498 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



daytime there are jejenes (gnats) and rodadores (rollers), which 

 stick tight and bite so that it burns. As a defense against such a 

 terrible and unceasing visitation, they have their house doors made 

 of cane so skilfully laid and intertwined that the light comes through, 

 but the mosquitoes, tiny as they are, cannot enter. At night they 

 have the long-legged (zancudo) mosquitoes, which not only distract 

 one with their buzzing but bite savagely ; it is with such torments 

 and troubles that they enjoy the fertility of their valley. 



1387. From the town of Camana it is 24 leagues to the city of 

 Arequipa, and 13 to the harbor of Hilay, which is the chief port 

 of Arequipa ; it is 18 leagues from the port of Hilay to Arequipa. 

 Accordingly, on leaving Camana for Arequipa, one travels 5 leagues 

 along the seashore when it is low tide, and at times on the top of 

 a sandbank along the water's edge. In this region they get excellent 

 catches of lisas and other fish which they salt for the sierra and 

 the Provinces of Arequipa and of Cuzco, inland. At 5 leagues one 

 leaves the sea and travels E. inland, ascending through some very 

 good lomas, where large numbers of cattle are pastured in season, 

 although all this country is deep in ashes from what fell in the 

 eruption of the volcano in the Province of Los Ubinas, 16 leagues 

 from Arequipa, in the year 1600; since it caught all this country 

 close by, the volcano caused more devastation here than elsewhere. 

 Apart from this detail I will say that when I was in that region, 

 which was in 1617 and 1618, the inhabitants gave me information 

 about it. These lomas produce more than 3 leagues of excellent 

 thick grass, where large numbers of cattle are pastured, as has been 

 described in the case of the others. Beyond these lomas come 6 

 leagues of uninhabitable sandy desert and ashes, in which lie great 

 numbers of dead oxen, cows, bulls, horses, mules, sheep, and goats, 

 dried up in the ashes and the sand ; when they passed through, the 

 sun is so intense and there is no water, so that they gave out and 

 perished ; this is an ordinary occurrence before reaching the Siguas 

 Valley, [very fertile, and abounding in vineyards and other fruit, 

 and crayfish]. One passes some deep caves, and one sees nothing 

 till right on them, though it is all level country, and then there is 

 over a league of steep downgrade till one reaches the [valley and] 

 river. Although this is not very wide, there are many groves and 

 orchards of fruit trees and figs, and vineyards, which come in sec- 

 tions, wherever the deep river has offered a suitable location for 

 planting them ; the distance between them is such that sometimes 

 the next one is visible, sometimes it is half a league off, more or less, 

 according to the availability of the site. On all of them there are 



