422 A VOYAGE TO Book VI. 



manufactories, the plantations, or in breeding of cat- 

 tle. In order to this, the villages areaniuially to fur- 

 nish those places with a number of Indians, to whom 

 their master pays wages as settled by the equity of the 

 king: and at the end of the year they return to their 

 villages, and are replaced by others This repartition 

 is called mita. And though these alterations should 

 by order take place in the manufactories, yet if is not 

 so: for being occupations of which none are capable 

 but such as have been properly trained up, the In- 

 dian families, M'hich are admitted, settle there, and the 

 sons are instructed in weav ing, from one generation 

 to another. The earnings of these are larger than 

 those of the other Indians, as their -trade requires 

 greater skill and capacity. Besides the yearly wages 

 paid them by those whom tliey serve, they have also 

 a quantity of land, and cattle given them to improve, 

 They live in cottages built near the mansion-house, 

 so that every one of these forms a kind of village ; 

 some of which consist of above an hundred and fifty 

 famihes. 



CHAP. VII. 



An historical Account of the most remai^kable Moiin^ 

 tains and Paramos, or Deserts, in the Cordil- 

 leras of the Andes ; the Rivers xvhich have their 

 Sources in these Mountains^ and the Methods of 

 passing them. 



I NOW come to the most remarkable paramos, 

 or deserts, of the kingdom of Quito, and the rivers 

 flowing through that country, which, among many 

 other natural curiosities, is peculiarly remarkable for 

 the disposition of the ground, and its prodigious 

 masses of snow, that exceed all comparison. 



It 



