Concerning the villages beyond Quito as far as the royal palaces of Tumebamba, and of some customs of the natives.

THE distance from the city of Quito to the palaces of Tumebamba is fifty-three leagues. Soon after leaving the city there is a village called Pansaleo, the natives of which differ in some things from their neighbours, especially in the fillets or bands round their heads; for by these bands the descent of the Indians is known, and the provinces of which they are natives.[273]

These and all the other natives of the kingdom, over a space of more than one thousand two hundred leagues, speak the general language of the Yncas, being that which is used in Cuzco. They generally speak this language, because such is the order of the Yncas, and it was a law throughout the kingdom that this language should be used. Fathers were punished if they neglected to teach it to their sons in their childhood, yet, notwithstanding that they speak the language of Cuzco, all these tribes had a language of their own which was spoken by their ancestors. Thus, those of Pansaleo had a different language from those of Carangue and Otabalo. The people of Pansaleo are dressed in shirts without sleeves or collars, with openings at the sides for their arms, and above for their heads. They also have large mantles of wool or cotton. The mantles of the chiefs were very fine, and were dyed with many bright colours. For shoes they used certain usutas, made from a root or herb called Cabuya,[274] which forms great leaves, out of which very useful white fibres are drawn, like hemp. Of these they make their usutas, or sandals, which serve as shoes, and they wear the ends of these fibres as a covering for their heads. Some of the women wear the very graceful dress of those of Cuzco, with a long mantle extending from the neck to the feet, having holes for the arms. Round the waist they fasten a very broad and graceful belt called chumpi, which tightens and secures the mantle. Over this they wear another fine mantle falling from the shoulders, and coming down so as to cover the feet, called lliella. To secure their mantles they wear pins of gold and silver, rather broad at one end, called topu. On the head they wear a very graceful band, which they call uncha, and the usutas, or sandals, complete their attire. In short, the dress of the ladies of Cuzco is the most graceful and rich that has been seen up to this time in all the Indies.[275] They are very careful in combing out their hair, and wear it very long. In another place I will treat more fully of this dress of the Pallas, or ladies of Cuzco.

Between this village of Pansaleo and the city of Quito there are some scattered villages here and there among the hills. To the westward are the valleys of Uchillo and Langazi, where the land, which is very fertile, yields many of those products concerning which I wrote in the chapter on the foundation of Quito. The inhabitants are not hostile to each other, nor do they eat human flesh, and they are not so wicked as some of those in the provinces which we have passed. Formerly they adored many idols, according to their own report, but after they were conquered by the Kings Yncas, they offered their sacrifices to the sun, and worshipped it as a god.

Here a road leads to the forests of Yumbo, where the natives are not so serviceable nor so docile as those of Quito, but, on the contrary, proud and vicious. They live in a rugged and inaccessible district, which is, however, very rich by reason of the warmth and fertility. These people also worship the sun, and resemble their neighbours in their habits and customs, for, like them, they were subjugated by the great Tupac Ynca Yupanqui and his son Huayna Ccapac.

Another road leads towards the rising of the sun, where there is a province called Quijos, inhabited by Indians with the same manners and customs.

Three leagues beyond Pansaleo are the buildings and village of Mulahalo,[276] which though now small from the desertion of its inhabitants, was, in ancient times, a station where there were lodgings for the Yncas and their captains when they travelled on this road, and great store of provisions for the troops. On the right hand of the village of Mulahalo there is a fiery mouth, or volcano, of which the Indians say that, in former times, it threw out great quantities of stones and cinders, insomuch that many villages were destroyed by them. Some pretend that, before the irruption, infernal visions were seen, and trembling voices heard. What these Indians say of the volcano appears to be certainly true, for at the time Don Pedro de Alvarado (formerly governor of the province of Guatemala) entered Peru with his armed force by way of these provinces of Quito, it rained cinders for several days, as several Spaniards assert who came with Alvarado. They must have burst from some fiery mouth, as there are many in these mountains which would yield much sulphur.

