REPORT FOR 1864.

THE Council have great pleasure in being able to report to the Members of the Hakluyt Society that, during the last year, a considerable increase has been made to their numbers. At the same time the list of subscribers has been carefully revised, and has been cleared of a great many names of members who disregard the applications made to them for the payment of their arrears. The number of Members is now 224, and the balance in the Banker’s hands is £431:17:3. The arrears due to the Society amount to £290:17:0, while there are no outstanding debts of any kind.

Thus the funds of the Society are in a prosperous condition, and several Editors have, since the issue of the last annual Report, undertaken works of great value and rarity. The Council, therefore, congratulate the Members on the satisfactory state of the Society’s affairs; but they would also remind them that a large addition to the number of the subscribers is very desirable, and that the power of doing full justice to the authors whose works are reproduced in the Society’s volumes, depends upon the support which is received from those who are interested in this very important branch of literature.

Since the last General Meeting, the two following volumes have been delivered to members:—

1. “Mirabilia Descripta.” “Or the wonders of the East, by Friar Jordanus (circa 1330).” Translated from the Latin original, with the addition of a commentary by Colonel Henry Yule, C.B., late of the Royal Engineers (Bengal).

2. “The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India, and Ethiopia (A.D. 1503 to 1508).” Translated from the original Italian edition of 1510, with a preface, by John Winter Jones, Esq., F.S.A.; and edited with Notes and an Introduction by the Rev. George Percy Badger.

The following work is in the hands of the printer, and will be delivered to Members in the course of the autumn:—

“The Travels of Pedro de Cieza de Leon, from the gulf of Darien to the city of La Plata, contained in the first part of the Chronicle of Peru, which treats of the boundaries and description of provinces, founding of new cities, rites and customs of the Indians, and other strange things worthy to be known (Antwerp 1554).” Translated and edited, with Notes and an Introduction, by Clements R. Markham, Esq.

And the following works have been undertaken by Editors, one of which will be issued as the second volume for the present year:—

1. “The Travels of Josafa Barbaro and Ambrogio Contarini in Tana and Persia.” Translated from Ramusio by E. A. Roy, Esq., and edited by Viscount Strangford.

2. “The Narrative of Pascual de Andagoya, containing the earliest notice of Peru.” Translated and edited, with Notes, by Clements R. Markham, Esq.

3. “The Discovery and Conquest of the Canary Islands by Bethencourt in 1402-25.” Translated and edited by Captain J. G. Goodenough, R.N.

4. “The Voyage of Vasco de Gama round the Cape of Good Hope in 1497,” now first translated from a contemporaneous manuscript, accompanied by other documents, forming a monograph on the life of De Gama. To be translated and edited by Richard Garnett, Esq., of the British Museum.

5. “The Three Voyages of Sir Martin Frobisher,” with a selection of his letters now in the State Paper Office. Edited by Rear-Admiral R. Collinson, R.N., C.B.

6. “Cathay, and the road thither.” A collection of all minor notices of China, previous to the sixteenth century; to be translated and edited, with Notes and an Introduction, by Colonel Henry Yule, C.B.

7. “The Fifth Letter of Hernan Cortes, describing his Voyage to Honduras in 1525-26,” to be translated and edited by William Stirling, Esq., M.P.

8. “The Voyage and Travailes of John Hughen van Linschoten into the East or Portugales Indies from A.D. 1576-92,” to be reprinted from the English translation of 1598, and edited by the Rev. G. P. Badger.

9. “Description of Africa and of the notable things in it, by John Leo Africanus.” To be translated from Ramusio, and edited, with Notes and an Introduction, by Dr. Henry Barth, C.B., Hon. Corr. Mem. F.R.G.S.

The following Six Members retire from the Council:—

• Commodore Cracroft, R.N., C.B.
• John Forster, Esq.
• Dr. Hodgkin.
• Sir Erskine Perry.
• Major General Sir Henry Rawlinson, K.C.B.
• Lord Broughton.

Of this number, the three following are proposed for re-election, viz:

• Sir Erskine Perry.
• Major General Sir Henry Rawlinson, K.C.B.
• The Right Hon. Lord Broughton.

And the names of the following gentlemen are proposed for election:—

• Viscount Strangford.
• General C. Fox.
• Rear-Admiral R. Collinson, C.B.
• Captain Sherard Osborn, R.N., C.B.
• Rev. G. P. Badger.
• John W. Kaye, Esq.

THE
HAKLUYT SOCIETY.

President.

SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, K.C.B., G.C.St.S., F.R.S., F.R.G.S, D.C.L. Mem. Imp. Acad. Sc. St. Petersburg, Corr. Mem. Inst. Fr., &c. &c.

Vice-Presidents.

Rear-Admiral C. R. DRINKWATER BETHUNE, C.B.
The Right Hon. SIR DAVID DUNDAS, M.P.

Council.

• Rev. G. P. BADGER, F.R.G.S.
• J. BARROW, Esq., F.R.S.
• Rt. Hon. LORD BROUGHTON.
• Rear-Admiral R. COLLINSON, C.B.
• Sir HENRY ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S.
• General C. FOX.
• R. W. GREY, Esq.
• JOHN WINTER JONES, Esq., F.S.A.
• JOHN W. KAYE, Esq.
• His Excellency the Count de LAVRADIO.
• R. H. MAJOR, Esq., F.S.A.
• Sir CHARLES NICHOLSON, Bart.
• Captain SHERARD OSBORN, R.N., C.B.
• Sir ERSKINE PERRY.
• Major-General Sir HENRY C. RAWLINSON, K.C.B.
• WILLIAM STIRLING, Esq., M.P.
• Viscount STRANGFORD.

Honorary Secretary—C. R. MARKHAM, Esq.

Bankers—Messrs. RANSOM, BOUVERIE, and Co., 1, Pall Mall East.

he Hakluyt Society, which is established for the purpose of printing rare or unpublished Voyages and Travels, aims at opening by this means, an easier access to the sources of a branch of knowledge, which yields to none in importance, and is superior to most in agreeable variety. The narratives of travellers and navigators make us acquainted with the earth, its inhabitants and productions; they exhibit the growth of intercourse among mankind, with its effects on civilization, and, while instructing, they at the same time awaken attention, by recounting the toils and adventures of those who first explored unknown and distant regions.

The advantage of an Association of this kind, consists not merely in its system of literary co-operation, but also in its economy. The acquirements, taste, and discrimination of a number of individuals, who feel an interest in the same pursuit, are thus brought to act in voluntary combination, and the ordinary charges of publication are also avoided, so that the volumes produced are distributed among the Members (who can alone obtain them) at little more than the cost of printing and paper. The Society expends the whole of its funds in the preparation of works for the Members; and since the cost of each copy varies inversely as the whole number of copies printed, it is obvious that the members are gainers individually by the prosperity of the Society, and the consequent vigour of its operations.

New Members have, at present, the privilege of purchasing the complete set of the publications of the Society for previous years for thirteen guineas, but have not the power of selecting any particular volume.

The Members are requested to bear in mind that the power of the Council to make advantageous arrangements, will depend, in a great measure, on the prompt payment of the subscriptions, which are payable in advance on the 1st of January, and are received by Mr. Richards, 37, Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, who is the Society’s agent for the delivery of its volumes. Post Office Orders should be made payable to Mr. Thomas Richards, at the West Central Office, High Holborn.

WORKS ALREADY ISSUED.

1—The Observations of Sir Richard Hawkins, Knt.
In his Voyage into the South Sea in 1593. Reprinted from the edition of
1622, and edited by Capt. C. R. Drinkwater Bethune, R.N., C.B.
2—Select Letters of Columbus.
With Original Documents relating to the Discovery of the New World. Translated
and Edited by R. H. Major, Esq., of the British Museum.
3—The Discoverie of the Empire of Guiana,
By Sir Walter Ralegh, Knt. Edited, with copious Explanatory Notes, and a
Biographical Memoir, by Sir Robert H. Schomburgk, Phil. D., etc.
4—Sir Francis Drake his Voyage, 1595,
By Thomas Maynarde, together with the Spanish Account of Drake’s attack
on Puerto Rico, Edited from the Original MSS., by W. D. Cooley, Esq.
5—Narratives of Early Voyages
Undertaken for the Discovery of a Passage to Cathaia and India, by the North-west,
with Selections from the Records of the worshipful Fellowship of the
Merchants of London, trading into the East Indies; and from MSS. in the
Library of the British Museum, now first published by Thomas Rundall, Esq.
6—The Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia,
Expressing the Cosmographie and Commodities of the Country, together with
the manners and Customs of the people, gathered and observed as well by
those who went first thither as collected by William Strachey, Gent., the first
Secretary of the Colony; now first Edited from the original manuscript in the
British Museum, by R. H. Major, Esq., of the British Museum.
7—Divers Voyages touching the Discovery of America
And the Islands adjacent, collected and published by Richard Hakluyt,
Prebendary of Bristol in the year 1582. Edited, with Notes and an introduction,
by John Winter Jones, Esq., of the British Museum.
8—A Collection of Documents on Japan.
With a Commentary by Thomas Rundall, Esq.
9—The Discovery and Conquest of Florida,
By Don Ferdinando de Soto. Translated out of Portuguese by Richard
Hakluyt; and Edited, with notes and an introduction, by W. B. Rye, Esq.,
of the British Museum.
10—Notes upon Russia,
Being a Translation from the Earliest Account of that Country, entitled Rerum
Muscoviticarum Commentarii, by the Baron Sigismund von Herberstein,
Ambassador from the Court of Germany to the Grand Prince Vasiley Ivanovich,
in the years 1517 and 1526. Two Volumes. Translated and Edited, with
Notes and an Introduction, by R. H. Major, Esq., of the British Museum.
Vol. I.
11—The Geography of Hudson’s Bay.
Being the Remarks of Captain W. Coats, in many Voyages to that locality,
between the years 1727 and 1751. With an Appendix, containing Extracts
from the Log of Captain Middleton on his Voyage for the Discovery of the
North-west Passage, in H.M.S. “Furnace,” in 1741-2. Edited by John
Barrow, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A.
12—Notes upon Russia. Vol. 2.
13—Three Voyages by the North-east,
Towards Cathay and China, undertaken by the Dutch in the years 1594, 1595,
and 1596, with their Discovery of Spitzbergen, their residence of ten months in
Novaya Zemlya, and their safe return in two open boats. By Gerrit de Veer.
Edited by C. T. Beke, Esq., Ph.D., F.S.A.
14-15—The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China and
the Situation Thereof.
Compiled by the Padre Juan Gonzalez de Mendoza. And now Reprinted
from the Early Translation of R. Parke. Edited by Sir George T.
Staunton, Bart. With an Introduction by R. H. Major, Esq. 2 vols.
16—The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake.
Being his next Voyage to that to Nombre de Dios. Collated, with an
unpublished Manuscript of Francis Fletcher, Chaplain to the Expedition.
With Appendices illustrative of the same Voyage, and Introduction by W. S.
W. Vaux, Esq., M.A.
17—The History of the Tartar Conquerors who Subdued China.
From the French of the Père D’Orleans, 1688. Translated and Edited by the
Earl of Ellesmere. With an Introduction by R. H. Major, Esq.
18—A Collection of Early Documents on Spitzbergen and Greenland,
Consisting of: a Translation from the German of F. Martin’s important work
on Spitzbergen, now very rare; a Translation from Isaac de la Peyrère’s
Relation de Groenland; and a rare piece entitled “God’s Power and Providence
showed in the miraculous preservation and deliverance of eight
Englishmen left by mischance in Greenland, anno 1630, nine moneths and
twelve days, faithfully reported by Edward Pelham.” Edited, with Notes, by
Adam White, Esq., of the British Museum.
19—The Voyage of Sir Henry Middleton to Bantam and the Maluco Islands.
From the rare Edition of 1606. Edited by Bolton Corney, Esq.
20—Russia at the Close of the Sixteenth Century.
Comprising “The Russe Commonwealth” by Dr. Giles Fletcher, and Sir
Jerome Horsey’s Travels, now first printed entire from his manuscript in the
British Museum. Edited by E. A. Bond, Esq., of the British Museum.
21—The Travels of Girolamo Benzoni in America, in 1542-56.
Translated and Edited by Admiral W. H. Smith, F.R.S., F.S.A.
22—India in the Fifteenth Century.
Being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India in the century preceding
the Portuguese discovery of the Cape of Good Hope; from Latin, Persian,
Russian, and Italian Sources, now first translated into English. Edited, with
an Introduction by R. H. Major Esq., F.S.A.
23—Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico,
In the years 1599-1602, with Maps and Illustrations. By Samuel Champlain.
Translated from the original and unpublished Manuscript, with a Biographical
Notice and Notes by Alice Wilmere. Edited by Norton Shaw.
24—Expeditions into the Valley of the Amazons
During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: containing the Journey of
Gonzalo Pizarro, from the Royal Commentaries of Garcilasso Inca de la Vega;
the Voyage of Francisco de Orellana, from the General History of Herrera;
and the Voyage of Cristoval de Acuna, from an exceedingly scarce narrative
written by himself in 1641. Edited and Translated by Clements R.
Markham, Esq.
25—Early Indications of Australia.
A Collection of Documents shewing the Early Discoveries of Australia to the
time of Captain Cook. Edited by R. H. Major, Esq., of the British
Museum, F.S.A.
26—The Embassy of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo to the Court of Timour, 1403-6.
Translated, for the first time, with Notes, a Preface, and an Introductory Life
of Timour Beg. By Clements R. Markham, Esq.
27—Henry Hudson the Navigator.
The Original Documents in which his career is recorded. Collected, partly
Translated, and Annotated, with an Introduction by George Asher, LL.D.
28—The Expedition of Ursua and Aguirre,
In search of El Dorado and Omagua, A.D. 1560-61, Translated from the
“Sexta Noticia Historial” of Fray Pedro Simon, by W. Bollaert, Esq.;
with an Introduction by Clements R. Markham, Esq.
29—The Life and Acts of Don Alonzo Enriquez de Guzman.
Translated from a Manuscript in the National Library at Madrid, and edited,
with Notes and an Introduction, by Clements R. Markham, Esq.
30—Discoveries of the World by Galvano.
From their first original unto the year of our Lord 1555. Reprinted, with the
original Portuguese text, and edited by Vice-Admiral Bethune, C.B.
31—Marvels described by Friar Jordanus,
Of the Order of Preachers, native of Severac, and Bishop of Columbum; from
a parchment manuscript of the Fourteenth Century, in Latin, the text of which
has recently been Translated and Edited by Colonel H. Yule, C.B.,
F.R.G.S., late of H.M. Bengal Engineers.
32—The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema.
In Syria, Arabia, Persia, India, etc., during the Sixteenth Century. Translated
by J. Winter Jones, Esq., F.S.A., and edited, with Notes and an Introduction,
by the Rev. George Percy Badger.
33—The Travels of Cieza de Leon in 1532-50
From the Gulf of Darien to the City of La Plata, contained in the first part of
his Chronicle of Peru (Antwerp 1554). Translated and edited, with Notes
and an Introduction, by Clements R. Markham, Esq.

OTHER WORKS UNDERTAKEN BY EDITORS.

The Travels of Josafa Barbaro and Ambrogio Contarini in Tana and Persia. Translated from Ramusio by E. A. Roy, Esq., and edited, with an Introduction, by Viscount Strangford.

The Narrative of Pascual de Andagoya, containing the earliest notice of Peru. Translated and edited, with Notes, by Clements R. Markham, Esq.

The Discovery and Conquest of the Canary Islands, by Bethencourt in 1402-25. Translated and edited by Captain J. G. Goodenough, R.N., F.R.G.S.

The Voyage of Vasco de Gama round the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, now first Translated from a cotemporaneous manuscript, accompanied by other documents, forming a monograph on the life of De Gama. To be translated and edited by Richard Garnett, Esq., of the British Museum.

The Three Voyages of Sir Martin Frobisher, with a selection from his Letters now in the State Paper Office. Edited by Rear-Admiral R. Collinson, R.N., C.B.

Cathay and the Road Thither. A collection of all minor notices of China, previous to the Sixteenth Century. Translated and edited by Colonel H. Yule, C.B.

The Fifth Letter of Hernan Cortes, describing his Voyage to Honduras in 1525-26. Translated and edited by William Stirling, Esq., M.P.

John Huigen van Linschoten. Discourse of a Voyage unto the East Indies; to be reprinted from the English translation of 1598, and edited by the Rev. G. P. Badger, F.R.G.S.

Description of Africa and of the Notable Things in it, by John Leo Africanus. To be translated from Ramusio, and edited, with Notes and an Introduction, by Dr. H. Barth, C.B., Hon. Corr. Mem. F.R.G.S.

WORKS SUGGESTED TO THE COUNCIL FOR PUBLICATION.

Voyages of Alvaro de Mandana and Pedro Fernandez de Quiros in the South Seas, to be translated from Suarez de Figueroa’s “Hechos del Marques de Cañete,” and Torquemada’s “Monarquia Indiana.”

Inedited Letters, etc., of Sir Thomas Roe during his Embassy to India.

The Travels of Duarte Barbosa in the East, to be translated from the Portuguese.

The Voyage of John Saris to India and Japan in 1611-13, from a manuscript copy of his Journal, dated 1617.

Pigasetta’s Narrative of the Voyage of Magalhaens, to be translated from the Italian text, edited by Amoretti.

The Topografia Christiana of Cosmas Indicopleustes.

Bernhard de Breydenbach, 1483-84, a.d. Travels in the Holy Land.

Felix Fabri, 1483. Wanderings in the Holy Land, Egypt, etc.

Voyage of Du Quesne to the East Indies in 1692, from a manuscript Journal by M. C. * * * *

El Edrisi’s Geography.

Narrative of Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine, concerning the land called New France, discovered by him in the name of his Majesty: written at Dieppe, 1524 A.D.

Voyage made by Captain Jaques Cartier in 1535 and 1536 to the isles of Canada, Hochlega, and Saguenay.

Nicolo and Antonio Zeno. Their Voyages to Frisland, Estotiland, Vinland, Engroenland, etc.

De Morga. Sucesos en las Islas Filipinas.

Ca da Mosto. Voyages along the Western Coast of Africa in 1454: translated from the Italian text of 1507.

J. dos Santos. The History of Eastern Ethiopia. 1607.

Joam de Castro. Account of a Voyage made by the Portuguese in 1541, from the city of Goa to Suez.

Caterino Zeno. A Journey to the empire of Persia, in the time of Uzun Hassan.

John and Sebastian Cabot. Their Voyages to America.

Willoughby and Chancellor. Their Voyages to the North-east.

Icelandic Sagas narrating the Discovery of America.

LAWS OF THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.

I. The object of this Society shall be to print, for distribution among its members, rare and valuable Voyages, Travels, Naval Expeditions, and other geographical records, from an early period to the beginning of the eighteenth century.

II. The Annual Subscription shall be One Guinea, payable in advance on the 1st January.

III. Each member of the Society, having paid his Subscription, shall be entitled to a copy of every work produced by the Society, and to vote at the general meetings within the period subscribed for; and if he do not signify, before the close of the year, his wish to resign, he shall be considered as a member for the succeeding year.

IV. The management of the Society’s affairs shall be vested in a Council consisting of twenty-one members, viz., a President, two Vice-Presidents, a Secretary, and seventeen ordinary members, to be elected annually; but vacancies occurring between the general meetings shall be filled up by the Council.

V. A General Meeting of the Subscribers shall be held annually. The Secretary’s Report on the condition and proceedings of the Society shall be then read, and the Meeting shall proceed to elect the Council for the ensuing year.

VI. At each Annual Election, fix of the old Council shall retire, of whom three shall be eligible for re-election.

VII. The Council shall meet every month, excepting August, September, October, and November, for the dispatch of business, three forming a quorum, including the Secretary, and the Chairman having a casting vote.

VIII. Gentlemen preparing and editing works for the Society, shall receive twenty-five copies of such works respectively, and an additional twenty-five copies if the work is also translated.

RULES FOR THE DELIVERY OF THE SOCIETY’S VOLUMES.

I. The Society’s productions will be delivered without any charge, within three miles of the General Post Office.

II. They will be forwarded to any place beyond that limit, the Society paying the cost of booking, but not of carriage; nor will it be answerable in this case for any loss or damage.

III. They will be delivered by the Society’s agent, Mr. Thos. Richards, 37, Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, to persons having written authority of subscribers to receive them.

IV. They will be sent to the Society’s correspondents or agents in the principal towns throughout the kingdom; and care shall be taken that the charge for carriage be as moderate as possible.

LIST OF MEMBERS
OF
THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.

