LatAm Digital Edition and Gazetteer

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dried flesh, hung up to preserve them from corruption. Their garments are a shirt without sleeves, reaching down to the middle of their legs. The married people wear drawers of baize with coloured puckers for festival days, and those who enjoy offices of state wear a baize jacket : they neither use hatnorshoes, and no one of them ever goes out without slinging round his neck some medals and a rosary. The hair is worn short until they marry, and when they become old they suffer it to grow long. The women wear close gowns which reach down to the ground, and which they call tapoyes: they never swathe or bind themselves round the waist, but carry on their necks, on gala-days, some threads strung with glass intermixed with beads made of cacao nuts, and coloured beans ; these threads usually amount to 20 or SO rows ; on entering the church they always loosen their hair. The regulars of the company of the Jesuits taught them offices, in which they assisted most dexterously ; and it really excites admiration that Indians, acquainted only with their own barbarian dialect, should be able to manage the compass of the notes, understand their proportions and numbers, and apply the rules of music to its execution. At certain times of the year they go a mdear, or to hunt for honey among the woods : from thence they bring back wax of two sorts, one which is white and odoriferous, Jhe other of less substance, as the wax of Europe, manufactured by a species of bees without stings, called opernus; also another kind of wax, made by a still different sort of bees, but which are all properly denominated wild wax. This wax is delivered to the curate, who preserves it in his house to send to the provinces of Peru ; and from the product of this article, and from that of the cotton, which is made into woofs, to the amount of two pounds weight yearly by each Indian, he procures in 3xchange whatever is necessary for the settlement, such as baizes, coloured wools, bags, iron and steel articles, chopping knives, wedges, hatchets, scissars, pocket-knives, needles, medals, bugles, and other articles of hardware and little necessaries, which, being stored up by him, is distributed amongst the natives according to their necessities, and in a manner that they may want for nothing, but live happy and contented. The settlements are as follows :

San Xavier, San Joseph,

La Concepcion, Santiago,

San Miguel, San Juan,

San Ignacio, El Santo,

Santa Ana, Corazon.

San Rafael,

CHIQUIZA, a settlement of the corregimiento of Sachica in the Nuevo Reyno de Granada. It is of a cold temperature, and produces wheat, maize, barley, papaSy and the other fruits peculiar to its climate. Its ijihabitants are so few as scarcely to amount to 30 housekeepers, and about the same number of Indians. Four leagues to the n. w. of Tunja, and somewhat less from Velez.

CHIRA, a settlement and seat of the silver mines of the province and corregimiento of Piura in Peru ; annexed to the curacy of Paita.

Same name, another settlement of the province and alcaldia mayor of Nicoya in the kingdomof Guatemala.

[CHIRAGOW. See Plein River.]

CHIRAMBIRA, an island situate in the large bay of St. Juan, on the coast of the province and government of Choco in the S. sea, which gives its name to a small creek formed by this island and the continent.

CHIRCA, a settlement of the province and corregimiento of Sicasica in Peru ; annexed to the curacy of Chulumani.

CHIRE, Santa Rosa de a city of the government and province of Los Llanos in the Nuevo Reyno de Granada ; founded by the Governor Francisco Anciso. It is of a very hot and unhealthy temperature, but affords the same vegetable productions as the rest of the province. It is so mean and reduced as to contain hardly 100 housekeepers, and scarcely deserves the name of a city. This settlement lies the furthest to the n. w. extremity of any in this kingdom, and is bounded in that quarter by the province and bishopric of Caracas.

Same name a river of the above province and government. It rises at the foot of the lomas del Viento, runs e. and enters the Meta, traversing the country of the Betoyes Indians.

CHIRGUA, a river of the province and government of Venezuela. It rises in the mountain of Tacazuruma on the s. runs s. and enters the Gamalotal, after having collected the waters of many other rivers.

CHIRIBIQUI, Santa Fe de a settlement of the province and government of Cumana in the kingdom of Tierra Firme ; situate on the coast, between the rivers Mosina and Marecapana.

CHIRICOAS, a barbarous nation of Indians of the Nuevo Reyno de Granada, to the e. of the mountains of Bogota, and at the entrance of the llanos or plains of Cazanare and Meta. They lead a wandering life through the woods in company with the Guaibas ; they are crafty and very dexterous thieves, but of a docile and pacific disposition. In 16.64; some of them were reduced into

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running to unite themselves with that of Toachi. It is to the n. of the paramo of Elenisa, and is sometimes covered with snow.

