ree, 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.

When the yerba was thoroughly scorched, the fire was swept from the
barbacue or arch; the ground was then swept, and pounded with heavy
mallets, into the hardest and smo