Of the twenty states composing the Republic of the United States of Brazil, Matto Grosso is second to the largest in its territorial extension. It is situated south of the States Amazon and Pará, having on the East the States of Goyaz, S. Paulo and Paraná, on the South the Republic of Paraguay, and on the West Bolivia. It embraces on the map that portion of the earth’s surface which extends, approximately from the fourth degree South of the Equator to the Tropic of Capricorn. Its immense area is about 50,175 square leagues, or according to Mr. Candido Mendes it has an area of 1,379,651 square meters. Its population is actually about 350,000, not including a considerable number of uncivilized Indians, whose improvement is carried steadily forward by the united efforts of the State and Federal Governments. Without mentioning its capital, the principal cities of the State are Corumbá, S. Luiz de Caceres, Miranda, Nioae, Focoué, Santa Aunade Paranabyba, Diamantina, Rosario, Livramento, and the new and recently incorporated municipality, S. Antonio de Rio Madeira. Its capital, Cuyabá, is situated on the left bank of the river of the same name, 288 meters above sea level, and owes its origin to the Paulistas, who formed colonies in the western part of Brazil during the first part of the Eighteenth Century. In 1719 Paschoal Moreira Cabral ascending the River Coxipé Mirim, founded on the left bank of this stream a village which was called Forquilha, but to-day is the city of Cuyabá, where in those early days a rich gold mine was discovered. In those days, according to Elysée Reclus, the vast region of Matto Grosso, was hardly anything except a narrow, ordinary zone, nothing more than an immense solitude of undefined limits and unknown, but given over to Indians and wild beasts. It was joined to the rest of Brazil by the lonely paths of hunters, and by channels of the rivers that had their origin there. Really in those days communication with the remainder of Brazil was as difficult as with Matto Grosso. It is within the memory of many and known to those who read the history of Brazil, that it was impossible for the troops who were enrolled and equipped in the coast provinces, to go directly to the aid of their compatriots in Matto Grosso, when the Brazilian people had to respond to the declaration of war by Paraguay. With the thousands of obstructions in their path, a portion of the army composed of 3,000 men, which left Rio de Janeiro in April, 1865, and which could only be organized in Uberaba, in the upper basin of Paraná, was reduced to about 700, when it arrived at that safe and impregnable place.