In which some things are related concerning the natives of the districts
near this city.
Many Indians have been given in _encomienda_ to the citizens of
Guamanga, and notwithstanding that they are numerous, yet the wars have
caused the destruction of great numbers. Most of them were _Mitimaes_,
who, as I have already said, were Indians transported from one province
to another, the work of the Kings Yncas. Some of these were _Orejones_,
although not of the principal families of Cuzco. To the eastward of this
city is the great mountain chain of the Andes. To the west is the coast
of the South Sea. I have named villages which are near the royal road.
The others have very fertile land round them, and large flocks. All the
Indians go about clothed. They had temples and places of worship in
secluded corners, where they performed their sacrifices and vain
ceremonies. In their burials they practised the same customs as all the
other Indians, interring live women and treasures with their dead. After
they were brought under the yoke of the Yncas, they adored the sun, and
adopted the laws and customs of their conquerors. Originally they were a
brave race, and so warlike that the Yncas were hard put to it, when they
invaded their country; insomuch that, in the days of the Ynca Yupanqui,
after the Soras and Lucanas (provinces inhabited by a robust people) had
been subdued, these Indians fortified themselves, in great numbers, in
strong positions. For, to preserve their liberty, and escape servitude
under a tyrant, they thought little of hunger and long protracted wars.
Ynca Yupanqui, covetous of the rule over these people, and jealous of
his own reputation, besieged them closely for more than two years; at
the end of which time, after they had done all they could, they
surrendered to the Ynca.
When Gonzalo Pizarro rose in arms, the principal citizens of Guamanga,
from fear of his captains, and from a desire to serve his Majesty, after
having raised a standard in his royal name, marched to this same
stronghold to fortify themselves (as I myself heard from some of them),
and saw the vestiges of the former war spoken of by the Indians. All
these Indians wear certain marks by which they are known, and which were
used by their ancestors. Some of them were much given to omens, and were
great sorcerers, pretending to predict what would happen in the future,
on which occasions they talked nonsense, as all must do who try to
foretell what no creature can know; for God alone can tell what is about
to happen.