Prisnero, which supply the city with water and are the largest works of the kind in South America. The city is lighted by the electric light and has electric trams. [Illustration: GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CORDOBA.] Cordoba with Mendoza has the reputation of being the town in Argentina where the religious spirit is strongest. The number of churches is remarkably large and some of them are handsome. The University is the oldest in South America with the exception of that at Lima. It was founded in 1613 by the Jesuits, who were always foremost in the encouragement of learning and piety, and in 1621 it was confirmed by the Bull of Pope Gregory XV. In Spanish times it had a high reputation, but it greatly decayed under the tyranny of Rosas, and in 1861 possessed only two faculties--Law and Theology. It was much improved in 1880. Cordoba also is reputed to be a place where culture is highly valued, but provincial seats of learning tend to be overshadowed by Buenos Aires. Dr. Ernesto Quesada remarked: "In Cordoba there is an active literary life, and a band of young men who in society and magazines work with ardour, but their names are hardly known in the capital." However, Cordoba has better than any other town maintained its humanistic position, as Rosario has its commercial, against this overpowering preponderance, and it may be hoped that healthy non-political rivalries will be kept up and strengthened all over the country. Another large and flourishing city is Tucuman, a town of forty-nine thousand inhabitants, situated on the right bank of the Tala, a sub-tributary of the Salado. It was founded in 1565[155] by Diego de Villaruel, and has always played a prominent part in history. The old house in which the declaration of independence was signed is still preserved. In revolutionary days the communicative Andrews[156] thus describes it: "The city of Tucuman is like most others in South America, of rectangular form. The public edifices and works are in a wretched state. The arts and sciences are almost unknown, literature, of course, included. Music alone seems to be a little cultivated, but a general spirit of liberality, a wish to improve, and a thirst for knowledge, is very observedly diffusing itself, and will not allow this state of things to last. Unfortunately, the channels of information are few and narrow, and I fear the people are without instructors, or have very ill-chosen ones, though perhaps the best they can obtain." He estimates the population at ten or twelve thousand.