and in the mountains they practised warlike strategy by which they wounded and surprised the cavalry who retired to the camp, and in one skirmish they took three of my soldiers alive. These chiefs hire Indians from other neighbouring provinces, called Tijajos, who hire themselves out in all parts to any one who sends for them. This province is to the eastward, between Popayan and Bogota. In the cordillera of Popayan there are two or three volcanoes, and there is snow on the tops of the mountains all the year round.
When Mexico and all that land had been acquired, the Adelantado Don Pedro de Alvarado went to the provinces of Guatemala with all the troops he could collect in Mexico, and those provinces were among the richest and most populous in all this land. There was much resistance made to him, and the Indians often fortified themselves in rocky places. Alvarado committed many cruelties, and pacified the land at great cost to the inhabitants. He took away many people for the expedition he made to Peru, and made slaves as in Nicaragua, so that there has been a great diminution in the number of inhabitants in that land. It is a very fertile and healthy country. This government contains the city of Santiago, and the towns of San Salvador and San Miguel, which is on the confines of Nicaragua. The people of this land are like those of New Spain. In the year 1541, the Indians killed the Adelantado Don Pedro de Alvarado, on his way from Mexico. At that time a mountain opened near the city of Santiago, and a river suddenly flowed out, towards the city, with such fury that it tore up trees that stood in the way. After doing much damage in the country, it entered the city, and, leaving all other parts, it flowed straight to the house of the said Adelantado, where his wife was. It entered the house, so that not a living thing was left that was not drowned or swept away. Thus died his wife and all his family, except a daughter