• Admiralty (The), 2 copies.
• All Souls College, Oxford.
• Allport, Franklin, Esq., 156, Leadenhall-street.
• Alston, Commander A. H.
• Antiquaries, the Society of.
• Army and Navy Club, 13, St. James’s-square.
• Arrowsmith, John, Esq. 35, Hereford-square, South Kensington.
• Asher, A., Berlin.
• Asiatic Society of Calcutta.
• Astor Library, New York.
• Athenæum Club, The, Pall Mall.
• Athenæum Library, Boston, U.S.
• Badger, Rev. George Percy, F.R.G.S., 7, Dawson-place, Bayswater.
• Baikie, Dr., Glasgow.
• Bank of England Library and Literary Association.
• Baring, Thomas George, Esq., M.P., 21, Lowndes-square.
• Barlersque, C., Esq., Bordeaux.
• Barrow, J., Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A., 17, Hanover-terrace, Regent’s Park.
• Batho, J. A., Esq., 49, Upper Charlotte-street, Fitzroy-square.
• Beke, Charles T., Esq., Phil. D., F.S.A., Bekesbourne, Canterbury.
• Bell, Reverend Thomas, Berbice.
• Benzon, E. L. S., Esq., Sheffield.
• Berlin, The Royal Library of.
• Bethune, Rear-Admiral C. R. Drinkwater, C.B., 4, Cromwell-road.
• Bibliothèque Impériale, Paris.
• Birmingham Library (The)
• Blackie, Dr. Walter G., Villafield, Glasgow.
• Boston Public Library, U.S.
• Bowring, Sir John, LL.D., Athenæum Club.
• Brevoort, J. C., Esq., New York.
• British Museum (copies presented)
• Brockhaus, F. A., Esq., Leipzig.
• Brodhead, J. R., Esq., New York.
• Broome, Major A.
• Broughton, Lord, 42, Berkeley-square.
• Brown, J. A., Esq., Newcastle-place, Clerkenwell.
• Brown, John Carter, Esq., Providence, Rhode Island.
• Brown, R., Esq., Sydney Mines, Cape Breton.
• Brown, W. H., Esq., Chester.
• Bruce, John, Esq., F.S.A., 5, Upper Gloucester-street, Dorset-square.
• Bunbury, E. H., Esq., 35, St. James’s-street.
• Cambridge University Library.
• Campkin, Henry, Esq., F.S.A., Reform Club, Pall Mall.
• Canada, The Parliament Library.
• Cannon, Charles, Esq., British Museum.
• Carlisle, The Right Hon. the Earl of, the Castle, Dublin.
• Carlton Club, Pall Mall.
• Cartwright, Henry, Esq., Her Majesty’s Gaol, Gloucester.
• Cautley, Sir Proby, K.C.B., India Office.
• Chatfield, Frederick, Esq., 12, Pall Mall.
• Chauncey, Henry C., Esq., New York.
• Christie, Jonathan Henry, Esq., 9, Stanhope-street, Hyde-park-gardens.
• Churchill, Lord Alfred S., M.P., F.R.G.S., 16, Rutland Gate.
• Churton, The Ven. Archdeacon, Creyke, Easingwold, Yorkshire.
• Collinson, Rear-Admiral, C.B., The Haven, Ealing.
• Colonial Office (The).
• Congress, Library of the, United States.
• Cooper, Lieut.-Colonel E. H., 36, Hertford-street.
• Cotton, R. W., Esq., Barnstaple.
• Cracroft, Commodore, R.N., C.B., H.M.S. Aboukir, West Indies.
• Crowninshield, F. B., Esq., New York (per Mr. Stevens).
• Cunard, Edward, Esq., New York.
• Dalrymple, Arthur, Esq., F.S.A., Norwich.
• Deane, C., Esq., Boston.
• Deedes, Henry, Esq., India Office, S.W.
• Dilke, Sir C. Wentworth, Bart., 76, Sloane-street.
• Dilke, C. W., Esq., 76, Sloane-street.
• Dry, Thos., Esq., 25, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
• Ducie, Earl of, 1, Belgrave-square, S.W.
• Dundas, Rt. Hon. Sir David, M.P., 13, King’s Bench Walk, Temple.
• Dundas, George, Esq., 9, Charlotte-square, Edinburgh.
• Dundas, John, Esq., 25, St. Andrew’s-square, Edinburgh.
• Duprat, M. B., Paris.
• Ellis, Sir Henry, K.H., F.R.S., 24, Bedford-square.
• Emmet, Dr. Addis, New York.
• Fletcher, Wm. Younger, Esq., British Museum.
• Foreign Office (The).
• Forster, John, Esq., Palace Gate House, Hyde Park Gate, W.
• Fox, General, 8, Grosvenor-square.
• Francis, Charles John, Esq., 7, St. Paul’s Grove, Canonbury.
• Franklin, Lady, Upper Grove Lodge, Kensington.
• Freer, W. E., Esq.
• Garnett, Richard, Esq., British Museum.
• Gayangos, Don Pascuel de, Madrid.
• Gladdish, William, Esq., Gravesend.
• Glasgow College.
• Goodenough Capt. J. G., R.N., F.R.G.S., 43, St. George’s-square, S.W.
• Grey, R. W., Esq., 47, Belgrave-square.
• Griffith, and Farran, Messrs., 21, Ludgate-street.
• Grinnell, Cornelius, Esq., F.R.G.S., 180, Piccadilly.
• Guise, W. V., Esq., Elmore-court, Gloucester.
• Hall, Rear Admiral, C.B., 48, Phillimore-gardens, Campden Hill.
• Harcourt, Egerton, Esq., Whitwell Park, York.
• Hardinge, Captain E., R.N., F.R.G.S., 32, Hyde Park Square.
• Harker, Turner James, Esq., 10, Northampton Park, Islington.
• Harris, Captain H., 35, Gloucester-terrace, Bayswater.
• Hawkins, Edward, Esq., 6, Lower Berkeley-street, Portman-square.
• Herold, A. L., Rue Richelieu, 67, Paris.
• Hodgkin, Thomas, Esq., M.D., 35, Bedford-square.
• Hollond, R., Esq., 64, Cumberland-street.
• Holmes, James, Esq., 4, New Ormond-street, Foundling.
• Home Office (The), Whitehall.
• Horner, Rev. J. S. H., Wells Park, Somersetshire.
• Hull Subscription Library.
• India Office, 20 copies.
• Johnson, W., Esq., R.N., F.R.G.S., North Grove House, Southsea.
• Jones, J. Winter, Esq., F.S.A., British Museum.
• Jones, W. Bence, Esq., Lisselan, co. Cork.
• Kaye, John W., Esq., India Office.
• Kellett, Rear-Admiral, C.B., Clonacody, Clonmel.
• Kennedy, Robert Lenox, Esq., New York.
• Lavradio, His Excellency the Count de, 12, Gloucester-pl., Portman-sq.
• L’Ecole Normale, Montreal.
• Lee, George, Esq., 15, Piccadilly.
• Lenox, J., Esq., New York.
• Lilford, Lord, Lilford Hall, Oundle, Northamptonshire.
• Liverpool Free Public Library.
• Logan, A. J., Esq., Singapore.
• London Institution, Finsbury Circus.
• London Library, 12, St. James’s-square.
• Lott, Capt. E. G., 159, Parliament-street, Liverpool.
• Lowe, Right Hon. Robert, M.P., 34, Lowndes-square.
• Loyes, Edw., Esq., 33, Paternoster-row.
• Lynch, Thomas Kerr, Esq., 31, Cleveland-square, W.
• M’Calmont, Robert, Esq., 87, Eaton-square.
• Mackenzie, John W., Esq., Edinburgh.
• McClintock, Capt. Sir Leopold, R.N., F.R.G.S., H.M.S. Aurora.
• Macready, W. C., Esq., Sherborne House, Dorset.
• Madras Literary Society.
• Maguire, Captain Rochfort, R.N., H.M.S. Galatea.
• Major, R. H., Esq., F.S.A., British Museum.
• Malcolm, W. Elphinstone, Esq., Burnfoot, Langholm, Carlisle.
• Mantell, Walter, Esq., New Zealand.
• Markham, Clements R., Esq., 21, Eccleston-square, S.W.
• Massie, Admiral T. L., R.N., Chester.
• Melbourne, Public Library of, per Mr. Guillaume.
• Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey, K.C.B., F.R.S., &c., 16, Belgrave-square.
• Murphy, Hon. C. H., New York.
• Murray, John, Esq., F.R.G.S., Albemarle-street.
• Newcastle-upon-Tyne Literary and Scientific Institute.
• New York State Library.
• Nicholson, Sir Charles, Bart., F.R.G.S., 19, Portland-place, W.
• Norris, Edwin, Esq., Sec. Asiatic Society, 5, New Burlington-street.
• Oriental Club, Hanover-square.
• Osborn, Captain Sherard, R.N., C.B., F.R.G.S., H.M.S. Royal Sovereign.
• Ouvry, F., Esq., F.S.A., 66, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
• Paine, W. Dunkley, Esq., Cockshutt Hill, Reigate.
• Peabody Institute, Baltimore, U.S.
• Peacock, George, Esq., Starcross, near Exeter.
• Peacock, Septimus, Esq., Alexandria.
• Pennsylvania Historical Society.
• Perry, Sir Erskine, 36, Eaton-place.
• Petit, Rev. J. Louis, The Uplands, Shiffnal.
• Petit, Miss, 9, New-square, Lincoln’s Inn.
• Phillimore, Charles B., Esq., F.R.G.S., 25, Upper Berkeley-street.
• Plowden, W. H. Chicheley, Esq., F.R.S.
• Porcher, Captain Edwin, R.N., F.R.G.S., 50, Montague-square.
• Portland, His Grace the Duke of.
• Potts, Captain H. H., 1, Somerfield-terrace, Maidstone.
• Powis, Earl of, 45, Berkeley-square.
• Prescott, Admiral Sir Henry, K.C.B., Senior United Service Club.
• Rawlinson, Major-General Sir H., K.C.B., 1, Hill-street, Berkeley-square.
• Reed, F. J., Esq., 34, Bedford-square.
• Richard, John E., Esq., Wandsworth, Surrey.
• Richardson, Sir John, M.D., F.R.S., Grasmere, Westmoreland.
• Richardson, Ralph, Esq., Cranford, Exmouth.
• Riggs, G. W., Esq., Washington, U.S.
• Royal Geographical Society, 15, Whitehall-place (copies presented).
• Royal Naval College, Portsmouth.
• Royal Society, Burlington House.
• Rowsell, E. P., Esq., 29, Finsbury-circus.
• Rushout, The Hon. Miss, 26, Onslow-square, Brompton.
• Ryder, Commodore Alfred, R.N., Coast Guard Office, Admiralty.
• Rye, W. B., Esq., British Museum.
• Seymour, George, Esq., 12, Sussex-square.
• Sheffield, Earl of, 20, Portland-place.
• Simpson, Lieutenant.
• Smith, Edmund, Esq., Hull.
• Smith, George, Esq., 21, Russell-square.
• Smith, J., Esq. (Messrs. Smith and Elder.)
• Somers, Earl, 33, Princes-gate, Hyde Park.
• Sotheby, Mrs., Kingston.
• Spottiswoode, William, Esq., F.R.S., 50, Grosvenor-place.
• Stanford, Mr. E., Charing cross.
• St. Andrew’s University.
• St. David’s, the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of, Abergwili, Carmarthen.
• Stevens, H., Esq., Boston, United States.
• Stirling, Wm., Esq., M.P., of Keir, 128, Park-street.
• Strangford, Viscount, 58, Cumberland-street.
• Stuart, Alexander, Esq., New York.
• Stuart, R. L., Esq., New York.
• Stubbs, Commander, Edward, R.N., Royal Naval College, Portsmouth.
• Sturt, W. Neville, Esq., India Office.
• Taylor, John George, Esq., H.M. Consul at Diabekir.
• Thomas, Luke, Esq., Carlton-villa, Blackheath Park.
• Tolstoy, George, Esq., St. Petersburgh.
• Toronto University.
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• Turnour, Capt. Nicholas, R.N., H.M.S. Clio, Pacific.
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• Van de Weyer, His Excellency M. Sylvain, 3, Grosvenor-square.
• Victoria Library and Reading Rooms, Hong Kong.
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• Vivian, Geo., Esq., 11, Upper Grosvenor-street.
• Van Ryckevorsel, H., Consul de Venezuela, Conseiller à la Régence de Rotterdam.
• Waite, Henry, Esq., 68, Old Broad-street.
• Wales, George Washington, Esq., Boston, U.S.
• Walpole, Lieut. the Hon. Frederick, R.N., Long Stratton, Norfolk.
• Watkinson Library, Hertford, Connecticut, U.S.
• Watts, Thomas, Esq., British Museum.
• Webb Captain John Sydney, 24, Manchester-square, W.
• Webb, William Frederick, Esq., Newstead Abbey.
• Whewell, the Rev. W., D.D., Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
• Whiteman, J. C. Esq., Theydon Grove, Epping.
• Wilcox, R. Wilson, Esq., Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields.
• Wilkinson, John, Esq., 3, Wellington-street, Strand.
• Williams, T., Esq., Northumberland-house, Strand.
• Wilson, Edward S., Esq., Hull.
• Woodd, Basil T., Esq., M.P., Conyngham Hall, Knaresborough.
• Wright, H., Esq., Cheltenham.
• Young, Allen, Esq., R.N.R., Riversdale, Twickenham.

WORKS ISSUED BY
T h e H a k l u y t S o c i e t y.

THE TRAVELS OF
PEDRO DE CIEZA DE LEON.
M.DCCC.LXIV.

MAP OF PERU, QUITO & NEW GRANADA
[(larger view 250k)] [(largest view 2mb)]

THE
T R A V E L S
OF
PEDRO DE CIEZA DE LEON,
A.D. 1532-50,
CONTAINED IN THE
First Part of his Chronicle of Peru.

TRANSLATED AND EDITED,
WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTION,
BY

CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, F.S.A., F.R.G.S.,
AUTHOR OF “CUZCO AND LIMA,” “TRAVELS IN PERU AND INDIA,” AND A
“QUICHUA GRAMMAR AND DICTIONARY.”
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.
M.DCCC.LXIV.
LONDON: T. RICHARDS, 37, GREAT QUEEN STREET.

COUNCIL
OF
THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.

SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, K.C.B., G.C.St.S., F.R.S., D.C.L., Corr. Mem. Inst. F., Hon. Mem. Imp. Acad. Sc. St. Petersburg, etc., etc., President.

• Rear-Admiral C. R. DRINKWATER BETHUNE, C.B. Vice-President.
  The Rt. Hon. Sir DAVID DUNDAS, M.P. Vice-President.
• Rev. G. P. BADGER, F.R.G.S.
• J. BARROW, Esq., F.R.S.
• Rt. Hon. LORD BROUGHTON.
• Rear-Admiral R. COLLINSON, C.B.
• Sir HENRY ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S.
• General C. FOX.
• R. W. GREY, Esq.
• JOHN WINTER JONES, Esq., F.S.A.
• JOHN W. KAYE, Esq.
• His Excellency the COUNT DE LAVRADIO.
• R. H. MAJOR, Esq., F.S.A.
• Sir CHARLES NICHOLSON, Bart.
• Captain SHERARD OSBORN, R.N., C. B.
• Sir ERSKINE PERRY.
• Major-General Sir HENRY C. RAWLINSON, K.C.B.
• WILLIAM STIRLING, Esq., M.P.
• Viscount STRANGFORD.
• CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, Esq., F.S.A., Honorary Secretary.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

THE work of Pedro de Cieza de Leon is, in many respects, one of the most remarkable literary productions of the age of Spanish conquest in America. Written by a man who had passed his life in the camp from early boyhood, it is conceived on a plan which would have done credit to the most thoughtful scholar, and is executed with care, judgment, and fidelity. But before examining the work itself, I will give some account of its author—of whom, however, little is known, beyond what can be gathered from his own incidental statements in the course of his narrative.

Cieza de Leon is believed to have been born in the year 1519 in the city of Seville, where he passed the first fourteen years of his life. It has been conjectured that his father was a native of Leon,[2] in the north of Spain, but absolutely nothing is known of his parentage.

In 1532, at the extraordinarily early age of fourteen, young Pedro embarked at Seville, and set out to seek his fortunes in the New World. At that time scarcely a year elapsed without seeing an expedition fitted out, to undertake some new discovery or conquest. Seville and Cadiz were crowded with adventurers, all eagerly seeking for a passage to that marvellous land beyond the setting sun. It was, indeed, a time of wild excitement. Every ship that returned from the Indies might, and not a few did, bring tidings of the discovery of new and powerful empires before undreamt of. People of all ages and of every grade in society flocked to the sea ports, and took ship for the Indies; excited beyond control by the accounts of those inexhaustible riches and fabulous glories, which penetrated to every village in Spain. Among the leaders of these expeditions there were some honourable knights, with courteous manners and cultivated minds, such as Diego de Alvarado, Garcilasso de la Vega, and Lorenzo de Aldana.[3] But the majority were either coarse and avaricious adventurers, or disappointed courtiers, like that young scamp Alonzo Enriquez de Guzman, whom I introduced to the notice of the Hakluyt Society in 1862. Cieza de Leon, at the time of his embarkation, was a mere boy, too young to be classed under any of these heads. His character was destined to be formed in a rough and savage school, and it is most remarkable that so fine a fellow as our author really was, should have been produced amidst the horrors of the Spanish American conquest. Humane, generous, full of noble sympathies, observant, and methodical; he was bred amidst scenes of cruelty, pillage, and wanton destruction, which were calculated to produce a far different character. Considering the circumstances in which he was placed from early boyhood, his book is certainly a most extraordinary, as well as an inestimable result of his labours and military services.

It does not appear in what fleet our boy soldier set out from Spain; but judging from the date, and from the company in which we find him immediately on landing in America, I consider it more than probable that he sailed from his native land in one of the ships which formed the expeditionary fleet of Don Pedro de Heredia.

Heredia, who had already served with distinction on the coast of Tierra Firme, had obtained a grant of the government of all the country, between the river Magdalena and the gulf of Darien, from Charles V. He was a native of Madrid, where, having had his nostrils slit in a street brawl, he had killed three of the men who had treated him with this indignity. Forced to leave his native country, he took refuge in San Domingo, and a relation had interest enough to get him appointed as lieutenant to Garcia de Lerma, in an expedition to Santa Martha; whence he returned to Spain. He was a man of considerable ability, judgment, and determination, was respected by his own followers, and had already had some experience in Indian warfare. His lieutenant was Francisco de Cesar, one of the most dashing officers of the time.[4]

Heredia’s expedition, which consisted of one galleon and two caravels, carrying in all about a hundred men, sailed from Cadiz in the end of 1532. They first touched at San Domingo, where Heredia took on board more recruits, forty-seven horses, and some leathern cuirasses, which had been prepared as a protection against the poisoned arrows of the Indians. On the 14th of January 1533 the expedition entered the bay of Carthagena,[5] on the main land of South America, where the disembarkation of the Spaniards was bravely contested by the natives. In no part of Spanish America did the Indians more resolutely defend their homes, than along the coast of the Tierra Firme, as it was called; and young Cieza de Leon saw some very rough service on his first landing in the new world. Eventually Heredia succeeded in founding the city of Carthagena, of which he was the first governor, and in establishing a firm footing in the surrounding country: and for some three or four years the future author continued to serve under him. In 1535 Cieza de Leon accompanied Heredia’s brother Alonzo to the gulf of Darien or Uraba, where a settlement was formed called San Sebastian de Buena Vista.

Meanwhile, a judge, named Pedro Vadillo, was sent to Carthagena to examine into the proceedings of Heredia, with full powers from the Audiencia of San Domingo; and he threw the governor into prison. His violent proceedings were disapproved in Spain, and another lawyer was sent out to sit in judgment on the judge. The licentiate Vadillo, who seems to have been better fitted for a soldier than for a judge, resolved to perform some service, or make some discovery in the interval, the importance of which, in a military point of view, should secure oblivion for his misconduct as a lawyer. He, therefore, organised a force of four hundred Spaniards at San Sebastian de Uraba, and, setting out early in 1538, crossed the mountains of Abibe, and advanced up the valley of the Cauca.

Cieza de Leon, then in his nineteenth year, accompanied Vadillo in this bold adventure as a private soldier. It was now upwards of five years since he first landed in the new world, the whole of which time had been spent by him in severe and dangerous service in the province of Carthagena. At an age when most boys are at school, this lad had been sharing in all the hardships and perils of seasoned veterans; and even then he was gifted with powers of observation far beyond his years, as is proved by his very interesting account of the Indians of Uraba.[6] Amongst other things he tells us that the women of Uraba are the prettiest and most loveable of any that he had seen in the Indies.

The expedition of Vadillo was one of those desperate undertakings which, common as they were in the history of those times, still fill us with astonishment. Young Cieza de Leon took his share in the dangers and privations which were encountered, and which none but men endowed with extraordinary bravery and fortitude could have overcome.

After marching over a low forest covered plain, the explorers had to cross the mountains of Abibe, “where the roads were assuredly most difficult and wearisome, while the roots were such that they entangled the feet of both men and horses. At the highest part of the mountains there was a very laborious ascent, and a still more dangerous descent on the other side.” At this point many of the horses fell over the precipices and were dashed to pieces, and even some of the men were killed, while others were so much injured that they were left behind in the forests, awaiting their deaths in great misery. On one occasion our young soldier was posted as a sentry on the banks of a stream whence some kind of centipede dropped from a branch, and bit him in the neck. He adds that he passed the most painful and wearisome night he ever experienced in his life. At length Vadillo’s gallant little band completed their march over the terrible mountains of Abibe, and entered the pleasant valleys ruled by the cacique Nutibara. Thence the bold licentiate marched up the valley of the Cauca.

In this march the Spaniards suffered terribly from want of proper food, the difficulties of the road, and the constant attacks of the Indians. They clamoured for a retreat to the coast, but this did not suit the views of Vadillo, who knew that imprisonment probably awaited him at Carthagena; and, when the discontent of his men became formidable, he drew his sword and rushed alone into the woods, crying out that, let who would go back, he should press on till he met with better fortune. The troops were ashamed to desert him, and eventually they reached Cali, in the upper part of the Cauca valley. Here at length he was abandoned by all his followers, and went on almost alone to Popayan, whence he returned to Spain.[7]

The followers of Vadillo joined those of Lorenzo de Aldana,[8] who was then governing Popayan for Pizarro, and many of them returned down the valley of the Cauca again with an officer named Jorge de Robledo, who was commissioned to conquer and settle the country discovered by Vadillo. Among this number was our author, who witnessed the subjugation of the cannibal tribes of the Cauca, the foundation of several so-called cities, and the perpetration of much cruelty. He received a repartimiento of Indians in the province of Arma, for his services. Robledo returned to Spain, and came back with the title of marshal, and the grant of the government of a country with ill-defined limits, in 1546. The fierce and unscrupulous Sebastian de Belalcazar was then governor of Popayan. He claimed the territory which Robledo had occupied, and when that officer refused to retire, he surprised him at a place called Picara on the 1st of October, 1546, took him prisoner, and hung him, in spite of the entreaties of the unfortunate knight to be beheaded like a gentleman.[9] The cannibal Indians are said to have eaten the body. Cieza de Leon, who had served under Robledo for several years, makes the following remark on his death, in recapitulating the fate which overtook all the conquerors who were cruel to the natives: “The marshal Don Jorge Robledo consented to allow great harm to be done to the Indians in the province of Pozo, and caused many to be killed with cross-bows and dogs. And God permitted that he should be sentenced to death in the same place, and have for his tomb the bellies of Indians.”[10] Our young author joined the service of Belalcazar, on the death of Robledo.

