transported by sea to Lima and Panama, which saves a vast expence and risk of land-carriage; now become more difficult since his majesty has forbidden those heavy burdens upon the Indians by which they were formerly oppressed.  From this city we travel four hundred leagues by land along the coast of the South Sea to the province of Chili, which was discovered and in part colonized by the governor Pedro de Valdibia, or Baldivia.  In the language of the Indians the word Chili signifies cold; and it was so named by the Peruvians because of the terribly cold mountains which were necessary to be passed on the way thither from Peru, as will be particularly mentioned when we come to detail the perilous enterprize undertaken by Don Diego de Almagro when he marched to discover that distant country.  Such is a rapid view of that portion of Peru which is called the plain; to which must be added that the sea along its entire coast is always smooth and tranquil, from which it has been called the Pacific Ocean, being never vexed with storms, or disturbed by high and low tides; so that vessels can everywhere ride in perfect security at single anchor.

Those Indians who inhabit the mountainous regions of Peru are entirely different from the inhabitants of the plain, whom they vastly exceed in strength, courage, and mental abilities.  They live in a much less savage manner, having houses covered with earth, and being clothed in shirts and mantles made from the wool of their sheep[21]; but their only head-dress consists in a species of bands or fillets.  The women wear a species of vestments like shifts without sleeves, and gird their waists with several turns of a woollen girdle, which give them a neat and handsome shape; covering their shoulders with a mantle or plaid of woollen cloth like a large napkin, which they fix round the neck with a large skewer or pin of silver or gold called topos in their language, with large broad heads, the edges of which are sharpened so as to serve in some measure the purposes of a knife.  These women give great assistance to their husbands in all the labours belonging to husbandry and household affairs, or rather these things fall entirely to their lot.  Their complexions are much fairer, and their countenances, manners, and whole appearance, are greatly superior in all respects to the natives of the plain.  Their countries likewise differ entirely; as instead of the sterile sands which are everywhere interspersed over the plain, the mountain is covered through its whole extent with verdure, and is everywhere furnished with rivulets and springs of fine water, which unite to form the torrents and rivers which descend so impetuously into the plain country.  The fields are everywhere full of flowers and plants of infinite varieties, among which are many species like the plants which grow in Spain; such as cresses, lettuce, succory, sorrel, vervain, and others; and vast quantities of wild mulberries,