I have often laughed at beholding the eagerness and solicitude with which the Spaniards, who visited the Guarany towns, gathered up all the little worthless stones they met with on the way, and which, on account of their various colours, they thought to be emeralds, amethysts, or rubies. Every thing that was found on the Guarany soil they took for gold and jewels. Diamonds, which nature has denied to every part of Paraguay, were reported to abound in the land of the Guaranies. In the Gazeta de Madrid, I read this article, dated London. "They write from Brazil that the Jesuits of Paraguay have brought their diamond mines to such a degree of perfection, that it is greatly to be apprehended the diamonds of Brazil will decrease in value." I submitted this paragraph to the perusal of Charles Murphy, Governour of Paraguay, and I cannot tell whether it excited his laughter or his indignation the most. I would have bought the smallest particle of a diamond at any price, to cut the glass for the various uses of the church, but could never meet with any one who possessed such a thing, and was, consequently, always obliged to make use of a flint instead. If the savages at the straits of Magellan have any metal, they must have got it from the mountains where every one knows that metals are found. But the province of Chili differs as much from Paraguay, as Austria does from its neighbour Hungary. The one abounds in gold and silver, the other is absolutely destitute of both. The Portugueze in Cuyaba, in Matto Grosso, and in the fortlet of Sta. Rosa, collect sands from various rivers, out of which they pick very small particles of gold, formerly with the connivance of the Spaniards, and since the last declaration of peace with their open consent. For the Portugueze always contended that the above-mentioned territories were comprehended within the limits of Brazil, whilst the Spaniards annexed them to Paraguay, or their own Peru. That you may perceive the truth of what I say, I will fairly describe the liberality of nature towards Paraguay. You shall see and laugh at its treasures.