172 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



on it and cause great disorder, thanks to the still greater cupidity of 

 those who sell it ; these inspectors are to repress and penalize them, 

 like weight inspectors ; but it is not sufficient, the city being so large ; 

 although they punish and penalize them, they continue risking the 

 sale, for the great profit they make out of it. 



487. They have book-printing establishments in this splendid city. 

 In view of the risk of floods from their great lake, they have con- 

 structed an outlet channel by piercing the mountains so that the 

 excess water can run ofif. In the center of it they found horns of a 

 unicorn or rhinoceros (habada) of times long past, which make one 

 think they must have been there since the days of the Flood. Although 

 the outlet has cost the city and the kingdom many thousands of 

 ducats, it is not finished, there is so much to be done. It is being 

 built in the direction of Huehuetocal. Right in the center of the 

 earth or rather the bottom of the drain being made for the outlet, 

 they have likewise found elephants' tusks and other strange things. 



Chapter XXVII 



Of the District of the Diocese of Michoacan. 



488. The city of Michoacan or Patzcuaro, from which the whole 

 diocese takes its name, lies 50 leagues W. of Mexico City, in 19° N. 

 The Cathedral of this diocese is in the city of Valladolid, also named 

 Guayangareo. This was founded by the Militia Captain Cristobal 

 de Olid, with a commission [derived] from Marques Don Fernando 

 Cortes to explore and conquer those provinces, in the year 1522, 

 directly following that in which he took Mexico City. Valladolid 

 is built in a pleasant fertile valley on the banks of a river ; it has 

 a marvelous springlike climate, with bright skies and bracing air : 

 in the Indian tongue it is called Guayangareo ; it will contain 400 

 Spanish residents and many Indians. The Cathedral was originally 

 established at Zinzontla, where the kings of that kingdom held court ; 

 then the first Bishop, Vasco de Quiroga, moved it from there in the 

 year 1544 to where it now is; the Bishop and Prebendaries are in 

 residence there for its services [with zeal in the service of God]. 



489. There are in this city [excellent] Franciscan, Augustinian, 

 and Barefoot Carmelite convents, three nunneries, and other churches, 

 shrines, and excellent hospitals ; in fact, they have them in all the 

 Indian villages of the provinces of this diocese, maintained by all 

 the communities with close attention to the matter of beds, prac- 

 titioners, and luxuries for the invalids, and they nurse them with 

 great care and charity. This province contains fine large lakes with 

 abundance of delicious fish ; in particular, the one near Patzcuaro is 



