the Coasts of the South Sea two hundred and fifty some say full three hundred leagues in length viz. from the Cape del Aguia Northward on the borders of Quito as far as Arequipa towards the South the soil reasonably fertil in all things as being much more equally divided into Hill and Plain Countrie and much better Peopled than some other Provinces The places most observable and important in it are 1. Miraflores as the Spaniards call it a well seated and wealthy Town in the Valley of Zanu five leagues distant from the Sea where it hath likewise a good Haven or Port. 2. Truxillo two or three leagues distant from the Sea the Haven whereof is said to be large but not so safe The Town it self is seated upon the banks of a pleasant River in the Valley of Chicama consisting of five hundred Families or more the Aire very healthfull and the Countrie thereabouts as fruitfull and good as any of these parts of America especially abounding in Corn Sugar-Canes and Cattel 3. La Parilla twenty leagues Southward of Truxillo in the Valley called Santa and well neighboured with rich Mines of silver lately discovered 4. Arnedo seated among the Vineyards of the Valley of Changay ten leagues from Lima northward 5. Lima by the Spaniards commonly called la Ciudad de los Reyes or the City of Kings so named because Pizarro who built it layd the first stone on Twelfth day 1553 which they call The Feast of the Kings It is seated in the Valley of Lima one of the fruitfullest parts of all Peru and so neatly built that all the chief streets of the Citie open upon a fair Market-place or Piazza of such a large square that upon the sides thereof are built in a stately and convenient manner the Cathedral Church and Palace of the Archbishop the Vice-Roys Palace and Courts of Justice with the Exchequer or publique Treasury the Town-House or place where the Citie Magistrates meet and hold their Courts the publique Armory or Magazine and divers other fair buildings of the Nobility and better sort of Citizens The whole City is environed round about with most delicate fields and pleasant gardens and scarse a Citizens house within but by the oportunity of a River which runneth by it is well supplyed with water Briefly as it is the Metropolis of Peru that is the chief and principall Citie for Authority and Dignity so is it likewise the chiefest for delight and wealth 6. Cullao this is the Haven or Port Town to Lima and but two leagues distant from it A Town of six or seven hundred Families all or most of them Sea-men and not a house in it but is well provided of Cellar-room and Stowage for Merchandise which is there received from all parts both coming from and going to the Sea It was with Lima it self surprized by Sir Francis Drake in the year 1579 and their Cellars searched as well as could be done in so short a time whereupon since it is said to be fortified with two strong Bulwarks a wall of earth and about thirty piece of Ordinance planted on the Works 7 Pachacama four leagues Southward of Lima memorable chiefly for Pizarros good fortune here who is reported to have found in one only old Temple of the Natives the quantity of nine hundred thousand Duckets of gold and silver beside what his Souldiers are supposed to have seiz'd on and conveighed away before he came 8. Guarco a Colony of three hundred Spaniards sixteen leagues to the Southward of Pachacama rounded with the best fields for Wheat in all Peru. 9. Valverde a great Town inhabited by five hundred Spaniards and though at sixteen leagues distance from the Sea yet well traded and rich The Valley wherein it lyeth and from which it taketh its name affording the best Vines of America 10. Castro-Verreina threescore leagues distant from Lima to the South East It lyeth in the Valley of Chocolocha and is a rich place by reason of the good Mines of silver which are about it and the aboundance of the best sort of Tobacco 11. Arequipa a pleasant and delightsome town in the Valley of Quilca one hundred and twenty leagues distant from Lima Southward of a temperate and fresh Aire a flourishing Soile and the Town very rich and frequented by reason that through it much of the silver of Potozi and divers other Mines thereabouts that is designed for Spain passeth yearly to be shipped for Panama at a Haven belonging to this Town though at a distance as som say of 10. or 21. leagues 12 Caxamalca more within land towards the North a place chiefly memorable for the imprisonment murder of Atabalipa the last King of Peru whom the Spaniards overthrew and took prisoner neer to this place and afterwards used as hath been said Lastly 13. Leon de Guanuco so called from the Territory wherein it standeth a rich and pleasant place being anciently a Palace of the Kings of Peru very magnificent and stately now likewise much beautified with Houses both of the Spanish and Peruvian Nobility some Convents of Religious men and a Colledge of Jesuites 6. Cusco is the farre greater part of the Province of Peru containing generally all the Sierra or Hill Countries and those parts of the Andes likewise which lye Southward of the little Province or Cantred of Guanuco being coasted Westward and to the North-west with Lima Eastward with Los Quixos and some part of Guiana and on the South with Charcas enjoying for the most part a temperate and good Aire neither over-heated with the scorching Sun in the day nor damped with any cold mists or dews in the Evening as some parts of the Plains of Peru are but well watered with many fresh Rivers which make the Valleys and lower grounds of it good pasturage and to maintain great Heards of Cattel The Woods especially stored with the Coca whose leafe is counted so restorative as we said Chap. 7. and with much excellent Venison The principall Towns and places of Trade in it are first Bombon situate upon a Lake called Chinchacocha said to be ten leagues in compass begirt round about almost with hills and neighboured with many other lesser but pleasant Villages 2. Parcos once a Palace Royall of the Inca's seated on the top of a little hill encompassed with other Rocky and higher Mountains on all sides 3. Guamanga called by the Spaniards St. Juan de la Vittoria a fair and well built City and an Episcopall Sea threescore and ten leagues distant from Lima Eastward 4. Bilcas another Palace of the Inca's now a good Town of the Natives and situate as is supposed in the very midst of the Countrie of Peru. 5. Guancavelica a new Town raised from the condition of a very poor Village to a place of very great importance and traffique only by the Mines of Quick-silver of which we spake Chap. 11. and which were first discovered there in the year 1566. It is now inhabited by two thousand
strange kinde of efficacie so as a man seems not satisfied with looking upon it but desires to view it still more and more that it fortifieth the facultie visive and restoreth it when it is dim and decayed by overmuch attent looking upon any thing and therefore Lapidaries and men that cut or engrave fine stones have usually some of them lying by them only to refresh and revive their sight when they perceive it fail them or grow weak at any time To which end viz. the better to please and affect the sight they are shap'd or cut for the most part with some hollowness in them whereby the visual rayes as they are called being united and strengthened one with another doe give the greater lustre They are said to appear both fairer and bigger at a distance nor doe they change or abate their lustre either for Sun shade candle-light or otherwise as most of the other sorts of Jemmes usually doe more or less and as they are commonly of the bigness so are they not much under the value of a Diamond if they be of the best and perfect sort of Emralds For all are not such There are some of so exquisite and admirable lustre as nothing can be desired more in others the green is more dark and clowded and lastly some are spotted but those are commonly held to be counterfeit Those which the fortunate Cortez after the conquest of Mexico presented to his new Spouse the Lady Jane Zuniga were extraordinary and thought to be the rarest in the World They were five of them of most exquisite colour and perfection and of such bigness that they were wrought into several figures and shapes of things viz. one in the fashion of a Coronet or little Crown another of a Rose fair and great the third was like to a Fish with the eyes of gold counted an admirable piece of Indian work the fourth was wrought in the fashion of a Bell having for its clapper a great and rich pearl engraven round about with this Motto Sea Bendito qui te criava in English Blessed is he that created thee the fifth was like a Cup with the foot and brim of gold and four little chains of gold all joyning together at the top or cover of it in a great pearl 'T is said that the Merchants of Genoa offered no less summe than 40000. Duckets for one of them which they would have presented to the great Turk but were refused And though I confess there be some of much greater bigness mentioned in Pliny yet doubtless these were very rare stones both for bigness workmanship and perfection They grow usually in other stones like to Chrystal and the greatest plenty of them is in the new Kingdom of Granada and in the Province of Veragua and especially about the Citties of Manta and Port Vieil where there is a whole Country or little Province which they call de las Esmaldas or the Land of Emralds from the aboundance of them that are supposed to be there and which the Spaniards had not yet subdued when my Author wrote and they send usually three or four hundred weight of this kinde of Jemmes only into Spain one yeer with another 6. Of Pearls which anciently were counted the only Jemme both for price and excellency and such as Princes only and persons of very noble quality used there is such plenty of them at the new World that the very Negro Servants or She slaves are said to weare Chains and Bracelets of them These grow in Oysters or a certain shel-Fish much resembling Oysters and bearing that name and are fetcht up from the bottom of the Sea by the poor Indians that are forced to dive for them 'T is true the Indians through necessity and custome are become wonderfully apt and ready at this work even almost beyond beleefe They will descend commonly ten or twenty fathom deep into the water and stay there an houre or the better part of an houre plucking the shel-fishes from the hard Rocks or searching for them in the gravelly corners and chinks under water till they have filled the satchels or baggs which they carried down with them or that want of breath enforceth them to come up Howbeit if the Sea be very deep or not calm they finde much difficultie to abide under water and therefore tye commonly certain stones of good weight about them only to