Cieza de Leon began to write a journal of some kind, which formed the material for his future work, in the year 1541 at Cartago, in the Cauca valley, when serving under Robledo. He tells us that “as he noted the many great and strange things that are to be seen in this new world of the Indies, there came upon him a strong desire to write an account of some of them, as well those which he had seen with his own eyes, as those he had heard of from persons of good repute.”[11] He was then twenty-two years of age, and from that time he seems to have persevered, in spite of many difficulties, in keeping a careful record of all he saw and heard. “Oftentimes,” he says, “when the other soldiers were reposing, I was tiring myself by writing. Neither fatigue, nor the ruggedness of the country, nor the mountains and rivers, nor intolerable hunger and suffering, have ever been sufficient to obstruct my two duties, namely writing and following my flag and my captain without fault.”[12]

In 1547 the President Gasca landed in Peru, and marched against Gonzalo Pizarro, who was in open rebellion at Cuzco. All loyal officers were called upon to join the royal standard, and troops at Popayan were hurried south with this object. Cieza de Leon, now a stout young man at arms, was among them.[13] By this time he was a veteran of sixteen years service, with his intellect matured and sharpened in a rough and trying school, and every faculty on the alert. His habit of careful observation with a fixed object, and the practical life he was leading, render his remarks, on all he saw during this march, of the greatest value. Mr. Prescott says of him that “his testimony, always good, becomes for these events of more than usual value.”[14] The reinforcements from Popayan marched by Pasto and Quito to Tumebamba, then down to the sea-shore, and along the coast to Lima, then across the Andes again, by Xauxa and Guamanga, until they joined the army of the president Gasca in the valley of Andahuaylas.

Thus Cieza de Leon had the opportunity of seeing a very extensive and varied tract of country. Nothing escaped his observation. The ruins of palaces and store-houses, the great Ynca roads, the nature of the country, the products, the natural phenomena, the method of irrigation, the traditions,—all were carefully noted down by this indefatigable and intelligent young observer. He was present at the final rout of Gonzalo Pizarro, and at the subsequent trial and execution of that chief, and of his fierce old lieutenant Carbajal.[15] He afterwards went to Cuzco, and to the valleys to the eastward, and, in the year 1549, he undertook a journey to the silver-yielding province of Charcas, with the sole object “of learning all that was worthy of notice,”[16] under the special auspices of the President Gasca himself, who supplied him with letters of introduction. In travelling over the Collao, and along the shores of lake Titicaca, he tells us that “he stopped to write all that deserved mention concerning the Indians;”[17] and at Tiahuanaco “he wandered over all the ruins, writing down what he saw.”[18] He then visited the silver mines of Porco and Potosi, and returned to Lima, by way of Arequipa and the coast. At Lima our author finished writing his notes on the 8th of September, 1550, and sailed for Spain, after having passed seventeen years of his life in the Indies.

The first part of his intended work was published at Seville in 1553; and the author died in about 1560. We may gather from his writings that he was humane and generous in his dealings with the Indians, indignant at the acts of cruelty and oppression which he was forced to witness, that he was in the habit of weighing the value of conflicting evidence in collecting his information,[19] and that fuller reliance may be placed on his statements, than upon those of almost any other writer of the period. It is very much to be regretted that so little is known of the life of this remarkable man, beyond what he incidentally tells us himself.[20]

The young author commences his first part with a dedication to Philip II, in which, while dwelling on the grandeur and importance of his subject, he modestly says that he, an unlearned soldier, has undertaken it, because others of more learning were too much occupied in the wars to write. He began to take notes because no one else was writing anything concerning what had occurred, and he reflected that “time destroys the memory of events, in such sort that soon there is no knowledge of what has passed.” In his prologue he gives a full and detailed account of the four parts of his Chronicle, only the first of which has reached us. They were to contain respectively the geography, the early history, the conquest, and the civil wars of Peru. “The first part,” he says, “treats of the division of the provinces of Peru, as well towards the sea as inland, with the longitudes and latitudes. It contains a description of the provinces; an account of the new cities founded by the Spaniards, with the names of the founders, and the time when they were founded; an account of the ancient rites and customs of the native Indians, and other strange things very different from those of our country, which are worthy of note.” It is this part, the only one that was ever printed, which is now placed, for the first time in a translated form, in the hands of Members of the Hakluyt Society.

The work opens with a description of Panama; which is followed by a very accurate notice of all the anchorages and headlands along the west coast of South America, from that port to the southern part of Chile. Cieza de Leon seems to have taken much pains in collecting accurate information for the use of future navigators. “I have myself,” he says, “been in most of the ports and rivers which I have now described, and I have taken much trouble to ascertain the correctness of what is here written, having communicated with the dexterous and expert pilots who know the navigation of these ports, and who took the altitudes in my presence. I have taken no little trouble to ascertain the truth, and I have examined the new charts made by the pilots who discovered this sea.” He appears also to have collected reports from mariners who had sailed through the straits of Magellan, but they were lost, together with other papers and journals, which were stolen in the confusion consequent on the battle of Xaquixaguana.[21] The sailing directions of Cieza de Leon for the west coast of South America are among the earliest attempts of the kind. Information of the same sort is given in Dampier’s voyages; and these were the rude forerunners of the complete works of Admiral Fitz Roy, and other modern surveyors.

Having given the reader a clear idea of the coast of the great newly discovered empire of the Yncas, Cieza de Leon lands him in the gulf of Darien, and conducts him up the valley of the Cauca to Popayan.[22] This portion of his narrative is the more important, because no other writer has since given so complete an account of the Cauca valley. Cieza de Leon is still the best authority concerning this region, notwithstanding that more than three hundred years have elapsed since he wrote. It is true that Restrepo, in the beginning of this century, published a valuable memoir on Antioquia; and that such travellers as Cochrane, Mollien, and Holton have written accounts of Cali and Cartago, in the upper part of the valley of Cauca; but our author still stands alone in having given a full description of the whole length of this little-known valley. He not only describes the manners and customs of the aboriginal tribes, which all appear to have been addicted to cannibalism, but adds many very interesting pieces of information, such as a notice of the different kinds of bees, of the various methods of obtaining salt, and of the prevailing forms of animal and vegetable life.

From Popayan the reader is conveyed by this very pleasant companion along the great plateau of the Andes, by Pasto, Quito, and Riobamba, to Tumebamba, and Loxa.[23] Here, again, as indeed throughout the work, the nature of the country, the distances, the manners and customs of the natives, the climate, the staple products, and the animals to be met with, are all carefully noted. There are also descriptions of several ruined edifices, and a glowing account of the great road of the Yncas.[24] In this section, too, there is an excellent general sketch of the principal geographical features of Peru,[25] and some information respecting the origin and rise of the Ynca dynasty.[26]

The chapters relating to the emeralds of Manta, the giants on point Santa Elena, the island of Puna, and the city of Guayaquil, are derived from hearsay, as our author does not appear to have visited that part of the country; but he was careful to sift his authorities, and to weigh their value,[27] and in this, as in many other respects, he is far superior to most of the writers of his time. His chapter on the equator[28] shows that questions of geographical science attracted the attention of the young soldier; while his careful notes in connection with the absence of rain on the Peruvian coast,[29] are evidence that he was not unmindful of the natural phenomena of the strange land which he was exploring.

After traversing the valley of the Cauca, and the Cordillera of the Andes from Popayan to Loxa, Cieza de Leon descends to the Peruvian coast, and describes the sandy deserts, and every intervening fertile valley from Tumbez to Tarapaca.[30] Here again we have interesting accounts of the manners and customs of the natives, especially of the method of burying their dead; descriptions of ruins, of works of irrigation, and of the great coast road of the Yncas; and notices of the fruits, trees, and animals.

Having completed a survey of the coast valleys, Cieza de Leon returns to the Cordillera of the Andes, and describes the country from Caxamarca, by way of Huanuco, Xauxa, Guamanga, Andahuaylas, and Abancay, to Cuzco,[31] the capital of the empire of the Yncas. After devoting two chapters to the city of Cuzco,[32] he then gives an account of the lovely valleys and interminable tropical forests to the eastward;[33] and completes his extensive travels by a description of the cold region of the Collao, the shores of lake Titicaca, the imposing ruins of Tiahuanaco, and the silver-yielding provinces of Plata and Potosi. The interest of the latter part of this remarkable work is enhanced by the discussion of such points in physical geography as the drainage of lake Titicaca, and by information respecting the silver mines, the animals of the llama tribe found in Peru, the vegetable products of the country, and the progress of the Indians in the arts of building, weaving, dying, and working in silver, stone, and clay.

Such is a brief sketch of the contents of Cieza de Leon’s chronicle. Bearing evident marks of honesty of purpose, and skill in the selection of materials, on the part of its author, it is at the same time written by one who examined almost every part of the empire of the Yncas, within a few years of the conquest. It is, therefore, a work of the greatest possible value to the student of early South American history, and has always stood very high as an authority, in the estimation of modern historians. Among these, Mr. Prescott bears strong testimony to the merits of Cieza de Leon.[34]

The first part of the Chronicle of Peru, by Pedro de Cieza de Leon, was published at Seville (folio) by Martin Clement in 1553. A second edition, in duodecimo, was printed at Antwerp by the famous publisher Jean Steeltz, in 1554; and a third edition, translated into Italian by Augustino di Gravalis, appeared at Rome, from the press of Valerius Dorigius (octavo) in 1555. A copy of the first Seville edition, which is in black letter, fetched £10 at Lord Stuart de Rothesay’s sale a few years ago.

It would appear that the author completed the second and third parts of his Chronicle before his death, if not the fourth, and Mr. Rich found them at Madrid in manuscript;[35] but they have never been printed. The disappearance of the second part is by far the greatest loss that has been sustained by South American literature, since the burning of Blas Valera’s manuscript, when Lord Essex sacked Cadiz. It contained an account of the government of the Yncas, described their customs, laws, temples, and roads, and related the traditions connected with their origin and history. There can be no doubt that it was written, because Cieza de Leon, in his first part, frequently refers to special passages in it for further information. Our author had peculiar advantages for writing the history of ancient Peruvian civilisation. He was in Peru so soon after the conquest, that he had opportunities of conversing with many of the advisers and generals of the greatest of the Yncas; while his habits of careful observation, his caution, and his sound judgment on points unconnected with his religion, rendered him more fit to record the history of the Yncas, than even Garcilasso de la Vega, or any subsequent chronicler. For these reasons the loss of his second part can never be sufficiently deplored.

Before leaving my author to the reader’s judgment, it will be well to give some general idea of the great empire of the Yncas, as it appeared in the days when Cieza de Leon first gazed upon its snowy mountains, and at the same time to offer some account of what is known concerning the people who inhabited it. Such a sketch will form a fitting introduction to the agreeable chapters of the young Spaniard; and will, I trust, stimulate, in some degree, the interest with which they will be read.

There is scarcely any country in the world which presents so great a variety of aspects as that region, stretching from the Ancasmayu to the Maule, which once formed the empire of the Yncas. Within these wide limits there are snowy mountain peaks second only to the Himalayas in height; cold plains and bleak hills where a tough grass is the only vegetation; temperate valleys covered with corn fields and willow groves; others filled with richest sub-tropical vegetation; vast plains forming one interminable primeval forest traversed by navigable rivers; trackless sandy deserts; and fertile stretches of field and fruit garden on the Pacific coast. Cieza de Leon properly divides this region into four great divisions:—the uninhabitable frozen plains and mountain peaks, the temperate valleys and plains which intersect the Andes, the great primeval forests, and the deserts and valleys of the coast. It is a land of surpassing grandeur, and exceeding beauty. The snowy peaks of the Andes, upwards of twenty thousand feet above the sea, may be seen from the deserts of sand which fringe the coast, rising in their majesty from the plains, and towering up into a cloudless sky. In the northern and central part of this Peruvian cordillera, the mountain ranges are broken up into profound ravines and abysses, producing scenery of unequalled splendour. At one glance of the eye a series of landscapes may here be taken in, representing every climate on the globe. On the steep sides of one mountain are the snowy wilds and bleak ridges of the Arctic regions, the cold pastures of northern Scotland, the corn fields and groves of central Europe, the orange trees and vineyards of Italy, and the palms and sugar canes of the tropics. But it is in the lovely ravines which lead from the eastern slopes of the Andes to the virgin forests of the interior that nature has been most profusely decked with all the charms that can please the eye, and enriched with overflowing vegetable and mineral wealth. The forests here abound in those beautiful chinchona trees, the fragrance and beauty of whose flowers are almost forgotten because of the inestimable value of their bark. Slender and delicate palms and tree ferns of many kinds, matted creepers, and giant buttressed trees clothe the steep hill sides; and cascades and torrents unite to form rivers, whose sands sparkle with gold. Whether it be in these forest-covered valleys, in the stupendous ravines of the Cordillera, on the frozen heights, or amidst the sandy wildernesses of the coast, the scenery is ever on a scale either of sublime grandeur or of exquisite beauty. Rich, indeed, was the prize which the hardy comrades of Cieza de Leon won for the Castilian crown.

In contemplating this glorious region, one of the first thoughts that naturally suggests itself is that the early inhabitants must have been, to a great extent, isolated and shut out from all intercourse with their neighbours, by the almost insuperable obstacles which the nature of the country presents to locomotion; and this remark is equally applicable to every part of a country which is unequalled in the variety of its climates and of its general features. The spread of the empire of the Yncas is, considering all the circumstances, the most remarkable occurrence in the history of the American race; and one of its results was the destruction of all former land marks of tribe or creed, and the reduction of the numerous ancient nations of the Cordillera and the coast to one great family under one head, by a process not unlike that which takes place on the acquisition of every new province by modern France. Hence the great difficulty of obtaining any clear idea of the condition of the various tribes which inhabited Peru, at a date anterior to the Ynca conquests and annexations. A careful study of the subject, however, enables us at least to distinguish a few leading facts—namely that the region, which afterwards formed the empire of the Yncas, was originally peopled by a number of distinct nations, speaking different languages, and slowly advancing on independent paths of very gradual progress, though all bearing a strong family likeness to each other. I will briefly state what I have been able to gather respecting these aboriginal tribes, commencing with the Quichuas, that imperial race which eventually, under its renowned Yncas, swallowed up all the others.

In the central part of the Peruvian Cordillera, round the city of Cuzco, the country consists of cool but temperate plains and warm genial valleys. On the plains there were clumps of molle trees,[36] and crops of quinoa,[37] ocas,[38] and potatoes, while large flocks of llamas browsed on the coarse tufts of ychu grass. In the valleys the rich and abundant fields of maize were fringed by rows of delicious fruit trees—the chirimoya,[39] the paccay, the palta,[40] the lucuma, and the granadilla. This region was called in the native language—Quichua, and the inhabitants were Quichuas.[41]

The eventual predominance of these Quichuas may probably be accounted for by the superiority of the climate and natural conformation of their native country. While their neighbours, on the one hand, had to struggle painfully with the encroaching vigour of tropical forests, and, on the other, with the hardships of a sterile and half frozen alpine plateau, or with the isolation of small villages surrounded by trackless sandy deserts, the Quichuas were enjoying a warm though healthy climate, and reaping abundance from a fertile soil. They were placed in a position which was most advantageous for the complete development of all the civilisation of which that great family of mankind, to which they belong, are capable.

And they attained to that degree of civilisation by very slow and gradual advances. Many things, and especially the character of the people, lead to the belief that cycles of ages must have elapsed before these Quichuas were in a position to establish a superiority over their neighbours, and assume the position of an imperial people.

The Quichuas were a fine, well-developed race, of short stature. They were square shouldered, and broad chested, with small hands and feet, and a comparatively large head. The hair is black and long, and usually plaited into numerous minute plaits, and they have little or no beard. The eyes are horizontal with arched brows, the forehead high but somewhat receding, the nose aquiline and large, the lips thick, cheek bones rather high, and chin small. These people were gentle, hospitable, and obedient. They were good fathers and husbands, patient, industrious, intelligent, and sociable, and loved to live together in villages, rather than in scattered huts.[42] The women, when young, were exceedingly pretty and well shaped, and they held an honourable and respected place in society. The mass of the people were either farmers or shepherds. Each family had a piece of land apportioned to it by the State, often in well-built terraces up the sides of the mountains, on which the members either hoed and ploughed the soil, and raised crops of gourds, maize, potatoes, ocas, or quinoa; or they cultivated fruit trees; or, again, they tended flocks of llamas on the pasture lands, according to the situation of their little patrimonies. Their habitations were of stone or mud, covered with admirable thatched roofs,[43] they wove warm cloth from llama wool, made earthenware and stone vessels, manufactured tasteful ornaments of gold and silver, and used hoes, rakes, rude ploughs, and other simple agricultural implements.

One important test of the capacity of a people for civilisation is their ability to domesticate animals. The inferiority of the African, as compared with the Hindu, is demonstrated by the latter having domesticated the elephant and made it the useful and hard-working companion of man; while the former, during the thousands of years that he has inhabited the African continent, has never achieved any such result, and has merely destroyed the elephant for the sake of his ivory tusks. Now, in the case of the Quichuas, although their domesticated animals were few, they comprised all that were capable of domestication within the limits of their country. During the three centuries that Europeans have since been masters of Peru, not a single indigenous quadruped or bird has been added to the list. The domesticated animals of the Quichuas were the llama, the alpaca, a dog, the ccoy or guinea pig, and a duck. Besides these they tamed, as pets, the monkey, the parrot, the toucan,[44] a kind of gull frequenting the lakes of the Andes, a hawk, and several finches. The llama and alpaca do not exist in a wild state at all, and the variety in the colours of their fleeces seems to be a sign of long domestication. The huanacu and vicuña, the wild species of their family, have fleeces of a uniform and unalterable colour, and it probably took an incalculable period[45] to change the wild into the domesticated form. The llama served the Quichuas as a beast of burden, its flesh supplied them with food, its fleece with clothing, and its hide with thongs and sandals. The finer fleece of the alpaca was reserved for the use of the sovereign and his nobles.[46] Guinea pigs ran in hundreds about the huts, they were used as food, and the variety of their colours points out the length of time during which they had been in a domesticated state. The alco or dog was the companion of the Quichua shepherds; and the duck was bred in their homesteads for food, and for the sake of the feathers, which often formed a fringe for the women’s llicllas or mantles.

These simple Quichua farmers and shepherds seem to have kept many festivals, and other observances handed down to them by their fathers. A half philosophic sun worship was enjoined by their superiors, but the people retained an ancient habit of deifying and making household gods of their llamas, their corn, and their fruit. Their seasons of sowing and of harvest were celebrated by dancing and singing, and their songs, some of which have been preserved, were lively and graceful: but the chicha bowl flowed far too freely. A barbarous rite of burial was practised by these people in common with nearly all South American tribes, and is described in many places by Cieza de Leon; and they held the malquis or mummies of their dead in superstitious veneration.

The productiveness of the soil and the increasing prosperity of the people had, in the course of time, given rise to a governing class of Curacas and nobles, to a caste of Umus and Huaca-camayocs, or priests and diviners, and eventually to a despotic sovereign or Ynca, with a privileged royal family. This upper class had leisure, was exempted from ordinary toil, acquired numerous artificial wants, and therefore gradually developed that higher civilisation in the Quichua nation which eventually enabled it to spread its conquests over an immense region, and to consolidate a great and well organised empire.

