520 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



eagles (guaraguaos), pelicans, and others which obscure the heavens; 

 they also devour and pursue these shoals ; so, seeing themselves 

 pursued by the large fish in the sea and the birds up above, they 

 dash up on the coast beyond the water line in such quantities that 

 for 2 or 3 leagues the shore is covered with these fish, and boats 

 can be loaded with them. Then the poor people come down and 

 many of the natives and gather great numbers and dry them in the sun 

 both to keep and to take up into the sierra. I saw this myself the 

 year I was in that city and they assured me that it occurred regularly 

 every year without fail. Apart from this, the city is well supplied 

 with delicious fish, and some Spaniards have grown rich from the 

 fish trade alone. The Indians also kill those redoubtable sea lions 

 and skin them ; they sew the skins and fasten them up tight and then 

 blow them up with air, and with two of them they float a raft ; these 

 are their boats and with them they go 3 or 4 leagues out to sea to 

 fish in great security and return loaded down with fish ; when I saw 

 this I was astonished and I gave thanks to Our Lord, who is to be 

 glorified in all things. 



1421. On this coast there are some very large birds, to be found 

 also all over Peru, but those in this region are much larger, and 

 different ; they call them condors ; there are black and mottled ones ; 

 they are so large that from one wing tip to the other it is over 16 feet. 

 They are very savage and most of them have very tall crests, like 

 those of roosters. They come up to the savage sea lions, which are 

 sometimes larger than yearling calves ; they lie stretched out in the 

 sun, and are clumsy on land, having no feet, but supporting them- 

 selves on their fins when they come out on land ; and although they 

 have very large and fierce teeth and tusks, these savage birds lay 

 siege to them and they make skillful passes at their eyes and gouge 

 them out ; and so in their fight with them, they kill and eat them. 

 The eggs they lay are a little smaller than ostrich eggs. 



1422. All these remarkable things are to be found in the district 

 of this city, with many others worth regarding which I forbear men- 

 tioning in my desire to avoid prolixity. The city is well supplied with 

 excellent meat and poultry. The bread ranks among the best to be 

 found in that Kingdom and is very palatable ; it has to be eaten 

 fresh, for it gets a slight flavor of guano, though not enough to be 

 unpleasant. It has many varieties of excellent Spanish and native 

 fruit, and marvelous olives, which are gathered in the valley ; at 6 

 leagues from the city in the valley which comes down from Codpa, 

 to the S., they have vineyards. Six leagues farther is the Rio de 

 Camarones (crayfish), so named from the quantity they get from it. 



