Of the foundation of the city of the frontier, who was its founder, and of some customs of the Indians in the province.

BEFORE reaching this province of Caxamarca, a road branches off, which was also made by order of the Kings Yncas. It leads to the country of the Chachapoyas, where the city of the frontier is built. It will be necessary to relate how it was founded, and I shall then pass on to treat of Huanuco. I hold it to be quite certain that, before the Spaniards conquered this country of Peru, the Yncas, who were its natural lords, had great wars and made many conquests. The Chachapoyas Indians were conquered by them, although they first, in order to defend their liberty, and to live in ease and tranquillity, fought with such fury that the Yncas fled before them. But the power of the Yncas was so great that the Chachapoyas Indians were finally forced to become servants to those Kings, who desired to extend their sway over all people.[399] As soon as the royal government of the Yncas was established, many persons came from Cuzco to secure its continuance, who received land to cultivate, and sites for their houses, not very far from a hill called Carmenca, close to the present city. As there were disturbances in the provinces bordering on Chachapoyas, the Yncas ordered frontier garrisons to be established under the command of some of the Orejones, to overawe the natives. For this reason there were great stores of all the arms used by the Ynca soldiers, to be ready in case of need.

These Indians of Chachapoyas are the most fair and good-looking of any that I have seen in the Indies, and their women are so beautiful that many of them were worthy to be wives of the Yncas, or inmates of the temples of the sun. To this day the Indian women of this race are exceedingly beautiful, for they are fair and well formed. They go dressed in woollen cloths, like their husbands, and on their heads they wear a certain fringe, the sign by which they may be known in all parts. After they were subjugated by the Yncas, they received the laws and customs according to which they lived, from them. They adored the sun and other gods, like the rest of the Indians, and resembled them in other customs, such as the burial of their dead and conversing with the devil.

The marshal Don Alonzo de Alvarado, being a captain under the Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro, entered this province.[400] After he had conquered it, and reduced the natives to the service of his Majesty, he peopled and founded the city of the frontier in a strong place called Levanto, and began to prepare the ground for building with spades and pickaxes; but in a few days he removed to another province, which is considered healthy, inhabited by the Huancas.[401] The Chachapoyas Indians and these Huancas serve the citizens of the new city who hold encomiendas over them, and the same thing is done in the province called Cascayunca, and in others which I refrain from mentioning, as I have seen little of them. In all these provinces there were great storehouses of the Yncas; the villages are very healthy, and near some of them there are rich gold mines. All the natives go about in clothes, men as well as women. They sacrificed to their gods, and had great flocks of sheep. They made rich and valuable cloth for the Yncas, and they still make it, as well as such fine and beautiful tapestry as would be highly esteemed anywhere. In many parts of the provinces subject to this city, there are trees and fruits like those already described. The land is fertile, and wheat and barley yield well, as well as vines, fig-trees, and other fruit trees of Spain that have been planted. In customs, ceremonies, modes of burial, and sacrifices, the same may be said of these Indians as of all the others, for they also buried their dead in great tombs, accompanied by live women and their riches.

The Spaniards have farms in the vicinity of the city for their crops and animals, where they reap a great quantity of wheat, and the legumes of Spain also yield well. The cordillera of the Andes passes to the eastward of the city, and to the west is the South Sea. Beyond the woods and fastnesses of the Andes is Moyobamba,[402] and other very large rivers, and some villages of Indians who are less civilised than those I have been describing; as I shall repeat in the account of the conquest made by the captain Alonzo de Alvarado in Chachapoyas, and by Juan Perez de Guevara in the provinces which are situated in the forests. It may be held for certain that the land in this part is peopled by the descendants of the famous captain Anco-allo, who, owing to the cruelty of the captains-general of the Ynca towards him, fled from his native country, and went away with those Chancas who desired to follow him,[403] as I shall relate in the second part. Fame relates wonderful things of a lake, on the shores of which it is said that the villages of these people are built.

In the year of our Lord 1550 there arrived at the city of the frontier (the noble cavalier Gomez de Alvarado being then its governor) more than two hundred Indians, who related that it was some years since a great body of them started from the land where they lived, and travelled over many provinces, but that they had fought so many battles that only the number of men I have mentioned were left. These Indians declare that to the eastward there are vast and populous regions, some of them very rich in gold[404] and silver. These Indians, with those who were killed, set out to seek new lands for their homes, at least so I have heard.[405] The captain Gomez de Alvarado, the captain Juan Perez de Guevara, and others, have demanded the grant of this region, and many soldiers have waited on the viceroy for permission to follow these captains, if they receive a commission to make this discovery.

The city of the frontier was founded and settled by the captain Alonzo de Alvarado, in the name of his Majesty, the Adelantado Don Francisco Pizarro being his governor of Peru, in the year of our redemption 1536.