The First City Of The Christians In The Mountain Of Peru Is _Quito_, Which
Is About Four Degrees To The South Of The Equator[22].
This city is
situated in an agreeable and fertile district; and particularly since 1544
and 1545, when rich mines of
Gold were discovered in its neighbourhood, it
has become populous, and continued to increase fast in the number of its
inhabitants; till in the destructive civil wars its people were almost
entirely cut off by Gonzalo Pizarro and his adherents, as they favoured
the party of the viceroy Blasco Nugnez Vela, who made this place his
ordinary residence. The Spaniards had no other establishment in the
mountain till the discovery of the province of _Bracamoras_[23], by the
captains, Juan Porcel and Vergara, who established some small colonies in
these parts, on purpose to continue the discovery and conquest of the
interior country; but these establishments have been since entirely ruined,
as Gonzalo Pizarro recalled these two captains and their men to assist him
in his war. This discovery was made under the orders of the licentiate
Vaca de Castro, who was then governor of Peru. The Captain Porcel was sent
by him from S. Miguel de Piura, and Vergara into the province of
_Chachapoyas_ farther to the south; but they unexpectedly met each other
in the course of their exploration of the country, and quarrelled about
the boundaries of their discoveries, in consequence of which they were
recalled by Vaco de Castro, and were at Lima at the commencement of the
civil war in the service of the viceroy; and when he was made prisoner
they entered into the party of Gonzalo Pizarro.
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