Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/367

Rh in so flourishing a condition, that a procurator was appointed, and sent to the court of Madrid, to solicit of his Catholic Majesty various indulgences, and, among others, that of erecting the city of Tarija into a bishopric, annexing to the province the jurisdictions of Pilaya, Lipes, and Chichas, together with the towns of Cochinoca, Casavinda, and Huamahuaca. This grant was refused, notwithstanding it was exposed by the petitioners, that the inhabitants had remained without the sacrament of confirmation, in consequence of the episcopal visit not having been made for upwards of fifty years.

The population of Tarija, at the commencement, besides being on a very reduced scale, was but of an indifferent quality, on account of the privilege granted by the cabinet of Spain, to all those who should enter the province, to combat and settle, that they should not be prosecuted for any debts. It thus became the sanctuary of fraudulent bankrupts and unprincipled debtors. That it gradually improved both in numbers and condition, was equally owing to the resources of the country, and to the misfortunes which befel those in its vicinity. A plague of devouring inse6ts, similar to that which, as a special punishment, was made to inundate the houses and plains of ancient Egypt, put to flight all the inhabitants of the city of Pilaya, many of whom took up their abode in Tarija, and within the boundaries of the province. The same