313 



TOPOGRAPHY. 



same thing happened when the celebrated mines of Lipes were 

 inundated, more particularly the one named, by antonomatia, 

 the table of silver. The miners, abandoning the mountainous 

 territory, came down to the valley, where they sought, in 

 agricultural pursuits, a poorer, but more natural, and less 

 precarious subsistence. 



Among the distinguished personages w^ho settled at Tarija, 

 and honoured it with their residence, was Don Joseph Moreno 

 de Peralta, the brother of our celebrated Peralta ; — of that 

 indefatigable writer, who, glowing with an ardent patriotism, 

 undertook to emulate the eloquence of Xenophon, and the 

 sweetness of Virgil, in describing the heroical deeds of his 

 fellow-citizens, and in singing the foundation of his glorious 

 country. 



In the above-mentioned state of abundance and felicity, the 

 province remained during the life of Luis de Fuentes, and 

 beneath his fostering prote6tion. Juan Porcel de Padilla, 

 who inherited his titles, but not his virtues, proposed to the 

 royal audience of la Plata, the conquest of the valley named 

 de las Salinas, the last on the confines of the province, to which 

 the Chirihuanos Indians had retired. He obtained the per- 

 mission to form a settlement ; and in the expedition which 

 ensued, contrived, by the dint of much cruelty and violence, 

 to give a certain degree of extension to the limits in that part. 

 This was not, however, attended by any eventual benefit, 

 either to the nation or to himself, and only served to render 

 the Spanish name odious, and his own detestable. The Chiri- 

 huanos transmitted to their posterity the remembrance of the 

 tyrannies exercised by Padilla, and the desire to avenge them. 

 In the year 1727, they broke out into open hostilities, and 



made 



