Vacacai

The Vacacaí drains the grasslands of central Rio Grande do Sul and joins the Jacuí, which flows towards the Patos Lagoon. Near its basin, Portuguese surveyors established a camp in 1797 while marking the frontier under the Treaty of San Ildefonso. The camp of Santa Maria became the nucleus of a later settlement. Its position lay among routes linking the southern plains with the river systems to the east.