The sacrifices offered up by these Indians, and what great butchers they are in the matter of eating human flesh.

THE arms used by these Indians are darts, lances, slings, and blow-pipes. They are great lovers of noise, and when they go to war they take drums, flutes, and other instruments. They are deceitful and word breakers, nor will they keep the peace they have promised. Of the war they waged with the Spaniards I will treat in its proper place. Very great is the dominion that the devil, enemy of the human race, is allowed by God to have over this people, by reason of their sins, and often is he visibly amongst them. On the above-mentioned platform they have many cords fastened in the manner of a net, each forty brazas long, and we made use of these ropes for sandals. On the top of the platform they fastened the Indians whom they took in war by the shoulders, and cut out their hearts, which they offered to their gods or to the devil, in whose honour they made these sacrifices. Presently, without any long delay, they eat those whom they had thus killed. I saw no house of worship, but in the houses of the chiefs there were chambers well covered with mats and much ornamented. I saw one of these chapels in Paucora, as will be mentioned further on. In the furthest end of it there was a recess containing many clay vessels for incense, in which they burnt certain small herbs instead of incense. I saw these plants in the land of a lord of this province named Yayo, and they were so small as hardly to rise above the ground; some had a very black, and others a white flower; their smell resembled that of verbena. These, with other resins, they burnt before their idols. After they have performed these and other superstitious rites, the devil comes. They relate that he appears in the form of an Indian, with very bright eyes, and gives replies to the priests or ministers, to questions they ask him, concerning what they wish to know. Up to this time there are no clergymen or friars in any of these provinces, for the Indians are so evil disposed, and such butchers, that many of them have eaten the knights who possessed encomiendas[219] amongst them; yet, when they go to the Spanish settlements, they put aside their Gentile customs and vanities, and conform to our religion, receiving the water of baptism. And, God permitting, some chiefs of the provinces of this government have turned Christians, and abhor the devil, eschewing their former evil works.

The people of this province of Arma are of middle height, and all dark coloured, insomuch that in colour all the Indian men and women of these parts (where there is such a multitude of people as scarcely to be numbered, and so wide an extent of country) appear as if they were all children of one father and mother. The women of these Indians are the ugliest and dirtiest that I have seen in all these parts. Both men and women go naked, except that, to conceal their shame, they put a bit of cloth in front, a palmo broad, and a palmo and a half long, with which they cover themselves in front; for the rest they go quite naked. Some of the women go shorn, as do their husbands.

The fruits and other provisions they have are maize and yucas,[220] besides many other nourishing roots, some guayavas,[221] paltas,[222] and palms of the Pixiuares. The chiefs marry those women they most fancy, keeping one of them as the principal wife. The other Indians marry daughters and sisters of their neighbours without any order, and few find their wives to be virgins. The chiefs may have many wives, other men have one, two, or three, according to their means. When they die, the chiefs are buried in their houses, or on the heights of the mountains with the usual ceremonies and mourning. The sons succeed their fathers in the chieftainship, and in their houses and lands. Failing a son, the heir is the son of the sister, and not of the brother. Further on I will relate the reason of this custom of the nephew who is son of the sister, and not he who is son of the brother, inheriting, in the greater part of these provinces, according to what I have heard from many of the natives. The Indians are so fond of eating human flesh, that they have been seen to take women on the point of bringing forth, quickly open their bellies with knives of stone or cane, and take out the child; then, having made a great fire, they toast and eat it, together with the mother, and all is done with such rapidity that it is a thing to marvel at. For these sins, and for others that these Indians commit, Divine Providence has ordained that, though they are so widely separated from our region of Spain as to make it appear almost impossible to go from the one place to the other, yet that roads and ways over the mighty ocean should be opened to these lands, where only ten or fifteen Christians together conquer and subdue one thousand to ten thousand of these Indians. I do not believe, however, that this arises from our merits, for we are indeed great sinners; but because God chooses to punish these people by our means, and therefore permits these events to happen as they do.

But to return to our narrative: these Indians have no belief, so far as I can make out, nor do they understand more of God’s will than the devil tells them. The command which the chiefs have over their people extends no further than that the Indians build the houses for the chiefs, till their fields, give them as many of their women as they want, and wash gold out of the rivers for them, with which they trade with their neighbours. The chiefs select their captains in the wars, and accompany them in battle. In all things these Indians show little constancy. They are ashamed of nothing, nor do they know what virtue is, while in malice they are very cunning one against the other.

Beyond this province, to the eastward, are the mountains which are called Andes, broken up into rugged peaks. On the other side the Indians say there is a beautiful valley through which a river flows, and where (according to the stories of these natives of Arma) there are great riches and many Indians. In all these parts the women bring forth without the assistance of midwives, and after bringing forth they go to wash in a river, doing the same to their offspring, nor do they suffer any evil consequence from so doing; and fifty of these women suffer less pain in bringing forth than one of our nation.