DON FELIX D'AZARA. 21 



much short of five hundred miles, to the capital of 

 the province of the same name, that I might con- 

 cert, with the Portuguese general, the best method 

 of commencing and conducting our labours. After 

 having performed this service, on the very night 

 of my return to the Plata, I was ordered to set 

 off as soon as possible to Assumption, the capital of 

 Paraguay, to make the necessary preparations for 

 the Portuguese commissioners. The Spanish engi- 

 neers soon completed the task assigned to them ; 

 but as the Portuguese, by the strict execution of 

 the treaty, would have been obliged to abandon 

 the districts which they occupied, they sought every 

 occasion to delay as long as possible the termination 

 of their labours, and to elude the terms of their en- 

 gagement/' In all this, instead of being checked, 

 they were decidedly assisted by the carelessness and 

 culpable connivance of the Spanish governors. All 

 this placed Don Felix in a very distressing position, 

 in which, however, he was determined not passively 

 to succumb, and if he could not employ himself 

 usefully in one way, he resolved to do so in another. 

 " Becoming now," says he, " acquainted with their 

 artifices, and perceiving that instead of promoting 

 the settlement of the limits, their object was to pro^ 

 long the operation indefinitely, by all kinds of 

 delays, by appeals to Europe, and by the most 

 groundless and ridiculous pretexts, I bethought me 

 how I might best improve the long delays which 

 were in this way occasioned; and conceiving that 

 the viceroys would neither grant me their permission 



