VI INTRODUCTION 



ministrative authority) (923), and Buenos Ayres another (1828). 

 Juan de Lezama should receive aid from His Majesty for the defense 

 of Guiana, threatened by Walter Raleigh, of whose expeditions and 

 defeats he gives graphic accounts (157. 159; 135 ff., 141, 156 f.). 

 Capt. Carrasco should be sent soldiers to subjugate the Cunianagoto 

 Indians, especially as he is opposed by the Governors of Cumana and 

 Caracas (250). A subvention should be given someone to subdue 

 Honduras (710). The Corregidor of Cuenca should be directed by 

 the Council to pacify the Jibaros Indians (1129) ; in 1787 ff., similar 

 recommendations are made for Tucuman. Santo Domingo should 

 have a naval force for its protection (113), and Jamaica, a garri- 

 son (336). The Arica fort should have more artillery (1415), and 

 Valdivia be made a fortified city (1982); reference to the index 

 will show his intense interest in fortifications to keep off the Dutch and 

 English heretics. Vazquez was also keenly interested in the economic 

 side of Spanish dominion and gives us a wealth of data about prices 

 and commerce (see index). He even recommends that the King send 

 slaves for the mines to Tegucigalpa (704) and Bogota (945, 951), 

 and that the miners receive further aid by a devaluation of the silver 

 dollar (1675), as urged in his own memorial printed in 1623. 



But Vazquez' prime purpose, as he remarks in 1612, is "the descrip- 

 tion of the provinces," with "a bit of everything for the reader's 

 entertainment" (96), and an occasional "story for dessert" (1123). 

 And through the dates he gives, we can follow in part the journeyings 

 on which his keen observations are based ; but it is impossible to outline 

 them in detail. His descriptions of Tucuman and Paraguay, e.g., are 

 obviously those of an eyewitness, but there is no personal reference; 

 neither is there in Chile, though he remarks (1953) that he spent the 

 best part of his life there. The earliest year mentioned is 1612, when 

 he was in Mexico City (434). In 1613 he visited Leon, Nicaragua, 

 "for the first time" (739) and was at Amapala on Trinity Sun- 

 day (665). He mentions being in San Antonio de Zaruma, Ecuador, 

 in 1614 (1132). Ill in 1615, he took the baths at Cajamarca (1183), 

 and became Chaplain Major of the abortive expedition gathered at 

 Chachapoyas for the conversion of the Motilones Indians (1191); 

 his preparations cost him over 4,000 pesos, and all for nothing, 

 thanks to the Devil's efficient solicitude for his poor savage devotees. 

 In 1616 he visited Huanuco (1363) and Chavin, near Huailas (1372), 

 inspected the Huancavelica mines (1471) and was awe-struck by the 

 Pucara ( 1474). The dates he mentions in 1617-1619 are all in Peru — 

 in 1617, at Chincha (1343) ; lost in the desert south of Pisco (1359) ; 

 near Arequipa (1387); and on Ash Wednesday, 4 leagues from 



