632 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



with a voice and vote in the Council ; his office brings him in an 

 income of 6,000 ducats annually, plus many perquisites. Accordingly, 

 although this site is desert, as has been said, it is nevertheless the 

 largest settlement in the Indies. It stretches out in suburban wards 

 and tribes of Indians, over slopes and ravines (which they call guaycos 

 here), and there will be over 80,000 Indians in them, not counting 

 women and children. Some have come to live and settle down here 

 because it is so rich, and they earn an ample living, working on the 

 range in the mines and mills and other activities ; there are likewise 

 artisans of every craft, and their variety of merchants and traders ; 

 and others who were assigned to the mita from distant regions, from 

 all the provinces around Cuzco, and the entire Collao, have also 

 settled down here, for they say that here they are free from the 

 vexations which might be inflicted on them, and when their turn 

 comes for the mita, they are there at hand, ready to take part in it. 



1664. This country is normally very cold, a consequence of its 

 high altitude, its situation in the midst of the Cordillera and within 

 the sphere of other snow-clad ranges, from which the tomahabe 

 winds blow from May till the end of August. These are very cold, 

 and you hardly can sprinkle your house before it freezes. The other 

 months (when this tomahabe wind no longer blows) are more 

 temperate, but always cold. Accordingly for 6 leagues around Potosi 

 no crops or trees can grow, and there is no grass on the range, the 

 earth of which is dark reddish in color, and in places like burnt ashes. 



In the neighborhood of Potosi, once these 6 leagues are passed, 

 there are valleys with a marvelous climate, with vineyards and all 

 kinds of Spanish fruit and many native, sugarcane, melons, cucum- 

 bers, quantities of Spanish vegetables. In these valleys, just as in 

 all the rest of the country, the plazas are full of every sort of 

 supplies — bread, meat, every variety of fruit God has created in the 

 world, the whole year through, and in great profusion, so that one 

 cannot ask for more. The merchants' shops are full of silks, woolen 

 and linen cloth and everything else necessary for ordinary and full 

 dress, with nothing that is lacking or left to be desired, for silver 

 brings it all. 



1665. Their canchas, which are like taverns, serve as shops and 

 are full of jugs of wine ; every year they sell over a million and a 

 half of this specialty alone. For pepper, which they call ucho and 

 which comes up from the valleys near Arica ; for coca, which is the 

 plant the Indians use ; and for chicha, which is the Indians' beverage 

 or brew and is made from corn ; for these three commodities, which 

 are mainly for the use of the Indians, over 2,000,000 ducats are spent. 



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