Though At Twelve Leagues
Distance From The Sea, This Place Is Very Conveniently Situated For Trade,
As Vessels Can Easily
Import thither by the river Quilca all sorts of
European commodities for the supply of the city of Cuzco and
The province
of Charcas, which are much frequented on account of the mines of Potosi
and Porco; and from whence large quantities of silver are carried to
Arequipa, to be transported by sea to Lima and Panama, which saves a vast
expence and risk of land-carriage; now become more difficult since his
majesty has forbidden those heavy burdens upon the Indians by which they
were formerly oppressed. From this city we travel four hundred leagues by
land along the coast of the South Sea to the province of Chili, which was
discovered and in part colonized by the governor Pedro de Valdibia, or
Baldivia. In the language of the Indians the word _Chili_ signifies cold;
and it was so named by the Peruvians because of the terribly cold
mountains which were necessary to be passed on the way thither from Peru,
as will be particularly mentioned when we come to detail the perilous
enterprize undertaken by Don Diego de Almagro when he marched to discover
that distant country. Such is a rapid view of that portion of Peru which
is called _the plain_; to which must be added that the sea along its
entire coast is always smooth and tranquil, from which it has been called
the _Pacific Ocean_, being never vexed with storms, or disturbed by high
and low tides; so that vessels can everywhere ride in perfect security at
single anchor.
Those Indians who inhabit the mountainous regions of Peru are entirely
different from the inhabitants of the plain, whom they vastly exceed in
strength, courage, and mental abilities. They live in a much less savage
manner, having houses covered with earth, and being clothed in shirts and
mantles made from the wool of their sheep[21]; but their only head-dress
consists in a species of bands or fillets. The women wear a species of
vestments like shifts without sleeves, and gird their waists with several
turns of a woollen girdle, which give them a neat and handsome shape;
covering their shoulders with a mantle or plaid of woollen cloth like a
large napkin, which they fix round the neck with a large skewer or pin of
silver or gold called _topos_ in their language, with large broad heads,
the edges of which are sharpened so as to serve in some measure the
purposes of a knife. These women give great assistance to their husbands
in all the labours belonging to husbandry and household affairs, or rather
these things fall entirely to their lot. Their complexions are much fairer,
and their countenances, manners, and whole appearance, are greatly
superior in all respects to the natives of the plain. Their countries
likewise differ entirely; as instead of the sterile sands which are
everywhere interspersed over the plain, the mountain is covered through
its whole extent with verdure, and is everywhere furnished with rivulets
and springs of fine water, which unite to form the torrents and rivers
which descend so impetuously into the plain country.
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