Which touches upon the provinces in this great and beautiful valley, up to the city of Cali.

FROM the city of Popayan this valley begins to spread out like a level plain between the chains of mountains, and is twelve leagues broad, more or less. In some parts it is narrower, and in others broader, and the river which flows through it becomes so narrow that neither boat, nor balsa, nor anything else can pass, by reason of the fury of the stream, and of the stones which come down in it. Boats are upset and go to the bottom, and thus many Spaniards and Indians have been drowned and much merchandise lost, for the rapidity of the stream is such that they have no time to get on land.

All this valley, from the city of Cali to these rapids, was formerly very populous, and covered with very large and beautiful villages, the houses being close together and of great size. These villages of Indians have wasted away and been destroyed by time and war; for, when the Captain Don Sebastian de Belalcazar, who was the first captain to discover and conquer this valley, made his entry, the Indians were bent on war, and fought with the Spaniards many times to defend their land, and escape from slavery. Owing to these wars, and to the famine which arose on account of the seeds not having been sown, nearly all the Indians died. There was another reason which led to their rapid extermination. The Captain Belalcazar founded, in the midst of the Indian villages in this plain, the city of Cali, which he afterwards rebuilt on its present site. The natives were so determined not to hold any friendship with the Spaniards (believing their yoke to be heavy) that they would neither sow nor cultivate the land; and from this cause there was such scarcity that the greater part of the inhabitants died. When the Spaniards abandoned the first site, the hill tribes came down in great numbers, and, falling upon the unfortunates who were sick and dying of hunger, soon killed and ate all those who survived. These are the reasons why the people of this valley are so reduced that scarcely any are left. On one side of the river, towards the east, is the Cordillera of the Andes, and on the other side there is a larger and more beautiful valley called Neyva, through which flows the other branch of the great river of Santa Martha.[239]

In the skirts of the mountains there are many villages of Indians of different nations and customs, who are very barbarous, and who all eat human flesh, which they hold to be very delicious. On the highest parts of the mountains there are some small valleys which form the province of Buga. The natives of these valleys are brave warriors; and they watched the Spaniards who came to their country, and killed Cristoval de Ayala, without any fear.

When he, of whom I have spoken, was killed, his goods were sold in the market at excessive prices. A sow was sold for 1600 pesos, together with a small pig. Sucking pigs went for 500 pesos, and a Peruvian sheep (llama) for 280 pesos. I saw these sums paid to one Andres Gomez, now a citizen of Cartago, by Pedro Romero of Anzerma. The 1600 pesos for the sow and the pig were paid by the Adelantado Don Sebastian de Belalcazar, out of the goods of the Marshal Don Jorge Robledo. I even saw that very sow eaten at a banquet which was given on the day we arrived at the city of Cali with Vadillo. Juan Pacheco, a conqueror who is now in Spain, bought a pig for 220 pesos, and knives were sold for 15 pesos. I heard Jeronimo Luis Texelo say that, when he went on the expedition with the Captain Miguel MuÑoz, which is known as that of La Vieja, he bought a shoemaker’s knife for 30 pesos, and shoes went for 8 pesos of gold. A sheet of paper was sold in Cali for 30 pesos. I might relate other facts of this kind to the glory of the Spaniards, as showing how cheap they held money, for if they required anything they thought nothing of it. They bought pigs in the sow’s belly, before they were born, for 100 pesos and more.

I would now request the judicious reader to reflect on and wonder at what countries were discovered and settled between the year 1526 and the present year 1547: and, thinking upon this, he will see how great are the deserts of the discoverers and conquerors who have laboured so greatly in this work; and what reason his Majesty has to give thanks to those who passed through those labours, and served loyally without butchering the Indians. Those, however, who have been butchers are deserving of punishment, in my opinion. When this province was discovered they bought a horse for 300 or 400 pesos, and even now there are those who have not yet paid their old debts, and who, covered with wounds received in the service, are shut up in prison until they can pay the debts demanded by their creditors.

