These were proceedings as impolitic as they were wicked, in the attempt to colonize a new, a vast, and a warlike country; but it was the mode which the Spaniards had generally practised. They seemed to despise the natives alike as enemies and as men; and they went on fighting, and destroying, and enslaving, as matters of course. As they were now in a great country, abounding with martial tribes, we must necessarily take a very rapid glance at their proceedings. They advanced up the Paraguay, under the command of Ayolas, whom Mendoza had left in command, and seized on the town of Assumpcion, a place which, from its situation, became afterwards of the highest consequence. This noble country, stretching through no less than twenty degrees of south latitude, and surrounded by the vast mountains of Brazil to the east, of Chili to the west, and of Moxos and Matto Grosso to the north, is singularly watered with some of the noblest rivers in the world, descending from the mountains on all sides, and as they traverse it in all its quarters, fall southward, one after another, into the great central stream, till they finally _debouche_ in the great estuary of the Plata. Assumpcion, situated at the junction of the Paraguay and the Pilcomayo, besides the advantages of a direct navigation, was so centrally placed as naturally to be pointed out as a station of great importance in the discovery and settlement of the country. Ayolas, whom Mendoza had left in command, having subdued several tribes of the natives to the Spanish yoke, set out up the river Paraguay in quest of the great lure of the Spaniards, gold, where he and all his men were cut off by the Indians of the Payagoa tribe. His deputy, Yrala, after sharing his fate, caught two of the Payagoas, tortured and burnt them alive; and then, spite of the fate of their comrades, and only fired by the same news of gold, resolved to follow in the same track; fresh forces in the mean time arriving from Spain, and committing fresh aggressions on the natives along the course of the river. Cabeza de Vaca being appointed Adelantado in the place of Mendoza, arrived at Assumpcion in 1542, and after subduing the two great tribes of the Guaranies and Guaycurus, set off also in the great quest of gold. He sent out expeditions, moreover, in various directions; but Vaca, though he had no scruples in conquering the Indians, was too good for the people about him. He would not suffer them to use the men as slaves, and to carry off the women. So they mutinied against him, and shipped him off for Spain. Yrala was thus again left in power, and to keep his soldiers in exercise, actually marched across the country three hundred and seventy-two leagues, and reached the confines of Peru. Returning from this stupendous march, he next attacked the Indians on the borders of Brazil, and defined the limits of the provinces of Portugal and Spain. He then divided the land into _Repartimientos_, as the Spaniards had done every where