In
this wide-extending table-land, and among the serras amidst it, rise
innumerable streams, which flow into the Amazon on the north and the La
Plata on the south--many of them, as they plunge into the plain, forming
foaming torrents and magnificent cataracts. The vegetation of these
highlands offers a great contrast to the dense forest of the great
valley and the seaboard.

The cerrados, as they are called, or scrub--consisting chiefly of
acacias and leguminosae--reach to the height of ten or twenty feet.
Numerous other shrubs and smaller plants, many of which are medicinal,
cover the ground, and send forth a delicious perfume into the pure air.
The tussock, in thick clumps, is also seen growing in various
directions; indeed, altogether, the Campo is far more completely clothed
than either the Llanos or Pampas.

Among these mountains are the celebrated diamond-mines of Brazil. Some
of the mines are reached by shafts of great depth, sunk into the earth,
whence galleries are run along the veins, somewhat in the mode of
gold-mines. Gold is also obtained, by washing in the streams. The
diamonds are procured in the same manner. The strictest watch is kept
over the slaves employed in searching for diamonds, to prevent them from
secreting the precious stones, and for this purpose numerous overseers
are required.

The operations are simple. The loose stones at the bottom of the stream
are first raked up into baskets, and then carefully washed, under the
inspection of the overseers.

In one district it is calculated that, from 1730 to 1830, diamonds worth
upwards of three millions sterling were collected; and in that of
Abaete, in 1791, a diamond weighing 1382 carats--the largest in the
world--was discovered.

Possibly, however, if the labour which is bestowed on mining were
employed in cultivating the ground, it would be productive of greater
profit to the country.

PART FIVE, CHAPTER ONE.

SOUTHERN REGIONS OF SOUTH AMERICA.

GEOGRAPHY AND NATIVE TRIBES.

The vast territory south of the Brazils is watered by a wide-extending
branch-work of mighty streams, having as their main trunk the Rio de la
Plata at their southern end. To the east is the River Uruguay, running
almost parallel with the Atlantic coast. Close to its mouth the far
more important Parana, rising in the mountains of the Brazils, near the
sources of the Tocantins, falls into the La Plata. While the Tocantins
flows north till it reaches t