The court of Madrid was dissatisfied that a region which had been lauded as possessing great natural advantages should furnish it with such few commodities, and those in so small quantities. It drew therefrom the conclusion that the country under the superintendence of the Viceroy of _Peru_ was too vast for all parts of it to receive due attention, and that the development of the northern region would be better assured under a separate government. Accordingly, in the year 1718, the Viceroyalty of _Peru_ was divided into two portions, the northern region, from the frontiers of _Mexico_ as far as to the _Orinoco_, and on the Southern Sea from _Veragua_ to _Tumbez_, forming the Viceroyalty of _New Granada_, of which the capital was _Bogotá_. To this region, likewise, was assigned the inland province of _Quito_. The Viceroyalty of _New Granada_, in fact, comprised what now forms the Republic of _Venezuela_, the United States of _Columbia_, and the Republic of _Ecuador_. Although this was undoubtedly a step in the right direction, its good results were not at once apparent. It might have been foreseen that it would take some time as well to form capable administrators as to call order out of confusion, and to instil the habits of industry into people long used to idleness and free-living. Nevertheless, the change of things was not without effect, and the good results became by degrees apparent in Spain. Here, as elsewhere in those imperfectly-controlled regions, smuggling was the rule; and it is said that half of the gold amassed by the colony was fraudulently sent abroad, chiefly by way of the rivers _Atrato_ and _Hache_. With a view to stopping this traffic, forts were erected on these streams; which, however, were ineffectual in securing the end in view. Communication between one province and another, even between one town or village and another, was difficult or impracticable. Every traveller was more or less exposed to be robbed or to be killed by the independent Indians; but these enemies, formerly fierce and implacable, yielded by degrees to the efforts of the missionaries, and to the acts of good-will on the part of the strangers, which replaced the barbarities of a more savage age. Notwithstanding the bounties of nature in this region, many of its provinces drew their subsistence from Europe or from North America. The cost of transport from place to place forbade the culture of grain in the interior beyond the amount requisite for each individual locality. [Sidenote: 1774.]