or mountainous. On the eastern side, the ascent is very steep; the road from Santos to St. Paul, ascends a mountain six thousand feet high, and is perhaps the most considerable work of this description in Brazil. From this point, however, in following the mountains to the southward, they gradually retire from the coast, leaving a broken country between them and the sea, through which the Paraiba of the south takes its course. Between these mountains and the coast, an extraordinary number of cataracts and cascades are formed, by the waters which are precipitated down the eastern side. The navigation of the rivers on the western side, is also impeded by a great number of falls and rapids: but the intervals between the portages are navigated by large perogues, such as are used on our western waters, made out of the single trunks of trees, of which there is an abundance on their banks, of a prodigious size. The river Tiete, which rises near the city of St. Paul, is generally used as the channel of communication to the mines of Matto GrosSo. After descending to the Parana, they continue down its stream to the mouth of the Pardo, which enters from the west, and up this river to the foot of a chain of mountains, which they cross to the river Taquari, which flows into the river Paraguay, above the Spanish possessions. The inhabitants of St. Paul took advantage of this route at an early period, for the purpose of committing depredations on the numerous Indian tribes settled on that river.

The climate is probably the most pleasant in Brazil. Though nearer the equator than the provinces of La Plata, the disadvantage is more than counterbalanced by its height; the commencement of the slope is six

thousand feet above the sea, and two thousand feet above the inferior limit for the cultivation of European grain. The thermometer descends as low as forty, though it rarely rises above eighty. In the evenings, it is sometimes so cold as to render necessary a change of clothes, and to make use of brazeros.* In the vicinity of the capital, the tropical fruits are not in as great perfection as they are on the sea coast; but in lieu of these, all the European fruits, apples, grapes, peaches, are uncommonly fine. This delightful country may be considered as still in a state of wilderness, and inhabited by a number of savage tribes towards the Parana, who are continually at war with the Portuguese, and retain the same ferocity as when the country was first settled. They must finally disappear, before the march of civilization.

The principal port is Santos, said to be safe and commodious, but being merely the entrepot to St. Paul, as Laguira is to Caraccas, the town is inconsiderable. The inhabitants of St. Paul are spoken of as the most hospitable and polished in Brazil, which may seem somewhat extraordinary, considering their origin and their character half a century ago. The history of those people occupies one of the most conspicuous pages in American annals; their character has been variously represented, and generally little to their advantage. Charlevoix, and all the Jesuits, represent them in the most unfavorable light; and they have been spoken of by most writers as barbarians, possessing enough of civilization to render them formidable, as

* A kind of pan filled with embers, used by Spaniards and Portuguese, instead of fire-places and chimnies.

well as mischievous. They are also represented as forming a kind of military republic, like that of early Rome, composed of out-casts and adventurers from all countries, under a nominal subjection to the Portuguese, in virtue of which they paid a small tribute of gold and diamonds. A Portuguese writer has undertaken to do away these errors, and vindicate them from these imputations. Mawe, who is among the few Englishmen who have visited their capital, speaks of them in the highest terms, and seems indignant at the calumnies which have been circulated respecting them. He places them above all the people he saw in Brazil, for their highly polished manners, and manly frankness of character, traits by which they are every where distinguished; but he does not reflect that a century, or even half a century, might produce a very material change in their character.* The accounts given of these people, as well as of their enemies the Jesuits, by Southey, is certainly the most fair and satisfactory.

The celebrated republic of St. Paul, as it is usually denominated, had its rise about the year 1531, from a very inconsiderable beginning. A mariner of the name of Ramalho, having been shipwrecked on this part of the coast, was received among a small Indian tribe called the Piratininga, after the name of their chief. Here he was found by De Sousa some years afterwards, and contrary to the established policy of permitting no settlement excepting immediately on the

*The author of the Corographia comes nearer the truth. As Paulistas de hoje passam por uma boa gente; mas seus avœngos nao o foram certamente. The Paulistas of the present day pass for a very good people, which was certainly not the case with repect to their ancestors.

sea coast, he allowed this man to remain, on account of his having intermarried and having a family. The advantages of this establishment were such, that permission was soon after given to others to settle here, and as the adventurers intermarried with the natives. their numbers increased rapidly. Romalho also allied himself with one of the chief of the Goaynazes by marrying his daughter; for it seems he had conformed to the Indian custom of polygamy. A mixed race was formed, possessing a compound of civilized and uncivilized manners and customs. The Jesuits soon after established themselves with a number of Indians they had reclaimed, and exerted a salutary influence in softening and harmonizing the growing colony. In 1581, the seat of government was removed from St. Vincent on the coast to St. Pauls; but its subjection to Portugal was little more than nominal; cut of from all communication, and almost inaccessible, but little notice was taken of it. The mixture produced an improved race, "the European spirit of enterprise," says Southey, "developed itself in constitutions adapted to the country." But it is much more likely, that the free and popular government which they enjoyed, produced the same fruits here as in every other country; a restless spirit of enterprise and emulation among each other; the mother of great qualities, but without a well ordered government, the good was not likely to outweigh the bad. They soon quarrelled with the Jesuits, on account of the Indians whom they had reduced to slavery. The Jesuits declaimed against the practice; but as there were now many wealthy families, among the Paulistas, the greater part of whose fortunes consisted in their Indians, it was not heard with

patience. The Paulistas first engaged in war against the enemies of their allies, and afterwards on their own account, on finding it advantageous. They estabblished a regular trade with the other provinces whom they supplied with Indian slaves. They by this time acquired the name of Mamelukes, from the peculiar military discipline they adopted, bearing some resemblance to the Mamelukes of Egypt.

The revolution in Portugal, when Philip II. of Spain placed himself on its throne, cast the Paulistas in a state of independence, as they were the only settlement of Brazil, which did not acknowledge the new dynasty. From the year 1580, until the middle of the following century, they may be regarded as a republic, and it was during this period they displayed that active and enterprising character for which they were so much celebrated. They discovered and worked the gold mines of Jaragua near St. Pauls; they established colonies in the interior at the numerous mines which they discovered; and their exploring parties were sometimes absent for years, engaged in wandering over this vast country. While a Spanish king occupied the throne of Portugal, they attacked the Spanish settlements on the Paraguay, alleging that the Spaniards were encroaching on their territory, and destroyed the Spanish towns of Villa Rica, Ciudad Real, and Villa de Xerez, besides a number of smaller settlements. They attacked the Jesuit missions, which by the most extraordinary perseverance, after repeated trials during a hundred years, had been at last established. As they had fixed themselves east of the Parana, the Paulistas laid hold of this as a pretext. They carried away upwards of two thou