n 



PARAQUAT. 



PABQA, 



aidrt are described under AncEXTiKE CONFEDERATION and BRAZII- 

 Tbej differ grratly iu their character a* navigable rivers. The 

 Pmrmguay i* navigable in all iU extent within this country, though 

 iU eoune u rather npid at iU northern extremity near the rooky 

 barrirr called Fecho do* Morro. (21 20' a lat). Vessels of 300 tons 

 burden may aacend it as far as Asuncion, and smaller Teasel* aeveral 

 hnndird miles within the boundary of Brazil. The Partmd, which 

 runs along the eastern fide of the country, is much leas favourable to 

 navigation. The great cataract, called Salto de Sette Quedas, near 

 lat, forms an insuperable impediment to navigation; and even 

 lower down there occur several difficult passages, where the river 

 descend* in Ion? rapid* over rooky shoals. Vessels of 300 tons burden 

 ascend to the island of Apipo, to take in timber. Some of the smaller 

 rivers which join the Paraguay, are navigable to a short distance from 

 their junction with it, but one of them, the Tibiquari, is navigable 

 above a hundred miles. It drains the southern portion of the country, 

 and falls into the Paraguay near 26 30' S. lat 



ite and Production*. Paraguay enjoys the advantages of the 

 intertropical rains. The rainy season occurs in the months when the 

 sun is in the southern hemisphere. The rain* are far less abundant 

 than nearer the equator, but sufficient to bring the fertility of the 

 soil into full action. Except in the marshy districts the climate is 

 mid to be very salubrious. At Assuncion the ordinary summer tempe- 

 rature is 85 Fahr., but it sometimes reaches 100. In winter it falls 

 to 45* ; but the temperature depends greatly on the direction of the 

 wind : north winds are hot ; couth or south-east, cold ; westerly winds 

 eldom occur, and never last moro than two hours. 



The natural productions of Paraguay include those of temperate and 

 intertropical climates ; and cultivation might embrace a wider range. 

 But the long interruption of foreign intercourse and subsequent 

 unsettled state of the country have prevented all chance of progress 

 in agriculture, all the operations of which are still carried on in the 

 rudest possible manner. The principal articles cultivated as food are 

 maize, batatas, mandioc, yucca root, and beans. The cultivation of 

 the sugar-cane, tobacco, and cotton is rather extensive. Coffee and 

 cacao grow luxuriantly ; and the mulberry tree is indigeneous. The 

 principal fruit-trees are oranges and figs. The vegetables chiefly 

 grown are onions, capsicums, and garlic. Water-melons and ruuek- 

 melons are abundant and good. 



Paraguay possesses great wealth in its forests, which contain 

 numerous species of lofty timber-trees, and dye-woods for tanuiug and 

 other purposes. Several of them produce gums and India-rubber, 

 and others are used for cabinet-work. All the vessels that navigate 

 the rivers Paraguay and Parana 1 are built of timber supplied by the 

 forests of this country, and the ropes are made of the fibres of different 

 native plants. The most remarkable of the trees is that which yields 

 the famous herb called ' mate," or Paraguay tea, which is in general 

 use in all the southern countries of South America as a beverage. The 

 country which separates the yerbales (or forests from which the leaf 

 is procured) from the Paraguay is without cultivation, and covered 

 with thorny trees intersected by marshy grounds. 



As Paraguay does not contain such extensive prairies as those 

 which occur in all the surrounding countries, the number of horses, 

 mules, and cattle is not so great, but it is sufficient for the internal 

 consumption. Host of the animals peculiar to South America are 

 found in this country ; and the monkeys commit great depredations 

 in the fruit-trees and corn fields. Various kinds of birds, as parrots 

 and parroquets, pheasant*, toucans, humming-birds, and cockatoos, are 

 numerous. The royal duck, or pate-real, is nearly as large as a goose, 

 with a red and varied plumage. Wild bees are found in great numbers 

 in the wood*, and both honey and wax constitute articles of export 

 The large nuts of this country have attracted the attention of naturalists 

 on account of the extensive habitations which they build. The mineral 

 productions are not known. 



The manufactures are only of the comparatively few articles 

 required for domestic consumption ; and are carried on in the most 

 primitive manner. The cotton for instance " is cleaned and spun by 

 Land, and generally wove by itinerant manufacturers who carry about 

 on horseback a portable loom, which they tie to a tree wherever it 

 may be requisite to set it up fur use." 



The commerce of Paraguay might become of great importance were 

 personal security established in the country, and the energy of the 

 inhabitants directed to peaceful pursuits. The country is extremely 

 fertile in itelf, and capable of furnishing very varied agricultural pro- 

 ducts ; the extensive forests supply immense quantities of valuable 

 tiuiU'r; and her rivers are the highways to a great portion of the 

 mining region* of Bolivia and Brazil. ' Before ita independence Paraguay 

 exported good* to Buenoa Ayres alone amounting in value to above 

 850,000t, confuting of 8,000,000 Iba. of mate", 1, 000,000 Ibs. of tobacco, 

 besides cotton, *ugar, molaases, spirits, Ac. During the dictatorship 

 of Francia in Paraguay the foreign trade, and even that carried on with 

 the neighbouring provinces, was almost entirely destroyed ; and not 

 much progress has since been made towards its restoration, notwith- 

 standing that treaties have been made with the Argentine Confedera- 

 tion, Brazil, and Bolivia, for the opening of the Rio de la Plata, the 

 Parana, and the Paraguay to each other's flags, and also permitting the 

 free navigation of the rivers by foreign vessels. The chief exports at 

 present are of mato, timber, sugar, cotton, tobacco, and bides. 



