134 



PROVINCE OF PARANNA. 



CHAP. VI. 



PROVINCE OF PARANNA. 



Boundaries — Climate — Productions — Matte the most lucrative — First Discoverers 

 — Proceedings of the Spanish Jesuits — Guarani Indians formed into Redugoes, 

 or Villages — Nature of those Missions — Expulsion of the Jesuits — Delivery 

 of the Missions to other Ecclesiastics — their Decay — Mountains — Mineralogy — 

 Rivers and Lakes — Phytology — Zoology — Towns, Parishes, SfC. — Remaining 

 Establishments of the Jesuitical Missions. 



This province is bounded on the north by Matto Grosso, on the west and south 

 by the Paraguay, and on the east by the Uruguay and the Paranna, which latter 

 affords it the name, and divides it into two unequal parts, northern and southern. 

 It is altogether situated in the temperate zone, between 24° and 33° 30' south 

 latitude, being six hundred and fifty miles long from north to south, and more 

 than two hundred and fifty at its greatest width from east to west. The winter, 

 which commences in May and lasts till October, is cold. The prevailing wind in 

 this province is from the south-west. The climate is temperate and wholesome, 

 with the exception of those marshy situations, and others which occasionally 

 overflow, where the fever reigns periodically in certain months. This is a 

 country almost universally low, with few mountains and hills, and these of 

 inconsiderable elevation. The land is generally excellent, and adapted to 

 almost all the productions of the torrid zone, as well as those of the temperate. 

 Wheat and Indian corn are abundant, as are the plantations of cane, cotton, 

 and mandioca. The most lucrative, however, are those of the matte. These 

 productions do not prosper generally in all the districts ; wheat rarely grows 

 but in the southern parts, and matte in the northern. The peach tree is so 

 prodigiously abundant in the southern islands of the Paraguay and the adjacent 

 country, that they are frequently cut down in order to heat the oven with their 

 branches. They are not met with to the north of St. F6. 



Sebastian Caboto and Diogo Garcia were the discoverers of this country, on 

 advancing up the Paraguay in 1526. 



The colony of Assumption was the first establishment in the province after 



