SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



Guaxarapos, Chirigones, and other tribes. Sugarcane and much other 

 fruit grows there ; the country has a good climate. They gather great 

 quantities of wax and honey in the woods ; most of that country is 

 supplied with wax from this place and its jurisdiction. Its parishes 

 under peaceable regime are Yputii, Guarambare, and Los Litatines, 

 who are great farmers ; they serve this city. The above is what is 

 comprised in the district of this Diocese and State ; there are four 

 cities with Spanish residents in the district, as already described — 

 Asuncion, La Guaira, Villa Rica, and Jerez ; and besides the prov- 

 inces and tribes already subdued, there are along its borders countless 

 others to be brought into the Faith. 



Chapter XLIV [34] 



Of the District of the Diocese and State of Buenos Ayres. 



1813. From the city of Asuncion to go to the district of Buenos 

 Ayres, one turns back and goes downstream from Siete Corrientes, 

 where the city of San Juan de ^Vra has been established, with as 

 many as 40 Spanish residents, on some bluffs above the Rio de la 

 Plata. This place is called Taraguiro in the Indian language, which 

 means newt, but it is also generally called Siete Corrientes (Seven 

 Currents), because the city is built on a lofty bluff which has seven 

 points, which form seven eddies with the union of the rivers here, 

 and so they have given it this name. 



1814. The Indians who serve the Spaniards in this little city are 

 of the Guarani tribe, living along this same Rio de la Plata. Some 

 of them are peaceable, but most are warlike. They go naked, are 

 indolent, live on game and fish, and have no covering but mats in 

 their settlements, for the excellent climate of that country makes 

 everything possible. 



1815. The city of San Juan de Vera has a hot climate and an 

 excellent site, built as it is above the Rio de la Plata. It belongs 

 to the Diocese of Buenos Ayres, from which it is a little under 300 

 leagues distant ; it has a Franciscan convent. They raise wheat, corn, 

 and mandioc, which is a root from which they make a fair flour ; the 

 plant looks like elder (sauco). To grow it they put a bit of the stalk 

 or stem underground, and within 3 months it is ripe. In preparing 

 it for eating, since its juice is poisonous, they first put it in water 

 to soak and lose the poison ; after that it is good food and has a 

 delicious taste; from its flour they make porridge and baypi, which 

 is a kind of soup, and other dishes and stews. 



