Of the great district which is inhabited by the Collas, of the appearance of the land where their villages are built, and how Mitimaes were stationed to supply them with provisions.

THE region which they call Collao appears to me to be the largest province in all Peru, and the most populous. The Collas are first met with at Ayavire, and they extend as far as Caracoto. To the east of their province are the forests of the Andes, to the west are the peaks of the snowy mountains, which descend on the other side to the South Sea. Besides the lands which the natives occupy with their fields and houses, there are vast uninhabited tracts full of wild flocks. The land of the Collas is level in most parts, and rivers of good water flow through it.

These plains form beautiful and extensive meadows, the herbage of which is always plentiful, and at times very green, although in the spring it is parched up as in Spain. The winter begins (as I have already said) in October, and lasts until April. The days and nights are almost equal, and the cold in this district is greater than in any other part of Peru, excepting the snowy peaks, because the land is high, and comes up to the mountains. Certainly if this land of the Collao had a deep valley like those of Xauxa or Chuquiapu, which would yield maize, it would be one of the richest in all the Indies. When the wind is blowing it is hard work to travel over these plains of the Collao, but when there is no wind, and the sun is shining, it is very pleasant to see the beautiful and well-peopled meadows. But the climate is so cold that there is no maize, nor any kind of tree; and the land is too sterile to yield any of the fruits which grow in other parts.[484] The houses in the villages are built of stone, and roofed with straw instead of tiles, and they are placed close together. This country of the Collao was once very populous, and was covered with large villages, round which the Indians had their fields, where they raised crops for food. Their principal food is potatoes,[485] which are like earth nuts, as I have before declared in this history. They dry these potatoes in the sun, and keep them from one harvest to another. After they are dried they call these potatoes chuÑus, and they are highly esteemed and valued among them.[486] They have no water in channels for irrigating the fields, as in many other parts of this kingdom, so that, if the natural supply of water required for the crops fails, they would suffer from famine and want if they had not this store of dried potatoes. Many Spaniards have enriched themselves and returned prosperous to Spain by merely taking these chuÑus to sell at the mines of Potosi. They have another kind of food called oca,[487] which is also profitable, but not so much so as a seed which they also raise, called quinua,[488] a small grain like rice. When the harvest is abundant, all the inhabitants of the Collao live contented and free from want, but when there is want of water they suffer great distress.

But, in truth, the Kings Yncas who ruled over this empire were so wise, and such excellent governors, that they established laws and customs without which the majority of their people would have suffered great hardships, as they did before they came under the rule of the Yncas. In the Collao, and in all the parts of Peru, where, owing to the cold climate, the land is not so fertile and abundant as in the warm valleys, they ordered that, as the great forests of the Andes bordered on these sterile tracts, a certain number of Indians with their wives should be taken from each village, and stationed to cultivate the land in the places where the chiefs directed them to settle. Here they sowed the things which would not grow in their own country, sending the fruits of their labours to their chiefs, and they were called Mitimaes. At the present day they serve the principal encomienderos, and cultivate the precious coca.

Thus, although no maize can be raised throughout the Colloa, the chiefs and people did not fail to obtain it by this arrangement, for the Mitimaes brought up loads of maize, coca, and fruits of all kinds, besides plenty of honey, which abounds in all parts of the forests, where it is formed in the hollows of trees in the way I have described when treating of Quinbaya.[489] In the province of Charcas this honey is excellent. It is said that Francisco de Carbajal, master of the camp to Gonzalo Pizarro, always ate this honey, and though he drank it as if it had been water or wine, he always remained strong and healthy, as he was when I saw him judged in the valley of Xaquixaguana, although he was over eighty years of age according to his own account.