They build a church in the city of Xauxa, and send some three
thousand Indians with some Spaniards against the hostile Indians.
They have news of the arrival of many Spaniards and horses, on which
account they send soldiers to the province of Quito. A Relation of
the quality and people of the land from Tumbez to Chincha, and of
the province of Collao and Condisuyo.[90]
The Governor received this messenger, read the letters which he brought,
and asked him many other things, and, in order to arrange all that
seemed suitable in this business, he called all the officials of H. M.
After they had discussed the journey of that captain to Quito and how
the Marshal would already have reasoned with him, according to the
report brought by that messenger, permission was given [to the Governor]
that he should send one of his lieutenants with sufficient powers for
the task in hand. And when his letters to the city of San Miguel and to
the Marshal, in which he told them what was to be done, were written, he
sent off with them three Christians, in order that the letters might go
more quickly and safely, ordering the men to hasten with all speed upon
the road and keep advising him of what they learned. After this had been
arranged, he [Pizarro] chose the place in which the church was to be
erected in that city of Xauxa. This task he commanded to be done by the
caciques of the district, and it was built with its great doors of
stone.[91] In the meanwhile, there arrived the four thousand Indian
warriors whom the cacique had called from Cuzco, and the Governor caused
to be made ready fifty Spanish cavalrymen and thirty peons to go [with
the Indians] in order to drive the enemy from the pass where they were,
and they set out with the cacique and his soldiers, who loved the
Spaniards better every day.[92] The Governor ordered the captain of
these Spaniards to pursue the enemy as far as Guanaco[93] and as far
beyond as he believed necessary, and that he should keep him informed
continually, by letters and messengers of what went on. After this, the
Governor received news of the ships on the feast of the Holy Ghost, and
at the same time, he received a letter from San Miguel which two
Spaniards brought him, and he learned how the ships, because of bad
weather, had remained seventy leagues from Paccacama[94] without being
able to go further, and how the Adelantado de Alvarado had gone up to
Puerto Viejo three months before with four hundred men [on foot] and one
hundred and fifty cavalry[95] and with them he entered the interior in
the direction of Quito, believing that he would arrive there at the same
time that the Marshal Don Diego de Almagro would enter those provinces
from the other side. As a result of all this information concerning the
justice and government of the city of S. Miguel and of other places, the
Governor entered upon the control of it [himself]. And, in order to
mend matters, with the consent of the officials, he sent his messengers
in a brigantine by sea, and with them he sent orders to the Marshal
that, in the name of H. M., he should lend him [Pizarro] aid, and should
conquer, pacify and settle those provinces of Quito with the troops he
had with him and with those who were in readiness in the city of San
Miguel. At the same time, he arranged other matters in this connection,
so that Alvarado should do no harm in the land, and because H. M. so
desired that it should be, and likewise he determined that, on the
arrival of the ships, he would send a report to H. M. of all that had
taken place on that venture up to that very hour, so that he [H. M.]
