I must now discourse upon the Paraguay, from which the Parana receives its chief augmentation. The origin of this river has occasioned as great a dispute as that of the Parana. It is, however, now established beyond all doubt, that those persons who have written that this river comes out of the lake Xarayes are quite mistaken. This ancient and universal error, with good leave of Bourgainville be it spoken, did not originate in the Jesuit geographers, but was brought into Europe by the Spaniards who first subdued Paraguay, and has in the present age been detected: for it is certain that the Spaniards their successors have sailed on the river Paraguay sixty leagues beyond that lake, which proves that we must seek for the source of it in the more distant mountains situated towards the north-east. Some have thought that it proceeds from the fabulous lake Del Dorado. Bourgainville asserts that the Paraguay takes its rise between the fifteenth and sixteenth degrees of north latitude, at almost an equal distance from the North and South Seas. This opinion of the Frenchman I willingly leave to be examined by the later Portugueze who have dwelt there. However this may be, it has been clearly ascertained that the Paraguay does not take its rise from the lake Xarayes, as such a lake exists no where but in geographical charts; for that collection of waters which is sometimes seen is not the parent of the river Paraguay, but the offspring of it. This I boldly affirm on the authority of Father Joseph Sanchez Labrador, a curious naturalist, who repeatedly traversed both banks of the Paraguay, and by them arrived at the towns of the Chiquitos. The Chiquito town dedicated to St. Xavier is situated more towards the north than the rest, lying, as the same Sanchez observed, in the 16th degree of latitude, and the 313th degree of longitude. The town of Corazon de Jesus, situated in the 16th degree of latitude, and the 319th degree of longitude, lies nearest the shores of the river Paraguay, one hundred and ninety leagues distant from the city of Asumpcion. Now let geographers hear what the oft commended Sanchez declares to be his opinion respecting that imaginary lake Xarayes, and the fabulous island De los Orejones.