Sorocaba is situated where the river of its name traverses the royal road of Curytiba to the capital, from which it is distant sixty miles to the west. It is a flourishing and considerable town, ornamented with a church of the Lady of Ponte, a recolhimento of women, an hospicio of Bentos, and a hermitage of St. Antonio. Its actual population is composed of seventeen hundred and seventy-seven families, of which two-thirds are whites; they breed cattle and horses, and cultivate cotton, sugar, and Indian corn, with the most common necessaries of the country, but their principal profits arise from trafficking in cattle, which come from the southern districts. In its environs there are calcareous stone and good flint stone. The royal fabric of Hipannema, distant about seven miles, and established near a small stream of the same name, for the reception of the produce of rich mines of iron in the serra Guarassoiava, will tend to render this town still more considerable. Many years ago a mine of silver was discovered in the district of Guarassoiava, which was abandoned, in consequence of its poverty and difficult extraction. Itapitininga, yet an inconsiderable town, and well situated in a vast and delightful plain near the royal road, is two miles from the right bank of the river from which it has the name. It is embellished with a church of the Lady of Merces, is well provided with water, and is about forty miles to the south of Sorocaba. The people who inhabit it cultivate wheat, legumes, and abundance of Indian corn. The peach and grape are plentiful and of good flavour, and, as in most other cultivated districts of this province, the breed of cattle is numerous. Itapeva, situated near the royal road, or _estrada real_, as it is denominated, in the vicinity of the Verde, is at present inconsiderable; it has a church, dedicated to St. Anna. Appiahi, a town of the same class as the preceding, is at a great distance from the road, near the source of the river from which it derives its name, and in the vicinity of a morro, from whence, at its origin, much gold was extracted. It has one church.