neither are they acquainted with any of those extravagances, which, through a want of true religion, are admitted under the name of worship. This independence of their spirit, or, rather, this indocility with regard to a Superior Being, has so powerful an influence on their temporal government, that it is merely a species of military democracy, in which the elders and captains, who among them are regarded as the sages and fathers of the country, discuss and decide the questions of peace and war, in a house appropriated, in each of the towns, to that particular purpose. They are so vain of their ancient origin, that they despise the Spaniards as a nation of needy upstarts. Valiant, frugal, and without aspiring to any other conveniences, or knowing any other necessities, beside those of pure Nature, they sometimes wage war, with the sole intention of enabling the Indian youths to profit, at the side of the elders, by their experience, and to learn the mode of carrying on the warfare successfully. This is accomplished, according to them, whenever they contrive to steal the cattle, and to intimidate the Spaniards; which latter aim they have recently effected, to the shameful extreme of proceeding to the heights adjacent to the principal settlements, to bid defiance to the inhabitants.
The mischiefs which these barbarians occasioned to the commerce of Peru, and the progress they made in disturbing the internal tranquillity of the country, claimed the attention of Don Francisco de Toledo, the then viceroy of these realms. To apply an efficacious remedy, such as should guard against every future disaster, he determined to form settlements in the vallies they inhabited, and which are now named Chichas y Tarija. For the execution of this task, he appointed Luis
