re correct estimate. Counting half-castes, second, third and
fourth crosses, and Indians who have entirely adopted Portuguese ways,
language and clothes, they may perhaps amount to several thousand--but
that is all.

The Jesuits endeavoured to save the Indians from the too-enterprising
Bandeirantes, with the result that the missions were destroyed also and
the missionaries driven away or killed.

Brazil occupies to-day in the world's knowledge practically the same
position that forbidden Tibet occupied some fifteen or twenty years ago.
It was easier to travel all over Brazil centuries ago than now.

The Bandeirantes became extraordinarily daring. In 1641 another
slave-hunting Paulista expedition started out to sack the missions of
Paraguay and make great hauls of converted Indians. The adventurers
invaded even the impenetrable territory of the Chaco. But, history tells
us, the Jesuits, who were well prepared for war, were not only able to
trap the 400 Paulista Bandeirantes in an ambuscade and to set free their
prisoners, but killed a great number of them, 120 of the adventurous
Bandeirantes thus supplying a handsome dinner for the cannibal Chaco
Indians. Infuriated at the reverse, the survivors of the expedition
destroyed all the missions and Indian villages upon their passage, not
one escaping. They came to grief, however, in the end. Few only returned
home to tell the tale. That lesson practically ended the slave-hunting
expeditions on a large scale of the Bandeirantes, but not the
expeditions of parties in search of gold and diamonds, many of which were
extraordinarily successful. Minor expeditions were undertaken in which
Paulista adventurers were employed under contract in various parts of
Brazil for such purposes as to fight the Indians or to break up the
so-called Republic of the Palmeiras--an unpleasant congregation of
negroes and Indians.

The astonishing success which the dauntless Paulistas had obtained
everywhere made them thirst for gold and diamonds, which they knew
existed in the interior. They set out in great numbers--men, women, and
children--in search of wealth and fresh adventure. Several of the towns
in distant parts of the interior of Brazil owe their origin to this great
band of adventurers, especially in the section of Brazil now called Minas
Geraes. The adventurers were eventually outnumbered and overpowered by
swarms of Brazilians from other parts of the country, and by Portuguese
who had q