Misiones

Misiones, a territory of northern Argentina, bounded N. by Paraguay and Brazil, E. and S. by Brazil and W. by Paraguay and the Argentine province of Corrientes. Its boundary lines are formed by the upper Parana and Iguassu rivers on the N., the San Antonio and Pequiry-guassu streams on the E. and the Uruguay River on the S. Area, 11,282 sq. m.; pop. (1904, estimate), 38,755, chiefly Indians and mestizos. The territory is a region of roughly-broken surfaces, divided longitudinally by low mountains, called the Sierra Iman and Sierra Grande de Misiones, which form the water-parting for many small streams flowing northward to the Parana and southward to the Uruguay. The greater part of the country is covered with forest and tropical jungle. The climate is sub-tropical, the temperature ranging from 40 0 to 95 ° F. The soil is described as highly fertile, but its products are chiefly confined to yerba mate or Paraguay tea (Ilex paraguayensis), tobacco and oranges and other fruits. Communication with the capital is maintained by two lines of steamboats running to Corrientes and Buenos Aires, but a railway across Paraguay from Asuncion is planned to Encarnacion, opposite Posadas. Some of the Jesuit missions of the 17th and 18th centuries were established in this territory, and are to-day represented by the lifeless villages of Candelaria, Santa Ana, San Ignacio and Corpus along the Parana River, and Apostoles, Concepcion, and San Javier along the Uruguay. Posadas (estimated pop. in 1905, 8000), the capital, on the Parana, officially dates from 1865. It was also a Jesuit settlement called Itapua, though the large mission of that name was on the Paraguayan side of the river. It is at the extreme west of the territory, and is the terminal port for the steamers from Corrientes.