328 



TOPOGRAPHY. 



bility of their progenitors, which have taken a strong hold of 

 them, contribute greatly to maintain them in this state of in- 

 dolence and ina6lion. It is distressing to humanity to see a 

 senate, free from the controul of a particular governor, such 

 as ought to reside in this province distinftly from that of Po- 

 tosi, forget the paternal cares requisite to the welfare of the 

 community, and employ itself solely in disputes respe6ling the 

 degree of pre-eminence which each of the members fancies to 

 correspond with his illustrious origin. The women, however, 

 to their praise be it spoken, are not devoid of industry. En- 

 dued with much chastity, and possessed of a tolerable share of 

 beauty (if a vigorous form, a lofty stature, and the carmine 

 which glows on their cheeks, can be so denominated), they 

 imitate the females of Catalonia and Gallicia, in an alternate 

 application to the laborious employments of the field, and the 

 domestic labours of the distaff and the shuttle. They fabri- 

 cate a kind of stuff, either plain or figured, of which they 

 form chuces, carpets, and other articles of domestic utility. 



The rivers by which it is interse6led, contribute greatly to 

 the fertility of this valley. That of San Juan, which separates 

 the province of Tarija from Chichas and the vale of Cinti, 

 after having descended by the centre of the former of these 

 provinces, takes a circuitous course, at Livi-Livi, from south 

 to north, and flows until it unites with the river which origi- 

 nates in the above-mentioned valley of Cinti. This jun6tion 

 having been effe6ted, it makes a new bend towards the west, 

 and is denominated the river of Pilaya, until it meets with the 

 Pilcomayo, the name of which it assumes in its progress 

 through the centre of the territory inhabited by the uncon- 

 quered Indians. The Guadalquivir rises in the northern part 



of 



