In which an account is given of certain things relating to the province of Puerto Viejo; and also concerning the equinoctial line.

THE first port in the land of Peru is that of Passaos, and from it and the river of Santiago the government of the Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro commenced, for to the northward the land falls within the limits of the province of San Juan, and thus it may be said that the land to the north is within the boundaries of the city of Santiago de Puerto Viejo, where, being so near the equator, the inhabitants are not very healthy.

Touching the equinoctial line, some of the ancient cosmographers were in error when they affirmed that the heat was such as to render the country lying under it uninhabitable. The fertility of the land, and the abundance of all things necessary to sustain man, are manifest to all, and, as the equinoctial line is touched upon in several parts of this history, I will here give an account of what I have gathered from the best cosmographers concerning it. The equinoctial line is an imaginary line round the world from east to west, at equal distances from the poles of the earth. It is called equinoctial, because the passage of the sun across it makes the days and nights equal. This occurs twice in the year, namely on the 11th of March and 13th of September. It is to be understood, as I have already said, that the opinion of some ancient authors was that the country under this equinoctial line was uninhabitable. They believed this because, as the sun there sent its rays on the earth vertically, the heat must, as they thought, be so excessive that none could live. Virgil, Ovid, and other worthies were of this opinion. Others held that some part might be inhabitable, following Ptolemy, who says, “It does not follow that we should believe the torrid zone to be entirely without inhabitants.” Others thought, on the contrary, that the climate was not only temperate and moderately warm, but very pleasant. This is affirmed by St. Isidore, who says that the terrestrial paradise is a temperate and delightful place in the east, under the equinoctial line. Experience has now taught us that, not only the country exactly under the equinoctial line, but the whole torrid zone, from one tropic to the other, is habitable and fertile, by reason of the days and nights being almost equal. The coolness of the night tempers the heat of the day, and the land has its due season for growing and producing its fruits. This is the natural condition of the country, though some parts are different.

The Indians of the province of Santiago de Puerto Viejo are not long lived; and, as regards the Spaniards, there are very few old men amongst them, though their number has been thinned more by the wars than by sickness. From this equinoctial line towards the Arctic Pole, the tropic of cancer is distant 420 leagues in 23½°, and the sun arrives there on the 11th of June, but never passes beyond it, for it there takes a turn towards the equinoctial line again, and reaches it on the 13th of September. Then it descends to the tropic of capricorn, another 420 leagues, and also in 23½°. There is, therefore, a distance of 840 leagues from tropic to tropic. The ancients called this the Torrid Zone, which is as much as to say the parched or toasted land, for the sun moves over it all the year.

The natives are of middle height, and have a most fertile land, yielding abundance of maize, yucas, aji, potatoes, and many other roots which are useful for the support of man. There are also plenty of guavas and aguacates, besides tunas[295] of two kinds, one white and of excellent flavour, caymitos, and another fruit they call cerezilla. The melons are of two kinds, also, those of Spain and those of the country, and there are all sorts of beans and peas. The orange and lemon trees abound, also bananas, and pine-apples of excellent flavour. There are great quantities of those pigs which (as I said before in speaking of the port of Uraba) have the navel on the back, which, however, is not really the navel, but some other thing that grows there. As they did not find a navel below, they called this excrescence on the back a navel. The flesh of these pigs is very savoury. There are also pigs of the Spanish breed, and many deer with the most singularly delicate flesh of any in Peru. Partridges, doves, pigeons, turkeys, and a vast number of other birds are found; among them one called Xuta, which is about the size of a large duck, and which the Indians rear in their houses. These birds are tame and good to eat. There is another bird called Maca,[296] very little smaller than a cock. It is a beautiful thing to see the colours of the plumage of this bird, and the beak, which is rather thicker than a finger, is most distinctly divided into two colours, yellow and red. In the forests they meet with foxes, bears, small lions, and some tigers and serpents, but they all fly from men who do not first attack them. There are also night birds of prey, as well inland as on the coast, such as condors, and the bird they call gallinazo,[297] or aura.[298] In the wooded ravines and forests there are many trees, which are useful for building houses and for other purposes. In some of these trees the bees make excellent honeycombs. The Indians have fisheries where they kill many fishes, among which are fish called bonitos, a bad kind of fish which causes fevers and other evils to those who eat it. In all parts of the coast the men are afflicted with dark-coloured excrescences, the size of nuts, which grow on the forehead, nostrils, and other parts, and, besides being dangerous, they are very disfiguring. These bumps are said to be caused by eating a certain fish. However this may be, they are common on the coast, and, besides the natives, many Spaniards have been afflicted with these bumps.

In this coast and territory, subject to the city of Puerto Viejo and to that of Guayaquil, there are two kinds of people. From the cape of Passaos and river of Santiago to the town of Solango, the men are marked in the face, and the mark begins at the root of the ear and descends to the chin, the breadth being according to each man’s fancy. Some mark the greater part of the face, and others less, much after the fashion of the Moors. Both men and women wear mantles and shirts of cotton, and sometimes of wool. They also wear a few ornaments, such as jewels of gold and very small beads, called chaquira.[299] In some provinces I have myself seen that the people put so high a value on these chaquiras, that they will give their weight in gold for them. In the province of Quinbaya (where the city of Cartago is situated) certain of the chiefs gave more than one thousand five hundred pesos to the marshal Robledo for little more than a pound weight of them, but at that time they gave two or three hundred pesos for three or four glass diamonds. In the matter of selling to Indians we were then pretty safe from being deceived by them. It has even happened to me to sell a copper axe to an Indian for its weight in gold. But things are now changed, and the Indians well understand how to sell what they have, and how to buy what they require.

The principal places where the Indians mark their faces in this province are Passaos, Xaramixo, Pimpaguace, Peclansemeque, the valley of Xagua, Pechonse, Apechigue, Silos, Canilloha, Manta, Sapil, Manaui, Xaraguasa, and others. Their houses are of wood, roofed with straw, some small and others large, according to the means of the owner.