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306, commerce, the study of antiquity, and that of natural history, are seldom directed to poor countries, in which, it may be said, they never make a permanent establishment. In the centre of Spain an idea was entertained of the Batuecas, that is, of the inhabitants of a province which, on account of its wretchedness, was thought to have subsisted during many centuries, secluded from all traffic and social intercourse; and in America this same idea is realized in the province of Chichas y Tarija, the description of which is about to be given.

These vallies, capable, through their fertility and the abundant produce they might be made to supply, to revive the prodigies of ancient Sicily, and of the fabulous Arcadia, have been condemned, by their poverty, to remain confounded and forgotten. The Methodical Encyclopedia, Buffier, Echard, Busching,