The town of Timana is twenty-six leagues east of Popayan; and the town of Pasto, which was founded by the captain Pedro de Puelles,[1] under orders from the governor Francisco Pizarro, is thirty-eight leagues south of Popayan. Pasto is within my jurisdiction.
The province of Tunceta is the highest land of that country, on the south-west side, along the coast. It is a very rugged and forest-covered region; but where it borders on that of Lili, there are beautiful valleys and plains. The language of Tunceta is very different from that of Lili, and they do not understand each other without interpreters. A league from Lili there is a chief on a great river called Ciaman, where they speak a different language, not understood by the people of Lili. And two leagues to the eastward, in the other chain of mountains, there are more chiefs, with a language different from that of Lili.
On the ten leagues of road towards Popayan there is another chief, called Jamindi, with another language; and many villages with five hundred to eight hundred houses; of which, when I arrived, no memory remained, except the ashes; for all had been destroyed, and the inhabitants killed by Belalcazar. From the said chief's territory commences the language of Jitirigiti, which prevails in the maritime cordillera, towards the river of San Juan and the south sea, in the valleys; but in the mountains there is a different language. From the point where this language commences, on the east side of the Cordillera, the language of Popayan prevails for ten leagues to the southward. From the tops of the mountains, towards Timana, there is a different language; and there are many other languages in the two chains of mountains as far as Quito. Of the twenty leagues between Popayan and Lili, the ten nearest Popayan are over a cold country, where a fire is necessary; and the ten towards Lili are over a warm country, with almost the
- ↑ See Cieza de Leon, pp. 187 and 283.
