who were destined in after-years to be the converts of the Jesuits,
and be assembled by them in their famous missions.

`At the discovery of America,' says Felix de Azara in his
`Descripcion y Historia del Paraguay', `the Guaranis were spread
from the Guianas to the shores of the river Plate, and occupied
all the islands of the Parana extending up to latitude 20 Degrees
on the Paraguay, but without crossing either that river or the river Plate.'
They had also a few towns in the province of Chiquitos,
and the nation of the Chiriguanas was an offshoot from them.
In Brazil they were soon all either rendered slaves or so crossed
with the African negro that the pure race has been almost entirely lost,
though the language remains under the name of the Lingoa Geral,
and many words from it have been introduced into Portuguese
spoken by the Brazilians, as `capim', grass; `caipira', half-caste, etc.
In fact, so great is the number of these words, idioms, phrases,
and terms of speech derived from Guarani, that Dr. Baptista de Almeida,
in his preface to his grammar published at Rio Janeiro (1879), computes that
there are more words derived from Guarani than even from Arabic
in the Portuguese spoken in Brazil.* The Guaranis in Brazil
were known either as Tupis, from the word `tupy',** savage, or Tupinambas,
from `tupynamba', literally, the savage or indigenous men.

--
* Perhaps the two most important works upon the language
are the `Tesoro de la Lengua Guarani', by Ruiz de Montoya,
Madrid, 1639 (it is dedicated to the `Soberana Virgen');
and the `Catecismo de la Lengua Guarani', by Diego Diaz de la Guerra,
Madrid, An~o de 1630. He also wrote a `Bocabulario y Arte
de la Lengua Guarani'.