The effects of the preponderating influence of the monastic establishments are still visible in the habits of the generality of the people; and though the ladies are not all nuns, their manners are a vast deal more reserved than those either of the capital or of the other principal provincial towns. As an instance of this, a fair lady of Buenos Ayres told me she had caused no little scandal whist on a visit to some of her Cordova relations, by insisting on dancing at a ball with a male partner, instead of with one of her own sex, an innovation which greatly horrified the mamas. Captain Andrews, too, has given a lively account of the alarm he unwittingly occasioned by a like breach of decorum in offering his arm to a young lady on going to dinner. These scruples, however, have I believe, since been much modified, and I am told that ladies and gentlemen now dance country-dances together at Cordova, much as they do in other parts of the world, in spite of the fears of the mamas and the frowns of the priests. Living is very cheap and provisions abundant, the wants of the people few, and their hospitality unbounded; their kindness, indeed, to strangers, is spoken of by all who have been amongst them. Cordova at present forms a sort of centre of communication between the Upper Provinces and Buenos Ayres. Its own produce, consisting chiefly of hides and wool, is all sent to the capital, whence it receives European manufactured goods in exchange. If steam navigation were established on the Paranã between Buenos Ayres and Santa Fé, Cordova, as well as the provinces further north, would share in its advantages, and would be more easily supplied through Santa Fé, by the road which runs nearly in a direct line between the two cities; whilst the shorter line of communication thus opened between the provinces of Cuyo and those on the Paranã, passing necessarily through Cordova, would fully compensate to the people of that place for any loss they might sustain in consequence of the transit trade from Buenos Ayres to the Upper Provinces being turned in another direction. The people of Cordova and Santa Fé would also once more have a joint interest in checking the inroads of the Indians from the Chaco, and by a better combination of their joint means might be enabled to protect their frontiers more effectually and perhaps at less expense than either province is now at for the maintenance of the militia which is requisite for its separate defence. Cordova, owing to the miserable weakness of the adjoining governments of both Santa Fé and San Luis, is obliged at present to support a large armed force to protect her frontiers, not only from the savages of the Chaco, but from those of the Pampas. PROVINCE OF LA RIOJA.