PAYSANDU, or PAISANOU  , a town and river port of Uruguay and capital of a department of the same'name, on the left bank of the Uruguay River about 214 M . N.W. of Montevideo, with which it is connected by rail . Pop . (1908 estimate), 15,000 . It has railway connexion with Rio Negro and Montevideo to the south-east, and with Salto and Santa Rosa, on the Brazilian frontier, on the north; it is at the head of low water navigation on the Uruguay River, and is in regular steamer communication with Montevideo and Buenos Aires . There are some good public buildings, including two churches, a hospital, a theatre and the government offices . Paysandu exports cattle and sheep and salted meats, hides, ox tongues, wool and other animal products . There is a meat-curing establishment (saladero) at Guaviyfl, in the vicinity . The town was named in honour of Pay, or Pai (Father) Sandia, a priest who settled there in 1772 . It has suffered severely from revolutionary outbreaks, was bombarded by Rivera in 1846, and was partly destroyed in 1865 by a Brazilian bombardment, after which its gallant defenders, Leandro Gomez and his companions, were butchered in cold blood . The department of Paysandu—area 5117 sq. m.; pop . (1907, estimate), 54,097—is one of the richest stock-raising regions of the republic .