WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 609 



such security. The one who originated this bridge was Capac 

 Yupangui, fifth King of Cuzco, in the year 1160. Its groundwork 

 consists of four cables made of rushes, cattails, and other straw ; 

 each is as thick as a man's thigh ; two are fastened and secured on 

 one bank of the river and thrown across the stream ; each will be 

 over 150 paces long, for that is the width of the river. They tie them 

 tight on the other bank and then strew large thick bundles of these 

 rushes, cattails, and icho, which they fasten and tie to the cables, 

 so that they will unite and form one body. On this foundation they 

 set the other two cables and fasten them to the thick bundles and 

 the other cables ; then they lay great quantities of small sheaves of 

 these reeds and icho on them and interweave them one with another 

 so that several form a mat, and in this way it is made quite safe. 

 It is over a yard and a half thick, 12 to 14 feet wide, and some 

 150 paces long, which is the width of the river. Every 6 months 

 the Indians of the region whose business it is, renew it. 



Chapter II 



Of the Province of Omasuyo and the Holy Relics Preserved There. 



1621. On the other side of the lake to the E. as one goes toward 

 Potosi, next the Province of Asillo comes the extensive Province 

 of Omasuyos, in which the Viceroy appoints a Corregidor for its 

 satisfactory administration. Its chief village is Omasuyo ; then come 

 Los Ancoraynes, Huacho, and Tiahuanaco, which contained those 

 proud and magnificent buildings. Near the village there is a ridge 

 or artificial hill, where they began their construction ; beside it stand 

 two figures of remarkable size and elaborately carved, with broad 

 vestments like those in the Old Testament, and with a sort of diadem 

 on their heads ; these must have been idols. Near these figures there 

 was a massive and very ancient wall and other constructions built 

 of stone blocks of remarkable size and carved in diflferent ways. 

 They say that the Inca Kings of Cuzco got their inspiration from 

 these ancient buildings for the construction of their proud buildings, 

 walls, and fortress in Cuzco, for in this latter there are stone blocks 

 over 38 feet long, 18 broad, and 6 thick. The Indians have a tra- 

 dition that these buildings date from many centuries before the 

 Incas reigned. Here in Tiahuanaco there are other noteworthy 

 memorials of those days, but I forbear writing of them in order to 

 tell what there is today in this Province of Omasuyo. 



1622. The village of Carabuco is very famous in that Kingdom 

 for that miraculous Cross, which the Indians considered to date 



40 



