1 and one abounding in stagnant waters; but it has lavaderos or washing places of gold, and its climate abounds in various productions. BUENAS COSTUMBRES, NUESTRA SENORA DEL, a settlement of the province and government of Tucumán, situate on the shore of the river Salado. BUENOS AYRES, a province and government of Peru, afterwards erected into a viceroyalty in 1777; bounded n. by the province of Paraguay, w. by that of Tucumán and the lands of Gran Chaco; on the s. it extends as far as the straits of Magellan, comprehending a large part of the territory lying w. of the cordillera; and on the e. by the sea. This province formerly appertained to that of Paraguay, until the year 1621, when it was formed into a separate government, taking the name of the Rio de la Plata; its first governor having been Don Diego de Góngora. It was discovered in 1506 by the pilot Juan Diez de Solis. The temperature is for the most part mild, and the soil uncommonly fertile; producing in abundance wheat, seeds, herbs, and fruits,especially peaches, which are extremely delicious. There are such quantities of horned cattle, that their flesh is considered a thing of no value; and it is customary to kill them merely for their hides, these forming a principal branch of commerce. Horses also are in such quantities as to cost nothing more than the trouble of catching them. There is in this province a great variety of rare animals and exquisitely fine birds: among the former may be reckoned tigers, larger than any found elsewhere in America: the ant-eater, an animal subsisting entirely upon ants, and which, to get at these insects, is provided with a very long and pointed snout, and the chinchilla, about the size of a lapdog, covered with a wool of a light grey colour, and finer than the best silk. This province is, at the present day, very rich and flourishing, for since the galleons have ceased going to Tierra Firme, this has become the port for all the commerce of the several provinces of Peru. This commerce is conducted on land by means of small waggons drawn by oxen; large companies being formed for the better defending themselves against the attacks of the infidel Indians, who inhabit the extensive llanos or plains called pampas, which are watered by several rivers. All of these rivers are tributary to the river of La Plata, one of the four largest rivers in all America. The capital is the city of La Trinidad de Buenos Ayres, founded on the shore of the river La Plata by Don Pedro de Mendoza. In the year 1535, it was twice abandoned for a time, owing to the invasions of the infidel Indians, the Jarres, and the Charruas, when so great was the misery experienced by the inhabitants for want of necessary supplies, that they were reduced to the necessity of eating human flesh. It was first restored by the licentiate Vaca de Castro, governor of Peru, in the year 1542; and a second time in 1581, when it was settled, at the command of Philip II. by Don Juan Ortiz de Zarate, governor of Paraguay, to the jurisdiction of which it then belonged. Its situation is very beautiful, for on the n. side, looking towards the river, there is, to all appearance, a complete sea, without a possibility of discerning the opposite shore, whilst the country around it is delightful, consisting of extensive fields covered with perpetual verdure, and bedecked with an infinite number of country houses and villas, which form an agreeable retreat for the inhabitants. The temperature is healthy, and the air pure: The winter is fresh and healthy, and commences in June. The rains, which are abundant, are accompanied with such violent storms of lightning and thunder, that nothing but a familiarity with them can allay the terror they are calculated to inspire. The heat of the sun in the summer is moderated by the breezes which rise at mid-day. It is very fruitful, and abounds in all the productions which convenience or luxury can require. The fruit most common is the peach, the timber of which serves for fuel for the kitchens and ovens, and this article is sometimes brought from a distance of 2 to 300 leagues. Vines were once cultivated here. It is the head of the archbishopric of Charcas, erected in 1620. Its first bishop was D. Fr. Pedro de Carranza, of the order of the Carmen. It was the residence of the tribunal of the royal audience, founded in 1663; and which having been abolished a short time after, was reestablished in 1783. The buildings, although of brick, may vie with any of Europe. It has a good cathedral church and four parishes, which are, La Concepcion, San Nicolas, Monserrat, and La Piedad; six convents, two of Franciscans, one of the Observers, and another of the Recolects or Strict Observers, another of St. Dominic, another of La Merced, and a house of entertainment of Bethlemites; two monasteries of Nuns, one of Capuchins, and the other of St. Catharine; a house for female orphans, and another for the correction of women; a college; and it once had two others, belonging to the Jesuits. It has a beautiful market-place, which is improved and set off by the houses of the city; and on the side towards the river is a fort, in which the governor and pub. lic officers reside: this is well defended by artillery, and by 24 militia companies of cavalry, each company consisting of 50 men; also by 9 com panies of infantry, of 77 men cach. The streets are drawn in a straight line, but are impassable for carts in the wet season: there are battlements or projections on either side of them for the convenience of foot-passengers. It may at the present day be looked upon as the first commercial city in all Spanish America. Its inhabitants amount to 3000 housekeepers. It is 70 leagues from the mouth of the river La Plata. [INDEX TO ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CON CERNING BUENOS AYRES. 1. General description.-2. Imports and exports. 3. Coinage.-4. Table of the population.-5. Present state. 1. General description.