keep them down which are exceeding painfull to them all the time they are under water beside the danger they are in to be destroyed by the Tyburons and other preying fishes whiles they are there But when they have a minde to come up 't is but unloosing of the stones and they mount presentiy being counted the most expert Swimmers in the World To which likewise their own dry wither'd and lean complexions doe dispose them very much being for the most part of very thin and spare bodies and dyeted on purpose for this service with the dryest meat which their hard Masters can procure for them and that also in small quantity and with but scant allowance The Pearls differ much from one another both in fashion colour bigness and polishing and they seldom finde two of them altogether alike when they doe it much enhaunceth the price and estimation of them even where they are most common a pair of such Pearls having been valued at the Indies themselves at a thousand Duckets They are counted the most excellent which are of an Orient white colour bright and cleer like the finest Allom bigge weighty and especially if they be round which is counted such a singular raritie in this Gem that Oviedo tells us of himself he once bought a Pearl at the Indies not much bigger than the pellet of some Cross bow for which he gave 650. times the weight of it in good gold upon no other special account but only because it was round They fish for Pearls upon all the coasts of America and the Islands generally more or less but especially in the South-Sea about Panama and the Island Margarita so called from the aboundance of them which they have found there and in the North-Sea about the Islands of Cumana Cubagna Rio de la Hacha and other places which are commonly found bigger than those of the South Sea And although it be the opinion of some grounded upon the covetousness of the Spaniards when they first came into those parts who spared not the very feed or mother of the Pearl it self but swept took all that came to hand that the profit of Pearl-fishing is much decayed of what it was yet if it be true what the same Oviedo tells us I should think it may be otherwise and the trade good still For he saith These Pearl-Oysters come by shoals successively into the places where they are usually taken and that though a bank in the Sea be swept never so clean of them by the Pearl-fishers yet not far off they finde alwaies more and likewise in the
Fish in the Sea Among the Natives of the country there and some Savage that live wild up and down in the Woods and go naked not withstanding the extream cold but for the most part they are supposed at least to be more civill The first discoverers of the country reporting of them that they both sow corn brew Beer and Ale use Canoas or little Boats at Sea by which they trade with Greenland Freezland and other parts at one thousand or five hundred miles distance from them They are said likwise to have some use of letters but of a Character proper only to their own Nation and not understood by any other people beside themselves Yea they talk likewise as if they had some knowledge of the Latin tongue and of certain Latin books in a Library of one of the Kings of the Country wherein if there be any thing of truth as I hold it not altogether impossible 't is likely some people from the more Northerly parts of Europe that understood the Latin tongue might in times past be cast on shore or suffer Shipwrack upon those Coasts where being constrained to live and abide they might leave some books and other monuments of the Language behind them in the Country after their decease However it be this seems more certain by the report and experience of some English that the people are generally here found to be more ingenious to have better judgement in things and to be much more skilfull in divers Mechanicall arts then usually in these other parts of America they were at first Among other things they were observed to use a kinde of Dart or short Javelin pointed with bright steel and very sharp which being a kinde of Weapon used only by the people of Java and some other of the Islands of the East Indies it is conjectured that they have commerce one with another which seems not altogether improbable But as for the Towns Citties and great Castles among them which some speak of and of the Temples wherein they sacrificed men though that be an ancient and generall custome among the Americans and those of this Country barbarous enough to doe it yet the Reader perhaps will be willing to suspend his beleefe a while as likewise he will for the supposed Mines of gold and silver there of which at least as it may seem the Northerly scituation of the Country doth not well permit us to have such strong presumption Of Brass and Iron 't is likely enough there may be good store if the Country were scarched But as yet the knowledge thereof especially concerning the more Inland parts remains very imperfect Some English Adventurers passing that way have left names to certain Capes or Head-lands upon the Northern Coasts of it and that is all the chief of which are these viz. Cape Elizabeth at the entrance into Hudsons Streights Northward Prince Henries Foreland Cape Charles Kings Foreland with with divers others more to the South Cape Wostenholme and Digges his Island about the mouth of the Streight where it opens it self and disembogues into a large and capacious Bay called as abovesaid Hudsons Bay and dividing these uttermost Provinces of the Northern America into two parts which some call the Eastern and Western point as may be seen in the Maps The people of the Country that are any thing civilized cloath themselves commonly with Beasts skins and with the skins of the Sea-calves otherwise called Morses which are a kinde of Fish of an Amphibious nature much abounding in those Northern Seas of the bigness of a young Heifer or Bullock of two yeares old which they hunt and take in great numbers especiall where the Whale-fishing is not so good and draw a good quantity of oile from them which they call Train-oile as they doe from the Whale The flesh of them is counted reasonable good meat of a taste somewhat like Porke and on each side of their upper Jaw there groweth out a long tooth or Tusk crooked and bending downward not unlike to that of an Elephant each of them a Cubit long sometimes and more of a substance white and very hard like Ivory for which it commonly passeth And it were well if the deceit rested there and went no further For as it seems there are some that vend it for Unicorns horn and attribute I know not what strange and sovereign vertues to it An egregious imposture of which the learned Doctor Brown doth likewise as his manner is acutely and kindly admonish us lib. 3. chap. 23. of his Psudodox Epidemio above mentioned 3. Terra Corterialis is a Province or Country of this Northern part of America lying Southward of Estotiland and Northward of New-France or Canada being so named from Gaspar Corterialis a Portughese Gentleman who in the yeare 1500 or thereabouts first discovered these parts and gave name to the Country but did not much beside For returning the next yeare after with intention to make a further discovery 't is supposed he was shipwracke and drown'd at Sea together with his company of whom as Osorius in his history of Portugall witnesseth never any returned or were heard of and the like misfortune befell his Brother Michael Corterialis the next yeare after who setting out two Ships to search and enquire of concerning the fortunes of his Brother Gaspar perished likewise in his design being himself lost and all his men upon which disasters the Portugheses quite give over the Country and the French succeed them naming the Country New Bretain in reference to Bretain in France which it seemes was their native Country This was about the year 1504. The soil of this Country is very lusty and good for all sorts of grain generally and yeelds a great advantage to the Husbandman but not without good pains taking in the tillage and managing of it For which reason it is called by some Terra di labrador or the land that requires Labourers in allusion perhaps to Terra di lavora or the Country of Campania in Italy so called from a like property The people of the Country of themselves barbarous and savage enough are said to be civilized and bettered in their manners by the conversation of the French They live much upon Fish are excellent Archers jealous of their Wives and dwell for the most part in Caves under ground beeing also much given to Soothsaying Divining further than which they seem not to have much knowledge or sence of any thing that concerns religion The Country was first of all discovered by Sir Sebastion Cabot at the charges of Henery the seventh King of England as hath been said but it was only discovered and the design laid wholly aside by reason of some domestick troubles and a Warre which the King then had with the Scots whereupon the After-comers tooke leave to enter The Towns or places which the French have built since are cheifly 1. Brest 2. St. Marie and 3. Cabo Marzo as they call it of which there is
likewise the Metropolis or head town of the Natives before the Spaniards burnt and destroyed it 3. St. Jago de los Valles This is a Frontier place and enjoyeth certain speciar Immunities and some fair possessions also fo defense of the Country against the Savages It is twenty five leagues distant from St. Steven del Puerto lying in an open or Champain Country and is fenced about with a wall of Earth 8. Mechoacan hath on the North-East Panuco on the East Mexicana properly so called on the South part of Tlascalla on the West the main Ocean or Mare del Zur and last of all more directly Northward Xalisco which is a Province of New Gallicia The name signifieth in the American language as much as a Fish Country so it is having many fair Lakes and Rivers in it aboundantly well stored with good Fish The Country so exceedingly pleasant and healthfull that 't is usuall for sick persons of other Provinces to come hither to recover their health only by the benefit of a good Aire The Soil so aboundantly fertil of all sorts of grain that of four measures of seed it hath been often observed they have reaped the next harvest more than so many hundred measures of the same grain Very well wooded and by reason of its many Rivers and fresh springs equally rich in good pasture and beside great plenty of Medicinall Hearbs and Plants It affordeth good store of Amber nigh the Sea Coasts Mulberry-trees consequently Silks much Honey wax and divers other Commodities both for necessity and pleasure The People of the Country are generally tall of a strong active body and a good wit especially in comparison of other Natives not unskilfull in divers curious Manufactures and the most