WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES— VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 65 1 



maravedis, which is paid them out of city revenues; the Alferez 

 Mayor gets 30,000 maravedis. 



1703. The provincial judicial administration is carried out by the 

 Associate Circuit Justices (Oidores), who are likewise Alcaldes de 

 Corte in turn, 2 months at a time ; the one in charge of deceased 

 persons' property holds office for a year, to suit their own con- 

 venience ; there are ordinances for this. The Tribunal of the Holy 

 Crusade consists of a Subdelegate General, one Associate Justice (the 

 oldest), and the Attorney of the Circuit Court, with a Paymaster 

 (Contador) — the one resident in the city — a Notary, before whom 

 the cases are brought, and an Alguacil who carries out the decisions of 

 this tribunal. 



The Council of this city consists of 20 chapter members, Council- 

 men, with voice and vote in the Council, and 2 regular Alcaldes 

 (Alcaldes Ordinarios) elected by the Council at the beginning of 

 each year ; an Alguacil Mayor of this city, and 2 Inspectors of Weights 

 and Measures (Fieles Ejecutores), at which the chapter members 

 take turns of 4 months each. The Alcaldes elected by the Council 

 are confirmed in office by the President of the Circuit Court, and 

 in his absence the oldest of the Associate Justices in residence, as 

 well as two Alcaldes de la Santa Hermandad (Holy Confraternity), 

 [2^ lines deleted] a City Attorney General and a City Superintendent 

 (Mayordomo) ; these are all persons outside the Council; from its 

 own number it elects an Alcalde de Aguas (Water Commissioner) ; 

 these are all received and admitted into the Council. 



Chapter XXHI 



Continuing the Description of the City of La Plata and Its 

 Convents. 



1704. There is a public fountain in the Plaza Mayor of the city, 

 and 3 others in the small plazas of San Francisco and San Augustin 

 and on a public street, not to mention other outlets distributed through 

 the city's convents and more than 50 in private houses ; this all is 

 brought by aqueducts from a spring at the foot of a ridge called 

 Churuquella, on whose slopes the city's buildings begin. The city 

 contains many gardens of flowers and fruit, the latter called chacras ; 

 they are in the suburb of Guayochapa. 



1705. This city is at scant 20° S. Its climate is excellent, being 

 temperate with a tendency toward the hot and dry, but without 

 unpleasant heat or cold, the atmosphere being dry; but it is subject 

 to storms with thunder and lightning, which do much damage. The 



