Inhabitants.—In a few of the towns and their. vicinity live a com paratively small number of whites; and a larger number of mestizos, or descendants of Spaniards and Indians, who differ little from them in appearance. Both these classes understand and commonly speak the language of the Guaranis. This tribe of aborigines forms the bulk of the population, and in manners and civilisation they approach nearer the whites who reside amoug them than any other of the aboriginal tribes of America. Some other tribes, as the Payaguas and Nalicunga, are dispersed among the Guaranis, but they consist of a small number of individuals.
Political Division and Totons.—The republic is divided into eight departments, called, after their Coucepcion, Santiago, Villa-Ries, Curuguaty, Candelaria, San Fernando, and Santa Ilermengilda.
Assuncion, the capital of the republic, population about 8000, is built near the left bank of the Paraguay River, in the form of an amphitheatre, and consists merely of one street of considerable length, with several connected lanes, and a great number of small houses, standing apart, and surrounded by groves of orange-trees. The cathedral is a building without any pretensions. The goverument house is an extensive but tasteless edifice of only one floor. The best buildings of the town are a few convents. The inhabitants are mostly the descendants of Europeans and Indians, with a few negroes. eazapa, in the interior, about 30 miles S.E. from Assuncion, population about 2000; and Curugualy, about 40 miles N.E. from population about 3000, are said to be places of some trade. Aiernbuco, on the Paraguay, towards the southern extremity of the republic, population about 4000, is the chief trading town for foreign vessels. rata Reale de Concepcion, also on the Paraguay, but considerably higher, popu lation 4000, is the chief mart for the herb mat4, the principal supply of which is obtained from the forests some distance east of the town. Villa Rica, in the interior, about 25 miles E.S.E. from Assuncion population about 3000, is the centre of the southern math district.
History.—After the Spaniards had discovered the wide embouchure of the Rio de La Plata, they sailed upwards, and tried to establish a colony on the banks of the river. But two attempts of this kind failed. The settlements coutained only a small number of settlers, who were soon destroyed by the warlike natives of the plains. In 1535, the Adelantado, Don Pedro de Mendoza, was sent with a con siderable number of vessels to found a great colony. Ho sailed up
the Parand and Paraguay for nearly a thousand miles, until he came to Paraguay, where he founded the town of Assunciou. From this place the Spaniards by degrees spread over all the countries of South America south of 20° S. let, and east of the Andes. In the 16th century the Jesuits were sent to those parts for the purpose of con verting the natives to Christianity. Their success wan not great until they obtained from the Spanish court a mandate (about 1690) forbid ding all other Spaniards to enter their Missiones without their per mission. The Jesuits settled among the numerous tribe called the Guaranis, on both sides of the river Paranit, above the island of Apip6, and succeeded in bringiug them to a certain degree of civilisation. When the Jesuits were expelled, in 1767, the blissioues were inhabited by more than 100,000 civilised Indians, of whom perhaps less than half the number were in Paraguay. They afterwards dispersed through different parts of La Plata, but It seems that the majority settled in Paraguay, which after that time was entirely subjected to the viceroy of Buenos Ayres. In 1810, when an independent government was constituted in Buenos Ayres, Paraguay refused to acknowledge its authority, and defeated General Belgrano, who had been sent to bring Paraguay to obedience. The country soon after declared its independ ence. After some changes in the government, Doctor Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia, a lawyer, was in 1814 elected dictator. In 1817 he became dictator for life ; and he ruled the country with an iron sway till his death in 1840. During his long and cruel despotism he adopted the policy of the Jesuits, absolutely prohibiting all intercourse with foreign countries, and placing the intercourse with the neighbouring provinces under the most irksome restrictions. No person who entered the country was permitted again to leave it without special permission from Francia himself. General Lopez, who has been dictator siuce 1844, has manifested a growing desire to open Paraguay to commercial inter course, not only with the neighbouring provinces but also with foreign countries, and, as already mentioned, has entered into treaties by which the free navigation of the Paraguay, Paraint, and La Plata rivers is secured.
(Parish, Buenos Ayres and the Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, 2nd edit.; Robertson, Letters from Paraguay ; Beaumont, Travels in Buenos Ayres; McCann, Two Thousand Miles Ride through the Argen tine Provinces.)