PARAGUAY, formerly a province of the viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, in South America, but declared an independent republic first in 1816, and again in 1826. It is bounded on the north by the province of Matto Grosso, in Brazil, from which it is separated partly by a river, and partly by a mountain ridge, its most northerly point being between the twentieth and twenty-first degrees of south latitude. The river Parana constitutes its boundary on the east, southeast, and south, with the exception of a comparatively small tract of country, called the Missions, which lies to the eastward, on the right bank of the Parana; and along the whole of the western side of the country flows the Paraguay, the confluence of which with the Parana, in latitude 27. 27. south, marks the limits of the country in this direction. In longitude it extends from 54.40. to 58.30. west from Greenwich, and comprehends an area of above 25,000 square miles, which is about half the superficies of England, exclusive of Wales.^[1. In drawing up this article we have been indebted for much valuable information to Mr W. P. Robertson, author of Letters on Paraguay, who was detained a considerable time in the country by Francia, and experienced in his own case the rigour of that suspicious despotism under which it now groans. ]

The history of Paraguay, from the time of its discovery until it unfurled the standard of independence, along with the other provinces, and shook itself free from European domination, presents but little except the usual story of the oppression and aggrandisement of the whites, with the fierce struggles and the ultimate submission of the Indians. But its annals since the revolution, when its destinies were intrusted to Dr Francia, one of the most remarkable men of his time, are replete with events equally interesting and instructive. According to Techo, the word Paraguay signifies the Crowned River; a name which it obtained from the Indians who inhabited the shores of the river wearing coronets made of feathers. Dr Southey, however, is of opinion that it is the same word as Paraguazu, or Great River; and this is supported by the fact, that the same word for a river is observed in the Para and the Parana. On the other hand, Azara informs us that the river and country of Paraguay derive their name from the Payaguas, who formerly inhabited that part of Brazil through which the river flows in the early part of its course, and are now the most domesticated and useful of all the Indian tribes, with the exception of the Guaranis. This name was altered a little by the Spaniards, who, substituting one letter for another, made it Paraguay instead of Payaguay. The country was discovered in 1526, by Sebastian Cabot, who was then in the service of Spain. This intrepid navigator ascended the Paraguay thirty-four leagues above its junction with the Parana, and there met an agricultural people, inhabiting the banks, but found them too fierce, warlike, and sagacious to be ensnared by promises, or induced to come to terms. After five years of fruitless attempts at negotiation, he was compelled to abandon the enterprise; and for some time the country remained almost unnoticed. In the year 153(>, however, the Spaniards, after a sanguinary struggle with the natives, succeeded in forming a settlement; and in memory of the event, as well as in honour of the Virgin Mary, they called their fortified port Assumption. This was the origin of the capital city of that name, which increased so rapidly, that in eleven years afterwards it was considered as of sufficient importance to be constituted the seat or see of a bishop. The history of the country for fifty years after the first settlement presents merely a series of acts of hypocrisy and violence. The Guarani tribes, who inhabited Paraguay, and some other parts, were a brave but docile people; and though many lives were lost before the superiority of the Spanish power was acknowledged, yet, of all the tribes, the Guaranis, who were the most numerous, proved in the end the most easily and effectually reduced to obedience. But, satisfied with their subjugation, the Spaniards did little or nothing for their improvement; and it was not until towards the end of the sixteenth century that the Jesuits brought all the zeal and influence of their order to the task of civilizing the Guaranis, or, in other words, reducing them from a state of savage independence to one of civilized but complete subjugation. In the year 1586, the first settlement or mission of the Society of Jesus was formed in Guayra; and so rapidly did these settlements increase, that, in the year 1629, they amounted to twenty-one in number. These communities were of a threefold character, namely, religious, military, and manufacturing; for, whilst the Jesuits instructed the Indians in the elements of education and the truths of religion, they likewise trained them to habits of industry, and even taught them the art of self-defence. Each of the settlements was a considerable town laid out with straight streets. The houses, generally consisting of earth, where whitened, covered with tiles, and provided with verandas on either side, to preserve them from the sun and the rain. Each mission had a mother church, which was generally built of stone, and magnificently ornamented. Two curates, both Jesuits, were the only ecclesiastics who exercised parochial functions, and at the same time acted as inspectors of all civil economy.

In attempting to extend their spiritual conquest still further, the Jesuits were compelled by the Paulistas to fall back to the south of the Serra Maracaju, and concentrate their establishments between the Parana and Uruguay, in that part where these rivers approximate most closely. But at a subsequent period the Jesuits acquired an ascendency in Paraguay, as far as ecclesiastical authority was concerned,; and for more than a century their influence remained unshaken. In the year 1752, when seven of the Jesuit missions were detached from Spain and annexed to Portugal, so averse were the Indians to this separation, that they had recourse to arms, and a war ensued, which is known by the name of the War of the Seven Settlements. But, after five years of hostility and bloodshed, they were entirely subdued, and their spiritual teachers, who had at first vainly urged them to submission, resumed their beneficent sway. The Jesuits, it is well known, were finally expelled from Brazil in 1760, under circumstances of unexampled cruelty; and in 1768, this was followed by their complete expulsion from Paraguay, as we learn from Cazal and the despatches of Bucarelli. During more than thirty years after this event the affairs of the country continued in a state of frightful disorder; cruelty, plunder, and misery in various forms prevailed; and the population of the Reductions, from having been upwards of 100,000, sunk to less than half that number.

