The city of Popayan is large and well built, the streets are broad, and cross, each other at right an gles. The public buildings are numerous and hand some ; it is a bishop's see, and contains, besides a magnificent cathedral, several parish churches, four convents, two nuneries, and an hospital. It had for merly a college under the direction of the Jesuits, but now governed by the secular clergy ; the number, as well as the talents of the professors, has declined since the expulsion of the order; inferior studies only are• prosecuted, and inferior degrees only conferred. Those who wish to attain higher distinction in the learned professions now study and graduate at the uni versities of Quito or Santa Fe. There is a mint here for coining gold and silver, but the produce of the mines is so small, that the expence of the establish ment of the mint nearly equals the amount of the " royal fifth. The inhabitants are estimated at 25,000, the far greater proportion of whom are either white Creoles, or mixtures derived from the Euro pean and African races, with but little of Indian blood. There are more than sixty noble families here, who have remained uncontaminated by alliance with the inferior colours, as they affirm, and on which they pride themselves excessively ; though others assert, that few of these families are exempt from the Indian colour. It is, however, an aristo cracy of a peculiar kind, and perhaps partakes less of the benefits of that institution, than is derived from it in our own and some other countries. Though the city of Popayan contains but few In dians, yet in the whole province they far outnumber all the other races together. Whole villages, very populous, contain no inhabitants besides them ; and in the mines, that labour, which, at an early period, was performed by negroes, has devolved on them ; whilst the Africans, from the paucity of late recruits, have gradually mixed with the other races, and be come extinguished in the casts of mulattos, quad cons, quinteroons, and similar denominations. river Moline rises in a mountain near the city, and passes through it ; sometimes it overflows its banks, but generally for a short period ; it has two handsome stone bridges built over it. Its water is considered as highly salubrious, possessing some medical virtues, and being also pleasant to the taste.
The next town in population after the capital is St Juan de Pasto, a bishop's see, and chief town of a district, to which it gives name. It contains 8000 inhabitants, mostly Creoles and Indians. The other towns are Carthage, lbague, near which is the quicksilver mine, Cali, Timana, Neyva, La Plata, and Mercaderes ; nothing remarkable distin guishes them except the rapid increase of their po pulation ;- but even in this respect they are excelled by the numerous small villages, where the enjoy ment of ease, and plenty, a fine climate, and mode rate labour, unite in producing a vast increase of the numbers of the people.
San Juan de Llanos is the eastward province of the viceroyalty, and one of the most extensive. It consists principally of plains, whose limits have not been defined, and scarcely ever explored. It is the country in which those great rivers rise, which contribute to form the immense river Ori noco. The Meta, Vechada, Casanare, and Gua visite, issue from the Cordilleras in the eastern division of this province. The climate is gene rally warm ; the inhabitants are few, and those mostly Indians, who in spite of the numerous mis sions established among them, care little for the re ligion or the laws of the Spaniards, but employ themselves in hunting the cattle, which, in herds without number, cover the plains. There are but two towns, dignified indeed with the title of cities, in this extensive province ; San Juan, and San Jo seph, the former containing about 1000, the latter 500 inhabitants. Colonies or missions were found ed by the Jesuits, who certainly possessed, in an extraordinary degree, the power of conciliating the savage inhabitants, and civilizing them up to a cer tain point. With the dispersion of these missiona ries, and the transfer of their undertakings to other orders of ecclesiastics, the civilization oft Indians here, as in other parts of America, has declined, and they are now little, if at all, removed from their pristine barbarism. The geography of this province was to 'tally unknown in Europe before the recent travels of Humboldt, who has surveyed and mapped it with great accuracy.
