6l8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



richness of the mines. It has a Corregidor and Officials of the Royal 

 Patrimony appointed by His Majesty in consultation with the Royal 

 Council of the Indies. Twelve leagues away within its district it has 

 the old mines of Berenguela, from which much wealth has been 

 derived, and those of Colquiri recently discovered, which give promise 

 of great richness. 



1638. The town has a cold climate. It is very well supplied with 

 provisions ; from Arica via Tacna they import quantities of jugs of 

 wine, and Spanish goods come up the Potosi King's Highway as far 

 as Choroma, where the road for this town branches off to the left 

 from the Potosi highway and proceeds to Corquemarca, which is 

 the chief village in the Province of Los Carangas. From there one 

 goes to Toledo, a village in the Province of Paria, and from Toledo 

 to Challacollo, 7 leagues, crossing the Outlet River (Desaguadero) 

 by boat. There is abundance of meat ; an excellent merino sheep 

 sells for 12 reals; they have Paria and Cochabamba hams, the best 

 there are. The plaza in this town is very well supplied with bread, 

 meat, fish, and fruit ; there are many merchants' shops. The houses 

 in the town are thatched with the straw they call icho — I do not know 

 whether to call it the custom of the country or because they lack 

 wood, for there is not a tree in all this country, it is so cold ; they 

 have to cart all their wood in, as they do flour and corn meal, which 

 they call vilcaparo and out of which they make the Indian beverage 

 called chicha ; this provides a large business, and so does the coca 

 which they import from the Andes, and the pepper called uchu which 

 they bring up from the Locumba and Sama Valleys. This brief 

 account must suffice, to enable us to describe the Cochabamba Valley, 

 which is 30 leagues E. of this town. 



Chapter VI 



Of the Famous Cochabamba Valley and Its District. 



1639. In the Cochabamba Valley, which is over 5 leagues long and 

 2^ wide, the town of Oropesa was founded in the year 1571, in the 

 days of Don Francisco de Toledo, the same year in which they began 

 to use the quicksilver process on the silver ore at Potosi. This town 

 of Oropesa is called Camata in the Indian tongue, and is the capital 

 of this valley. It will have 300 Spanish residents and many Indians, 

 living in this town and on its farms scattered over all the valley; 

 among the residents many are of noble descent, from pioneers or 

 knights. It has an excellent parish church with two curates, Domini- 

 can, Franciscan, Augustinian, and Mercedarian convents, and a very 



