GOYATACAN, an independent linguistic stock of South American Indians, so called from the Goyatacas, one of its impor tant tribes. The Goyatacas (so named from the Brazilian state of Goyaz, in which, however, few of these Indians appear to have lived) occupied a large part of the state of Minas Geraeas and the southern edge of the state of Bahia, in the highlands of eastern Brazil. In early times tribes of this stock probably occupied the Atlantic coast in this region, but at the time of arrival of the Portu guese, the coastal strip was in the hands of Tupian (q.v.) tribes. The bow and throwing-club were their chief weapons.
See Maximilian, Prince of Wied-Neuroeid, Travels in Brazil in the Years 1815, 1816, 1817 (London, 182o) ; K. von den Steinen, Durch Zentral Beasilien (Leipzig, 1886) .