The country is extremely fruitful, abounding with sugar canes, maize, fruits and vegetables; also with olives and vineyards: the parts nearest the Andes produce wheat, barley, &c., so that the inhabitants export corn to Panama.
On the coast the sugar cane is cultivated with success. The chief town of the district is Truxillo, which is also the capital of the whole province, and stands in 8° 8' south latitude, and 78° 53' west longitude, 480 miles south of Quito, 268 north-north-west of Lima, in a pleasant situation surrounded with gardens, groves and delightful walks. It was founded in 1535, by Pizarro, at the distance of half a league from the sea, on the banks of a small river; the houses which are chiefly of brick, have a very neat appearance, but are low on account of the frequency of earthquakes; an intendant and the bishop of Truxillo reside here. The inhabitants amount to 5800, and consist principally of rich Spaniards, some Indians, mestizoes and mulattoes; the greatest luxury in this city is that of equipages, few of the Europeans being without a carriage.
A revenue office for the province of Truxillo is established in this town, and it also contains a cathedral, several convents, a college, hospital and two nunneries.
Truxillo is surrounded with a low brick wall, flanked by fifteen bastions; and carries on its commerce by means of its port of Guanchaco, which is about two leagues to the northward, and is the only good harbour on the coast from Callao to Tumbez. Chocope and Biru are the most noted places of this district.
Chocope contains sixty or seventy white families, and twenty or thirty of Indians. It has a fine brick church, eleven leagues north of Truxillo.
Biru in 8° 24' 59" south latitude, contains about seventy families of whites, creoles and Indians, and its situation is pleasant on the high road to Lima, in a fertile vale, well watered with small canals.
The district of Caxamarca lies to the eastward of that of Truxillo, and extends an immense distance between two parallel branches or crests of the Andes. It is extremely fertile, producing corn, fruits and all kinds of esculent vegetables, as well as cattle, sheep and hogs; with the latter of which a thriving trade is carried on with the lowland districts. There are also the celebrated silver mines of Gualgayoc or Chota, near Micuipampa, the galleries of which are above 13,287 feet higher than the sea. The Indians of this extensive district manufacture cotton for sails, bed-curtains, quilts, hammocks, &c., and the chief town is Caxamarca, celebrated as having been the point from which Pizarro carried on his operations, and for being the place where Atahualpa was strangled. The palace of Atahualpa is now inhabited by the family of the Astorpilcos, the poor but lineal descendants of the Incas. It is seated in 8° south latitude, and 76° 10' west longitude, seventy miles from the ocean, on the western slope of the Andes, at the height of 9021 feet.
Micuipampa is celebrated for its silver mines, its height above the sea being 2296 feet more than that of the city of Quito.
Chachapoyas is the next district towards the east and north of Caxamarca situated on the eastern slope of the Andes, and embracing an immense extent of country, in a warm climate.