That so extraordinary a state of things should so long have existed is I believe entirely to be ascribed to the miserable weakness of the adjoining provinces, which, had they been able to make the slightest combined effort, might long ago have put an end to the tyrannical rule of this crazy old despot. Nature will probably do this ere long, when it may be expected that Paraguay will once more join the confederation of her sister provinces. FOOTNOTES: [53] The same saints are invoked to keep down the rats--another plague of these countries--attracted, no doubt, by the smell of beef everywhere, as they are in the _abattoirs_ of Paris. The eleven thousand Virgins were the guardian angels against the locusts. [54] The best sort of tea, in which the Indians paid their annual tribute to the Crown. [55] The Indians, under the system of the Jesuits, had been accustomed to work _in community_ for a common stock, out of which all the wants of every individual were regularly and adequately provided for. [56] A commutation of these tithes for a fixed revenue was agreed upon between the church and the municipal government of Assumption at an early period of the Spanish rule in that country. [57] The Reign of Don Gaspar de Francia in Paraguay, being an account of a six years' residence in that Republic, by Messrs. Rengger and Longchamps, translated, 1827. [58] M. Bompland has since obtained his liberty, after a detention of nine years. CHAPTER XIII. THE CENTRAL PROVINCES. CORDOVA, LA RIOJA, SANTIAGO, TUCUMAN, CATAMARCA, SALTA. CORDOVA. Government. Pastoral Habits of the People. Productions. LA RIOJA. Population, &c. Famatina Mines. Evils arising from the present subdivision of the Provincial Governments. SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO. The Sandy Desert or Traversia. Quichua Language. Productions, &c. The Salado navigable to the Paranã. The Chaco. Mass of native Iron found there. Theory of its Meteoric Origin questionable. Account of the native Iron from Atacama. TUCUMAN. Delightful Climate. Mines--little worked. Richness of the Vegetation. Declaration of Independence of the Provinces made there in 1816. CATAMARCA. Population, &c. Original Inhabitants--their long Wars with the Spaniards. SALTA. Divisions, Population, Government, Climate, Rivers. The Vermejo, and its Affluents from Tarija and Jujuy. Valuable Productions of this Province. Labour of the Mataco Indians obtainable, and preferable to that of Europeans in such Latitudes. Importance of inland Steam Navigation urged.