WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 345 



Council of the Indies. It will contain 150 Spanish residents, among 

 them 24 encomenderos of Indians of the Panches tribe ; they were 

 brave and warlike cannibals, and had public feasts of human flesh. 



1040. In this city there is a parish church and a Dominican and 

 a Franciscan convent. Its climate is rather hot than cold, and the 

 country is rough ; it has cattle and sheep ranches, sugar plantations, 

 and quantities of native fruit. Fish are abundant in the rivers, and 

 there are rich mines of free gold, for the ground is full of it. 

 Guillermo de Vergara, grandfather of Ensign Utrera, campaigned 

 in these provinces and in those of Pamplona. 



1041. Here are the Lajas de Plata (Silver Slab) mines, which 

 are very rich ; they have 32 mills to grind the ore. This city was 

 founded and settled in the year 1536 by Commander Don Sebastian 

 de Belalcazar ; the Indians massacred many Spaniards, and later, 

 seven of his encomenderos. Some Spanish captains came in to 

 chastise the savages, but they never could accomplish anything, for 

 the savages were warlike and the country very rough and rocky. 



1042. Finally the task of pacification was entrusted to Gen. Juan 

 Melendez de Valdes, a gentleman of well-known energy, caution, 

 and courage ; in the numerous fights he had with them, he broke 

 them up and defeated them, killing many of them, until he subdued 

 them and brought them into servitude, since when they have stayed 

 quiet and peaceful there. 



1043. The town of Timana is in this Corregimiento ; it is 60 

 leagues from Bogota, and was established by Capt. Lope de Salzedo 

 lauregui as a station on the way to the State of Popayan and the 

 Kingdoms of Peru, and to open up a route for the commerce of those 

 provinces. It is 40 leagues from Popayan ; it was founded by Com- 

 mander Don Sebastian de Belalcazar in the year 1537. There used 

 to be in this jurisdiction and province more than 20,000 Indians. 

 The city has a very delightful and healthy climate, and looks attrac- 

 tive and handsome ; it possesses abundant pasturelands for cattle, and 

 so there are large ranches. The Indians and the Spaniards in this 

 country make very good preserves, for they have abundance of wild 

 honey gathered and stored by the bees in the woods, and much 

 excellent fruit to make them with, and in particular, very good 

 almonds which grow on tall trees, out of which they make delicious 

 nougat, which they take to the Almaguer mines and others ; for in 

 all those provinces there are many deposits of gold ore. 



1044. In this jurisdiction of Timana there are large plantations 

 or chacras of the prized coca of the Indians, which for them is a 

 magic herb. The shrubs which produce it are low ; the leaves look like 



