It is a very high and rugged land of mountains and many rivers; there are no forests save some trees in places where there is always a thick mist. It is very cold because there is a snow-capped mountain range which extends from Caxamalca to Xauxa and on which there is snow all the year through. The people who live there are much more advanced than the others, because they are very polished and warlike and of good dispositions. They are very rich in gold and silver because they get it from many places in the mountains. None of the lords who have governed these provinces have ever been able to make any use of these coast-people, as they are such a wretched and poor folk, as I have said, that they are fit to be used for nothing else than to carry fish and fruits [up into the highlands], for as soon as they come into the mountainous regions, their own land being very hot, they sicken for the most part; and the same thing happens to those who inhabit the mountains if they go down into the hot country. Those who dwell on the other side of the land, beyond the summits of the mountains, are like savages who have no houses nor any maize save a little; they have very great forests and maintain themselves almost entirely on the fruit of the 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