excellent Feather-Picturers aforementioned are said to be found in this Province They seem more generally inclined to the humors and customes of the Spaniards than many other Americans and received the preaching of Christian Religion when time was with much willingness so that the Country is now entirely Christian and divided into several Parishes There are said to be in it one hundred and fifty Towns or Burroughs beside many scattered Villages most of which have free Schools erected in them for the training up of youth in Christian Religion good literature and Arts and few of them without an Hospitall for the sick of which towns the principall are such as follow viz. Zinzoutza the seat of the ancient Kings of Mechoacan 2. Pascuar a City fourty seven leagues distant from Mexico once a Bishops Sea but now removed to Valladolit 3. Valladolit the Metropolis or chief City of the Province since the Episcopall chair was removed from Pascuar thither It lyeth upon a great Lake equall almost for bigness to that of Mexico and is about seven leagues distant from Pascuar towards the East 4 St. Michaels a good town fourty leagues Westward of Mexico and in the way to the Zacatecas but lying in a road that is somewhat dangerous being not a little infested with Savages on both sides of it 5. St. Philips 6. La Conception de Salaya 17 leagues distant from Valladolid and a convenient stage for Travellers being indeed with the two last mentioned built chiefly for the defence and securing of the Country against the Savages 7. Guaxanato a Town on the borders of Panuco where there are very rich Mines of silver 8. Leon another Town likewise of very rich Mines twenty four leagues distant from Valladolid and threescore from Mexico 9. Zamorra 10. Villa de los Lagos and others Towards the Sea there is 1. Acatlan but two miles distant from the Coast and a small town yet by reason of a safe and very good Harbour which it hath for shipping a place of no little trading 2. Natividad another well known and convenient Haven upon Mare del Zur pertaining to this Province and from whence they usually set sail for the Philippine Islands 3. St. Jago de buena Speranza so called by the Spaniards perhaps from the aboundance of good Pearls they found upon this Coast 4. Colyma 5. Zacatula and some others This Province as we said was at first a distinct Kingdome of it self yet subordinate and tributary to that of Mexico the King whereof named Tamgaivan Bimbicha as Laet reporteth at the first coming of the Spaniards thither after the conquest of Mexico voluntarily submitted himself to them and was baptized Nevertheless afterwards upon a pretence of I know not what Treason intended by him against them and which the Spanish Writers themselves professedly think to have been feigned by command of Nunnez de Gusman President of the Chancery of Mexico he was most inhumanely burnt alive and the Spaniards seized upon his Kingdome 9. Mexicana specially so called is bounded on the East with the Gulf of Mexico on the West with Mechoacan on the North with Panuco and some parts of New-Gallicia and on the South with Tlascalla so called from Mexico which is the chief City of the Province and of all America beside A large and rich Country containing not much less than one hundred and thirty leagues both in length and bredth and if it yeelds any thing to Peru in the plenty of gold and silver 't is certain it much excells it in many other commodities as namely in all sorts of Fruits aboundance of Cattel plenty of Corn and Grain in all which the advantage which this Country hath not only of Peru but of all the other Provinces of America beside is well known not to speak any thing of the great plenty and variety of good Fish which both the Rivers and Lakes of this Country afford which is very great insomuch that the very tribute of the one Lake of Mexico is said to yeeld an Income of above twenty thousand Crowns yearly one with another The People of the Country are generally industrious and active especially since the Spaniards came among them rich Merchants if they apply themselves to it and they say likewise good Souldiers when they are trained and imployed that way The chief towns and places of the Province are 1. Mexico both anciently and at present the Metropolis and Capitall City being the seat of an Archbishop and the ordinary Residence of the Vice-Roy and chief Governours of New-Spain Formerly it stood like another Venice upon the water being built upon certain Islands within the Lake and interlaced in all the quarters of it with divers pleasant Currents both of fresh and salt water But the old City being destroyed by Cortez as we said it was rebuilt by him more upon the firm Land almost upon the banks of the great Lake for there are two of them the one of salt-water the other of fresh which continually ebbe and flow into one another contain in the compass of the whole about thirty leagues or more upon which there are thought to be not less than fourty or fifty thousand Canoas or little Boats continually plying from one Town to another
the Mines The only inconvenience which the Countrie seemeth to lye under is the aboundance of Serpents or Snakes which it breedeth there are some of them said to be twenty foot long or more and doe not a little infest the Natives who yet are not without a general Antidote or Remedy which the Countrie likewise naturally affordeth which is nothing else but the leaves of some of their trees dryed to powder of which they make a plaister of soveraign efficacie as 't is said against their venome and otherwise generally good for any old and inveterate sores The places of more principall note in this Countrie inhabited by the Spaniards are 1. Ciudad Real pleasantly seated in the midst of a round Vale or Plain and almost encompassed with Hills round about it in form of an Amphitheatre at the foot of one of which standing in the midst of the rest the City is built It is a Citie specially priviledged by the Kings of Spain of a pure and temperate Aire and the Country about plentifully abounding both in Corn and Fruit. 2. Chiapa which giveth name to the Valley aforesaid it is a Bishops Sea and famous if but for one of its Prelates viz. Bartholomaeus de las Casas of the Order of Preachers who was Bishop of this Citie and his memory justly precious among the poor Americans at this day for his Charity towards them and for the stout and zealous opposition which he made against the Spaniards cruel and inhumane dealings with the Natives at the beginning of their Conquests by which at last notwithstanding much difficulty and resistance made by interessed persons of the other side he procured them liberty and an Edict from the Emperor in favour of them whereby they were declared to be Free People and not Slaves and the Spaniards forbidden to use them any longer as such or to force them to any kinde of labour against their wills or otherwise than by agreement with them which liberty they enjoy to this day and though the Spaniaiards are said to give them very small wages in some places and for their work in their Sugar Mills which is no small labor not above five Royalls or two Shillings six Pence a week for the maintenance of themselves their Wives and Children yet by reason it is with their consent and in a Country where all things are plentifull and cheap their condition is much better than it was and the favour which that good Bishop did them never to be forgotten It is at present a great City and populous and lyeth almost in the middle way betwixt the Cities of Mexico and Guatimala 3. St. Bartholomews 4. Tecpatlan and some others belonging to the Natives 3. Vera paz or the Country of True peace was so named by the Spaniards as they say because it was never conquered by the Sword but reduced to obedience only by the preaching of the Dominican Friers It is bounded on the West and South-west with Chiapa on the East with some part of Guatimala and Honduras and on the North with Jucatan It Containes about thirty leagues length and almost as much in breadth being a woody and mountainous Country for the most part yet well distingushed with Valleys and lower grownd It is thought to be a little too much subject to rain which 't is said to have for nine moneths of the year almost continually by reason whereof the Country being otherwise hot is much anoyed with a kind of Mosquit or great sort of Gnatts which spoyle the fruit very much and are otherwise not a little troublsome to the people The chief Commodities of this Country are first a kinde of Amber which some call liquid Amber which drops from divers of their trees and is said to be a Commodity very precious and of much use Mastick Sazaparilla China wood and divers other Medicinall woods which it affordeth in great plenty But as for any Towns or places of much Traffique or note inhabited by the Spaniards I finde not any named save only St. Augustines neer unto which there is said to be a Cave and Fountain within ground which converts the water that falleth into it out of several lesser Springs into a kinde of Alablaster or stone perfectly white and fashions it likewise into pillars statues and other artificiall formes very curiously as Laet reporteth 4. Guatimala specially so called hath on the West the river Xicalapa which divides it from Vera paz On the East it is bounded with the Country of Nicaragua on the North with Honduras and on the South with Mare del Zur The Country by reason of its Neighbourhood with Vera paz not altogether clear of Mountains but otherwise well watered with Rivers and enriched with fair and fruitfull Valleyes which afford not only good pasturage and many great heards of Cattel but likewise good store of Wheate Maiz and other fruits of the Earth Great plenty of Cotton-Wooll generally both here and in the other Provinces viz. of Vera paz Chiapa c. some medicinall woods likewise and liquors and absolutely the best Sulfur of America The people generally tractable and well dispoed both in poynt of Religion and Civill Government The Towns of cheif note are 1. Guatimala otherwise called St. Jago de Guatimala the cheif City of the Province situate upon the banks of a pleasant River and in all respects convenient but for the Neighbourhood of two Vulcans as they call them at the West-Indies that is of certain Mountains which cast fire and smoak out of them more or less continually and with which about the year 1586. it was almost buried with ashes and burnt Earth which the one of them for the space of six moneths together continualled belched out in such fearfull quantity that many people were slain and the City received much damage by it There are many of these Vulcans in severall parts of America as namely at Arequipa in the Kingdome of Peru at Puebla de los Angeles in the Province of Tlascalla abovesaid a Mountain of so great height that they are said to goe little less than thirty leagues turning and winding before they can reach the top of it and others in severall other places They are generally Mountains of great height and running sharp upwards but at the top containing some quantity of plain and level grownd in the midst whereof is the pit or hole out of which aboundance of smoak and fiery ashes are vomited almost continually and so deep that they are supposed for the most part to reach to the very bottom of the Mountain Some of these Vulcans cast forth neither fire nor smoak yet are clearly seen to burn at the bottom with a quick fire and which is so extremely hot that it instantly melteth Iron or any other Metall that is cast into it as by experience hath been found For some conceiving that the matter which maintains these fires within the bowells of the Earth so long together can be nothing els but melted Gold have
