Here grows a certain Broom-Plant call’d Totara, good for many uses, and is also wholsom Food both for Man and Beast; moreover, they cover their Houses with the same, burn it on their Hearths, and make Boats. The Uros, a salvage People, made Floats of Totara, which they ty’d together, and built Villages on the same, which drove to and again, according as the Wind blew.
The Lake also breeds abundance of Fish, and especially two sorts, viz. Suches, which are very pleasing to the Palate, but unwholsom; and the Bogas, which though less, and full of Bones, are a much better Food. There likewise breed plenty of Fowls about the same, especially wild Geese and Ducks.
When the Peruvians intend to Entertain any Person, they go to catching of Fowls (by them call’d Chaco) after this manner: They make a Circle with the Floats nam’d Balsas, and Rowing close to one another, take up the inclos’d Fowl with their Hands.
Moreover, the fore-mention’d Channel, through which the Lake Titicaca discharges its Water, ends in a little Lake call’d Aulagas, likewise full of desolate Isles, but hath no visible place into which to empty its Water, therefore it must needs, according to the course of Nature, fall under Ground, where it commixes with a Stream whose original is unknown, though it be seen to fall into the South Sea.
The Town is a Place of extraordinary Wealth and Trading, and so considerable, that the Governor thereof is always nam’d by the King of Spain himself, and his Place estimated at fifty thousand Ducats per Annum.
6. Tiaguanaco, at the Estuary, or Mouth of the Lake, memorable onely for the Ruines of certain great and stupendious Buildings which antiently have stood there, some of the Stones whereof are said to have been of thirty Foot length apiece, fifteen Foot broad, and six or seven Foot thick. There were likewise found the Statues of certain Men excellently Carv’d and Wrought, of a Gigantick stature or bigness, and likewise veiled in foreign and strange Habits, not at all us’d, nor ever known to have been us’d by the Peruvians themselves, or by any other of the Natives of America.
7. Nuestra Sennora de la Paz, or Our Lady of Peace, otherwise call’d Pueblo Nuevo: It is but a small Town, yet pleasantly seated upon the Banks of a River in a fair and fruitful Plain, full of Springs, Fruit-Trees, Savanas, and Fields of Maiz, having Mountains on either side: It lieth almost in the middle of the Province Chuquinabo, fourteen Leagues distant from Cusco, and as many from Potosi. The Province Chuquinabo it self (which in the Peruvian Tongue signifies Inheritance of Gold) hath many rich Gold-Mines, good Salt-pits, and a temperate Climate, except from the beginning of December till March, in which time the continual Rains cause Feavers and Agues. The Inhabitants being very poor People, us’d to go naked in the Summer Season.
8. Copavana, two and twenty Leagues beyond Lopoz: It is onely inhabited by Peruvians; amongst whom an Image of the Virgin Mary, long since erected there, hath been ever in great veneration, especially by reason of a Tradition of a great Miracle there perform’d: for the Spaniards affirm, That Johannes Anachoreta going a Journey of several Weeks from home, plac’d a lighted Candle before the Image, which during the time of his absence did not at all diminish.
A strange Earthquake at Angoanga.
An Accident which fell out in this Countrey is very remarkable, viz. The Ground of an old Village call’d Angoanga, then inhabited by eminent Necromancers, began on a sudden to swell, and the Earth to run like a broken Wave two Leagues, overwhelming the Houses in Sand, and filling up a neighboring Lake.