A.D. 



1570. 



Suchetepec. 

 Guasacapan. 



Guatimala. 



Sonsonate. 

 San Salvador. 

 Acaxutla. 



Nkoia a port 

 where ye ships 

 which goe to 

 thePhilippinas 

 are builded. 

 [III. 458.] 



THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



tians cary from thence into Nova Hispania, for that it 

 will not grow in any colde countrey. The Indians of 

 this countrey pay the king their tribute in cacao, giving 

 him four hundred cargas, and every carga is 24000 

 almonds, which carga is worth in Mexico thirty pieces 

 of reals of plate. They are men of great riches, and 

 withall very proud : and in all this province thorowout, 

 there dwell not twenty Christians. I travelled thorow 

 another province called Suchetepec ; and thence to the 

 province of Guasacapan : in both which provinces are 

 very few people, the biggest towne therein having not 

 above two hundred Indians. The chiefest merchandise 

 there, is cacao. Hence I went to the city of Guatimala, 

 which is the chiefs city of all this kingdome : in this city 

 doe inhabit about 80 Spanyards : and here the king hath 

 his governours, & councell, to whom all the people of the 

 kingdome repaire for justice. This city standeth from 

 the coast of the South sea 14 leagues within the land, and 

 is very rich, by reason of the golde that they fetch out of 

 the coast of Veragua. From this city to the Eastward 60 

 leagues lieth the province Sonsonate, where I solde the 

 merchandize I caried out of Nova Hispania. The chiefest 

 city of this province is called S. Salvador, which lieth 7 

 leagues from the coast of the South sea, and hath a port 

 lying by the sea coast, called Acaxutla, where the ships 

 arrive with the merchandize they bring from Nova 

 Hispania ; and from thence lade backe againe the cacao : 

 there dwell heere to the number of threescore Spanyards. 

 From Sonsonate I travelled to Nicoia, which is in the 

 kingdome of Nicaragua, in which port the king buildeth 

 all the shipping that travell out of the Indies to the 

 Malucos. I went forward from thence to Costa rica, 

 where the Indians both men and women go all naked, 

 and the land lieth betweene Panama, and the kingdome 

 of Guatimala : and for that the Indians there live as 

 warriers, I durst not passe by land, so that here in a 

 towne called S. Salvador I bestowed that which I caried 

 in annile (which is a kinde of thing to die blew withall) 



366 



