[Footnote 40:  Zarate is extremely erroneous in his account of the sources of the Rio Plata.  All the streams which rise from the Peruvian mountains in the situation indicated, and for seven or eight degrees farther south, and which run to the eastwards, contribute towards the mighty Maranon or River of the Amazons.—­E.]

[Footnote 41:  This is an egregious mistake; the Rio Jauja rises from the lake of Chinchay Cocha in the province of Tarma, and runs south to join the Apurimac.  The river Guanuco rises in the elevated plain of Bombon, and runs north to form the Gualagua, which joins the Lauricocha or Tanguragua.—­E.]

In the late war against Gonzalo Pizarro, the president incurred enormous expences for the pay and equipment of his troops, for the purchase of horses, arms, and warlike stores, and the fitting out and provisioning of the ships which he employed.  From his landing in the Tierra Firma to the day of his final victory over Gonzalo, he had expended on these necessary affairs more than nine hundred thousand dollars, most of which he had borrowed from the merchants and other private individuals, as all the royal revenues had been appropriated and dissipated by Gonzalo.  After the re-establishment of tranquillity, he applied himself to amass treasure with the utmost diligence, both from the fifths belonging to the king, and by means of fines and confiscations; insomuch that after payment of his debts, he had a surplus of above a million and a half of ducats, chiefly derived from the province of Las Charcas.

In his arrangements for the future government of the country, in conformity with the royal ordinance, he took much care to prevent the Indians from being oppressed.  In consequence of the fatigues which they underwent, in the carriage of immense loads, and by numbers of the Spaniards wandering continually about the country attended by a train of Indians to carry their baggage, vast numbers of them had perished.  Having re-established the royal audience, or supreme court of justice, in Lima, he applied earnestly to regulate the tributes which were to be paid by the Indians to the Spaniards upon fixed principles, which had not been hitherto done on account of the wars and revolutions which had distracted the country ever since its discovery and conquest.  Before this new arrangement, every Spaniard who possessed a repartimiento or allotment of lands and Indians, used to receive from the curaca or cacique of his district such tribute as he was able or willing to pay, and many of the Spaniards often exacted larger sums from their Indians than they were well able to afford, frequently plundering them of their hard-earned property with lawless violence.  Some even went so far as to inflict tortures on their Indians, to compel them to give up every thing they possessed, often carrying their cruelty to such a pitch as to put them to death in the most wanton and unjustifiable manner.  To put a stop to these violent proceedings,