might be informed of all and might provide in every instance what he
held to be the best for his royal service. This is the state of the
affairs of war and of other matters in this land: and of the quality of
it I shall speak briefly because a relation of it was sent from
Caxamalca. This land, from Tumbez to Chincha has [a width of some] ten
leagues, in some places more, in others less; it is a broad, flat, sandy
land in which no grass or herbs grow and where it rains but little; it
is [in places] fertile in maize and fruits because the people sow and
irrigate their farms with water from the rivers that come down from the
mountains. The houses which the laborers use are made of rushes and
branches, because, when it does not rain, it is very hot, and few of the
houses have roofs.[96] They are a wretched folk, and many of them are
blind on account of the great amount of sand that there is. They are
poor in gold and silver, and what they have is because those who live in
the sierra exchange it for goods. All the land beside the sea is of this
description as far as Chincha, and even fifty leagues beyond there. They
dress in cotton [bambaso] and eat maize both cooked and raw, and
half-raw meat. At the end of the plains which are called Ingres are some
very high mountains which extend from the city of San Miguel as far as
Xauxa, and which may well be one hundred and fifty leagues long, but
have little breadth. It is a very high and rugged land of mountains and
many rivers; there are no forests save some trees in places where there
is always a thick mist. It is very cold because there is a snow-capped
mountain range which extends from Caxamalca to Xauxa and on which there
is snow all the year through. The people who live there are much more
advanced than the others, because they are very polished and warlike and
of good dispositions. They are very rich in gold and silver because they
get it from many places in the mountains. None of the lords who have
governed these provinces have ever been able to make any use of these
coast-people, as they are such a wretched and poor folk, as I have said,
that they are fit to be used for nothing else than to carry fish and
fruits [up into the highlands], for as soon as they come into the
mountainous regions, their own land being very hot, they sicken for the
most part; and the same thing happens to those who inhabit the
mountains if they go down into the hot country. Those who dwell on the
other side of the land, beyond the summits of the mountains, are like
savages who have no houses nor any maize save a little; they have very
great forests and maintain themselves almost entirely on the fruit of
the trees; they have no domicile, nor fixed settlements that are known;
there are very great rivers, and the land is so useless that it paid all
its tribute to the lords in parrot feathers.[97]
The mountainous region being the chief part of the country, and being so
narrow, as well as being torn by the wars that have been there,
settlements of Christians cannot be made there, for it is a very remote
region. From the city of Xauxa along the Cuzco road, the country keeps
getting more shut in by mountains and the distance from the sea is
greater. And those who have been lords of Cuzco, their own dwelling
being in Cuzco, called the rest of the land, in the direction of Quito,
Cancasuetio, and the land beyond [Cuzco], called Callao, Collasuyo,
and, in the direction of the sea, Condisuyo, and the interior
Candasuyo;[98] and in this way they gave names to these four provinces,
disposed like a cross, which contained their empire. In the Collao they
know not of the sea, and it is a flat land to judge from what has been
seen of it, and it is large and cold, and there are in it many rivers
from which gold is got. The Indians say that in the province is a large
lake of fresh water which, in its centre, has two islands.[99] In order
to learn the state of this land and its government, the Governor sent
two Christians to bring him a long report of it; they set out in the
beginning of December. The region of Condisuyo, toward the sea from
Cuzco is a small and delectable land, although it is all of forests and
stones, and the inland region is so likewise. Through it [the Antisuyu]
run all the rivers which do not flow into the western sea. It is a land
of many trees and mountains and is very thinly populated. This sierra
runs from Tumbes as far as Xauxa, and from Xauxa as far as the city of
Cuzco. It is stony and rough; if there were not roads made by hand it
would not be possible to travel on foot, still less on horseback, and
for the roads there are many houses full of materials for repairing the
pavement, and in this matter the lords had so much firmness that there
was nothing to do but keep it in order.[100] All the mountain
fields[101] are made in the guise of stairways of stone, and the rest of
the road has no great width because of some mountains that hem it in on
both sides, and on one side they had made a buttress of stone so that
one day it should not slide down [the mountain], and there are,
likewise, other places, in which the road has a breadth of four or five
human bodies, all made and paved with stone. One of the greatest works
the conquerors saw in this land was these roads. All or most of the
people on these slopes of the mountains live on high hills and
mountains; their houses are of stone and earth; there are many dwellings
in each village. Along the road each league or two or nearer, are found
the dwellings built for the purpose of allowing the lords to rest when
they were out visiting and inspecting their land; and every twenty
leagues there are important cities, heads of provinces, to which the
smaller cities brought their tribute of maize, clothes and other things.
All these large cities have storehouses full of the things which are in
the land, and, because it is very cold but little maize is harvested
except in specially assigned places; but [there is plenty of] all the
many vegetables and roots with which the people sustained themselves,
and also good grass like that of Spain. There are also wild turnips
which are bitter. There is a sufficiency of herds of sheep[102] which go
about in flocks with their shepherds who keep them away from the sown
fields, and they have a certain part of [each] province set apart for
them to winter in. The people, as I have said, are very polished and
intelligent, and go always clad and shod; they eat maize both cooked and
raw, and drink much chicha, which is a beverage made from maize after
the fashion of beer. The people are very tractable and very obedient and
yet warlike. They have many arms of diverse sorts, as has been told in
the relation of the imprisonment of Atabalipa which was sent from
Caxamalca, as was said above.[103]