64 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



lake, there is a city or town, which is more than 3 leagues across, 

 called Manoa; this possesses great wealth in gold and silver and 

 other valuables, and they affirm that it has one street more than 2 

 leagues long, of goldsmiths and silversmiths, who fashion the metals 

 after their method ; they say also there are large herds of goats and 

 other livestock there ; all the buildings in this city are of very skill- 

 fully hewn stone ; they say it lies near a great salt lake which is 200 

 leagues long, 100 across, and over 600 in coast line ; round about it 

 He more than 3,000 towns with 3,000, 4,000, or 5,000 Indians each, 

 and in the lake there are many islands with large towns and many 

 lords and chieftains who govern them ; and they have innumerable 

 canoes and dugouts, which are the boats in which they sail from one 

 point to another. 



166. They travel to this great city of Manoa from all the border- 

 ing provinces as to a metropolis, with the products and merchandise 

 of their territories, and they trade in them there. From the Provinces 

 of Guiana and those bordering on them, they say one can go in 10 

 days to the Province of Selve, from which they carry their products or 

 merchandise on their shoulders i day's journey to Lake Parime ; 

 from there they travel by boat to the Salt Lake, where they trade 

 with the natives who live in the district of Manoa. They say also 

 that one can go there by the Rio Caperuza, along whose banks grows 

 much brazilwood and other valuable timber, with however few in- 

 habitants ; near there is the Rio Papago. The Indians living in that 

 region travel 20 days in their dugouts to the city of Manoa, on the 

 Rio Casane, which is large and with beautiful views ; the Indians 

 living in its vicinity transport on this river their products to the city 

 of JNIanoa ; these Indians are gentle and well-disposed. 



167. The tribes living round about the great Lake of Manoa are 

 the Anibales, the Parimes, the Docios, the Pompones, the Nobines, 

 and innumerable other tribes of varying costumes and rites of wor- 

 ship ; and as I relate in book II, chapter V of part II, their towns 

 are encircled by mountain ranges ; and all through that region also 

 Manoa is well known, as is attested by the Indians of those 

 provinces — the Neguas, the Sefios, the Tamas, the Acanecos, the 

 Atuatas, and the other adjoining tribes in that quarter. This informa- 

 tion is confirmed also by the report of the English knight Duarte 

 Roles in a letter which he wrote to H. M. King Philip II of glorious 

 memory, in the year 1596, giving an account and description of these 

 provinces and their wealth, and the large cities that there were in 

 them, since he had traveled 3 years along those coasts and had 

 received from the natives information about everything. 



