waving with the commotion caused by the French Revolution, this far-distant province of Spain, so favoured by nature and position, was steadily laying the foundations of its future importance and prosperity. The Viceroyalty of _Buenos Ayres_ was subdivided into the provinces of-- (1.) _Buenos Ayres_, the capital of which was the city of that name, and which comprised the Spanish possessions that now form the Republic of _Uruguay_, as well as the Argentine Provinces of _Buenos Ayres_, _Santa Fè_, _Entre Rios_, and _Corrientes_; (2.) _Paraguay_, the capital of which was _Asunsion_, and which comprised what is now the Republic of _Paraguay_; (3.) _Tucuman_, the capital of which was _St. Iago del Estero_, and which included what are to-day the Argentine provinces of _Cordova_, _Tucuman_, _St. Iago_, _Salta_, _Catamarca_, _Rioja_, and _Jujuy_; (4). _Las Charcas_ or _Potosí_, the capital of which was _La Plata_, and which now forms the Republic of _Bolivia_; and (5.) _Chiquito_ or _Cuyo_, the capital of which was _Mendoza_, and in which were comprehended the present Argentine provinces of _St. Luiz_, _Mendoza_, and _St. Juan_. NOTE.--This chapter is founded on “Buenos Ayres and the Provinces of the _Rio de La Plata_,” by Sir Woodbine Parish, 1839; Falkner’s “_Patagonia_” (Latin); England, 1774; “_Rio de La Plata_” by Felix Azaro; Paris, 1809; Dean Funes’s “History of _Paraguay_,” &c.; _Buenos Ayres_, 1816. CHAPTER XIV. _BRAZIL; THE WAR OF THE SEVEN REDUCTIONS._ 1750-1761. [Sidenote: 1750.] The discovery of mining districts in the interior of _Brazil_ caused both Spanish and Portuguese statesmen to perceive that the period had arrived when it was desirable, in the interests of both countries and of their respective colonies, to establish a boundary-line between their several possessions in South America. The famous Bull of Pope Alexander VI. had long become a dead letter. The fact of the Spanish Queen of Ferdinand VI. being a Portuguese princess, and having great influence over her husband, tended in no small degree to bringing about an amicable and equitable settlement of the territorial question existing between the two nations in South America.