538 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



whatever is necessary for their care and comfort. This i tomin 

 amounts each year to 71 assay pesos and 4 tomines. This account 

 of these provinces must suffice ; we must avoid proHxity. 



Chapter LXVII [68] (69) 



Of the Town of HuancaveHca and Its Quicksilver Mines. 



1462. Thirteen leagues ENE. of the city of Castrovirreina, on the 

 same puna, lie the town and the quicksilver mine site of HuancaveHca ; 

 the city of Guamanga is 30 leagues distant, to the ESE. 



1463. To reach HuancaveHca from Lima by the Sierra, one travels 

 through the Jauja Valley, and then through a cold mountain country 

 to the tambo of Acos, which is 7 leagues from Jauja ; there are many 

 buildings there from the time of the Incas. From this tambo there 

 is a climb of about a league over a bad road, up to the view of the 

 river which runs through the Province of Jauja ; at this point the 

 road passes some extensive caves, and then goes downhill for some 

 2 leagues ; when it crosses the river by the Angoyaco bridge, which 

 is built of stone and spans the river with one single arch, the tem- 

 perature is already delightfully springlike. There is a small Indian 

 settlement on the river bank. At this point one leaves the King's 

 Highway, which continues to Guamanga, Cuzco and all the upland 

 country, and takes the right-hand road leading to HuancaveHca. 

 It is a climb of over 2 leagues to the village of Huando, which belongs 

 to the Province of Los Huancas. After this come 5 leagues of cold 

 puna ; then the road goes down over a hillside which brings a lovely 

 valley into view, in the midst of the puna ; it is here that the town 

 of HuancaveHca is situated. 



1464. Near this valley in which the town is built, rise some high 

 ranges, in which the rich quicksilver mines are located ; these are 

 thick layers of this ore, already exploited by the Indians in the days 

 of their heathendom in order to extract the minium or vermilion, 

 which the ancients revered as a sacred color ; some Indians called it 

 llimpi, others ychma. The Indians exploited these ranges at the com- 

 mand of their Inca kings, without knowing or realizing that this 

 other metal existed there; they merely extracted the vermilion to 

 paint themselves with it, as in other ages the Romans also made use 

 of it for their triumphs and celebrations, as well as for painting 

 Jupiter's face; and they held it in high esteem, as Pliny says, and 

 imported it for that purpose from Spain ; and in Ethiopia the kings 

 and governors anointed their faces with it and their gods and idols. 

 The Indians so used it in their festivities and to make themselves 



