In which the account of what there is in this country is concluded, as
far as the boundary of Pasto.
There is another rather large river in this country of the Pastos,
called Ancasmayu,[257] which is the point to which the King Huayna
Ccapac, son of the great captain Tupac Ynca Yupanqui, extended his
conquests. Having passed the hot river, and the mountain beyond it, the
road continues over some plains and hills, and crosses a small
_paramo_,[258] where there was no little cold when I travelled over it.
Further on there is a high mountain, on the summit of which a volcano
sends forth quantities of smoke at intervals, and in times past, the
natives say, it threw out volleys of stones. Coming from Popayan, this
volcano is left on the right-hand side. The town of Pasto is situated in
a very beautiful valley, through which a river of very sweet and
wholesome water flows, fed by numerous springs and brooks. This valley
is called Atris, and was formerly very populous, but the inhabitants
have now retired to the mountains. It is surrounded by mountains, some
wooded and others bare, and the Spaniards have their farms and
hunting-lodges in the valley. The banks of the river are always sown
with much excellent wheat, barley, and maize, and there is a mill where
the wheat is ground, for in this town they do not eat maize-bread, owing
to the abundance of wheat. In the plains there are quantities of deer,
rabbits, partridges, doves, pigeons, pheasants, and turkeys, and the
Indians take many in the chase. The land of the Pastos is excessively
cold, and in summer it is colder than in winter, the same thing
occurring in the town of the Christians, insomuch that the company of a
wife is by no means irksome to a husband, nor is plenty of clothes
disagreeable. The delightful town of Pasto was founded and settled by
the captain Don Lorenzo de Aldana, in the name of his Majesty, the
Adelantado Don Francisco Pizarro being his governor and captain-general
of all the provinces of Peru, in the year of our Lord 1539. The said
Lorenzo de Aldana was lieutenant-general for the same Don Francisco
Pizarro in Quito, Pasto, Popayan, Timana, Cali, Anzerma, and Cartago. He
governed them all, either himself or through lieutenants whom he named,
and, as is said by many conquerors in these parts, he ordered that the
natives should be well treated during the whole time that he was in
command.[259]