The little town of St. Miguel, situated near the Chili mountains, is surrounded with hills, plains, large streams, and pleasant woods adorned with lofty forest trees, which supply the whole province with cedar planks, and timber fit for the largest houses. Rioja and St. Ferdinand, or Catamarca, little towns, buried amongst mountains, gain their principal returns from the culture of vines and red pepper, which is in daily use amongst the Spaniards. Not only meal, but even cheese, which, considering the multitude of cattle in the estates of Buenos-Ayres and Cordoba, is but seldom made, is seasoned so high with this powerful spice, that it acquires a deep red colour, and a pungency intolerable to an European palate. All the vine-yards in Paraguay scarce equal the number of fingers on both your hands; for although the climate and soil are extremely suitable to vines, they are uniformly destroyed by an army of ants, wasps, and wood-pigeons. The little wine that is made is deep-coloured, thick, and generous, though to Europeans newly arrived it smells somewhat like a drug. The new must squeezed from the grape is simmered on the fire till it obtains a consistence. Such is the scarcity of wine in the remote colonies, that we were sometimes unable to celebrate the Eucharist. For whatever is used at the table or the altar, is principally brought from Chili, by a long journey, and at great expense, and often is not to be had for love or money. In the districts of Rioja and Catamarca there is very scanty pasturage, and consequently few cattle; a want compensated by the fertility of the soil, the productiveness of the trees, and the industry of the inhabitants, who dry figs, weave a kind of woollen garment in common use, dress ox and sheep hides to great perfection, and apply the leather to various purposes, as saddles, trunks, and similar articles, to be commuted for other goods. Xuxuy, a district of St. Salvador, situate on the Peruvian side of Tucuman, though far from populous, is the seat of the royal treasurers for the last mentioned country. In this place, the tertian ague and wens are common; a circumstance arising from the rivulets flowing from the neighbouring mountains. Talavera de Madrid, also called Esteco, a state formerly flourishing in vices as in wealth, situate on the bank of the river Salado, is said to have been swallowed up, in the last century, with all its houses and inhabitants, by a violent earthquake; the ill-fated pillar applied to the punishment of delinquents alone remaining in the market-place. Fareja, a city of some note, though within the jurisdiction of Chichas in Peru, contains Jesuits from Paraguay, who, in the hopes of civilizing the Chiriguanàs, a barbarous race, always hostile to the Spaniards, have neither spared their labour nor their lives; five of them were butchered by these savages.