In which some things are related concerning the natives of the districts near this city.

MANY Indians have been given in encomienda to the citizens of Guamanga, and notwithstanding that they are numerous, yet the wars have caused the destruction of great numbers. Most of them were Mitimaes, who, as I have already said, were Indians transported from one province to another, the work of the Kings Yncas. Some of these were Orejones, although not of the principal families of Cuzco. To the eastward of this city is the great mountain chain of the Andes. To the west is the coast of the South Sea. I have named villages which are near the royal road. The others have very fertile land round them, and large flocks. All the Indians go about clothed. They had temples and places of worship in secluded corners, where they performed their sacrifices and vain ceremonies. In their burials they practised the same customs as all the other Indians, interring live women and treasures with their dead. After they were brought under the yoke of the Yncas, they adored the sun, and adopted the laws and customs of their conquerors. Originally they were a brave race, and so warlike that the Yncas were hard put to it, when they invaded their country; insomuch that, in the days of the Ynca Yupanqui, after the Soras and Lucanas (provinces inhabited by a robust people) had been subdued, these Indians fortified themselves, in great numbers, in strong positions. For, to preserve their liberty, and escape servitude under a tyrant, they thought little of hunger and long protracted wars. Ynca Yupanqui, covetous of the rule over these people, and jealous of his own reputation, besieged them closely for more than two years; at the end of which time, after they had done all they could, they surrendered to the Ynca.

When Gonzalo Pizarro rose in arms, the principal citizens of Guamanga, from fear of his captains, and from a desire to serve his Majesty, after having raised a standard in his royal name, marched to this same stronghold to fortify themselves (as I myself heard from some of them), and saw the vestiges of the former war spoken of by the Indians. All these Indians wear certain marks by which they are known, and which were used by their ancestors. Some of them were much given to omens, and were great sorcerers, pretending to predict what would happen in the future, on which occasions they talked nonsense, as all must do who try to foretell what no creature can know; for God alone can tell what is about to happen.