422 A VOYAGE TO Book VL 



manufadoriips, the plantations, or in breeding of cat* 

 tie. In order to this, the villages are annually to furr- 

 niih thofe places with a number of Indians, to whom 

 their m^fler pays w^ges as fettled 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 

 called rnita. And though thefe alterations Ihould 

 by order take place in the manufadories, yet it is not 

 fo : for being occupations of which none are capable 

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

 dian faniilips, which are admitted, fettle there, and the 

 fons are inftrudted in weaving, from one generation 

 to another. The earnings of thefe are larger than 

 thofe of the other Indians, as their trade requires 

 greater fkiil and capacity. Befides the yearly wages 

 paid them by thofe whom they ferve, they have alfp 

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

 They live in cottages built near the manfion-houfe^- 

 fo that every one of thefe forms a kind of village ; 

 fome of which confifb of above an< hundred and fifty 

 families. , > . jvf > t v 



C H A P. VII. 



^'in hiftorical Account of themoji remarkable Moun-f 

 tains and Paramos^ or DeJertSj in the CordiU 

 leras of the Andes ; the Rivers which have their 

 Sources in thefe Mountains^ and the Methods of 



IN O W come to the moft remarkable paramos^ 

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

 flowing through that country, which, among rnany 

 other natural curiofities, is peculiarly remarkable for 

 the difpofition of the ground, and its. prx?(jigious 

 n^affes of fnow, that exceed all comparifojj. 



