326 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



Indies — and the city of Pedraza. The port of San Pedro is on Lake 

 Maracaibo; this is where they come from all the cities of these 

 provinces with their products, to ship them. In the other direction, 

 toward the W., this State is bounded by the district of Tunja, Velez, 

 and La Pahna, the State of Los Muzos, and Cohmas. 



Chapter XI 



Of the Provinces of Los Muzos and Cohmas, and the Emerald 

 Mines To Be Found There. 



973. The Provinces of Los Muzos and Colimas are 24 leagues 

 ENE. of Bogota, bordering on the territory of Tunja and Velez. 

 The Indians of these tribes were very brave warriors and very hard 

 to subdue ; they were cannibals and carried out devastating raids 

 on the Moxca Indians, their neighbors, bringing troops of them back 

 to their own country, where they made cannibal feasts on them. They 

 seized these provinces from the Mauras and other tribes and drove 

 them out, to settle later on the banks of the Rio Grande de La 

 Magdalena. The subjugation of these provinces was begun by a few 

 Spaniards, in particular by Gen. Pedro de Ursua, a cousin or nephew 

 of Licentiate Miguel Diaz de Almendariz ; when he had subdued 

 part of this tribe, he established Tudela in a valley on the banks 

 of the Rio Zarbi near the sierras. This was abandoned in consequence 

 of the continual forays of the savages from the sierras ; so he set 

 out with the idea of exploring the Provinces of El Dorado ; and 

 finding other large provinces toward the E. with plenty of natives 

 and wealth of gold and provisions, he founded and established the 

 city of Pamplona, as has been noted. 



974. The Muzos and Colimas Indians, greatly set up because they 

 had driven the Spaniards out of that region and made them abandon 

 the new city, joined forces with Saboya, chief of the Moxca tribe, 

 and massacred a few Spaniards and many Indians of adjoining tribes 

 who had been converted ; they carried many of them off to eat, being 

 guilty of great treachery and deceit in so doing; and thus they 

 exterminated great numbers of Indians in the jurisdictions of Bogota, 

 Tunja, and Velez. 



975. On learning of the great harm caused by these savages, Gen. 

 Luis Lanchero set out with Captains Bartolome de Soto, Juan de 

 Poveda, and others, and a large force of well-armed soldiers, to 

 subdue and chastise them, and in the Province of Paya, belonging 

 to the jurisdiction of Velez, they proposed to establish the first 

 Spanish settlement, in the name of the Most Holy Trinity (Santisima 



