Many are amazed at how these Indians [i.e. of Popayán], despite having many of their villages in places liable to easy conquest, and despite the fact that the weather in the region is nowhere (except in the city of Pasto) very cold or hot, and despite other factors favorable for conquest, have nonetheless turned out to be so indomitable and stubborn; while the [Indians] of Peru, whose valleys lie among mountains and snowcapped crags and many cliffs and rivers, and who are far more numerous than those here [in Popayán], and who dwell close by great uninhabited expanses, do serve (the Spanish) and have turned out to be so tame and docile.

About this I will say, that all the Indians subject to the governance of Popayán have always been and still are peoples without hereditary overlords [behetrías]. Among them there were no rulers who could make themselves feared. They are slack and lazy, and above all they detest to serve others or to be governed; which by itself would be enough reason for them to resist being under foreign rule and in its service. Yet this by itself would hardly guarantee their having their way, because, if pressed by need, they would do what others do. […]