WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 447 



sons of the Caciques and native aristocrats of that Kingdom, in the 

 village at El Cercado, called Santiago, which comes right after the 

 last houses in the city. This is under the charge of the Fathers of 

 the Company of Jesus ; they educate them and teach them good 

 manners. Christian doctrine, reading, writing, and music ; this is a 

 very important medium adopted to succeed in rooting out idolatry 

 among this nation, and to give them greater knowledge of, and 

 affection for. the tenets of our Holy Faith. 



Chapter XXVII 



Of the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition, and the Celebration of 

 an Auto-da-fe. 



1282. Among the most remarkable features which distinguish this 

 city is the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition, not only for its im- 

 portance and its rectitude, but also for the wide jurisdiction which 

 it enjoys, although after the constitution of the Tribunal of the Holy 

 Inquisition in Cartagena, it was deprived of all the Spanish Main 

 and the New Kingdom of Granada. But it does hold sway from 

 the entire jurisdiction of the Diocese of Quito down to the entire 

 Kingdom of Chile, and over the States of Tucuman, Buenos Ayres, 

 and Paraguay, an area on either side of over 1,200 leagues, over 

 which the power of its arm extends. Within this district its jurisdic- 

 tion includes 2 Archdioceses, those of Lima and the Charcas, and 13 

 Dioceses, those of Quito, part of Popayan, on the Spanish Main 

 Panama, Trujillo, Huamanga, Cuzco, Arequipa, Santiago de Chile, 

 La Concepcion, Chuquiabo or La Paz, Santa Cruz de La Sierra, 

 Tucuman, Paraguay, and Buenos Ayres ; and it is held in so high 

 esteem in all those realms that in every city or village whatever 

 commissioner represents it is highly regarded. 



1283. It has been most important, especially for the punishment 

 of many wicked new Christians who have penetrated into these king- 

 doms both via Brazil and the port of Buenos Ayres, and via New 

 Spain, the Spanish Main, and the X^g^ Kingdom of Granada; and 

 although all over Christendom this Holy Tribunal is esteemed and 

 reverenced, I can state with assurance that the Kingdom of Peru 

 leads them all ; and as proof of my assertion I shall insert a descrip- 

 tion attesting the majesty, pomp, and grandeur manifested by this 

 sainted Tribunal in celebrating an auto-da-fe, which might be taken 

 as a model by many Kingdoms for the esteem due this Holy Tribunal, 

 which celebrated an auto-da-fe on the day of St. Thomas the Apostle, 

 December 21 ; the procedure was in the form described in the follow- 

 ing chapter. 



