[51] The following wording of Francia's decree upon first hearing of Soria's having arrived at Nembucú, within the jurisdiction of Paraguay, is a fair sample of his mode of doing business:--"Soria is a bold, insolent, and shameless fellow for having come here without any previous permission, by a river which he has no business upon, and by which he may return as he came, if he can, for downwards neither he nor his vessel shall pass." [52] Vessels of 300 tons burthen have been built above the city of Assumption, and floated down the river to Buenos Ayres. PART II. THE PROVINCES. CHAPTER XII. THE LITTORINE PROVINCES. SANTA FÉ--ENTRE RIOS--CORRIENTES--THE OLD JESUIT MISSIONS--PARAGUAY UNDER DR. FRANCIA. De Garay founds _Santa Fé_, and meets with Spaniards from Peru. His subsequent Deeds and Death. The Government of the Rio de la Plata separated from that of Paraguay, and Santa Fé annexed to Buenos Ayres. Its former prosperity, and great capabilities, especially for Steam Navigation. _The Entre Rios_--constituted a Province in 1814, its Extent, Government, and Population--chiefly a grazing Country. _Corrientes_--its valuable natural Productions--mistaken ideas of the people as to Foreign Trade. The Lake Ybera--Pigmies, Ants, Ant-Eaters, Locusts, and Beetles. _The Missions_ now depopulated--their happy and flourishing state under the Jesuits. _Paraguay_--some Account of its former Prosperity and Trade, and the establishment of the tyrannical rule of Dr. Francia. PROVINCE OF SANTA FÉ. The first discoverers of La Plata, as has been already observed, fixed themselves in Paraguay, and established the seat of their government at Assumption, the capital of that province. In his way up the river, Sabastian Cabot built a fort, called Sancti-Espiritu, at the junction of the Carcarãna with the Paranã; Ayolas, a few years after, built another not far from it, to which he gave the name of Corpus Christi; but these, like Mendoza's settlement at Buenos Ayres, were very soon destroyed by the warlike nations which then inhabited the whole of the right bank of the river; and, for the first half-century, with their views solely fixed on making a nearer approach to Peru, the Spaniards concerned themselves but little about the conquest of the poorer lands they had left behind them. The ships, which during that time continued to arrive in the River Plate, with fresh adventurers from Spain, with an inland navigation before them, to Assumption, requiring as much time as the whole voyage out from Europe, were entirely dependent for the refreshments they required on the accidental good will of the natives. Once in the Paranã, if any accident befell them, for nearly a thousand miles there was not a single Christian port in which they could take refuge.