The cathedral which was endowed in 1545, has a very extensive jurisdiction, and the revenue of the bishop is 24,000 piastres. In this church are held two annual festivals in honour of the Virgin, by whose assistance it is said the city was delivered when Latacunga, Riobamba, Hambato, and other places in its neighbourhood, were entirely destroyed by an earthquake and an ejection from Pichincha, of pumice, basalt, porphyry and liquid mud. The clay and hot water vomited from this volcano diffuses such fertility, that a constant succession of fruits, flowers, and leaves, appear during the whole year, and even on the same tree. Corn is reaped and sown at the same time, and such is the goodness of the pasture, that excellent mutton, beef, &c., are to be had at Quito. Fine cheese is also made in the dairies, and so much is used, that 70 or 80,000 dollars worth is annually consumed. Good butter is also found, and for the service of the table, whether in luxuries or necessaries nothing appears to be wanting. The height of Quito above the level of the sea is 9510 feet, and it is backed, by the conical summit of Javirac, immediately under that of Pichincha; Javirac being 10,239 feet above the ocean, consequently 729 feet higher than the city. Quito is plentifully supplied with water from several streams which flow from the sides of the mountains, and are conducted into the town by means of conduits. Several of these brooks unite in one spot, and form the small river Machangara, which washes the south parts of the city, and is crossed by a stone bridge. In the church of the Jesuits is an alabaster slab, on which is engraven a Latin inscription, commemorating the labours of the French and Spanish mathematicians in 1736, and the following years, till 1742, and enumerating the signals, angles, and other circumstances connected with the great undertaking of the measurement of a degree of the meridian which was performed in those years. In this province some cotton goods are manufactured; these are exported to Peru, for which gold, silver, laces, wine, brandy, oil, copper, tin, lead and quicksilver are returned; the wheat of Quito is exported to Guayaquil, and the coast of Guatimala sends indigo, iron and steel, for which some of the products of Quito are returned by way of Guayaquil. The commerce of Quito is however mostly internal, and this province contains no metallic veins which are worked, though many rich ones are supposed to exist, and some mercury has been found between the villages of Cuença and Azogue.