Ch. III. SOUTH AMERICA. "347 



West of the western Cordillera of the Andes, is 

 the government of Atacames, which on this quar- 

 ter borders on the jurisdictions of the corregmientos 

 of Quito and the town of San Miguel deTibana; 

 northward on the department of Barbacoas in the go- 

 vernment of Popayan ; its western bonndftry is the 

 South Sea; and southward it joins the territory of 

 Guayaquil. Thus it reaches along the coast from 

 the island of Tumaco, and the house of Husinal, 

 which lie in one degree and a half north latitude, to 

 the bay t)f Caracas,- and the mountains of Balsamo,^ 

 in 34 min. south latitude. * 



The country of this jurisdiction lay a long tijue 

 uncultivated; and if not wholly, at least the greatest 

 part of it, unknown; for, after its conquests by S<3- 

 bastian de Belalcazar, the peopling of it was neglected, 

 either because the Spaniards were more inteijt \jt\ regu- 

 lating their conquests than in improving what they 

 had got, or because the country did not seem to them 

 so proper for a settlement as the sierra or mountainous 

 parts ; or perhaps they judged it barren and unhealthy. 

 And though care was taken to furnish Quito with 

 priests, to preserve its Indian inhabitants in an ad- 

 herence to those precious truths they had embraced ; 

 yet it was with the total neglect of that improvement 

 of the country, which was seen in all the other parts 

 where the Spaniards had settled. Thus these people, 

 though Christians by profession, remain in that rusti- 

 city and savageness natural to men who are out of the 

 way of rational conversation and comnicrce to civilize 

 them; an Indian only coming irow and then from 

 their woods with aji, achote, and fruits, to sell at 

 Quito, where they seem struck with amazement at 

 the sight of such a concourse of people ar one place ; 

 it being indeed far beyond what cotihi be imagined by 

 such as seldom or never came to any distance from 

 their poor cottages, dispersed and shut up in the 

 woodii, and living amon^ the wild beasts. 



Tho ugh: 