On the other side of the Cordillera is the other valley which I have already mentioned, where the town of Neyva was founded. Towards the west there are still more villages and Indians in the mountains, but I have already given the reason why those in the plains nearly all died. The villages of the mountains extend to the shores of the South Sea, and stretch away far to the south. Their houses, like those I described in Tatabe, are built on trees like granaries; they are large, and contain many inhabitants. The land of these Indians is very fertile and prolific, and well supplied with swine and tapirs, and other game, such as turkeys, parrots, pheasants, and abundance of fish. The rivers are not poor in gold, indeed we can affirm that they are very rich in that metal. Near these villages flows the great river of Darien,[240] very famous on account of the city which was founded near it. All these Indians also eat human flesh. Some of them use bows and arrows, and others staves, clubs, darts, and long lances. Towards the north of Cali there is another province, bordering on that of Anzerma, the natives of which are called Chancos. They are so big that they look like small giants, with broad shoulders, robust frames, and great strength. Their faces are large and heads narrow; for in this province, in that of Quinbaya, and in other parts of the Indies, when a baby is born, they force the head into the shape they may choose; thus some grow up without an occiput, others with a raised forehead, and others with a very long head. This is done when the child is just born, by means of certain small boards fastened with ligatures. The women are treated in the same way. The Chancos, both men and women, go naked and barefooted, with only a cloth between the legs, made, not of cotton, but of bark, taken from a tree and made very fine and soft, about a yard long, and two palmos broad. They fight with great lances and darts; and occasionally they leave their province to wage war with their neighbours of Anzerma. When the Marshal Robledo entered Cartago for the last time (which he ought not to have done), that he might be received as the lieutenant of the Judge Miguel Diaz Armendariz, certain Spaniards were sent to guard the road between Anzerma and the city of Cali. These men encountered certain of these Chancos, who had come down to kill a Christian who was going to take some goats to Cali, and one or two of the Indians were killed. The Spaniards were astonished at their great size.

In the hills and valleys which sweep down from the Cordillera to the westward, there are many Indian villages, extending to the vicinity of the city of Cali, and bordering on the district of the Barbacoas. The natives have their villages scattered over the hills, the houses being grouped in tens and fifteens, sometimes more, sometimes less. They call these Indians Gorrones, because, when the city of Cali was founded in the valley, they called the fish gorron, and these Indians came in laden with them, calling out, “gorron! gorron!” Not knowing their correct name, the Spaniards named them after the fish they carried, Gorrones: just in the same way as they named the Indians of Anzerma after the salt, which in their language is anzer. The houses of these Indians are large and round, and roofed with straw. They have few fruit trees, but plenty of gold of four or five quilates, though little of the finer sort. Some rivers of fresh water flow near their villages. Near the doors of their houses they keep, from motives of pride, many feet of the Indians whom they have killed, and many hands. They preserve the insides, that they may lose nothing, and hang them up in rows like sausages in great quantities, and the heads and entire quarters are also kept. When we came to these villages with the Licentiate Juan de Vadillo, a negro belonging to Juan de Cespedes, seeing these bowels, and thinking they were really sausages, would have eaten them if they had not been hard and dry from time and smoke. Outside the houses they have many heads placed in rows, entire legs, arms, and other parts of bodies, in such abundance as to be hardly credible. If I had not myself seen what I write, and did not know that there are now many people in Spain who have also seen it, I would not venture to state that these men are such butchers of other men for the sole purpose of eating them; but we know for certain that these Gorrones are great butchers in the matter of eating human flesh. They have no idols, nor did I see any house of worship, but it is publicly known that some of them converse with the devil. Neither priests nor friars have gone amongst them, as they have in Peru and other parts of the Indies, for fear of being killed.

These Indians are separated from the valley of the great river by a distance of two or three leagues, but they go down to fish in the great river and in the lagoons, returning with great store of fish. They are of middling stature, and fit for little work. I only saw the men wearing cloths, but the women are dressed in large cotton mantles. Their dead are wrapped in many of these mantles, which are about three yards long and two broad, and fastened by cords. Between the mantles they put golden ornaments, and then bury the bodies in deep tombs. This province is within the jurisdiction of the city of Cali. In the ravine of the river there is a village, which is not very large, owing to the wars which have destroyed the population. Near it there is a great lake formed by the overflow of the river, but which is drained when the river is low. In this lake the Indians kill a vast quantity of very savoury fish, which they give to travellers, and with which they trade in the cities of Cartago and Cali, and in other parts. Besides the quantity they thus dispose of, or eat themselves, they have great deposits for sale to the Indians of the mountains, and great jars of grease taken from the fish. When we were engaged in exploring with the licentiate Juan de Vadillo, we arrived at this village very short of food, and found some fish. Afterwards, when we came to found the town of Anzerma with captain Robledo, we found enough fish here to load two ships.

This province of the Gorrones is very fertile, and yields plenty of maize and other things. There are many deer, guadaquinajes, other wild beasts, and birds in the woods. But the great valley of Cali, once so fertile, is now a desert of grassy land, yielding no profit to any but the deer and other animals who graze in it, for the Christians are not in sufficient numbers to occupy such extensive tracts.