Inhabitant*. In a few of the towns and their vicinity live a com- 

 paratively small number of whites ; and a larger number of mestizos, 

 or descendants of Spaniards and Indians, who differ little from them 

 in appearance. Both these classes understand and commonly speak 

 the language of the Ouaranis. This tribe of aborigines forms the 

 bulk of the population, and in manners and civilisation they approach 

 nearer the whites who reside among them than any other of the 

 aboriginal tribes of America. Some other tribes, as the Payaguas and 

 Nalicunga, are dispersed among the Guaranis, but they consist of a 

 small number of individuals. 



Political Division and Towns. The republic is divided into eight 

 departuienta, called, after their capitals Assuncion, Conception, 

 Santiago, Villa-Rica, Curuguaty, Candelaria, San Fernando, and Santa 

 Hermeugilda. 



Assuncion, the capital of the republic, population about 8000, is 

 built near the left bank of the Paraguay River, in the form of an 

 amphitheatre, and consists merely of one street of considerable length, 

 with several connected lanes, aud a great number of small houses, 

 standing apart, and surrounded by groves of orange-trees. The 

 cathedral is a building without any pretensions. The government- 

 house is an extensive but tasteless edifice of only one floor. The best 

 buildings of the town are a few convents. The inhabitants are mostly 

 the descendants of Europeans and Indians, with a few negroes. C .' 

 in the interior, about 30 miles S.E. from Assuncion, population about 

 2000; and Curtufuaty, about 40 miles N.E. from Assuncion, population 

 about 3000, are said to be places of some trade. Neembuco, on the 

 Paraguay, towards the southern extremity of the republic, population 

 about 4000, is the chief trading town for foreign vessels. nUm Itealc 

 de Conception, also on the Paraguay, but considerably higher, popu- 

 lation 4000, is the chief mart for the herb mato, the principal supply 

 of which is obtained from the forests some distance cast of the town. 

 Villa Rica, in the interior, about 25 miles E.S.E. from Assuucion 

 population about 3000, is the centre of the southern mate district. 



History. After the Spaniards had discovered the wide embouchure 

 of the Rio de La Plata, they sailed upwards, and tried to establish a 

 colony on the banks of the river. But two attempts of this kind 

 failed. The settlements contained only a small number of settler.-;, 

 who were soon destroyed by the warlike natives of the plains. In 

 1535, the Adelantado, Don Pedro de Mendoza, was sent with a con- 

 siderable number of vessels to found a great colony. He sailed up 

 the Puranii and Paraguay for nearly a thousand miles, until he came 

 to Paraguay, where he founded the town of Assuueiou. From this 

 place the Spaniards by degrees spread over all the countries of South 

 America south of 20 S. lat, and east of the Andes. In the 16th 

 century the Jesuits were sent to those parts for the purpose of con- 

 verting the natives to Christianity. Their success was not great until 

 they obtained from the Spanish court a mandate (about 1690) forbid- 

 ding all other Spaniards to enter their Missiones without their per- 

 mission. The Jesuits settled among the numerous tribe called the 

 Ouarauis, on both sides of the river Parand, above the island of Apipe, 

 aud succeeded in bringing them to a certain degree of civilisation. 

 When the Jesuits were expelled, in 1767, the Missioues were inhabited 

 by more than 100,000 civilised Indians, of whom perhaps less than 

 half the number were in Paraguay. They afterwards dispersed through 

 different parts of La Plata, but it seems that the majority settled in 

 Paraguay, which after that time was entirely subjected to the viceroy 

 of Buenos Ayres. In 1810, when an independent government was 

 constituted iu Buenos Ayres, Paraguay refused to acknowledge its 

 authority, and defeated General Belgrano, who had been sent to bring 

 Paraguay to obedience. The country soou after declared its independ- 

 ence. After some changes iu the government, Doctor Gaspar Uodrigm-/. 

 de Francia, a lawyer, was in 1814 elected dictator. In 1S17 he became 

 dictator for life ; and he ruled the country with an iron sway till his 

 death in 1840. During his long and cruel despotism he adopted the 

 policy of the Jesuits, absolutely prohibiting all intercourse with foreign 

 countries, and placing the intercourse with the neighbouring provinces 

 under the most irksome restrictions. No person who entered the 

 country was permitted again to leave it without special permission from 

 Francia himself. General Lopez, who has been dictator since 1844, has 

 manifested a growing desire to open Paraguay to commercial inter- 

 course, not only with the neighbouring provinces but also with I 

 countries, and, as already mentioned, has entered into treaties by 

 which the free navigation of the Paraguay, Parauit, and La Plata rivers 

 is secured. 



(Parish, Bucnot Ayres and the Provinces of the Hio tic la Plata, 

 2nd edit. ; Robertson, Letter! from Paraguay ; Beaumont, Travels in 

 liucnos Ayret; McCaun, Two Thoiuand Miles Ride through the A / y // 

 tine Province!.) 



PARAMARIBO. [GUYANA, Dutch.] 



PARAMATTA. [WALES, NEW SOUTH.] 



PARANA. [BRAZIL ; ENTBE Rios ; PARAGUAY.] 



PARENZO. [ISTRIA.] 



PARGA, a town in the province of Albania in European Turkey, on 

 the coast of the Ionian Sea, opposite to the Isle of Paxo, from which 

 it is 12 miles distant, in 89 17' N. lat., 20 18' E. long. This place is 

 first mentioned in the 15th century, when, amidst the wreck of the 

 Eastern empire, the inhabitants of Parga sought safety in the protec- 

 tion of Venice, retaining however their own. municipal council, the 



