of Peru continued in office fourteen years, several intended successors having died on the way.  Scarcely does the king of Spain live in greater splendour than the viceroy does at Lima, where the chief courts of judicature are held, to which appeals are brought from all the courts and provinces of this extensive kingdom.  I was told on good authority that the last viceroy, who died about four years ago, left at least eight millions of dollars to his widow and family, besides vast sums given in charity during his life, and building many churches, friaries, and nunneries.  He left a better character than any viceroy had done for an age past.

[Footnote 223:  This province is now in the kingdom or viceroyalty of New Granada, and audiencia of Quito.—­E.]

The province of Guayaquil abounds in excellent timber of several kinds, so that it is the chief place in all Peru for building and repairing ships, of which there are seldom less than seven or eight on the stocks here at one time.  Its chief commodity is cacao, with which it supplies most parts on the South Sea, and we were told it never exported less than 30,000 carguas yearly, and sometimes double that quantity, a cargua being eighty-one pounds weight, which only costs here two dollars and a half.  They have also a considerable trade in salt and salt-fish, from Cape St Helena, which is mostly sent to Quito and other places of the inland country.  It exports also a vast quantity of timber to Truxilo, Chana, Lima, and other places, where it is scarce.  They export also from hence rice and cotton, with some dried or jerked beef.  This province has no mines of gold or silver, but abounds in all sorts of cattle, which are very cheap, especially on the island of Puna, where we amply supplied ourselves.  Their only grain is maiz, so that all their wheat flour is brought from Truxilo, Cherisse, and other places to windward, or to the south, as the wind blows here always from the south.  They procure several kinds of woollen cloth, among which, are very strong and good bags, from Quito.  Their wines, brandy, olives, oil, and sugar, come from Piscola, Nasca, and other places to windward.  All kinds of European goods are brought from Panama, being brought there overland from Portobello on the Gulf of Mexico; and the trade of this port is so considerable as to employ forty sail every year, besides coasters.  A market is also held daily on bark logs, or boats, every day, on the river before the town, containing every thing afforded by the interior country in great plenty.

The other towns in the province are governed by lieutenants, or deputies, appointed by the corregidore.  Above half of these towns border on the same river or its branches, so that their inhabitants can all come to the capital in two tides, though some are many leagues distant. Porto Vaco was formerly the capital.  In the whole province, the Spaniards reckon 10,000 inhabitants, but I believe there are many more, including all the mixed races between Spaniards, Indians, and negroes, which they divide and subdivide into eleven denominations.  Few of the prisoners who fell into our hands were healthy or sound, and nearly half of the native Spaniards applied to our doctors for remedies against the French disease, which is so common here that it is reckoned no scandal.