TOPOGRAPHY. 



313 



in silence. This very man, this Luis de Fuentes, whether 

 through the ordinary lot of conquerors, or because their 

 achievements suffice for their reward, was engaged in so many 

 disputes, relative to the distribution of the lands, by the in- 

 habitants of the country which he himself had conquered, 

 that he ended his days in the audience of Charcas, poor and 

 overwhelmed with law-suits ; as happened to the hero of New 

 Spain, Hernan Cortes, in the court of Charles V. But we 

 will draw a veil over this melancholy scene, and, banishing it 

 from our refle6tions, continue the historical series of the vi- 

 cissitudes which have attended the population and political 

 system of this province. 



Before, however, we resume the thread of our narration, 

 may we be permitted to introduce a short episode ? When 

 the settlers who accompanied Fuentes in his glorious expedi- 

 tion, approached the valley, they found a wooden cross, 

 hidden, as if purposely, in the most intricate part of the 

 mountains. As there is not any thing more flattering to the 

 vanity of a credulous man, than to be enabled to bring for- 

 ward his testimony in the relation of a prodigy, the devotion 

 of these good conquerors was kindled to such a degree, by the 

 discovery of this sacred memorial, that they instantly hailed 

 it as miraculous and divine. They accordingly carried it in 

 procession to the town, and placed it in the church belonging 

 to the convent of San Francisco, where it is still worshipped. 

 It appears next to impossible that there should not, at that 

 time, have been any individual among them sufficiently en- 

 lightened to combat such a persuasion ; since, in reality, there 

 was nothing miraculous in the finding of this cross, there 

 having been other Christian settlers, before the arrival of 



ss Fuentes, 



