644 ulloa's voyage to south America. 



tween Paraguay and Buenos Ayres, for the herb camini and palos. The city J}e hs 

 Corientes, fituated on the eaftern banks of the river De la Plata, betwixt it and the river 

 Parana, is about an hundred leagues north of the city of Santa Fe. Its magnitude and 

 difpofition are both inferior to Santa Fe, and indeed has no marks of a city, except the 

 name. Each of thefe cities has its particular corregidor, as lieutenant of the governor ; 

 and its inhabitants, together with thofe of the neighbouring country, are formed into a 

 militia, which, on any appearance of an invafion from the Indians, affemble, and have 

 often fhewn a great deal of refolution in repelling the attacks of their pagan enemies. 

 It has already been obferved, that part of the towns of the mifllons of Paraguay bcr 

 long to this diocefe, and, with regard to the royal jurifdidlion, thefe miffions univerfally 

 depend on Buenos Ayres j thofe which formerly belonged to the government of Para- 

 guay having been feparated from it. 



Having thus, with the government of Buenos Ayres, finiihed my account of every thing 

 worthy of notice in the audiences of Lima and Charcas, together with the jurifdidions 

 included in their diocefes, it now remains only to conclude my defcription of the king- 

 dom of Peru with an account of the kingdom and audience of Chili ; but the many ob- 

 jeds of importance in it fo well deferve to be fully treated of, that I thought proper to 

 referve them for the following book ; thofe included in this, as I have mentioned in its 

 place, merited a much greater prolixity : for from what has been faid in the firft part 

 of the province of Quito, fome idea of the difference between the two with regard to the 

 number of people, towns and villages, trade and commerce, may be conceived ; the 

 province of Quito having only one diocefe, and part of another ; whereas Lima contains 

 one archbifhopric, and four biihoprics ; and that of Charcas one bifhopric more than 

 that of Lima. In the province of Quito only a few mines are worked, and thofe to little 

 advantage ; whereas the mines of Lima and Charcas, by their immenfe riches, draw 

 thither great numbers of traders and induftrious people, and thus fpread wealth and af- 

 fluence through the whole country, by the briflc circulation of trade. It muft, however, 

 be owned, that the number of people in thefe provinces bear no proportion to their ex- 

 tent ; and it is with too much truth faid, that they are in many places almoft dellitute 

 of people ; for fuppofing a corregidor to have twenty villages under his jurifdidion, yet 

 if the leaft extent of it be thirty leagues one way, and fifteen another, they muft be 

 very thin. For draw a parallelogram of that dimenfion, it will contain four hundred 

 and fifty fquare leagues of ground, and confequently the fhare of each village will be 

 twenty-two fquare leagues and a half. This calculation is made from the fmalleft dif- 

 tances, there being jurifdiftions of a far greater extent ; and others, which, though 

 equal in dimenfions, have not twenty villages. "What has been faid of the products and 

 manufaftures in each jurifdidion muft be underftood in a general ienfe, we not having 

 entered into many particulars made or produced in fome towns, and not common to 

 others, as may be obferved in the defcription of Quito. But thefe accounts, drawn 

 ' from our own experience, and the relations of perfons of undoubted veracity, we hope 

 will not prove unacceptable to the reader, who is defirous of forming a true idea of 

 thefe parts, which for their riches, fertility, prodigious extent, and many other particu- 

 lars, merit the greateft attention ; efpecially for the amazing fuccefs which has attended 

 the propagation of the Chriftian religion, in countries formerly involved in ignorance 

 and inhumanity.* • 



*. It is fuppofed, that the Kings of Spain and Portugal have five times the number of fubjefts in their 

 ^nterican fettlements than in their refpeftive kingdoms. Notwithftanding which, you may travel in 

 Arilcrica twenty leagues together, and not fee a hut, except you are in the neighbourhood of the great 

 towns J fo great are the tra^s of lands poffefTed by each Prince. 



BOOK 



