WHOLE VOL, THE WEST INDIES — VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 325 



Other cereals and root crops of both Spanish and native varieties. 

 They have wonderful pasturage in the district, and so there are large 

 cattle and mule ranches ; there is much gold and silver ore. The city 

 will contain 300 Spanish residents, with a parish church, Dominican, 

 Franciscan, and Augustinian convents, a hospital, and other shrines 

 for worship. This city was founded by this Capt. Juan Rodriguez 

 Suarez in the year 1547; afterward he headed a campaign into the 

 Provinces of Venezuela, and after subduing and pacifying many 

 tribes, he founded among other cities, Santiago de Leon, now called 

 Caracas. He was engaged in pacifying those districts when he re- 

 ceived word, late in 1560, that the corsair Lope de Aguirre had come 

 down the Marafion and had done much damage there and in Mar- 

 garita ; and when fuller details of everything had reached him, to the 

 effect that the rebel was attacking the Borburata and Nueva Valencia, 

 he left the city of Barquisimeto where he was, for the relief of the 

 other Spaniards resident in those provinces, from the rebel's attack, 

 at the end of the year 1560. But on the slopes of Terepayna he was 

 met by a great multitude of savages, who killed the few Spaniards 

 he had with him ; he himself, after killing many of the savages, being 

 exhausted by the heat and thirst, and worn out by his exertions, 

 leaned up against a rock and died there ; but the savages did not dare 

 touch him even after his death, such was his courage and the repu- 

 tation he had among the savages. I have set out of its right order 

 the story of the death of this captain, worthy of eternal praises, 

 because he founded the city of Merida. 



971. There are other cities in the district of the State of Merida : 

 that of Espiritu Santo de La Grita, which will contain as many as 

 80 Spanish residents ; it lies 20 leagues from Merida, toward Pam- 

 plona; at the start this was the capital of the State. Five leagues 

 from this city there is a volcano which erupted with a great earth- 

 quake on February 3, 1608; the earthquake was so severe that a 

 hill flew up from where it was, near the volcano, and came down 

 over a league away on a small stream, whose waters it turned aside 

 and dammed, forming a lake which flooded much territory. Near 

 La Grita is the city of San Cristobal, which will contain 100 Spanish 

 residents. 



972. Capt. Juan Pacheco Maldonado, after his career in this State, 

 established at the mouth of the Rio de Zulia, on the banks of the 

 Lake of Maracaibo, the city of San Matias, which has a few Spanish 

 residents. Besides this there are two other cities, but with only a 

 few Spanish residents: the city of Barinas, so famous for the cele- 

 brated tobacco grown and prepared in its district — the best in the 