brawn and of above a span in length and to have had growing in it above a thousand grains A Raddish root hath been likewise seen there of the same bigness and length viz. of a mans arme very tender of substance and of a pleasant taste And 't is commonly observ'd that for Wheat and other grain of Europe they choose out a less lusty and colder soile because otherwise to sow it in the fattest and richer ground it would run all out into stalk of a huge height indeed but without earing or ever bearing of Corn. There be whole Woods and Forests as it were of Oranges Lymons Quinces and other such fruit both for bigness and beauty far exceeding the common ones of Spain of the same kinde At the Cittie of Cusco which is the Metropolis of Peru they have ripe Grapes all the year long and in diverse parts of the Countrie there be trees that bear fruit one half of the year on one side and the other half year on the other as Acosta reporteth of his own experience of a Fig-tree in Malla nigh the Citie of Kings and others speak as much of other fruits in other parts of the Countrie And so it is likewise for Cattel I mean such as have been brought thither out of Europe whether great or smal Cattel as Kine Sheep Hogs Goats c. the increase that hath been of them would seem to be beyond beliefe but that all Authors affirm it In the Island of Hispaniola and 't is likewise the same in many parts of the Continent and other Islands beside there are many thousands of Cattel that live wilde in Heards upon the mountains having no certain owner so as it is free for any man to kill them that will and thousands of them are every yeer killed onely for their Hides and the Tallow And yet 't is strange to consider what great multitudes of them are in privat mens possession The Bishop of Venezuela onely is said to have had at one time 16000. head of great Cattel feeding upon his own Pastures Another to have had of one Cow which he kept twenty six years for breed to have had an increase of eight hundred head of Cattel and 't is not counted any unusual thing for the Farmours of America especially such as are professed Grasiers and doe undertake as it is the custom there to serve such a Town Citie or Place with flesh meat at a certain rate by the year to have the like numbers viz. ten or twenty thousand head of Cattel of their own and feeding onely upon their own grounds being also men of great estates and reckoned commonly at one hundred two hundred and three hundred thousand Duckets a man and upwards living splendidly in their Estancias as they call them or Farme-houses in the Countrie and maintaining a Table both for dyet and ornament not inferiour to most Knights or the best Gentlemen in Europe which doubtless is an evidence beyond all dispute of the goodness and fertility of the 〈◊〉 where they live that such men as these can both live so gallantly and thrive so well CHAP. VI. Of the principal Commodities of America both Naturall and Mercantile and first of Maiz of Cassavi Jucca and other roots there of which they make bread 1. BUt to give some further assurance of the general richness and fertility of the Countrie at the West-Indies it is requisite that we speak somthing more in particular of the several Commodities and Fruits which America yeeldeth These I distinguish into two sorts viz. Commodities Natural and Mercantile I call those commodities Natural which are so proper to the Place and Countrie of America that as they grow there so are they at least for the most part there likewise consumed and spent as not being so fit or not so much used to be transported thence into any other parts by way of Merchandise of which kinde I suppose the most part of their Grain Fruit and Cattle may be reckoned to be I call those Commodities Mercantile which are generally brought from thence and in so great aboundance by the Merchants that trade in those parts of which sort are chiefly the Metals of America viz. Gold and Silver to which must be added the great quantity of Pearle precious stones and Jewels yearly brought from thence their Sugars diverse sorts of Spicery and Druggs aboundance of Cotton wooll and Cloath Hides many kindes of wood as well Medicinal as other of all which my purpose is to speak something before I come to the particular description of the several Provinces in which they are found but yet briefly according as I am oblieged and referring the Reader for more full satisfaction upon this subject in case he desire it to Acosta his Historie of the Indies and to Oviedo his general Historie whom I chiefly follow and who treat of these things more at large And first I shall begin with those Commodities which I call Naturall and amongst them with such as are of most general necessity and use for the sustenance of mans life viz. with that famous plant called Maiz and some other plants and roots of which at the West-Indies they commonly make their bread as we in Europe doe of Wheat and other grain 2. Maiz the common bread corn of America is a Plant which groweth plentifully at the West-Indies in most parts of the Continent upon a moist and hot ground as that generally is It groweth upon a certain cane or reed of good bigness and about two cubits high from the ground it groweth grape-wise that is the grain or fruit thereof not covered nor inclosed in any husk or cod as other grains of corn most commonly are but open and in clusters onely fenced on each side with a large and broad leafe growing upwards by it to the full height of the Maiz. The cluster or bunch of grains is commonly a span and half long sometimes more rending sharp up towards the top in the fashion of a Sugar-loaf and of the bigness ordinarily of a mans arme having upon the top of the cluster a certain tuft or bunch of long hairy fillets which as the grain comes to maturity doe likewise grow long and bend downwards on one side of the bunch not much unlike to the fore-top of Time and Opportunitie as they commonly picture it The grains of this Maiz are round like unto pease but bigger yet commonly six or seven hundred of them are contained in one cluster and for the most part two or three clusters upon every cane or reed They are white till they come to be ripe and then they turn outwardly black but the flower of them or substance within is still as white as snow and maketh a kinde of bread for strength or nourishment nothing inferiour to wheat It naturally ingendreth much blood so that strangers not used to it if they eate overmuch of it at first are subject to swel upon it to become scabbie and obnoxious to such other
or else are beaten off with rain-showers out of which leaves corrupted and putrified upon the ground there is soon after by the heat of the Sun and the exhalations or vapours that issue out of the earth a certain Insect ingendred of the bigness of a Butter flie naked and smooth at first like a Worm but in time coming to be over-grown with a kinde of hair and after that with a thicker and warmer coat which against winter the Insect works for it self out of the Cotton or downy fillets of those leaves among which it was bred or can otherwise come by Their other manner of breeding is by generation properly so called that is by coupling of Sexes for there is both Male and Female of them The manner thus The Silk-worm after he hath wrought up his bagge or ball of silk to the full soon after dyeth within it and though he leaves but a poor Skeleton or thin corps behinde him yet out of it laid in some close subterraneous room where no winde cometh in a few dayes after it is putrified there springs a pair of other Insects or worms of the same kinde though not altogether of the same figure or shape for they are both horned and winged These the Latins call Chrysalides and seem to be made only for generation or preserving the kinde for as much as they doe nothing else but gender for the space of three or four dayes together at the end whereof the Male dieth leaving the Female behinde him impregnated and big with a numerous issue of little egges to the number of one hundred sometimes or more of the bigness of Millet seeds or some other smaller sort of grain of which assoon as she is delivered she likewise followeth the Male and dyeth 6. Out of these eggs for so the Authors perpetually call them a new Breed or Stock of wormes is to be gotten which is the second manner of their breeding as hath been said neither is it the least part of the care and skill of those that keep Silke-wormes and trade in the making of Silk to hatch them well the best way whereof and most commonly used in Italy and other parts is said to be the naturall heat of a woman either in bed or otherwise carrying them about her in her bosome betwixt her breasts especially if she be a woman of good complexion or a Virgin and so they are hatched commonly in three or four dayes They keep the eggs all Winter long for the most part and without any great inconvenience not thinking of hatching them till the Mulberie-trees be well blosom'd the leaves whereof are their most naturall food and are seldome out before the latter end of May or beginning of June When the eggs are hatch't and the worm appeares the next care is to procure it sustenance whereby it may grow to a bigness and strength able to work Their best meat as I said is the Mulbury leaves for though they feed them sometimes with the leaves of Rubus or the great Bramble with Lettice and likwise with Nettle-leaves yet neither doe they thrive so well nor weave so bigge a web as they doe when they are fed with the Mulberry-leaf They feed with a great appetite assoone as ever they are bred eating constantly thrice a day viz. at Morning Noon and Night when they are young and when they are grown to some bigness five or six times every day After they have fed well for the space of nine or ten dayes together and their bellies are full they are taken with a kinde of dead sleep which holds them