A great trade is carried on with it at Sta.  Fe, where it is brought from the Rio de la Plata.  There are two sorts, one called “Yerba de Palos,” the other, which is finer, “Yerba de Carnini.”  Frezier tells us that, in the earlier part of the 17th century, above 50,000 arrobas, or more than 12,000 cwt. of this herb were brought into Peru from Paraguay, exclusive of about 25,000 arrobas taken to Chile; and Father Charleroix, in his “History of Paraguay,” states the quantity shipped to Peru annually at 100,000 arrobas, or nearly 2,500,000 lbs.

My friend, Mr. W.P.  Robertson, has favored me with some details as to the production of Paraguay tea.  His brother has graphically described a visit he paid to the wastes or woods of the Yerba tree, with a colony of manufacturers from Assumption.  These woods were situated chiefly in the country adjacent to a small miserable town called Villa Real, about 150 miles higher up the river Paraguay than Assumption.  The master manufacturer, with about forty or fifty hired peons or servants, mounted on mules, and a hundred bulls and sumpter mules, set out on their expedition, and having discovered in the dense wood a suitable locality, forthwith a settlement is established, and the necessary wigwams for dwellings, &c., run up.  The next step is the construction of the “tatacua.”  This was a small space of ground, about six feet square, of which the soil was beaten down with heavy mallets, till it became a hard and consistent foundation.  At the four corners of this space, and at right angles, were driven in four very strong stakes, while upon the surface of it were laid large logs of wood.  This was the place at which the leaves and small sprigs of the yerba tree, when brought from the woods, were first scorched—­fire being set to the logs of wood within it.  By the side of the tatacua was spread an ample square net of hidework, of which, after the scorched leaves were laid upon it, a peon gathered up the four corners and proceeded with his burthen on his shoulders to the second place constructed, the barbacue.  This was an arch of considerable span, and of which the support consisted of three strong trestles.  The centre trestle formed the highest part of the arch.  Over this superstructure were laid cross-bars strongly railed to stakes on either side of the central supports, and so formed the roof of the arch.  The leaves being separated after the tatacua process, from the grosser boughs of the yerba tree, were laid on this roof, under which a large fire was kindled.  Of this fire the flames ascended, and still further scorched the leaves of the yerba.  The two peons beneath the arch, with long poles, took care, as far as they could, that no ignition should take place; and in order to extinguish this, when it did occur, another peon was stationed at the top of the arch.  Along both sides of this there were two deal planks, and, with a long stick in his hand, the peon ran along these planks, and instantly extinguished any incipient sparks of fire that appeared.