Of the great district which is inhabited by the _Collas_, of the
appearance of the land where their villages are built, and how
_Mitimaes_ were stationed to supply them with provisions.
The region which they call _Collao_ appears to me to be the largest
province in all Peru, and the most populous. The Collas are first met
with at Ayavire, and they extend as far as Caracoto. To the east of
their province are the forests of the Andes, to the west are the peaks
of the snowy mountains, which descend on the other side to the South
Sea. Besides the lands which the natives occupy with their fields and
houses, there are vast uninhabited tracts full of wild flocks. The land
of the Collas is level in most parts, and rivers of good water flow
through it.
These plains form beautiful and extensive meadows, the herbage of which
is always plentiful, and at times very green, although in the spring it
is parched up as in Spain. The winter begins (as I have already said) in
October, and lasts until April. The days and nights are almost equal,
and the cold in this district is greater than in any other part of Peru,
excepting the snowy peaks, because the land is high, and comes up to the
mountains. Certainly if this land of the Collao had a deep valley like
those of Xauxa or Chuquiapu, which would yield maize, it would be one of
the richest in all the Indies. When the wind is blowing it is hard work
to travel over these plains of the Collao, but when there is no wind,
and the sun is shining, it is very pleasant to see the beautiful and
well-peopled meadows. But the climate is so cold that there is no maize,
nor any kind of tree; and the land is too sterile to yield any of the
fruits which grow in other parts.[484] The houses in the villages are
built of stone, and roofed with straw instead of tiles, and they are
placed close together. This country of the Collao was once very
populous, and was covered with large villages, round which the Indians
had their fields, where they raised crops for food. Their principal food
is potatoes,[485] which are like earth nuts, as I have before declared
in this history. They dry these potatoes in the sun, and keep them from
one harvest to another. After they are dried they call these potatoes
_chuñus_, and they are highly esteemed and valued among them.[486] They
have no water in channels for irrigating the fields, as in many other
parts of this kingdom, so that, if the natural supply of water required
for the crops fails, they would suffer from famine and want if they had
not this store of dried potatoes. Many Spaniards have enriched
themselves and returned prosperous to Spain by merely taking these
_chuñus_ to sell at the mines of Potosi. They have another kind of food
called _oca_,[487] which is also profitable, but not so much so as a
seed which they also raise, called _quinua_,[488] a small grain like
rice. When the harvest is abundant, all the inhabitants of the Collao
live contented and free from want, but when there is want of water they
suffer great distress.
But, in truth, the Kings Yncas who ruled over this empire were so wise,
and such excellent governors, that they established laws and customs
without which the majority of their people would have suffered great
hardships, as they did before they came under the rule of the Yncas. In
the Collao, and in all the parts of Peru, where, owing to the cold
climate, the land is not so fertile and abundant as in the warm valleys,
they ordered that, as the great forests of the Andes bordered on these
sterile tracts, a certain number of Indians with their wives should be
taken from each village, and stationed to cultivate the land in the
places where the chiefs directed them to settle. Here they sowed the
things which would not grow in their own country, sending the fruits of
their labours to their chiefs, and they were called _Mitimaes_. At the
present day they serve the principal _encomienderos_, and cultivate the
precious _coca_.
Thus, although no maize can be raised throughout the _Colloa_, the
chiefs and people did not fail to obtain it by this arrangement, for the
_Mitimaes_ brought up loads of maize, _coca_, and fruits of all kinds,
besides plenty of honey, which abounds in all parts of the forests,
where it is formed in the hollows of trees in the way I have described
when treating of Quinbaya.[489] In the province of Charcas this honey is
excellent. It is said that Francisco de Carbajal, master of the camp to
Gonzalo Pizarro, always ate this honey, and though he drank it as if it
had been water or wine, he always remained strong and healthy, as he was
when I saw him judged in the valley of Xaquixaguana, although he was
over eighty years of age according to his own account.