334 A VOYAGE TO Book VI. 



bas and Popayan (after whom both the country and 

 chief town were called), two brothers equally respect- 

 ed for then- power and military talents. This defeat 

 opened him a passage to future conquests; and the 

 neighbouring nations, terrified at the success of those 

 illuslrious warriors, submitted to the king of Spain. 

 Bclalcazar, after these exploits, in the prosecution of 

 his conquests, had several other encounters with In- 

 dians, fired with the disdain of submitting toa foreign 

 yoke. His conquests were, however, at last so ra- 

 pid, that at the close of the same year he pitched his 

 camp in the centre of that country, where the mild- 

 ness of the climatCj the fertility of the soil, and salu- 

 brity of the air, conspired to induce him to render it 

 the seat of the Spanish government. Accordingly, in 

 1537, he laid the foundation of the first city, which 

 still retains the name of Popayan ; and whilst the 

 place was building, he, to keep his people in exer- 

 cise, and prevent the Indians he had conquered from 

 forming themselves into a new army, or carrying on 

 any clandestine correspondence with those whom his 

 arms had not reached, sent out detachments different 

 ways, with orders to march into the neighbouring" 

 countries, that they might prevent the rising of some, 

 and reduce others to obedience. 



Eelalcazar had scarce finished his new tow-n, 

 wlicn the officers of these corps, on their return, made 

 such a report of the riches and fertility of the country, 

 th.at he determined to view it in person, increase the 

 number of towns^ and by that means secure the pos- 

 session of it. Accordingly he continued his march to 

 Cali, where he built a town, which still retains the 

 same name, though in a dificrent country ; for af- 

 ter it was finished in the country of the Gorrones In- 

 dians, captain Miguel Munoz soon after removed 

 it, on account of the unl.-ealthiness of the air. Bc- 

 lalcazar ibundcd also another town, called Santa Fé 

 de Antioquia ; and, charmed v,ith the fertility and 



richness 



