In which an account is given of certain things relating to the province
of Puerto Viejo; and also concerning the equinoctial line.
The first port in the land of Peru is that of Passaos, and from it and
the river of Santiago the government of the Marquis Don Francisco
Pizarro commenced, for to the northward the land falls within the limits
of the province of San Juan, and thus it may be said that the land to
the north is within the boundaries of the city of Santiago de Puerto
Viejo, where, being so near the equator, the inhabitants are not very
healthy.
Touching the equinoctial line, some of the ancient cosmographers were in
error when they affirmed that the heat was such as to render the country
lying under it uninhabitable. The fertility of the land, and the
abundance of all things necessary to sustain man, are manifest to all,
and, as the equinoctial line is touched upon in several parts of this
history, I will here give an account of what I have gathered from the
best cosmographers concerning it. The equinoctial line is an imaginary
line round the world from east to west, at equal distances from the
poles of the earth. It is called equinoctial, because the passage of the
sun across it makes the days and nights equal. This occurs twice in the
year, namely on the 11th of March and 13th of September. It is to be
understood, as I have already said, that the opinion of some ancient
authors was that the country under this equinoctial line was
uninhabitable. They believed this because, as the sun there sent its
rays on the earth vertically, the heat must, as they thought, be so
excessive that none could live. Virgil, Ovid, and other worthies were of
this opinion. Others held that some part might be inhabitable, following
Ptolemy, who says, “It does not follow that we should believe the torrid
zone to be entirely without inhabitants.” Others thought, on the
contrary, that the climate was not only temperate and moderately warm,
but very pleasant. This is affirmed by St. Isidore, who says that the
terrestrial paradise is a temperate and delightful place in the east,
under the equinoctial line. Experience has now taught us that, not only
the country exactly under the equinoctial line, but the whole torrid
zone, from one tropic to the other, is habitable and fertile, by reason
of the days and nights being almost equal. The coolness of the night
tempers the heat of the day, and the land has its due season for growing
and producing its fruits. This is the natural condition of the country,
though some parts are different.
The Indians of the province of Santiago de Puerto Viejo are not long
lived; and, as regards the Spaniards, there are very few old men amongst
them, though their number has been thinned more by the wars than by
sickness. From this equinoctial line towards the Arctic Pole, the tropic
of cancer is distant 420 leagues in 23½°, and the sun arrives there on
the 11th of June, but never passes beyond it, for it there takes a turn
towards the equinoctial line again, and reaches it on the 13th of
September. Then it descends to the tropic of capricorn, another 420
leagues, and also in 23½°. There is, therefore, a distance of 840
leagues from tropic to tropic. The ancients called this the Torrid Zone,
which is as much as to say the parched or toasted land, for the sun
moves over it all the year.
The natives are of middle height, and have a most fertile land, yielding
abundance of maize, _yucas_, _aji_, potatoes, and many other roots which
are useful for the support of man. There are also plenty of _guavas_ and
_aguacates_, besides _tunas_[295] of two kinds, one white and of
excellent flavour, _caymitos_, and another fruit they call _cerezilla_.
The melons are of two kinds, also, those of Spain and those of the
country, and there are all sorts of beans and peas. The orange and lemon
trees abound, also bananas, and pine-apples of excellent flavour. There
are great quantities of those pigs which (as I said before in speaking
of the port of Uraba) have the navel on the back, which, however, is not
really the navel, but some other thing that grows there. As they did not
find a navel below, they called this excrescence on the back a navel.
The flesh of these pigs is very savoury. There are also pigs of the
Spanish breed, and many deer with the most singularly delicate flesh of
any in Peru. Partridges, doves, pigeons, turkeys, and a vast number of
other birds are found; among them one called _Xuta_, which is about the
size of a large duck, and which the Indians rear in their houses. These
birds are tame and good to eat. There is another bird called
_Maca_,[296] very little smaller than a cock. It is a beautiful thing to
see the colours of the plumage of this bird, and the beak, which is
rather thicker than a finger, is most distinctly divided into two
colours, yellow and red. In the forests they meet with foxes, bears,
small lions, and some tigers and serpents, but they all fly from men who
do not first attack them. There are also night birds of prey, as well
inland as on the coast, such as condors, and the bird they call
_gallinazo_,[297] or _aura_.[298] In the wooded ravines and forests
there are many trees, which are useful for building houses and for other
purposes. In some of these trees the bees make excellent honeycombs. The
Indians have fisheries where they kill many fishes, among which are fish
called _bonitos_, a bad kind of fish which causes fevers and other evils
to those who eat it. In all parts of the coast the men are afflicted
with dark-coloured excrescences, the size of nuts, which grow on the
forehead, nostrils, and other parts, and, besides being dangerous, they
are very disfiguring. These bumps are said to be caused by eating a
certain fish. However this may be, they are common on the coast, and,
besides the natives, many Spaniards have been afflicted with these
bumps.
In this coast and territory, subject to the city of Puerto Viejo and to
that of Guayaquil, there are two kinds of people. From the cape of
Passaos and river of Santiago to the town of Solango, the men are marked
in the face, and the mark begins at the root of the ear and descends to
the chin, the breadth being according to each man’s fancy. Some mark
the greater part of the face, and others less, much after the fashion of
the Moors. Both men and women wear mantles and shirts of cotton, and
sometimes of wool. They also wear a few ornaments, such as jewels of
gold and very small beads, called _chaquira_.[299] In some provinces I
have myself seen that the people put so high a value on these
_chaquiras_, that they will give their weight in gold for them. In the
province of Quinbaya (where the city of Cartago is situated) certain of
the chiefs gave more than one thousand five hundred _pesos_ to the
marshal Robledo for little more than a pound weight of them, but at that
time they gave two or three hundred _pesos_ for three or four glass
diamonds. In the matter of selling to Indians we were then pretty safe
from being deceived by them. It has even happened to me to sell a copper
axe to an Indian for its weight in gold. But things are now changed, and
the Indians well understand how to sell what they have, and how to buy
what they require.
The principal places where the Indians mark their faces in this province
are Passaos, Xaramixo, Pimpaguace, Peclansemeque, the valley of Xagua,
Pechonse, Apechigue, Silos, Canilloha, Manta, Sapil, Manaui, Xaraguasa,
and others. Their houses are of wood, roofed with straw, some small and
others large, according to the means of the owner.