With the change of masters which followed this event, [7:17:58]the spell that bound the Indians was broken; and by the new plan of government there was established in the Guarani towns a system which in a few years led to the total ruin of the Jesuits’ establishments. The successors of these missionaries appear to have been thoroughly embued with the worst spirit of religious bigotry, and to have possessed none of their redeeming qualities. Doblas, one of the administrators of the new system, and by far the most enlightened and efficient of their number, as well as the able historian of the Missions of Paraguay, strenuously urged the Spanish government to sanction such a change of management as would insure their preservation; and ultimately the king of Spain showed a disposition to adopt his suggestion. But it was then too late. The depopulation of the Missions was complete; and, in many places, the ruins of their churches and buildings are all that now remain to attest their having ever existed. The Jesuits have often been attacked and unsparingly calumniated by those who were interested in destroying the reputation of that celebrated order; but some authentic documents recently published will probably go far to correct many of the erroneous impressions which have thus been produced in disfavour of that body. It must always be kept in view, however, that, excepting the truly impartial testimony of Doblas, the records alluded to are the productions of decided partisans of the company of Jesus.^[2. These religionists, who acted as missionaries in Paraguay, were certainly not so bad as their enemies represented them, and yet by no means so philanthropic and disinterested as their friends have described them. Aggrandisement for themselves, and complete dependence upon the part of the Indians, were the undeviating principles of their government. Uniform and constant labour was exacted from their subjects on the one hand; and a humane, mild, paternal, and wise rule was exercised in return; in tact, the chains of the Indians sat so lightly upon them as to be wholly imperceptible to their simple and guileless minds. ]

From the commencement of the present century until the year 1810, the country continued tranquil; but when the tocsin of revolt was sounded throughout South America and Mexico an attempt upon the part of Buenos Ayres to supplant the governor of Paraguay led ultimately to the establishment of an independent government in that country. In the month of October 1810 the junta of Buenos Ayres despatched a thousand men under the command of Manuel Belgrano,for the purpose of vindicating their authority in Paraguay, and attaching it to the republic of the United Provinces. This army penetrated without interruption into the heart of the country, and halted within about two days’ march of Assumption, the capital. In the mean while the Paraguayans collected together a force of from five to six thousand armed men, and the hostile forces came in sight of each other at the village of Paraguany. A battle ensued, in which Belgrano was defeated, and obliged to enter into a capitulation, in virtue of which he ultimately withdrew from the province. But during the conferences which took place, both before and after the capitulation, Belgrano so infected the Paraguayan officers with notions of independence, that at length these took full effect on their minds. This short but triumphant appeal to arms had given them a consciousness of the possession of strength, of which they were not previously aware; and seeing that the number of Spaniards in Paraguay was small, and being also stimulated by the example of neighbouring states, by the recollection of former wrongs, by the instinct of independence, and by the hope of gain, the principal Creoles began more and more to detach themselves from the government of Old Spain, until at last, in the course of the year 1811, they resolved to make common cause against it.

A plan for achieving independence was consequently organized, but so badly concerted, that the secret began to transpire, when some of the officers, more courageous than the rest, resolved on taking a decisive step, before detection had destroyed all their hopes. They proceeded to the residence of the governor, Señor Velasco, and having entered it, pistols in hand, arrested that functionary. So rapidly were matters arranged, that the same morning two of the chiefs of the revolution, Don Fulgencio Yegros and Don Pedro Cavallero, were united with him in the government, and a congress was called. After this body had met, the members proceeded in a regular manner to depose the governor, and supply his place by a junta, which, in imitation of that established at Buenos Ayres, professed to act in the name of Ferdinand VII. But it proceeded with much more alacrity than any similar body in the other dependencies of Spain, and did not hesitate at once to proclaim the disjunction of Paraguay from the mother country. The junta consisted of a president, two assessors, and a secretary. The person appointed to the latter office was the celebrated Don Joseph Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia, since well known by the name of the Dictator of Paraguay.

Francia, although merely secretary of the government, not only controlled and ruled it with nearly absolute sway, but with a petulance inherent in his temper, and inseparable from his impatience of contradiction or restraint. The excesses which soon followed the revolution, and which, after being long fostered in the bosom of Francia, were brought to light, year after year, as his power ripened and his jealousy matured, are too well attested by numerous and impartial witnesses to admit of dispute. He entered into office a stern and unrelenting tyrant. His fixed and unalterable resolution was to obtain power, absolute and uncontrolled; and, like other despots, he disregarded not the commission of crime in any shape, if calculated to insure his object. It was only to make his ultimate success more certain that he opened up his schemes gradually, and increased his cruelties by successive steps; and he was really the more formidable to his victims, that his sphere of action was so limited, as to bring within the ken of his quick and jealous eye every individual of the petty population of his groaning country. His colleagues in office, Yegros and Cavallero, were men of mean capacity; and whilst they were exhausting in parade the pleasure of newly-attained power, the man destined to become dictator of Paraguay was planning, in secret, those designs which not only overthrew all competitors for office, and deposed his partners in the government, but left him the sole possessor of that iron sceptre with which he has ruled his people, and overthrown every presumptuous aspirant after liberty. From the moment of his attaining the rank of consul, he paid the closest attention to business. His first care was to organize a body of men called Quarteleros, from being shut up within the only barrack, or quartel, in the town. He also organized a body of militia for the defence of the country against external invasion. He pulled down the monastic institutions, because he knew well the influence of the priests over his bigoted countrymen; and influence, in his estimate of it, was crime. Every man of education was turned out of the civil department, and replaced by low-born and uneducated tools of the dictator. The Inquisition was abolished, because it carried the semblance of an imperium in imperio. No holy processions, no night services in the churches, were permitted, because Francia deemed none so likely to foster treason, or to arm the hand of the assassin against the enemy of the church. At length he entirely threw aside the mask which had hitherto imperfectly concealed the real ferocity of his disposition. Whilst he was yet consul, and only dictator pro tempore, he had contented himself with immuring his victims in prisons, from which he in no instance released them; but now not only were the jails insufficient to contain the unhappy objects of his suspicion, but the [7:17:59]scaffold began to stream with blood, and to afford him an easier and quicker mode of ridding himself of every one whom he chose to consider as a political culprit. Vague and remote conjecture, the villanous tales of informers, nay, even an inauspiciously-interpreted look or action, entailed banishment or death upon the suspected or denounced individual. He founded a settlement, to which he gave the name of Tevego; and thither he banished, upon the most trivial pretext, or slightest suspicion, all his least formidable enemies. This place, which forms the Botany Bay of Paraguay, is 120 leagues above Assumption; except Bourbon, it is the most northerly point of that country; and being situated on a marsh,, it is not only a hot-bed of malaria and mosquitos, but destitute of every thing capable of rendering existence tolerable. The original object of selecting such a spot for banishment was that of gratifying absolute cruelty of disposition; the collateral one, that of establishing a colony of outcasts sufficient to resist the incursions of the indomitable and ferocious tribe of the Mbayà Indians. The unsettled state of the neighbouring provinces caused many of their inhabitants to seek refuge in Paraguay; but the dictator, ever jealous of new-comers, sent most of them to languish as exiles in Villa Real and Tevego.

