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.
Beyond Mugia, towards the east, is the valley of Aburra, to go to which
it is necessary to cross the Andes, which is done very easily as there
is little forest, and the journey only takes one day. We discovered this
valley with captain Jorge Robledo, but we only saw a few small villages,
different from those we had already passed, and not so rich. When we
entered this valley of Aburra, the detestation we conceived for the
natives was such that we hung them and their women to the boughs of
trees by their hair, and, amidst grievous moans, we left their bodies
there, while their souls went down to hell. The land is very fertile in
this valley of Aburra, and several rivers flow through it. Further on
there is a very large ancient road, and others by which the people
communicate with those to the eastward, which are numerous and great,
but we heard of them by common report, and did not know them from
personal inspection. We next arrived at a village called Cenasura, which
is rich, and it is believed that there are here some very rich burial
places. The Indians are fine men; they go naked like the others, and
resemble them in their habits. At the village of Blanco, some distance
beyond Cenasura, we left the great river on the right hand, in order to
go to the town of Arma.
There are many other rivers on this route, which I do not enumerate,
because they have not all got names. Near Cenasura there is a river
flowing over a very stony bed, and nearly a day’s journey along its
banks, on the left hand, there is a large and very populous district
concerning which I shall presently write. These districts were at first
placed under the city of Cartago (the great river forming the boundary)
by Captain Jorge Robledo, who discovered them; but as the Indians were
so untameable, and opposed to service at Cartago, the adelantado
Belalcazar, governor for his Majesty, ordered that these villages should
be separated from Cartago, and that a town of Spaniards should be
founded in the midst of them. This was done, and the town was formed by
Miguel Muñoz, in the name of his Majesty, the adelantado Don Sebastian
de Belalcazar being governor of the province, in the year 1542. It was
first founded on a hill at the entrance of the province of Arma, but the
war which the natives carried on against the Spaniards was so fierce
that, for this reason, and because there was little room to sow crops
and establish farms, it was removed a little more than two leagues
nearer the great river. The site is twenty-three leagues from the city
of Cartago, twelve from the town of Anzerma, and one from the great
river, on a plain between two small rivers, and is surrounded by great
palm trees, which are different from those I have already described,
though more useful, for very savoury _palmitos_ are taken from them, and
their fruit is also savoury, for when it is broken with stones, milk
flows out, and they even make a kind of cream and butter from it, which
they use for lighting lamps.[214] I have seen that which I now relate,
and it all comes within my own experience. The site of this town is
considered rather unhealthy, but the land is very fertile. A _fanega_ of
maize yields a hundredfold and more, and they sow the maize twice a
year, and other produce yields in the same proportion. Up to the present
time no wheat has been sown, so that I cannot affirm whether it will
yield a harvest or not. The mines are richer on the great river, which
is a league from this town, than in other parts, for if Negroes are set
to work, a day will not pass without each man giving two or three ducats
to his master. As time wears on, this will come to be among the richest
districts of the Indies.
The _repartimiento_[215] of Indians which I received for my services
was in the neighbourhood of this city. I could wish to use my pen at
more length on this subject (but the state of affairs will not permit
it), principally because many of my companions, the discoverers and
conquerors who set out with me from Carthagena, are without Indians, or
only possess those which they have had to pay for, which is certainly no
small grievance.