This province is bounded on the north by Matto Grosso, on the west and south by the Paraguay, and on the east by the Uruguay and the Paranna, which latter affords it the name, and divides it into two unequal parts, northern and southern. It is altogether situated in the temperate zone, between 24° and 33° 30′ south latitude, being six hundred and fifty miles long from north to south, and more than two hundred and fifty at its greatest width from east to west. The winter, which commences in May and lasts till October, is cold. The prevailing wind in this province is from the south-west. The climate is temperate and wholesome, with the exception of those marshy situations, and others which occasionally overflow, where the fever reigns periodically in certain months. This is a country almost universally low, with few mountains and hills, and these of inconsiderable elevation. The land is generally excellent, and adapted to almost all the productions of the torrid zone, as well as those of the temperate. Wheat and Indian corn are abundant, as are the plantations of cane, cotton, and mandioca. The most lucrative, however, are those of the _matte_. These productions do not prosper generally in all the districts; wheat rarely grows but in the southern parts, and matte in the northern. The peach tree is so prodigiously abundant in the southern islands of the Paraguay and the adjacent country, that they are frequently cut down in order to heat the oven with their branches. They are not met with to the north of St. Fé. Sebastian Caboto and Diogo Garcia were the discoverers of this country, on advancing up the Paraguay in 1526. The colony of Assumption was the first establishment in the province after the fort of St. Anna, and suffered much from the various neighbouring nations of barbarous Indians, principally the Guaycurus and Payagoas, who were as numerous as they were ferocious and brave. It was, however, rendered defensible by the augmentation of its settlers. Defective in gold and silver mines, which attracted so many people to Peru and Mexico, this fine country, so advantageously situated, remained for many years after its discovery almost unnoticed. The middle and eastern parts were the conquests of the Jesuits, by the introduction of Christianity amongst their possessors, the Guaranis. These priests, knowing, from experience, the relaxation of European morals, and how much it prevailed amongst the American colonists, determined to catechize only those Indians who were at a distance from the Europeans, in order that the proselytes should not know practices contrary to the precepts to be taught. The perfection with which they soon spoke the Guaranitic idiom, and the docility of this tribe of Indians, concurred equally to carry into effect this wished-for object.