The dictator, proceeding on his worse than Chinese principles of excluding intercourse with all foreign states, laid prostrate the commerce of the country; and having thus crushed the energies, and cut off the resources, of thousands of his countrymen, he found it necessary to turn their attention to agriculture, and the manufacture of cloth from the native cotton of the country. This was pretty much as if the Tartar sovereign of China should prohibit the manufacture and exportation of tea, and set his subjects on the exclusive cultivation of rice and cotton for their own consumption. Less scrupulous than the head of the Celestial Empire, Francia did what the other has never attempted. He said, You shall have no intercourse with foreign countries; let the growth of the Paraguay tea, the cultivation of the Paraguay tobacco, the interminable forests which furnish timber, and the sugar-cane plantations which enrich your estates, be disregarded; and every man of you turn his attention towards deriving his means of subsistence from his own lands, and his means of clothing from his own looms. The merchant who had before made L.500 a year by the exportation of his commodities, was now ground down to L.50 at most, derivable from the cultivation of his estate. Ships rotted upon the beach; produce mouldered to decay in the warehouses; the inhabitant of a spacious house was reduced to a mud cottage; and this system Francia called an encouragement of agriculture. Having destroyed the spirit of the country, Francia now succeeded in laying prostrate its natural resources. Attempts were from time to time made to bring down the haughty authority of this despotic chief; but they were all in vain. Every conspiracy was detected, and every such detection conducted more numerous victims to the gallows, chains, dungeons, imprisonment, or banishment to Tevego. The towns of the whole country were placed under the most rigid discipline; every inhabitant of every house felt as if his father, brother, or wife, might be a spy; the whole land groaned and lay in abasement, under a trembling awe of its relentless governor. Bonpland, the enterprising companion of Humboldt, was detained nine years a prisoner, because he had dared to form an establishment for the manufacture and exportation of tea; and he was released at the end of that term, not from any latent spark of humanity on the part of the dictator, but because he had acquired not only great popularity in that part of the country where he was fixed, but a considerable property, of the whole of which he was stripped, when thrust forth at a moment’s notice from his home. He was allowed to take with him barely as much as sufficed to carry him to Buenos Ayres. He only left Paraguay in the year 1831.

The British subjects who had been detained by the arbitrary will of the dictator were released some years previously, by a happy interference on the part of Sir Woodbine Parish, then (1826) consul-general of Buenos Ayres. Francia’s great desire was to establish a direct diplomatic intercourse with England, and he fancied that by releasing his detenus he would accomplish his purpose. In this he was mistaken; and upon finding himself afterwards disappointed, he gave vent to an ungovernable fit of rage.

Paraguay, with the exception of the part which faces the north, appears to be wholly enclosed by the rivers Parana and Paraguay; and these noble streams constitute the most remarkable physical features of the country. There are, besides, a great number of smaller currents of water, affluents of the large rivers, which traverse the country from east to west and from west to east, falling respectively into the Paraguay and the Parana. The country is thus abundantly supplied with water for the purposes of agriculture; and, with regard to navigation and commerce, the breadth and depth of the two great rivers by which it is nearly surrounded place it almost on an equality with an island of the ocean. Generally speaking, the face of the country is level; and, though sometimes undulating, and here and there studded with hills, it is destitute of any mountain ranges, notwithstanding that, upon most maps, a cordillera, apparently of great extent, is made to traverse the country,.having a general bearing from north to south. These elevations, which are situated considerably nearer the Parana than the Paraguay, are not deserving of the name of mountains. The rocks chiefly found in the country are arenaceous, not calcareous, and they vary in hardness and in grain. There are here no mines of the precious metals, and the minerals which belong to it do not so materially differ from those found in many parts of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata as to require specific mention. There are no salt marshes or brooks of any size, such as are common in this region of America; but a substitute for them is found in the earth called barrero, which consists of a mixture of clay and salt. This is devoured with such avidity by all animals, that they cannot be driven from it by blows, and have been known to die in consequence of swallowing too much of it. Salt is obtained in Paraguay by collecting the white efflorescence which is found in some valleys during the dry season. This is dissolved, filtered, and subjected to evaporation, when the crystals of salt are formed; but the quantity produced is so small that Paraguay is dependent on Buenos Ayres for supplies of this necessary article. The soil of Paraguay is invariably fertile, and of the same quality throughout.

