SAO PAULO, a city of Brazil, capital of a province of the same name, is situated on the north-western slope of the Serra do Mar, on a left-hand tributary of the Tiete, a confluent of the Paraná. It is an old and irregularly built city, with some picturesque old churches and convents. The centre of the provincial railway system, 86 miles distant from Santos (q.v.) its seaport on the Atlantic coast, and 143 miles from Rio de Janeiro, the city has developed very rapidly within recent years. One of the two academies of law which Brazil possesses is seated at São Paulo. The most important public buildings are the cathedral, the provincial governor’s and the bishop’s palaces, and the theatre. A new system of water-supply and drainage was constructed in 1879-80 by English engineers under a Brazilian company. The population of the city in 1879 numbered about 35,000.

Founded by the Jesuits as a college, São Paulo was made a town in 1560 instead of Santo André, destroyed by order of Mendo de Sa. In 1711 it became a city, in 1740 a bishopric, and in 1823 an “imperial city.”