A little beyond Mulahalo are the village and great buildings called Llacta-cunga, which were as important as those of Quito.[277] The buildings, though now in ruins, give signs of their former grandeur, and in some of the walls the niches may be seen where the golden sheep and other valuable things which they carved, were kept. The building set apart for the Kings Yncas, and the temple of the sun, where they performed their sacrifices and superstitions, were especially remarkable for these precious things. There were also many virgins here, dedicated to the service of the temple, whom they called Mama-cuna. In this village the Lords Yncas placed a superintendent, who had charge of the collection of tribute in the neighbouring provinces, and stored it here, where there were also a great number of Mitimaes. [278] The Yncas, considering that the centre of their dominion was the city of Cuzco, whence they promulgated laws, and sent forth their captains to war, and that Quito was six hundred leagues distant, while the road to Chile was still longer; and considering, also, that all this vast extent of country was peopled by barbarous, and some of them very warlike tribes, they adopted the following system in order to keep the empire in greater security. It was first commenced in the time of King Ynca Yupanqui, father of the great Tupac Ynca Yupanqui, and grandfather of Huayna Ccapac.

As soon as a province was conquered, ten or twelve thousand men were ordered to go there with their wives, but they were always sent to a country where the climate resembled that from which they came. If they were natives of a cold province, they were sent to a cold one; and if they came from a warm province, they went to a warm one. These people were called Mitimaes, [279] which means Indians who have come from one country and gone to another. They received grants of land on which to work, and sites on which to build their houses. The Yncas decreed that these Mitimaes should always obey the orders of the governors and captains who were placed over them, so that if the natives rebelled, the Mitimaes, who owed obedience to their captains, would punish them and force them into the service of the Yncas; consequently, if there was any disturbance among the Mitimaes themselves, they were attacked by the natives. By this policy these Lords Yncas kept their empire safe and free from rebellion; and the provinces were well supplied with provisions, for most of the inhabitants of each were natives of some other country. They also adopted another plan, in order that they might not be detested by the natives. They never deprived the native caciques of their inheritance, and if any one of them was so guilty as to merit deprivation, the vacant office was given to his sons or brothers, and all men were ordered to obey them. In my book of the Yncas I treat more fully of this system of Mitimaes than I am able to do here. To return to what I was saying, these Indians, called Mitimaes, in the station of Llacta-cunga, were ordered to obey the officer appointed by the Ynca. Around the buildings were the farms and villages of the chiefs and officers, which were well supplied with provisions.

When the last battle was fought in Peru (which was in the valley of Xaquixaguana, where Gonzalo Pizarro was put to death) we set out from the government of Popayan with the Adelantado Don Sebastian de Belalcazar, and little less than two hundred Spaniards, to take the side of his Majesty against the tyrants, and some of us arrived at this village, for we did not all march along the same road, lest there should be difficulty in obtaining food and other necessaries. In one direction there were plenty of rabbits, in another pigs, in another fowls, and so on with sheep and lambs; and thus all were provided for.

The natives of this village all go about dressed in shirts and mantles, each one as richly and gallantly adorned as his means will allow. The women also go dressed in the same way as those of Mulahalo, and they speak almost the same language. All their houses are of stone, roofed with straw, some being large, and others small, according to the rank and wealth of the occupants. The captains and lords have many women, but there is one principal and legitimate wife, through whom the lordship is inherited. They worship the sun, and when the chiefs die, they make large tombs in the mountains and plains, where they bury his gold and silver jewels, arms, clothes, and live women (not the ugliest) with the body, together with plenty of provisions. This custom of thus burying the dead is adopted throughout the greater part of the Indies by advice of the devil, who gives the people to understand that they will thus be well provided for when they arrive in the new country. They make great lamentations over their dead, and the women who are not killed, with all the servants, are shorn of their hair, and remain for many days in constant mourning. After weeping through all the day and night in which the death took place, they still continue to weep for a whole year. These Indians eat early in the morning, and they eat on the ground without troubling themselves much about cloths or napkins. After they have eaten their maize, with meat or fish, they pass all the rest of the day in drinking chicha,[280] or wine made from maize, always holding the cup in their hands. They are very careful and orderly in their festive songs, the men and women holding hands, and going round to the sound of a drum. They recount former events in their songs and ditties, but they always go on drinking until they are very drunk. [Here follow sentences unfit for translation.][281]

They believe in the immortality of the soul, and know that there has been a Creator of all things in the world, so that in contemplating the grandeur of the heavens, the movements of the sun and moon, and other marvels, they understand that there was a Creator of them all, but, blinded and deceived by the devil, they think that the same devil has power over all things. Some, however, seeing his villainy, and that he never tells the truth, abhor him, and they obey him more from fear than because they believe in his divinity. They hold the sun in great reverence, and believe it to be a god. The priests are much esteemed by the people.

I shall conclude this chapter by saying that these people of Llacta-cunga use lances of palm wood, darts, and slings for fighting. The women are very amorous, and some of them are beautiful. There are still many Mitimaes here, descended from those who came here when the Yncas ruled over these provinces.