Of the foundation of the city of the frontier, who was its founder, and
of some customs of the Indians in the province.
Before reaching this province of Caxamarca, a road branches off, which
was also made by order of the Kings Yncas. It leads to the country of
the Chachapoyas, where the city of the frontier is built. It will be
necessary to relate how it was founded, and I shall then pass on to
treat of Huanuco. I hold it to be quite certain that, before the
Spaniards conquered this country of Peru, the Yncas, who were its
natural lords, had great wars and made many conquests. The Chachapoyas
Indians were conquered by them, although they first, in order to defend
their liberty, and to live in ease and tranquillity, fought with such
fury that the Yncas fled before them. But the power of the Yncas was so
great that the Chachapoyas Indians were finally forced to become
servants to those Kings, who desired to extend their sway over all
people.[399] As soon as the royal government of the Yncas was
established, many persons came from Cuzco to secure its continuance, who
received land to cultivate, and sites for their houses, not very far
from a hill called Carmenca, close to the present city. As there were
disturbances in the provinces bordering on Chachapoyas, the Yncas
ordered frontier garrisons to be established under the command of some
of the _Orejones_, to overawe the natives. For this reason there were
great stores of all the arms used by the Ynca soldiers, to be ready in
case of need.
These Indians of Chachapoyas are the most fair and good-looking of any
that I have seen in the Indies, and their women are so beautiful that
many of them were worthy to be wives of the Yncas, or inmates of the
temples of the sun. To this day the Indian women of this race are
exceedingly beautiful, for they are fair and well formed. They go
dressed in woollen cloths, like their husbands, and on their heads they
wear a certain fringe, the sign by which they may be known in all parts.
After they were subjugated by the Yncas, they received the laws and
customs according to which they lived, from them. They adored the sun
and other gods, like the rest of the Indians, and resembled them in
other customs, such as the burial of their dead and conversing with the
devil.
The marshal Don Alonzo de Alvarado, being a captain under the Marquis
Don Francisco Pizarro, entered this province.[400] After he had
conquered it, and reduced the natives to the service of his Majesty, he
peopled and founded the city of the frontier in a strong place called
Levanto, and began to prepare the ground for building with spades and
pickaxes; but in a few days he removed to another province, which is
considered healthy, inhabited by the Huancas.[401] The Chachapoyas
Indians and these Huancas serve the citizens of the new city who hold
_encomiendas_ over them, and the same thing is done in the province
called Cascayunca, and in others which I refrain from mentioning, as I
have seen little of them. In all these provinces there were great
storehouses of the Yncas; the villages are very healthy, and near some
of them there are rich gold mines. All the natives go about in clothes,
men as well as women. They sacrificed to their gods, and had great
flocks of sheep. They made rich and valuable cloth for the Yncas, and
they still make it, as well as such fine and beautiful tapestry as would
be highly esteemed anywhere. In many parts of the provinces subject to
this city, there are trees and fruits like those already described. The
land is fertile, and wheat and barley yield well, as well as vines,
fig-trees, and other fruit trees of Spain that have been planted. In
customs, ceremonies, modes of burial, and sacrifices, the same may be
said of these Indians as of all the others, for they also buried their
dead in great tombs, accompanied by live women and their riches.
The Spaniards have farms in the vicinity of the city for their crops and
animals, where they reap a great quantity of wheat, and the legumes of
Spain also yield well. The cordillera of the Andes passes to the
eastward of the city, and to the west is the South Sea. Beyond the woods
and fastnesses of the Andes is Moyobamba,[402] and other very large
rivers, and some villages of Indians who are less civilised than those I
have been describing; as I shall repeat in the account of the conquest
made by the captain Alonzo de Alvarado in Chachapoyas, and by Juan Perez
de Guevara in the provinces which are situated in the forests. It may be
held for certain that the land in this part is peopled by the
descendants of the famous captain Anco-allo, who, owing to the cruelty
of the captains-general of the Ynca towards him, fled from his native
country, and went away with those Chancas who desired to follow
him,[403] as I shall relate in the second part. Fame relates wonderful
things of a lake, on the shores of which it is said that the villages of
these people are built.
In the year of our Lord 1550 there arrived at the city of the frontier
(the noble cavalier Gomez de Alvarado being then its governor) more than
two hundred Indians, who related that it was some years since a great
body of them started from the land where they lived, and travelled over
many provinces, but that they had fought so many battles that only the
number of men I have mentioned were left. These Indians declare that to
the eastward there are vast and populous regions, some of them very rich
in gold[404] and silver. These Indians, with those who were killed, set
out to seek new lands for their homes, at least so I have heard.[405]
The captain Gomez de Alvarado, the captain Juan Perez de Guevara, and
others, have demanded the grant of this region, and many soldiers have
waited on the viceroy for permission to follow these captains, if they
receive a commission to make this discovery.
The city of the frontier was founded and settled by the captain Alonzo
de Alvarado, in the name of his Majesty, the Adelantado Don Francisco
Pizarro being his governor of Peru, in the year of our redemption 1536.