In which the account of the Indians of Puerto Viejo is finished; and
concerning the founding of that city, and who was its founder.
I shall be brief in describing what more there is concerning these
provinces of Puerto Viejo, because the substance of my account of them
has already been written in the preceding chapter; and I shall then
return to the palaces of Tumebamba, where I left the main thread of my
history. I may here observe that, as soon as the Adelantado Don Pedro de
Alvarado and the marshal Don Diego de Almagro had made their agreement
on the plains of Riobamba, the Adelantado Don Pedro went to the City of
the Kings, where he was to receive the hundred thousand _castellanos_
which were to be paid for his fleet and armament. Meanwhile the marshal
Don Diego de Almagro left the captain Sebastian de Belalcazar with
certain orders respecting the conquest of the province of Quito, and set
out to establish the settlements on the coast. He then put things in
order at San Miguel and Chimo, and looked out for a good and convenient
site for the city of Truxillo, which was afterwards founded by the
marquis Don Francisco Pizarro.
In all these affairs (as I have been told) the marshal Don Diego de
Almagro showed himself to be a diligent captain. When he arrived at the
city of San Miguel it was made known to him that, when the ships which
came from Tierra Firme, and from the provinces of Nicaragua, Guatemala,
and New Spain, arrived on the coast of Peru, the crews landed and did
much harm to the natives of Manta, and of the coast of the province of
Puerto Viejo. To avoid these evils, and that the natives might be
watched and protected, he determined to send a captain to select a site
where a town or city might be founded.
He selected the captain Francisco Pacheco for this duty, and ordered
him to set out with the requisite number of followers. Francisco
Pacheco, in obedience to his orders, started from a village called
Piquasa, and founded the city of Puerto Viejo in the locality which
appeared to him most suitable. This was on the day of St. Gregory, the
12th of March, in the year of the birth of our Redeemer the Lord Jesus
Christ 1535, and he founded it in the name of the Emperor Don Carlos our
King and Lord.
While the captain Francisco Pacheco was employed on this service, Pedro
de Puelles,[303] with some Spanish troops, came from Quito (where the
captain Sebastian de Belalcazar was lieutenant-general for Don Francisco
Pizarro) to conquer the same coast of the South Sea, and there were some
misunderstandings between them. When the news reached the governor Don
Francisco Pizarro, he gave such orders as appeared to him best for the
service of his Majesty and the good government and protection of the
Indians; in obedience to which, after the captain Francisco Pacheco had
conquered these provinces, and marched through them for nearly two
years, he peopled this city, the captain Pedro de Puelles having
returned to Quito.
At first the city was called the new town of Puerto Viejo, and it is
situated in the most convenient and best part of the province, not very
far from the South Sea. In many districts belonging to this city of
Puerto Viejo, they make deep holes for the burial of their dead, which
look more like wells than tombs. When they wish to inter a body, they
clear out all the loose earth. A large number of Indians then assemble,
dancing, singing, and mourning, not forgetting to drink, and beating
drums. After they have done all these things, according to the custom of
their ancestors, they lower the body down into the deep tomb, and, if he
is a chief or important person, they bury the most beautiful and beloved
of his women with him, besides jewels, food, and jars of wine made from
maize. They then place those thick canes which grow in the country over
the hole. As these canes are hollow, they take care to fill them with
that drink made of maize or of roots, which they call _acca_,[304]
because, being deceived by the devil, they believe (at least so they
have told me) that the dead man drinks of the liquor they put into the
canes. This custom of burying arms, treasure, and food with the dead, is
practised in the greater part of these newly-discovered countries; and
in many provinces they also bury women and boys alive with them.