BRASIL. In the Encyclopedia will be found an account of the discovery of Brasil, with such pain culars relative to its subsequent history, and circum stances, as be collected from the most ap. proved publications on the subject. We shall here add such further information as has been com municated to the public in the works of more recent travellers.
The-name of Brasil, which was at first understood to apply to a small portion of the American coast from the mouth of the Amazons southward, now com prehends the whole Portugueie territories in South America. On the east, this region is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the west. by Peru. Ts the north and south, its natural boundaries seem to be the two great rivers, the Amazons and the Plats; but its actual frontiers have been fixed by treaties, and have either receded from those natural bounda ries, or been enlarged beyond them, according to the political interests and views of the different powers interested in the possessibn of those territories. This vast country, from the mouth of the river Anse zone, almost under the equator, to the 83th degree of south latitude, eictends in length about 2000 miles, and its greatest breadth, from east to west, is nearly the same ; but, towards the south, it is con tracted, by the mutual approach of its eastern and western boundaries, within much narrower limits. The mouths of its navigable rivers, and the wind ings of the shore, give it about 1200 leagues of sea coast.
Viewed from the sea, Brasil appears on its first as pect mountainous, rough, and unequal; but, on anear er approach, no prospect can be more picturesque and agreeable than that which it presents,—its emmences covered with magnificent woods, and its valleys with eternal green. The inteZior of the country, generally speaking, is one vast forest. But in the centre is the vast plain of Campos Pumas, which extends east and west for several hundred miles, and is covered with a light earth, and with heaps of sand, resembling from a distance, by its continual shifting and undula tion, the agitated waves of the ocean. The soil is so loose and sandy, that the convoys of mules which have to pass this way, frequently sink into it, and make their way forward with great difficulty. The
vegetation with which it is covered consists of a stunted species of herbage, with small leaves, round and pointed like a laneet. This immense sandy plain rises up towards the centre into chains of mountains, which are generally considered-the high est in Brasil, and are extended over a space of more than 200 leagues. It is from this mountain ous country that all those rivers proceed, which finally pour their tributary waters into the Ama zons the Paraguay, and the southern Atlantic. Those rivers, and the river Madera, which flows northward into the Amazons, together with their tributary streams, run along the interior frontier of Brasil for a space of nearly 1500 miles,, and form the boundary by which this'country is separated from the Spanish provinces.
The principal mass of mountains is to the north ward of Rio Janeiro, towards the sources of those three great rivers in the interior, the St Francis, the Parana, and the Toccantins. These mountains not only abound in mines of copper and of iron, but they conceal besides rich mines of gold, diamonds, and other precious stones. From this elevated group, different chains are prolonged towards the south, in a direction parallel with the coast, under the name of Cerro des Emeraldas, and Cerro do Frio. Another branch, proceeding from the same centre, follows a similar direction to the south, while a third chain, un der the name of Matto-Grosso, bends to the north west towards the central plain, and forms the divid ing ridge between the waters which flow southward into the Paraguay and the Parana on one side, and those which flow northward into the Toccantins and the Chingu, and finally into. the Amazons, on the other. Between the Parana and the Paraguay, an extensive chain of mountains, running in a direc tion from north to south, intervenes, which, at its termination, diverges into other ranges, running from east to west. Divers other groups of moun tains skirt, for a great distance, the banks of the river Toccantins, while another range, which is one of the most considerable in Brasil, extends towards the northern coasts, and forms a natural di vision between the provinces of Meranham and Per nambuco.