Tacames, or Atacames, is a province on the Paci fic Ocean, lately erected into a government ; it is a narrow stripe of land, bounded to the eastward by , the Andes. The productions and climate are those of the tropical regions. Its inhabitants are very few, mostly of the Indian race, though some Spa nish noble families have extensive possessions. Mal donado, head of one of the principal of these fami lies, opened a road from the river of Emeralds, which bounded his possessions, to the city of Quito, for which he was rewarded by receiving the ap pointment of governor of this district, which was erected into an intendancy for that purpose. The
river of Emeralds was, however, forbidden to be na vigated, from the facilities which it was supposed to furnish to the contraband traders ; and the province, which, whilst Maldonado lived, was rapidly increas ing in wealth and population, has retroceded and become insignificant. The principal place is San Mateo the capital, which does not contain 500 in habitants, and the other towns, Tumaco, Tola, and La Cauca, are still more inconsiderable. The other places scarcely deserve the name even of villages, but are either plantations or fishing stations.
The province of Quito has been generally placed in the kingdom of Peru, but ever since the year 1718 it has formed part of the kingdom of New Granada, and, indeed, must be considered one of its most important divisions. It is a country very va rious• in its climate, soil, productions, and aspect ; and besides Chimborazo, it includes, within its li mits, all the loftiest mountains of America. The whole of Quito, sometimes called a kingdom, but more correctly a presidency, is governed by an officer under the orders of the viceroy of New Granada. The seat of his government is the city of Quito, built as early as the year 1584, on the scite of an ancient town, in one of those beautiful plains, which, in the torrid zone, are to be found on the to of the lofty mountains. These plains possess fertility, beauty, mildness, and salubrity, and produce, almost spontaneously, every thing that mankind can want. This is eminently the case of Quito and the district that surrounds it ; but it has natural horrors, which, if not familiarized, would be sufficient to destroy all enjoyment. In every hill that surrounds them, its inhabitants may justly dread that a volcano will burst forth ; and every day they live, they may be alarm ed with the apprehension, that an earthquake may swallow them up, or bring an inundation that shall drown them. Amidst all these surrounding threats of destruction, however, and the experience of past events to alarm them, the inhabitants are the most gay, lively, dissipated, and luxurious of any peo ple in the American continent. The population is estimated at 70,000; many are of high rank, and enjoy great wealth : the descendants of the fitst adventurers affected this place, and established their families in it; and their descendants, ennobled by the Court of Madrid, shine in all the gaudy finery, which wealth, without taste, can display. About one-sixth of the inhabitants are whites, but mostly Creoles ; one-third are a mixture of whites and In dians, one-third are unmixed Indians, and the other sixth various casts between Indians, negroes, lattos, Bamboo; all of whom very proudly boast their nearer affinity to the white race, than that of the co lour, but one degree farther removed from that.dis tinction. There is a university in which the higher ranks are instructed, and, though the bigotry and superstition which prevails through Spain and her dominions fetters the mind, and prevents it from ex panding to any great extent ; yet the system is at least not worse than that which prevails in the country from which the government sprung, and far better than would have been enjoyed, if America had never been visited by the natives of Europe Classical knowledge is pursued with that languid pace, which is to be expected, where every thing is measured by its relation to the degrading super stition that prevails. The exact sciences, notwith standing their tendency to produce doubts respecting many dogmas, appear to have met with fewer ob structions ; and hence mathematics have been pro secuted more ardently and more successfully than any other branch of learning. More progress has, however, been made in botany than in any other study ; and the priests, who do not fear that the pursuit will stagger their faith, have pur sued it with avidity and with considerable suc-. cess. What is called philosophy in a Spanish uni versity is beneath contempt, but the divinity is a study of a still lower cast, consisting of such inquiries and speculations as are revolting to com mon sense, and not unfrequently to common de cency ; for the immaculate conception is there as in Spain a test of orthodoxy, and scrupulously investi gated. The universities of Quito, fur there are two, have produced no scholar whose name has reached Europe, except Don Pedro Maldonado, whom we have before noticed as the governor of Tacames. He was a profound mathematician ; he had pursued with avidity the study of physics ; and would have been a blessing to his country, could he have resided there free from the fetters of the priests.