521 / 1060
BooK
II.
.
Roya~
Co1nmentariei.
·~
493
'' to make a paifage : They paffed
alfo
feveral fnowy Mountains and Defarts, (a
" thing very firange
fo
near the
Equinoilial) in
that
cold
Countrey
fixcy of their
" Reople
were.frozen to death; fo that wpen
they
~ere
efcaped from
tpeSnows,
'' rhey
returned hearty
chankS
to
God;
woo had
d~hvered
them
_from that
~an'' ger; and curfed all the Gold and Silver to
t~e
pit of
He~l,
which had enaced
" and
tempted .
them to a condition of fiarvmg both
with
cold and
hunger.
Thus far are
th~
Words of
Gomara
;
and
then
Carate
pr9ceed.s, aµd
f~ys,
''
1
Thus ·
'' did they travel without hope,
or
comfort? or
eow.e~
to fuccour
~ne
the
<?ther ;
'' for it
happened,
that a
Spaniard,
who earned
hls
Wile and two httle Children
" with
him, finding _them
fo
tired and weary,
th~t
they could travel
no
farther,
cc
nor himfelf
able
to carry them ; he fate down
with
them to take fome repofe,
'' during
which time they were all
frozen
to
death ; and though the
Man
could
" have efcaped, yet fuch was his compaffion to his Wife and Cl}ildren, that he
'' would
rather
perifh with ·
them,
than forfake them
in
that condition.
With
" fuch
labour
and
difficulty as
this
they
~affed
the fnowy
Mountain,
rejoycing
«
much when they bad got over to the other fide. Thus far are the Words of
f:arate,
in the
9th
Chapter of
his fecond Book. And
here
we
may
condole
this
unhappy fate,
that the
firfi
Spanijh
Woman
which
came to
Peru,
ihould thus moft
miferably
perHh.
As to tlie five hundred
Men which
thefe Authours
account
to
have been with
'.Alvarado,
I have been
informed
from feveral
that were with him,
that they
were
no
lefs
than
eight hund.. d
Spanjards
;
~rhaps
they
might be
no
more than five
hundred that
came
ftom
Nicaragua,
and
that when they
were landed in
Peru,
other
recruits
might
join
with
them ;
fo
that
in
the Plains
of
RivecpA1»pa,
where
AhMradAJ,
and
Di1go
de
Alma,gro
entered into Articles of Confederacy together,
they
might
arife to the number of eight hundred : But another H.iftorian maK:es a
difference
of
three years time between thefe matters,
but
that
is
not much to our purpofe.
As
to the Canes
in
which they found dieWater, called
Tpa,
they are common
4
ly_
as
big
as a Man's leg
or
thigh, though the
end
of them
is
not thicker
than
the
finger of a Man,s
hand
:
they
grow
in
no
ocher
than
in
hot
Countries, where
they
make ufe of them to Thatch
their
Houf es : The information they had of
the
Wa–
ter
w.asfrom the
~op
le of theCountrcy, who guided them to the Canes, fome of
which contained. ftx Gallons of
Water,
and
fome more, according to the bignefS
of them, which is proportionable to their height.
Auguftine
Carate
in
the
1
oth
Chapter of his fecond Book, writing the
J
ourllal
of
tills
Don Pedro
de
Alvarado
gives this .defcription of
the
Canes; '' In·this Journey, faith he> they endured
'' much hunger, and
rgreater chirft:;
for fuch
was
their 'want
of
Water,
that
had
c,:
they not
met with Groves or
Thlck:ets
ofCanes, which yielded good and whoJ:.
Come Water,
they
had all perifhed. Thefe
Canes
are
commdnly
about the big–
" nefs of a Man's leg> every knot of which contained about a quart of Water
;; having a natural propriety to
~bibe
or fuck
in
the nightly
D~ws ~hich
fall
" from the
Hea~en~
;
~fides
which there was no W
~ter
nor
S~nqgs
m that
9zy
Countrey ; and
herewith
Don
Pedro
refrefhed
both
hIS
Men and
Horfe:s.
Thus
far
Auguftine Carate
gives us an account of General
Don
Pedro
de
Alvarado
where
we
~all
leave him for a while, and return to the
Spaniard;
and
Indians
whlch
we
left
ID
Caf{amlfrca,
·
CH A Po
I
•