Of this government, the southern parts are those which are best known and most inhabited; the northern bordering on the Brazilian frontiers, and reaching to the great inundation of the Paraguay, have been little explored, and are tenanted only by the aborigines and wild animals. The great features of this country are the numerous rivers, swamps, lakes, plains and woods, with which it abounds. Its largest and most noted rivers being the _Paraguay_, the _Parana_, the _Porrudos_, _Mbotely_, _Tobati_, _Ipane Piray_ in the north parts, and in the south the _Cañabe_ and _Tibiquari_, the latter of which, divides the government from that of Buenos Ayres. _Commerce._--The trade of Paraguay consists in the export of its tea, tobacco, sugar, cotton, hides, tallow, wax, honey, cattle, horses, mules, wool, leather, &c. It is chiefly carried on by the river Paraguay; the journey to Buenos Ayres by land, being seldom performed excepting by couriers, who are then obliged to wade and swim over many rivers, and are exposed to the attacks of the wandering Indians, even the navigation of the Great River not being free from them; the _Payaguas_ tribe often collecting sixty or seventy canoes, with five or six men in each, armed with long lances and clubs, who attack any vessel unprovided with the means of making resistance. Peace has been made with these people, but they sometimes commit depredations, and the whole government is surrounded by nations equally inveterate and ferocious; on the west are the _Tobas_ and _Moscobies_, on the south the _Abipones_, on the north the _Guaycurus_ or _Mbayas_, and the _Panaguas_; but the east is free from any immediate neighbours of this description, though on the distant mountains in this quarter called _Yerva_, are the _Monteses_, who give great trouble to the people employed to collect the tea, which grows spontaneously in their vicinity. The Monteses also greatly annoy the Portuguese, who are constantly at variance with them. This tribe pushed its way lately across Cuyaba, and part of Matto Grosso, in Brazil, to make an incursion into the head settlements of Moxos, in order to open a path to plunder the country of Santa Cruz de la Sierra and La Paz. These unsubdued Indians frequently attack the settlements of Paraguay, which has obliged the inhabitants to form a militia in order to repel their aggressions, which are always sudden, and at times when they are least expected. The forts of Paraguay are nineteen in number, and are generally near the river, which is also furnished with guard boats.