The chief Towns and Places of note, are 1. St. Jago de Esteco, the principal Town of the Province, and a Bishop’s See, seated upon the River Esteco, a hundred and fourscore Leagues distant from Buenos Ayres.
2. St. Michael de Tucuman, seated at the foot of a huge rocky Mountain, but otherwise in a Soil the fruitfullest and best, both for Corn and Pasturage, in all this Countrey, twenty eight Leagues distant from St. Jago.
3. Talavera, or Nuestra Sennora de Talavera, as the Spaniards call it, situate upon the Banks of Salado, in a good Soil, and inhabited by an industrious People, grown exceeding rich and wealthy, chiefly by their Manufactures of Cotton-Wooll, whereof they have great plenty, and by which they drive a Trade as far as the Mines at Potosi, and other parts of Peru.
4. Corduba, another rich Town of this Province, and of great Trade, as lying at an equal distance, viz. of fifty Leagues, both From San Fe, as they call it, or St. Faiths in the Province of La Plata abovesaid, and from St. Juan de la Frontera in the Country of Chile, and almost in the Road-way from Potosi and those parts of Peru, to Buenos Ayres and the North Sea.
5. Chocinoca; 6. Sococha; 7. Calebinda; 8. Morata, and others, but belonging for the most part to the reduced Natives.
Sect. IV.
La Crux de Sierra.
Situation of La Crux de Sierra.
La Crux de Sierra is a little Territory (at least in comparison to some others) lying towards Peru, and reckon’d by some for one of the Provinces of Peru: It lieth betwixt the two great Rivers Paraguay and Guapay, a hundred Leagues distant, as ’tis said, from Charcas, to which yet in some Causes it is subordinate.
The Soil of this Countrey is abundantly fertile in all sorts of American Fruits, besides good plenty both of Wheat and Maiz, and scarsity of nothing useful for Man’s Life, unless it be fresh Water in some places.