When the slavers and treasure hunters from São Paulo began their long journeys inland in search of gold and indigenous vassals in the 17th and 18th centuries, they eventually made it to the southern edge of what we know today as the Amazon rainforest. In this vast portion of land in the geographical center of South America, they found untouched wetlands, savanna, and jungle. In what is now known as the Vale do Guaporé, they struck gold amid the dense greenery of the forest.
The expansive region of Mato Grosso (literally meaning ‘thick vegetation’) soon became a Portuguese captaincy and...
