SPANISH LETTERS INTERCEPTED 



A.D. 

 1590. 



A letter of the Licentiate Christopher Uslano to 

 Gonsalvo de Solana in the city of Encisa in 

 Spaine, written from the city of Potossi in 

 Peru the 20. of July 1590, touching a great 

 plague in Peru, and the shortnesse of the 

 passage from the river of Plate into Potossi 

 in Peru. 



He last yeere 1588 I received letters 

 from your worship and from my sister : 

 and since that time I have received none, 

 nor in the fleet which came to Cartagena 

 1589. And this yere 1590 there hath Famine. 

 bene great want of corne in this kingdome 

 of Potossi : for that there hath beene no 

 raine in this kingdome of long time. For in March 

 the husbandmen use to sowe their corne : and in Aprill 

 Winter doth begin. And if in April there be no raine, 

 the corne which is sowen will consume away : and so for 

 want of raine we have had two badde yeres of corne. 

 And likewise here hath bene in these countreys of Potossi, 

 and in the city De la paz, great sicknesse among the Plague. 

 Indians, Mullatos, and Mesti9os, called the small pocks, 

 and a certeine plague, which hath destroyed all this 

 countrey. And there have no olde people died, nor 

 Spanyards, but onely this countrey people, from one 

 yeere to 30 yeeres of age : so for want of Indians we 

 can not worke in the mines. This sicknesse runneth 

 al along the coast of Peru, and hath passed into the 

 streights of Magalanes, whence we have newes that those 

 souldiers which were sent from Spain thither to build 

 those forts are most of them dead, & especially the 

 workemen which came to make the forts. The Generall 

 Don Diego de Abolos hath written to his majesty to 

 send more souldiers and more workemen, whereby these 

 three forts might be builded according to the kings 

 commandement. This sicknesse came first from Carta- 



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