with Brazil and the Argentine Republic, have almost extirpated
every Paraguayan (of the old stock) with the least pretensions
to white descent.

Ruiz Diaz de Guzman, speaking of the mixed race in Paraguay and Buenos Ayres,
says:

`They are generally good soldiers, of great spirit and valour,
expert in the use of arms, especially in that of the musquet,
so much so that, when they go on long journeys, they are accustomed
to live on the game which they kill with it. It is common for them
to kill birds on the wing, and he is accounted unfit for a soldier
who cannot bring down a pigeon. They are such excellent horsemen
that there is no one who is not able to tame and ride an unbroken colt.

`The women generally are virtuous, beautiful, and of a gentle disposition.'

If the inhabitants of Paraguay and the river Plate of those days
were good marksmen, it is more than can be said of the Gauchos
of the Argentine provinces and the Paraguayans of twenty years ago.
Without military training, so far from being able to bring down a pigeon
on the wing, few could hit the trunk of a tree at fifty paces.
The usual method of shooting used to be to cram as much ammunition
into the gun as the hand would contain, and then, looking carefully away
from the object aimed at, to close both eyes and pull the trigger.
Accuracy of aim was not so much considered as loudness of report.
As regards their powers of riding, they are still unchanged;
and as to the virtue of their women, virtue is so largely
a matter of convention that it is generally wisest to leave
such matters uncommented on, as it is so easy not to understand