The climate, although hot compared with that of Great Britain, is highly salubrious. Azara, whose account of the country, although half a century old, is still the best which we have, found the heat throughout the summer to average 85° of Fahrenheit at Assumption, the capital. This was in his chamber; but on very warm days the thermometer stood at 100°. In winter it descended to 45°, which may be taken as the medium temperature of this season; but Azara says, that, in extraordinary seasons, he found water congealed in the court of the house which he occupied, although this statement has been questioned. It is generally observed in the country, that it is always cold when the wind blows from the south or from the south-east, and warm when it blows from the north. In fact, the heat and the cold seem to depend much more on the winds than on the situation or the declination of the sun. The most common winds, and these invariably hotones, blow from the east and the north. Those from the south and southwest are much less frequent, though invariably cool and refreshing. A west wind is scarcely known. The climate is moist; and a considerable quantity of rain falls during the summer months (which in this quarter of the globe [7:17:60] correspond to those of our winter), accompanied by terrible storms of thunder and lightning.

In the abundance and variety of its vegetable productions, Paraguay equals the most prolific portions of South America; and in one tree, that which supplies the celebrated maté, it stands unrivalled. Not that it is solely confined to this country, for it is found more or less over the whole table-land; but it is produced there in the highest perfection, and in the greatest quantities. The yerbamaté grows to a goodly size, and is cut to supply the market in every state, from that of a shrub to that of a full-grown tree. It resembles the tea-plant of China, and being in fact a species of wild tea, it is commonly known in commerce by the name of “Paraguay tea.” The leaves and thin stalks are cut off every two or three years, that period being necessary for its reproduction. The small branches, when gathered, are dried by means of fire; the leaves are then roasted and partially bruised, after which they are packed up in hides, and sent to the different markets of South America. This leaf constitutes the principal article of export from Paraguay. The beverage which is produced from it by infusion has a bitter flavour, not unlike Bohea; and in some parts of the continent the use of it is said to have prevailed amongst the Indians from time immemorial.

Every variety of wood is extremely abundant in Paraguay; the territory of this republic being in fact as remarkable for the extent and excellence of its forests, as that of Buenos Ayres is for the total want of them. The vessels which are built here are extremely durable. Some species of the wood of Paraguay are so hard as to resist the best tempered axe. The hapacho, especially, is a wood of the hardest and most durable kind, equal, if not superior, to the best of our oak. Of the hapacho, vessels are built which live on the waters for fifty years, and rafters are made which support the roofs of houses for double that time. So hard and close is the grain of this wood, that no worm can penetrate it, and no rot can ever assail it. The carts of Buenos Ayres are made of this or similar woods; the algar-robo, theurundey-pita, and the urundey-iray, being amongst the strongest. The last, being very handsome, is likewise used for furniture; and when polished, it is equal in beauty to rosewood, but of a lighter colour. The other trees the timber of which is in general use are, timbo, and the tatayiba or wild mulberry; lance-wood, and the orange tree, of which gun-stocks and parts of carriages are made; caran-dey, alarge palm-tree, yielding a very hard wood; the tatare, strong, and much used in the construction of vessels and machinery, as is also the yberaro; with the cedar and others. There is a tree found here which grows in a very singular manner, the trunk being composed of several stems closely twined round one another, thus forming to appearance one solid mass. The bark of the cebil and curupahi, found in Paraguay and Corrientes, is used for tanning. There are also several trees and plants which the natives make use of for dyeing their linen. A large tree called palo santo, or holy wood, produces an odoriferous gum, which is extracted by boiling pieces of the wood, and is used as a perfume. The incense tree, so called from the gum which it produces, is used in the churches as incense. The man-gaysy produces gum elastic, of which a very durable sort of match is made. There are many other trees in the country which yield different kinds of gum, and some arc reputed to possess great medicinal powers. With these a Jesuit made numerous experiments upon the Indians, during a residence of forty years amongst them; and having himself lived to the age of a hundred and twelve years, his medical aphorisms were held in high veneration. Rhubarb jalap is amongst the numerous medicinal plants which grow in Paraguay. Thecordage used inthevessels is mostlymade from the fibres of plants which are found in the country. Tobacco, coffee, sugar, and cotton, are all cultivated here; and maize grows to great perfection, being much used as an article of diet. Rice, indigo, cotton, and the vine, which thrives but indifferently, are also cultivated to a great extent. A root called aipim or pompin is sometimes made use of as a substitute for bread. Honey and wax, vegetables, and tropical fruits of various kinds, are abundant. Indeed Paraguay has always been held in the highest estimation for the abundance, variety, and value of its productions. The animal kingdom is as extensive and various as the vegetable. Most of the animals belonging to this part of South America are found in Paraguay; amongst which may be mentioned the cougars, jaguars, tapirs, and the water-wolf. The feathered tribes in particular have long been celebrated for their number and their beauty; including the ostrich, parrot, vulture, turkey, humming-bird, duck, and other game. Boas, rattle-snakes, lizards, and other animals, are plentiful; and ants, locusts, and other insects, are numerous and troublesome, sometimes very destructive. Immense herds of cattle roam in the vast plains of Paraguay, and their hides and tallow constitute considerable articles of export.

