The capital is Santa Cruz de la Sierra, eighty or ninety leagues east from La Plata. It was originally built farther to the south near the Cordillera of the Chiriguanos and was founded in 1548 by De Chaves; but the city having been destroyed, it was rebuilt on its present scite: it is however a place of little importance, though erected into a bishopric in 1605, the chapter consisting only of the bishop, dean, and archdeacon. The usual residence of the bishop is at Mizque Pocona, which is the chief town of a large district of the same name. This latter city, which is 100 miles south-south-west from Santa Cruz, is a small place in a valley about eight leagues in circumference, producing all kinds of grain and fruits, and in a warm climate; the woods and mountains affording large quantities of honey and wax, which constitutes a principal branch of the trade of the place.
There is also a lake two leagues in extent near this town, and the district of Mizque is the most populous part of the province.
The Rio Grande de La Plata is the finest river of Santa Cruz; it rises in some small lakes on the south, and running through the province into that of Moxos, enters the Piray by a broad mouth, and forms a good port at Pailas, north of the capital.
The province of Chiquitos lies to the north and east of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and embraces an immense extent of territory, which reaches to the Brazilian frontier on the Paraguay.
It was first colonized by the Jesuits who began their missionary establishments in this country towards the close of the seventeenth century, and their success was so great that in 1732 they had seven settlements, each containing more than 600 families. The Indians who inhabit Chiquitos are small-sized, active and brave, and have always resisted the endeavours of the Portuguese to carry off members of their community to slavery; many of them live peaceably in the missions, but others lead a wandering life amid the mountains and plains of their native land.
The forests in this country produce the cinchona, or Jesuit's bark, and many other useful substances; and the great inundation of the Paraguay, called Lake Xarayes, extends through the western parts of this province, which is also celebrated for containing the third great branch of the Andes, that leaves the main body between 15° and 20° of south latitude, and crossing the provinces of the Sierra sweeps round Chiquitos, between 15° and 23°, stretching from La Paz, Potosi and Tucuman, through Moxos, Chiquitos and Chaco, towards the government of the mines, and of St. Pablo in Brazil. The highest summits of this chain appear to be between 15° and 20° of south latitude, giving rise to many rivers which flow either into the La Plata or the Maranon.
San Josef de Chiquitos, the chief settlement of this province, is thirty-six miles north-west of Santa Cruz; and south of the Chiquitos Indians, are another tribe, named the Chiriguanos, whom the missionaries have in vain attempted to convert; they are the terror of the western provinces of Buenos Ayres, and are continually at war with the Chiquitos. In their country flows the river Parapiti, which rising near Cochabamba in 18° south latitude, is first called Conderillo, and receiving smaller rivers, assumes the name of Parapiti, and passing through a large lake it turns to the north; having pursued hitherto a south-east course into this lake, which is in 19° 50' south latitude. It is now called St. Miguel, and still running north assumes the name of Sara, and being joined by the united streams of the Piray and Plata, as well as several others from the province of Santa Cruz, it becomes a broad river, and in 14° south latitude, is called the Mamore, till 10° south latitude, when it leaves Peru or La Plata, and entering the Portuguese territories becomes the Madera, continuing under that name to south latitude, 3° 15', and 60° 40' west longitude, when it discharges its immense stream into the Maranon, after a course of 1400 miles.
Moxos or Mojos is an extensive territory bounded by the Portuguese government of Matto Grosso on the east, Cuzco and the Peruvian provinces on the west, and Chiquitos and Santa Cruz on the south. It extends on each side of the Mamore, and is chiefly inhabited by warlike and wandering tribes of Indians, who forbid access to its interior. This country contains the lake Rogagualo, a large body of water of an oval figure, formed by an arm of the Rio Beni, which rises near La Paz on the west side of the Andes, in 18° south latitude, and flowing north, enters the Ucayale, their united streams joining the Apurimac. The banks of the Beni have many settlements of the missionaries. This lake empties itself into the Mamore by a channel called De la Exaltacion, thus forming an immense island of the country lying between the Maranon on the north, the Madera and Mamore on the east, and the Beni and Ucayale on the west. From lake Rogagualo three other rivers take their rise and flow into the Amazons on the north; viz. the Jutay, the Juruay and the Puros.
There are several missionary villages in the province of Moxos: but the country is still under the power of the aborigines.
Chacos is another large territory, bounded by Chiquitos on the north; Paraguay on the east; the great plains of Manos on the south; and Tucuman and Tarija on the west. It is of immense extent, and chiefly inhabited by tribes of wandering Indians, having on its east the great chain of mountains on the banks of the Paraguay, and contains the great Rio Pilcomayo, which flows into the Paraguay near Asuncion.