In which the road is described from the city of Cali to that of Popayan,
and concerning the villages of Indians that lie between them.
The distance from the city of Cali to the city of Popayan is twenty-two
leagues, over a good level road without any forest, although there are
some zigzag ascents, but they are not rugged nor difficult, like those
we have left behind. Leaving, then, the city of Cali, the road passes
through meadows and plains watered by rivers, until one is reached,
which is not very large, called Xamundi,[249] spanned by a bridge of
stout canes. He who has a horse crosses by a ford without any danger.
Near the source of this river there are Indians whose district, also
called Xamundi, extends over three or four leagues. The district and
river take their name from that of a chief. These Indians trade with
those of the province of Timbas, and they collect much gold, which they
have supplied in great quantity to those who hold them in
_encomienda_.[250]
Five leagues further on, in the same road to Popayan, is the great river
of Santa Martha, where there are always balsas and canoes, so that it
can be crossed without danger, and thus the Indian inhabitants go and
come from one city to the other. The banks of this river were once very
populous, but the people have been extirpated by time and by the war
which they waged with the captain Belalcazar, who was the first to
discover and conquer them. Although he was one cause of their rapid
destruction, yet another cause of it was their evil custom and accursed
vice of eating each other. The remains of these tribes and nations
consist of a diminished race on both banks of the river, who are called
Aguales, and who are subject to the city of Cali. There are, however,
many Indians in the mountains on each side, who, on account of the
difficulty in penetrating their country, and of the troubles in Peru,
have not yet been subjugated. Concealed and isolated as they are, they
have yet been seen by the invincible Spaniards, and defeated many times.
They all go naked, and have the same customs as their neighbours.
After crossing the great river, which is fourteen leagues from the city
of Popayan, there is a morass about a quarter of a league in extent, and
beyond it the road is very good, until the river called _Ovejas_ is
reached. There is much risk to him who attempts to cross this river in
the winter time, for it is very deep, and the ford is near its mouth,
where it falls into the great river. Many Spaniards and Indians have
been drowned here. On the other side of this river there is a smooth
plain, six leagues in extent, and very good for travelling, and at the
end of it a river called Piandomo is crossed. Its banks, and the whole
of this plain, were once well peopled, but those whom the fury of the
war has spared, have retired to a distance from the road, where they
think they are safer. To the eastward is the province of Guambia, and
many other chiefs and villages. Beyond the river of Piandomo, there is
another called Plaza, the banks of which are well peopled, both at its
sources, and all along its course. Then the great river is again crossed
by a ford, and from this point to Popayan the whole country is covered
with beautiful farms, such as in Spain we call _alcarias_ or
_cortijos_,[251] and here the Spaniards have their flocks. These plains
are also sown with maize, and it is here that they have begun to sow
wheat. The land will yield great quantities, for it is well suited to
its growths. In other parts of this country they reap the maize in five
or six months, so that they have two crops in the year. They, however,
only sow it once in the year on this plain, and their harvest is in May
and June; that of wheat in July and August, as in Spain. All these
meadows and plains were once very populous, and subject to the lord
whose name was Popayan, one of the principal chiefs in these provinces.
Now there are few Indians, owing to the war with the Spaniards, and to
their custom of eating each other, and also to the great famine, which
was caused by their not sowing the crops, with the hope that, there
being no food, the Spaniards would leave their country. There are many
fruit trees, especially _aguacates_ or pears, which are abundant and
savoury. The rivers rising in the Cordillera of the Andes flow through
these plains, and the water is very limpid and sweet. In some of them
there are signs of gold.
The site of the city is on a high table land, in an excellent situation,
being the healthiest and most temperate of any in the government of
Popayan, and even in the greater part of the kingdom of Peru. Truly the
climate is more like Spain than the Andes. There are large houses of
straw in the city. This city of Popayan is the chief and head of all the
cities I have described, except that of Uraba, which belongs to the
government of Carthagena. All the rest are under Popayan, which contains
a cathedral church, and, as this is the principal and most central city,
the government is entitled Popayan. To the east is the long chain of the
Andes; to the west are other mountains which overhang the South Sea, and
on the other side are the plains which I have described. The city of
Popayan was founded by the captain Don Sebastian de Belalcazar,[252] in
the name of the Emperor Charles, our lord, by authority of the
Adelantado Don Francisco Pizarro, governor of all Peru, for his Majesty,
in the year of the Lord 1536.