Amongst other serras in the northern part is that of Caldas, four leagues square, and flat upon the summit, where there are some lakes and deer. The principal povoaçoes are Meia Ponte, Santa Luzia, Santa Cruz, St. Domingos, and Desemboque. Meia Ponte is the largest, most flourishing, and commercial povoaçao in the province, with the exception of the capital, from which it is ninety miles distant to the east, and is situated near the Almas, which there is only an inconsiderable stream. It has a church of Nossa Senhora of Rozario, four hermidas, three dedicated to Our Lady, with the titles of Carmo, Lapa, and Rozario, of the blacks, another of the Lord of Bom Fim, and an Hospicio d’Esmoleres (an alms-house for the entertainment of the travelling brotherhood) of Terra Santa. It was founded in the year 1731, is the head of the julgado, well supplied with meat and fish, and has a royal professor of Latin. Its inhabitants, and those of the environs, cultivate Indian corn, wheat, mandioca, tobacco, cotton, sugar, some coffee, and breed cattle; likewise many hogs. They manufacture certain descriptions of cloth, both of wool and cotton; and hence this place is considered the cradle and centre of the agriculture and industry of the province. The caravans from the capital and from Cuiaba, proceeding to the metropolis, to St. Paulo, or Bahia, pass this way. About eighteen miles to the east-north-east is the cordillera called Montes Pyreneos, (the Pyrenees.) From its sides flow torrents to the four cardinal points. Nearly fifty miles to the east of Meia Ponte, in the vicinity of some fine hills, denominated Montes Claros, there is a hermida of St. Luzia, which ornamented the decayed arraial of St. Antonio. St. Luzia, a middling and well supplied arraial, which derives its name from the patroness of the church, is seven miles from the road of Paracatu, and almost at an equal distance from the rivers Pont’ Alta and St. Bartholomew, being eighteen miles, with little difference, from each, in a pleasant and wholesome situation, abounding with water. It is the head of the julgado, has a hermitage of Our Lady of Rozario, produces good cheese and marmalade, and is seventy miles east-south-east of Meia Ponte. In its environs cattle are exceedingly abundant, constituting the wealth of its inhabitants.