682 ULLOa's voyage to south AMERICA. 



The produce of the revenue-officers at Santiago and Conception, not being fufficient 

 to defray the expences of even this fmall body, a remittance of 100,000 dollars is 

 every year fent from Lima, half in fpecie, and half in clothes, and other goods. But 

 fix or eight thoufand is annually deduced out of this fum for repairing the forts of the 

 frontiers, and making prefents to the deputies of the Indians who attend at conferences, 

 or to fatisfy thofe who complain to the prefident of injuries received. 



Valdivia alfo' receives from the treafury of Lima, an annual fupply of 70,000 dollars, 

 30,000 in fpecie, the value of thirty thoufand in clothes for the foldiers, and 10,000 

 in fpecie, which is paid to the King's officers at Santiago, in order to purchafe flour, 

 charqui, graffa, and other neceflaries for the garrifon at Valdivia. Thefe remittances 

 are conveyed in fhips which fail from Valparaifo. 



L The jurifdiction of Santiago we have already obferved to be limited to its boun- 

 daries. 



IL Rancagua is a jurifdidion in the country, and owes its name from the inhabitants 

 living in fmgle houfes, without the appearance of a village, every family in their lonely 

 cottage, four, fix, or more leagues from each other. It is not, however, without a kind 

 of capital, confifting of about fifty houfes, and between fifty and fixty families, moft of 

 them Meftizos, though there call is not at all perceivable by their complexion. The 

 whole jurifdiftion may contain about a thoufand families, Spaniards, Meftizos, and Indians. 



III. Colchagua refembles in every circumftance the former, except its being better 

 peopled ; its inhabitants, according to the beft computations, amounting to fifteen hun- 

 dred families. 



IV. Chilan is a fmall place, but has the title of city, the number of families, by an 

 accurate calculation, not exceeding two or three hundred, and having few Spaniards 

 among them. 



V. Aconcagua is a very fmall place at the foot of the mountains, but the country is 

 interfperfed with a great number of fingle houfes. The valley of the fame name 

 is fo delightful, that a town called Phelipe le Real, was built in it in 1741. 



VI. Melipilla made no better figure than the foregoing jurifdidions, till the year 

 1742, when a town was ereded in it by the name of St. Jofeph de Longronno. 



VII. Quillota. The town of this name does not contain above a hundred families ; 

 but thofe fcattered over the country exceed a thoufand. 



2§ ■ VIII. Coquimbo, or La Serena, according to Father Feuillee, ftands in 24° 54' i o" 

 ^ fouth latitude. This was the fecond town built in the kingdom of Chili, in 1 544, by 



Pedro de Valdivia, with a view of fecuring the intercourfe between Peru and Chili, for 

 the more convenient fupply of what fuccours might be wanted ; and at the fame time, 

 for fecuring the fidelity of the Indians who lived in that valley. This place is fituated in 

 the valley of Coquimbo, from whence it received its original name ; but Valdivia gave 

 it that of Le Serena, from an affedion to the province of that name in Spain, and 

 of which he was a native. It ftands about a quarter of a league from the coaft of the 

 South Sea in a moft delightful fituation, having an extenfive profped of the fea,' the 

 river, and the country, which prefents the fight with a charming variety of fields of 

 different kinds of grain, and woods of a lively verdure. 



This town is of itfelf large^ but not proportionally peopled ; the number of families 

 not amounting to above four or five hundred, confifting of Spaniards, Meftizos, and a 

 few Indians. The ftreets are ftraight and of a convenient breadth, fome of which lying 

 north and fouth, and others interfering from eaft to weft, the town confifts of fquares 

 of buildings, like Santiago, and other places of note in this part of America. The 

 houfes are all of mud walls, and covered with leaves ; but none are without a large 

 garden, well planted with fruit-trees and efculent vegetables, both thofe of America 

 10 and 



