trees; they have no domicile, nor fixed settlements that are known;
there are very great rivers, and the land is so useless that it paid all
its tribute to the lords in parrot feathers.[97]

The mountainous region being the chief part of the country, and being so
narrow, as well as being torn by the wars that have been there,
settlements of Christians cannot be made there, for it is a very remote
region. From the city of Xauxa along the Cuzco road, the country keeps
getting more shut in by mountains and the distance from the sea is
greater. And those who have been lords of Cuzco, their own dwelling
being in Cuzco, called the rest of the land, in the direction of Quito,
Cancasuetio, and the land beyond [Cuzco], called Callao, Collasuyo,
and, in the direction of the sea, Condisuyo, and the interior
Candasuyo;[98] and in this way they gave names to these four provinces,
disposed like a cross, which contained their empire. In the Collao they
know not of the sea, and it is a flat land to judge from what has been
seen of it, and it is large and cold, and there are in it many rivers
from which gold is got. The Indians say that in the province is a large
lake of fresh water which, in its centre, has two islands.[99] In order
to learn the state of this land and its government, the Governor sent
two Christians to bring him a long report of it; they set out in the
beginning of December. The region of Condisuyo, toward the sea from
Cuzco is a small and delectable land, although it is all of forests and
stones, and the inland region is so likewise. Through it [the Antisuyu]
run all the rivers which do not flow into the western sea. It is a land
of many trees and mountains and is very thinly populated. This sierra
runs from Tumbes as far as Xauxa, and from Xauxa as far as the city of
Cuzco. It is stony and rough; if there were not roads made by hand it
would not be possible to travel on foot, still less on horseback, and
for the roads there are many houses full of materials for repairing the
pavement, and in this matter the lords had so much firmness that there
was nothing to do but keep it in order.[100] All the mountain
fields[101] are made in the guise of stairways of stone, and the rest of
the road has no great width because of some mountains that hem it in on
both sides, and on one side they had made a buttress of stone so that
one day it should not slide down [the mountain], and there are,
likewise, other places, in which the ro