INTRODUCTION. 



61 



rally made; although there are exceptions. Instead 

 of being scattered over the face of the country, like 

 our farmers and planters, they are most usually col- 

 lected in larger or smaller groups, at some distance 

 from each other; at least this was the mode in which 

 the Spanish settlements were formed at an early pe- 

 riod, while their savage neighbors were more formi- 

 dable. They began by building a town or village, 

 and cultivating the lands in its immediate vicinity, 

 while the space between different establishments lay 

 waste, until afterwards appropriated for estansias or 

 grazing farms, attended to by solitary shepherds liv- 

 ing in wretched huts, at great distances from each 

 other. In consequence of these circumstances, exact 

 territorial boundaries between different provinces or 

 districts, were not attended to as in this country. 

 The new settlement or village, was always made with 

 the sanction of the government, and was attached to 

 some particular jurisdiction. Thus a particular vil- 

 lage and its vicinage, was known to form a part of 

 such a corregidory, and this of some intendancy. 

 Hence the difficulties of stating, with any precision, 

 the boundaries between different provinces. The es- 

 tancias or grazing farms, belonged to persons in the 

 towns and villages, and it is presumed, were under the 

 same jurisdiction. It was no doubt the policy of 

 Spain, to concentrate the American population as far 

 as practicable. It was thus more easily controlled; 

 a small guard of soldiers can overawe a considera- 

 ble village, but the case would be very different, 

 where the same population is scattered over a consid- 

 erable surface. South America, therefore, exhibits 

 a great number of villages, populous districts, and 