for the most part three or four dayes together and though it be a sicknesse and some weakning to them yet they awake of themselves and in time by good handling seem to be revived with it and fall to feeding afresh And this they doe constantly that is feed sleep and revive again three severall times at least before they come to their full strength or to be able to weave which is commonly about fourty or fifty dayes after their first birth When they have had their last and longest sleep for the space of eight or ten dayes together afterwards they feed the stoutliest of all and then quite give over which they that keep them perceiving know that now their belly is full and that they are ready to worke out all again that they have hitherto eaten with the advantage of a rare interest beside They know it also by this that the bagge of Silk that is to say the matter out of which the Worme afterward spins the Silk begins to appeare and to shine through the lawn coverture or thin sides of the worm Against which time they that look to their working have alwayes in readiness some boughs or branches of the Oke Chesnut or any other tree whose substance is very hard and dry for upon such they alwayes work best any degree of moistness how little soever whither of the aire or in their Loomes or otherwise being counted very prejudiciall both to the Worm and web Upon these boughs they lay the Wormes which presently fall to work and spinning of their thred from one twig to another backward forward and athwart as themselves please alwaies working inward that is from the circumference to the center or middle part till at last they have spun out a round bag of Silk for the most part of an Ovil or oblong figure in which last of all they close up themselves yet still continuing to work till they have either wholly or well nigh filled up the bag within and that the bottome within themselves viz. within their bowells and out of which they spin be quite spent and unravelled The bag or web which these Silk-wormes spin is many times as big as a mans head all of one thred so fine that it can hardly be discerned but by very good eyes and spun out so long without any rupture or once breaking off that as Aldrovandus affirmeth some one of them might be able to circle about the biggest City in Italy The colour of it is different white yellow green or otherwise according either to the nature of the Climate and Country where they work or to the quality of the food with which the wormes are fed This spinning holds them conmonly nine or ten dayes When all is done and they are come as it were to the last thred of the Clue and that the Worme by filling up the bottome of the bag hath quite emptied her self in a short time she dies as we said before in the midst of her self made prison and work and there spring out of her Skeleton after some few days two other lesser Wormes of the same kinde though differing somewhat in shape and figure whose business is onely to propagate as we likewise said and that being done they die and the Silk-masters unravelling again the whole web or bag of silk which the dead Artist hath wrought order it according to their own skill as
Towns fairly and well built of Lime and Stone houses of four stories high and most of them provided with stoves for the winter season as well as any in Europe The streets fair and broad and the People as curious and expert in divers Arts and Manufactures as any of theirs More particularly they tell us of a town called Chia of the Province of Cuames so big that it is said to contain eight several Market-places Another called Acoma a great Town but seated on the top of an high Rock without any ordinary way of access to it but by a pair of staires hewn out of the hard stone or else by certain ladders which the Inhabitants let down and take up as they please And likewise of a third which they call Conibas containing as they say no less than seven leagues in length about half as much in breadth seated upon a Lake but scatteringly built and much of the space taken up with mountains and many fair Gardens in the midst of which the Town standeth This is certain that the Countrie to which they give the general name of New-Mexico is of a vast extent reaching from the Mines of St. Barbara in New-Biscay Eastward and to the North-East above two hundred leagues already discovered but doubtless taking up no small part of those Countries which are sometimes assigned to Florida if not of the confines of Virginia also The first discoverer of this Countrie was one Augustino Royaz a Franciscan Frier about the year 1580 by whose report and incouragement Antonio de Espeio a Native of Corduba but then dwelling at Mexico raised at his own charges a Band of an 150 Horsemen and with a competent number of Slaves Beasts of carriage and other necessaries undertook the business and discovered many Nations as the Conchi Tobosi Passaguates Tepoames Quires and divers others still marching on till he arrived at a great River which he named Rio del Nordt Here he made some stay and caused the Countrie on each side of the River to be called Nova-Mexicana and a City to be built which he likewise named New-Mexico It is seated in the 37 degree of Northern latitude and distant from Old-Mexico four hundred leagues The name whereof is since changed into that of St. Foy but the dignity of the place improved being at present the Metropolis of that Province a Bishops Sea the ordinary Residence of the Governour and hath a Garrison of about two hundred and fifty Souldiers in it which both commands the Countrie and secures their Mines of which they have some in the towns hereabouts the chief of which towns are 1. S. Antonio de Senecu the first Town which they have upon the Nordt River 2. Socorro so named by the Spaniards from the releefe which they found there both for themselves and Horses being almost starved with a long march 3. Pilabo 4. Siviletta all of them old towns but new named by the Spaniards 5. St. Johns built some yeers after the first discovery of the Countrie by John D' Ognate a Spaniard who in the year 1599 or thereabouts over-ran the Countrie a second time with a greater Army yet pursuing the tract of d' Espeio by which means having gathered together an infinite mass of treasure he found no better way to secure it than by building this town CHAP. VIII Of New-Spain and its Provinces 1. THe Kingdom of Mexico or New-Spain was formerly that is before the Spaniards conquer'd and dismembred it much larger than now it is for as much as it comprehended the whole Province of New-Gallicia and reached from the furthest point of the Peninsula of Jucatan Southward as far as New-Biscay and the confines of Califormia Northward containing in length seven hundred leagues or more and about half as much in breadth But since the conquest by Hernando Cortez and his followers the whole Countrie of New-Gallicia is taken from it and made a distinct Government or Audiencia as the Spaniards call it of it self The Natives of the Countrie are of the race of the Chichimecae a savage and wilde sort of People of the Province of New-Gallicia especially in the parts of New-Biscay living in Forests and in deep caves under ground whose posterity doe still at this day much trouble and annoy the Countrie thereabouts notwithstanding all the endeavours of the Spaniards and the Garrisons which they keep in those parts on purpose to destroy them About five hundred years agoe or more according to the account of the Mexican Annals divers Hoards or Swarms of these Chichimecae weary it seems of their Woods and subterraneous dwellings issued out into the more open Aire and fell down in huge multitudes into these Southerly parts of America which are now called Mexico and New-Spain not all at once but at several times and under several names viz. of the Suchimilci Chalcae Tepanecae Tlascaltecae and others who subduing or driving out the People they found in those parts seated themselves in their room And though at first every Nation or Company of them as they came seized upon some Province apart by themselves and held it as it were in Soveraignty to themselves without acknowledgement of any dependance or subjection to their Neighbours or those that were there before them yet in tract of time and by fortune of the Warrs which they made one upon another they all fell under the Government of one King viz. the King of Mexico which was the chief City of the Province This Kingdome at the time that the Spaniards first discovered the Countrie was governed by a Prince named Motezuma one who by his valour and good success in the warres had in a few years of his reign before the Spaniards came thither subdued the better part of a hundred Cities and great Towns to his Dominion and held in actual submission to his Government and tributary to him no less than thirty several Casiques or petty Princes every one of which pay'd him Tribute and were able upon occasion to bring into the field an hundred thousand men He is said to have been for his person a wise and good Prince just affable and tender of his Subjects good but by reason of some heavy exactions which his own power and the practise of his Ancestors before him gave him the confidence to impose upon the conquered People a great part of his Subjects lived but unwillingly under his obedience and rather by constraint than otherwise being also further exasperated against him by one barbarous custome which the Mexicans frequently used viz. the Sacrificing of men Their manner was whensoever they had any solemn occasion of doing honour to their Devil-god Vitzilopuchtli as they called him to send out an Army of men from Mexico into some of the subdued Provinces in case they had no enemies neerer hand and to fetch in as many men as they thought good to be sacrificed whose flesh likewise afterwards they did eate in a solemn Banquet This being a business of their
