order, and obtained from the conqueror a grant of a very considerable portion of land. The fervour of religion, and the advantages of a country naturally rich, induced the orders of St. Augustin, St. Francis, San Juan de Dios, and, lastly, of the Society of Jesus, to establish in the city of San Bernardo, the capital of the district, each of them a convent, for the maintenance of which they acquired many funds and pious bequests. One of the original MSS. we have before us, bearing the signature of Don Nicholas de Echalar, chief magistrate of police, says on this subject: "By the means of these foundations posterity has been burdened with so many pensions and quit-rents, that the possessions may with truth be said to have been purchased five or six times, and still continue to pay the five per cent.; insomuch, that by degrees the inhabitants have been impoverished, until they have not enough left for their advancement and preservation." Another still more political MS. observes on the same head: "With the successive impoverishment of the province, the foundations of the convents, which the first settlers had made at their own expence, have been so much reduced, that in neither of those of St. Domingo, St. Augustin, and San Juan de Dios, any other monk beside the prior is to be found. The convent of the Jesuits having been altogether suppressed, if it were not for the College for the Propagation of the Gospel, the inhabitants would not be able to frequent the service of the mass."
In the above year, 1574, the viceroy appointed the ordinary alcaids, regidors, procurator, and major-domo, for the senate of San Bernardo de Tarija, which was then established; and in the lapse of a century from that date, the province was