The inhabitants of this country are now almost wholly engaged in agricultural operations, a portion only giving such attention to manufactures as the wants of the whole demand. Before the non-intercourse system of Francia was intrQduced, the population of the country was chiefly employed on articles of export; the yerba-maté, tobacco, lumber of every kind, sugar, rum, tanned hides, &c. But when, under Francia’s rule, these became useless as exports, his own policy, as well as the natural wants of the people, turned the industry of the labouring masses into new channels. The importation of cotton was superseded by the great additional growth of the native plant. Rice, maize, the yucca root, and various leguminous and succulent plants, shared an equal cultivation with the sugar-cane. The breeding of horses and of cattle was enjoined and encouraged; and Francia’s whole power was employed to realize his boast, that he would make the people dependent on themselves, and not on foreigners.

Such have been a few of the results of the anti-social policy of Dr Francia. He has changed the richest and most commercial province in the old viceroyalty, Buenos Ayres excepted, into perhaps the poorest, notwithstanding the prodigal hand with which nature has scattered over the country her most luxuriant productions. He has arrested the progress of civilization, and forced the inhabitants of Paraguay to retrograde towards barbarism. He has demoralized an active, hospitable, open-hearted, and simple-minded people, and converted them into a ferocious soldiery or a mass of spies on the one hand, and a terror-striken, slavish multitude, on the other. And to these miserable results he has waded through the blood of innumerable victims, who have either perished on the scaffold, or sunk to the grave in the noisome dungeon and the pestilential swamp, where a slower but not less certain death awaited them.

Before the reign of Francia commenced, the trade of Paraguay with her neighbouring provinces, and particularly with Buenos Ayres, was very considerable. About eighty square-rigged vessels were constantly employed in the trade, besides a great number of river craft, under the names of ga-randumbas, piraguas, balsas, and chalanas. The exports consisted of about 40,000 bales, containing 8,000,000 lbs. of yerba-maté, 7000 to 8000 peracones of tobacco, containing 1,000,000 lbs.; and these two articles produced about one million two hundred thousand dollars annually; whilst lumber, rum, sugar, tanned hides, and a variety of minor articles, produced about half a million more.

Before Francia assumed the reins of government, the Paraguayans never thought of extending their care to the cultivation of any other article than the tobacco-leaf, the [7:17:61]sugar-cane, cotton, and the yucca-root. Maté, which grows without any aid from art, in the vast forests of the north and east, engaged almost all hands. Melons, oranges, Indian corn, and other fruits, together with rice, maize, and the two sorts of yucca-root, were now cultivated upon a more extended scale, and with much greater diligence; and vegetables, which were hitherto unknown in Paraguay, now cover the plains. During 1819, that destructive insect the locust, which visits Paraguay every five or six years in such multitudes as even to obscure the sun, spread devastation over a circumference of more than eighty leagues of country. A scarcity seemed inevitable, for the preceding harvest had been unusually bad; but, to prevent this calamity, the dictator ordered the farmers to sow, a second time, a considerable portion of the land which had been laid waste. The experiment was completely successful, and the second harvest proved one of the most abundant that had ever been known. The proprietors had never before dreamed of reaping a double crop in one year. Artisans also sprung up under the auspices of the despot; and out of rude blacksmiths, shoemakers, and masons, he contrived, by an indefatigable, and in many cases personal superintendence, to create a double number of expert whitesmiths, saddlers, and architects. Of the amount of the trade of Paraguay no data from which to form an estimate have been obtained. The two great resources of the country are the forests of timber for building, and the herb of Paraguay; and these form the staple articles of export. But, besides, there are still sent out of the country tobacco, sugar, cotton, sweetmeats, tapioca, rum, wax, tallow, and hides. The imports are not numerous; for it has been the constant aim of the dictator to render his country, if possible, altogether independent of any other.

It must be very evident, from what has been said, that the whole power of government is centred in the dictator. There are, indeed, in imitation of the Spanish system, a minister of finance, a secretary of state assisted by an under secretary, and a remnant of the ancient cabildo, consisting of two alcaldes, stationed at Assumption; conciliators, and commissioners of police, together with a “faithful executioner,” an inspector of markets, weights, measures, and some others; and, lastly, “an advocate of minors,” whose duty it is to watch over the interests of minors and of slaves. But the highest of these officers is little better than a head clerk, who merely acts under the orders of the dictator. The republic is divided, as in former times, into twenty sections or comandancias, four of which have for their capitals respectively the towns of Neembucu or Villa del Pilar, Villa Rica, Yquamandiu or Villa de San Pedro, and Villa Real de la Concepcion; the only towns in the whole country, besides Assumption, which is distinguished by the name of Ciudad, the Spanish for city, the others being called villas. But since the suppression of their cabildos, which were charged with the local administration of justice, these towns no longer enjoy any exclusive privileges. Each section is under the authority of a commandant, who executes the orders of the dictator, directs the operations of the police, decides on minor offences, and exercises the functions of conciliator. He has under his orders some inferior officers of police; and there is also in each section a receiver of taxes. The laws by which Paraguay ought to be governed are those made in the time of the Spaniards; but they have been so altered, first by the junta, and subsequently by the dictator, that the will of the latter may be said to be the law of the country. Justice is administered in civil cases by the parties appearing before the commandant or one of the alcaldes, according as the place of trial is in the capital or in the country, and by their pleading their cause in person. This appears to be a court of conciliation similar to that which is established in Norway. If the attempt at adjustment prove unsuccessful, the cause goes in the first instance before one of the alcaldes, who pronounces a judgment, from which the parties have the right of appeal to the dictator. In criminal cases he is generally the judge himself; and he always proceeds in a summary manner. With regard to punishments we can only speak generally. They are severe, death being the award of crimes which in Great Britain would only be visited by a few weeks’ confinement; and execution is made to follow the sentence as quickly and surely as the thunder-peal follows the flash of lightning. There are two kinds of prisons, namely, the public prison and the state prison, and both are kept in a wretched condition. The prisoners are treated with the utmost severity, and attempts to escape from these horrid places of confinement are punished by death. The police is exercised in Paraguay by all those in office, from the dictator down to the lowest functionaries, called zeladores. All the officers of government, including a train of spies, and also the regular troops and the militia, constitute one great body of police, which exercises a surveillance much stricter than that of France under Fouché. Passports are not only necessary to a person who wishes to quit the country, but also before he can travel twenty leagues from his residence. The whole population is thus kept in a sort of captivity. The post-office is also strictly looked after; and indeed the system of police is a source not only of great annoyance, but often of great loss, to the inhabitants. There is kept up a regular army of about 3000 men; and the body of militia, which is entirely under the orders of the dictator, is 10,000 strong. Every native of Paraguay must enter the service as a private soldier, and learn the military exercises; and with regard to the militia, the name of every free man in the republic who has arrived at the age of seventeen, and is capable of bearing arms, is inserted in the rolls. There is, besides, a troop of artillery, and a small naval force.