CORCA, a settlement of the province and corregimiento of Chilques and Masques in Peru ; annexed to the curacy of Huanoquite.

(CORCAS, or Grand Corcas, an island almost in the form of a crescent, n. of St. Domingo, in the windward passage, about seven leagues w. of Turk’s island, and about 20 e. of Little Inagua or Heneagua. Lat. 21° 45' n. Long. 71° ob' w.)

CORCHUE, a settlement of Indians of the province and government of Valdivia in the kingdom of Chile.

CORCOLA, a settlement of the Portuguese, in the territory of the Giiayazas Indians, of the kingdom of Brazil; situate at the source and on the shore of the river Tocantines.

CORCOUADO, a settlement of the missions which were held by the regulars of the company of Jesuits in the province and government of Los Llanos, of the Nuevo Reyno de Gratiada, and which is at present under the charge of the religious order of St. Francis.

CORCOUADO, a rock or island of the S. sea, opposite the port of Santa, of the province and corregimiento of this name in Peru.

CORCULLA, a settlement of the province and corregimiento of Parinacochas in Peru.

CORDES. See Verdf.

CORDILLERA. See Andes.

CORDILLIERS, Montagne des, a mountain of the island of Cayenne, on the skirts of avliich the French have a fort and establishment for its defence.

CORDON, PUNTA DEL, a point of the coast of the w. head of the island of St. Domingo, on the shore of the port Pimiento.

CORDOVA, a province and alcaldia mayor of Nueva España; bounded w. by the province of Orizava ; n. by that of San Juan de los Llanos ; e. by that of the ancient Vera Cruz ; and s. by the rugged mountains of Songolica. It has on the 5. e. and s.s. e. the great estate of Mataanona, 10 leagues from Taliscona, the last boundary of Vera Cruz. It is of a hot and moist temperature ; the greater part of its district is composed of broken and uneven grounds, and mountains covered with cedars, walnuts, pines, and ocotales. It has also beautiful and fertile plains, abounds in birds and animals of the chase, and no less in fish, many trout and bohos being caught out of the rivers by which this province is irrigated. In the spacious plain of Altotonga runs a rapid river, by which it is

fertilized, and rendered abundant in every kind of vegetable production. Here also breed many flocks of cattle, which are the chief commerce of the place. The capital bears the same name.

This was founded in 1618, by order of the viceroy Don Diego Fernandez de Cordova, Marquis of Gnadalcazar, who gave it his name. It is of a hot and moist temperature ; situate to the w. of some small mountains, which form an half-circle, and are surrounded by many umbrageous trees. The parish church is magnificent, of exquisite architecture, and rich ornaments. Here is a convent of the religious Descalzos (barefooted order) of St. Francis, and one of St. Hippolyte dela Caridad, in which there is an hospital for the sick Spaniards, and for the black slaves, endowed by the masters and proprietors of certain mills, in which an infinite quantity of sugar is made. It abounds in this artich', with those of tobacco, China oranges, ajonjoli, large cattle, and swine ; as also other fruits and articles of merchandize peculiar to Europe and the kingdom itself. [Hun.boldt assert.s that the environs of Cordova and Orizaba produce all the tobacco consumed in New Spain.] Its population consists of 260 families of Spaniards, 126 of Mustees, 70 of Mulattoes and Negroes, and 273 of Mexican Indians ; of many others also who are of various classes, and Avho work in the sugar-mills. Forty-eight leagues to the e. «. c. of Mexico, in lat. 18° 50' ; long. 96° 56'. Theother settlements of this jurisdiction are,

Santa Ana de Zacan, San Diego,

Chocaman,

Yxhuatlan,

Coscomatepec,

Sta. Maria Magdalena, Calcahualco,

S. Antonio Huatuzco, Amatlan de los Reyes,

San Bartolome, Totutla,

Copan,

Zentla,

San Diego Huatuzco, San J uan de la Punta, San Lorenzo.

Cordova, another city, the capital of the provinco and government of Tucumán in Peru ; founded by the governor of that province, Geronimo Cabrera, in 1573, and not by Juan Nuilezde Prado, in 1549, according to the erroneous account of the Exjesuit Coleti. It was in the territory of the Comichingones Indians, and part which they called Kisliisacate, on the shore of the river Piicani ; but removed from thence to the x. part of the same river ; the parish being dedicated to Nuestra Senora de la Pena of France, and being under the obligation of celebrating its festival on the day of the conception, when it was also usual to display the spectacle of a bull-fight. It is situate in a narrow bay, close to which is a lotty n'ountain. It is much exposed to inundations in the rainy