presided over the colony, many infants, and, some adults whose lives were despaired of, received baptism; but the rest did little else than wander over the plains. Their fidelity, however, seems above all praise; for, after the conclusion of the peace, they never formed any design hostile to the Spaniards, who, whilst they feared the Mbayas as enemies, and remembered the slaughter they had sustained, promised mountains of gold for the maintenance of their colony; but when their fears subsided, they began to supply them sparingly, or at least tardily, with those things deemed necessary for living in a town, so that the proselytes would have died of hunger had not the fruit of the palm-tree and wild animals supplied the want of beef. Countless and incredible are the labours, cares, hardships, and perils even of their lives, with which Father Joseph Sanchez and his companions, Juan Garzia, and Manuel Duran, were harassed for many years. Duran, the person last named, was intended to begin a new colony for the Guañas or Chañas, a pedestrian tribe, subject to the Mbayas, exceedingly numerous on both sides the Paraguay. Being skilful agriculturists, they have already begun to cultivate the grounds and to raise themselves crops on the eastern shore of the Paraguay. In a soil so fertile, so opportune for the discovery of new nations, great progress in the Christian cause was expected from this docile, and populous nation. But he who had long employed himself in the foundation of the colony, when, with incredible labour, he had collected the necessaries for its preservation and completion, was summoned with his associates back to Europe. Having now mentioned the Indian colonies within the domains of Paraguay, we will proceed to the other peculiarities of the province. Notwithstanding the heat of the climate, the soil of Paraguay abounds in the most useful productions: cotton, the sugar cane, tobacco, honey, maize, mandioc, various kinds of pulse, potatoes of different sorts, medicinal plants, colours, frankincense, divers species of gums, balsams, palms, towering cedars, and other trees, both those that bear fruit, and those that serve for building of ships, houses, and waggons; it moreover abounds in horses, mules, oxen, and sheep. There is no vestige of metals or precious stones in this country, as the early Spaniards imagined. Parrots, monkeys of various kinds, antas, stags, deer, tamanduas, tigers, and lions: choice fish, emus, partridges, dogs, crocodiles, capibaris, and huge tortoises, are every where to be found in astonishing numbers. The countless myriads of serpents, snakes, ants, and other reptiles and insects, evidently noxious, we shall fully treat of hereafter. The production peculiar to this province, and consequently by much the most profitable, is the Herb of Paraguay; of the production, preparation, nature, use, and price of which I am now going to treat.