lesser note; they are quite ignoble streams. But now listen attentively whilst I give you some description of the place where the city Corrientes is situated and which lies in lat. 27° 43´ and in long. 318° 57´. You must know that the great Paraguay, swelled by the waters of so many rivers which it has received in its progress, here becomes the prey of the greater Parana, and, at the same time, loses the name it has hitherto borne. For that vast body of water formed by the junction of both rivers is never called the Paraguay but always the Parana, because the former brings a far greater quantity of water than the latter. But though both rivers flow within the same banks and in the same channel, the limpid Parana, scorning the muddy waters of the Paraguay, for some time refuses to mix entirely with it. It is certain that, about three miles apart, you may perceive the waters to be different both in colour and taste. The Parana, which, a little before, flowed westerly, following the Paraguay, changes its course, hastening towards the sea, the mother of streams. However you may despise this conjecture, it seems to me to possess some probability. In the country of St. Iago del Estero, the rivers Dulce and Salado have frequently changed their channel on this very account, and the same has been the case with regard to some other rivers. In the city of St. Iago, St. Francisco Solano built a dwelling-house, and a handsome church, for his companions, in such a manner that the door of it did not look toward the market-place of the city, but towards the plain. The brothers not approving of this plan, the architect Solano, who was famous for the gift of prophecy, bade them wait a little, saying, that what they now desired, in ignorance of the future, would some day really happen. Some years after, the river Dulce, which washes the city, changed its channel. The city was forced to be changed also, which being done, the door of the church fronted the market-place, as it does at this day. The event verified the prediction, which the native Spaniards related to me when I was there. But let us now return to the Parana. The eastern shore of it is, in great measure, steep and stony; the western shore, on the contrary, is low, muddy, and subject to floods. All that part of this province which looks towards the west, beyond the Parana, abounds in immense trees of various kinds, (fit for building ships and waggons,) in fertile pastures and tracts of land, now sinking into plains, now rising into gentle hills; yet you can scarce ever meet with a situation fit for human habitations or fixed towns, either from the superfluity or deficiency of water, or, which comes to the same thing, the saltness and bitterness of it; for if you build a colony on the shores of the Parana, it will be inundated with water on the next flood, extending for two leagues beyond: if you remove it two or three leagues from the shore, both the inhabitants and the beasts will perish of thirst.