In which the account of what there is in this country is concluded, as far as the boundary of Pasto.

THERE is another rather large river in this country of the Pastos, called Ancasmayu,[257] which is the point to which the King Huayna Ccapac, son of the great captain Tupac Ynca Yupanqui, extended his conquests. Having passed the hot river, and the mountain beyond it, the road continues over some plains and hills, and crosses a small paramo,[258] where there was no little cold when I travelled over it. Further on there is a high mountain, on the summit of which a volcano sends forth quantities of smoke at intervals, and in times past, the natives say, it threw out volleys of stones. Coming from Popayan, this volcano is left on the right-hand side. The town of Pasto is situated in a very beautiful valley, through which a river of very sweet and wholesome water flows, fed by numerous springs and brooks. This valley is called Atris, and was formerly very populous, but the inhabitants have now retired to the mountains. It is surrounded by mountains, some wooded and others bare, and the Spaniards have their farms and hunting-lodges in the valley. The banks of the river are always sown with much excellent wheat, barley, and maize, and there is a mill where the wheat is ground, for in this town they do not eat maize-bread, owing to the abundance of wheat. In the plains there are quantities of deer, rabbits, partridges, doves, pigeons, pheasants, and turkeys, and the Indians take many in the chase. The land of the Pastos is excessively cold, and in summer it is colder than in winter, the same thing occurring in the town of the Christians, insomuch that the company of a wife is by no means irksome to a husband, nor is plenty of clothes disagreeable. The delightful town of Pasto was founded and settled by the captain Don Lorenzo de Aldana, in the name of his Majesty, the Adelantado Don Francisco Pizarro being his governor and captain-general of all the provinces of Peru, in the year of our Lord 1539. The said Lorenzo de Aldana was lieutenant-general for the same Don Francisco Pizarro in Quito, Pasto, Popayan, Timana, Cali, Anzerma, and Cartago. He governed them all, either himself or through lieutenants whom he named, and, as is said by many conquerors in these parts, he ordered that the natives should be well treated during the whole time that he was in command.[259]