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SANTA FE

Volume 19 · 385 words · 1842 Edition

city of Spain, on the plains of Granada, and in the province of Andalusia. When, under Ferdinand and Isabella, the court of Spain determined to reduce to the Christian dominion the last refuge of the Moors in the city of Granada, as the siege was likely to be very protracted, this city was founded near it, as the head-quarters of the Catholic forces. It is in a fine situation, surrounded by the best cultivation, and enjoying the best soil in Spain, perhaps in the world; and its powers of irrigation are always greater in proportion to the heat of the weather, as the waters are supplied from the melting of the snows on the summit of the Sierra Nevada. This city has been frequently injured by earthquakes, which have at times almost destroyed its edifices. One in 1807 was especially destructive; but, from the richness of the soil, it has speedily risen from its ruins, and been as flourishing as before the visitation. It is said that a narrow strip of land, extending the whole distance across the plain, and on one part of which this city is built, is periodically subject to this calamity, which, however the inhabitants may dread it, has not power to drive them from it. Near to this place is the residence and estate granted by the Spanish government to the Duke of Wellington for his services during the war. It is called the Sota de Roma, and is finely situated.

Santa Fe de Bogota, a town of South America, and capital of New Granada, is situated at the foot of a steep mountain, at the entrance of a vast plain. It is the residence of a viceroy and an archbishop, and the seat of an audiencia and a university, and contains magnificent houses, five bridges, and thirty thousand inhabitants. The air is constantly temperate. The wheat of Europe and the sesame of Asia produce abundant crops, and at all seasons. The plateau on which the town of Santa Fe de Bogota is situated bears a resemblance in several respects to that which encloses the Mexican lakes. They are both more elevated than the convent of St Bernard, the former being 8190, the latter 7008 feet above the level of the sea. Long. 74. 10. W. Lat. 4. 35. N.