The houses are generally two stories high, and covered with tiles; they are large, convenient, and have beautiful gardens, in which grow all sorts of European fruits. The cathedral is also large and well ornamented, and there is a parish church appropriated solely for the Indians, who live in the suburbs, and amount to about 3000. Besides these there are five convents, each of which has a handsome church, two nunneries, an university, and two colleges. The greatest evil attending the situation of this city is the want of water, which is only scantily supplied by the public fountains, dispersed in different places. Chuquisaca is famous as being the seat of the Royal Audience of Los Charcas, which is the supreme court of Buenos Ayres, and has the viceroy for its president; it was erected in 1559. The magistracy of this city are chosen from among the first nobility, and consist of a corregidor, regidores, and alcaldes, who govern the district attached to the town, which includes a very large space around it, and contains, amongst others, the celebrated city and mines of Potosi. The inhabitants of La Plata are computed at 14,000. In the district surrounding the capital, and which is called CHARCAS, are several rivers, which form from their united streams the Pilcomayo. The names of these rivers are the _Tarapaya_, that runs from _Porco_; the _Potosi_, which is employed in washing the ores in the mines of that name; and the _Cachimayo_, which passes near La Plata; after the junction of this last, the united stream flows through the districts of Pilaya, Paspaya, and Tomina, from whence it enters Chaco, and runs 80 leagues as far as the Llanos de Manso, after which its channel is through thick forests to the south-east, and it enters the Paraguay, south of the city of Asuncion, in between 25° 40' and 26° 20' south latitude, by two mouths, after a course of 600 miles. Its banks are inhabited by independent nations, who are so warlike, that the Jesuits in vain sought for a passage by this stream, from Peru to Paraguay.