In the same year a road was opened to the territory of Goyaz, (so called from the Goya Indians,) from whence upwards of fifteen hundred persons departed, with horses and numerous troops of mules, besides those who descended by the river St. Lourenço, attracted by the announcement of gold which had been found in Matto Grosso, from whence, in fact, eighty arrobas of that metal were despatched the same year to St. Paulo in eight canoes of war, each furnished with sixteen chosen men, and commanded by Lieutenant-General Manuel Rodrigues de Carvalho, who conducted them in security, and put an Indian division to flight which attacked them at the entrance of the Pantanos. With this intelligence almost the whole population of Cuiaba left that town for the newly-discovered mines of Matto Grosso, (Large Woods.) Five hundred oitavas were paid for negroes, and they were cheap, from the gain which they afforded. In 1740 the Indians were again beaten, at the embouchure of the Tacoary, by the fleet from St. Paulo, commanded by Jeronimo Gonsalves, (an Hituan,) who arrived at Matto Grosso with a great number of lances, or spears, that belonged to the Indians who perished in the combat, he having himself lost four canoes laden with merchandise and slaves. After his arrival some domestic Bororo Indians brought intelligence that the Spanish Jesuits had established themselves near the heads of the Paraguay, reducing into aldeias the Guaraparez tribe. It being well known that this step was not taken for want of Indians to convert in the vicinity of their own missions, the Portuguese counselled them to retire peaceably, which advice was disregarded. The inconstancy, however, of the catechumens obliged the catechists to retrace their steps to the aldeias of the province of St. Cruz de la Sierra, before measures were taken for their expulsion. In the year 1742 Manuel de Lima descended, with five Indians, three mulattoes, and a negro, in a canoe, by the Guapore, Madeira, and Amazons, to the city of Para. At the same period that Manuel de Lima descended the Madeira, one Joaquim Ferreira, with other traders, advanced up the Mamore to the mission of Exaltaçao. The same persons, or others with a similar intention, returning the following year, found the mission of St. Rosa newly erected upon the eastern margin of the Guapore, almost in front of the outlet by which they had entered to St. Miguel the preceding year. The jesuitical curate determining to impede their navigation of the river, it was conjectured that, for the better effecting this project, he shortly afterwards removed the mission of St. Miguel also to the same side, and founded that of St. Simao further to the north. It notwithstanding appears that the people of Matto Grosso did not desist from the navigation of this river.[22]