568 



That part of this vast basin extending from the 

 eastern coast towards the Rio Paraguay, (that 

 is the Capitania of Rio Grande, west of the 

 island Saint Catherine, the Cisplatine province 

 of Paraguay properly so called, between the 

 Parana and the Rio Paraguay) does not present 

 a surface so perfectly smooth as the part si- 

 tuated on the west and south-east of the Rio 

 de la Plata, and which has been known for 

 ages by the name of Pampas, derived from 

 the Peruvian or Quichua language *. Geog- 

 nostically speaking, these two regions of east 

 and west form only one basin, bounded on 

 the east by the Sierra de Villarica or do Es- 

 pinhazo, which loses itself in the Capitania 

 of Saint Paul, towards the parallel of 24° ; 

 issuing on the north-east by the monticules^, 



, * Hatan Pampa signifies in that language, a great plain. 

 We find the word Pampa also in Riobamba and Guallabam- 

 ba ; the Spaniards, in order to soften the geographical names, 

 change the p into b. 



f On the south of the Villa of Cuyaba, or rather on the 

 south of the RioMbotetey (Emboteteu or Mondego), a moun- 

 tainous country stretches towards the south, known by the 

 pompous names of Cordilleras of Amambay, of San Jose, and 

 of Maracajou. According to the fine manuscript map of the 

 ancient viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata (by Don Miguel de 

 Lastarria, 1804), of which I owe the cojnmunication to the 

 kindness of M. Malte-Brun, the whole northern part of Pa- 

 raguay, between the mission of Curuguati (lat. 24j°) and 

 the rivers Mbotetey and Monice (Yaguari) is full of hills, 