-[BUENOS AYRES is one of the most considerable towns in South America, and the only place of traffic to the s. of Brazil. It is in the s. division and province of La Plata, is well fortified, and defended by a numerous artillery. It has an elegant cathedral, a small Indian church, and about 4000 houses. The houses are generally two stories high, some built of chalk, and others of brick; most of these are tiled. Buenos Ayres has its name on account of the excellence of the air, and is situated on the s. side of the river La Plata, where it is seven leagues broad, 50 leagues from the sea. The ships get to it by sailing up a river that wants depth, is full of islands, shoals, and rocks; and where storms are more frequent and dreadful than on the ocean. It is necessary to anchor every night at the spot where they come to; and on the most moderate days a pilet must go to sound the way for the ship. After having reached within three leagues of the city, the ships are obliged to put their goods on board some light vessel, and to go to refit and wait for their cargoes at Icunado de Barragan, situated seven or eight leagues below. Here we meet with Here we meet with the merchants of Europe and Peru; but no regular fleet comes here, as to the other parts of Spanish America; two, or at most three, register ships, make the whole of their regular intercourse with Europe. The returns are chiefly gold and silver of Chile and Peru, sugar, and hides. Those who have now and then carried on a contraband trade to this city, have found it more advantageous than any other whatever. The benefit of this contraband has been of late wholly in the hands of the Portuguese, who keep magazines for that purpose in such parts of Brazil as lie near this country. The most valuable commodities come here to be exchanged for European goods, such as Vigoña wool from Peru, copper from Coquimbo, gold from Chile, and silver from Potosi. From the towns of Corientes and Paraguay, the former 250, the latter 500 leagues from Buenos Ayres, are brought hither the finest tobacco, sugars, cotton, thread, yellow wax, and cotton cloth; and from Paraguay, the herb so called, and so highly valued, being a kind of tea drank all over S. America by the better sort; which one branch is computed to amount to 1,000,000 of pieces of eight annually, all paid in goods, no money being allowed to pass here. Azara asserts, that the wheat here produces 16 for 1, at Monte Video 12, and at Faraquay 4. The wheat is considerably smaller than that of Spain; but the bread extremely good. The average quan tity produced is 219,300 fanegas of Castile, 70,000 of which are consumed in the country, and the rest exported to the Havanah, Paraguay, Brazils, and the island of St. Maurice. Bread is, however, by no means the staff of life in this country: meat, and the great variety of roots and other grains with which the country abounds, afford to the poor inhabitants an equally healthy and even more nutritious sustenance. Mendoza, situated at the foot of the Andes of Chile, annually furnishes 3313 bar- . rels of wine, and St. John's 7942 of brandy, to Buenos Ayres and Monte Video; but the low lands of Peru, particularly the valley of Pisco, possesses the best vine and olive grounds that are to be found in the s. continent. The commerce be tween Peru and Buenos Ayres is chiefly for cattle and mules, to an immense value. When the English had the advantage of the asiento contract, Negro slaves were brought hither by factors, and sold to the Spaniards. Goods are conveyed in carts over the pampas of Buenos Ayres to Mendoza in one month. From thence they cross over the cordilleras of Chile on mules to San Jago, a distance of 80 leagues, and thence in carts to Valparaiso, 30 leagues, which journey is performed in 15 days. The climate is here healthy, provisions and cattle abundant; and when the projected read is established through Villarica to the port of Talcahuano in the S. seas, the conveyance will be shortened one-third, and the precarious passage of the cordilleras, which can only be made during the summer months, in consequence of the snows, will be avoided. Buenos Ayres is therefore a good na tural deposit for Chile, Peru, and Potosi. Buenos Ayres, previous to the war, has afforded 1,000,000 of hides annually, and the meat of 250,000 oxen, sufficing for the consumption of its inhabitants and its exports; the remainder was of consequence lost, for besides the tallow, the tongue was the only part cured. We are glad to find that the enterprise of some individuals has induced them to salt some of this waste beef, and that the British government, in case of need, may here per-] [ceive the favourable means of supplying their navy, and even the West India islands. Paraguay furnishes to the interior trade of Chile 3,750,000 lbs. of Paraguay tea, and 60,000 mules, in exchange for wine and brandies, and 150,000 ponchos, &c. Paraguay also furnishes Buenos Ayres with 4,900,000 lbs. of tea, tobacco, woods, gums, &c. exchange for European fuxuries. It is, however, extremely difficult to establish the precise amount of the interior trade of a country wherein the duties of alcabala, the only sure means of ascertaining it, are farmed out to individuals, and where the imports and exports are often landed and shipped in a clandestine manner. 2. Imports and exports.-At Buenos Ayres, the annual importation of Negroes, from 1792 to 1796, amounted to 1338; and the number has been probably increasing ever since. About 500 are introduced annually into Peru, and about 100 into Mexico. The progress of Buenos Ayres and other Spanish settlements on the river Plata, since they were placed under a separate viceroy of their own, has been most unequivocal. The fate of those provinces, for the two preceding centuries, had been singularly hard. Debarred from a free intercourse with Europe, lest the free importation of goods by the river Plata should injure the trade of the galleons, they had no market for their surplus produce, nor means of supplying themselves with foreign commodities, except by vessels occasionally permitted to trade with them under license, or by the contraband commerce which, as before observed, they maintained with the Portuguese. Under the influence of this narrow and oppressive system, they languished in poverty and obscurity till 1778, when, after the erection of Buenos Ayres into the capital of a new viceroyalty, the former restrictions on its commerce were removed. The following table, extracted from authentic documents, will show the value of its exports du Annual average from 1748 to 1753, 1,677,250 According to Humboldt, the dollars imported into Buenos Ayres, in 1803, amounted to 3,500,000, and the exports consisted of produce to the value of 2,000,000 dollars, besides 5,000,000 dollars in specie. 3. Coinage. In the upper provinces of the viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, are situated many valuable mines of gold and silver, of which the celebrated mine of Potosi is the best known in Europe, though it has long ceased to merit the reputation which it once enjoyed, of being the richest and most abundant mine of the new world. The quantity of the precious metals obtained from these mines, may be estimated by the coinage of the mint of Potosi; and from the following statements, founded upon the best attainable authorities, it would seem that the amount of their produce has been of late years rapidly increasing. |