cause, I thought it not less than twice that
distance.

When we arrived at Laguna, we walked through many of the
streets, which are very regular, and cross each other at right
angles; the buildings in general are good, and some of the
streets are wider than you generally see them in any of the
Spanish or Portuguese towns: there are two parish churches, which
have short square steeples, but they appear above all the other
buildings; there are also two nunneries, and three or four
convents, which are built in a quadrangular form, and have good
gardens. In the middle of the town is a conduit, which supplies
the inhabitants with water. This city stands on a plain of
considerable extent, over part of which we rode, until we came to
the foot of the hill from whence the town is supplied with water.
We ascended the mountain, and traced the stream to its
fountain-head, where we found it issuing from cavities in several
parts of the hill, and was conveyed down the declivity in
stone-troughs, and received on the plain by troughs of wood,
supported about seven or eight feet above the ground by props;
through this aqueduct, the water is carried to the center of the
city, over a plain, from a distance of four or five miles.

The plain on which Laguna stands, is pleasant and fertile; it
was now the height of their harvest, and many people were
employed in cutting down the corn, with which this plain seemed
to be well planted; there were also many pleasant gardens here,
and the soil in general appeared rich. The plain is surrounded by
very high mountains, down the sides of which in the rainy season,
(for their rains are periodical,) vast torrents of water run,
from which cause, I apprehend, its unhealthiness must proceed;
for I was told, when remarking how thinly the town of Laguna
appeared to be inhabited, that very few, who had it in their
power to choose their place of residence, would continue in
Laguna. The governor has a palace here, but generally resides at
Santa Cruz; and this city, once the residence of persons in great
authority, is now quite deserted by people of any distinction. I
saw nothing of the lake from which it derives its name, but was
given to understand that it was now a very inconsiderable piece
of water; probably the accounts given of there having been a
large lake here, may have originated from the plain being quite a
swamp during the fall of the heavy rains. We returned to Santa
Cruz the same evening, ver