and in the midst of a fair Plain or Champaign Country containing likewise as some say not less than sixty or seventy leagues in compass and environed with mountains of so great height that the tops of them are said to be continually covered with snow At present it is thought to be one of the richest Cities of the World abounding if reports be true in all kinde of voluptuous gallantry and bravery even to excess It is supposed to contain about six or seven miles in compass and to consist of above an hundred thousand Houses or Families whereof not the tenth part Spaniards but those that are be all Gentlemen I mean as to their garb and manner of living for they live most splendidly in all respects both for dyet and apparel For the first we have spoken so much already of the general plenty of all things in the Kingdom of New-Spain that pertain to this part of pleasure that it is not to be doubted and for the second this may be some instance viz. that it is no extraordinary matter to see an Hat-band and Role all of Diamonds in some ordinary Gentlemans Hat and of Pearl among the common Citizens and Tradesmen The Coaches which most Gentlemen keep almost covered with gold and silver richly beset with precious stones and within ordinarily lined with cloth of gold or the best China silk that can be gotten of which Coaches in time of year at the Alameda as they call it which is as it were the Hide Park of Mexico and a place made of purpose for recreation and delight a man shall observe not seldome above a thousand or two thousand Coaches full of Ladies and Gallants coming thither only to take the aire and their pleasure both the one and the other attended with a numerous train of servants and Mulattos of both sexes In la Plateria which is but one only street in Mexico nigh to the Vice-Roys Palace in less than half an hours space with the turn of an eye you may see millions of wealth in Gold Silver and precious Stones in the Gold-smiths and Jewellers shops thereabouts In a word there is nothing hinders Mexico from being the most absolute Citie in the World for delight and bravery but only two inconvinces to which it is subject The one is the danger of the Lake with the Infalls whereof it may seem to be almost continually threatned and in the year 1629 did actually suffer a very great calamity the waters breaking through the banks and drowning a great part of the City with the destruction of much People and the loss of all their goods intirely through the avarice as is supposed of the Vice-Roy that then was and some other of the Kings Officers who diverted the money that should have been imployed for the fortifying and repairing of the banks to their proper uses The other is from the Nature of the Soil and ground it self on which the City standeth which is found to have a tincture of of salt-Nitre in it somewhat strong and the windes partly from the Lake it self and partly from the Hills about it raising the dust of this earth constantly every evening for many moneths of the year together so violently that the Aire is even darkned therewith for some time the Inhabitants are much annoyed by it and made subject to divers Hypocondriacall pains and infirmities and sometimes killed with it especially such as either cannot or care not much to avoid it The Citie lyeth about 60 leagues or one hundred and fifty miles distant from the Atlantick or North Sea from whence by the Port of St. John D'Vllua or Vera Crux which are the usuall landing places there is a fair and easie march to Mexico by the Cities of Xalapa Perotta Puebla de los Angelos and Tlascalla all of them open and unfortified places as likewise Mexico it self is and the Country round about very rich and well accommodated with all things The second town of this Province is Tescuco an ancient and fair Citie seated upon the same Lake six or seven leagues distant from Mexico to which it yeeldeth not much either for beau-or bravery 3. Quitlavaca a Citie built wholly upon certain Islets within the Lake and therefore called sometimes by the Spaniards Venezuela or Little-Venice having one only passage by Land to it over a Causey of flint-stone half a league or more in length and about sixteen or twenty foot broad 4. Vztacpalapa a City of ten thousand Housholds or thereabnuts six leagues distant from Tescuco and about twenty from Mexico 5. Mexicaltzingo a Burrough of four thousand Housholds 6. Cuyacan of six thousand All these are seated upon the Lake Further from the Lake there is Chololla a great Citie and a rich place not much inferiour-to Mexico Anciently this City was as it were the Sanctuary of the Mexican Kings and the chief place of their barbarous and inhumane Superstitions where yearly not less than five or six thousand Indian Children of both sexes were sacrificed to Vitzilopuchtli that is to the Devil It was likewise the chief burying place of all the Mexican Nobility whose Tombs and Monuments there afforded the Spaniards at their first rifling of them an infinite mass of Treasure and yet not half so much as by report they both desired and expected 2. Mastitlan a Town pleasantly seated upon the top of an huge mountain in the midst of most delicate Groves and shady Woods round about it and reckoned to contain not less than thirty thousand Inhabitants in all dwelling either in the Citie or upon the sides of the Mountain 3. Autepecque this is a Town belonging to the Marquiss de Valle who is of the Posterity of Cortez and said to be seated in the most delicious place of all New-Spain 4. Acapulco a Town seated upon the South-Sea or Mare del Zur yet belonging to this Province It is a Haven Town and one of the most frequented upon the South Sea situate upon a large and capacious Bay of about a league broad at the entrance and affording many convenient stations and Docks for shipping At the bottome of the Bay Westward lyeth the Town with a strong Castle very opportunely built both for the command and security of the Port well walled and fortifyed with Bulwarks and having a constant Garrison of four hundred Souldiers in it or thereabouts The reason whereof I suppose may be chiefly this viz. that from this Port there is the greatest traffique and entercourse held betwixt the East and West-Indies together with the Philippine Islands The Country hath many rich Mines of silver in it and some of Gold the chief of which first are by Herera reported to be these viz. 1. those of Puchuca fourteen leagues distant from Mexico 2. Of Tasco twenty four leagues distant 3. Talpuiana 4. Cultepeque 5. Zacualpa 6. Zupanguo and divers others 10. Tlascalla is a Province of New-Spain which extendeth it self entirely from one Sea to another viz. from the Atlantick to Mare
Inhabitants are since removed to Porto Bello or St. Philip aforesaid as to a more fortified and securer place 3. Acla a Town upon the same Coast but lying South-East of Nombre de Dios. 4. Nata commonly called St. Jago de Nata situated on the West side of this Province upon Mare del Zur or the South Sea about thirty leagues distance from Panama towards the borders of Veragua 5. Panama the chief City of the Province being also a Bishops Sea who is Suffragan to the Archbishop of Lima and the ordinary residence of the Governour and Courts of Justice for these parts It is seated likewise upon the South Sea and so neer that at high water the ships are said to ride even under the walls Through this town the wealth both of Peru and Spain passeth once every yeer from Spain by Nombre de Dios and Porto Bello from whence whatsoever Merchandise or other Commodities come from Spain are transported to Panama by Land and from thence by Sea to all the parts of Peru and by Panama whatsoever comes from Peru to be sent into Spain It hath commonly a strong Garrison of Souldiers in it and is doubtless a place otherwise well fortified being of so great importance Lastly La Crux Real a few leagues distant from Panama and for the most part inhabited by Negros 3. Darien hath on the North the District or Circle of Panama on the South the new Kingdome of Granada Eastward it is bounded with the Gulf of Vrraba abovesaid and some part of the River Darien which giveth name to the Province and to the West with the South Sea of a more temperate Aire by farre than that of Panama and a Soil so admirably fruitfull and lusty that they say Melons Cucumers and generally all other Fruits of the Garden are ripe and fit to gather within twenty dayes or less after their first sowing The chief and indeed only Town of this tract is Darien called anciently by the first Founders of it St. Maria Antiqua and by others the Antique of Darien being one of the first Towns that were built by the Spaniards on the firm Land 4. Eastward of Darien and the Gulf of Vrraba lyeth the Countrie of New-Andaluzia as some call it though that name be likewise and perhaps more truly attributed to the Province of Paria hereafter to be spoken of on the East it hath the Countrie called St. Martha on the North the main Ocean and New-Granada towards the South It is for the most part a Mountainous Countrie and full of Woods which they say yeeld aboundance of Rosin Gumms and some very good Balsams But the Plains by reason of much rain to which the Countrie is subject especially for some times of the year of but a spewy and cold Soil The Spaniards at their first comming found it a rich Country not so much from the nature and profits of the Soil though it be said to have some Mines in it and those of Gold but by reason of a certain opinion and respect which the Americans of these parts are generally said to have born towards this Country insomuch that they would be brought and buryed therein from other places very remote and according to the custome of the Country not without good store of Gold and other Jewels according to the quality and condition of the Person that was buried of which the Spaniards soon gained intelligence and in ransacking the Graves and Monuments of the Dead are supposed to have found an infinite Mass of Treasure But those Mines are long since exhausted The places of chief impotance here are 1. Carthagena situate upon the North Sea in a sandy Peninsula or half Island well built and for the bigness of it of good wealth and riches as the English well found under Sir Francis Drake in the yeare 1585 when they took the place and having pillaged it carried away beside aboundance of Treasure no less than two hundred and fourty brass peices of Ordinance It is counted one of the best Havens belonging to the firme land of America 2. Tolu by the Spaniards now called St. Jago twelve leagues distant from Cartagena a place memorable for the excellent Balsam which is brought from thence commonly called the Balsam of Tolu 3. St. Crux de Mopox a neate Town seated a little above the confluence of the two Rivers St. Martha and Magdalene which water this Province 4. Baranca de Nolambo a place of great Traffique especially for all Commodities of the new Kingdome of Granada it standeth upon the banks of the Magdelene River and about six leagues distant from the Sea 5. Buena Vista otherwise called St. Sabastian de Buena Vista a Town commodiously seated upon a rising ground not far from the Gulf of Vrraba or the Sound of Darien about a league and half from the Sea and lastly Villa de St. Maria thirty leagues southward of Cartagena 5. St. Martha so called from the cheif City of the Province is bordered on the West with New-Andaluzia on the East with Rio de la Hacha on the North with the Ocean and on the South with New-Granada It is about threescore and ten leagues in length and not much less in breadth a mountainous Country likewise for the most part and the ground not much commended but only for some fruits of the Ordinary growth of Spain viz. Oranges Limons c. which thrive here very well The aire upon the Coasts very hot but more within land as extremely cold viz. upon the Mountaines The Country is well watered with Rivers the chief whereof is Rio Grande as they call it or the great River of Magdalene which rising in the Mountains of New-Granada falleth down into this province empties it self into the Sea betwixt the Cities of St. Martha and Cartegena though at a distance of ten or twenty leagues from either with a double stream and such a violent course that as Acosta testifies it is counted not a little dangerous to attempt the entrance of it sometimes viz. when the Tyde and the stream are contrary The chief Towns are 1. St. Martha seated upon the Sea coast having a safe and very convenient Haven belonging to it and well defended from the windes by the advantage of an high Mountain lying almost right over against it It is no great Town but rich for the bigness at least it was found so when Sir Francis Drake surprised it in the year 1595. What it was the year following when Sir Anthony Shirly called there and in the yeare 1630 when the Dutch took it I cannot say 2. Tenariffe on the banks of the Magdalene fourty leagues distant from St. Martha 3. Villa de las Palmas twenty leagues southward of Tenariff 4. Ciudad de los Reyes in the Valley of Vpar and upon the banks of a large River called Guataporta which a little below this Town falleth into the Magdalene It is a Frontire place and but ill neighboured by reason of certain
