WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESriNOSA 357 



pasturage for cattle. It is a little beyond i° N., and has a springlike 

 climate. It is on the King's Highway between Popayan, 40 leagues 

 to the N., and Quito, 44 to the S. It is in the district of the State 

 of Popayan, and ecclesiastically, in the Diocese of Quito. The Pacific 

 lies 40 leagues W. ; its location is opposite Gorgona. 



1081. The country is very prolific ; provisions are cheap and excel- 

 lent. They raise much wheat, corn, and other cereals in abundance, 

 both Spanish and indigenous. They have very fine sugar plantations, 

 and all kinds of Spanish and native fruit, with large cattle and sheep 

 ranches and countless hogs, with which they supply this country and 

 ordinarily export much to Lima, a distance of 400 leagues ; there 

 are also mare and mule ranches, quantities of poultry, and rich gold 

 ore, though of low grade. In its jurisdiction, together with that of 

 Pasto, it has more than 24,000 Indians, who have not been dying 

 ofif, as in other provinces. These Indians work as agricultural 

 laborers and on the hog ranches. 



1082. The city has over 300 residents, with an excellent parish 

 church and Dominican, Franciscan, Augustinian, and Mercedarian 

 convents, a nunnery and a hospital for the care of the indigent sick. 

 The city is well laid out and supplied with cheap and excellent pro- 

 visions. The Governor of Popayan appoints a Corregidor here, for 

 its good government and the administration of justice. In this 

 province there is a stream of hot water, very pleasant to the taste ; 

 it is on the King's Highway from Pasto to Popayan. After this 

 river comes the sierra from which Gonzalo Pizarro pursued Viceroy 

 Blasco Nuiiez Vela in the year 1545 up to the Rio Angasmayu, 

 which was the limit of the conquests of King Huayna Capac. This 

 river of hot water comes down from a volcano which is continually 

 emitting flame and smoke, beyond the sierra ; it has erupted in times 

 past, and done great damage in the country. 



1083. On this paramo of Papallacta, near the lake where the Magda- 

 lena and the Cauca have their source, another lake gives rise to the 

 Rio de Saqueta, which flows E., and at 40 leagues from its source 

 runs through the city of Agreda, which has been established in the 

 Province of Mozoa in a wooded country; it has some 10 encomen- 

 deros, with 400 Indians in their service. It belongs to the State of 

 Popayan. 



1084. Beyond this city, this Rio de Saqueta becomes very sizable, 

 and runs through level country, though surrounded by mountains. 

 This river is the main stream of the great river Orinoco, which 

 traverses the Province of Guiana and empties into the Atlantic by 

 so many mouths that it forms a sea. Crossing the Cordillera to the 



