IN VAEIOUS PARTS OF THE GLOBE. 185 



Soapworts (Mongil, Chanchal), Spurgeworts(Lecheroii del monte, 

 Lecheron bianco), a Mertensia (Tala), &c. &c. 



At a distance of two days' march from San Luis I observed a 

 large number of Sterculiads (Soroche),* the trvuiks of which are 

 remarkably fusiform, and are used by the Indians for making 

 fermenting tubs ; the tissue is so soft that it can be scooped out 

 with a piece of wood. A Dragon tree, called Narvaes, is pretty 

 common on several mountains in this part of the province ; it 

 grows 9 or 12 feet high, has a peculiar appearance, and is, they 

 say, a cure for leprosy. 



A low chain of mountains separates the unhealthy village of 

 Carapari from the frontier of Bolivia ; from its ridge, as from 

 the walls of Fort Bourbon, I saw extended before me the im- 

 mense Gran-CIiaco. I slept that night, the 17th of July, in an 

 Indian bamboo hut, and the next day I entered Villa-Rod rig-o, 

 which is colonized by some Bolivians, who have been drawn 

 thither by the luxuriant pasture land. Two days afterwards I 

 paid a visit to the great chiefs of this famous country, and they 

 conducted me 30 leagues further inland, into the midst of the 

 nations of the Tobas and Abas. There, as in Paraguay, immense 

 tracts of country f are covered with the Copernicia ; the sandy 

 and slightly marshy soil in which they grow was, when I was 

 there, covered with nitrous efflorescences, and the water was too 

 brackish to be drinkable. A curious species of Chara, the 

 seventh of this genus that I had met with in America, is common 

 in this part of the country. The Algaroba {Prosopis ditlcis) is, 

 next to tlie Carandai, the commonest tree ; the Tobas Indians 

 make their Chicha + from its seeds, whilst the Abas, wlio are 

 more sedentary and industrious, use Maize for this purpose. 

 Another plant of the same family as the preceding, and appa- 

 rently a species of Onnosia (Chanar), forms beautiful woods on 

 the banks of tlie Pilcomayo, whicli I had again to cross on tliis 

 journey. Its drupes serve for the same purposes as the seeds 

 of the Algaroba ; but as they contain more sugar than the last, 

 the spirit obtained from them is stronger than that yielded by 

 the otiier. The Chiriguanos are much less tractable at the time 

 when the Maize is ripe than at any other season ; to obviate the 

 inconvenience produced by a relaxation of the bowels, caused 

 by the large quantities of fluid these Indians are constantly swal- 



* This tree is unlike any other species of the same family that I ever saw, 

 but I never met •with it either in flower or in fruit. 



f That part of the Chaco which adjoins Villa Kodrigo is one of the least 

 elevated places of the centre of the continent : it is not more than 187 yards 

 above the sea. 



X This is the name given to all Indian fermented liquors. Starch is the 

 base of them, but they are prepared in different ways. 



