Tietê

The Tietê flows westward across São Paulo toward the Paraná, carrying water away from the Atlantic coast and deep into the interior. Its course crosses a country of forested valleys and rapids, and Indigenous peoples had long inhabited its basin before Portuguese expeditions used the river.

After the discovery of gold at Cuiabá in the early eighteenth century, canoe expeditions known as monções departed from Araritaguaba on the Tietê. They followed the river west to the Paraná and continued through a chain of rivers toward the distant mines. The route continued through the Pardo, Coxim, Taquari and Paraguay before reaching the Cuiabá River. The journey demanded long passages by water and difficult crossings around obstacles, connecting São Paulo with the far interior.