Fifty miles to the south-west of Cuiaba is the small arraial of St. Pedro d’el Rey, formerly Poconna, situated upon the verge of a vast lake, with a hermitage, one league distant from the extensive swamp of Pirannema, which becomes dry in the hot season, and affords pasturage for cattle. The houses are of taipa, or _adobe_, (a species of large brick dried in the sun,) and are white-washed. The soil in its environs is green. The people who inhabit it, and form a _julgado_, or village, are miners, are supplied with water from _cacimbas_, or pits, for want of fountains, cultivate the common necessaries of life, and breed cattle. They also make salt, by the filtering of water through a portion of earth put into _bangues_, which are made of hides, and subsequently dried by a strong heat. Villa Maria, situated upon the eastern bank of the Paraguay, twenty-five miles from the confluence of the Jauru, has a church of St. Luiz; and is abundantly supplied with meat and fish. The situation of this town upon the noble Paraguay, and other circumstances, promise it a future augmentation and splendour, which will perhaps not be equalled by any other internal town of South America. Its inhabitants, at present consisting principally of Indians of various nations, cultivate Indian corn, mandioca, legumes, rice, cotton, and breed cattle. There is already one engenho, or sugar-work. The lights universally used are made of the oil of _mamona_, and of the _piquira_, a species of fish exceedingly numerous, and caught with great facility. The fish called _paraputanga_ and _pacu_, are esteemed the best of the Paraguay and of its first confluents. In front of this town is situated the royal fazenda of Cahyssara, where numerous droves of cattle and horses are bred, and where a great many tigers have been destroyed. The hermitages of Nossa Senhora of Livramento, upon the road of Matto-Grosso, of Nossa Senhora of Prazeres, near the heads of the Cuiaba, of St. Antonio, below the capital, near the same river, and others, are the places of worship of the people who inhabit those districts. Near to the port of the capital, on the eastern bank of the Cuiaba, is a hermitage of St. Gonçalo d’Amarante. Near the left margin of the Jatuba, an arm of the St. Lourenço, upon the Goyaz road, is the aldeia of Boavista, so called from its fine situation upon a height. There still exist various hordes of Indians, (all said to be of the Bororo nation,) dispersed within the limits of this comarca and the preceding one. One is designated _Coroados_, the other _Barbados_, (bearded,) so called from feigning mustachios or beards with a certain dye.