the river of that name, from its above-mentioned confluence, is short and easy: in the first ten leagues, after passing the two small islands of Ariacuni and Tarumus, occurs a large plantation of bananas, formed on an embankment on the east side of the river. Three leagues above this place the Guacho-uassu enters the Cuiaba by its east bank, and on the same side, seven leagues farther, the Guacho-mirim. From this point the river winds in a north-east direction, eleven leagues to the island of Pirahim, and from thence makes a large bend to the east, receiving numerous streams, and passes the town of Cuiaba, which is situated a mile to the eastward of it. This town is ninety-six leagues to the east of Villa Bella, and the same distance from the confluence of its river with the Paraguay. It is large, and, together with its dependencies, may at present contain 30,000 souls. It is well provided with meat, fish, fruits, and all sorts of vegetables, at a much cheaper rate than at the sea-ports. Their country is well adapted for cultivation, and has rich mines, but in some places little water to work them in dry weather. They were discovered in 1718, and have been estimated to produce annually above twenty arrobas of gold of extremely fine quality. These mines have produced an enormous quantity of gold compared with the thinness of the population, and the want of means, machinery, &c. for working them.
Twenty leagues south-west of the town of Cuiaba is the settlement of St. Pedro d’El Rey, the largest of all the adjacent settlements, and contains full 2,000 inhabitants. It is situated near the western side of the rivulet Bento Gomes, which, at the distance of a league and a half south of the settlement, forms a large bay, called Rio de Janeiro. The river Cuiaba has its sources forty leagues above the town, and its banks are cultivated through the greater part of its extent, including fourteen leagues below the town, down the stream. Four leagues below the principal mouth of the river Porrudos, the Paraguay is bordered by the mountains that separate it from Gaiba on its western bank, and in this place they obtain the appellation of Serra das Pedras de Amolar, from being composed of a stone of which whet-stones are made. This is the only spot which is not inundated by the floods of the river, and is therefore much visited by the canoes that navigate it. These Serras terminate two leagues to the south in those of the Dourados, immediately below which there is a channel on the west side of the Paraguay, which, piercing between two high detached mounts, called Cheines, leads to the lake Mendiuri, six leagues long, and the largest on the Paraguay.
From the Dourados the Paraguay runs southward to the Serras of Albuquerque, where it touches directly on the northern point, on which is situated a town of that name. These Serras form a compact square of ten leagues, and contain much calcareous stone; the land is considered the best on either side the Paraguay, from the river downwards, and only equalled by that on the western margins of the lakes Mandiuri and Gaiba. From Albuquerque the Paraguay turns to the east, skirting its Serras, which terminate at the end of six leagues in the Serra do Rabicho, opposite which, on the north bank of the river, is situated the lower southern mouth of the Paraguay-mirim. This is an arm of the Paraguay, which, terminating here, forms an island fourteen leagues in length from north to south: it is the usual channel for canoes in times of inundation. From the mouth of the Paraguay-mirim the river takes a southerly direction to the mouth of the Taquari, navigated annually by flotillas of canoes and other craft, which come from S. Paulo to Cuiaba, and even as far as the Register of Jauru, when their destination happens to be Villa Bella.
As this navigation is an object of great importance, from its connecting two distinct districts, the following compendious description of the route pursued in it may not prove uninteresting; it is abstracted from the diary of a man of science, who performed the journey a few years ago, in the month of October, when the Paraguay begins to retire to its own channel. The description may commence at the Taquari, as the voyage from thence to Cuiaba and the Jauru has already been detailed. The largest of the many mouths of the Taquari in the Paraguay is in lat. 19° 15′, and long. 54°. In the first ten leagues of navigation, the channel of the river is lost, as it crosses some large plains, covered with water to the depth of several feet. This is contiguous to Taquari, a place where the river is much confined.