In 1730, the Brigadier Antonio de Almeida sent various persons, in two canoes of war, to procure a quantity of the sugar cane, which had been observed two years previously, by some certanistas, growing upon the borders of the river St. Lourenço. This party returned, at the expiration of two months, with a considerable supply of the cane, of which a plantation was formed, and it prospered so abundantly, that in the following year there were numerous planters. The juice of the cane was generally distilled into spirit, and the demand for it was so great, that a flagon of it sold at first for ten oitavas of gold. From the use of this spirit, the pallid aspect of the people gave way to a better complexion; and the diminution of fevers, as well as the mortality amongst slaves, became rapidly manifest. In this same year, an armament of thirty canoes of war and fifty transports, with six hundred men, two pieces, and a great number of muskets, were despatched in pursuit of an enemy’s squadron, which had advanced to the mouth of the Cuiaba, where it made some fishermen prisoners. This armada having proceeded to the mouth of the Embotatiu, a division of the Indians was descried, which, with loud yellings, suddenly disappeared. After a pursuit of several days’ voyage, which carried it beyond the strait where the waters of the Paraguay are compressed between two morros, (large rocks,) the armada one morning unexpectedly encountered an Indian fleet. The Indians, giving the signal of attack by loud and discordant war-hoops, came furiously to the onset; but the thunder of the musketry and pieces, which were discharged upon them at the same instant, as quickly produced a retrograde movement, and they were pursued in their precipitate flight by the Portuguese, as far as the aldeia of Tavatim, from whence the latter returned, after having destroyed a great many canoes found there. In the year 1732, all the canoes accomplished their destination with safety; but in the following year, a fleet, consisting of fifty canoes, was destroyed, and on the arrival of the few persons who escaped at Cuiaba, a squadron of thirty canoes of war, and seventy of transport, was equipped, and confided to the command of Lieutenant-General Manuel Rodrigues de Carvalho.