Sixty leagues farther to the south, in the district of Guanuco, Vaco de Castro established a colony which he ordered to be called Leon, as he came from the city of that name in Spain.  The country of Guanuco is fertile and abounds in provisions; and valuable mines are believed to exist on that side which is occupied by a warlike and powerful inca in a province of the Andes, as shall be mentioned hereafter[25].  There is no other place in the mountains farther south which has been as yet settled by the Christians, till we come to the province of Guamanga, in which is a small town named San Juan de la Vittoria[26], which is sixty leagues from Leon.  In San Juan there are very few Spaniards, but their number is expected to increase, if the neighbouring inca can be induced to submit to peace; as he at present occupies the best lands belonging to that city, in which there are many mines, and which produces the herb called coca in great abundance, formerly mentioned as of great value.  The town of Guamanga is about eighty leagues from the city of Cuzco; the road between being exceedingly difficult, as it goes over high and precipitous mountains, and through very dangerous passes.

Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the kings of Peru resided in the city of Cuzco, whence they governed the whole of this great country of which I have endeavoured to give some account, and which will be more particularly treated of in the sequel of this history.  This city served as the common centre for all the chiefs or caciques of this vast kingdom, to which they resorted from all quarters, to pay their tributes to the king, and to obtain justice in case of disputes among each other.  At that time Cuzco was the only place in all Peru that had the least resemblance to a city.  It had even a strong fortress, built of such enormous dressed stones, that it was very wonderful to conceive in what manner the Indians had been able to transport such vast masses of stone without the aid of any animals of draught.  In fact some of these are so large that they would have required ten yokes of oxen to have dragged them along on a fit carriage.  The houses which are now inhabited by the Spaniards are the same which were formerly occupied by the Indians; some of which houses have been merely repaired and others enlarged by their present possessors.  This city was formerly divided into four quarters, corresponding to the four cardinal points; and by orders of the Incas, or sovereigns of Peru, all those natives who came to the capital were obliged to lodge in the particular quarter which was towards the direction of the province from whence they came, under severe penalties.  The south quarter of the city was named Colla-sugo, from the province of Collao which lay to the south.  The northern quarter was named Chinca-sugo, from the large and renowned province of Chinca[27] in that direction.  The eastern and western quarters were respectively