SANTIAGO, a large city of Spain, in the province of
Galicia, of which it is the capital. It is about six leagues from the sea, on a little river not navigable, called the Sar, which unites with another called the Sancta, and then flows into the Ulla, and joins the river Arosa, which has at its entrance to the ocean some secure harbours for small vessels. This is an archiepiscopal city, and is one of the most richly endowed of all the cathedrals of the kingdom. In former times this church was the resort of pilgrims from every part of Spain, and a great part of the rest of Europe. The votive offerings have therefore been prodigious, and though the veneration for the shrine of St Iago has been on the decline for many years, yet the accumulation of past periods now serves to keep in idleness, if not in profligacy, a great number of ecclesiastics. The city contains a university of considerable celebrity, a very large and well-regulated hospital, and several smaller ones, besides other sumptuous public edifices. It contains about 25,000 inhabitants, the greater part of whom depend on the religious houses, especially some thousands of poor, who are not disposed to work, because the donations in food and in money from the different pious establishments are sufficient to keep them alive, and allow them to indulge in their habitual indolence. There are indeed some few manufactories of linens, laces, and tapes; they languish, however, and give employment but to very few. The surrounding country is cold and sterile, and therefore the donations of the pious are expended in obtaining necessaries from the more distant parts of the province.