The revenues of the state arise from tithes, a tax upon shops and storehouses in the capital, an import and export duty, the sale-duty, stamps, postage of letters, fines, confiscations, “droits d aubaine,” and the produce of the nationaldomains. The tithes are the most productive source of the public revenue; they are levied upon all species of agricultural produce, upon flocks and herds, and even upon poultry. The import and export duties can be received only at the custom-house at Assumption, and both are very heavy. The duty upon all sorts of goods brought into the country is nineteen per cent, ad valorem ; but the duty is calculated on the retail price, and there is an additional impost of four per cent, as sale-duty, so that the import-duty cannot be less than thirty per cent. The saleduty is levied upon every thing that changes owners, except agricultural produce, and even for this there is a charge made at Assumption. On articles exported the duty levied is nine per cent, ad valorem. The other branches of the revenue, such as the stamp-duty and the tax upon letters, yield annually a considerable sum. The national domains of Paraguay extend over almost the half of its territory, consisting of pasturage-lands and forests, the Jesuit Missions, the possessions of other religious corporations, and a great number of country houses and farming establishments confiscated by the dictator. The revenue must therefore be very considerable; but of its actual amount no one except the dictator has any idea.

When Dr Francia assumed the reins of government, he placed himself at the head of the church as well as of the state. The bishop, who opposed the revolution, was superseded by his vicar-general, Pay Montiel, a creature of the dictator’s. Religious corporations were suppressed, and the clergy were secularized, chiefly by reason of the dictator’s inextinguishable hatred of all institutions which bore any semblance of independence. In short, from the contempt[7:17:62] in which he held the monks, he did every thing in his power to throw ridicule upon the monastic order. In Paraguay, as well as in the rest of South America, the education of youth was formerly intrusted exclusively to the monks, who established schools in the convents. Subsequently elementary schools, taught by lay masters, were established in all the districts, and a college of theology was founded at Assumption. The latter was suppressed by the dictator in 1822; but he allowed the elementary schools to remain, without, however, taking any steps to improve them. Butas no obstacles were thrown in the way of establishing private seminaries, several of these have been opened in the capital, and education is rather on the advance. With regard to literature, in the ordinary acceptation of that term, it may be said to be wholly unknown in Paraguay. In 1827 there was nota printing-press in the country; but since then, this instrument of civilization in a free country, and of oppression in an enslaved one, has been established, and of course exclusively used by the dictator.

The population of Paraguay has been variously estimated, by those who have visited the country, at from 300,000 to 500,000 souls; but the Weimar Almanac for 1835, without giving any authority, states the number as high as 600,000. The great mass of the inhabitants are Creoles; the Indians composing about one tenth, and the mixed race and the black about two tenths, of the whole population. The'natives of Paraguay are gifted with considerable natural talents, and are of a mild, hospitable, and generous disposition, but careless, unsteady, and as easily swayed to evil as prompted to good. In regard to morals, their minds maybe said to hang in even balance between virtue and vice, and readily to take an inclination either way. Hence the remarkable influence which the Jesuits had over them; hence also the scenes of anarchy and bloodshed which followed their expulsion; and hence, lastly, the secret of Dr Francia’s system of despotism. Although not possessed of the ardour of the inhabitants of the torrid zone, they support the greatest fatigue with courage and perseverance; but at other times they will remain whole months in a state of the most complete inaction. They are proud of their ancestors, as having been the founders of the first establishment formed in South America, and they have always been distinguished from the other Creoles by their national spirit. In Paraguay the conquerors have adopted the language of the conquered, and very many of the Creoles are perfectly ignorant of Spanish, particularly the female part of the rural population. In the mixed races of Indian and black, the child follows the condition of the mother, and is free or servile accordingly. Although the men of colour are in a great measure free, yet they have always been supposed to be unfit for office; and notwithstanding that, since the revolution, some of them have been admitted to places of trust, the ancient Spanish prejudice is not the less strong against them. The blacks are very few in number.

