In which the account of the Indians of Puerto Viejo is finished; and concerning the founding of that city, and who was its founder.

I SHALL be brief in describing what more there is concerning these provinces of Puerto Viejo, because the substance of my account of them has already been written in the preceding chapter; and I shall then return to the palaces of Tumebamba, where I left the main thread of my history. I may here observe that, as soon as the Adelantado Don Pedro de Alvarado and the marshal Don Diego de Almagro had made their agreement on the plains of Riobamba, the Adelantado Don Pedro went to the City of the Kings, where he was to receive the hundred thousand castellanos which were to be paid for his fleet and armament. Meanwhile the marshal Don Diego de Almagro left the captain Sebastian de Belalcazar with certain orders respecting the conquest of the province of Quito, and set out to establish the settlements on the coast. He then put things in order at San Miguel and Chimo, and looked out for a good and convenient site for the city of Truxillo, which was afterwards founded by the marquis Don Francisco Pizarro.

In all these affairs (as I have been told) the marshal Don Diego de Almagro showed himself to be a diligent captain. When he arrived at the city of San Miguel it was made known to him that, when the ships which came from Tierra Firme, and from the provinces of Nicaragua, Guatemala, and New Spain, arrived on the coast of Peru, the crews landed and did much harm to the natives of Manta, and of the coast of the province of Puerto Viejo. To avoid these evils, and that the natives might be watched and protected, he determined to send a captain to select a site where a town or city might be founded.

He selected the captain Francisco Pacheco for this duty, and ordered him to set out with the requisite number of followers. Francisco Pacheco, in obedience to his orders, started from a village called Piquasa, and founded the city of Puerto Viejo in the locality which appeared to him most suitable. This was on the day of St. Gregory, the 12th of March, in the year of the birth of our Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ 1535, and he founded it in the name of the Emperor Don Carlos our King and Lord.

While the captain Francisco Pacheco was employed on this service, Pedro de Puelles,[303] with some Spanish troops, came from Quito (where the captain Sebastian de Belalcazar was lieutenant-general for Don Francisco Pizarro) to conquer the same coast of the South Sea, and there were some misunderstandings between them. When the news reached the governor Don Francisco Pizarro, he gave such orders as appeared to him best for the service of his Majesty and the good government and protection of the Indians; in obedience to which, after the captain Francisco Pacheco had conquered these provinces, and marched through them for nearly two years, he peopled this city, the captain Pedro de Puelles having returned to Quito.

At first the city was called the new town of Puerto Viejo, and it is situated in the most convenient and best part of the province, not very far from the South Sea. In many districts belonging to this city of Puerto Viejo, they make deep holes for the burial of their dead, which look more like wells than tombs. When they wish to inter a body, they clear out all the loose earth. A large number of Indians then assemble, dancing, singing, and mourning, not forgetting to drink, and beating drums. After they have done all these things, according to the custom of their ancestors, they lower the body down into the deep tomb, and, if he is a chief or important person, they bury the most beautiful and beloved of his women with him, besides jewels, food, and jars of wine made from maize. They then place those thick canes which grow in the country over the hole. As these canes are hollow, they take care to fill them with that drink made of maize or of roots, which they call acca,[304] because, being deceived by the devil, they believe (at least so they have told me) that the dead man drinks of the liquor they put into the canes. This custom of burying arms, treasure, and food with the dead, is practised in the greater part of these newly-discovered countries; and in many provinces they also bury women and boys alive with them.