526 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



Opposite the village of Putica, half a league uphill, is the village of 

 Caniienga ; half a league farther clown to the WSW. is the village 

 of Huancarma, with delicious fish and fruit. At this village they 

 cross the river on rafts made of many bundles of bamboos fastened 

 together; they put their freight on them, the passengers have to 

 lie down flat, and the Indians swim alongside and push till they reach 

 the other bank of the powerful stream. 



1436. Next comes another village named Chircamara ; a league 

 and a half beyond this is that of Qialla (sic), and a league farther, 

 that of Colca, and farther on, Cayara, and half a league from there, 

 a woolen mill for grograms called Chilmero. Half a league beyond 

 this mill is the village of Hualla; another half league brings one to 

 Tiara ; 2 leagues farther on is the village of Canaria, on the other 

 side of the river; this is the largest of the whole 11. These are all 

 built within sight of the river of this Vilcas Province ; there are 

 other smaller villages which I pass over, scattered inland. The whole 

 province is fertile in food crops ; there are cattle, sheep, hog, and 

 llama ranches here. It is 10 leagues from Hualla, the last village 

 in Vilcas Province, along the highway to Aucara, which is in the 

 Province of Los Andamarcas, Soras, and Lucanas. The Corregidor 

 of these provinces resides in Aucara ; in their villages there are five 

 curates who administer the Holy Sacraments to the Indians. On the 

 other side of the river to the S. lie the villages of the Province of 

 Los Soras, and that of Hatunsura, capital of the province and the 

 point where the Diocese of Guamanga borders on that of Cuzco. 



1437. Four leagues from Aucara, in the midst of the cold puna, 

 lies a little Indian village of salters, called La Sal (salt), because 

 they make fine white salt from salt springs, boiling it in jars ; that 

 is where those provinces get their salt. It is a miracle if these poor 

 Indians abandoned there in the desert, ever see a priest ; I, though 

 an unworthy minister of the Lord, being desirous of pleasing Him 

 by preaching His Divine Word over those vast territories, carried 

 with me all the appurtenances for saying Mass. I reached that 

 village on Shrove Tuesday at night in the year 161 7. At my arrival 

 they were overjoyed ; I said Mass for them with due formality, and 

 I ministered to their spiritual needs, and they assured me that it was 

 over a year since they had heard Mass, and many years since on that 

 feast day they had had Mass or received ashes ; and I baptized the 

 Indian children and grown boys who should have been christened 

 many months or years earlier. 



1438. From this village it is 14 leagues of desert country traveling 

 W. crossing the uninhabitable puna ; when I went through it snowed 



