178 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



San Miguel, and San Felipe, the town of Leon, the town of Xacona; 

 and 10 Corregidores, in Chilchota, Cuyseo, Guayameo, and Sindareo, 

 Tancitaro, Tajimaroa, and Marabatio, Tuxpan, and Zapotlan, Tlaza- 

 zalca, Tingiiindin, Jiquilpan, Xaso, and Teremundo. Besides these, 

 the Marques del Valle (in the district of this diocese) appoints the 

 Corregidor of Matalzingo (the only post under his jurisdiction up 

 to the present in this diocese). 



Chapter XXVII 



Of the City of Antequera [Founded in the Oaxaca Valley, and 

 the District of the Diocese.] 



504. The city of Antequera, which is built in the Oaxaca Valley, 

 lies 80 leagues ESE. of Mexico on the King's Highway to Chiapas 

 and Guatemala. These provinces were conquered by Juan Nunez de 

 Mercado, a Captain under Fernando Cortes, in the year 1522. In the 

 same year, under commission from Fernando Cortes, the city was 

 colonized by Juan N^uhez Sedeno and Fernando de Badajoz, in this 

 Oaxaca Valley. The city has more than 500 residents ; its Cathedral 

 is one of the best and finest in the Indies ; Bishop and Prebendaries 

 reside there to conduct its services. The city lies in i7°4o'; it has 

 splendid convents ; the Dominican is rich and perfectly finished 

 [one of the finest in the Indies] ; it has over 100 friars, with a school 

 of Arts and Theology; it is the head convent for the province. It 

 has also Franciscan, Augustinian, Mercedarian, and Jesuit convents, 

 and the nunneries of Santa Catalina de Sena, Santa Clara, and La 

 Concepcion ; a hospital, and other churches and shrines. 



505. The Oaxaca Valley begins at the Sierra of Cocola in the 

 district of Huajotitlan ; it has a springlike climate ; they harvest 

 quantities of wheat, corn, and all Spanish and native cereals ; all 

 kinds of Spanish fruit, and many delicious native sorts, yield well, 

 thanks to the fertile soil and good climate ; so the city is well supplied 

 with cheap and delicious food. They raise cacao in this district ; 

 they have sugar mills ; they produce cochineal, annatto, very fragrant 

 pepper, coyol, and a little berry with which they make quantities of 

 rosaries; they gather sarsaparilla, copal resin, anime (courbaril) 

 resin, and all sorts of medicinal fruits and roots ; and in the Provinces 

 of Upper and Lower Mixteca [which belong in the district] they 

 produce and work up great quantities of very fine silk; the first to 

 introduce and raise silkworms was the Licentiate Delgadillo, a native 

 of Granada, a Circuit Judge in Alexico. In this city they make the 

 best and most delicious chocolate in the Indies. 



