WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 675 



1773. In its district it has fine large Indian villages or parishes 

 (reducciones), for that is the name they give Indian villages in that 

 Kingdom. On the road to Paragnay, 12 leagues to the ENE., is 

 the village of Estaile, and 14 leagues farther, that of Yuquiliguala, 

 built on the banks of a river called El Salado. In these they weave 

 much cotton cloth, etc., as in the city. Along the river banks upstream 

 there are in all this neighborhood many parishes of Indians from 

 the neighboring tribes. In this direction the Diocese and State hold 

 jurisdiction as far as Paraguay, over 80 leagues, up to the Rio Ber- 

 mejo, which belongs in the Diocese of Buenos Ayres and is the 

 boundary. 



1774. It is almost all uninhabited country, without a watercourse, 

 and only a few wells or artificial cisterns where they store rain water 

 and travelers drink of it ; there are some reservoirs of rain water 

 also for the cattle. The whole country is quite level, as has been 

 noted, with a few patches of woods and algarrobo thickets. In these 

 trees and underground quantities of honey are deposited by tiny bees 

 smaller than flies and very tame and unsuspicious. On these wastes 

 there are great numbers of all the game already mentioned and small 

 ant bears with snouts over a foot (media vara) long; they stick out 

 their tongues into ants' nests and so feed on them. There are wild 

 or escaped (cimarrones) mares and horses in such numbers that 

 they cover the face of the earth and when they cross the road it is 

 necessary for travelers to wait and let them pass, for a whole day 

 or more, so as not to let them carry ofif tame stock with them ; the 

 same is true of cattle. It is all like that as far as the Rio Bermejo, 

 where the Tucuman jurisdiction ends. 



1775. Leaving Santiago for Cordoba on the Buenos Ayres road, 

 one comes to the village of Manogasta at 5 leagues ; in this and others 

 in the neighborhood they weave cloth, etc. One continues along the 

 banks of that great river, with small villages on both banks ; and 

 at 20 leagues from Santiago another large river, called El Salado, 

 has to be crossed on rafts of the reeds called totora. Five leagues 

 beyond the Salado is the village of Acuha, where the Rio Grande 

 turns northward ; a little farther on it sinks underground and forms 

 some lakes where there are many white egrets (garzas de martinetes) 

 and other water birds. That large river is seen no more ; it must 

 run into the great Rio de la Plata. 



