An official account of the Indies states that in 1574 there were 200 Spanish settlements or towns (pueblos de Españoles) in Spanish America, some of them ranking as cities, others as villas (i.e. boroughs or towns); 100 of these were in South America. Here is an extract from the book:—‘The city of Popayan is 22 leagues from the city of Cali, which bounds it on the North; and 20 leagues from Almaguer, which bounds it to the South. It has 30 Spanish householders (vecinos), of whom 16 are encomenderos. Its district contains 32 villages or divisions of Indians, with 9000 tributary Indians, divided into 19 repartimientos, 3 of them tributary to the king, the rest to individuals.’