324 



TOPOGRAPHY. 



department by several rugged mountains, similar to those of 

 the Pyrenees. 



When the traveller has journied about a hundred leagues 

 from Pasco, in a northern direction, he quits these snow-clad 

 mountains, and, having descended several steep hills, which 

 may more properly be named precipices, enters the delightful 

 vallies of Tarija. Here it would require the pen of Fenelon, 

 to describe the serenity of the sky, the fine temperature of the 

 air, the beauty and fertility of the soil, the abundance of the 

 waters, &c. ; but as we do not possess his sublime eloquence, 

 we shall confine ourselves to the observation, that, according 

 to all we have seen, heard, and read, of the two Americas, 

 there is not any other province which can be brought in com- 

 parison with the country of which we treat. There may be 

 found wheat, maize, and all the other produ6tions essential to 

 the sustenance of man, together with the tree which yields the 

 herb of Paraguay, the cocoa, the vine, and the flax which is 

 sown in the distridt named la Recoleta, merely for the purpose 

 of gathering the seeds. If the abundance of the produce be 

 not proportionate to the fecundity of these vallies, it is either 

 on account of the want of application of those who reside in 

 them, or through the poverty of the circumjacent departments 

 of Lipes and Chichas, which cannot make any considerable 

 demands for the productions. The stores which reward the 

 labours of the cultivator, may, however, be deemed sterility, 

 when compared with what the lands occupied by the Chiri- 

 huanos, and other tribes of free Indians, might be made to 

 yield. Those who have seen them, give a description of them 

 similar to the one made to Moses by those who first explored 

 the Land of Promise. The most noticeable circumstance, in 



these 



