WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 335 



is one of the richest in that country, for both it and its periphery 

 are paved with very rich veins of gold, which they call lace gold 

 (oro de encaje) ; great amounts of gold have been taken from it. 

 Antioquia has very pleasant, bright weather ; it has a marvelous loca- 

 tion, level and attractive, with salubrious breezes, for which reason 

 the natives consider it one of the healthiest places in the world. 



1005. To the E., on the other side of the Rio Cauca, rises the 

 lofty and famous ridge of Taami ; and to the W. there are high 

 mountains beyond Buritica, from which one gets excellent views of 

 the city and the whole countryside. They drink the water of the 

 Rio Tonusco, which is somewhat hard on account of the numerous 

 salt springs which discharge into it ; but the water is healthy and 

 the springs of great importance for the cattle of the large ranches 

 there. 



1006. In early days there was lively trade and commerce on the 

 part of the Indians with these springs ; they boiled the water and 

 made quantities of salt, and sold it all over the country. At present 

 they make only a little ; it is Salter than ours and milder ; it is colored 

 dark gray like the ground. They have a springlike climate, rather 

 hot than cold. 



Chapter XVII 



Of the Abundance of Cattle, Fruit, and Provisions To Be Found 

 in the District of This State. 



1007. In this district they have abundance of native and Spanish 

 fruit, corn, rice, and other cereals. The Rio Cauca forms some 

 swamps, where they catch quantities of small-mouthed sardines, 

 which have as good a flavor as salmon, and many other kinds of fish. 

 In this country there are many prairies and meadows, pleasant and 

 cheering to the eye and very attractive, which they call sabanas. 

 Twenty leagues from Antioquia is the valley of Aburra, which is 

 one of the most fertile and rich in pastureland, in all the Indies, 

 for which reason it contains great numbers of cattle, sheep, horses, 

 mares, and mules, and produces excellent vegetables and garden truck. 

 Its climate is rather cold than hot. They harvest here great quantities 

 of corn, and four or five varieties of beans, some of them better and 

 bigger than horse beans — the Peruvian pallares de los llanos. They 

 grow abundance of potatoes ; they get honeycombs in the trees, 

 without care or effort; on the land there are wild and domestic 

 swine and every variety of cattle. 



1008. The Rio Cauca, which traverses all this State, carrying along 

 great wealth of gold, rises in the State of Popayan, which it runs 



