306 CONTRIBUTIONS FEOM THE NATIONAL HEEBARITJM. 



In the province called Cori, which is near the town of Anzerma, there is a river 

 which flows with considerable force, and near it there are some ponds of salt water, 

 whence the Indians obtain the quantity they require, and, making great fires, they 

 place jars of this salt water on them, and set the water to boil until from an arroba 

 there is not left half an azumbre. Then their experience enables them to convert 

 the residue into as pure and excellent salt as is made from the salt-pits of Spain. 

 Throughout the districts of Antioquia there are many of these fountains, and they 

 make so much salt that they take it inland, and exchange it for gold, cotton cloth, 

 and other things which they may require. 



Beyond the great river which flows near the city of Calf, and near that of Popayan, 

 towards the north, we discovered a village called Mungia. . . . 



In this village of Mungia, and in another called Cenusara, we found some other 

 fountains in mountains near a river, and from these fountains the natives made so 

 much salt that their houses were full of it, molded into shapes exactly like loaves of 

 sugar. They took this salt by the valley of Aburra to the provinces to the eastward, 

 which have not been discovered or seen by the Spaniards to this day. This salt has 

 made the Indians exceedingly rich. . . . 



In the province of Anzerma, and in all its districts, there are fountains of the same 

 sort, from which they make salt. 



In the city of Cartago every citizen has his apparatus for making salt, which is pre- 

 pared in an Indian village called Consota, a league from the city, where a small river 

 flows. Near the river there is a mountain out of which comes a large spring of very 

 black and thick water. The water is taken from this spring and boiled in cauldrons 

 until it is nearly all evaporated, when a white-grained salt remains, as good as that of 

 Spain. . . . 



In the city of Popayan there are some of these fountains, especially among the 

 Coconucos, but not so many, nor of such good quality as those of Anzerma and Cartago. 

 At Pasto all the salt is obtained by trading, and it is better than that of Popayan. I 

 have seen many springs, besides those which I have now described, with my own eyes, 

 but it seems to me that I have said enough to make the reader understand the manner 

 of procuring salt from these springs. a 



Herndon, who explored the upper waters of the Amazon in eastern 

 Peru near the middle of the last century, mentions deposits of salt 

 in numerous localities in the eastern valleys of the Andes. 



... At a quarter past 10 we passed the Quebrada, or ravine of Huinagua, on the 

 right. A small stream comes down this ravine, the water of which is salt. The people 

 of Uchiza ascend it — a day's journey — to a salt hill, where they supply themselves 

 with this indispensable article. At twenty minutes past 11 we passed another; and at 

 1 p. m. another, where the people of Tocache get their salt. It is a day's journey 

 from Tocache to the mouth of the Quebrada, and another to the salt hills. & 



The hills of Pilluana, which we now soon passed, have their base immediately upon 

 the river, on the right-hand side. They are about 300 feet in height, and stretch along 

 the banks of the river for a quarter of a mile. The salt shows like frost upon the red 

 earth at a distance; but seen nearer the heavy rains seem to have washed away the 

 loose earth and left nearly the pure salt standing in innumerable cone-shaped pinnacles, 

 so that the broken sides of the hills look like what drawings represent of the crater of a 

 volcano, or the bottom of a geyser. Where the hills have been excavated, beautiful 

 stalactites of perfectly pure salt hang from the roof in many varieties of shapes. There 



« Cieza de Leon, pp. 124-127. (See footnote, above, p. 287.) 



& Herndon, W. L., and Gibbon, L., Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon, pt. 1, 

 p. 154. (32d Cong. 2d sess., Executive No. 36, 1854.) 



