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]