Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/34

 from Villa Rica to the Apa River, traverses the Republic like a dorsal spine, may be pronounced to be in parts completely unknown.

The limits of the Republic are undetermined; upon this subject she has differences with all her neighbours,—with Brazil, with Bolivia, and with the Argentine Confederation. A detailed history of these disputes would fill many a volume. She claims to extend between S. lat. 22° 58′ and 37° 50′; and she traces her frontier up the Parana after its confluence with the Paraguay River to the Cordillera of the Misiones, thence to the line of the S. Antonio Mini till it falls into the River of Curitiba, then again bending westward up the Parana, and more westward still up the Ivenheima affluent (so called by the Brazilians, the Igurey or Yaguarey of the Spaniards), and finally over the mountains to the valley of the Rio Blanco (S. lat. 21°). Westward the limitation remains for adjustment with Bolivia, and to the southwest the Rio Bermejo separates the Paraguayan from the Argentine Republic. This demarcation, including the disputed territory between the Rio Blanco and Rio Apa (the Crooked Stream alias Corrientes) and others, involves a trifle of square 860 leagues.

Under these circumstances, as may be imagined, the area of the Republic is a disputed point. I will briefly cite the extreme views of other authors.

Messrs. Rengger and Longchamps (1825) allow to her 10,000 square leagues.

Mr. Demersay's estimate is :