uickly arrived in order to share in the wealth discovered by the
Paulistas. They finally had to abandon the mines which they had conquered
at an appalling loss of human life.

The ardour of the Paulistas was quelled but not extinguished. About the
year 1718 they started afresh to the north-west in the direction of the
Cuyaba River and of Goyaz, where they had learnt that gold and diamonds
of great beauty were to be found. So many joined in these adventurous
expeditions that S. Paulo was left almost depopulated. That is how those
immense territories of Goyaz and Matto Grosso were discovered and annexed
to S. Paulo, but eventually, owing to their size, these became split up
into _capitaneas_, then into states.

The Paulistas were great fighters. In 1739 they were able to drive away
the Spaniards from Rio Grande do Sul and forced them to retreat into
Uruguay. After many years of vicissitudes in war and exploration--after
phases of prosperity, oppression, and even of almost total ruin, owing to
maladministration and official greed--things began to look up again for
Sao Paulo when the port of Santos was thrown open to the trade of the
world, in 1808. The history of Brazil during the last hundred years is
too well known to be repeated here.

During the last few years the State of Sao Paulo has attained amazing
prosperity, principally from the export of coffee--perhaps the most
delicious coffee in the world. Although nearly all the rivers of the
State of Sao Paulo are absolutely useless for navigation, owing to
dangerous rapids, the State is intersected by innumerable streams, large
and small--of great importance for purposes of irrigation and for the
generation of electric power. The most important harbour in the State is
Santos. Ubatuba, Sao Sebastiao, Iguape and Carranca are ports of less
consequence. It is principally from Santos that the exportation of coffee
takes place.

[Illustration: The Municipal Theatre, Rio de Janeiro.]

The State extends roughly in a parallelogram from the ocean, south-east,
to the Parana River, north-west; between the Rio Grande, to the north,
and the Rio Paranapanema, to the south, the latter being two tributaries
of the Parana River. The State can be divided into two distinct zones,
one comprising the low-lying lands of the littoral, the second the
tablelands of the interior north-west of the Serra Cadias, Serra do
Paranapiacaba and Serra do Mar--along or near the sea-coasts. The first
zon