PARAGUAY, a great river of South America, which forms the western boundary of the republic just described. Its head waters are formed by a great number of streams which rise in those mountainous ridges called Sierra del Pary, or Paraguay, a portion of the extensive Paricis, situated in the Brazilian province of Matto Grosso, in latitude 13. 30. south. A little below the last of a series of seven lakes, called the Sete Lagoas, which communicate with each other by narrow outlets, the Paraguay flows for a short distance through a swampy country in a northerly direction; it then winds round by the west, and takes a southerly course, which it maintains to its confluence with the river Parana, at the south-western extremity of Paraguay. The first large stream that joins it is the Xauru, which originates in the campos of the Serra Paricis, and after flowing a long way southward, bends to the east-south-east, and falls into the Paraguay in latitude 16. 25. Father Quiroga informs us, that, below the Xauru, the Paraguay separates into two considerable branches, the principal one running in a narrow but deep channel through the Xarayes, and the other branch flowing some leagues to the westward. The Xarayes is an immense lake formed by the abundant rains which fall during the months of November, December, January, and February. At this season the streams and rivers which feed the Paraguay become prodigiously swelled; and the latter river, unable to continue in its legitimate channel, inundates the country for many leagues on both sides. A great part of the beds of the St Lourenço, Tucouary, and Mondego, and other tributaries on the eastern side, as well as the small lakes on the western side, which appear to remain permanently, become portions of this periodical Caspian; and the elevated lands assume the appearance of islands, inhabited by an accumulation of birds and wild beasts. Whilst the floods continue, it is customary to navigate over the plains where the current is less rapid, traversing prodigious plantations of rice annually reproduced by nature without any human assistance, or sustaining any damage from the waters, because it grows as they increase, always presenting, besides the ear, a considerable portion of the stalk above the flood. As the quantity of rain which falls is much greater in some years than in others, the size of the Xarayes varies accordingly; and as its figure or contour depends on the nature of the country over which it spreads, it is also extremely irregular, and cannot be accurately described. Azara, who is always to be depended upon, thus speaks of this great lake. "It commences before the seventeenth degree of latitude, and it may have in this place twenty leagues of breadth to the east of the river Paraguay. It preserves nearly the same size until the twenty-second degree, that is to say, during more than one hundred leagues, without speaking of the Sugar Loaf, Pau-de-Azucar, and other little mountains which it surrounds with its waters. To the west of the same river the lake commences at 16. 30. and continues to 17. 30., immersing many leagues of the province of Chiquitos. From 17. 30. to 19. 30. its extent is inconsiderable; but afterwards, to the twenty-third degree, it continues to extend much in the Chaco, and still more in the country of the Chiquitos. We may, by approximation, estimate its length at one hundred and ten leagues, and its breadth at forty." During a great part of the year it remains perfectly dry, and covered with the corn-flag and other aquatic plants. There are several other lakes of the Paraguay, of much
the same nature as the Xarayes, such as that of Aguara-caty, about the twenty-fifth degree of latitude; those which are found to the north and south of the lake Ypoa, situated under the twenty-sixth parallel; those of Neembucu, under the twenty-seventh; and a multitude of others, situated on the eastern margin of the Paraguay, and on all the streams which flow into it.
The affluents of this great river are very numerous. The Porruñas, or St Lourenço, joins it in latitude 17. 52., some writers say nearly a degree farther south; and the Tucouary, in latitude 19. 15., in front of a square mass of an elevated range, called Serra Albuquerque. Still further south are the mouths of the Mondego, thirty-five miles below which are two high mounts, fronting each other, upon the banks of the Paraguay. On the western mount is built Fort Coimbra. The Tepoti flows into the great river, in latitude 21. 45.; and this is nearly the limit between what is called the High and the Low Paraguay. The following is the order in which the rivers fall in, according to Father Quiroga, who navigated the Paraguay from the mouth of the Xauru to the confluence of the Parana. The embouchure of the Corrientes is in latitude 22. 2.; that of the Guarambari, in 23. 8.; that of the Ipaneguazu, in 23. 28.; that of the Ipanimini, in 24. 4.; that of the Xexui, in 24. 7.; that of the Quarepoti, in 24. 23.; that of the Ibobi, in 24. 29.; that of the Mboicacé, in 24. 56.; and that of the Salado, in 25. 1. A little below the city of Assumption, the Pilcomayo runs into the Paraguay by three mouths, after a very long course, its origin being amongst the mountain ridges where the city of Potosi is situated. The mouth of the Tebiquari is in 26. 35. The Bermijo, sometimes denominated the Rio Grande, joins in latitude 26. 54., eleven leagues of direct distance from the city of Corrientes, where the magnificent junction of the Parana and Paraguay takes place, in latitude 27. 27. and longitude 58. 22. west of Greenwich. The combined rivers bear the name of Parana till the confluence of the Uruguay, when all these appellations are sunk in that of the Rio de la Plata. The Spaniards, however, sometimes call the river by the latter name as far up as the junction of the Pilcomayo. Of these tributaries of the Paraguay, by far the largest and most important are the rivers Pilcomayo and the Bermijo. They offer great advantages to a commercial people; but, from the scanty population of the country through which the greater part of their course lies, these have not been turned to proper account. Both rise in Bolivia, the first, as has been mentioned, near the city of Potosi, and the second in the vicinity of Tarija. They descend at first with considerable velocity from the heights where they originate; but after they reach the level country, they flow in a tranquil and majestic current. According to the best information, they possess no inconvenience except their numerous windings, which arise from the want of fall in the ground of the Gran Chaco, through which they run, and which is the most level tract of country in all South America.
The Paraguay is navigable for vessels of a hundred to a hundred and thirty tons, provided they do not draw more than ten or at most eleven feet of water. One ship, indeed, of three hundred tons burthen, called the Primera, was built at Villa Real, and floated down the stream to the ocean. To obtain correct ideas of the breadth and depth of the Paraguay, Azara measured it at a time when it was lower than it had ever been known to fall in the memory of man. The breadth in several parts was found to be 1332 French feet; and from soundings made to ascertain its depth, and experiments to prove the velocity of its current, Azara calculated that it discharged, when at the very lowest, 98,303 cubic toises of water per hour. The mean quantity, he supposed, would be double this at least, if not more; so that, according to his estimate, the Paraguay
Paraiba discharges throughout the year, at the city of Assumption, nearly two hundred thousand cubic toises of water per hour. So little does the country slope in this part of the South American continent, that it has been calculated that the Paraguay in its course from north to south does not fall above one foot between the eighteenth and twenty-second degrees of latitude. At the capital the waters of the Paraguay are always clear; for the rains which fall either above or below that city are not sufficient to trouble so large a stream. The periodical increase of the river commences at Assumption in the end of February, and the augmentation continues with admirable equality till the end of June. It then begins to decrease in the same regular manner, and this continues during an equal space of time. This periodical increase is much greater in some years than in others; and at Assumption the waters sometimes rise five or six toises above their ordinary level, thus inundating a great part of the country; yet there is little variation at the commencement or at the end. This increase of the river, which, singularly enough, does not begin till the rains have ended, appears to be thus produced. All the rain which falls is first collected in the great natural reservoir Xarayes; and it is not until this is full to overflowing that it discharges itself into the river Paraguay. We find that the Parana, which has no basin of this description to collect the periodical rains, is at its greatest height in December, about a month after the rainy season has set in; so that by this singularly happy arrangement, the rivers Parana and Plata are kept during a great part of the year at a very considerable size. (R. R. K.)