\U A VOYAGE TO Book VIT, 



of visiting the inland parts of these countries ; and 

 the accounts we received of them at Lima, were not 

 to be depended upon, with that confidiMice necessary 

 to their being inserted here,^ Tor considering the vast 

 distance between the capital and some provinces, it 

 is no wonder they are but litüe known at Lima. Tlie 

 reader will therefore indulge me in giving a superfi- 

 cial account of some ; for according to the method 

 in which I began to write the history, we shall in- 

 sert such particular? only as are autlientic ; it being 

 undoubtedly more advantageous to say a little with 

 truth, than to engage in prolix and uncertain parti- 

 culars. 



In order the better to describe the countries go- 

 verned by the viceroy of Peru, without departing 

 from the pian hitherto observed, I shall divide ihe 

 whole jurisdiction of its government, into those audi- 

 ences of which it consists ; these into the diocesses 

 they contain; and the diocesses into jurisdictions 

 under a corregidor. 



The viceroyalty of Peru in South America, ex- 

 tends over those vast countries, included in the ju- 

 risdictions of the audience of Lima, Los Charcas, 

 and Chili ; and in these are comprehended the go- 

 Yernments of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Paraguay, 

 Tucuman, and Buenos A y res. Though these three 

 provinces and the kingdom of Chili have particu- 

 lar governors invested with all the authority agree- 

 able to such a character ; and as such are absolute in 

 political, civil, and military aflairs, yet, in some 

 cases, are subordinale to the viceroy ; for instance, 

 on the death of any inferior governor, the vacancy 

 is supplied by him. Before the erection of the vice-r 

 royalty of the new kingdom of Granada in 1739, 

 that of Peru, as we have already observed, extend- 

 ed to the countiics of the two audiences of Terra 

 Firma and Quito ; but those being then separated 

 from it^ the uouads of it on the north were the ju- 

 risdiction 



