In which an account is given of what there is between Popayan and the
city of Pasto; who was the founder of Pasto; and what there is to be
said concerning the natives of the neighbouring districts.
The city of Popayan is forty leagues from the town of Pasto, and the
first village on the road was great and very populous in ancient times,
as well as when the Spaniards discovered it, and even now it contains
many Indians. The valley of Patia becomes very narrow at this village,
and the Indians live in deep and lofty ravines on the western side. The
Spaniards call the place “El pueblo de la Sal.” It is very rich, and has
yielded goodly tribute of fine gold to those who have held the
_encomienda_ here. The natives, in their arms, dress, and customs,
resemble those of the countries we have already passed, except that they
do not eat human flesh, and are a little more civilised. They have many
very fragrant pine-apples, and they trade with the province of
Chapanchita and with other neighbouring districts. Beyond this village
is the province of Masteles, which contains, or did contain, more than
four thousand Indians fit for war. Adjoining it is the province of the
Abades and the villages of Ysancal and Pangan and Caquanpas, and that
they call “Los Chorros,” and Pichilinbuy, also Tuyles and Angayan,
Pagual, Chuchaldo, and many more. Inland, towards the west, there are
reports of many more Indian villages and rich mines in districts
extending as far as the South Sea. The following villages also border on
the road, namely, Asqual, Mallama, Tucurres, Sapuys, Iles, Gualmatal,
Funes, Chapal, Males and Piales, Pupiales, Turca, and Cumba. All these
villages were inhabited by chiefs and Indians called Pastos, and hence
the town of Pasto has received its name, being as much as to say, “the
town built in the land of Pasto;” also another tribe of Indians borders
on the Indians called Pastos, who are known as the Quillacingas, and
whose villages are to the eastward, and are well peopled. The names of
their principal villages are Mocondino, Bexendino, Buyzaco,
Guajanzangua, Mocoxonduque, Quaquanquer, and Macaxamata. Still further
to the east there is another province, which is somewhat larger and more
fertile, called Pastoco, and another near a lake on the summit of a
mountain, where the water is so cold that, though the lake is eight
leagues long and more than four broad, no fish nor bird can live in it.
The land, too, produces no maize, nor are there any trees. There is
another lake near it of the same kind. Further on there are great
mountains, and the Spaniards do not know what there is on the other side
of them.
There are other villages on the road to this city, but it seems
unnecessary to enumerate them, having already mentioned the principal
ones. With regard to this city of Pasto, I have to say that no city or
town in the whole government of Popayan has so many Indians subject to
it, and it even has more than Quito and other places in Peru. Populous
as the district now is, in ancient times it must have been far more
populous, for it is most astonishing to see, in all the wide spread
plains, on the banks of rivers, on the hills and lofty mountains, that
there is not a part (how rugged and inaccessible soever) which does not
give signs of having been tilled or built over in times past. The
customs of these Indians, called Quillacingas and Pastos, differ from
those of the people we have passed, for the Pastos do not eat human
flesh, either when they fight with the Spaniards or with each other.
Their arms are stones thrown from the hand, staves like shepherds’
crooks, and a few badly-made lances. They are a poor-spirited people.
The chiefs are well-mannered, but the rest of the Indians are
ill-favoured, as well the men as the women, and all very dirty, but
gentle and good-tempered. All these Indians are so nasty, that, when
they louse themselves, they eat the lice as if they had been nuts, and
their drinking vessels and cooking utensils are very seldom cleaned out.
They have no creed, nor have idols been seen amongst them, but they
believe that after death they will come to life again to live in some
pleasant and delightful place. There are some things amongst these
Indians that are so secret that God alone can penetrate them. Their
women go dressed in a narrow cloth which covers them from the bosom to
the knees, with a smaller one falling over it. These mantles are made
either of the bark of a tree or of cotton. The men wear a mantle three
or four _varas_ long, which is passed once round the waist, and then
over the neck, the end being wrapped round the head. The Quillacingas,
as well as the Pastos, also wear a cloth between the legs. They wear a
mantle of cotton, which is broad and flowing, with another over the
shoulders, the women wearing one which falls over the bosom. The
Quillacingas converse with the devil. They have neither temple nor
creed, and when they die the bodies are put into large and deep tombs,
together with all the property of the deceased, which is not much. If
the dead man has been a chief, they bury some of his wives and servants
with him. They also have a custom, which is this (according to what I am
told): when one of the chiefs dies, the surrounding chiefs send two or
three of their women, who are taken to the tomb and given enough
maize-wine to make them drunk. As soon as they are insensible they are
buried in the tomb to keep company with the dead man; so that none of
these savages die without having twenty persons to keep them company,
and, besides these people, they put many jars of wine and other
provisions into the tomb.
When I passed through the country of these Indians, I collected the
particulars which I now relate with great diligence, making all the
inquiries I possibly could; and, among other things, I asked why they
practised such an evil custom, and why, not content with burying their
own women alive, they sought for more victims from amongst their
neighbours? I found out that the devil appears in a terrible and
appalling form (according to their own account), and gives them to
understand that they will come to life again in a great kingdom which is
prepared for them, and that they will arrive with more authority if they
are well attended. They also fall into other sins through the wiles of
this accursed enemy. God our Lord knows why he allows the devil to
converse with these people, and to wield such great power over them by
deceiving them. Now his Divine Majesty is displayed, and many Indians,
abhorring the devil, have embraced our holy religion. Some of the Pastos
converse with the devil. When the chiefs die, all possible honour is
done to their memory; the people mourn for many days, and the same
things are put into their tombs as I have already stated.
The districts of Pasto yield but little maize, but there are great
breeding-places for cattle, and especially for pigs, which are raised in
vast quantities. The country yields much barley, potatoes, and
_xiquimas_,[255] and there are very luscious _granadillas_[256] and
other fruits. In the country of the Quillacingas there is plenty of
maize and much fruit, except in the neighbourhood of the lake, where the
people have neither trees nor maize, the land being so cold. These
Quillacingas are warlike and untameable. There are great rivers of very
remarkable water in their country, and it is believed that some of them
contain abundance of gold. One of these rivers flows between Popayan and
Pasto, called the hot river, which is dangerous and difficult to cross
in the winter time. They have stout ropes stretched from one bank to the
other, for crossing it. This river contains the most excellent water I
have met with in the Indies, or even in Spain. Beyond this river, on the
road to Pasto, there is a mountain, of which the ascent is three good
leagues long. The famous chase which Gonzalo Pizarro and his followers
gave the Viceroy Blasco Nuñez Vela, extended as far as this river.