The advances in civilisation of this upper class were by no means contemptible. The ruins at Cuzco, and in the neighbourhood, bear witness to their marvellous skill in masonry. Their buildings were massive, indeed Cyclopean, but the huge stones were cut and put in their places with extraordinary accuracy; and, although the general effect is plain and sombre, there was frequently some attempt at ornamentation. Such were the rows of recesses with sides sloping inwards, the cornices, and the occasional serpents and other figures carved in relief on the stones. The roofs, though merely of thatch, were thick and durable, and so artistically finished as to give a very pleasing effect to the buildings.[47]

In the furniture of their dwellings and the clothing of their persons the Ynca nobles had reached a high degree of refinement. Their pottery is especially remarkable, and the Peruvian potter gratified the taste of his employers by moulding vessels into every form in nature, from which he could take a model. Professor Wilson, who has carefully examined several collections of ancient Peruvian pottery, says—“Some of the specimens are purposely grotesque, and by no means devoid of true comic fancy; while, in the greater number, the endless variety of combinations of animate and inanimate forms, ingeniously rendered subservient to the requirements of utility, exhibit fertility of thought in the designer, and a lively perceptive faculty in those for whom he wrought.”[48] Many of these vessels, moulded into forms to represent animals and fruits, were used as conopas or household gods; others were for the service of the temple; others for interment with the malquis or mummies, and others for the use of the Yncas and their nobles. The common people used vessels of simple form. The Yncas also had drinking cups of gold and silver, beaten out very fine, and representing llamas, or human heads. Vessels of copper also, and plates and vases of stone with serpents carved round them in relief, are of frequent occurrence, as well as golden bracelets and breast-plates, and mirrors of silver or polished stone. Their knives and other cutting instruments were of copper, hardened with tin or silica.[49] Their clothing consisted of cloth woven from the wool of the llama, alpaca, and vicuña; the latter as fine as silk and undyed, for its own rich chestnut colour was sufficiently becoming. They had attained to great proficiency in the art of weaving and dyeing. Tasteful designs were woven in the cloth, which was dyed flesh colour, yellow, gray, blue, green, and black; for they knew the art of fixing dyes extracted from vegetable substances, so that the cloth will never fade.[50] They ornamented their robes, tunics, rugs, and blankets with fringes, borders of feathers, and also by sowing on them rows of thin gold and silver plates, sometimes square, at others cut into the shape of leaves and flowers. They also adorned wooden seats and couches, by covering them with these thin plates of gold and silver. The interior of a hall in the palace of an Ynca was thus filled with articles of luxury. The great doors, with the sides gradually approaching, were often ornamented with a cornice, and finished above with a huge stone lintel. The walls of solid masonry, beautifully cut and polished, had small square windows,[51] and deep recesses of the same size, at intervals. The walls were hung with rich vicuña cloth fringed with bezants of gold and silver, or with llama cloth dyed with bright colours, and woven into tasteful patterns. The niches were filled with gold and silver statues, and with vases moulded into the shape of llamas, birds, and fruit. The floors were soft with rich carpets and rugs, and the seats and couches were plated with gold. Numerous small chambers opened on the great halls, and the baths were fitted up with metal spouts in the form of serpents, from which the water flowed into stone basins.[52]

The intellectual advancement of the Quichua people had kept pace with the increase in their material comforts; and their religious belief, their literary culture, their discoveries in the sciences of astronomy and mechanics, and their administrative talent, if not of a very high order, at least prove very clearly that they were not incapable of attaining a respectable rank amongst civilised nations. During the last two centuries of their existence as an independent people, their progress was very rapid.

The religion of the Yncas and their nobles was, as is well known, a worship of the celestial bodies, and especially of the sun; that of the cultivators and shepherds a reverence for every object in nature—for their llamas, for their corn, for their fruits, for hills and streams, and above all for the malquis or mummies of their dead. To all these, sacrifices of the fruits of the earth were made. The more spiritual worship of the men of leisure was combined with complicated ceremonial observances, gorgeous temples, and an influential caste of priests, wise men, and virgins. The worship of the sun, and the great importance attached to its apparent course, as connected with the seasons of sowing and reaping, led to the acquirement of some astronomical knowledge, but there is no evidence that any great progress was made in this direction. The Chibchas of Bogota and the Aztecs of Mexico were in advance of the Quichuas in astronomical science. The Yncas knew the difference between the solar and lunar year, they had introduced intercalary days to reconcile that difference, and they observed the periods of the solstices and equinoxes. They also watched and recorded the courses of some of the stars, and of comets. They had a complete system of numerals, perfectly balanced pairs of scales have been found in Peruvian tombs, and their administrators must have been in the habit of making and recording very complicated revenue accounts. Their year was divided into twelve months, and great periodical festivals celebrated the periods of the solstices and equinoxes.[53] The proficiency of the Quichuas in mechanical science was of a high order, as is attested by their magnificent roads and aqueducts, and by the conveyance of Cyclopean blocks of stone for their buildings.

The language of the Quichuas was carefully cultivated during many centuries by the Haravecs or bards in their love ditties and songs of triumph, and by the Amautas or wise men, whose duty it was to preserve the traditions of the people, and to prepare the rituals for the worship of the Deity; and their literary productions in prose and verse were preserved by means of the quipus. The Quichua was a highly polished language, and the student who may turn his attention to the history of the South American races, will find in this rich and copious tongue many ancient fragments of prose and poetry which will convince him of the civilisation of the ancient Peruvians.[54] It is true that they had not discovered the use of letters, but it must be remembered that they were completely isolated and precluded from exchanging ideas with the other races of mankind. If no communication, direct or indirect, had existed between Phœnicia and the other countries of the old world, how many of them would, by their own unassisted genius, have discovered the use of letters. Would the Tamils and Canarese of India? Would the Malays of the islands? It may well be doubted; and, after all, the quipus, though a clumsy, were not altogether an inefficient substitute.[55]

But it is in their administrative arrangements that the intellectual progress of the Yncas is most strikingly displayed. Theirs was the most enlightened despotism that ever existed. The Ynca claimed to be Yntip-churi or “child of sun,” but his not less glorious title was Huaccha-cuyac or “friend of the poor.” His duty was to superintend the comfort and happiness of the people, and to take care that no family was without a topu or plot of ground sufficient for his maintenance. The net produce of the land was divided into three equal parts, one for the cultivators, the second for religious and charitable purposes, and the third for the Ynca and his government; including the clothing and maintenance of the nobles, and of soldiers, miners, potters, weavers, and other artizans. Curacas or chiefs were placed over the different districts, with subordinate officers under them, and a minute supervision was exercised over all matters connected with revenue and judicial administration. Crime was almost unknown.[56]

Such were the Quichuas, the representative people of the Peruvian Andes. To the eastward of their original territory, in the virgin forests which are traversed by the tributaries of the Amazon, dwelt the Antis and Chunchos, who wandered about in search of food, through the interminable wilderness of matted vegetation. They never seem to have made any progress; what they are now, such they were centuries ago: the nature of the country renders advancement impossible. Moreover they probably belong to the great Tupi-Guarani race of Brazil, and are distinct from the Peruvian tribes. To the south of the Quichuas, on either side of the upper valley of the Vilcamayu, were the wild shepherd tribes called Asancatus, Asillus, Cavinas, Canas, and Canches.[57] But still further south, beyond the Vilcañota range of mountains, there was a great people, almost rivalling the Quichuas, who seem to have made some progress in civilisation, in the face of formidable natural difficulties. These were the Collas or Aymaras.

In the southern part of Peru the Cordillera of the Andes is divided into two chains. That to the eastward, containing the peaks of Illimani and Yllampu, consists of rocks of Silurian formation mixed with granite, and the peaks themselves are said to be fossiliferous to their summits. The other range to the westward is chiefly volcanic, and contains the famous volcano of Misti, and the glorious peaks of Chuquibamba and Chacani. Between these two chains of mountains there are lofty plateaux, never less than twelve thousand feet above the sea, the drainage of which flows into the great lake of Titicaca. Here there are no deep temperate valleys and ravines, nothing but bleak plains covered with coarse tufts of grass, with occasional patches of potatoe, quinoa, and oca. The climate is very severe, and the only trees, which are few and far between, are the stunted crooked queñua (Polylepis villosa) and the dark leaved ccolli (Buddleia coriacea). In some places a low shrubby Baccharis is met with, which serves as fuel. This region, known as the Collao, was inhabited by the Aymara nation.

These Aymaras had to contend against a rigorous climate and an unproductive soil; they had none of the advantages enjoyed by their Quichua neighbours, and had consequently made slower advances in civilisation, but they were apparently an offshoot from the same common stock. The descendants of the Aymaras are shorter and more thick-set than those of the Quichuas, and their features are coarser and less regular. Cieza de Leon says that they flattened their skulls in infancy. They wore woollen cloths and square caps, and the women had hoods like those of a friar.[58] The land was too cold for maize, and the people lived on potatoes and ocas, which they preserved by drying them in the sun and then freezing them, for winter use. In this state they were called chuñus. There were large flocks of llamas and alpacas, and wild vicuñas on the unfrequented heights. The Aymaras lived in stone huts roofed with straw, which were built close together in villages, with the potatoe, oca, and quinoa fields around them.[59] Cieza de Leon states that the Collao was once very populous, and the numerous vestiges of former cultivation up the terraced sides of the mountains, bear witness to the truth of his assertion. The people were ruled by chiefs who were treated with great respect, and carried about in litters.

There is a mystery about the civilisation of the ancient Aymaras, which cannot now be solved. The origin and history of the extensive unfinished ruins at Tiahuanaco, near the southern shore of lake Titicaca, will for ever remain a secret; but there can be no doubt that a people who could form so magnificent a design, convey such huge blocks of stone from great distances, hew out the enormous monolithic doorways, and carve them with such minuteness of ornamental detail, must have been numerous, and civilised.[60] There are also remains of Aymara burial places in various parts of the Collao, especially on the peninsula of Sillustani, which consist of towers of hewn masonry.[61] We learn from Cieza de Leon that the Aymaras observed the movements of the sun and moon, and divided their year into ten months. He considered them to be a very intelligent people. He gives an account of their funeral ceremonies,[62] and a very interesting description of a harvest home among the Aymaras,[63] and states that they were often engaged in civil wars.[64] The Aymara language, which is still in common use on the banks of lake Titicaca, though identical with Quichua in grammatical construction, has a distinct vocabulary.[65] It is worthy of remark, however, that though the first few numerals in Aymara are indigenous, all the higher numbers are borrowed from the Quichua.[66] Next to the Quichuas, the Aymaras were by far the most important and civilised people in the Peruvian Andes; and though their climate and soil was against them, there is some ground for the opinion that their civilisation, such as it was, boasts of an origin more ancient than that of the Quichuas. But all such speculations are mere conjecture.

In the rich valleys and on the grassy mountain sides of the Central Peruvian Andes, to the westward of the Quichuas, dwelt three nations which were called by their future conquerors—the Chancas, Pocras, and Huancas.[67] They inhabited the districts now known as Abancay, Andahuaylas, Guamanga, and Xauxa. Little or nothing is known of their history anterior to their absorption into the empire of the Yncas, and if they had a distinct language, it must have been either very barbarous or very closely allied to Quichua, for no vestige of it has survived.[68] All the ruins which might have enabled us to form an idea of their skill in building, such as the temple of Huarivilca in the valley of Xauxa,[69] have entirely disappeared. It appears, however, that they were very fierce and warlike, that each village had a fortress, and that they made a desperate struggle for independence before they were finally subjugated by the Quichuas.[70]

North of Xauxa, the valleys and plateaux of the Cordillera were inhabited by the Conchucos, and by the Indians of Huamachuco, Caxamarca, Chachapoyas, and Bracamoras. This brings us to the frontier of Quito. The tribes of northern Peru are also said to have been warlike, and to have been incessantly engaged in feuds with each other.[71] They are described as intelligent industrious agriculturists, with some knowledge of the courses of the heavenly bodies, and the same customs of burying their dead and worshipping huacas in the form of stones or other natural objects, as prevailed among the masses of the Quichua people.[72]

We now come to the inhabitants of the numerous isolated fertile tracts on the Pacific coast, who were all known by the Yncas, as Yuncas or “dwellers in the warm valleys.”[73]

The Peruvian coast has been, geologically speaking, recently upheaved from the sea. It is a narrow strip of land, averaging a breadth of from ten to forty miles, confined on one side by the ocean, on the other by the magnificent Andes, which rise abruptly from the plains. The whole of this region consists of sandy desert, intersected by ranges of rocky hills, except where a stream flows down from the mountains to the sea, and forms an oasis of verdure and fertility. These pleasant valleys are in some parts of the coast of frequent occurrence, and are only separated by narrow strips of sand; while in others the trackless deserts extend for nearly a hundred miles without a break. It scarcely ever rains on the Peruvian coast, but a heavy dew, during part of the year, falls on the valleys.

The most ancient traces of the American race have been found on the Pacific coast, in the shape of middings or refuse heaps, similar to those in Denmark. These middings, which have been examined by Mr. Spruce at Chanduy and Amotape, consist of fragments of pottery, sea shells, and crystal quartz cutting instruments.[74] They are the remains of a very ancient people of what is called, in European archæology, the stone age; and they suggest the possible existence of man in South America, contemporaneously with the post-pleistocene fossil vicuña of Corocoro. Be this how it may, there can be no doubt that the coast valleys of Peru had been inhabited for many centuries by Indian communities, which had made gradual progress in the improvement of their condition. Every part of these valleys, which could be reached by irrigation, was very fertile. Where irrigation ceased the desert commenced. The irrigated parts contained fields of cotton, of yucas, of maize, of aji pepper, of sweet potatoes, and of gourds; which were shaded by fruit trees festooned with passion flowers,[75] and by groves of algoroba (Prosopis horrida), of a sort of willow, and of the beautiful suchi (Plumieria). The most important traces of ancient civilisation are met with in the most extensive valleys, where the population was denser than in the smaller and more isolated oases.

The ancient works of irrigation in these valleys, now in ruins, excite the admiration of civil engineers who come to Peru to draw up schemes for imitating them.[76] Every square foot of land was under cultivation, none was wasted even for the sites of villages and temples, which were always built on the verge of the desert, or on the rocky spurs of the maritime cordillera, overlooking the algoroba woods, the groves of fruit trees, and the rising crops.[77] The fields were carefully manured, as well as watered by means of irrigating channels. In the valley of the Chilca they raised crops of Indian corn by putting two sardine heads into each hole with the grain, and thus the fish served for manuring the crops as well as for food.[78] The guano on the islands off the coast was also utilised as manure.[79] The houses were built of huge adobes, or bricks baked in the sun, with flat roofs of reed, plastered with mud; and the people were clothed in cotton dresses, which were very skilfully woven.[80] Their pottery was quite equal to that of the Quichuas, but at the same time clearly original in design; the vessels being made to imitate shells, fruit, fish, and other objects, which were familiar to the natives of the coast.

The great ruins at Caxamarquilla, at Pachacamac,[81] and of the Gran Chimu near Truxillo,[82] still afford evidence of the civilisation of the Yunca Indians, and of the wealth and power of their chiefs. The people were warlike, and the tribe inhabiting the Chincha valley is even said to have made incursions far into the heart of the Andes.[83] In the valley of the Rimac there are mounds or artificial hills of immense size, which appear to have been intended to afford protection against their enemies to the feudal lords; and to serve as a place of retreat for their retainers. A collection of ruins is almost always found at their feet, which formed the village of the tribe. Cieza de Leon gives a detailed account of the manners and customs of these Yunca chiefs, and of their subjects.[84] Nearly every valley had its independent chief and separate tribe; although some of the more powerful chiefs, such as the Grand Chimu, the Chuqui-mancu of the Rimac, and the Lord of Chincha, had extended their dominion over several valleys. The language of the coast was quite distinct from Quichua.[85]

In many parts of the coast the aboriginal Indians have been exterminated by Spanish cruelty, in others they have disappeared through frequent crosses with negroes, in others they have entirely lost, with their native language, all traces of the distinctive character which once marked their ancestors. It is exceedingly important, therefore, to obtain authentic information concerning any of the coast tribes which have retained their language and national characteristics; and the memoranda collected by Mr. Spruce at Piura, on this subject, which will be found in the accompanying note, contain some particulars of great interest.[86]

It will be natural to inquire whether a race, which had for centuries inhabited the valleys on the Pacific coast, had habitually navigated the ocean which was always in sight; and we find that they occasionally did venture to sea for fish, and that they undertook coasting voyages. The crooked algorobas, the willows, and fruit trees, afforded no suitable timber for boat-building; but the Yuncas supplied the place of timber by going afloat on inflated sealskins.[87] In this way they passed to and fro from the shore to the Guano islands, and, according to Acosta, they even went on long voyages to the westward.[88]

The kingdom of Quito, which eventually formed the most northern province of the empire of the Yncas, consists of a series of lofty plateaux from which rise the towering peaks of Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, and Chanduy; while both to the east and west a rich tropical vegetation fills the ravines which gradually subside on one side into the valley of the Amazon, and on the other into the Pacific coast. This region was inhabited by several aboriginal tribes, the most important of which were the Cañaris, the Puruaes, and the Caras. Velasco relates that the Caras, after having been settled for about two hundred years on the coast of Esmeraldas, marched up the Andes and established themselves at Quito, where they were ruled by a succession of sovereigns called Scyris, until the country was conquered by the Yncas. These Caras are said to have been little advanced in architecture, but to have been dexterous in weaving fabrics of cotton and llama wool, and to have excelled as lapidaries. A great emerald in the head-dress was the distinguishing mark of the reigning Scyri.

But all this information respecting the early inhabitants of Quito, and more of the same sort, is derived from Velasco, who wrote only in the end of the last century. In truth, there are scarcely any reliable facts in the history of the people of Quito, previous to their subjugation by the Yncas, and all the remains of roads and buildings confessedly date from the times of Ynca domination.[89] Cieza de Leon gives some account of the inhabitants of the Quitenian Andes.[90]

The principal aboriginal nations which inhabited the great empire of the Yncas have now been passed in review. In the temperate valleys of central Peru were the Quichuas, the most powerful and civilised of all. To the eastward of them were the savage Antis and Chunchos in the great tropical forests. To the south were the wild shepherd tribes of Canas, Canches, and others; and still further south were the more civilised Aymaras, struggling against the difficulties of a rigorous climate. To the westward of Cuzco were the warlike Chancas, Pocras, Huancas, and other tribes; and on the coast were numerous tribes known to the Yncas by the collective name of Yuncas. Finally, in the kingdom of Quito, among others of less note, were the nations of Caras, Puruaes, and Cañaris.

About three centuries before the arrival of Pizarro in Peru, the civilised and populous nation of Quichuas, feeling their superiority, began to make permanent and rapid conquests over the surrounding tribes in every direction. The date of the first commencement of these conquests cannot now be ascertained. Many centuries must have elapsed, and a long succession of Yncas must have reigned at Cuzco before an aggressive policy became the leading feature of their government; and there can be little doubt that their civilisation was indigenous, and not derived from any foreign source. The traditional Manco Ccapac may or may not have been the first Ynca, but there is no good reason for supposing that he was a foreigner; and I am decidedly of opinion that the Quichua civilisation is more likely to have required a period represented by the hundred Yncas of Montesinos, than by the dozen of Garcilasso de la Vega, for its full development.[91] But all the early traditions are probably fictitious, and the first really historical personage we meet with is the great conqueror Huiraccocha Ynca. This prince is frequently mentioned by Cieza de Leon,[92] and from his time the narrative of Ynca rule is clear and I think trustworthy. It was gathered, by our author and others, from the mouths of the old Ynca statesmen and generals, who told what they had themselves seen, and what they had heard from their sires and grandsires. It would appear, however, that, even before the time of Huiraccocha, the Quichuas had already extended their sway into some of the tropical valleys inhabited by the Antis and Chunchos, had subjugated the Canas and Canches, and, taking advantage of the civil wars of the Aymaras, had annexed the wide plains of the Collao and of Charcas, and the campiña of Arequipa.

The reigns of the last five Yncas were very long, and when the mummy of Huira-ccocha was discovered by the Corregidor Ondegardo,[93] it was found to be that of a very old man. We are justified, therefore, in placing his reign in the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century, contemporary with Edward I. of England.

Huira-ccocha organised an army, and, after having defeated the united forces of the Chancas, Pocras and Huancas, in the great battle of Yahuar-pampa, annexed the whole of the central part of the Peruvian Andes to his dominions.[94] The generals of his son and successor Pachacutec conquered the rich valleys of Xauxa and Caxamarca,[95] and the coast districts inhabited by the Yuncas.[96] Pachacutec’s son, the Ynca Yupanqui, made extensive conquests in the rich forest-covered tropical plains to the eastward of Cuzco, which were completed by his son Tupac Ynca Yupanqui.[97] The latter monarch extended his dominions as far as Tucuman and Chile on the south, and to the extreme limit of the kingdom of Quito on the north. Lastly, the famous Huayna Ccapac, during a long reign, consolidated and brought into subjection this vast empire.[98]

These conquests, extending over a period of about two centuries and a half or more, were not achieved without much hard fighting and stubborn resistance on the part of the invaded nations. This was especially the case with the Yuncas of the Pacific coast. The Yncas, however, succeeded in permanently establishing their power more by conciliation than by force of arms; and though their disciplined troops, wielding battle-axes, clubs and spears,[99] did good execution on the day of battle; yet the liberal treatment of the vanquished, and their experience of the benefits of Ynca rule, were far more efficacious agents in giving security to the new government.[100] At the same time, in cases of treachery or revolt, the Yncas were capable of terrible severity, as in the case of the slaughter at Yahuar-ccocha, described by Cieza de Leon, which was perpetrated under orders from Huayna Ccapac.[101]

During this period of conquest the Quichuas probably made more rapid progress in civilisation than they had done during many previous centuries. By becoming the dominant race over a vast region, their views became enlarged, their wants increased, and they learnt many things from communication with their conquered neighbours. Instead of being confined to the products of their native valleys, the Quichuas now obtained gold[102] and their beloved coca leaf[103] from the eastern forests; increased supplies of silver and copper from the country of the Aymaras; emeralds from Quito; fish from the Pacific Ocean; aji pepper, cotton fabrics, and an improved system of irrigation from the coast valleys. They also learnt from the vanquished the use of many medicinal herbs and vegetable dyes.

They had become an imperial race, and Cuzco was henceforward an imperial city,[104] to which the chiefs and retainers of a hundred tribes, all distinguished by peculiar head-dresses,[105] flocked to do homage to their common sovereign. Then it was that great palaces were erected. Then the famous fortress, with its Cyclopean stones, rose on the Sacsahuaman hill.[106] Then the Ccuri-cancha blazed forth in its almost fabulous splendour.[107] In short, all the works of the Yncas of imperial magnificence or importance date from this period of busy conquest, and some of them, such as the fortress of Ollantay-tambo, were in course of construction when the Spaniards arrived, and they remain unfinished. At this time, too, those wonderful lines of road were constructed, running from Cuzco east, west, north, and south, overcoming every natural obstacle, and affording the means of rapid communication from the capital to the extreme frontiers of the empire.[108] There were tampus or lodgings at short intervals, and public buildings for officials, for storing tribute, and for collecting necessaries for an army, were erected in almost every valley along the line of the roads.