That part of Paraguay which is known under the name of the Missions is governed in a somewhat different manner from the rest of the country. It extends over a surface of 600 square leagues, on the right bank of the Parana, to the south-east of Assumption. The population consists of eight tribes of Indians, and some thousands of whites, who obtained land from the government, and established themselves there, after the expulsion of the Jesuits. The white population is governed by the commandants, as in the other parts of the country; but the Indians attached to the soil, and condemned to work on the state lands, have peculiar officers, who, under the name of administrators, manage these lands, besides exercising the functions of commandants. These two classes of functionaries are under a lieutenant of the government, who has the chief command of all the country of the Missions, but without any control over matters of finance. Several other villages inhabited by Indians in the interior of the country, and which formerly belonged to the Jesuits or other religious communities, have also managers set over them, and are subjected to the authority of the commandant in whose section they happen to be situated. The condition of the Guarani Indians, who are still in the Missions, is inferior to that of the slaves. In the time of the Jesuits, the Guaranis were tolerably well fed and partially clothed; and the fathers, by allowing them processions, dancing, and music, upon holidays, contrived to reconcile them to a state of dependence, and ameliorated their condition whilst they profited by their labour. But after the expulsion of the Jesuits, the managers who succeeded them were chiefly occupied in pillaging the settlements, overworking the Indians, and rendering their fate still more wretched by the utter destitution in which they were held. Since the year 1823, however, the power of the managers has been contracted by the dictator, and neither purchases nor sales have been allowed to be made without his permission. He also employed the Indians in the service of the government.

Assumption, the capital city of the republic of Paraguay, is built in the form of an amphitheatre, on a rising ground, on the left bank of the river Paraguay, in latitude 25.17.15. south, and longitude 58. 5. west from Greenwich. It has been so completely altered by the dictator, that little of the ancient city remains. But the idea of rebuilding it in a more regular manner occurred to him in the year 1820, upon the discovery of a conspiracy against his life. Its streets were crooked, irregular, and the greater number of them so narrow as to deserve only the name of lanes. The houses, consisting only of one floor, generally stood apart from each other, and being interspersed with trees, little gardens, brushwood, and patches of verdure, they presented the aspect of a village rather than that of a city. Numerous springs issued from the ground in every part of the town, end formed streams, or stagnated into pools; whilst the rain furrowed and cut up almost all the sloping streets. The dictator commenced his architectural reformations by tracing out, in the least populous parts of the city, longitudinal streets, from north-west to south-east, crossed by others at right angles, all of which were ordered to be made from thirty-five to forty feet in width. These new streets served him as a model for the others which were to be opened throughout the city. They were distant from each other one hundred paces; but whenever a public building interfered, the space was either diminished or augmented, in order to leave it standing. The proprietors of houses which interfered with the new line of street were ordered to demolish them; other buildings were pulled down by the mandate of the dictator, and their materials employed in levelling the ground. In short, he completely destroyed the old city; and as he had only to issue his commands to insure obedience, a new one soon rose in its stead. The owners of the dwellings which were thus demolished were not indemnified for their loss, and many rich proprietors were compelled to build mansions on sites pointed out to them. The dictator paid only the master workmen, whose plans were executed by some hundreds of prisoners. The various divisions of the country were obliged to supply all the materials gratuitously; and if the buildings carrying on were outside the capital, the owners of them were also bound to furnish a certain number of workmen. It was in this manner that the fortresses on the frontiers, and several barracks and other edifices at Neembucu, at Assumption, and at Villa Real, were constructed. New roads were also opened through the woods, and others which had been broken up by the rains were widened and repaired. Forty houses were built and let for the benefit of the state; and at every step in the progress of these operations the country people were called upon either for their personal [7:17:63]services or for the use of their cattle. The result has been a perfectly renovated city, containing a number of spacious public buildings, large streets, and handsome private mansions. Assumption is the seat of government and the residence of the dictator; and here are all the different offices for the transaction of public business. The number of inhabitants may be estimated at 12,000.

Paraguay, a great river of South America, which forms the western boundary of the republic just described. Its head waters are formed by a great number of streams which rise in those mountainous ridges called Sierra del Pary, or Paraguay, a portion of the extensive Paricis, situated in the Brazilian province of Matto Grosso, in latitude 13.30. south. A little below the last of a series of seven lakes, called the Sete Lagoas, which communicate with each other by narrow outlets, the Paraguay flows for a short distance through a swampy country in a northerly direction; it then winds round by the west, and takes a southerly course, which it maintains to its confluence with the river Parana, at the south-western extremity of Paraguay. The first large stream that joins it is the Xauru, which originates in the campos of the Serra Paricis, and after flowing a long way southward, bends to the east-south-east, and falls into the Paraguay in latitude 16. 25. Father Quiroga informs us, that, below the Xauru, the Paraguay separates into two considerable branches, the principal one running in a narrow but deep channel through the Xarayes, and the other branch flowing some leagues to the westward. The Xarayes is an immense lake formed by the abundant rains which fall during the months of November, December, January, and February. At this season the streams and rivers which feed the Paraguay become prodigiously swelled; and the latter river, unable to continue in its legitimate channel, inundates the country for many leagues on both sides. A great part of the beds of the St Lourenço, Tacoary, and Mondego, and other tributaries on the eastern side, as well as the small lakes on the western side, which appear to remain permanently, become portions of this periodical Caspian; and the elevated lands assume the appearance of islands, inhabited by an accumulation of birds and wild beasts. Whilst the floods continue, it is customary to navigate over the plains where the current is less rapid, traversing prodigious plantations of rice annually reproduced by nature without any human assistance, or sustaining any damage from the waters, because it grows as they increase, always presenting, besides the ear, a considerable portion of the stalk above the flood. As the quantity of rain which falls is much greater in some years than in others, the size of the Xarayes varies^accordingly; and as its figure or contour depends on the nature of the country over which it spreads, it is also extremely irregular, and cannot be accurately described. Azara, who is always to be depended upon, thus speaks of this great lake. “It commences before the seventeenth degree of latitude, and it may have in this place twenty leagues of breadth to the east of the river Paraguay. It preserves nearly the same size until the twenty-second degree, that is to say, during more than one hundred leagues, without speaking of the Sugar Loaf, Pau-de-Azucar, and other little mountains which it surrounds with its waters. To the west of the same river the lake commences at 16. 30. and continues to 17. 30., immersing many leagues of the province of Chiquitos. From 17. 30. to 19.30. its extent is inconsiderable; but afterwards, to the twenty-third degree, it continues to extend much in the Chaco, and still more in the country of the Chiquitos. We may, by approximation, estimate its length at one hundred and ten leagues, and its breadth at forty.” During a great part of the year it remains perfectly dry, and covered with the corn-flag and other aquatic plants. There are several other lakes of the Paraguay, of much the same nature as the Xarayes, such as that of Aguara-caty, about the twenty-fifth degree of latitude; those which are found to the north and south of the lake Ypoa, situated under the twenty-sixth parallel; those of Neembucu, under the twenty-seventh; and a multitude of others, situated on the eastern margin of the Paraguay, and on all the streams which flow into it.

