310 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



men. There is another company, of cavalry, with very fine troopers 

 and horses. There is another company of free Creole colored men, 

 with a Captain appointed by His Majesty and 600 soldiers, as good 

 as Spaniards and in their very image. These are employed in the 

 handling of the artillery and other matters in His Majesty's service, 

 like trench and fascine work. 



916. There are Royal Apartments for the Judges and Royal 

 Officials ; a mole and a customhouse, where they store the merchandise 

 of the fleets and other ships and frigates coming from all points. 

 There is much commerce in this city and port, with Peru, the Spanish 

 Main, New Spain, the Windward Islands, and Angola, from which 

 every year 10 or 12 ships with Negroes arrive, and almost as many 

 from Cape Verde and the Guinea rivers. 



917. It has a very good Cathedral, of distinguished architecture, 

 with the Bishop, Prebendaries, and much clergy in attendance. There 

 is a very sumptuous Dominican convent ; a Franciscan, called San 

 Diego, of excellent design and architecture, erected at his own expense 

 by Capt. Gramajo ; an Augustinian, another excellent one of the 

 Mercedarians, and a very good Jesuit establishment. There is a 

 hospital with rooms for the sick and the injured, and others for 

 maternity cases and for tumors (syphilis) and for salivations. There 

 is a nunnery of Barefoot Carmelites, founded by Doiia Maria de 

 Barros ; another nunnery, of Santa Clara ; and in the other settle- 

 ment of Gegemani there is a very elaborate and interesting Franciscan 

 convent ; another hospital, Espiritu Santo, for incurables ; and outside 

 of the city, another hospital, which they call San Lazaro, for the 

 injured; and half a league off, on top of the hill which they call the 

 Popa de La Galera (Galley Poop) is the convent of Nuestra Senora 

 de la Candelaria of Augustinian Recollect friars, which is very strict. 



918. At its beginning and foundation, the city was very small and 

 its buildings very humble, of cane plastered with clay outside — what 

 they call bajareque in that country — and for roof covering, straw 

 or palm leaves ; even today some such still exist in some quarters 

 of the outlying wards. But the excellence of the harbor and the 

 number of galleons, fleets, ships, and frigates flocking from every 

 side to the lively commerce of this famous city and port, have con- 

 tributed to its great increase, and it continues to grow in population 

 and wealth ; and since it is one of the best and busiest cities in the 

 Indies, I shall say something of its republic, government, and tri- 

 bunals, in the following chapter, with the remainder of its district. 



