Ultimately, sixty-eight Europeans, the remains of so many people who had in the course of thirty years repaired to this capitania to establish themselves, attacked the Indians with desperate bravery, and gained a complete victory. This fortunate circumstance, aided by the religious instruction with which the Jesuits enlightened and made friends of a considerable portion of those savages, who served to reinforce the small number of whites, enabled the donatory to restore the capitania to the state in which he had left it. The padre, Affonso Braz, who founded the college of the town of Victoria, in 1551, was the first missionary who arrived in this province. The Indians did not supply the want of Europeans, who were prevented from coming here by hearing of the calamities of their countrymen. Reverses of fortune reduced Coutinho to a state which precluded all possibility of deriving any advantage from the capitania; and one of his descendants, being equally unfortunate, sold it, for forty thousand crusades, to Francisco Gil d’Araujo, who established himself in it, animated with various projects, but which he soon abandoned in despair. One of his heirs, after using every endeavour, relinquished it under similar circumstances, and sold it to the crown in the reign of John V. for the sum which it cost. This province cannot be said to have experienced any considerable amelioration since the period of its reversion to the crown, nor does the dominion of the Indians reach to a much less extensive tract of territory, which may be attributed to the present scanty population, and the want of energy on the part of the government; it may however be observed, that the reduction of the Indians is rendered more difficult by the numerous serras and extensive woods which cover this district, demonstrating at the same time the fertility of the soil and its susceptibility of numerous branches of agriculture. The river Doce, which bounds it on the north, would render it still more valuable from the communication which might be opened by water from the mining districts to the ocean; and there is little doubt but that part of this district, in the power of the Indians, through which it runs is auriferous; at least it is fair to draw such an inference from the pieces of gold which are in the possession of the Indians who come in contact with the Portuguese parties of soldiers stationed upon its banks. An ouvidor assured me that the captain-mors, who commanded advanced stations upon this river, had seen pieces of gold in the possession of the Indians which they did not appear to value, but willingly exchanged them, at favourable opportunities, for knives or other iron instruments.