The affluents of this great river are very numerous. The Porrudas, or St Lourenço, joins it in latitude 17. 52., some writers say nearly a degree farther south; and the Tacoary, in latitude 19. 15., in front of a square mass of an elevated range, called Serra Albuquerque. Still further south are the mouths of the Mondego, thirty-five miles below which are two high mounts, fronting each other, upon the banks of the Paraguay. On the western mount is built Fort Coimbra. The Tepoti flows into the great river, in latitude 21. 45.; and this is nearly the limit between what is called the High and the Low Paraguay. The following is the order in which the rivers fall in, according to Father Quiroga, who navigated the Paraguay from the mouth of the Xauru to the confluence of the Parana. The embouchure of the Corrientes is in latitude 22. 2.; that of the Guarambari, in 23. 8.; that of the Ipaneguazu, in 23. 28.; that of the Ipanimini, in 24. 4.; that of the Xexui, in 24. 7.; that of the Quarepoti, in 24. 23.; that of the Ibobi, in 24. 29.; that of the Mboicaé, in 24. 56.; and that of the Salado, in 25. 1. A little below the city of Assumption, the Pilcomayo runs into the Paraguay by three mouths, after a very long course, its origin being amongst the mountain ridges where the city of Potosi is situated. The mouth of the Tebiquari is in 26. 35. The Bermijo, sometimes denominated the Rio Grande, joins in latitude 26. 54., eleven leagues of direct distance from the city of Corrientes, where the magnificent junction of the Parana and Paraguay takes place, in latitude 27. 27. and longitude 58. 22. west of Greenwich. The combined rivers bear the name of Parana till the confluence of the Uruguay, when all these appellations are sunk in that of the Rio de la Plata. The Spaniards, however, sometimes call the river by the latter name as far up as the junction of the Pilcomayo. Of these tributaries of the Paraguay, by far the largest and most important are the rivers Pilcomayo and the Bermijo. They offer great advantages to a commercial people; but, from the scanty population of the country through which the greater part of their course lies, these have not been turned to proper account. Both rise in Bolivia, the first, as has been mentioned, near the city of Potosi, and the second in the vicinity of Tarija. They descend at first with considerable velocity from the heights where they originate; but after they reach the level country, they flow in a tranquil and majestic current. According to the best information, they possess no inconvenience except their numerous windings, which arise from the want of fall in the ground of the Gran Chaco, through which they run, and which is the most level tract of country in all South America.

The Paraguay is navigable for vessels of a hundred to a hundred and thirty tons, provided they do not draw more than ten or at most eleven feet of water. One ship, indeed, of three hundred tons burthen, called the Primera, was built at Villa Real, and floated down the stream to the ocean. To obtain correct ideas of the breadth and depth of the Paraguay, Azara measured it at a time when it was lower than it had ever been known to fall in the memory of man. The breadth in several parts was found to be 1332 French feet; and from soundings made to ascertain its depth, and experiments to prove the velocity of its current, Azara calculated that it discharged, when at the very lowest, 98,303 cubic toises of water per hour. The mean quantity, he supposed, would be double this at least, if not more; so that, according to his estimate, the Paraguay [7:17:64]discharges throughout the year, at the city of Assumption, nearly two hundred thousand cubic toises of water per hour. So little does the country slope in this part of the South American continent, that it has been calculated that the Paraguay in its course from north to south does not fall above one foot between the eighteenth and twenty-second degrees of latitude. At the capital the waters of the Paraguay are always clear; for the rains which fall either above or below that city are not sufficient to trouble so large a stream. The periodical increase of the river commences at Assumption in the end of February, and the augmentation continues with admirable equality till the end of June. It then begins to decrease in the same regular manner, and this continues during an equal space of time. This periodical increase is much greater in some years than in others; and at Assumption the waters sometimes rise five or six toises above their ordinary level, thus inundating a great part of the country; yet there is little variation at the commencement or at the end. This increase of the river, which, singularly enough, does not begin till the rains have ended, appears to be thus produced. All the rain which falls is first collected in the great natural reservoir Xarayes; and it is not until this is full to overflowing that it discharges itself into the river Paraguay. We find that the Parana, which has no basin of this description to collect the periodical rains, is at its greatest height in December, about a month after the rainy season has set in; so that by this singularly happy arrangement, the rivers Parana and Plata are kept during a great part of the year at a very considerable size. (r. r. r.)