WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 687 



that wide, deep river ; its least breadth is a league, and at the Salto, 

 it is compressed between 2 cliffs so close that a stone can be thrown 

 from one to the other. 



The water falls between these cleft rocks so deep into the abyss 

 that the mist which rises can be seen and made out from 10 or 12 

 leagues away. The Indians in this region are of the Guarani tribe, 

 and good domesticated people ; they serve the residents of this city 

 and gather quantities of cotton, from which they make cloth for 

 wearing apparel. 



1810. From this city of Guaira it is 70 leagues to the ENE. over 

 country all of it wooded, toward the Brazilian province of Sao Paulo, 

 to Villa Rica (rich), or rather, Pobre (poor), which is 200 leagues 

 from Brazil. Villa Rica has the same cHmate as the city of Guaira 

 and the same products and misfortune — in fact, greater, since in 

 that wretched country with the extreme poverty of the Spaniards 

 living there, they have no priest to administer the Holy Sacraments, 

 and so they are like savages without a country, never hearing Mass, 

 and their children go 7 or 8 years without being christened. Rather 

 than live this way, it would be preferable for the Bishop either to 

 appoint some priest for them or else have the settlement abandoned. 

 The Spaniards living here are so poor that their only clothes are of 

 cotton and they wear palm-leaf hats, for no Spanish merchandise 

 ever gets here, and they haye nothing with which to buy any. They 

 gather some wax and honey from the trees and make a few hammocks. 



1811. Fifteen leagues from Villa Rica there is a large, high moun- 

 tain range which has a large deposit of stone coconuts ; these have 

 much fine rock crystal inside, blue, white, purple, ruby, and other 

 colors. The outside of these coconuts is fine flint ; the rock crystals 

 inside are worked to a diamond point ; when they are ripe, at the 

 proper moment, the coconut bursts with a loud noise which it makes, 

 and breaks the stone. Thirty leagues from this range and thirty 

 from Villa Rica, forming a triangle with the two, is the Tambo 

 del Hierro (Iron), so named from the quantity found there and 

 exploited for the State. The Indians in this neighborhood and at 

 Villa Rica belong to the Guarani tribe. These villages and this tribe 

 border on the Brazilian sertao and warlike Indians ; the Portuguese 

 raid the natives from there and carry them off captive for their service. 



1812. The city of Jerez is 80 leagues inland to the W. of the city 

 of Asuncion, on the road to Santa Cruz de la Sierra. It has a good 

 climate and will contain 60 Spanish residents. They have large cattle 

 ranches with many Indians and parishes of various tribes, such as 

 the TapaguasiJs, Payzunoes, Arrianacosies, Socorines, Xaqueses, 



