SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA is a very large province including several districts; it is, as its name indicates, a mountainous country, and little inhabited by Spaniards, the chief places being the missions, which were first planted by the Jesuits. It borders on, or rather contains in its government, the countries of the Chiquitos, Guaranis, and other tribes, among whom a few missions are settled. Its climate is warm, and the chief trade of its settlers consists in honey and wax. The capital is _Santa Cruz de la Sierra_, eighty or ninety leagues east from La Plata. It was originally built farther to the south near the Cordillera of the Chiriguanos and was founded in 1548 by De Chaves; but the city having been destroyed, it was rebuilt on its present scite: it is however a place of little importance, though erected into a bishopric in 1605, the chapter consisting only of the bishop, dean, and archdeacon. The usual residence of the bishop is at _Mizque Pocona_, which is the chief town of a large district of the same name. This latter city, which is 100 miles south-south-west from Santa Cruz, is a small place in a valley about eight leagues in circumference, producing all kinds of grain and fruits, and in a warm climate; the woods and mountains affording large quantities of honey and wax, which constitutes a principal branch of the trade of the place. There is also a lake two leagues in extent near this town, and the district of Mizque is the most populous part of the province. The _Rio Grande de La Plata_ is the finest river of Santa Cruz; it rises in some small lakes on the south, and running through the province into that of Moxos, enters the Piray by a broad mouth, and forms a good port at Pailas, north of the capital. The province of CHIQUITOS lies to the north and east of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and embraces an immense extent of territory, which reaches to the Brazilian frontier on the Paraguay. It was first colonized by the Jesuits who began their missionary establishments in this country towards the close of the seventeenth century, and their success was so great that in 1732 they had seven settlements, each containing more than 600 families. The Indians who inhabit Chiquitos are small-sized, active and brave, and have always resisted the endeavours of the Portuguese to carry off members of their community to slavery; many of them live peaceably in the missions, but others lead a wandering life amid the mountains and plains of their native land.