WHEN the marquis Don Francisco Pizarro determined to found a city in this province, he did not select the site where it now stands, but chose an Indian village called Guamanga, which is the reason why the city received the same name.[427] The village was near the great Cordillera of the Andes. The marquis left the captain Francisco de Cardenas as his lieutenant here. After some time, and from various causes, the city was removed to the place where it now stands, which is on a plain, near a chain of hills on its south side. Although a small plain half a league from the present city, would have been a site more pleasant to the inhabitants, yet they were obliged to give it up owing to the want of water. Near the city a small stream of very good water flows, at which the citizens drink. In this city the best and largest houses in all Peru have been built, all of stone, bricks, and tiles, with tall towers, so that there is no want of buildings. The plaza is level and very large.[428] The climate is very healthy, for neither the sun nor the air do harm, nor is it damp nor hot, but it possesses an excellent and most salubrious temperature. The citizens have also built houses where they keep their flocks, in the valleys adjoining the city. The largest river near the city is called Viñaque, near which there are some great and very ancient edifices, which are now in ruins, but appear to have stood for many ages.[429] When the Indians are asked who built these ancient monuments, they reply that a bearded and white people like ourselves were the builders, who came to these parts many ages before the Yncas began to reign, and formed a settlement here. These, and some other ancient edifices in this kingdom do not appear to me to be like those which were erected by order of the Yncas; for their buildings were square, and those of the Yncas are long and narrow. It is also reported that certain letters were found on a tile in these buildings. I neither deny nor affirm that, in times past, some other race, possessed of judgment and intelligence, made these things, and others which we have not seen.
On the banks of this river of Viñaque, and in other adjacent parts, they reap a great quantity of wheat, of which they make bread as excellent as the best that is made in Andalusia.[430] They have planted some vines, and it is believed that in time there will be many extensive vineyards, and most other things that grow in Spain. There is abundance of all the fruits of the country, and so many doves that there is no other part of the Indies where they are so numerous. In the spring there is some difficulty in getting enough fodder for the horses, but, owing to attendance from the Indians, this want is not felt. It must be understood that at no time do the horses and other beasts feed on straw, nor is any use made of what is cut, for neither do the sheep eat it, but all are maintained by the grass of the field.
The outlets to this city are good, but in many parts there are so many thorns and briars that it is necessary for travellers to be careful, whether they go on foot or on horseback. This city of San Juan de la Victoria de Guamanga was founded and settled by the marquis Don Francisco Pizarro, governor of Peru, in the name of his Majesty, on the 9th day of the month of January, 1539.
CHAPTER LXXXVIII.
In which some things are related concerning the natives of the districts near this city.
MANY Indians have been given in encomienda to the citizens of Guamanga, and notwithstanding that they are numerous, yet the wars have caused the destruction of great numbers. Most of them were Mitimaes, who, as I have already said, were Indians transported from one province to another, the work of the Kings Yncas. Some of these were Orejones, although not of the principal families of Cuzco. To the eastward of this city is the great mountain chain of the Andes. To the west is the coast of the South Sea. I have named villages which are near the royal road. The others have very fertile land round them, and large flocks. All the Indians go about clothed. They had temples and places of worship in secluded corners, where they performed their sacrifices and vain ceremonies. In their burials they practised the same customs as all the other Indians, interring live women and treasures with their dead. After they were brought under the yoke of the Yncas, they adored the sun, and adopted the laws and customs of their conquerors. Originally they were a brave race, and so warlike that the Yncas were hard put to it, when they invaded their country; insomuch that, in the days of the Ynca Yupanqui, after the Soras and Lucanas (provinces inhabited by a robust people) had been subdued, these Indians fortified themselves, in great numbers, in strong positions. For, to preserve their liberty, and escape servitude under a tyrant, they thought little of hunger and long protracted wars. Ynca Yupanqui, covetous of the rule over these people, and jealous of his own reputation, besieged them closely for more than two years; at the end of which time, after they had done all they could, they surrendered to the Ynca.
When Gonzalo Pizarro rose in arms, the principal citizens of Guamanga, from fear of his captains, and from a desire to serve his Majesty, after having raised a standard in his royal name, marched to this same stronghold to fortify themselves (as I myself heard from some of them), and saw the vestiges of the former war spoken of by the Indians. All these Indians wear certain marks by which they are known, and which were used by their ancestors. Some of them were much given to omens, and were great sorcerers, pretending to predict what would happen in the future, on which occasions they talked nonsense, as all must do who try to foretell what no creature can know; for God alone can tell what is about to happen.
CHAPTER LXXXIX.
Of the great buildings in the province of Vilcas, which are beyond the city of Guamanga.
THE distance from the city of Guamanga to that of Cuzco is sixty leagues, a little more or less. On this road is the plain of Chupas, where the cruel battle was fought between the governor Vaca de Castro and Don Diego de Almagro the Younger. Further on, still following the royal road, are the edifices of Vilcas, eleven leagues from Guamanga, which, say the natives, was the centre of the dominions of the Yncas; for they assert that from Quito to Vilcas is the same distance as from Vilcas to Chile, these being the extreme points of the empire. Some Spaniards, who have travelled from one end to the other, say the same. Ynca Yupanqui ordered these edifices to be built, and his successors added to them. The temple of the sun was large and richly ornamented. On one part of the plain, towards the point where the sun rises, there was a chapel for the lords, made of stone, and surrounded by a low wall, which formed a terrace about six feet broad, with other steps upon it, on the highest of which there was a seat where the lord stationed himself when he said his prayers. This seat was made of a single enormous stone, eleven feet long, and seven broad. They say that this stone was once set with gold and precious stones, for it was thus that they adorned a place held by them in great veneration. On another stone, which is not small, in the centre of the open space, they killed animals and young children as sacrifices, whose blood they offered to their gods. The Spaniards have found some treasure on these terraces.