The organisation of every branch of the government of this great empire displays extraordinary administrative ability on the part of the Yncas. Perhaps their most remarkable institution was the system of mitimaes or colonists, which is fully explained by Cieza de Leon.[109] Combined with their policy of superseding all local idioms by the rich and cultivated Quichua,[110] this system of mitimaes would soon have cemented the numerous conquered nations and tribes into one people, speaking one language.

If good government consists in promoting the happiness and comfort of a people, and in securing them from oppression; if a civilising government is one which brings the means of communication and of irrigating land to the highest possible state of efficiency, and makes steady advances in all the arts,—then the government of the Yncas may fairly lay claim to those titles. The roads, irrigating channels, and other public works of the Yncas were superior to anything of the kind that then existed in Europe. Their architecture is grand and imposing. Their pottery and ornamental work is little inferior to that of Greeks and Etruscans. They were skilled workers in gold, silver, copper, bronze, and stone. Their language was rich, polished, and elegant. Their laws showed an earnest solicitude for the welfare of those who were to live under them. Above all, their enlightened toleration, for the existence of which there are the clearest proofs, is a feature in their rule which, in one point of view at least, and that a most important one, raises them above their contemporaries in every part of the world.[111]

Cieza de Leon bears testimony to the excellence of the government of the Yncas. The intelligent young soldier seems to have been astonished at the order and regularity, the beneficence and forethought which prevailed in the government of that empire which had just been shattered by his cruel countrymen. He says that the Yncas ruled with such wisdom that few in the world ever excelled them;[112] and, in another place, he comes to the conclusion that “if the ancient polity had been preserved, it would not have failed to bring the Indians nearer to the way of good living and conversation; for few nations in the world have had a better government than the Yncas.”[113]

But our author came to Peru fifteen years after the seizure of Atahualpa by Pizarro, and, short as the interval was, a terrible devastation had spread over the length and breadth of the land. Over and over again Cieza de Leon mentions the destruction of the people. In every valley he entered, they had been killed by the Spaniards by thousands, and their buildings reduced to ruins.[114] In many districts the whole population had been exterminated. In one place he says—“Nearly all these valleys are now almost deserted, having once been so densely peopled, as is well known to many persons.” He heard of misery and cruelty in every part of the land. He saw the palaces and store houses of the Yncas in ruins, the flocks slaughtered, the grand roads destroyed, and the posts for pointing the way in the deserts used for fire wood.[115] His barbarian countrymen pulled down the great works of irrigation,[116] and turned thousands of acres of fertile land into desert.

These sights excited the indignation of the humane and observant man at arms, who in this, as in many other respects, proved his superiority of head and heart over his brutal companions. Cieza de Leon felt warmly for the wrongs of the Indians, and devotes a chapter to show how God chastises those who are cruel to them.[117] But he was so steeped in the superstition of his age and country that all the simple rites of the Indians appeared to him to be the work of the devil, and in every harmless ceremony he saw the cloven feet. He tells us that the old men of every tribe in the Indies conversed with the enemy of mankind, and he mocks at their burying food with their dead for the journey to the other world, “as if hell was so very far off.”[118] The whole population of America was destined, according to our author, to eternal torments in the next world; yet it is unjust to blame him for asserting a belief which is held at the present day, and by the most tolerant church in Christendom.[119]

When uninfluenced by religious prejudices, he writes with an impartiality which does him the highest credit. He laments over the condition of the Indians, deplores the wanton destruction of their public works, and condemns the barbarity of the Spaniards. His superstitious folly is the result of his education, his merits are all his own. In arrangement, in trustworthiness, in accuracy, and in the value of his observations, the work of Cieza de Leon stands higher than that of any contemporary chronicler: and these qualities in his book are enhanced by the romantic life and noble disposition of its author. Cieza de Leon will, I think, be found an agreeable companion over a country of no common interest, at a most important period of its history; and so I consign him to the favourable attention of the members of the Hakluyt Society.

F I R S T P A R T
OF THE
CHRONICLE OF PERU:

Which treats of the boundaries of provinces, their
description, the founding of new cities, the rites and customs
of the Indians, and other strange things worthy to
be known.
Written by
PEDRO DE CIEZA DE LEON.
A NATIVE OF SEVILLE.

IN ANTWERP,
IN THE HOUSE OF JEAN STEELTZ.
M.D.LIIII.
Con privilegio.

TO THE MOST HIGH AND MOST PUISSANT
LORD DON PHILIP, PRINCE OF THE
SPAINS, OUR LORD.

Most high and most puissant Lord,—

AS not only the notable deeds of many very brave men, but also numerous events worthy of perpetual memory in different provinces, have remained in the shades of oblivion for want of writers who will record them, and of historians who will narrate them; I, therefore, having crossed over to the New World, where I have passed the greater part of my time serving your Majesty in wars and discoveries, in which service I have always taken much delight, have determined to undertake the history of the events in the great and memorable kingdom of Peru. I went to it by land from the province of Carthagena, where, and in the province of Popayan, I was for many years. After I had been in your Majesty’s service in that last war, which ended in the overthrow of the rebels and tyrants, I thought over the great wealth of Peru, the wonderful things in its provinces, the stirring events of its early history and of more recent times, and how much there was both in the one and the other period which was worthy of note. Then it was that I resolved to take up my pen and accomplish the desire I had conceived to perform a signal service for your Highness, holding it to be certain that your Highness would receive it without noticing the weakness of my powers, but rather judging my intention, and, in your royal clemency, receiving the will with which I offer this book to your Highness. It treats of that great kingdom of Peru of which God has made you Lord. I do not fail to consider, O most serene and gracious Lord, that to describe the wonderful things of this great kingdom of Peru would require one who could write like Titus Livius, or Valerius, or some other of the great writers that have appeared in the world, and that even they would find some difficulty in the task. For who can enumerate the mighty things of Peru? the lofty mountains and profound valleys over which we went conquering and discovering? the numerous rivers of such size and depth? the variety of provinces, with so many different things in each? the tribes, with all their strange customs, rites, and ceremonies? so many birds, animals, trees, fishes, all unknown? Besides all these things, who can worthily describe the unheard-of labours which a handful of Spaniards passed through in this vast country? Who can imagine the events of those wars and discoveries, extending over sixteen hundred leagues of country? the hunger, thirst, death, terrors, and fatigue which were suffered? Concerning all these things there is so much to relate, that any writer would be tired out in writing it. For this cause, most puissant Lord, I have collected the most important events which I myself saw or heard, into this history. I have not the audacity to place it before the judgment of an unkind world, but I entertain the hope that your Highness will protect and defend it as a thing belonging to yourself, so that I may freely dare to walk under your protection. For many writers, fearing the same thing, have sought for Princes of great note to whom they might dedicate their works, and some of these works have never been read by any one, being so fantastic and absurd. But what I have written here is concerning true and important things, both pleasant and useful, which have happened in our time; and I dedicate my work to the greatest and most powerful Prince in the world, who is your Highness. The attempt savours of temerity in so unlearned a man, but others of more learning are too much occupied in the wars to write. Oftentimes, when the other soldiers were reposing, I was tiring myself by writing. Neither fatigue nor the ruggedness of the country, nor the mountains and rivers, nor intolerable hunger and suffering, have ever been sufficient to obstruct my two duties, namely, writing and following my flag and my captain without fault. Having written this work under such difficulties, and it being dedicated to your Highness, it seems to me that my readers ought to pardon any faults which, in their judgments, they may find in it. If they refuse to pardon these faults, it must suffice for me that I have written the truth, for this is what I have most carefully sought after. Much that I have written I saw with my own eyes, and I travelled over many countries in order to learn more concerning them. Those things which I did not see, I took great pains to inform myself of, from persons of

good repute, both Christians and Indians. I pray to Almighty
God that, as He was served by giving to your Highness
so great and rich a kingdom as Peru, He will
leave you to live and reign for many
happy years, with increase of
many other kingdoms
and lordships.

PROLOGUE
BY THE
AUTHOR,
IN WHICH HE ANNOUNCES THE INTENTION OF THE WORK, AND ITS DIVISIONS.

I SET out from Spain, where I was born and bred, at such a tender age that I was scarcely thirteen complete years old when I sailed; and I spent more than seventeen years in the Indies, many of them in the discovery and conquest of new provinces, others in new settlements, and in travelling over different countries. As I noted the many great and strange things that are to be seen in this new world of the Indies, there came upon me a strong desire to write an account of some of them, as well those which I had seen with my own eyes as those which I had heard of from persons of good repute. But when I considered my small stock of learning I put aside my desire, holding it to be a vain thing; for I remembered that it was for learned doctors to write histories, throwing light upon them by their learning and judgment, while those who are not learned would be presumptuous even if they thought of writing. I, therefore, passed some time without giving heed to my former intentions. At last the Almighty God, who can do anything, favoured me with His divine grace, and awoke in me the memory of what I had before forgotten. Taking heart, I then determined to spend some part of my life in writing history, to which resolution I was moved by the following considerations.

The first was, that in all parts where I had been, no one was engaged in writing anything concerning what had occurred; and time destroys the memory of events in such sort that soon there is no knowledge of what has passed.

The next was, that both ourselves and these Indians draw our origin from our ancestors Adam and Eve, and that the Son of God descended from the heaven to the earth for all men, and, clothed in our humanity, received a cruel death on the cross to redeem us and free us from the power of the devil, which devil had, for so long a time, held these people captive by God’s permission; and that it was right that the world should know in what manner so great a multitude of tribes, as there is in these Indies, was brought into the bosom of the holy mother church by the exertions of Spaniards. These exertions were such that no other nation in the world could have endured them. Thus God chose us for so great a work, before any other nation.

Another consideration was, that in future times it ought to be known how greatly the royal crown of Castille was enlarged, and how, when the invincible Emperor was our King and Lord, the rich and abundant kingdoms of New Spain and Peru were settled, and other islands and vast provinces were discovered.

I beseech all learned and benevolent men to look upon my work with justice, for they know that the malice and murmuring of the ignorant and stupid are such that they never fail to find fault. Thus it is that many, fearing the rabid envy of these scorpions, consider it better to be called cowards than to allow their works to see the light.

But I will not desist from my intention, valuing more the favour of the few and learned, than caring for the evil which the many foolish readers may bring upon me.

I also wrote this work that those, who learn from it the great services which many noble knights and youths have done for the royal crown of Spain, may be led to emulate their examples; and, at the same time, by noting how others committed treasons, robberies, and other evil deeds, and suffered famous punishments for them, that they may profit by these examples, and loyally serve their natural king and lord.

For the reasons which I have now set forth, I undertook the present work, for the better understanding of which I have divided it into four parts, in the following manner.

The first part treats of the division of the provinces of Peru, as well towards the sea as inland, with the longitudes and latitudes. It contains a description of all these provinces, an account of the new cities founded by the Spaniards, with the names of the founders, and the time when they were founded; an account of the ancient rites and customs of the native Indians, and other strange things very different from those of our country, which are worthy of note.[120]

In the second part, I shall treat of the government of the Yucas Yupanquis, who were the ancient kings of Peru, and of their great deeds and policy, how many of them there were, and their names. I shall describe the superb and magnificent temples which they built, the roads of wonderful size which they made, and other great things that were found in this kingdom. I shall also give an account in this book of what the Indians say concerning the deluge, and how the Yncas magnify the grandeur of their origin.

In the third part I shall relate the discovery and conquest of this great kingdom of Peru, and the constancy of the Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro; the hardships suffered by the Christians when thirteen of them with the same Marquis (God permitting) discovered the country; how the said Don Francisco Pizarro was nominated governor by his Majesty, and entered Peru; and how, with one hundred and sixty Spaniards, he captured Atahualpa. In this third part I shall also treat of the arrival of the Adelantado Don Pedro de Alvarado, and of the agreement made between him and the governor Don Francisco Pizarro. I shall, in like manner, give an account of the notable things which happened in various parts of this kingdom, of the rebellion of the Indians, and of the causes which led to it; of the cruel and perfidious war that the same Indians waged against the Spaniards who were in the great city of Cuzco, and of the death of some Spanish and Indian captains. This third part will end with the return of the Adelantado Don Diego de Almagro from Chile, and his entry into the city of Cuzco by force of arms, the captain Hernando Pizarro, Knight of the order of Santiago, being there as chief justice.

The fourth part is more important than the three which precede it. It will be divided into five books, and will be entitled “The Civil Wars of Peru:” in which will be related stranger things than ever passed before in any other part of the world, among so small a number of people of the same nation.

The first book of these civil wars treats of the war of Las Salinas, and gives an account of the imprisonment of the captain Don Hernando Pizarro by the Adelantado Don Diego de Almagro; it relates how the city of Cuzco was made to receive Almagro as governor, and the causes of the war between the governors Pizarro and Almagro. It describes the treaties and interviews between them until the dispute was placed in the hands of an umpire, the oaths they each took, and the commissions and letters they each had received from his Majesty; the sentence that was given, the return of the Adelantado to Cuzco, and how, with great fury and enmity, he fought the battle of Las Salinas, which is half a league from Cuzco. It relates also the march of the captain Lorenzo de Aldana to the provinces of Quito and Popayan, and the discoveries of the captains Gonzalo Pizarro, Pedro de Candia, Alonzo de Alvarado, and others. I conclude with the return of Hernando Pizarro to Spain.

The second book is called “The War of Chupas.” It will treat of several discoveries and conquests; of the conspiracy of the men of Chile in the City of the Kings to kill the Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro, and of his death. It will then relate how Don Diego de Almagro, son of the Adelantado, was received as governor by the greater part of the kingdom; how the captain Alonzo de Alvarado, who was captain and chief justice of his Majesty for the Marquis Pizarro in Chachapoyas, rose against him, and how Pero Alvarez, Holguin, Gomez de Tordoya, and others, did the same in Cuzco; how the licentiate Christoval Vaca de Castro arrived from Spain as governor, and how there was discord among the men of Chile. I shall relate how, after some of the captains had killed each other, the cruel battle of Chupas was fought near Guamanga, and how the governor Vaca de Castro went to Cuzco and cut off the head of the youth Don Diego. This will conclude the second book.

The third book will be entitled “The Civil War of Quito.” The writing of it will be very difficult, and it will treat of various important events. There will be an account of how the new laws were promulgated in Spain, and of the consequent meetings and consultations in Peru, until Gonzalo Pizarro was received in the city of Cuzco as procurator and captain general. It will relate what occurred in the City of the Kings until the viceroy was seized by the judges and sent to sea; the entry of Gonzalo Pizarro into the city, where he was received as governor; his chase of the viceroy; and how the viceroy was conquered and killed on the plain of Añaquito. I shall also give an account, in this book, of the events which took place in Cuzco, in Charcas, and in other parts; of the rising of Diego Centeno on the part of the king and of Alonzo de Toro and Francisco de Carbajal on the part of Gonzalo Pizarro, until that constant worthy, Diego Centeno, was constrained to hide in secret places, and his master of the camp, Lope de Mendoza, was killed; also of what passed between the captains Pedro de Hinojosa, Juan de Yllanes, Melchior Verdugo, and the others who were in Tierra Firme; and of how the Adelantado Belalcazar put the marshal Don Jorge Robledo to death in the village of Pozo. I shall then recount how the Emperor our Lord, in his great clemency and kindness, sent out a pardon to all who should submit and enter his royal service; how the licentiate Pedro de la Gasca was appointed president, and how he arrived in Tierra Firme; the policy by which he drew the captains, who were there, into the service of the king; the return of Gonzalo Pizarro to the City of the Kings; the cruelties which were committed there by him and his captains; how a general assembly was convoked to determine who should go as procurators general to Spain; and the delivery of the fleet to the president. Here I shall conclude this book.

The fourth book will be entitled “The War of Huarina.” It will treat of the enterprise of the captain Diego Centeno; how he entered the city of Cuzco with the few men whom he had been able to induce to join him; how Lorenzo de Aldana sailed from Panama and arrived at the City of the Kings; and how many captains left Gonzalo Pizarro, and passed over to the service of the king. I shall also treat of what passed between Diego Centeno and Alonzo de Mendoza, until they gave battle to Gonzalo Pizarro on the plain of Huarina. I shall relate how the captain Diego Centeno was defeated, how many of his captains and followers were killed or taken prisoners, and how Gonzalo Pizarro entered the city of Cuzco.

The fifth book, containing the war of Xaquixaguana, treats of the arrival of the president Pedro de la Gasca in the valley of Xauxa; of the preparations made by him when he heard that Diego Centeno was defeated; of his march to Xaquixaguana, where Gonzalo Pizarro gave him battle; it relates how the president and the troops of the king were victorious; and how Gonzalo Pizarro was defeated and put to death in the same valley; how the president arrived at Cuzco and proclaimed the tyrants to be traitors; how he retired to a village called Huaynarima, where he divided the greater part of the provinces of this kingdom among persons selected by himself; and how he went thence to Lima, and established the Royal Audience.

Having completed these books, which form the fourth part of my work, I shall add two Commentaries. The first will treat of the events in Peru, from the founding of the Audience to the departure of the president. The second, will give an account of the president’s arrival in Tierra Firme; of the murder of the Bishop of Nicaragua by the Contreras; of how the Contreras, with tyrannical intentions, entered the city of Panama and stole great quantities of gold and silver, of how the citizens gave them battle outside the town, defeated and put them to death, and recovered the treasure. I shall conclude with an account of the insurrection at Cuzco, relating how the marshal Alonzo de Alvarado was sent by the judges to punish the rebels, and how the illustrious and politic worthy, Don Antonio de Mendoza, entered this kingdom as viceroy.

And if this history is not written with the elegance and learning that science gives to letters, it will at least be truthful, and each event will be duly noted with brevity, while evil deeds will be commented upon with moderation.

I truly believe that others would have performed this work with more satisfaction to the reader, being more learned than I am. But, if my good intentions and my endeavours to do my best are considered, it is just, at all events, that I should be favourably received. The ancient Diodorus Siculus says in his prologue, that mankind owes a great deal to authors, for, through their labours, the deeds of men live for many ages; and he, therefore, calls Cicero the witness of time, the master of life, the light of truth. What I ask, in return for my labour, is that,

although these writings may be devoid of elegance, they
may be received with favour, because they are
accompanied with truth. I submit my work
to the judgment of the learned and
virtuous; and I beg that
others will content
themselves
with
merely reading it, without attempting
to judge what they
do not understand.

THE TRAVELS OF
PEDRO DE CIEZA DE LEON.

CHAPTER I.

Which treats of the discovery of the Indies, of some other things which were done when they were first discovered, and of the present state of affairs.

FOURTEEN hundred and ninety-two years had passed away since the Princess of life, the glorious virgin Mary our Lady, begot the only-begotten Son of God, and the Catholic kings Don Fernando and Dona Isabel of glorious memory were reigning in Spain, when the illustrious Christoval Colon set forth with three caravels and ninety Spaniards, whom the said kings ordered to serve under him. After sailing twelve hundred leagues to the westward over the wide ocean, he discovered the island of Española, where now stands the city of Santo Domingo. Then also were discovered the islands of Cuba, and of San Juan de Puerto Rico, Yucatan, Tierra Firme, New Spain, the provinces of Guatemala and Nicaragua, and many other islands and kingdoms as far as Florida; and afterwards the great kingdom of Peru, Rio de la Plata, and the strait of Magellanes. Yet so many years had elapsed during which this vast expanse of land was unknown in Spain, nor was there any rumour concerning it!

The judicious reader will reflect through what amount of labour, hunger, thirst, terror, danger, and death the Spaniards must have passed in these navigations and discoveries, and what waste of blood and lives they must have entailed. And all was held as good service by the Catholic kings, as well as by his royal Majesty the invincible Cæsar Don Carlos the fifth Emperor of that name, our king and lord; because the doctrine of Jesus Christ and the preaching of His holy gospel has thus been extended, and our holy faith exalted. The will both of the said Catholic kings and of his Majesty has been, and is, that great care should be taken in the conversion of the natives of all these provinces and kingdoms, for this was their principal aim; and that the governors, captains, and discoverers should display their Christian zeal by such treatment of the Indians as their religion enjoins. But notwithstanding that this is and was the desire of his Majesty, some of the governors and captains have basely committed many cruelties and outrages on the Indians. In their turn the Indians, to defend themselves, rose in arms and killed many Christians and some of the captains, which was the reason that they suffered torments, were burnt, and put to other cruel deaths. I hold that, as the dealings of God are always just, it must be that his divine justice permitted that these people, so far distant from Spain, should suffer so many evils from the Spaniards, for their sins and for those of their ancestors, which must have been many, as they were without faith. Nor do I affirm that all the Christians ill-treated the Indians; for I have seen many temperate and God fearing men treat them well, curing and bleeding them when they were ill, and performing other charitable acts. And the goodness and mercy of God (which permits no evil without extracting some good from it) have also secured great blessings out of these ills, by bringing so many people to the knowledge of our holy Catholic faith, and placing them in the road to salvation. When his Majesty was informed of the ills which the Indians suffered, he thought it good to appoint viceroys and audiences, with presidents and judges for their better government; and thus the sufferings of the Indians have ceased, and no Spaniards, of what rank soever, can oppress them now. Besides the bishops, monks, seculars, and friars who went with the Spaniards, there were a sufficient number provided to teach the doctrine of the holy faith to the Indians and to administer the sacraments to them. In the audiences there are learned men of great piety, who punish those Spaniards that oppress the Indians in any way; so that now there is no one who can ill-treat them, and, in the greater part of these kingdoms, they are as much masters of their own estates and persons as are the Spaniards themselves. Each village is moderately assessed with the amount to be paid as tribute. I remember that, when I was in the province of Xauxa a few years ago, the Indians said to me with much satisfaction: “This is a happy time, like the days of Tupac Ynca Yupanqui;” a king of ancient times, whose memory they hold in great veneration. Certain of this, we Christians ought to rejoice and give thanks to our Lord God that, in so great a country, so distant from our Spain and from all Europe, there is such justice and such good government, with churches and houses for prayer in all parts, where Almighty God is praised and worshipped; and the devil abused and defied, while the places which had been set apart for his glorification, are pulled down, and crosses, the signs of our salvation, raised in their stead. The idols and images were broken, and the devils fled away with fear and trembling. The holy gospel is preached, and spreads powerfully from east to west, and from north to south, that all nations may know and worship our Lord God.

