Of the founding of the city called of Our Lady of Peace, who was its founder, and of the road thence to the town of Plata.

FROM the village of Tiahuanaco the road leads to Viacha, a distance of seven leagues, leaving the villages called Cacayavire, Caquinhora, Mallama, and others on the left hand; but it seems to me of little use to name them all. In the midst of them is the plain near another village called Huarina; the place where, in the days that are passed, there was a battle between Diego Centeno and Gonzalo Pizarro.[504] It was a memorable event, as I shall show in the proper place, and many captains and knights of the King’s party fell, fighting under the banner of the captain Diego Centeno, as well as some of those who were the accomplices of Gonzalo Pizarro. God was served by the rebel being the victor in this battle. To reach the city of La Paz, it is necessary to leave the royal road of the Yncas, and to go to the village of Laxa. The city is a day’s journey further on, built in the narrow part of a small valley formed by the mountains. It was founded in the most level part that could be selected, for the sake of the wood and water, of which there is much in this small valley, as the climate is warmer than on the plains of the Collao, which are higher, and where there are none of the things necessary for a large city. Notwithstanding all this, the citizens have thought of moving nearer to the great lake of Titicaca, between the villages of Huaqui and Tiahuanaco. Yet the city has remained in the valley of Chuquiapu where, in former years, great quantities of gold were taken out of the rich mines that are there. The Yncas held this Chuquiapu in great estimation. Near it is the valley of Oyune, where they say that there is a great treasure hidden in a temple on the summit of a snowy mountain, but it cannot be found, nor is it known where it is.

This city of La Paz was founded by the captain Alonzo de Mendoza, in the name of the Emperor our lord, when the licentiate Pedro de la Gasca was president of this kingdom, in the year of our redemption 1549.[505] In the valley formed by the mountains, where the city is built, they raise a few trees, some maize, and the pulses and garden stuffs of Spain. The Spaniards are here well supplied with provisions and with fish from the lake, as well as with plenty of fruit from the warm valleys, where they also grow a great quantity of wheat, and breed goats, cows, and other animals. This city has very rugged and difficult approaches, being, as I have said, amongst the mountains. A small river of excellent water flows near it.

The distance from this city of La Paz to the town of Plata, which is in the province of Charcas, is ninety leagues, a little more or less. I will now return to the royal road which I had left, and I have to say that it goes from Viacha to Hayohayo, where there were great buildings for the Yncas. Beyond Hayohayo is Sicasica, to which point the province of Colloa extends. On both sides of these villages there are several more. Eleven leagues beyond Sicasica is the village of Caracollo, which is built in a certain plain near the great province of Paria, which was highly esteemed by the Yncas. The natives of this province of Paria are clothed like all the rest, and they wear, as an ornamental head-dress, a small woollen cap. The chiefs were much reverenced by the Indians, and there were royal edifices and store-houses of the Yncas, and a temple of the sun. Here there are a great many lofty tombs where they buried their dead. The villages of Indians subject to Paria are Caponota and many others, some near the lake, and some in different parts of the district. Beyond Paria are the villages of Pocoata, Macha, Coracora, Moromoro, and near the Andes there are other provinces and great chiefs.