Every age and every country has found the soldiers of Spain abundantly brave and active. To deny this would be to wrong that most noble and glorious nation. That the Spanish name, therefore, may receive no blemish from what I am going to write of the Paraguayrian soldiers, it must be observed that all those who boast of a Spanish name in Paraguay, are not in reality Spaniards. Amid such a diversity of nations, very many are born of Moors, Indians, and a Spanish mother; of an Indian or Moorish mother, and a Spanish father; or of a mixed race of them all. A yellow or darkish complexion, a beardless chin, and a mat of woolly, curling black hair, plainly denote very many to be of African or American origin. The other European Spaniards born in Paraguay say, by way of contempt, _O es del Inga, ò del Mandinga_, you are sprung either from Indians or Negroes: for the King of Peru was formerly called the Inga, or Inca, and Mandinga is a province of Negroland, beyond the river Niger in Africa. Of such various kinds of men are the military forces composed in Paraguay. As most of them, though ennobled by a Spanish name, are very far remote both from Spain and from Spanish intrepidity and love of arms, what wonder if these unwarlike and beardless soldiers are slaughtered by the savages like so many barrow-pigs? They are worthy both of excuse and pity, for, besides being unprovided with proper arms, they have no skill in handling them. Except the arts of swimming and riding, they are entirely ignorant of the laws of war, and of military discipline. Moreover, the Cordoban soldiers are unable even to swim. The major part of them, when called out against the savages, for spears, make use of the rude knotty stakes which the woods afford, and if to these be added the remains of a broken dagger, or knife, then, indeed, they think themselves as well armed as Mars or Hercules. None but the richer sort have guns, which are generally very dear, sometimes not to be purchased. I have often seen carbines sold at Buenos-Ayres for five-and-twenty Spanish crowns, or fifty German florins a-piece. The more distant the colonies are from the market of Buenos-Ayres, the higher their price becomes; in the cities of St. Iago, Asumpcion, Corrientes, &c. not very handsome guns have been sold for forty, or even sixty crowns. If any part of the gun get out of order, you will rarely find a smith to repair it: hence the guns which many of the soldiers carry, are often in such a condition, that you would sooner obtain water from a flint than a spark of fire from them. They are liable to be spoiled in various ways; for, in long journeys, they get knocked against trees and stones, or wetted by the rain, or injured in some way or other, as the nights are always to be passed in the open air, often in rainy weather; vast rivers and marshes to be swam across, and rugged woods and rocks to be ridden over: in consequence of which the