1(5S A VOYAGE TO Boor VIL 



Yncas, ^^'as never conqMeredby them ; liavinc:, when 

 Vira Cocha tlie eighth Ynca had made himself sove- 

 reign in Charcas, sent a deputation of their chiefs, 

 with a request of being admitted among ihe number 

 of this subjects, and that he woukl be pleased to send 

 them governors, that their country might partake of 

 the benetits of those v*'ise laws, and useful improve- 

 ments, he had introduced into all the parts of his 

 empire. 



The Spaniards having penetrated into Peru, and 

 finished the conquest of far the greatest part of that 

 empire, proceeded to that of Tucuman in 1549, under 

 the conduct of Juan Nunez de Prado, whom the pre- 

 sident Pedro dc la Gasea intrusted with the conduct 

 of this expedition. lie had, indeed, no opportunity 

 of displaying his military talents ; for the inhabitants 

 being of a mild and easy disposition, readdy submit- 

 ted ; on which the following four cities were built 

 in tliat country, namely: Santiago del Estero, so called 

 from a river of the same name on which it is built, and 

 whose inundations greatly contribute to increase the 

 fertdity of the soil ; it stands above a hundred and 

 sixty leagues S. of Plata: San Miguel del Tucuman, 

 tv/cnty-ÍT\e or thirty leagues W. of the former : Nue- 

 stra Señora de Talavera, something more than forty 

 leagues N. W. of Santiago. The fourth was called 

 Cordova de la Nueva Andalucía, and is above eighty 

 leagues S. of Antiago. 



The territories of this government being of such 

 extent that they reach from N. to S. above two hun- 

 dred leagues, and little short of a hundred in some 

 parts from E. to W. it was judged proper to increase 

 the number of Spanish settlements; and accordingly 

 orders were given for building two other cities, which 

 are Rioja, about eighty leagues S. W. of Santiago, and 

 Santa, between sixty and seventy leagues N. W.of 

 the same city ; together with a village called San Sal- 

 vador, or Xuxui, ahoiit twenty leagues N. of Saba. 



But 



