Goyaz

Goyaz, the central province of Brazil, falls within the dry plateau region, rising in the south to an important range of mountains (see BRAZIL), and has an area of 287,430 sq. m. The river Tocantins traverses most of the province from south to north, and receives the Araguay, which forms the western boundary; the southern frontier is marked by the Paranáhyba. The climate in the south is healthy, but in the north malignant fevers are common, and the cattle are subject to goitre. The province had once some fame as a source of gold and diamonds; but these products are exhausted, and its deposits of iron and rock-salt are not worked. Stock-raising is the chief industry, the cattlemen being mostly half-civilised vaqueiros. The population was estimated in 1895 at 230,000, mostly half-castes. There are also several thousand wild Indians.—The capital, Goyaz, on the Vermelho, a tributary of the Araguay, preserves in its cathedral and large government buildings traces of better days. Pop. 8000.