WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES — VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 517 



that this city and port be secure and adequately defended. There 

 is a parish church, a Mercedarian convent and the shrine of Santa 

 Lucia. The residents keep over 1,000 mules in great herds for the 

 transportation of goods to Potosi, the Charcas, and all the upland 

 country, and to bring back the silver to the port; they have large 

 flocks of llamas also, and they are all needed, for the traffic is great 

 and the way long and part of it through desert country [and the 

 country very rich] ; so people flock here from all sides. 



1416. There is a Corregidor here, appointed by the Council, and 

 Royal Officials ; and since there is so much traffic and transportation, 

 and it is so remote from Arequipa and far more so, the Provinces 

 of Tarapaca and Pica, in which no Bishop has ever been seen since 

 the original discovery, the city has been long petitioning for [the 

 appointment of] a Bishop, to meet the needs felt by [it and] its 

 provinces ; in fact, as has been said, they have never seen a Bishop, 

 and the Indians, rather than go as far as Arequipa for dispensations, 

 never go through the marriage ceremony : there is much idolatry 

 because of the lack of a Bishop and the indifference of the priests. 

 I am an eyewitness of this and did something to help out by visiting 

 in the year 1618 the Indian villages of Lluta, Socoroma, Putre, 

 Tocrama, Lagnama (Tagnama?), Lupica, Sacsama, Timar, Codpa, 

 Cibitaya, Isquiiia, Pachica, San Francisco de Umagata, Santiago de 

 Umagata, Chapiquiiia, and Azapa ; they lie in a district over 70 

 leagues long, some in hot valleys, some in the sierra, and at a distance 

 from each other ; most of the natives living within the jurisdiction 

 of Arica on those uplands are intelligent; but thanks to the lack of 

 prelates, the priests or curates who had charge of them, neglected 

 them, and they were Christians only in name. I made wattle doors 

 for all their churches ; I baptized many advanced in years, women 

 who had borne children and young men who were fully grown ; 

 I burned down one village by the name of Isquiliza because most 

 people there were idolaters. There were many who had not gone 

 to confession once in their lives, and others who had not for 10, 12, 

 or 20 years. If there were only a prelate in Arica, the curates would 

 be more apprehensive and conscientious. Forty leagues to the S. it 

 contains the Tarapaca and Pica Valleys, which are rich in wheat, 

 corn, wine, and quantities of fish. The Province of Atacama might 

 be united with them ; it runs up that same coast as far as the Mo- 

 quegua Valley mentioned above. The Corregidor of Arica appoints 

 four deputies in this district : one for the Locumba and Sama Valleys ; 

 another in Tatacana ; another for the upland villages described above ; 

 and another for the Tarapaca and Pica Valleys. On the other side 



