WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 689 



1816. They have potatoes and some kinds of Spanish fruit, but 

 the soil is so rich that in order to get fruit and have it ripen, they 

 beat (apalean) the trees or Iwre into them, otherwise it all goes 

 into growth and the fruit is knotty. The chief commerce of the 

 residents of this country is in hides and in a large carting trade with 

 Tucuman and Buenos Ayres ; this is the border point for the Dioceses 

 and States of Paraguay and Buenos Ayres. 



1817. From this city of Siete Corrientes it is 34 leagues in the 

 direction of Tucuman to the city of San Jeronimo del Rio Bermejo. 

 This is built half a league from the river toward Tucuman, and is 

 the boundary where the Dioceses and States of Tucuman and Buenos 

 Ayres meet. The river is deep and narrow ; it comes from the valleys 

 of Jujuy, at the very beginning of the State of Tucuman ; many 

 other rivers empty into it, so that it is a large stream here, but its 

 water is brackish and not drinkable ; it has quantities of delicious fish. 



1818. The city of San Jeronimo del Rio Bermejo is at 26°4o' S. 

 It is built on a high and prominent plateau, and will have 100 Spanish 

 residents, with a Franciscan convent and a parish church with a 

 friar as its curate for the administration of the Holy Sacraments. 

 It belongs to the Diocese of Buenos Ayres, from which it is 220 

 leagues distant, and the same from Santa Fe. Twenty-five leagues 

 from this city there is a large river which rises in Peru in the district 

 of La Paz and the Charcas and is called Pilcomayu ; it sinks under- 

 ground in this region and comes out again some 6 leagues from 

 Rio Bermejo. When it is the rainy season in Peru it reaches such 

 a high flood stage in this region that in Holy Week or some 15 days 

 before or after, according as Lent comes early or late, since the land 

 is flat, it floods it for over 100 leagues, and 30 at its narrowest 

 point ; this freshet lasts usually some 2 months, and makes a sea 

 out of all this country. They go all over it in boats catching quantities 

 of fish which come up from the Rio de la Plata and spread over 

 all this country; these are shad (sabalos), dorados, palometas, which 

 are larger and bi"oader than mojarras and have two rows of teeth ; 

 they are delicious fish ; there are many other kinds, which make up 

 their fish harvest, besides what they get of what is stranded in the 

 ponds and pools when the river returns to its bed. 



When the flood is over, the land stays full of water and spongy; 

 they sow wheat, corn, and other cereals, cotton, melons, watermelons, 

 which grow very large, fruit and vegetables, so that with this flood, 

 like that of the Nile, they get an abundant harvest, and it is God's 

 providence for them, for in that country they have very little rain. 

 45 



