3l6 



TOPOGRAPHY. 



order, and obtained from the conqueror a grant of a very 

 considerable portion of land. The fervour of religion, and 

 the advantages of a country naturally rich, induced the orders 

 of St. Augustin, St. Francis, San Juan de Dios, and, lastly, 

 of the Society of Jesus, to establish in the city of San Bernar- 

 do, the capital of the distri6l, each of them a convent, for 

 the maintenance of which they acquired many funds and pious 

 bequests. One of the original MSS. we have before us, bear- 

 ing the signature of Don Nicholas de Echalar, chief magis- 

 trate of police, says on this subjedt : "By the means of these 

 foundations posterity has been burdened with so many pensions 

 and quit-rents, that the possessions may with truth be said to 

 have been purchased five or six times, and still continue to 

 pay the five per cent. ; insomuch, that by degrees the inhabi- 

 tants have been impoverished, until they have not enough left 

 for their advancement and preservation." Another still more 

 political MS. observes on the same head : *' With the succes- 

 sive impoverishment of the province, the foundations of the 

 convents, which the first settlers had made at their own ex- 

 pence, have been so much reduced, that in neither of those of 

 St. Domingo, St. Augustin, and San Juan de Dios,. any other 

 monk beside the prior is to be found. The convent of the 

 Jesuits having been altogether suppressed, if it were not for 

 the College for the Propagation of the Gospel, the inha- 

 bitants would not be able to frequent the service of the 

 mass." 



In the above year, 1574, the viceroy appointed the ordi- 

 nary alcaids, regidors, procurator, and major-domo, for the 

 senate of San Bernardo de Tarija, which was then established; 

 and in the lapse of a century from that date, the province was 



in 



