ystem of paths used by indigenous peoples. The main route linked the Atlantic shore in São Vicente to the Andean plateau. It passed through Campos Gerais in a westerly direction. The main pathway and its branches were used by the Amerindian population since the remotest of times, and also by European colonizers (Spanish and Portuguese) looking for routes to Paraguay and Peru, searching for gold, and the capture of natives. The expeditions of Aleixo Garcia (1526) and Pero Lobo (1531) used  this system of paths. Both were commissioned by Martim Afonso de Souza, and both were interrupted by attacking natives. When Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was named Governor of Paraguay in 1541, he traveled there along the route. He left the Santa Catarina coast with 250 men and 26 horses, and the journey was successful.

     Other Spanish expeditions used the same route as Cabeza de Vaca, but in the opposite direction, like Cristóbal de Saavedra in 1551, and Ulrich Schmidl in 1552 and 1553. All were led by native guides who knew the paths. In the following century, the same routes were widely used by São Paulo bandeirantes and Jesuit priests; for various reasons, they shared an interest in the people of the indiginous nations inhabiting the territory.