ad has a breadth of four or five
human bodies, all made and paved with stone. One of the greatest works
the conquerors saw in this land was these roads. All or most of the
people on these slopes of the mountains live on high hills and
mountains; their houses are of stone and earth; there are many dwellings
in each village. Along the road each league or two or nearer, are found
the dwellings built for the purpose of allowing the lords to rest when
they were out visiting and inspecting their land; and every twenty
leagues there are important cities, heads of provinces, to which the
smaller cities brought their tribute of maize, clothes and other things.
All these large cities have storehouses full of the things which are in
the land, and, because it is very cold but little maize is harvested
except in specially assigned places; but [there is plenty of] all the
many vegetables and roots with which the people sustained themselves,
and also good grass like that of Spain. There are also wild turnips
which are bitter. There is a sufficiency of herds of sheep[102] which go
about in flocks with their shepherds who keep them away from the sown
fields, and they have a certain part of [each] province set apart for
them to winter in. The people, as I have said, are very polished and
intelligent, and go always clad and shod; they eat maize both cooked and
raw, and drink much chicha, which is a beverage made from maize after
the fashion of beer. The people are very tractable and very obedient and
yet warlike. They have many arms of diverse sorts, as has been told in
the relation of the imprisonment of Atabalipa which was sent from
Caxamalca, as was said above.[103]

CHAPTER XVII

Description of the city of Cuzco and of its wonderful fortress, and
of the customs of its inhabitants.

The city of Cuzco is the principal one of all those where the lords of
this land have their residence; it is so large and so beautiful that it
would be worthy of admiration even in Spain; and it is full of the
palaces of the lords, because no poor people live there, and each lord
builds there his house, and all the caciques[104] do likewise, although
the latter do not dwell there continuously. The greater part of these
houses are of stone, and others have half the facade of stone. There are
many houses of adobe, and they are all arranged in very good order. The
streets are laid out at right angles; they are very straight, and are
paved, a