lo A V O Y A G E T O Book VII. 



Jala, from whence, on account of the badnefs of the 

 .air, it was removed to its prefent fituation, which is 

 on a fandy plain. The latitude of it is 5? 11' i^' 

 South, and the variation of the needle we obferved 

 to be 8° 13' Eafterly. The houfes are either of 

 bricks dried in the fun, or a kind of reeds called 

 Quinchas, and few of them have any ftory. Here 

 the Corregidor refides, whofe jurifdidtion extends 

 pn one fide along Valles, and on the other among 

 the mountains. Here is an office for the royal re- ^ 

 venue, under an accomptant or treafurer, who re- 

 lieve each other every fix months, one refiding at the 

 port of Paita, and the other in this place : At the 

 former for receiving the duties on imports for goods 

 landed there, and alfo for preventing a contraband 

 trade % and at the latter for receiving the revenues 

 and merchandizes on goods configned from the 

 mountains to Loja ^ or going from Tumbez to 



Tkis city contains near fifteen hundred inhabi- 

 tants and among thefe fbme families of rank, be- 

 fides oihtv Spaniards, Meftizos, Indians, and Mu- 

 iattoes. The climate is hot and very dry, rains being 

 feldomer knov/n here than at Tumbez : notwithftand- 

 ing vv'hich it is very healthy. It has a river of great 

 advantage to the inhabitants as well as the adjacent 

 country, the foil of which is fandy, and therefore 

 eafier penetrated by the water ; and being level, the 

 water is conveyed to different parts by canals. But 

 in the fummer the river is abfolutely deflitute of 

 water, the little which defcends from the mountaias 

 being abforbed before it reaches the city fo fhat the 

 inhabitants have no other method of procuring water, 

 but by digging wells in the bed of the river, the 

 depth of which mull be proportioned to the length of 

 time the drought has continued. 



PiuRA has an hofpital under the care of the Beth^ 

 lemites ^ and tho' patients afflicted \yith all kinds of 

 ' diHemp^r^ 



