BUENOS AYRES, one of the viceroyalties into which the Spanish dominions in South Ame rica are divided, and the most extensive of the whole. To the south and north its limits are not exactly defined, as it stretches into extensive de serts inhabited only bysavages, and little known. Its southern boundary be considered to ex tend from Cape Lobos westward to the Rio Colts redo ; on the north it is bounded by Amazonia, or the country of those independent Indians who wan der about the Amazons and its tributary streams; on the east by Brasil and the Atlantic Ocesa; and on the west by the great ridge of the Coi• dilleras, which separates it from Chili, and further to the north from Peru. From Cape Lobos to the furthest northern settlements on the Paraguay, it extends upwards of 1600 miles ; and from Cape St Anthony at the mouth of the Plata, to the ridges that separate it from Chili, 1000 miles. It we erected into a viceroyalty in 1778, and several dis tricts were added to it from Peru and Chili. From the latter those provinces were principally taken which are situated on the eastern declivity of the Andes.
The viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres is divided halo] five governments or provinces, namely, I. Buenos Ayres, or Rio de La Plata, of which the chief towns are Buenos Ayres the capital, Santa Fe, Monte Video, and- Maldonado on the opposite shores of the river.
II. Paraguay, of which the chief town is Xssurap tion.
Tucuman, of which the chief towns are Sas Jago del Estero, and Cordova.
IV. Los Charcos, or Potosi, formerly part of Peru, and comprehending the new district of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The chief towns are La Plata, Potosi, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and La Paz.
V. Chiquito, or Cuzco, formerly part of Chili, of which the chief towns are Mendoza, and San Juan de la Frontera.
The viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres forms a compact body of land nearly lying between the mows. tains of Brasil on the east, and the Cordilleras of Peru and Chili on the west. Towards the south, from those great ranges of mountains, a considerable tract of elevated country branches into the interior, in which arise all the numerous streams by which the country 1244, has laneet-shaped windows, with-slender pil lars, the capitals of several of which are highly en riched with foliage and figures of animals. Mies
den Church, which was rebuilt about the year 1493, afibrds a rich specimen of the later Gothic. Some of the most ancient and elegant specimehs of stained glass in the kingdom, remain in the chancel of Cbetwode Church ; as there is little doubt that this glass was coeval with the erection of the church, in 1244, it may be considered as one of the earliest specimens of the kind produced in England. The cross built upon the side of a hill, near the hamlet of Whiteleaf, is supposed to have been erected in the reign of Edward the Elder, to commemorate a battle fought against the Danes ; it is about 100 feet high, and 50 broad, tapering to 20.
In the year ending Easter 1803, the total money raised by poor's rates, and other parochial rates, was L. 105,378, 149. 111d.; on the average of the three years 1783, 1784, and 1785, it was L. 48,242, 15s. $d.; and in the year 1776, it amounted to L. 37,052, 18a. ld. In the account of the poor's rates for the year ending 25th March 1815, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 26th February 1816, there are no returns from this county.
In the year 1377, the number of persons in Buck inghamshire, charged to a poll-tax, from which the clew, children, and paupers were exempted, was 24,672. In the year 1700, the population amounted to 80,500. In the year 1801, by the returns under the act of Parliament, there were 20,443 inhabited houses, and 543 uninhabited. The total number of inhabitants was 107,444, of whom 52,094 were males, and 55,350 females. Of this total number, 25,083 were employed in agriculture, and 20,138 in trade, manufactures, or hatidicrafts. In the return. of the population act in •1811, the following results are given : is watered ; whilst its western and southern parts, descending by gradual slopes, run into extensive, and in some places marshy, plains to the foot of the Cor dillera of Chili.