3l8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



a certain number of slaves, there would be a great increase in the 

 royal 20 percent impost. 



946. This city is the seat of the Circuit Court, which has a Presi- 

 dent, who is Governor and Captain General ; six Justices and an 

 Attorney, with Secretaries, Relators, and other functionaries and 

 officials. This Court has wide jurisdiction ; in it, His Majesty, in 

 consultation with the Supreme Council of the Indies, appoints to five 

 posts of Governor, those of Cartagena, Santa Marta, Antioquia, Los 

 Muzos, and Merida, and part of that of Popayan ; and three Corregi- 

 mientos, those of Tunja, Mariquita, and Tocaima and Ibague. His 

 Majesty appoints also 12 Paymasters (Contadores) in the district 

 of this Circuit Court : in the city of Bogota, where there is a Tribunal 

 de Cuentas (Court of Accounts), with two Contadores Mayores, two 

 Ordenadores (Auditors), a Contador, and a Treasurer ; in Cartagena, 

 a Contador and a Treasurer ; in Santa Marta, a Contador and a 

 Treasurer ; and in Antioquia, a Contador and a Treasurer. In addi- 

 tion, the President appoints to 22 offices, 20 of them Corregimientos ; 

 one Boat Inspector (Juez de Canoas), an Administrator of Mitayos 

 (forced Indian service), and other offices; besides which he appoints 

 to two garrisons, one at Carare on the Rio Grande de La Magdalena, 

 and the other in the Chaparral, called San Lorenzo. 



947. In Bogota there is a Cathedral, with the Archbishop and 

 Prebendaries in residence, and two curates who administer the Holy 

 Sacraments. There are three other parishes, which are Nuestra 

 Sefiora de Las Nueves, Santa Barbara, and San Victoriano. It has 

 Dominican, Franciscan, Augustinian, and Jesuit convents. There is 

 a college under the Jesuit Fathers, with 60 collegians, who wear 

 dark gray gowns and red sashes. There are three nunneries — La 

 Concepcion, the Barefoot Carmelites, and another new one ; a General 

 Hospital for the care of the sick ; and outside of the city a Franciscan 

 Recollect convent called San Diego, and other churches and shrin'es. 



948. The Circuit Court has for its district from Cartagena to 

 Popayan, N. and S. ; and from E. to W., from the end of the juris- 

 diction of Merida up to Buena Ventura, which is about 300 leagues. 

 It comprises in its district the Archdiocese of Bogota with the Dio- 

 ceses of Cartagena, Santa Marta, and part of the Diocese of Popayan, 

 with five posts of Governor named by His Majesty in consultation 

 with the Royal Council of the Indies ; these are Cartagena, Santa 

 Marta, Zaragoza, Muzos, and La Grita or Merida ; these last three 

 are in the district of the Archdiocese ; with two Corregimientos to 

 which His Majesty appoints — Tunja, and the mines of Mariquita. 

 In addition the President of the Circuit Court appoints to 20 Corregi- 



