SAN JUAN.
The province of San Juan, which adjoins that of Mendoza, occupies the space between the great Cordillera and the mountains of Cordova, as far north as the Llaños, or plains, of La Rioja. It is said to contain about 25,000 inhabitants, governed, at present, like those of Mendoza, and occupied very much in the same manner, in the cultivation of their vineyards and gardens, and in agricultural pursuits. Their exports of brandies and wines to the other provinces are little short of those from Mendoza, and the quantity of corn they annually grow has been estimated at from 100,000 to 120,000 English bushels. The same lands produce yearly crops under the process of artificial irrigation from waters highly charged with alluvial matter. The ordinary crops are 50 for 1, in better lands 80 to 100, and in some, as at Augaco, about five leagues to the north of the city of San Juan, they have been known to yield 200 and 240. The price in the province is from one and a half to two Spanish dollars for a fanega, equal there to about two and a half English bushels. The wages of a day labourer are from five to six dollars a month, besides his food, which may be worth a rial a day more.
In times of scarcity corn has been sent from San Juan to Buenos Ayres, a distance of upwards of a thousand miles; but this can never answer under ordinary circumstances, from the great expense attending the land carriage. It is different with the wines and brandies, which, after all charges, can be sold in most of the provinces of the interior, and even at Buenos Ayres, at a fair profit. They are in general demand amongst the lower orders, and, if pains were taken with them, might be very much improved. I have had samples of as many as eight or ten different qualities, all of them good, sound, strong-bodied wines, and only requiring more care in their preparation for market.
In the northern part of this province, in the lower ranges of the Cordillera, is the district of Jachal, in which are what are called the Gold Mines:—they are, as far as I could learn, much in the same state as those of La Carolina in the province of San Luis, already spoken of. Their yearly produce was estimated, in 1825, at 80,000 dollars, the greater part of which was sent to Chile to be coined at the mint of Santiago. The accuracy of this calculation has been disputed, but, men if true to its fullest extent, the amount is of no great consequence.
The situation of the city of San Juan is in latitude 31° 4´, according to Molina. Mr. Arrowsmith has placed it in longitude 68° 57´ 30".
The climate is described as truly heavenly, and the people as a well-disposed race, extremely anxious to improve both their moral and political condition. In this they have had chiefly to struggle with the countervailing influence of an ignorant, vicious, and bigoted priesthood, which has been greatly opposed to all innovations:—the political power, however, of this class of persons is fast on the wane at San Juan, as in most other parts of the Republic.