in 1857 of twenty-five departments, including one in the Gran Chaco, and the other on the left bank of the Paraná River. Each of these divisions had one or more towns, villages, or chapels, with a military commandant, a juge de paix, and a curate. The capital is Asuncion, numbering some 12,000 souls, which anchors raise to 15,000, to 21,000, and Colonel du Gratz to 48,000. Other places of name are El Pilar, which we shall visit, Villa Rica, a pauper central settlement in the richest lands, hence generally known as Villa Pobre, and differing little from the various Pueblos, Pueblitos, and Capillas, south of the Tebicuary. It lies in south latitude 25° 47′ 10″, and west longitude 56° 30′ 20″, some 323 feet above Asuncion, and 580 higher than Buenos Aires. Villa Real is built on the river eighty leagues above Asuncion. Twenty leagues further is Tevego, now Fort Bourbon or Olympo, the "Botany Bay" of Dr. Francia; and there are sundry minor places, as Encarnacion on the Parana, and La Villeta, S. Pedro, and Concepcion on the Paraguay, rivers. These are dignified with the pompous titles of cities and towns. They are mere villages and hamlets.
Where the limits of a country are not accurately laid down we know what to think of its census. Moreover, the case of Paraguay is complicated by the admission or non-admission of the so-called "Indian" element. We must therefore not be astonished to find that, about the beginning of the war, the extremes of estimate varied between 350,000 and 1,500,000.
In 1795 the accurate Azara gives the official census as 97,480 souls, including 11,000 "mission Indians." In 1818 Messrs. Rodney and Graham[1] report 300,000. In
- ↑ Mr. (sometimes called Colonel) Graham, United States' Consul at Buenos Aires, was sent to Paraguay by Mr. Brent, American Charge d' Affaires to the Argentine Confederation. He was received with great suspicion, and he was long delayed at El Pilar.
