362 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



trade, and on the King's Highway and a necessary transit point for 

 all those coming from the Spanish Main and the New Kingdom of 

 Granada to Peru. There is a large service contingent in the city, 

 Indians, Negroes, and mulattoes, and within a district of 5 leagues 

 [from the city] it has over 40 Indian villages [very large and thickly 

 settled and very] well supplied with corn, wheat, peanuts, small 

 beans, and other cereals, with many sorts of native and Spanish fruit 

 which bear abundantly. 



1094. There is a Circuit Court in the city, with President and 

 Justices, for legal matters, for administrative matters belong to the 

 Viceroy of Peru ; it is at this city [and its jurisdiction] that the 

 Kingdom of Peru begins. There is a Bishop here with a very fine 

 Cathedral and its Prebendaries who reside there and conduct the 

 services, with many clerics. It has seven parish churches, San Se- 

 bastian, San Marcos, Santa Barbara, San Bias, and San Roque and 

 Santa Prisca [and others whose names I do not recall]. All possess 

 the Holy Sacraments and administer them to their Spanish and Indian 

 parishioners. It has two fine Dominican convents, one in the city, 

 and the other, of very strict observance and known as the Recollect 

 convent, as one leaves the city for Lima ; two Franciscan convents, 

 the principal one in the center of the city and the other, of Recollects, 

 on a suburban height above the city, known as San Antonio, and 

 able to rival in excellence and architectural finish any other anywhere ; 

 two Augustinian convents, one (a very fine one) belonging to the 

 parent order and chief chapter for the province, and the other of 

 Recollects, only recently established ; and [there is a fine] Merce- 

 darian convent. All these convents maintain schools. There is a 

 [very fine] Jesuit convent with a [very good] college which is [like] 

 a seminary, with students wearing sashes and studying Arts and other 

 sciences. There is one [excellent] nunnery, La Concepcion, with 

 200 nuns, and another of Santa Clara and Santa Catalina de Sena, 

 [very fine], and another named Santa Marta, which is a house of 

 correction. There are [many] other churches and shrines, and 

 [excellent] hospitals where they care for the sick. This city has a 

 Corregidor who is appointed by [the Royal Council] His Majesty 

 for its administration, [Royal Officials], a Council of Aldermen, 

 and other functionaries, emphasizing the importance of this city. 

 Near it to the N. is the field or valley of Afiaquito, where Gonzalo 

 Pizarro gave battle to Viceroy Nufiez Vela and defeated him Monday 

 afternoon January 18, 1546, in which battle the Viceroy and many 

 others in His Majesty's service, lost their lives. 



