WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 63I 



the city of Lima, 200 S. of Cuzco, and 100 from La Paz, at 20° S. ; 

 and although it is within the Tropic and the Torrid Zone, all that 

 country was uninhabitable for the cold ; but by virtue of the richness 

 of its range, it is the largest settlement to be found in all the Indies. 

 It begins at the slopes of the range, chiefly at Guayna Potosi. This 

 town is over 2 leagues in circuit, and at the least it covers more 

 ground than Seville. With all its suburbs the town will contain more 

 than 4,000 Spanish residents — mine and mill owners, merchants and 

 other traders who live permanently in the town — not counting many 

 transient traders and other Spaniards who are free lances and are 

 called in that Kingdom soldados honrados (honored soldiers), and 

 the truth is that many of them are lost souls; it would be better if 

 they would work or try to make a living some other way, for they 

 are the chief cause of the troubles that are apt to arise in that 

 Kingdom. 



1662. The Council of that town is made up of 30 Twenty-fours 

 (veinticuatros), as they call their Aldermen. Some of these offices 

 in recent years have sold for 18,000 assay pesos. Each year they 

 elect from the Council two regular Alcaldes for the town, and two 

 for the Confraternity. The Alguacil Mayor bought his wand for 

 112,000 ducats. The Treasury of the Royal Patrimony has three 

 Officials on its rolls, Contador (Paymaster), Treasurer, and Factor; 

 each one gets a salary of 2,000 assay pesos, and each of them has 

 a functionary to assist him, with a salary of 300 assay pesos. In the 

 city of La Plata they appoint a representative with the title of Con- 

 tador, and he collects the income accruing to His Majesty in that 

 district. 



The Corregidor has authority also over the city of La Plata, 

 where they receive him on his visit before he goes to Potosi, He 

 used to appoint a representative at this city of La Plata, but because 

 of controversies which arose when Don Gabriel Ortiz de Sotomayor 

 was Corregidor, the Viceroy ordered this privilege withdrawn. 



1663. There is a mint, where they coin large amounts of silver 

 in pieces of 8 reals, 4, and 2, a few sencillos (i-real pieces) and 

 some half reals, which are the smallest coin minted. All this currency 

 coined in the Potosi Mint circulates in the entire Kingdom, in Chile, 

 Tucuman, Paraguay, and Buenos Ayres ; Nicaragua and also in the 

 Spanish Main, where it is brought by the traders who go down there 

 to buy merchandise coming from Spain, and much gets to Spain 

 which is coined in that mint, for there is no other in Peru. It has all 

 the officials necessary for its purposes, like other mints, although 

 this is the richest of all. It has an Assayer who is a very high official, 



