WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 649 



ciate Judges (Oidores) who are likewise Alcaldes de Corte, and 

 an Attorney (Fiscal), each with a salary of 4,000 assay pesos, paid 

 by the Royal Treasury in Potosi. 



1697. It has two Relators and two Sergeants-at-Arms (Porteros), 

 each with a salary of 500 assay pesos paid by the Royal Treasury 

 in Potosi and from the cash penalties set by the court ; a Chaplain 

 named by the President for the Circuit Court, with 800 assay pesos ; 

 a Solicitor (Solicitador) for the Royal Treasury and an Alcaide of 

 the Court Prison, at 500 assay pesos; an Appraiser (Tasador), 300 

 pesos ; an Assessor (Repartidor), 300 pesos ; a Counsel for the Poor, 

 250 pesos ; an Attorney for the Poor, 100 pesos. The office of 

 Alguacil Mayor de Corte was auctioned off at 55,000 ducats, but 

 they put it up to 70,000, which has given rise to a lawsuit. The offices 

 of Chancelor and Registry, 4,000 assay pesos ; that of Receiver 

 General of Fines, 9,500 assay pesos ; two Court Secretaries at 4,000 

 assay pesos each ; the posts of Receivers, at 3,500 assay pesos ; those 

 of Attorneys (Procuradores) have gone for 4,000 assay pesos. There 

 are usually more than 12 lawyers (abogados) at this Royal Circuit 

 Court ; everything has augmented since this description of the city 

 in the year 1610 was so made out at the order of the then Viceroy, 

 the Marques of Montesclaros. 



1698. This city is laid out in square blocks, each 560 varas square ; 

 the streets are straight. In the year 1610 there were five streets 

 8 blocks long, and eight cross streets each 6 blocks long ; the streets 

 are each 11 varas wide (hueco). At present there is a greater area, 

 for the city has kept growing. The main plaza, which is at the center 

 of this city, is a square of 648 varas, where eight streets debouch ; 

 its four sides divide them in two. It has four smaller plazas, in 

 front of the Dominican, Franciscan, Augustinian, and Mercedarian 

 convents. The city is so built that E. and W. run across it crosswise, 

 from corner to corner. 



1699. In the year 1610, this city contained 704 houses, as follows: 

 68 tall first-class houses, some better than others ; 249 low but well 

 built; in them there were 146 shops, 30 of merchants, [64] 74 of 

 artisans of all crafts, and 42 pulperias in which general supplies are 

 sold at retail. In the 2 parishes of San Lazaro, which is an outside 

 ward to the E., 217 houses of poor Spaniards, mestizos, and Indians, 

 and of San Sebastian, which is to the N., 196 houses of the same 

 class of people, most thatched with straw but some tile-roofed. 



1700. In the Royal Apartments there are two halls for the public 

 hearings of the Royal Circuit Court, and another where the verdicts 

 are read and where Mass is said for the President and Associate 



