Hi(lorh of the Indies, lib. 3* 14,7 



rature, where all our companions ( being fouteteene 

 or fifteene) were much wearied . Some in the pafla^c 

 dcmaundedconfeflion, thinking verily to die- others 

 left the ladders and went to the ground , beeing over* 

 come withcafting, and going to the ftoole : and it was 

 tolde me, that fbme have lolt their lives there with this 

 accident . I beheld one that did beate himfelfe againft 

 the earth, crying out for the rage and gricfe which this 

 paflageofP^rw^haddc cauled . But commonly it 

 dooth no important harme, onelythis,paineand trou- 

 blefomc diftaftc while it endures ; and notonely the 

 paflage ofPariacaca hath this propertie, butalfb all 

 this ridge of the mountaine y which runnes above five 

 hundred leagues long, and in what place (beveryou 

 pafle,you (hallfinde ftrange in temperatures, yet more 

 in fome partes then in other, and rather to thofc which 

 mount from thcfea,then from the plaines. Befides Pa~ 

 r'tACACAy I have parted it by Luctnts and Sow - in an o- 

 ther place, by Collegia* , zndbyCavaw. Finally, by 

 foure different places,goingand comn)ine,and alwaics 

 in this paffagc I have felt this alteration, although in no 

 place fo ftrongly, as at the firftin Pariactca, which hath 



e tried by allMiich as have parted it. And no doubt 

 but the winde is the caufeofthis intemperature and 

 ftrange alteration, or the aire that raignes there. For the 

 bcft remedy (and all they finde)is to ftoppe their nofes, 

 their earcs,and their mouthes, as much as may be,and 

 to cover themfelves with cloathes , efpecially the fto- 

 macke, for that the ayrc is fubtile and piercing , going 

 into the cntrailes, and not onely men feele this alterati 

 on ,but alfo beads that fometimes ftay there, fb as there 

 is no fpurre can make them goe forward . For my part 

 I holdc this place to be one of the higheft parts of land 



L z in 



