WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 499 



houses and wineries for the vintage and wine making, and some have 

 ovens to bake the jars used for the wine. The tar for pitching them 

 is imported from [New Spain, shipped at] the port of Realejo 

 in the Province of Nicaragua, from Amapala and other ports [of 

 less importance for this product. Usually] In these valleys a quintal 

 of pitch sells for 30 reals at 8 to a peso, whereas it costs only 3 reals 

 there. The vineyards and farms in this valley run from near the 

 sea, where the Rio de Vitor empties into it, up to the end [of the 

 valley], over 10 leagues up to the heights of the sierra in the Provinces 

 of Los Collaguas and Condesuyos. On all these farms they have 

 [their] fruit and vegetable gardens, with tracts in alfalfa [which 

 is a plant which they have in the Kingdom of Valencia, which is 

 almost exactly like clover, and usually grows the whole year through], 

 which they plant all over the plains in Peru as forage for beasts of 

 burden. In this valley they will produce more than 70,000 jugs of 

 wine. All these vineyards are very different from those in the valleys 

 of lea, Pisco, Nasca, and the rest of the lowlands ; there the vines 

 are a stade high, like those artificially trained, and here they are low 

 boles, like those in Andalusia [a little higher than those in Castile.] 

 The viduenos are all black, as has been previously stated, but they 

 have a few mollar (seedless?) and other varieties, although in small 

 numbers, for it is the black type which has proved best in that king- 

 dom. This [Siguas] valley is hemmed in on both sides by desert 

 dunes of sand and ashes, and the wind keeps blowing them from one 

 side to the other. 



1388. From this valley one travels over 5 leagues of level country 

 through these ashes and sand dunes just mentioned to the Vitor 

 Valley. This also is deep, for the river drops into some caverns 

 toward the earth's center. This is the river which runs past the city 

 of Arequipa [which is 7 leagues from this point, where the river 

 broadens out] and renders its country rich and prolific ; [in this 

 A'alley] they have very fertile and extensive vineyards, which widen 

 out touching one another ; they get over 100,000 jugs of wine, because 

 at this point the valley where the vineyards are planted is very wide. 

 They have excellent establishments and storehouses to keep their 

 wine, [many vessels and] ovens where they bake the jars and the 

 jugs ; there are [besides] good orchards of fruit trees and figs. 

 All these plantations and those in the Siguas Valley belong to resi- 

 dents of Arequipa, and when the volcano erupted they were burned 

 up and devastated. This river joins the Rio de Siguas near the sea 

 by the harbor of Hilay, which is the port of the city of Arequipa, 

 18 leagues W. of it [and 13 S. of Camana]. From the Vitor Valley 