not much examine To obtain his liberty he offered the Spaniards to give them the room wherein they were filled up with gold and silver as high as a Souldier could reach with the point of his sword and as some say performed it at least the greater part of it Yet were the Spaniards so farre from granting him liberty according to his expectation and their promise that not long after they took away his life most basely strangling him in prison after they had received him as 't is credibly reported above ten millions of gold and silver together upon pretences indeed of Treason and some dangerous plottings against them by Atabalipa and his People a criminal piece of Treason doubtless for a poor Prince injuriously imprisoned to endeavour his liberty and his subjects to assist him the best they could Notwithstanding which the Spanish Writers themselves doe generally dislike the Fact and some of them with detestation enough God the righteous Judge saith mine Author Lopez Vaz seeing this villanous Act suffered none of those Spaniards to dye by the course of nature but brought them all to evil and shamefull ends Which was very true for although upon the death of Atabalipa the Spaniards held themselves for Masters of the Countrie and Pizarro quickly obtained of the Emperor to be made a Marquess yet long it was before the Indians could be wholly subdued Mango Inga the Brother of Atabalipa making a stout and sharp resistance for a good while together defeating the Spaniards in three or four several encounters in which Diego and John Pizarro brothers to the Marquess were slain and twice taking the Citie of Cusco from them by force And when at last he happened to be overcome and driven to fly to the Mountains the Conquerors viz. Almagro and Pizarro to whom the Emperor had given the command of the Countrie in several fall out among themselves chiefly about the bounds of their respective Dominions Civil Warres ensue betwixt them in which first of all Almagro is taken prisoner by Pizarro sentenced to death and executed without mercy and not long after Pizarro himself murdered in his own house by a Bastard sonne of Almagro named Diego who thereupon had the confidence to take upon him the government and to encounter the Licentiate Vacca de Castro the Emperors Commissioner in the open field where being worsted and taken he afterward lost his head at Cusco After this Blascus Nunnez Vela being made Vice-Roy of Peru and governing somewhat severely Gonzales Pizarro the fourth Brother rebelleth with many Spaniards with him against whom Vela Nunnez the Vice-Roy's Brother is sent but to little purpose being taken prisoner by the Pizarrists and put to death This so incenseth the Vice-Roy that himself in person marcheth against the Rebells but to his own ruine For a Battle being fought in the fields of Quito the hated Vice-Roy had the ill hap to be made prisoner and by Carvaial Lieutenant to Pizarro presently without further process caused to dye in revenge as 't is supposed for his brother whom the Vice-Roy among many others had lately sentenced to death Pizarro after this defeats Centenus another General of the Emperors but was at last by the Governor Gasca defeated himself taken prisoner and beheaded for his Rebellion together with Carvaial his Lieutenant and divers other of his Complices so that there remained now of all the five Brothers Pizarri only Ferdinand alive who as some report was sent prisoner into Spain by the Emperours Commissioner others say that his Brother the Marquess sent him thither with the process concerning Almagro's death However certain it is that in Spain he dyed a prisoner Martin de Alcantara half-brother to the Marquess was murdered with him in the Marquess's house Garcia Alvarado was stab'd to death by one of the Almagrists and what became of Pedro Baldivia with some others shall be shewed in the description of Chile Thus perished by the just hand of God and through their own mutual dissentions ambition and covetousness those first Coquerors of Peru viz. Pizarro and his Companions none of them all leaving so much as a good name behind him and of their issue little is spoken The Marquiss himself is said to have had a sonne by a sister of Atabalipa whom they call Donna Angelina but he dyed young and whether he were legitimate or no it may be doubted But the Factions of the Pizarrists and Almagrists being extinct by the diligence and moderation of succeeding Governours the affairs of Peru came by degrees to be better setled the People either willingly or by constraint were perswaded to acknowledge the Spanish Government and to live quietly in most parts of the Countrie 2. The Dominion of the Kings of Cusco which in some sense and by some writers upon occasion is called the Kingdome of Peru was extended by the last Inca or King Huayna Capac from North to South above one thousand leagues together comprehending not only a great part of the Province of Chile towards the South but also the New-Kingdome of Granada and divers other Provinces to the North but Peru properly so called containeth little more than half so much viz. six hundred leagues in length and about fifty or threescore in breadth except only in some places as in the Country of Chacâ—poyas where 't is thought it may be one hundred leagues over from the Andes to the South Sea It is bounded on the East and North-east with that vast ridge of Mountains which they call the Andes on the West it is washed with Marc del zur on the North it hath the Country of Popayan and on the South Chile It is commonly divided into three parts which they call the Plains the Hill-country and the Andes The Plains are that part of the Country which lie along upon the Sea Coast being for the most part a meer level without any Hills at all The Sierra as they call it or Hill-Country is that part of Peru which is partly mountainous and partly plain fertill and well inhabited in both The Andes are so high rocky and inaccessible that they are scarce inhabited at all but by Savages save only upon the skirts of them The Plaines from the Sea shore to the Hill-Counsry are for the most part about ten leagues over or broad upon which it never raineth all the year long The Hill-Country is commonly twenty leagues in breadth where narrowest and from September to Aprill hath rain the rest of the year generally being fair weather But on the Andes which take up all the rest of the Country of Peru it raineth almost continually all the yeare long In the Hill-Country Their Summer begins in Aprill as is said and ends in September but in the Plaines it begins in October and ends in May. So that in the space of one day a man may tast both Summer and Winter be scorchd with excessive heate in the morning and yet well nipt with cold before night The Andes
generally are covered with thick Woods and wild Forests the Hill-Country for a great part naked and open the Plains in many places sandy and dry and would be much more scorched with heat then they are but for the neighbourhood of the Sea which affords them many cooling gales from the South and South-west windes whose property although it be naturally in other parts to be tempestuous to bring rain and foul weather yet here there is nothing but Serenity and fair Sun-shine dayes all the year long although these windes blow almost without ceasing upon the Country and no other at any time whereas the Sierra or Hill countrys have winde from every coast and such as bringeth all sorts of weather with it Rain Hail Frost Snow great claps of Thunder c. The Countrie affordeth not so much Cattel of the breed of Europe as some other Provinces of America but instead of these both the Woods and Pastures are replenished with great multitudes of the Vicugnes and Pacos above mentioned which are of no less profit service The Pacos here are said to be as big as some young Heifer of two yeers old bearing a fleece like Sheep and their flesh no less pleasant than the Mutton of Europe But the great wealth of this Countrie lyes out of sight in the bowels of the Earth viz. in those rich and as they may seem inexhaustible Mines both of gold and silver which as 't is well known this Countrie of Peru affordeth more than any other Province of America beside The People are said to be at least exteriorly of greater simplicity than some other Americans both in point of behavior and judgement yet of good courage in the warrs and fearless of death They are noted also to be dissemblers and not alwaies to declare their mindes truly and plainly and which is worse than all to have bin given over to that foul sin of Sodomy in so much that their Women were generally found to be of small esteem with them to be used no better than slaves and most cruelly beaten by them upon every light occasion For both which their unnatural filthiness and inhumaninity if it pleased the Divine Justice to deliver them into the hands of those who used them likewise cruelly who can deny but that the Judgements of God were just and that they received such recompence for their works as the Apostle saith Rom. 1.13 was meet The Countrie is generally divided into three Juridicall Resorts as they call them or Courts of Appeal which are Quito Lima and Charcas but the particular Provinces as they are commonly observed by Geographers said to be six viz. 1. Quito 2. Los Quixos 