WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUP:Z DE ESPINOSA 321 



have lOO Spanish residents ; its cHmate is hot. In its district and 

 valleys there are large sugar plantations ; they put up wonderfully 

 delicious preserves. They raise Spanish and native fruit, plenty of 

 wheat and corn, and have cattle and sheep ranches ; they gather 

 quantities of cotton, and work up very fine henequen fiber. There is 

 rich gold ore, and wherever it is worked, they get gold of the finest 

 quality. " 



Chapter VIII 



Of Other Matters Pertaining to the District of the City of Tunja ; 

 and of the City of Pamplona. 



956. Two leagues from the city of Tunja, on the way to Bogota, 

 is the source of the Rio de Meta; and the Rio de Casanare rises 

 3 leagues from Chita, a Corregimiento in the jurisdiction of Tunja. 

 These rivers after receiving other rivers and watercourses, unite and 

 form a mighty stream, which flows eastward and is perhaps the 

 chief component of the Orinoco ; after a course of 300 leagues, it 

 passes through the Provinces of Guiana, where the city of Santo 

 Tome has been established. On their banks grow many valuable trees, 

 from which are derived aromatic extracts, such as balsam, canime, 

 liquidambar, and others, benzoin, storax, dragon's blood, copal, and 

 other medicinal fruits and roots. 



957. In the village of Turmeque, an Indian Corregimiento 5 

 leagues from Tunja, the Indian alcaldes, at the chief's orders, arrested 

 a mestizo whom they had caught in some thefts, after he had been 

 warned and rebuked ; and as he had made no improvement, the chief 

 sentenced him, on that occasion in view of his offenses, to 200 strokes 

 of the lash. When he had been notified and had heard the verdict, 

 he said he wanted to see the chief and was very insistent about it. 

 Finally the chief acceded to the mestizo's prayers and importunities 

 and came to see him ; whereupon the mestizo told to his face : How 

 did it come about that he sentenced him, the son of a Spaniard and 

 under the jurisdiction of Spanish justice — a thing impossible to do? 

 The chief, who was shrewd and discreet, replied to the mestizo: 

 "Where were you born? Here, or in Spain? Is your mother an 

 Indian woman or Spanish?" and told him to answer formally. The 

 mestizo answered that he was born^here, and the son of an Indian 

 woman. Then the chief said : "Since I have jurisdiction over what 

 of you is Indian, on your mother's side, I will give you the 200 

 lashes, according to the sentence ; and as for the rest of you, Spanish 

 on your father's side, I'll turn you over to the Spanish authorities, 

 for them to chastise you in that regard, for what concerns them." 



