WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 485 



goats, hogs, and sheep (or llamas), as well as many savage wild 

 animals ; they live on the beans which fall from the trees, and their 

 meat is excellent and well-flavored. On the Nasca road there are 

 5 leagues of these woods, so thick that the highway is the only way 

 to get through them, and one sees nothing but woods and sky ; note 

 that where they are, it never rains nor has it ever rained. [And 

 after leaving the guaranga woods, there are 9 leagues] and at the 

 end there is a puquio or jagiiey where they get drinking water. The 

 9 leagues following, up to the Huayuri Valley, are all sandy desert, 

 and they usually start out in the evening to cross them during the 

 night, for the great heat during the day is apt to kill many of the 

 animals, and one has to be a very good driver or expert in following 

 the route or take a guide, for it often happens that people get lost 

 in these sandy wastes, as was my lot in the year 1617, when I saw 

 myself in dire straits because my guide had given out. Some who 

 have long experience of this stretch [are used to] carry corn and 

 water along to give to their mules or horses at the halfway point, 

 so that they may not get overtired and collapse, as many have. 



1360. Fourteen leagues S. of the town of lea is the Huayuri Valley ; 

 it is small and very sandy. It is not visible until you get into it, and 

 it seems impossible that in the center of these sandy deserts there 

 should be this valley with 2 big vineyards and others smaller in it ; 

 they get over 20,000 jugs of wine out of it, of the best [and most 

 refined] quality produced in Peru. The watercourse passing through 

 the valley carries water only in the winter, in floodtime ; when it 

 gives out, it is all absorbed by the sand, but never fails in the puquios 

 or wells, either for drinking or for irrigating the vineyards. Two 

 leagues farther on [beyond this valley] is another stream which they 

 call the Rio Grande, with another little one beside it ; there is an 

 Indian village there, and right beyond is the stream of El Ingenio 

 already referred to, where they produce more than 70,000 jugs of 

 wine ; five leagues farther is the Rio de la Nasca. Although all these 

 rivers have no water in the winter, in summer, which is floodtime, 

 they are very dangerous. La Nasca is ']2 leagues from Lima, at 

 14° S. All these rivers, and the Rio de lea, empty into the sea near 

 the port of Caballos. [This must suffice for the Corregimiento of 

 lea and its valleys; their extent and wealth are such that they pay 

 large sums in tithes to the Archdiocese of Lima. Now we are to treat 

 of the jurisdiction of the Corregimientos of the city of Leon de 

 Huanuco, all of which belongs at present to the Archdiocese of Lima.] 