CHAPTER II.

Of the city of Panama, and of its founding, and why it is treated of first, before other matters.

BEFORE I begin to treat of the affairs of the kingdom of Peru, I desire to give some account of what is known of the origin of these races of the Indies or New World, especially of the natives of Peru, according to what they say that they heard from their old men, although this is a secret which God alone can certainly know. But as my principal intention is, in this first part, to describe the land of Peru, and to relate the events connected with the foundation of its cities, I will leave the account of the origin of the people (that is, what they themselves say respecting their origin, and what we may conjecture) until I come to the second part, where this portion of the subject will be fully treated of.

In the present part, as I have said, I shall treat of the foundation of many cities; and I consider that if, in times past, Dido, in founding Carthage, perpetuated her name, and Romulus gave his name to Rome, and Alexander to Alexandria, with how much more reason should the fame and glory of his Majesty be perpetuated in future ages; for in this great kingdom of Peru many great and rich cities have been founded in his royal name, to which his Majesty has given laws, and he has enabled the people to live quietly and peacefully. But, without counting these cities in Peru, the city of Panama was founded in the province of Tierra Firme, called Castilla del Oro, and I shall commence with it, although there are others in this kingdom of more importance. My reason for beginning with Panama is, that the captains who set forth to discover Peru started from that city. Thence I shall go to the port of Uraba, which is in the province of Carthagena, not very far from the great river of Darien; and I shall then give an account of the Indian villages, and of the Spanish settlements from this place to the town of Plata, and establishment of Potosi on the southern boundary of Peru, a distance of, I should say, more than twelve hundred leagues of road, which I travelled over by land, and saw, examined, and knew the things which I describe in this history. And I noted everything with much care and diligence, in order that I might be able to write with that truth which is due from me, and without any mixture of inaccuracies.

I say, then, that the city of Panama is built near the South Sea, and eighteen leagues from Nombre de Dios, which is near the North Sea.[121] It is of small extent, by reason of a lake which confines it on one side, and the city is considered unhealthy on account of the evil vapours which rise from this lake. It is built with the streets running due east and west; so that when the sun rises no one can walk in any of the streets, because there is no shade whatever; and this is felt very much as the heat is intense; and the sun is so prejudicial to health, that if a man is exposed to its rays even for a few hours he will be attacked with a fatal illness, and this has happened to many. Half a league from the sea there are good and healthy sites, where the city might have been built at first; but as the houses have a high price, on account of the great expense of building them, the site has not been changed, although the inhabitants are aware of the notorious harm which all must receive from living in so unhealthy a place. The first conquerors are now all dead; and the present inhabitants do not expect to remain long, only think of becoming rich, and care little for the public good. A river flows near this city, which rises in certain hills; and there are many others, on the banks of which the Spaniards have their farms, where they have planted many trees from Spain, as oranges, citrons, and figs. Besides these there are other fruits belonging to the country, such as fragrant pines and plantains, many excellent guavas,[122] caymitos,[123] aguacates,[124] and other fruits. In the plains there are large herds of cattle, for the country is well adapted for breeding them. The rivers contain much gold, and at the time that the city was founded they obtained a great quantity.

Panama is well supplied with provisions, being situated between two seas,—that is to say, the North Sea, by which the ships of Spain come to Nombre de Dios; and the South Sea, by which ships sail from Panama to all the ports of Peru. The country round this city yields neither wheat nor barley; but the owners of farms raise much maize, and they bring plenty of flour from Spain and Peru. There is much fish in all the rivers and also in the sea, though different from those on the coast of Spain.[125] On the sea-shore, close to the houses of the city, they find great quantities of very small mussels (almejas), which they call chucha; and I believe that, at the time of the first settlement, the city remained on this site because the Spaniards felt themselves safe from hunger on account of these mussels. In the rivers there are great quantities of alligators, which are so large and fierce that it is wonderful to see them. In the river of Cenu I have seen many very large ones, and have eaten the eggs which they deposit on the shore. We found one of these large alligators in the river which they call San Jorge, when we went with Captain Alonzo de Caceres to discover the province of Urute. It was so monstrously large as to measure more than twenty-five feet in length; and when we killed it with our lances, it was a grand thing to witness its bravery. Being very hungry we ate some of the flesh; but it is bad, and has a disagreeable smell. These alligators have eaten many Spaniards, horses, and Indians, when passing over the land from one river to another.

There are few natives in the neighbourhood of Panama, for nearly all have been destroyed by the evil treatment they received from the Spaniards and by sickness. The city is inhabited by many merchants from all parts, who trade here and in Nombre de Dios; for there is much traffic, and the place might almost be compared with the city of Venice. Very often ships come to Panama from the South Sea to discharge cargoes of gold and silver; and the number of vessels is very great that arrive at Nombre de Dios, bringing much merchandise, which is transported to Panama by canoes up the river Chagres, and thence over five leagues of road. Near the city the sea forms a large bay, and the vessels come into the port with the tide. The anchorage is very good for small vessels. Panama was founded by Pedrarias de Avila, who was governor of Tierra Firme, in the name of the invincible Cæsar Don Carlos, the august King of Spain, our lord, in the year 1520. It is in about 8° north of the equinoctial line.[126] It has a good port, into which the vessels enter with the ebb tide until they are high and dry. The ebb and flow of this sea is great, so that the shore remains uncovered at low water for a distance of half a league; and vessels anchored in three fathoms at low water, are in seven fathoms when the tide comes up.[127]

In this chapter I have treated of the city of Panama. In the following I shall describe the harbours and rivers along the coast as far as Chile, for this plan will give much precision to the work.

CHAPTER III.

Of the ports between Panama and the land of Peru, of the distances between them, and of their latitudes.

IT is known to all the world how the Spaniards, aided by God, have prosperously gained and made themselves masters of this new world, which is called the Indies. These Indies include so many and such great kingdoms and provinces, that it causes wonder even to think of them; and their discovery and conquest have been successful, as all who live in this age well know. I have sometimes thought that, when one people and nation succeeds another, as time rolls on the first is forgotten; and that the same fate may overtake us as has befallen others, which may God forefend: but these kingdoms and provinces were discovered in the time of the most Christian and illustrious Charles, the ever august Emperor of the Romans, and our lord and king, who has taken and still takes so much care for the conversion of the Indians. For this reason I believe that Spain will ever retain these possessions, and that all who live in them will ever acknowledge the kings of Spain as their masters.

In this chapter I desire to explain to those who may read my work the manner of navigating by points and degrees from Panama to Peru. The time for navigating is during the months of January, February, and March, because in this season there are always fresh breezes from the north, and the vessels make short passages; while during the rest of the year the south winds prevail along the coast of Peru.[128] Thus the vessels finish their voyages before the south winds set in. Ships can also sail in August and September, but not with the same ease as in the season before mentioned; for if some few vessels sail in these months, they make very long and difficult passages. The south wind is prevalent for a long time along this coast from Chile to near Tumbez, which is favourable for a voyage from Peru to Tierra Firme, Nicaragua, and other ports; but very difficult for vessels going to Peru. Sailing from Panama, vessels first sight the islands called “of the Pearls,” which are barely in 8°.[129] These islands consist of twenty-five or thirty, clustering round one which is the largest of all. They were formerly inhabited by Indian natives, but now there are none. The owners of these islands have Negroes and Indians of Nicaragua and Cubagua, who watch the flocks and sow the seeds, for the land is fertile. They have also obtained a great quantity of rich pearls, whence the islands take their name. From these islands vessels work for the point of Carachine, which is ten leagues to the E.S.E.; and when they sight it, the land is high and woody. It is in 8⅓°.[130] From this point the coast runs S.E.¼S. to Puerto de Piñas for eight leagues, which is in 6¼°.[131] Here the land is high, forest covered, and rugged. Thence the coast trends S.¼E. to Cape Corrientes; and following the same course vessels arrive at the island of Palms, so called from the quantities of those trees which grow on it. It is little more than a league and a half round, it has rivers of fresh water, and used to be inhabited. This island is twenty-five leagues from Cape Corrientes, in 4⅓°. From this point the coast runs in the same direction to the port of Buenaventura, which is a little more than three leagues from the island. The entrance to the bay is in 3⅔°,[132] and close to it there is a high peaked island. The country is covered with forests, and many great rivers, rising in the mountains, fall into the sea, by one of which vessels approach the town and port of Buenaventura. The pilot who may take a vessel in, should know the river well, or he will have much trouble, as was the case with me and many others who employed new pilots. Thence the coast runs W. ¼ S. to the island called Gorgona, which is twenty-five leagues from this bay. This part of the coast is low, and overrun with mangroves and other dense bushes. Many large rivers flow into the sea, the principal one being the river of San Juan, the banks of which are inhabited by wild people, who build their houses on great stages raised on forked poles. These Indians are very rich in gold, and their country, which is fertile, is traversed by rivers washing down abundance of this metal. But it is so swampy and full of lagoons, that it is impossible to conquer it without an expenditure of many lives and much trouble.

The island of Gorgona is high, and it never ceases to rain and thunder there, so that it seems as if the elements were fighting. It is two leagues round, covered with forest, and has streams of very good water. There are many turkeys, pheasants, cats, and great serpents, besides night birds, on the island. It seems that it has never been inhabited. The Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro, with thirteen Spanish Christians, his companions, was many days on this island, and suffered much from hunger and exposure, until at last God was well served by the discovery of the provinces of Peru. This island of Gorgona is in 3°,[133] and thence the coast trends W.S.W. to the island of Gallo. All this coast is low and woody, and many rivers here fall into the sea. The island of Gallo is small, scarcely a league round, and is in 2°[134]of the equator. Thence the coast turns S.W. to the point of Mangroves,[135] which is a little under eight leagues from Gallo. Thence the coast runs S.W. to the bay of Santiago, where it forms a creek, and an anchorage called Sardinas. Here is the mouth of the great and rapid river of Santiago, where the government of the Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro commenced. This roadstead is twenty-five leagues from the point of Mangroves. Here vessels have their bows in eighty fathoms and their stems nearly aground, and sometimes they are in ninety fathoms at one moment, and in two at another; but these inequalities, which are caused by the fury of the river, are not dangers, nor do they prevent vessels from going in and out at pleasure. The coast then runs west towards the Cape of San Francisco, which is ten leagues from the roadstead. This cape is high land, and near it there are some brown and white ravines. It is 1° N. of the equator.[136] Thence the coast runs S.W. to the point of Passaos, which is on the equinoctial line.[137] Between these two points four rivers fall into the sea, called the Quiximies,[138] which are very large. They form a tolerable port, where vessels can take in fresh water and firewood.

CHAPTER IV.

Describes the navigation as far as the Callao of Lima, which is the port of the City of the Kings.

I HAVE now described, though briefly, the way by which this South Sea is navigated as far as the Quiximies, which is in the land of Peru. It will now be well to continue the route until we arrive at the City of the Kings. Leaving then the cape of Passaos, the coast trends to the S. ¼ W. as far as Puerto Viejo, and before reaching it there is the bay of Caraquez, which vessels enter without any danger. Its conveniences are such that ships of even one thousand tons may be careened here, and it is easy to enter and sail out, except that there are some rocky islands at its mouth, but there are no obstructions beyond those which meet the eye. Near Puerto Viejo, and two leagues inland, is the city of Santiago, and two leagues to the south of the port there is a round hill called Monte Cristo. This Puerto Viejo is 1° S.[139] of the equator. Five leagues further on in the same direction is the cape of San Lorenzo, and three leagues beyond this cape, to the south-west, is the island which is called La Plata, a league and a half long. Here, in ancient times, the natives of the main land held their sacrificial festivals, and killed many lambs and sheep, and some children, whose blood was offered to their devils and idols, figures carved in stone which were objects of worship. The Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro, with his thirteen companions, during their voyage of discovery, landed on this island and found some silver and jewels, and many robes and dresses of cloth richly embroidered. From that time to this the island has remained with the name which it now bears. Following the coast line to the S. ¼ E. we come next to the point of Santa Elena. Before reaching this point there are two places, the one called Callo and the other Calango,[140] where ships touch, and take in wood and water. The distance from the point of San Lorenzo to that of Santa Elena is fifteen leagues. There is a creek on the north side of the latter point, where there is good anchorage.[141] At the distance of a cross-bow shot from the point there is a fountain of bitumen, which appears to be natural tar. Of this, and of the wells made by the giants on this point, I shall give an account further on, which will be well worth hearing.[142]

From this point of Santa Elena vessels go to the river of Tumbez, a distance of twenty-eight leagues. The river bears from the point S. ¼ E., and between them there is another great inlet. To the N.E. of the river of Tumbez there is an island which is more than ten leagues round, and it has been very rich and populous, so that the natives rivalled those of Tumbez and of other parts of the main land. There were great wars and many battles between them, so that time and the arrival of the Spaniards have greatly diminished the number of the islanders. The island is very fertile and well wooded. It is the property of his Majesty. There is a rumour that a great sum of gold and silver was buried there in ancient times. The Indians say that these islanders were given to idolatry, and were very vicious, many of them committing the abominable offence, and being guilty of other great sins. Near this island of Puna there is another further out, called Santa Clara. This island has neither inhabitants, wood, nor water; but the ancient people of Puna had their cemeteries on it, and performed sacrifices. They have placed on the heights, where they built their altars, great quantities of gold, and silver, and fine ornaments dedicated to their gods. When the Spaniards arrived, these treasures were concealed (so the Indians say) in places where they could not be found.[143]

The river of Tumbez flows through a country which is thickly inhabited. Near the sea there is a fortress, a very strong and handsome structure, built by the Yncas, kings of Cuzco and lords of all Peru, in which they had great store of treasure. There was also a temple of the Sun, and a house of Mamacunas,[144] which means principal women of the virgins dedicated to the service of the temple. These women lived according to rules almost the same as those of the vestal virgins of Rome. The edifices are now in a ruinous state, though their remains show how great they once were. The mouth of the river of Tumbez is in 4° S.[145] Thence the coast trends S.W. to Cape Blanco,[146] distant fifteen leagues,[147] and then towards the island of Lobos.[148] Between Cape Blanco and the island of Lobos there is a point called Pariña, which runs out into the sea almost as far as the former point.[149] From point Pariña the coast runs S.W. to Payta. From Tumbez towards the south, the coast is without trees, and if there are any hills they are naked, and rocky. The rest of the coast is a sandy desert, and few rivers fall into the sea. Payta is a little more than eight leagues[150] from Cape Pariña; it is a good port, where ships refit, in 5° S.[151] From the island of Lobos (just mentioned) the distance to Payta will be about five leagues. Following the coast we come to Punta del Aguja,[152] and between it and the island there is a large inlet. This point is in 6° S. To the south of it there are two islands called Lobos, from the great number of seals, and all vessels can pass between them and the main land.[153] From Punta de Aguja the coast trends S.W. to a port called Casma. The coast runs S.W. to Malabrigo,[154] where vessels can only lie in fair weather, and ten leagues further south is the reef of Truxillo, a bad port, with no other shelter than the buoys of the anchors. Vessels sometimes touch here for provisions. Two leagues inland is the city of Truxillo. From this port, which is in 7⅔°, vessels go to the port of Guañape,[155] seven leagues from Truxillo, in 8⅓°. More to the south is the port of Santa, where vessels touch, and near which there is a great river with very good water.[156] All the coast is without trees (as I said a little way back), sandy, and broken with craggy rocks. Santa is in 9°. Five leagues further on is Ferrol,[157] a secure port, but without fuel or water. Another six leagues brings us to Casma, where there is a river and plenty of wood, so that vessels can put in for supplies. It is in 10°.[158] From Casma the coast runs south to the islets of Huara, and further on is Guarmay, where there is a river.[159] Another six leagues takes us to Huara, where vessels can take in all the salt they require, for there is enough to supply Italy and all Spain, and even then it would not be exhausted.[160] Thence the coast trends south to the island of Lima. Half way, a little nearer Lima than the islets of Huara,[161] there is an island called Salmerina, nine or ten leagues from the land. The island of Lima forms the shelter to Callao, which is the port of Lima.[162] The port is very safe. Callao, which (as I have said) is the port of the City of Kings, is in 12⅓°.[163]

CHAPTER V.

Of the ports and rivers on the coast, from the City of the Kings to the province of Chile, and of their latitudes, with other matters connected with the navigation of these seas.

I HAVE myself been in most of the ports and rivers which I have now described, and I have taken much trouble to ascertain the correctness of what is here written, having communicated with the dexterous and expert pilots who know the navigation of these ports, and who took the altitudes in my presence. In this chapter I shall continue my description of the coast, with its ports and rivers from Lima until we arrive at the province of Chile. But I am unable to describe the coast down to the straits of Magellan, having lost a copious narrative which I had from a pilot who came in one of the ships sent by the Bishop of Plazencia.

When ships sail from the port of the City of the Kings, they shape their course south, until they reach the port of Sangalla, which is very good, and at first it was considered certain that the City of the Kings would have been founded near it. Sangalla is thirty-five leagues from Lima, in barely 14° S. of the equinoctial.[164] Near this port there is an island called Seal Island. All the coast, from this point, is low, though in some parts there are naked chains of rocky hills, and the whole is a sandy desert, on which it has never rained, nor does anything fall except a thin mist; but I shall treat of this admirable secret of nature further on.[165] Near this Seal Island there are seven or eight other small islets, some high and others low, uninhabited, and without wood or water, tree, shrub, or anything else, except seals and sand hills. The Indians, according to their own account, used to go to these islands to make sacrifices, and it is presumed that great treasure is buried on them. They are a little more than four leagues from the coast. Further on there is another island, also called Seal Island, from the quantity of those animals that frequent it, which is 14⅓°.[166]

From this island vessels continue the voyage, the coast trending S.W. ¼ S., and after twelve leagues more they come to a promontory called Nasca, which is in 15° less one quarter.[167] There is here shelter for ships, but not for boats, as they cannot land. Further on there is another point called San Nicolas, in 15⅓°.[168] From this point of San Nicolas the coast turns S.W., and after twelve leagues the port of Acari is reached, where vessels take in provisions and water, brought from a valley which is a little more than five leagues from the port. This port of Acari is in 16°.[169] Continuing the voyage vessels next arrive off the river of Ocona, and further on are the rivers of Camana and Quilca. Near the latter river there is a cove, which affords good and secure anchorage. It is also called Quilca, and forms the port of the city of Arequipa, which is seventeen leagues distant. This port is in 17½°.[170] Sailing from Quilca, vessels pass some islets, where the Indians go from the main land to fish. Three leagues further on there is another island, very close to the shore, and the ships anchor to leeward of it, for from this place also goods are sent to the city of Arequipa. It is twelve leagues beyond Quilca, in 17½° or more, and is called Chuti.[171] Further on there is a great river called Tamboballa, and ten leagues more bring us to a point which runs out for a league into the sea, and there are three pointed rocks near it.[172] There is a good port, sheltered by this point, called Ylo, where a river of very good water, having the same name as the port, falls into the sea. Ylo is in 18⅓°.[173] Thence the coast trends S.¼E., and seven leagues farther on there is a promontory, which the mariners called the Hill of the Devils.[174] All this coast is dangerous. Further on, about five leagues from this point, there is a small river of good water, and ten leagues more bring us to another high point and some ravines. Off this point there is an islet, and near it is the port of Arica, in 29⅓°.[175] From Arica the coast runs S.E. for nine leagues, where there is a river called Pisagua. From this river to the port of Tarapaca the coast trends in the same direction a distance of twenty-five leagues. Near Tarapaca there is an island a little more than a league round and one and a half from the shore, which forms a bay in 21°. This is the port of Tarapaca.[176] Thence the coast trends in the same direction, and five leagues further on there is a point called Tacama. Passing this point vessels come to the port of Mexillones, sixteen leagues further on, which is in 22½°.[177] The coast then trends S.S.W. for ninety leagues. It is a straight coast, with some points and bays, and in 26° there is a good port called Copayapo,[178] with an islet about half a league from the shore, and here the inhabited part of the province of Chile commences. Further on there is a point of land forming a bay, with two rocks in it, and here a river of very good water falls into the sea, called Huasco. The point is in 28¼°.[179] Ten leagues further on there is another point which affords shelter for ships, but here there is neither wood nor water. Near this point is the port of Coquimbo, and between it and the point there are seven islands. This port is in 29½°.[180] Ten leagues further on another point runs out, forming a large bay called Atongayo,[181] and five leagues beyond is the river of Limara. From this river vessels reach a bay after sailing nine leagues, where there is a pointed rock, and no fresh water. It is in 30°, and is called Choape.[182] Further on, continuing the same course for twenty-one leagues, there is a good port called Quintero, in 32°,[183] and ten leagues more bring us to the port of Valparaiso, and the city of Santiago, which is what we call Chile, in 32⅔°.[184] Continuing the voyage we next come to another port called Topocalma, in 34°,[185] and twelve leagues further on is the river of Maule. Fourteen leagues further on there is another river called Ytata, and twenty-four leagues more bring us to a river called Biobio, in 38° nearly.[186] In the same direction, after sailing fifteen leagues more, we come to a large island five leagues from the shore, which is said to be inhabited. It is called Luchengo.[187] Beyond this island there is a bay called Valdivia, where there is a great river, the name of which is Ayniledos. The bay of Valdivia is in 39⅔°.[188] To the S.S.W. of the port is the Cape of Santa Maria in 42⅓° S. This is as far as the coast has been examined and described. The pilots say that it then turns S.E. to the straits of Magellan. One of the ships which sailed from Spain, belonging to the expedition of the Bishop of Palencia, passed through the straits of Magellan, and reached the port of Quilca, which is near Arequipa, whence she went on to Lima and Panama. She brought a good account of the latitude of the strait, and of what happened during the very difficult voyage; but I do not insert that narrative here, because, at the time when we gave battle to Gonzalo Pizarro in the valley of Xaquixaguana, five leagues from the city of Cuzco, I had several of my papers and journals stolen, and this among the number, which I regret very much. I should have wished to conclude my account of the coast with this narrative. Receive, therefore, my desire to give this further information; for I have taken no little trouble to ascertain the truth, and I have examined the new charts made by the pilots who discovered this sea.[189]

Here I must conclude the portion of my work which treats of the navigation of this South Sea. I shall now proceed to give an account of the provinces and nations from the port of Uraba to the city of Plata, which is a distance of more than 1200 leagues, and I shall describe the government of Popayan and the kingdom of Peru.

