The Indian village of Puracé, near the capital, is celebrated as being situated on a plain above the city of Popayan, called the Llano del Corazon, 8694 feet above the level of the sea, on the side of the volcano of Puracé; this plain is carefully cultivated by the Indians, and is bounded by two deep ravines, on the brink of whose precipitous sides they have built their houses; the appearance of this village is therefore highly picturesque, and the gardens are surrounded with hedges of euphorbiums, contrasting their elegant verdure with the black and disrupted mountains which surround the volcano.
A small river, called Pusambio, forms, near this place, three considerable cataracts, one of the falls being more than 390 feet, and joins the Cauca in the valleys below. To add to the singularity of this fall, the water is warm towards the source, and so very acid, that it obtains the appellation of the Vinegar River; the acidity destroying the fish in the Cauca, for more than four leagues after it joins that river.
GOVERNMENT OF ATACAMES.
Tacames, or Atacames, is a newly formed government, north of the presidency of Quito, and included in the jurisdiction of its audience. It is bounded on the north by the government of Popayan, whose district of Barbacoas is its frontier; westward, by the Pacific or South Sea; southward, by the district of Guayaquil; and east, by the western Cordillera of the Andes. It reaches along the coast of the southern ocean, from the island of Tumaco, in 1° 30ʹ north latitude, to the bay of Caracas, in 0° 34ʹ south latitude. This country lay neglected for a length of time after the conquest of Quito, and the Indians of the district are yet in a state of nature, coming only from their woods to sell fruits and drugs, at the metropolis of Southern Granada. It was conquered by Sebastian de Benalcazar, but its importance remained unknown till 1621, when Delgadillo was appointed governor of the province of Tacames and Rio de Esmaraldas, in order to open a communication by land on the coasts, but failing in so doing, he was superseded, and Menacho was appointed in his place in 1626, with no better success. He was succeeded by two others, who were also unable to clear a communication between Quito and Terra Firma. In 1735, Maldonado effected a part of this object, by opening a road between the capital and the river Esmaraldas, for which service he was rewarded by the king; as in 1747 this country was formally declared a government, and Maldonado was named the intendant.
This intendancy contains twenty towns, which are small and poor, five being on the sea coast, and the others in the interior; the coast towns are inhabited by Spaniards, creoles and negroes; the inland places by Indians, a very few Spaniards, mulattoes, and negroes; and eleven priests, govern the spiritual affairs of the whole, visiting the inland towns by turns.
The climate of Atacames is hot, and resembles that of Guayaquil, producing the same fruits, vegetables and grains.
Vanilla, achiotte, indigo and sarsaparilla, are cultivated, or found in great abundance; and the forests which cover the greater part of the country are famed for the noble and lofty trees they are composed of, which appear fit for all architectural purposes.
Great quantities of wax are made and exported, and the cacao of Tacames is not inferior to that of Guayaquil, yielding more profit, as from the higher situation of the sloping land it grows on, it receives all the necessary moisture, without being subject to be drowned.
The capital of this government is Tacames, in the bay of Atacames on the Pacific Ocean, 110 miles north-west of Quito, in 0° 52ʹ north latitude, 62 degrees west longitude, having about twenty miles south of it, the famous mine of emeralds, which has been long supposed to have been lost.