It is not strange that South Americans generally, as well as all Argentines, are proud of Buenos Aires; indeed, as the second Latin city of the world with a population of twelve hundred thousand, it arouses feelings of satisfaction among those who have been watching with anxiety signs of sterility or poverty in the Latin race elsewhere. The political history of the city has been dealt with in former chapters. Its effective foundation dates from the year 1580, and within forty years it was a prosperous town with three thousand inhabitants, and the lower Plate settlements were separated from the Paraguayan Governorship, Buenos Aires, of course, being made the capital of the new Province. Up to the time of the Revolution it continued to make steady progress. In about 1762 it was described as follows:[75] "The houses of this city, which were formerly of mud walls, thatched with straw, and very low, are now much improved, some being of chalk, and others of brick, having one story besides the ground-floor, and most of them tiled. The cathedral is a spacious and elegant structure.... The principal square is very large, and built near a little river; like most towns situated on rivers, its breadth is not proportioned to its length. The front answering to the square is the castle where the Governor constantly resides, and with the other forts has one thousand regular troops. The number of the houses are about four thousand.[76] There is a small church at the farther end of the city for the Indians.... The city is surrounded by a spacious and pleasant country, free from any obstruction to the right; and from those delightful plains the inhabitants are furnished with such plenty of cattle, that there is no place in the universe where meat is better or cheaper. It is also fertile in all sorts of grain and fruits, and would be still more so if duly cultivated; but the people are excessive, indolent, and content themselves with what nature produces without labour." Another writer (Campbell)[77] of about the same time or a little earlier, speaks of the town's great trade in wool from Peru, copper from Coquimbo, and silver from Potosi. As the trade of Paraguay alone was valued at a million pieces of eight annually, that of Buenos Aires must have been very considerable. As the mines of Peru showed signs of exhaustion, more attention was paid to the trade and industries of the Plate district, and immigrants, attracted by the flourishing cattle trade, began to turn thither. In 1776 Buenos Aires was estimated to have twenty thousand inhabitants, but a quarter of a century of the new and liberal colonial policy doubled that number, and when the English attacked it they appear to have been impressed by its size.