two hundred. There was consequently a balance of twenty-one thousand two hundred piastres against the viceroyalty of Lima.
The only intercourse kept up with Valdivia, which has not any exports, is by two vessels that sail thither annually, one from the port of Valparayso with provisions, and the other from Lima, with pay for the troops composing the garrison. This entire want of commerce is not owing to a sterility of soil. At a little distance from the city, towards the Cordillera, there are vallies which abound in every description of grains and produdtions. The mountains are covered by holm oaks, and other trees, which are in great request for building; and the gold mines of this distr16l have been cited for the fine quality of their metal, the standard of which, at the time they were worked, was never beneath twenty-three carats. The population having, however, been destroyed by the neighbouring Indians, at the close of the seventeenth century, and not exceeding, at the present time, two thousand souls, the condition of Valdivia has become truly deplorable. With a view to the re-establishment of its commerce, it has been recently declared a free port, subject to the presidency of Chile.
The ports of Realexo and Sonsonate are the only ones which are frequented for the exportation from Callao to the coast of the southern extremity of the kingdom of Goatemala. The amount of the exports, which consist of furs; wines; brandies; oil, &c. is so very inconsiderable, that in 1789 it did not exceed twenty-eight thousand three hundred and fifty piastres. On the other side, the importation, from the above ports, of indigo; pimento; pitch; cedar planks; brazil
