164 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 
had become an article of trade to the western provinces of Argentina, 
to Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. The chief collecting 
region was the Maracayu district. Asuncién was the outlying depot, 
whence the produce was sent by river to Santa Fé, on the Parana, the 
chief depét for external trade. Frézier (1712-14) writes that the ordinary 
route was from Santa Fé to Jujuy in the Argentine by wagon and thence 
to Potosi in Bolivia by mule-back. Chile, according to Juan and Ulloa 
(1740-44), was supplied direct from Buenos Aires, and passed supplies 
on to Peru. 
The most vivid and detailed account of what had developed into a well- 
organised industry was given by the Robertsons in the first half of the 
nineteenth century. Then, the chief collecting regions, the montes, 
or woods where the ilex flourished, were near Villa Real, about one 
hundred and fifty miles up river from Asuncién. The work of collecting 
was lucrative, but so arduous that it was usually performed by newcomers 
and men in debt. These concessionaires were financed or ‘ grub-staked ’ 
by merchants of Asuncién, who expected repayment in the form of yerba. 
Each concessionaire hired twenty to fifty workers, and the difficult 
journey through untracked forest to the ilex groves (yerbales) ended when 
a promising locality was reached ; here camping-ground was prepared for 
a stay of six months or so, with huts for the personnel and corrals for the 
mules and oxen. The tatacua, a space some six feet square of hard-beaten 
earth, with a post at each corner, was made ready for the preliminary 
curing of the leaf, a simple process of scorching the masses of verdure 
over burning logs. 
Nearby the barbacua was prepared, an arch of boughs supported on 
trestles; upon this arch the ilex leaves, now readily separated from 
large twigs and boughs, were placed for the secondary drying. ‘The fire 
built below the arch was carefully tended to prevent the leaves from 
burning, and to ensure complete drying; and when the process was 
complete the barbacua and the ashes of the fire were removed, the ground 
swept and beaten smooth, and the dried ilex leaves placed on it, and 
pounded with wooden mallets. 
The powdered or broken leaf was then packed tightly into sacks made 
from freshly flayed bulls’ hides (serones), sewn up and left to dry. Each 
seron weighed 200 to 220 lbs. when dry. A similar process is employed 
to-day. 
The origin of the practice of infusing the leaves of the ilex is very 
obscure. The earliest mention of the drink I have quoted above from 
Nicholas Duran (1626-27). By that time, as the extract shows, the 
beverage had spread far and wide through South America. But there 
is no account of its discovery. Pinelo, writing in 1636, refers to an 
author, Robles Cornejo, where he says a full account of the herb is given. 
Cornejo’s work, Examen de los Simples Medicinales, dated 1617, must 
contain the first reference to the drink. But the book existed only in 
manuscript and, though mentioned in Cejador y Franca’s Historia de la 
Lengua y Literatura Castellana, has absolutely disappeared. 
So far, evidence would seem to show that the drink wasa native discovery, 
developed by the Jesuits ; but a study of the early history of the country 
