Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/378

328 of their progenitors, which have taken a strong hold of them, contribute greatly to maintain them in this state of indolence and inaction. It is distressing to humanity to see a senate, free from the controul of a particular governor, such as ought to reside in this province distinctly from that of Potosi, forget the paternal cares requisite to the welfare of the community, and employ itself solely in disputes respecting the degree of pre-eminence which each of the members fancies to correspond with his illustrious origin. The women, however, to their praise be it spoken, are not devoid of industry. Endued with much chastity, and possessed of a tolerable share of beauty (if a vigorous form, a lofty stature, and the carmine which glows on their cheeks, can be so denominated), they imitate the females of Catalonia and Gallicia, in an alternate application to the laborious employments of the field, and the domestic labours of the distaff and the shuttle. They fabricate a kind of stuff, either plain or figured, of which they form chuces, carpets, and other articles of domestic utility.

The rivers by which it is intersected, contribute greatly to the fertility of this valley. That of San Juan, which separates the province of Tarija from Chichas and the vale of Cinti, after having descended by the centre of the former of these provinces, takes a circuitous course, at Livi-Livi, from south to north, and flows until it unites with the river which originates in the above-mentioned valley of Cinti. This junction having been effected, it makes a new bend towards the west, and is denominated the river of Pilaya, until it meets with the Pilcomayo, the name of which it assumes in its progress through the centre of the territory inhabited by the unconquered Indians. The Guadalquivir rises in the northern part of