Walckenaer's publication at Paris, in 1809, of the Travels of Don Felix Azara, one of the King of Spain's commissioners on that service, contains a general review of the labours of those officers, and is perhaps the best work in print upon the countries which it describes; still it can only be regarded as a very imperfect sketch of the information collected by one of many able men employed upon that particular service.

Another of the commissioners, Don Diego Alvear, drew up an historical and geographical work upon the provinces of Paraguay and the Missions, quite equal in interest, if not more so, than that by Azara, for a MS. copy of which I have to thank his son, the present General Alvear.

Colonel Cabrer, the only surviving officer of all those employed on this important survey, was living during the time I was at Buenos Ayres, and for many years had, to my knowledge, been engaged in drawing up an elaborate account of the whole progress of the survey from first to last; in his possession I saw a complete set of all the beautiful maps executed by the Spanish officers, the originals of which are deposited at Madrid. He is lately dead, and I understand that the authorities of Buenos Ayres have been in treaty for the purchase of his papers, which will be of the greatest importance, not only to them, but to the governments of the Banda Oriental, of Paraguay, and of Bolivia, whenever the time comes, as it must ere long, for definitively fixing their respective boundaries with Brazil. I considered myself fortunate in obtaining copies of several detached portions of these surveys, and particularly of an original map, drawn from them by Colonel Cabrer himself for General Alvear, when commanding-in-chief in the Banda Oriental in 1827.

There is no doubt that, so far as the Spanish frontiers extended, these maps are the best existing data respecting the countries which they delineate: on the other hand, we must look to the Portuguese authorities for materials for the adjoining provinces of Brazil. The most perfect map of that part of the continent perhaps ever made was drawn at Rio de Janeiro in 1827, for the use of the Marquis of Barbacena, when appointed to command the Emperor's army in the war with Buenos Ayres, and was taken with his baggage at the battle of Ituzaingo, and afterwards given to me. It comprises, on a large scale, all the country lying east of the Uruguay, from the Island of St. Catharine's to the River Plate. On my return to England I placed it in the hands of Mr. John Arrowsmith, with the rest of my geographical materials.

As regards the greater part of the interior provinces west of the Paraguay, the information obtainable is very imperfect; indeed of some vast portions of those regions, it may be said that nothing but the general courses of the principal rivers is as yet known. The immense tract called the Gran-Chaco is still in possession of aboriginal tribes, and other extensive districts are inhabited by people who, though of a different race, seem little beyond them in civilization.

It was not the policy of Spain to take the trouble of accurately examining her colonial possessions, except when obliged to do so in furtherance of measures of self-defence, or in the expectation of some profitable return in the precious metals, the primary objects of her solicitude: and, but that the high road from Potosi to Buenos Ayres ran through them, I believe in Europe we should hardly have known, till recently, even the names of the capital towns of the intermediate provinces: it is only since their independence that they have brought themselves into notice, and that any information has been acquired of the nature and importance of their native products.

When I arrived at Buenos Ayres in 1824, in hopes of obtaining the best existing accounts of their statistics, I addressed myself to the governors themselves; and I have every reason to believe, under the circumstances, that they were desirous to meet my wishes. I received from them all the most civil assurances to that effect; but, excepting from the Entre Rios, Cordova, La Rioja, and Salta, I found the authorities themselves utterly unable to communicate anything of a definite or satisfactory nature; and, although they promised to set to work to collect what I asked for, I soon found they had most of them other matters on hand which had more urgent calls on their attention.

Of the information which I did so obtain, the most complete by far was from General Arenales, the Governor of Salta, who not only forwarded to me an interesting report upon the extent and various productions of that province, but, what I less expected, a very fair map of it, drawn by his own son Colonel Arenales; an individual who has since distinguished himself amongst his countrymen by the publication of a work[3] wherein he has with great pains collected all the information he could obtain to elucidate the geography and capabilities of a province which nature seems to have destined to be one of the most important of the Argentine Republic. Were his good example followed by equally intelligent individuals in other parts of the interior, the natives, as well as foreigners, would be greatly assisted in learning not only what are the productions of their own country, but in what manner they might be rendered available in furtherance of its prosperity.

He has done his duty, and rendered a service to his country, by pointing out the great importance of the possibility, now proved beyond a doubt, of navigating the river Vermejo throughout its whole course, from Oran in the heart of the continent to its junction with the Paranã, and thence to the ocean.

Mr. Arrowsmith has adopted his delineation of the course of that river, as laid down from the diary of Cornejo, who descended it in 1790. Soria, who came down it in 1826, was deprived of all his papers in Paraguay; and although, on reaching Buenos Ayres, five years afterwards, he not only published a short account of his voyage, but a map also to illustrate it, being entirely from memory, it is little to be depended upon; neither is it reconcilable with the distance from Oran to the Paraguay, as estimated either by himself or Cornejo.

Of Soria's voyage, besides his own account, I had a much more full and curious narrative from an Englishman of the name of Luke Cresser, who was one of the party, and whose personal adventures would form an entertaining episode in any history of that enterprise. He was a Yorkshireman by birth, and originally a watchmaker, in which trade, after making a little money at Buenos Ayres, he had found his way into the upper provinces, and had finally become a grower of tobacco in the province of Oran. Having a large stock on hand about the time Soria was about to descend the Vermejo, he was induced to ship it, and to embark with him for Buenos Ayres. He was of the greatest service to the party on the voyage, and was severely wounded, in the skirmish they had with the Indians, by an arrow, which pierced his arm, and occasioned him much and long suffering afterwards. On reaching the Paraguay, had Soria listened to his urgent advice and entreaties, he never would have placed himself in Dr. Francia's power; for which, indeed, there does not appear to have been the slightest necessity. When the vessel was detained by that despot's orders, Cresser, like the rest, was stripped of all he possessed; and, after much suffering, was sent to Villa Real,—a wretched establishment on the Paraguay, about 150 miles above Assumption.

There, whilst his companions were bewailing their fate, the more