hitherto, these things rest merely on report, and have not been ascertained for truth, by actual discovery.  About this time Gomez de Alvarado reduced the province of Guanaco to obedience; and Francis de Chavez subdued the Conchincos, who often vexed the town of Truxillo and its adjoining country, by various inroads.  Peter de Vergara reduced the Bracamores, a people to the north of Quito; John Perez de Veragara subdued the Ciaciapoians; Alfonsos de Mercadiglio subdued the people of Mulubamba; Ferdinando and Gonsalvo Pizarro reduced Collao, a country rich in gold; the lower part of which was subdued by Peter de Candia; Peranzures went also on an expedition into the same country.  In this manner the Spaniards dispersed themselves over the whole country, and conquered an extent of more than 700 leagues; yet not without much labour, and considerable loss of men[90].

The countries of Brazil and Peru stand east and west from each other, their coasts being almost 800 leagues distant at the nearest points, which are the Cape of St Augustine and the harbour of Truxillo, nearly in the same parallel of latitude.  The greatest extent of Peru, measuring from the river of Peru in the north, to the Straits of Magellan in the south, is 950 leagues.  Through the whole of this country certain mountains, called the Andes, extend from north to south, which divide Brazil on the east, from Peru, or the empire of the Incas on the west.  In the same manner, the mountains of Taurus and Imaus divide Asia into two parts; which mountains begin on the Mediterranean, in 36 or 37 degrees of north latitude, over against the islands of Rhodes and Cyprus, and extend eastwards to the sea of China.  Thus, likewise, the mountains of Atlas in Africa divide the tawny moors from the black moors, or negroes who have frizzled hair.  These mountains begin at Mount Moies, near the desert of Barca, and extend under the tropic of Cancer to the Atlantic; The mountains of the Andes are high and rugged, and barren in some places, without trees or even grass; and it almost always either rains or snows on their highest ranges, accompanied with sudden and violent tempests of wind.  There is so great a scarcity of wood in these parts, that the inhabitants use turf or peats for fuel, as is done in Flanders.  In these mountains and countries, the soil is in some places black, in others white, or red, blue, green, yellow, and violet; and, with some of these earths, the natives dye various colours, without using any other mixture.  From the bottoms of these mountains, but principally on the east side, there flow many rivers, both small and great.  Among these are the rivers Amazons, St Francis, and La Plata, and many others, which pervade the country of Brasil[91], which are much larger than those of Peru, or of Castilia del Oro.  The country of Peru, between the Andes and the western sea or Pacific, is from 15 to 20 leagues in breadth, all of a hot