The provinces of this department are Jauja, Tarma, Pasco, Cajatambo, Huari, Huaylas, Huamalies, Conchucos, and Huanuco. Besides the precious metals, (and quicksilver, which for some time back has been regularly extracted from the mines of Jonta in Huamalies,) these provinces yield a great variety of cattle and vegetable produce. Huanuco, the principal city of the province of the same name, though no longer the seat of opulence or aristocracy, was once one of the chief cities of Peru under the ancient conquerors, and is at present chiefly distinguished as the capital of the whole department of Junin. The prefect of this jurisdiction extends his authority as far as the country of Maynas on the north, and to the banks of the river Paro, or Beni, on the east, passing through the intervening wilds of the Pajonal and pampa del Sacramento, &c. along windings of the forest best known to holy fathers and half-converted Indians. These wilds are inhabited on the south, and in the environs of the rivers Apurimac, Mantaro, Pangoa, Perene, Camar, and Sampoya, &c. by Campas, Piros, Mochobos, Ruanaguas, and other Indian tribes no longer invited to share of the blessings of Christianity; and to the north-east of the plain, or pampa of Sacramento, is the very important missionary settlement of Sarayacu, still annexed to the department of Junin. Neither of these outskirts of an ill-sustained civil jurisdiction, nor the territories which thus lie very wide and uncultivated to the east of the main provinces, ever appear to have constituted a part of the ancient empire of the Incas. And not only by the rugged barriers of the eastern Cordillera, but by a difference of language, the untutored Indians of the Montaña are to this day separated from the true children of the Sun, whose common language, as the reader knows, is the Quichua, while the savages hitherto discovered speak almost as many tongues as there have appeared distinct tribes among them, except on the banks of the Ucayali, and in the vicinity of the chief missionary settlement there, where the Pano is the general or prevailing language of the somewhat christianized natives. The government of Peru is, by its constitution, pronounced to be a popular, representative government; and in theory at least, though not in fact, the sovereignty emanates from the people, who are supposed to delegate its exercise to the legislative, executive, and judicial powers of the republic. It is not, however, now our intention to enter upon an account of the general government, as we only desire to enumerate some of the more important functions of the internal government. OF THE OFFICE OF PREFECTS AND GOVERNORS, &C.