WHOLE VOL. THE WEST JNDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESFINOSA 481 



vines there and these have produced with such prolific abundance 

 that it is the foremost grape district in the world, and the wine made 

 from them is the best and evenest, and so brings a higher price than 

 any other. This is the way they grow these grapes : as it never rains 

 there, the earth produces a finger or two of alkali (salitre) on top; 

 they remove that, and the occasional trees growing on those plains ; 

 the majority are a desert tree called guarangos ; we call them algarro- 

 bos, because their beans look like carob (algarroba) beans, although 

 they are white ; they have about the same taste ; besides alfalfa, 

 which in [the whole Kingdom of Peru and especially] in the plains 

 they grow for mules and horses, they fatten them also on algarroba 

 or guaranga ; [then] with the leaves of this tree [which they gather 

 and make great piles of], as soon as they have removed the alkali, 

 they guano (guancar) all the soil, Avhich means they manure it, and 

 so it is fertilized and yields in such great abundance that it is a 

 blessing of God. In all these little depressions there are also many 

 very nice fruit trees — pomegranates, quinces, figs, apples, and all 

 other Spanish varieties ; with nothing but that fertilization, the cool- 

 ness of the sand, and some dampness which is communicated from 

 distant rivulets along subterranean veins and the porosity of the sand, 

 they yield with great abundance. It is worth noting that when the 

 rivers are full and come down in flood, these depressions where the 

 vines grow, are not very moist and cool ; but when they dry up and 

 lack water, these sinks are very fresh and damp and even have a 

 little water. The reason in my opinion is [surely] that when the 

 rivers come down in flood, the water rushes along roily, muddy, and 

 full of sediment, and so with its speed and sediment, it does not 

 percolate through the sand and the veins of the earth and pass on 

 to these remote sinks. And the reason why they are damp when the 

 rivers are low is that they flow without flood violence but gently 

 and, as they say, al amor del agua (borne along downstream), and 

 the water itself though scant is clear and crystalline, so that it per- 

 colates through the subterranean veins and passes on to these sinks 

 in greater volume. There are many other reasons I might adduce 

 to reinforce this trutli, but this must suffice for the explanation of 

 a fact so unprecedented and which seems contrary to reason. 



Chapter XL [41] (43) 



Of the City of lea and Its Fertile Vineyard Valleys. 



1352. Five leagues from Pisco on the lea road are the Villacuri 

 sinks, where the rebel Francisco Hernandez Jiron crushed Pablo de 

 Meneses and His Majesty's forces, because they had killed the scouts 

 32 