3. Lima. 4. Cusco 5. Charcas And 6. Collao 3. Quito is the first Province of Peru towards the North or the new Kingdome of Granada with which on that side it is bounded having on the West Mare del Zur on the South Lima and on the East Los Quixos It lyeth in a manner right under the Line the Soil reasonably fertill and well stored with Cattel especially with the Pacos or Peruvian Sheep having plenty also of Fish and Fowl good store of Cotton-woll in which the People of the Countrie are especially industrious make a Cloath or Stuff thereof equall almost to silk for fineness Much Tobacco Guaiacum Sarzaparilla and other medicinall Plants The chief Towns are 1. Caranguez anciently a Royall Citie where stood a sumptuous and stately Palace of the Kings of Peru now almost deserted 2. Ottavallu another place of the same dignitie and the same condition at present with Carangues 3. Quito commonly called S. Francisco de Quito It is a Citie built by the Spaniards at the foot of a certain ridg of Mountains which it hath on the North and North-West side of it and are said by Laet to cross the whole Countrie of Peru quite over from the South to the North Sea It is inhabited by five hundred Families of Spaniards at least beside Natives and well fortified and might be thought a town very well seated in all respects but for the neighbourhood of a Vulcan which at times annoyeth it very much as namely in the year 1560 when it vomited out such aboundance of flaming cinders and other sulphurous matter as had it not been for a showre of rain unexpectedly falling would have much damnified if not destroyed the place 4. Tacunga fifteen leagues distant from Cusco 5. Rhiobamba fourty leagues distant from that 6. Thomebamba 7. Cuenza threescore and four leagues from Quito on another roade but environned on all sides with Mines both of gold and silver brass iron and likewise some veins of sulphur 8. Loxa sixteen leagues Southward of Cuenza and seated pleasantly betwixt two Rivers in the midst of the rich Valley or Plain called Guixibamba 9. Zamorra twently leagues Eastward of Loxa These are all Towns inhabited by Spaniards and lye more within land Towards the Sea and upon the Sea coasts there is first Puerto Vieio so called because it was the first Town the Spaniards possessed on this Continent a place of no very good Aire and therefore not much frequented 2. Mantu another Sea Town and of good resort by reason of the Trade which is here chiefly driven betwixt Panama and Peru. 3. Guaiaquil or St. Jago de Guaiaquil a famous and well frequented Empory seated upon an arme of the Sea not far from the mouth of the said River Guaiaquil 4. Castro a Colonie of Spaniards towards that part of this Province which some call Provincia de las Esmauldas or the Land of Emralds 5. St. Michaels the first Colonie which the Spaniards built in this Countrie called by the Natives Piura 6. Payta a small Town yet neighboured by a safe and well frequented Haven guarded against the windes by the point St. Helena on the North and on the South with Punta Piura yet burnt by Captain Cavendish in the year 1587 and the rich Island Puna neer adjoyning ransacked and pillaged 4. Los Quixos lyeth South and to the South-East of Quito being bordered more directly Eastward with a part of the Province of Guiana called by some El dorada or the golden Countrie on the South it hath Lima and Cusco Of the Countrie it self there is not my thing observed that may seem peculiar The chief Towns are 1. Baeza built in the year 1559 by Ramirez de Avila eighteen leagues from Cusco 2. Archidona twenty leagues to the South-East of Baeza 3. Avila 4. Sevilla del Oro. All of them Colonies of Spaniards Then is there in the Sierra or hilly part of the Countrie more towards the Andes 1. Valladolidt 2. Loyola 3. St. Jago de las Montannas all Colonies likewise that you may know the Countrie hath something in it worth the looking after 5. Lima called also Los Reyes hath on the East Collao and some part of Cusco on the North Los Quixos on the West Mare del Zur and on the South Charcas The Countrie extendeth it self in length upon
Spaniards at least and twice as many Natives 6. Cusco the chief City of the Province and anciently the seat of the Kings of Peru one hundred and twenty leagues or more distant from Lima to the South-East begirt round about with Mountains and the Citie it self seated upon a rugged and unequall Soile yet anciently very magnificent and beautifull it being the custome of the Incas or Puruvian Monarchs that every one of their Nobility should build themselves a Palace in that Citie where the Palace Royall was The Incas Palace here was justly counted one of the wonders of the World it was built on the top of a very high Mountain on the North side of the Citie walled round about and for the most part of it with three several walls all of massy stones and those of such huge stupendious bigness yet most exactly laid together and fitted one with another that the Spaniards considering the Indians had neither Instruments of Iron or any thing else to polish and fashion them nor Engins to draw them up to that height nor so much as Carts to fetch them from the Quarries and places where they were found which was eight or nine leagues distance and over no small Rivers said plainly 't was the work of the Devil and not of Man to lay them there which seeming a thing not so easily to be supposed I must for my part as plainly confess 't is a Problem somewhat above my capacity at present to resolve viz. how it should come to pass that not only here but in divers other parts of the Countrie where the Incas and their Nobility had their Palaces such evident Monuments of absolute Art and Skill should be found among a People so absolutely ignorant and unacquainted with Art as the Americans were reported to be It is now quite demolished and converted to private dwellings only the walls are permitted to stand as well to testifie the greatness of the ancient structure as because the stones thereof as mine Author Laet reporteth are so hugely ponderous big that the Spainards know not well how to remove them and perhaps dare not venture upon it Many other Monuments there were of the Incas Magnificence greatnes as beside their Temples which were very stately and rich Those publick Cawseys or high-wayes pav'd and laid with stone which the Incas with incredible cost and pains had caused to be made from Cusco to the utmost Confines of their Kingdome as large as it was onely for the ease and commoditie of the people they all meeting at Cusco from all quarters l ke so many lines from severall parts of the Circumference and Concentring in the midst of the City upon a Piazza or Market-place one of the fairest in all Peru. The wealth which the Spaniards found here is not to be estimated all the Vessels and Utensills of what sort soever belonging to the Incas Palace being said to be of perfect Silver or Gold all the Roomes and Chambers of the Palace wainscoted and ceiled with Gold beside an infinite number of Birds Beasts Fowles Serpents and other creatures carved and wrought all of Gold or Silver Nor was it otherwise in due proportion in the Palaces of the Nobility all were found inestimably wealthy and rich And yet 't is thought what they found above ground was nothing in comparison of that which they met with in the ransacking of Cellars Vaults and other subterraneous places where the poor conquered Peruvians had endeavoured to convey it out of sight which was such that to this day they say those treasures are not exhausted but that in digging upon occasion under ground they still chop upon some good quantities of concealed Metals The City at present is thought to contain some thirteen or fourteten thousand Inhabitants whereof the third part only Spaniards the rest Natives 7. St. Francisco de la vittoria a Colony of Spaniards situate at the foot of the Andes twenty leagues distant from Cusco 8. St. Juan del oro another Colony in the Valley of Caravaya neighboured with rich Mines of the purest Gold of Peru. Beyond which places more towards the Andes there are said to lie certain Countries as yet undiscovered much famed for gold Mines but of such unpassable difficulty that hitherto the Spaniards though divers times attempting it have not been able to effect any thing answerable to their desires 8. Collao lyeth Southward of those Countries which goe under the generall name of the Province of Cusco having on the West Lima on the South Charcas but Eastward and to the North-east it is shut up by a ridge of Mountaines running in one body or continued Tract from the confines of Collao as far as the City of Cusco where they divide The Country generally plain commodiously watered in all parts with fresh Rivers and consequently affording rich pasturage and good heards of Cattell It is thought to be the most populous Country of all Peru what through the soundness and good temperature of the aire what through the richness and fertility of the Soil The chief Towns and places of note in it being 1. Chuquinga a great Town and held to be naturally almost impregnable as being environed round about either with deep unfordable Waters or with Mountains unpassable and having one only Cawsey leading to it reported to be for two or three leagues together no broader than to permit one single person to march convenienly upon it 2. Ayavire by the Spaniards called Las Sepulturas being a place especially enobled by the stately Monuments of the Peruvian Nobility which were found there 3. Hatuncolla the Metropolis or chief Town of this Province seated upon the banks of the River Caravaya whose sands are very much fam'd for Gold 4. Chinquita a Colony of Spaniards upon the banks of Titicaca one of the greatest Lakes that belong to America said to be fourscore leagues in compass having many small Islands in it of a good and fruitfull soil abounding in fish and variety of Sea-fowl It is supposed to be fourscore leagues distant likewise from the South Sea having only one Estuary or Mouth which is something streit but of such a deep water and violent stream that as Acosta testifieth of it it is not possible to build a Bridge of stone or timber over it But the Natives instead thereof have laid a Bridge of straw upon it which serves as well viz. so many great bundles of straw sedge or such like matter well and surely made up and fastened together as will reach from one side or bank of the Estuary to another at which likewise having made them sure they cast some good quantity of more straw and sedge upon them and have a Bridge very convenient upon which they doe both securely pass themselves and also drive Cattell and doe other necessary business The Town is a place of extraordinary Wealth and Trading and so considerable that the Governour thereof is always named by the King of Spain himself