When I passed through the country of these Indians, I collected the particulars which I now relate with great diligence, making all the inquiries I possibly could; and, among other things, I asked why they practised such an evil custom, and why, not content with burying their own women alive, they sought for more victims from amongst their neighbours? I found out that the devil appears in a terrible and appalling form (according to their own account), and gives them to understand that they will come to life again in a great kingdom which is prepared for them, and that they will arrive with more authority if they are well attended. They also fall into other sins through the wiles of this accursed enemy. God our Lord knows why he allows the devil to converse with these people, and to wield such great power over them by deceiving them. Now his Divine Majesty is displayed, and many Indians, abhorring the devil, have embraced our holy religion. Some of the Pastos converse with the devil. When the chiefs die, all possible honour is done to their memory; the people mourn for many days, and the same things are put into their tombs as I have already stated.
The districts of Pasto yield but little maize, but there are great breeding-places for cattle, and especially for pigs, which are raised in vast quantities. The country yields much barley, potatoes, and _xiquimas_,[255] and there are very luscious _granadillas_[256] and other fruits. In the country of the Quillacingas there is plenty of maize and much fruit, except in the neighbourhood of the lake, where the people have neither trees nor maize, the land being so cold. These Quillacingas are warlike and untameable. There are great rivers of very remarkable water in their country, and it is believed that some of them contain abundance of gold. One of these rivers flows between Popayan and Pasto, called the hot river, which is dangerous and difficult to cross in the winter time. They have stout ropes stretched from one bank to the other, for crossing it. This river contains the most excellent water I have met with in the Indies, or even in Spain. Beyond this river, on the road to Pasto, there is a mountain, of which the ascent is three good leagues long. The famous chase which Gonzalo Pizarro and his followers gave the Viceroy Blasco Nuñez Vela, extended as far as this river.