missionaries, without foundation, and that others were basely exaggerated, he transmitted to the court a correct statement of the matter, standing forth, on a sudden, the vindicator and eulogist of those very Guaranies he had come to put down and punish. Tucuman, another division of Paraguay, extends very widely in every direction: on the East it reaches the territory of Buenos-Ayres; on the West, the mountains of Chili; on the South, it is bounded by immense plains, running out as far as the Magellanic region; and on the North, by the district of Tariji. It has a governour and bishop of its own, the one of whom resides at Cordoba, the other at Salta, the capital cities. Cordoba is famous for the beauty of its houses, the number and opulence of its inhabitants, and a celebrated academy. In the richness of its pastures and the multitude of its cattle, it has no superior. Many thousand mules are annually exported from its estates to the Peruvian market. Lofty rocks rise in every part of the Cordoban district. A few leagues distant, on the banks of the river Pucara, which washes the city, is a place where lime is made. Coming to the place one night, when the sky was calm and the air tranquil, I heard terrible noises like the explosion of cannon. But the natives assured me, that these sounds were common to the neighbouring rocks and happened perpetually. The air, confined in the cavities of the mountain, and attempting a forcible passage through the chinks, when stopped by opposing rocks, and reverberated by their windings, bellows after this fearful manner. In the city of Cordoba itself, a hollow murmur, resembling the knocks of a pestle in a wooden mortar, is frequently heard by night. This low mournful sound runs from one street to another, and is called by the Spaniards _el pison_, or the paving-hammer. The ignorant vulgar believe that some spectre or goblin haunts the streets; as for me, I am convinced that it originates in subterraneous wind, which, forcing its way through the interstices of the earth, makes violent endeavours to find a vent; for I observed the lands near the city excavated and fissured in many places by earthquakes. The city of Salta derives its principal profits from the passage of mules. St. Iago del Estero, a very ancient city of Tucuman, was long the seat of a bishop, and afterwards of a governour. The houses are, however, neither large nor elegant. Pope Innocent the Twelfth transferred the episcopal see from hence to Cordoba. The city of St. Iago boasts some tolerably handsome churches. It is washed by the Rio Dulce, which, during its annual flood, rolls down mountains of sands; excellent bulwarks against the cannon of assailants, if the city were ever besieged. The inhabitants of the district of St. Iago are distinguished alike for the greatness of their valour and the scantiness of their means in the wars against the savages. From the trade in wax, which they collect in their distant