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·BooK
IX.
Royal
Commentaries.
and upon the Deck, and in corners of the Ship, fo
~any
of his
Enemi~
flaio,
whkh appeared upon account
to
be
thre~
hundred eighty, and odd, which
he
had killed
with his Spit, befides others
~h1ch
ha9
b~en
wounded.
.
The
G
k
Man either out of fear, or
JOY
of
his
v1Ct:ory, recovered his health,
being
much ple;fed afterwards to recount the particulars of this fuccefs.
In
di–
vers
places upon the Coafi:
of
Peru,
and in divers years,
u~till
1
~Ti.,
and
~3,
there
were
great Dellruttions, and even Plagues, caufed by the mcred1ble
rnult~tudes
of
Rats
and Mice · which
f
V\
arming over all the Land, ate up the Seeds which were
thrown into
th~
ground, as alfo the Fruit-trees, which they pilled of their bark
1
from the roots
to the very buds and fprouts ;
fo
that the Trees dying, the
Inha–
bitants\~
ere
f~rced
to
make new Plantations
in
their places; and feared that they
fuould have been forced
to
abandon their Dwellings, had not God
in
mercy caufed
that
Plague to ceafe on. a
f~dden,.
when it was jufi at the
extrem~ty
of
defiru~ion.
The
particulars of which mcred1ble damages,
we
!hall,
for brevity
fake,
omit.
C
H A
P. . XXIII.
,
Of their Hens and Pigeons.
"tTTE
come now, in the next place, to fpeak of Fowls, of which few other
VV
have been tranfported into
Peru,
unlefs Poultry,
fuch as
Cocks, and
Hens, and
tame Pigeons, or Houfe·doves.
As
for Stock-doves, or Wood-Pige–
ons,
I
know not whether any have been as yet brought thither. As to Hens,
there
is
a certain Authour, who writes, that they were fou9d
in
Peru,
before
the
cim.e
that
the
Spaniards
conquered
it ;
a~d
for. proof thereof he alle9ges? that
the
Ind111m
have a proper Name for a Hen m their own Language? which
IS
Gualpa
;
and for an Egg, which is
Ronto
;
and
chat
the
Indians
have the
fame
ropriety
irJ
their fpeech for
a
Coward, whom they call
a
Hen, or Hen-hearred,
as
the
Spaniards
have: To which Argument we fhall give
this
fatisfaCl:ory anfwer.
We fhall leave the Name of
Gu1tlpa
untill the end of this Chapter, and
!hall
begin with the word
Ronto,
or
R.untu,
which fignifies an Egg, not of
a
Hen
in
particular, but in general of any Fowl, whether tame or vvild; and vvhen they
mention an Egg, they add the Fovvl or Bird from vvhich
it
is produced,
as
of
a
Hen, Partridge, or Dove,
&c.
And
fo
much for
Runtu,
or the Egg.
As
to the expreffion of
Gualpa,
or Hen,
to
fignifie a Covvard, the
IndJans
may
have deduced, or taken
it
up, from the
Spaniard!,
as is ordinary for people
vvho
have entertained a familiarity and converfarion vvith another to borrovv their
phraf
es
and proprieties of their Language ;
as
is commonly feen, hovv our
Spani–
ard!
that travel into
Italy,
France, Flander!
and
Germany,
do frequently make ufe
of the Proverbs and Expreffions vvhich they have learned from firanger Nations
5
fo
alfo the
Indians
have taken this vvord from the
Spaniard1
ta denote a Covvard,
fo~
othervvife, in their ovvn Tongue, they vvant not vvords more fignificant
than
·this
Spanifh
Saying ; for they fometime call him
Huarmi,
vvhich
is
Woman ; and
have the proper
vvord
Cttmpa,
vvhich fignifies
a
Man of a gufillanimous Spirit,
and
one vvithout Heart or Courage, as
alfo
they have the vvord
L/a;,c/la;
fo
that
t~e
Metaphor of a Hen is borrovved from the
SpAniardJ
;
in vvhich
I
may
be crn–
d1ted, confidering that
I
my [elf am an
I ndian.
The word
Gua!pa
is
corrupted by contraetion of the Syllables, and is inll:ead
f
Atahualpa,
which doth not fignifie a
Hen,
but was the Name of
the
lafr
Inca
that reigned in
Peru
whofe Life \Vas fo bloudy, as we fhall relate in
its
due
place,
th~t
he
e
~ceed€d
in
O'uelty
all the
fierce and wild Beafis and
Bafilisks
in the
VV
orld ; for he being a Bafl:ard
by
fubtile artifices and contrivances, Murthered his
El.der Brother
Huafcar,
who ''as lawfull Heir, and Ufurped his Kingdom; and
fo
\.nth
cruel torments never before known or invented, he defiroyed the whole
d d
Bloud-
-.
r-