The English-American his travail by sea and land: or, a new svrvey of the West-Indias. Containing a journall of three thousand and three hundred miles within the main land of America ... With a grammar, or some few rudiments of the Indian tongue, called, Poconchi. Of Pocoman / By the true and painfull endevours of Thomas Gage.

  • Gage, Thomas, 1603?-1656.
Date:
1648
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The English-American his travail by sea and land: or, a new svrvey of the West-Indias. Containing a journall of three thousand and three hundred miles within the main land of America ... With a grammar, or some few rudiments of the Indian tongue, called, Poconchi. Of Pocoman / By the true and painfull endevours of Thomas Gage. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    common fporc for that feaft with fome Spaniards and Blackrnores on Horie-backe, and other' Indians on foot 3 who commonly being drunke, fome venture, fome lofe their lives in thefport. Befides thisgenerallconcourfe of people every yeer at that time there is every day at five a clock in the afternoone a Tianguez or market, upheld by the concourfe of the Indians of theTown among themfelves. Befides the lake, there run¬ neth by this Town a rivcr,which in places iseafily waded over, and waters the fruits gardens, and other plantations,and drives a mill which ferves moft of the valley to grind their wheat. Within a mile and a halfe of this Towne there is a rich Ingenio orfarmeof Sugar belonging to one Sebaflian deSavjaletta, a Bijcaine borne, who came at firft very poore into that Country, and ferved one of his Country men 5 but with his good induftry and paines, he began to get a Mule or two to traffique with about the Country, till at laft he increafed his ftocke to a whole Requa of Mules, and from thence grew fo rich that he bought much land about Petapa, which he found to be ve¬ ry fit for Sugar, and from thence was incouraged to build a princely houfe , whither the belt of Guatemala doe refort for their recreation. This man rtiaketh a great deale of Sugar for the Country, and fends every yeer much to Spamt • he keepeth at lead threefcore (laves of his own for the worke of his farmcj is very generous in houfe kee¬ ping, and is thought to be worth above five hundred thoufand Duckats. Within halfe amilefrom him there is another farme of Sugar, which is called but a Trapiche belonging unto the Auguftin Friers of Guatemala, which keepes fome twenty (laves, and is called a Trapiche , for that it grinds not the Sugar Cane with that device of the Ingenio, but grinds a lefle quantity, and fo makes not fo much Sugar as doth an In¬ genio. From hence three roilesis the Town of Amatitlan, neer unto which ftandeth a greater Ingenio of Sugar, then is that of Savaletta, and is called the Ingenio of one Anisy becaufe he firft founded it, but now it belongeth unto one Pedro Crejpo thePoft- mafter of Guatemala5 this Ingenio feemeth to be a little Town by it felfe for the many cottages and thatched houfes of Slackmore (laves which belong unto it, who may be above a hundred, men, women, and children. The chiefe dwelling houfe is ftrong and capacious, and able to entertain a hundred lodgers. Thefe three farmes of Sugar (landing fo neer unto Guatemala, enrich the City much, and occafion great trading from it to Spaine. The Town ot tsimatitlan, though in it there live not f© many Spa- niardr as in Petapa, yet there are in it more Indian families then in Petapa. The ftreets are more orderly made and framed like a Chequer board, they are wide, broad,p!ain, and all upon duft and fand. This Towne alfo enjoyeth the commodity of the lake’ and furnifheth with fi(h the City oC Guatemala,upon thole daies before named of Feta~ pa. And though it ftandeth out of the rode-way, yet it is almoft as rich as Petapa. For the Indians of it get much by the concourfe of common people, and the Gentry of Guatemala, who refort thither to certain bathes of hot waters, which are judged and approved very wholefome for the body. This Towne alfo getteth much by the fait which here is made, or rather gathered by the lake fide, which every morning ap¬ peared like a hoary froft upon the ground, and is taken up and purified by the Indians, and proves very white and good. Befides what they get by the fait, they get alfo by theRequa’s of Mules in the valley, and about the Country, which are brought to feed upon that fait earth a day, or halfe a day, untill they be ready to burft ( the ow¬ ner paying fix pence a day for every Mule ; and it hath been found by experience, that this makes them thrive and grow lufty and purged them better then any drench, or blood-letting. They have further great trading in Cotton- wool3more abundance of fruits then Petapa, a fairer market place with two extraordinary great Elm-trees, under which the Indians daily meet at evening to buy and fell. The Church of this Towne is as faire and beautifull as any about Guatemala, the riches and ftate whereof hath caufed the Dominican Friers Cl nee the yeer 1635,50 make that place the head and Priory over the other Townes of the vall.ey,and to build there a goodly and fumptuous Cloifter, in which in my time there was(for I told then moft of it, and doubtlelfe fince it hath much increafedjeight thoufand Duckats laid up in a cheft,with three lockes for the common expences of the Cloifter.Thus my Reader,! have led thee through the val¬ ley oCAdixco ,and Pinola, Petapa and Amitttlan9 which in riches and wealth, what with the great trading in it,what with the fheep & cattell^what with the abundance of mules, what with three Farmes of Sugar, what with the great Fa rmes-of Corn and Wheat, what with the churches treafures yeelds to no other place belonging unto the dominions of