I shall commence, then, with the port of Uraba, and pass thence to the city of Antiochia and to other parts, as will appear presently.

CHAPTER VI.

How the city of San Sebastian was founded in the bay of Uraba;[190] and of the native Indians in that neighbourhood.

IN the year 1509, when Alonzo de Ojeda and Nicuesa were governors of Tierra Firme, a town was founded in the province of Darien, and was named Nuestra Señora del Antigua. Some of the Spaniards, who were among the early discoverers, declare that they found the flower of the chiefs of the Indians in these parts. At that time, although the province of Carthagena was discovered, it was not settled, nor had the Christians done more than trade with the Indians, obtaining a quantity of fine gold by exchanges. The Governor Ojeda marched to the great town of Turbaco, four leagues from Carthagena (which was formerly called Calamar), where he fought a great battle with the Indians. Many Christians were killed, and among them the captain Juan de la Cosa, a valiant and resolute man. In order that his body might not fall into the hands of the Indians, the Spaniards retreated to their ships. After this event the Governor Ojeda founded a town of Christians in the country called Uraba, and appointed as his captain and lieutenant there, Francisco Pizarro, who was afterwards governor and marquis. In this city or town of Uraba, this captain Francisco Pizarro, suffered from hunger and sickness, and from the attacks of the Indians of Uraba. These Indians (as it is said) were not natives of this province, their ancient home having been in the country which borders on the great river of Darien.[191] Desiring to escape from subjection to the yoke of the Spaniards who treated them so ill, they left their homes with their arms, taking their women and children with them. Having arrived at Uraba, they attacked the natives with great cruelty, killed them all, and made themselves masters of their land.

When the governor Ojeda heard of this he entertained hopes of finding great riches in that country, and sent his lieutenant Francisco Pizarro to form a settlement there, who was the first Christian to enter this land. Afterwards these governors Ojeda and Nicuesa came to a disastrous end, as is well known among those of that time who still survive, and Pedrarias came as governor of Tierra Firme, but though there were 200 Spaniards in the city of Antigua, none of them settled in Uraba.[192] Time passed on, the governor Pedrarias cut off the head of his son-in-law Yasco Nuñez de Balboa,[193] and of Captain Francisco Hernandez in Nicaragua, and the Indians of the river Cenu killed the captain Bezerra and the Christians who were with him. At last, Don Pedro de Heredia came out as governor of Carthagena, and sent his brother the captain Alonzo de Heredia with a party of Spaniards to settle in Uraba for a second time, calling the city San Sebastian de Buena Vista.[194] This city is situated on some small hills clear of trees, and there is no thicket near them, except in the marshy ground and on the banks of the rivers. But the province is covered with dense forest in many parts, and the plains are full of very large palm trees with thick bark, and bearing large palmitos, which are white and very sweet. When the Spaniards explored this country, in the time when Alonzo Lopez de Ayala was lieutenant to the governor of this city, they ate nothing for many days except these palmitos. The wood is so hard and difficult to cut, that it took a man half a day before he could cut a tree down and get the palmitos, which they ate without bread, and drank much water, so that many Spaniards died. Near the town, and on the banks of the river, there are many gardens of orange-trees, plaintains, and guavas. There are many rivers in the province, which rise in the mountains. In the interior there are some Indians and caciques, who used to be very rich by reason of their trade with those who lived in the plains beyond the mountains, and in the country of Dobaybe. These Indians, who were masters of this region, originally came, as I have before said, from the other side of the great river of Darien. The lords or caciques are obeyed and feared by the Indians, and their women are the prettiest and most loveable of any that I have seen in the Indies. They are clean in their eating, and have none of the dirty habits of other nations. These Indians have small villages, and their houses are like long sheds. They sleep in hammocks and use no other sort of bed. Their land is fertile and abundantly supplied with provisions, such as well tasted roots. There are also herds of small pigs which are good eating, and many great tapirs, said by some to be of the shape and form of zebras; abundance of turkeys and other birds, plenty of fish in the rivers, and tigers, which kill the Indians and commit havoc amongst their beasts. There are also very large serpents and other creatures in the dense forests, the names of which we know not. Among them are the creatures which we call Pericos ligeros,[195] and it is a marvel to see their fierce looks, and the torpid lazy way in which they move along.

When the Spaniards occupied the villages of these Indians, they found a great quantity of gold in some small baskets, in the form of rich ornaments. There were also many other ornaments and chains of fine gold, and much cotton cloth. The women wore mantles, which covered them from the waist to the feet, and other mantles over their bosoms. They are very pretty, and always go about decently dressed and combed. The men go naked and barefooted, without other covering than what nature has given them; but they have shells or other ornaments, either of bone or of very fine gold, suspended by a thread in front of their privates. Some of these that I saw, weighed forty to fifty pesos each, some more and some less. These Indians are engaged in trade, and take pigs, which are native, and different from those in Spain, to sell to other tribes more inland.[196] These pigs are smaller than Spanish pigs, and they have a navel on their backs,[197] which must be something which has grown there. The Indians also trade with salt and fish, getting in exchange their gold, cloth and other articles. Their arms are bows, made of the wood of a black palm, a braza long, with very long and sharp arrows, anointed with a juice which is so evil and pestilential, that no man who is wounded with it so as to draw blood, can live, although it should not be as much as would flow from the prick of a pin. Thus few if any who have been wounded with this juice, fail to die.

CHAPTER VII.

How the herb is made so poisonous, with which the Indians of Carthagena and Santa Martha have killed so many Spaniards.

AS this poisonous juice of the Indians of Carthagena and Santa Martha is so famous, it seems well to give an account here of the way it is made, which is as follows. This juice is composed of many things. I investigated and became acquainted with the principal ingredients in the province of Carthagena, in a village called Bahayre, from a cacique or lord, whose name was Macavin. He showed me some short roots, of a yellow colour and disagreeable smell, and told me that they were dug up on the sea shore, near the trees which we call mansanillos,[198] and pieces were cut from the roots of that pestiferous tree. They then burnt these pieces in earthen pots, and made them into a paste. After this was done, they sought for certain ants, as big as the beetles of Spain, which are very black and evil, and which, by merely biting a man, cause terrible pain. This happened when we were journeying on the expedition with the licentiate Juan de Vadillo; for one of the soldiers was bitten by an ant, and suffered so much pain that at last he lost all feeling, and even had three or four bad attacks of fever, until the poison had run its course. They also seek for certain very large spiders, and for certain hairy worms, creatures which I shall not soon forget; for one day, when I was guarding a river in the forests called Abibe, under the branch of a tree, one of these worms bit me in the neck, and I passed the most painful and wearisome night I have ever experienced in my life. They also make the poison of the wings of a bat, and the head and tail of a fish which is very poisonous, adding toads and the tails of serpents, together with certain small apples, which appear in colour and smell to be the same as those of Spain. Some of those recently arrived in these parts, on landing, eat these apples without knowing that they are poisonous. I knew one Juan Agraz (whom I have lately seen in the city of San Francisco de Quito), who, when he came from Spain, and landed on the coast of Santa Martha, ate ten or a dozen of these apples, and I heard him swear that in colour and smell they could not be better, except that they have a milk which becomes poison. Other roots and herbs form ingredients of this juice, and when they want to make it, they prepare a great fire in a place far from their houses, and take some slave girl whom they do not value, and make her watch the pots, and attend to the brewing of the poison; but the smell kills the person who thus makes the juice, at least so I have heard.

CHAPTER VIII.

In which other customs of the Indians subject to the city of Uraba are described.

WITH this evil juice the Indians anoint the points of their arrows, and they are so dexterous in the use of these arrows, and draw their bows with such force, that it has often happened that they have transfixed a horse, or the knight who is riding, the arrow entering on one side and coming out on the other. They wear cotton for defensive armour, the moisture of that country not being suitable for cuirasses. However, with all these difficulties, and in spite of the country being so forbidding, foot soldiers have overrun it with nothing but swords and shields, and ten or twelve Spaniards are as good as 100 or 200 Indians. These Indians have no temples nor any form of worship, and nothing has been discovered concerning their religion as yet, except that they certainly talk with the devil, and do him all the honour they can, for they hold him in great veneration. He appears to them (as I have been told by one of themselves) in frightful and terrible visions, which cause them much alarm. The sons inherit their fathers’ property, if they are born of the principal wife, and they marry the daughters of their sisters. Their chiefs have many wives. When a chief dies, all his servants and friends assemble in his house in the night, without any light; but they have a great quantity of their wine made from maize, which they continue drinking while they mourn for the dead. After they have completed their ceremonies and sorceries, they inter the body with its arms and treasures, plenty of food, and jugs of chicha, together with a few live women. The devil gives them to understand that, in the place to which they go, they will come to life in another kingdom which he has prepared for them, and that it is necessary to take food with them for the journey. As if hell was so very far off!

This city of San Sebastian was founded by Alonzo de Heredia, brother of the Adelantado Don Pedro de Heredia, governor for his majesty of the province of Carthagena, as I have said before.

CHAPTER IX.

Of the road between the city of San Sebastian and the city of Antioquia, and of the wild beasts, forests, rivers, and other things in the way; and how and in what season it can be passed.

I found myself in this city of San Sebastian de Buena Vista in the year 1536, and in 1537 the licentiate Juan de Vadillo, Juez de Residencia,[199] and at that time governor of Carthagena, set out from it with one of the finest armies that had been seen in Tierra Firme. We were the first Spaniards who opened a road from the North to the South Sea. I journeyed from this town of Uraba as far as the town of Plata, at the furthest extremity of Peru, and made a point of seeing all the provinces on my road, that I might be better able to note down what was worthy of remark. I will, therefore, relate from this place forward all that I saw, without desiring to exaggerate or depreciate anything, and of this my readers may receive my assurance.

I say, then, that on leaving San Sebastian de Buena Vista, which is the port of Uraba, to go to the city of Antioquia, the road runs by the coast for five leagues as far as the banks of a small river called Rio Verde, whence the distance to the city of Antioquia is forty-eight leagues. The whole country, from this river to certain mountains called Abibe, of which I shall speak presently, is flat, but covered with very dense forests, and traversed by many rivers. The district near the road is uninhabited, as the natives have retired to a distance from it. After reaching Rio Verde, the road keeps close to the banks of the river, the rest of the country being very densely covered with forest; and to pass safely, it is necessary to travel in January, February, March, or April. After April the rains set in, and the rivers are swollen and rapid, so that even if it is possible to pass at all, it is at the cost of much danger and difficulty. At all times those who travel by this road must take good guides, and must understand how to cross the rivers. In all these forests there are great herds of pigs, sometimes more than a thousand together, counting their young ones, and they make a great noise, so that those who travel with good dogs will not be in want of food. There are also great tapirs, lions, bears, and tigers. In the trees are to be seen the most beautifully marked wild cats that can be found in the world, and large monkeys, that make such a noise that, from a distance, those who are new to the country would think they were pigs. When the Spaniards pass under the trees where the monkeys are, these creatures break off branches, and throw them down, making faces all the time. The rivers are so full of fish that with any net a great haul may be drawn. When we were going with the Captain Jorge Robledo from Antioquia to Carthagena, we saw so many fish that we could kill them with sticks. On the trees near the rivers, there is a creature called yguana, which looks like a serpent, or like one of the large lizards of Spain, except that it has a larger head and longer tail, but in colour and shape it is exactly like. When skinned and roasted these creatures are as good to eat as rabbits; to my mind they are even better, especially the females, which have many eggs. But those who are not accustomed to them would be so frightened at the sight of them, that they would have no desire to eat them. No one can say for certain whether they are fish or flesh, for we see them run down the trees into the water, where they are quite at home; and they are also found in the interior, where there are no rivers. There are other creatures called Hicoteas,[200] like turtles, which are also good eating. There are many turkeys, pheasants, and parrots of all kinds, as well as Guacamayas,[201] with very bright plumage; some small eagles, pigeons, partridges, doves, besides night-birds and other birds of prey. In these forests there are very large snakes. I must here relate a circumstance which I hold to be certainly true, for it is attested by many men who are worthy of belief. It is that when the Lieutenant Juan Greciano was travelling by this road, by order of the licentiate Santa Cruz, in search of the licentiate Juan de Vadillo, in company with certain Spaniards, among whom were Manuel de Peralta, Pedro de Barros, and Pedro Ximon, they met with a snake or serpent, which was so large that it measured more than twenty feet in length, and of great girth. Its head was a clear red, its eyes green and protruding, and, when they saw it, it levelled its head to strike at them, and, indeed, gave Pedro Ximon such a blow that he died. They found an entire deer in its belly; and I heard it said that some of the Spaniards, owing to the hunger they felt, ate the deer and even a part of the snake. There are other snakes, not so large as this one, which make a noise when they walk like the sound of bells. If these snakes bite a man they kill him. The Indians say that there are many other kinds of serpents and wild animals in these forests, which I do not describe as I have not seen them. There are abundance of the palm-trees of Uraba, and many wild fruits.

CHAPTER X.

Of the grandeur of the mountains of Abibe, and of the admirable and useful timber which grows there.

HAVING crossed these low forest covered plains, the way leads up a broad chain of mountains called Abibe.[202] This mountain-chain extends to the west, over many provinces and uninhabited tracts. Its length is uncertain, but its breadth is in some places twenty leagues: in others much more, and in others a little less. The roads by which the Indians crossed this wild chain of mountains (for many parts of it are inhabited) were so bad and difficult, that horses neither can nor ever will be able to pass over them. The Captain Francisco Cesar, was the first Spaniard who crossed this range of mountains, and with much trouble he came to the valley of Guaco, which is on the other side. The roads are assuredly most difficult and wearisome, for they are full of evil places and thickets, while the roots are such that they entangle the feet of both men and horses. At the highest part of the mountains there is a very laborious ascent, and a still more dangerous descent on the other side. When we descended with the licentiate Juan de Vadillo, there being several very steep declivities, we made a sort of wall with ropes and stakes filled in with earth, so that the horses might be able to pass without danger, and although this contrivance was of some use, yet many horses fell over and were dashed to pieces. Even among the Spaniards some were killed, and others were so much injured that they were unable longer to proceed, and remained in the forests, awaiting their deaths in great misery concealed by the brushwood, so that those who remained whole might not see them and carry them forward. Some of the horses, too, were so much exhausted that they could not go on, and many Negroes either fled or died. Certainly, we who passed over these mountains were in very evil case, seeing that we suffered the hardships that I have just described. There are no inhabitants whatever in the higher parts of the mountains, or if there are, they live at a distance from the road by which we traversed them; but in the valleys which run up into these mountains there are many Indians, who possess much gold. The rivers which descend from this range towards the west, bring down great store of gold. Nearly all the year round it rains, and the trees are always dropping water from their leaves. There is no fodder for the horses, except some small long prickly leaves, inside which grow small palmitos, which are very bitter; and I have been myself in such straits with weariness and hunger, that I have eaten them. As it is always raining, and the Spanish travellers are constantly wet, the whole of them would certainly die if they had no fire. But the giver of blessings, who is Christ our God and Lord, displays his power everywhere, and thinks it good to be merciful and to afford us a remedy for all our ills. Although there is no want of fire-wood in these mountains, yet it is so wet that if the fire was lighted it would go out. To provide for this want there are certain tall trees, something like an ash, the wood of which is white and very dry: when this wood is cut up and set fire to, it burns like candlewood, and does not go out until it is consumed by the flames. We owe our lives entirely to the discovery of this wood. Where the Indians are settled there are plenty of supplies of fruit and fish, besides great store of brightly dyed cotton mantles. Here the evil root of Uraba is not found, and the Indians have no other arms than palm lances, clubs, and darts. They make bridges over the numerous rivers with stout creepers, which are like roots growing on the trees, and are as strong as hempen ropes. They make a great rope by twisting several of these together and throw it across the river, fastening each end securely to the trees, of which there are many near the banks. Several more are secured in the same way, and thus a bridge is formed. The Indians and their wives pass across; but they are so dangerous that I should very much prefer walking over the bridge of Alcantara. Notwithstanding this, and in spite of the danger, the Indians, as I have said, go over laden, with their women and children, with as little fear as if they were on firm land. All these Indians of the mountains are subject to a great and powerful cacique, called Nutibara. Having passed these mountains, there is a very pretty valley where there is no forest, but naked hills: and the Indians have their roads on the plain and sides of the hills.

CHAPTER XI.

Of the cacique Nutibara, and of his territory: and of other caciques subject to the city of Antioquia.

WHEN we entered this valley with the Licentiate Juan de Vadillo, it was scattered over with very large houses of wood thatched with straw, and the fields were full of all kinds of food. In the hills several delightful rivers rise, whose banks were covered with many kinds of fruit trees, with very tall slender palm trees, thorny, with a bunch of fruit called Pixibaes growing at the top. They make both bread and wine from this fruit, and when the tree is cut down, they take from it a good-sized palmito, which is both sweet and wholesome. There are also many trees which we call aguacates, guavas, guayavas, and very fragrant pines.

The lord or king of this country was one named Nutibara, son of Anunaybe. He had a brother called Quinuchu, who was then his lieutenant over the Indians that lived in the mountains of Abibe (which we had just crossed) and in other parts. This lieutenant supplied his lord with many pigs, fish, birds, and other things from that land, and sent him gold and apparel as tribute. When the lord went to war, he was followed by many people with their arms. When he travelled through the country, he sat on a litter inlaid with gold, which was borne on the shoulders of his principal men. He had many wives. Near the door of his house, and the same thing was done at the houses of his captains, there were many heads of his enemies whom he had eaten, which were kept there as trophies. All the natives of this country eat human flesh. There are many large burial places which must needs be very rich. They had, in the first place, a great house or temple dedicated to the Devil. At the time that the Captain Francisco Cesar entered the valley, the natives rose in arms near that house or temple, thinking that, as his followers were such bad christians they might easily kill them. Thus, more than 20,00 Indians came out to war with much noise; but, although the Spanish party numbered no more than twenty-nine or thirty horse, they showed so bold a front that the Indians fled after the battle had lasted a long time, leaving the field in possession of the christians, and on this occasion Cesar certainly showed himself to be worthy of so great a name. Those who may write respecting Carthagena will have plenty to say of this captain; but it will not behove me to write more concerning him than is necessary for the clearness of my narrative.[203] If the Spaniards who entered this valley with Cesar were not numerous, they certainly all became rich, and got plenty of gold; but, afterwards, when we came, the Indians concealed their gold by the advice of the devil, as they themselves affirm. Before these Indians gave battle to Captain Cesar, they took their gold to the temple which they had built (according to their own account) in honour of the devil; and, when the Spaniards came there, digging in a certain part, they found a vault with the entrance towards the setting sun, in which there were many vases full of very fine ornaments of gold, altogether more than 21 quintals,[204] worth upwards of 40,00 ducats. They related that further on there was another house that contained more treasure, and they also stated that they found others still more rich in the valley. Afterwards, when we arrived with Vadillo, we found the burial places opened, and the house or temple burnt. An Indian woman, who belonged to one Baptista Zimbron, said to me that after Cesar returned to Carthagena, all the lords of these valleys assembled and performed sacrifices, when the devil appeared in the form of a very fierce tiger, (which in their language is called guaca), and said that those christians had come from the other side of the sea, and that soon many more would arrive to occupy and take possession of the land, and that they must prepare for war. He then disappeared, and the Indians began to prepare, first taking a great quantity of treasure out of the burial places.

CHAPTER XII.

Of the customs of these Indians, of their arms, and of the ceremonies they perform; and who the founder of the city of Antioquia was.

THE inhabitants of these valleys are brave amongst themselves, and much feared by their neighbours. The men go naked and barefooted, and merely wear a narrow band fastened to a girdle round the waist. Their hair is worn very long. Their arms are darts, long lances of black palm, slings, and two-handed clubs, called Macanas.[205] The women wear a mantle from the waist downwards of bright coloured cotton cloth. The lords, when they marry, make a sort of sacrifice to their gods. They assemble in a house to the number of about twelve, where the prettiest girls have already been assembled, and choose those they desire most. The son of the chosen woman inherits the lordship, and if there is no son, the son of the lord’s sister inherits. These people border on a province called Tatabe, which is thickly inhabited by rich and warlike Indians, whose customs are the same as those of their neighbours. Their houses are built over very large trees, and are made of many stout poles, each house having more than two hundred of them, and the coverings of these great houses consist of palm leaves. Many Indians live in one house, with their wives and children. These nations extend to the westward as far as the South Sea, and to the east they border on the great river of Darien. All their country is mountainous, very rugged, and fearful to pass through. Near this country they say there is that grandeur and wealth of the Dabaybe which is so celebrated in Terra Firme.[206] In another part of the country, over which Nutibara is lord, there are some Indians living in a certain valley called Nore, which is very fertile. Near this valley is now built the city of Antioquia. In ancient times there was a large population in these valleys, as we judged from the edifices and burial places, of which there are many well worth seeing, being so large as to appear like small hills.

