ULLOA's voyage to south AMERICA. 463 



otherwife unavoidable. But experience has fliown the impropriety and infufEciency of 

 this meafure ; and that the tribunals abolifhed were of indifpenfable necelfity in their 

 refpedlive cities ; an infupportable detriment refulting to the inhabitants from the vaft 

 diftance of the audiences afligned them ; which were, Lima for the kingdom of Terra 

 Firma, and thofe of the province of Quito, were to apply for juflice to the audience 

 of Santa Fe. And as the amount of all the falaries fupprefled, befides the prejudicing 

 many families, was not fufficient to fupport the dignity of a '^^iceroy, new ideas fuc- 

 ceeded ; and rather than keep it up at the expence of the royal revenue, the viceroy- 

 alty was fupprefled, and things placed again on their ancient footing in the year 1722 : 

 the officers were reftored to their former polls which they had fo worthily filled, and 

 the audiences have continued the fame as before. But the motives for ereding a new 

 viceroyalty at Santa Fe being confefledly of the greateft importance, its reftitution was 

 again brought on the carpet ; and the great difficulty of fupporting it, without detri- 

 ment either to the public or the audiences, the fuppreffion of which had been fo detri- 

 mental to the inhabitants, being overcome, the dignity of viceroyalty was again erefted 

 in the year 1739, Don Sebaftian de Eflaba, lieutenant-general, being appointed the firft 

 viceroy, and arrived in the beginning of the year 1740 to take pofTeffion of his govern- 

 ment ; which included the whole kingdom of Terra Firma and the province of Quito. 



This province is bounded on the north by that of Santa Fe de Bogota, and includes 

 part of the government of Papayan ; on the fouth it is limited by the governments of 

 Peru and Chachapoyas ; eaftward it extends over the whole government of Maynas, 

 and the river of the Amazons, to the meridian of demarcation, or that which divides the 

 dominions of Spain and Portugal. Its weftern boundary is the fea, from the coaft of 

 Machala, in the gulf of Puna, to the coaft of the government of Atacames and the jurif- 

 didion of Barbacoas, in the bay of Gorgona. Its greateft breadth from north to fouth 

 is about 200 leagues j and its length, from eaft to weft, the whole extent from Cape 

 de Santa Elena, in the fouth-fea, to the meridian above mentioned ; which, by the moft 

 accurate computation, is 600 leagues. But a very great part of thefe vaft dominions 

 are, it muft be owned, either inhabited by nations of favage Indians, or have not hitherto 

 been thoroughly peopled by the Spaniards, if indeed they have been fufficiently known. 

 All the parts that can properly be faid to be peopled, and adually fubjed to the Spanifh 

 government, are thofe intercepted by the two Cordilleras of the Andes, which, in com- 

 parifon to the extent of the country, may be termed a ftreet or lane, extending from the 

 jurifdidlion of the town of St. Miguel de Ibarra to that of Loga ; the country from 

 ' hence to the government of Popayan, and alfo that comprehended between the weftern 

 Cordillera and the fea. With this limitation the extent of the jurifdidions from eaft 

 to weft will be fifteen leagues or fomething more, being the diftance intercepted between 

 the two Cordilleras. But to this muft be added the countries comprehended in the go- 

 vernments of Jaen de Bracamoros, which borders on the jurifdidion of Loja, and the 

 extremity of the whole province, and fituated on the eaft fide of the eaftern Cordillera ; 

 and, to the northward, the government of Quixos, and that of Maynas to the eaftward 

 of it ; but feparated by large trads of land inhabited by wild Indians ; and on the north 

 fide of the province from that of Papayan ; though the latter is properly a diftind pro- 

 vince from that of Quito. Thus on the weft iide of that interval between the two Cor- 

 ; dilleras, lies the lately ereded government of Atacames, and the jurifdidion of Guaya- 



! quil : on the eaft fide, the three governments above mentioned ; and on the north, that 



of Papayan. 

 t This province, exclufive of thefe five governments, confifts of nine jurifdidions, 



S - which in that country are called provinces, that of Quito being fubdivided into as many 



others 



