WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 527 



SO hard that on that desert one of my mules and an excellent saddle 

 horse were frozen to death. On these cold wastes there are nothing 

 but miches, a sort of huts for the shepherds, where they look after 

 large herds of llamas ; over these punas roam countless numbers of 

 wild llamas which they call cimarron, the vicunas and guanacos. 

 I suffered many trials in these deserts in my efforts for the spiritual 

 relief of these Indians, who live up there like brute breasts, without 

 knowledge of the Faith, and many of them still in their idolatries. 



1439. After crossing these 14 leagues of desert, one reaches the 

 village of Hatunlucana, capital of the province. From this village 

 to the Nasca Valley, the last in the Archdiocese of Lima and where 

 large amounts of the best wine in the Kingdom are produced, it is 

 16 leagues of desert, all of it cold country until one reaches Tambo 

 Quemado, 4 leagues before Nasca, where the climate is already spring- 

 like. Four leagues N. of Hatunlucana is the village of Puquio, with 

 two curates ; near this is another named Santiago ; these belong to 

 the Corregimiento of Los Lucanas. The river which rises in these 

 provinces passes into the Acari Valley, which is in the plains country 

 along the coast in the Diocese of Arequipa ; along the sierra it borders 

 on the province of Los Parinacochas, the westernmost of the Diocese 

 of Cuzco ; on the N. the Province of Los Lucanas adjoins that of 

 Los Chocorvos, in which was founded the city of Castrovirreina, 

 in the Indian language called Chocloccocha, of which I shall write 

 in the following chapters. 



Chapter LXI [62] (63) 



Of the City of Castrovirreina, of Its Founding, and When Its 

 Mines Were Discovered. 



1440. The Marques de Cafiete, Don Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, 

 being Viceroy of Peru, was notified and informed of the silver mines 

 discovered in the year 1590 in the ranges known as San Juan del 

 Griego and La Trinidad. He commissioned Don Pedro de Cordoba 

 Mexia, a Knight of the Order of Santiago, to establish a town and 

 call it Castrovirreina and apportion 2,000 Indians from the adjoining 

 provinces for work in the mines and for service in the city and do 

 all else necessary for its permanence. He searched for the best loca- 

 tion and decided on one in a plain called Coycapalca, which in the 

 Indian tongue means union of two rivers. Having celebrated the 

 formalities necessary for its founding he parceled out the home sites 

 and named the Aldermen, taking possession of it in His Majesty's 

 name on July 22, day of the Magdalen, in the year 1591. From 