These Indians, though they speak the same language as those of Guaca, were always engaged in wars with them, so that the number of both nations has greatly diminished, for they eat all those that are captured, and place their heads before the doors of their houses. They go naked like the others, except that the chiefs sometimes cover themselves with a long mantle of coloured cotton. The women are covered with small mantles of the same material. Before passing on, I wish to relate a truly strange and wondrous thing. The second time that we returned through these valleys, when the city of Antioquia was founded near the hills which overhang them, I heard it said that the lords or caciques of the valley of Nore collected all the women they could find from the land of their enemies, took them home, and used them as if they had been their own. If any children were born, they were reared with much care until they reached the age of twelve or thirteen, and, being then plump and healthy, these caciques ate them with much appetite, not considering that they were of their own flesh and blood. In this way they had many women solely to bring forth children, which were afterwards to be eaten: and this is the greatest of all the sins that these people commit. I saw myself what occurred between one of these chiefs and the licentiate Juan de Vadillo, who is now in Spain, and if he is asked respecting what I now write, he will say that it is true. It is that, when I and my comrades entered these valleys, a chief named Nabonuco came to us peaceably, and brought with him three women. When night came on, two of them laid down on a mat, and the other across it to serve as a pillow. The Indian then made his bed on the bodies of these women, and took another pretty woman by the hand. When the licentiate Juan de Vadillo saw this proceeding, he asked the Indian chief why he had brought that other woman whom he held by the hand. The chief replied, in a gentle voice, looking him in the face, that he was going to eat her. On hearing this, Vadillo was astonished, and said, “What! are you going to eat your own wife?” The chief, raising his voice, replied, “Yes, truly; and I will also eat the child she bears me.” This happened in the valley of Nore. I have heard this licentiate Juan de Vadillo sometimes say, that he had heard from some old Indians, that when the natives of Nore go to war, they make slaves of their prisoners, and marry them to their own relations and neighbours, and that the children thus born are eaten; and that afterwards, when these slaves are too old to have any more children, they eat them also. In truth, as these Indians have no faith, I am not astonished at this.

Owing to these wars, when we discovered the valleys, we found so many human heads at the doors of the chiefs’ houses, that it seemed as if each one had been a butcher’s shop. When one of the chiefs dies, the people mourn for many days, cut off the hair of his wives, kill those who were most beloved, and raise a tomb the size of a small hill, with an opening towards the rising sun. Within this great tomb they make a large vault, and here they put the body, wrapped in cloths, and the gold and arms the dead man had used when alive. They then take the most beautiful of his wives and some servant lads, make them drunk with wine made with maize, and bury them alive in that vault, in order that the chief may go down to hell with companions.

This city of Antioquia is situated in a valley between the famous, notable, and rich rivers of Darien and of Santa Martha, for these valleys are between the two Cordilleras.[207] The position of the city is very good, with wide plains, near a small river. Many other rivers flow near it, which rise in the Cordilleras, and many springs of sweet and limpid water. All the rivers are full of very fine gold, and their banks are shaded by many kinds of fruit-trees. Antioquia is surrounded by extensive provinces, inhabited by Indians, very rich in gold, who use small scales to weigh it; but they are all great eaters of human flesh, and when they take each other prisoners, they show no mercy. One day I saw in Antioquia, when we founded it in some hills where Captain Jorge Robledo first fixed the site (which was afterwards changed by Captain Juan Cabrera to the site where the city now stands), while walking in a field of maize, four Indians close to me, who met another, and killed him with their clubs. They then drank his blood and eat his entrails by mouthfuls. They have no arrows, nor do they use any other arms than the above. I have never seen any temple or house of worship, except that which was burnt in the valley of Guaca. They all talk with the devil; and in each village there are two or three old men who are adepts in the evil art of conversing with him, and they announce what he desires to be done. They do not entirely attain to a belief in the immortality of the soul. The water and all that the earth produces is referred to nature, although they well know there is a Creator, but their belief is false, as I shall relate presently.

The city of Antioquia was founded and settled by the Captain Jorge Robledo, in the name of his Majesty the Emperor Charles, King of Spain and of the Indies, our lord, and by order of the Adelantado Don Sebastian de Belalcazar, his governor and captain-general of the province of Popayan, in the year of the nativity of our Lord 1541. This city is in 7° of the equinoctial,[208] on the north side.[209]

CHAPTER XIII.

Of the description of the province of Popayan, and the reason why the natives of it are so wild, and those of Peru so gentle.

AS the captains from Peru discovered and settled in this province of Popayan, they speak of it as a part of, and one with, that land of Peru; but I cannot consider it in that light, because the people, the land, and all other things in it are different.

This province was called Popayan from the city of Popayan, which is in it. It is 200 leagues long, little more or less, and thirty or forty broad, in some parts more, and in others, less. On one side it has the coast of the South Sea, and some very high rugged mountains to the westward. On the other side are the main Cordilleras of the Andes; and between these mountains rise many rivers, some of them, being very large, forming broad valleys. One of these, which is the largest in all this land, is the great river of Santa Martha. The towns of Pasto, Popayan, and Timana are included in this government, and the city of Cali, near the port of Buenaventura; besides the towns of Anzerma, Cartago, Arma, Antioquia, and others which were founded after I left the country. In this province some parts are cold and others hot, some healthy and others pestilential. In some parts it rains much, in others little. In some parts the Indians are cannibals, in others not. On one side it borders on the new kingdom of New Granada, on the other, on the kingdom of Peru. To the west, it is bounded by the government of the river of San Juan; to the north, by that of Carthagena.

Many have wondered how it is that these Indians, having their dwellings in positions exposed to invasion, and, except in Pasto, the country being neither too hot nor too cold, but in all things convenient for conquest, should be so untameable and obstinate; while those in Peru, with their forest-covered valleys, snowy mountains, and greater numbers, are so gentle and submissive. To this I would answer that the Indians of the government of Popayan are, and always have been, in a state of confusion, and they have never been ruled by a chief whom they feared. They are lazy and idle, and, above all, they detest being under subjection to any one, which is a sufficient cause for resisting the yoke of strangers. Another reason is to be found in the fertility of the soil, while in some parts there are dense forests, cane brakes, and other fastnesses; so that when the Spaniards press on these Indians, they burn their houses, which are of wood and straw, and retreat for a league or two, making other dwellings within three or four days, and sowing as much maize as they require, which they reap within four months. If they are still pursued, they once more abandon their homes, and retreat; for wherever they go they find a fertile land ready to supply them with its fruits, so that war or peace are in their own hands; and they never want for food. The Peruvians, on the contrary, are docile because they have more understanding, and because they were subject to the Kings Yncas, to whom they paid tribute, and whom they always served. In this condition they were born; and if any did not wish to obey, they were constrained to do so, for the land of Peru is full of mountainous tracts and snowy plains. If, therefore, they were to fly from their homes to these wilds, they could not live, for the land does not yield fruit, so that they must serve in order to live, which is quite sufficient reason to resolve the doubt.

I now propose to pass on, giving a particular account of the provinces of this government, and of the Spanish cities which have been founded in it, and stating who were the founders. From the city of Antioquia there are two roads, one to go to the town of Anzerma, and the other to go to the city of Cartago; and before I relate what is worthy of notice on the road to Cartago and Arma, I will give an account of the town of Anzerma, and then return to do the same by the other route.

CHAPTER XIV.

Containing an account of the road between the city of Antioquia and the town of Anzerma, and of the region which lies on either side of it.

STARTING from the city of Antioquia and travelling towards the town of Anzerma, one sees the rich and famous hill of Buritica, whence such a vast quantity of gold has been taken in times past. The distance from Antioquia to Anzerma is seventy leagues, and the road is very rough, with naked hills and few trees. The greater part is inhabited by Indians, but their houses are a long way from the road. After leaving Antioquia one comes to a small hill called Corome, which is in a little valley where there used to be a populous village of Indians; but since the Spaniards came as conquerors, the Indians have greatly diminished in numbers. This village had many rich gold mines, and also streams whence they could obtain gold. There are few fruit trees, and the maize yields small crops. The Indians are the same as those we had already met with, in language and customs. Further on there is a settlement on the top of a great hill, where there used to be a village of large houses inhabited by miners, who became very rich by collecting gold. The neighbouring caciques had their houses here also, and their servants obtained a great quantity of gold. From this hill came the greater part of the riches which were found at Cenu in the burial places, and I saw very fine gold in abundance taken from them, before we went to the discovery of Urute with the Captain Alonzo de Caceres.

When we discovered this village, with the Licentiate Juan de Vadillo, I remember that a priest who accompanied the expedition, named Francisco de Frias, found a Totuma, which is a sort of large glazed earthen jug, full of earth, and he sorted very large grains of gold out of it. We also saw here the sources whence they extract the gold, and the tools with which they work. When the Captain Jorge de Robledo founded the city of Antioquia, he went to see these gold washings, and they washed a lump of earth, extracting a quantity of very fine grains which one of the miners affirmed to be gold, but another said it was not gold, but what we call marcasite. As we were on a journey we could not stop to examine further. When the Spaniards entered this village the Indians burnt it, and they have shown no desire to settle there again. I recollect that a soldier named Toribio, going to seek for food, found a stone in a river as big as a man’s head, covered with veins of gold which penetrated from one side of the stone to the other: and when he saw it, he put it on his shoulders to carry it to the camp. As he was going up a hill, he met a small Indian dog, and when he saw it he turned to kill it for food, dropping the stone which rolled back again into the river. Toribio killed the dog, thinking it worth more than gold, such was his hunger, and thus the stone remained in the river where it was before. In another river I saw a negro, belonging to the Captain Jorge Robledo, wash large grains of gold out of a lump of earth. In fine, if the people were more docile and better conditioned, and not such eaters of human food: and if our governors and captains were more pious and had not ill-treated them, this province would be very rich.

Near this village, which is on the top of a hill called Buritica, a small river rises and flows through a valley where there is a mining establishment formed by the same captain, Jorge Robledo, and called Santa Fé, which is subject to the city of Antioquia. The mines have been found to be very rich near the great river of Santa Martha, which flows close by the establishment, and during the summer the Indians and Negroes get much wealth from the banks, and hereafter, when there are more Negroes, they will procure more gold. There is also another settlement near the beforementioned village, called Xundabe, inhabited by Indians with the same language and customs. Further on there is another village called Caramanta, the name of the cacique or lord of which is Cauroma.[210]

CHAPTER XV.

Of the customs of the Indians of this land, and of the forests that must be traversed in order to reach the town of Anzerma.

THE people of this province are warlike, and their language is different from the others we had met with. The country is covered in all parts by dense forests, and a broad river flows through it, swelled by many streams and fountains where they make salt—a truly wonderful and prodigious fact: and of it, as well as of many other things in this province, I will speak presently, when the narrative affords a suitable place. There is a small lake in the valley where they make very white salt. The Lords or Caciques and their Captains have very large houses, and near the doors there are stout canes that grow in these parts, on the tops of which are placed many heads of their enemies. When they go to war, they take sharp knives made of reeds or flint, or of the bark of canes, which they can also make very sharp, and with these they cut off the heads of their captives. To others they give most terrible deaths, cutting off their limbs, eating them, and placing their heads on the tops of canes. Amongst these canes they place certain boards on which they carve the figure of a devil, very fierce, and in human form, with other idols and figures of cats which they worship. When they require water or sunshine for their crops, they seek aid from these idols. Those who are set apart for that purpose talk with the devil, and are great sorcerers and magicians. They believe in and watch for signs and prodigies, and preserve those superstitions which the devil suggests: such is the power he has over these Indians—God our Lord permitting it for their sins, or for some other reason known to himself. They said, when we first discovered the country with the Licentiate Juan de Vadillo, that their chief, named Cauroma, had many idols of very fine gold: and they say that there is such abundance of that metal, that the chief can get as much as he likes from a certain river.

These Indians are great butchers in the matter of eating human flesh. Near the doors of their houses there are small open spaces where they have their places of sepulture, according to the custom of their country, consisting of very deep vaults, with their openings facing the east. When a chief dies, they place him in one of these vaults with much mourning, putting his arms and clothes, the gold he possessed, and some food, with the body. From this circumstance we conjecture that the Indians certainly gave some credit to the thought that the soul leaves the body.

The country is well supplied with provisions, and fertile, yielding crops of maize and edible roots. There are scarcely any fruit trees.

To the eastward of this province there is another called Cartama, which is the limit of the discoveries of Sebastian de Belalcazar. The Indians are rich in gold, have small houses, and all go naked and barefooted, without anything more than a small band, with which they cover their shame. The women wear small mantles of cotton from the waist downwards, but are otherwise uncovered.

Beyond the province of Cartama there is a forest, extending more than seven leagues, and very dense; and here we suffered much from hunger and cold when we went with Vadillo; and I may truly affirm that in all my life I never suffered such hunger as during that journey, although I have served in some expeditions of discovery in which we underwent great hardships. We found ourselves in so sad a plight in these dense forests, where the sun could not penetrate, without roads, or guides, nor any one to tell us whether we were far from or near any inhabited part, that we were inclined to return to Carthagena. It was a great thing for us to find that wood which I described as growing in the mountains of Abibe, for with it we could make a fire, as it will always burn whenever it is required to do so. By the help of God, and with the aid of our own arms, with which we forced a way, we got through these forests, in which we left several Spaniards dead from hunger, and many horses. Beyond, there is a small valley clear of trees, and a little farther on we came to a large and beautiful valley, very populous, with the houses all new, and close to each other. Some of them were very large, and the fields were full of maize crops and edible roots. Afterwards, the inhabitants of this valley left their old home, fleeing from the cruelties of the Spaniards, and took refuge in some wild and lofty mountains, which overhang the valley called Cima. Two leagues and a half beyond this valley, there is another small one, formed by a spur which runs out from the Cordillera; and here the town of Anzerma is founded, which was first called the city of Santa Ana de los Cavalleros. It is built between two small rivers, on a rising ground, which is covered with beautiful trees, and fruit trees both of Europe and of the country, and excellent crops of beans. The city overlooks all the district, being the highest part of the rising ground, and no people can approach without being first seen from the town. On all sides it is surrounded by great villages, ruled over by many caciques or lords, who are all friendly to each other. The villages are close together, and the houses are divided from each other by short spaces.

CHAPTER XVI.

Of the customs of the Caciques and Indians in the neighbourhood of the town of Anzerma, of the founding of that town, and who its founder was.

THE place on which the town of Anzerma is built is called by the natives Umbra, and when the Adelantado Sebastian de Belalcazar entered this province, as he had no interpreter, he could understand none of its secrets. He heard the Indians, when they saw salt, call it Anzer, and this is true, for among them it has no other name; and this is the reason that from that time, in speaking of the place, they have called it Anzerma, and have given this name to the town. Four leagues to the westward, there is a village which, though not very large, is inhabited by many Indians, as it has large houses and broad lands. In the road to it there is a small river, and it is a league from the great and rich river of Santa Martha. These Indians had for their captain and chief a well-disposed man named Ciricha. He has, or had when I saw the place, a very large house at the entrance of the village, and many others in different parts. Near the large house there is a small court surrounded by the canes I have already described as having seen in Caramanta, and on the top of each was the head of an Indian who had been eaten. The chief had many wives. These Indians have the same language and customs as those of Caramanta, but are even greater butchers and eaters of human flesh.

That the difficulties of the discovery of this country may be known, I desire to relate what happened in this village, at the time when we entered it with the licentiate Juan de Vadillo. As the stores of maize had been carried off, we neither found that nor anything else to eat, and it was more than a year since we had eaten meat, except that of the horses that had died, and of a few dogs. We even had no salt, such was the misery we endured. At this time twenty-five or thirty soldiers set out to procure, or, to speak more plainly, to rob whatever they could find, and, near the great river they came upon some people who fled, for fear of being seen and taken prisoners by us. Here the soldiers found a great pot full of cooked flesh, and they were so hungry that they thought of nothing but eating it, supposing it was the flesh of creatures called cuis,[211] because some came out of the pot. As soon as they had well eaten, one of them took out of the pot a hand with its fingers and nails, and they also found pieces of the feet and other parts of a man. When the Spaniards saw these things, they were troubled at having eaten of such meat, and the sight of the fingers and hands caused them much sorrow; but they returned to the camp, from which they had set out half dead with hunger.

Many small rivers rise in the mountains near this village, where much very rich gold has been taken by these Indians and by Negroes. These Indians are friends and allies of those of Caramanta, but they were always at war with their other neighbours. There is a strong position in the village, which they garrison in time of war. They go naked and barefooted, and the women wear small mantles, and are good looking—some of them beautiful. Further on is the district of Sopia, and between these two places there flows a river rich in gold, where the Spaniards have established some farms. The people of the last named district also go naked. The houses are like those of other Indians, and within them there are great sepulchres where they bury their dead. They have no idols nor house of worship that we saw. They talk with the devil. They marry their nieces, and sometimes their sisters, and the son of the principal wife inherits the lordship; for all these Indians, if they are chiefs, have many wives. If a chief has no son, the son of his sister succeeds. This district borders on the province of Cartama, in going to which the great river is crossed. On the other side is the province of Pozo, of which we shall have to treat further on. To the east of Anzerma there are other large villages, full of fruit gardens and cultivated fields, whose chiefs are friendly. They are all allies, although at times there is enmity and war amongst them. They are not such butchers and eaters of human flesh as the others whom I have described. The caciques are very rich, and before the Spaniards came, they went about in hammocks and litters. They have many wives, who, considering that they are Indians, are beautiful. They wear handsome coloured mantles of cotton.

The men go naked, but the principal chiefs cover themselves with a large mantle. The women are dressed as I have before said, they comb out their hair, and wear very beautiful necklaces made of pieces of fine gold, and ear-rings. They also slit their nostrils and insert pieces of gold in the opening, some large and others small. The chiefs had many drinking cups of gold, and mantles, both for themselves and their wives, garnished with pieces of gold, some round and others in the shape of stars. They call the devil Xixarama, and the Spaniards Tamaraca. Some of them are great sorcerers and herb doctors. Their daughters are married after they have ceased to be virgins, and they do not hold virginity to be a thing of any estimation. When they marry they use no kind of ceremony. When their chiefs die in a part of this province called Tauya, they place their bodies in hammocks and light fires all round. Holes are dug beneath, into which the melted fat drops, and when the body is half burnt, the relations come and make great lamentations, drinking their wine, and reciting their songs of praise to their gods according to their custom, and as they have been taught by their elders. This being done, they wrap the bodies in shrouds, and keep them for several years uninterred. When they are thoroughly dried up, they put them into sepulchres which they make in their houses. In the other provinces, when a chief dies, they make a very deep sepulchre in the lofty parts of the mountains, and, after much lamentation, they put the body in it, wrapped in many rich cloths, with arms on one side and plenty of food on the other, great jars of wine, plumes, and gold ornaments. At his feet they bury some of his most beloved and beautiful women alive; holding it for certain that he will come to life, and make use of what they have placed round him.

These Indians use darts, lances, and clubs, some of black palm wood, and others of a white wood which grows in those parts. We did not see any house of worship in their country. When they talk with the devil, they say that it becomes dark, and that one who is chosen from the rest speaks for the others. The country, where these people have their villages, consists of very lofty mountains without any trees. To the westward there is a vast forest called Cima, and further on, towards the South Sea, there are many Indians and large villages; and it seems certain that the great river of Darien[212] rises there.

This town of Anzerma was founded by the captain Jorge Robledo in the name of his Majesty, the Adelantado Don Francisco Pizarro being governor and captain-general of all these provinces: although it is true that Lorenzo de Aldana, the lieutenant-general for Don Francisco Pizarro in the city of Cali, named the municipality, and appointed as alcaldes Suer de Nava and Martin de Amoroto, and as alguazil-mayor Ruy Venegas, and sent Robledo to people this city, now called a town, ordering him to call it Santa Anna de los Caballeros. Thus some credit for the foundation of Anzerma may, for these reasons, be given to Lorenzo de Aldana.

CHAPTER XVII.

Concerning the provinces and towns between the city of Antiochia and the town of Arma; and of the customs of the natives.

HERE I will cease from following the road which I had commenced, and, returning to the city of Antiochia, I will give an account of the road which leads thence to the town of Arma, and even as far as the city of Cartago. After setting out from the city of Antiochia to go to the town of Arma, the great river of Santa Martha is reached, a journey of twelve leagues.[213] To cross the river there is a boat, or at least there is no want of materials for making one. There are few Indians on the banks of the river, and the villages are small, for the inhabitants have retired to a distance from the road. After travelling for some leagues a village is reached, which used to be very large. It was called the “Pueblo llano,” but when the Spaniards entered the country, the natives fled to certain mountains which were little more than two leagues distant. The Indians are small, and they use arrows, which must have been brought from the other side of the Andes, for the natives of those parts have them. They are great traders, and their principal article of trade is salt. They go naked, the women wearing very small cloths from the belly to the thighs. They are rich in gold, and their rivers contain abundance of that metal. Their habits and customs are like those of the neighbouring tribes. Beyond this village there is another called Mugia, where there is a great quantity of salt, and many traders carry it over the mountains and obtain in exchange great sums of gold, cotton cloths, and other things which they require. Further on I shall treat of this salt, how it is obtained, and how they carry it.