657 / 1060
BooK
Ill.
Roy.alGammentaries.
bon
Diego de Almagro
111arches
forth
to
meet the Go7
vernour
;
and
Gonzalo
Pi~arro,
after having
pa/fed
1nofi
incredible Difficulties,
find1
his
way
out of
th~
Cinnanion
C
ountrey.
S
ome days
after that
ma~ers w~re
quieted, which had
been·put
into
a
fermen
'
cation and diflurbance by the Death of
Alvarado.
Alrnagro
refolved to pro-
ceed with
his
Army againft the Governour
Vaca
de
Cafaro,
who, as he had recei–
ved incelJigence, was departed from the City of
Los
Rf':)es,
to meet and
fight
him.
On
which qccafion
Almagro
re~olved
to give_
~
to -underiland, that
;he
did
n~t
fear
hi.S Force, efieemihg himfelf the more forrrudable of the two; for
that
hJS
Souldiers , being feven hundred
Spaniards
in
number , were
all
brave and fiout
fellows; amongfi which two hundred were Harquebufiers, two hundred and
fifty
Pikemen, artd of them many armed with Halberas; the reft cqnfified oftwo bun-'
dred and fifty Horfemen, ·all armed
wi~h
Coats of
Mail,
and
Back
and·Breaft of
Iron, many of which were made by themfelves; and,
as
Gomara
faich in Chap.a.
ter
149.
were better Men, and better armed
than
any of thofe belonging
to
tli
Armies either of·his Father, or of
Rirarro•
.
Moreover, he had
a
great Train
of
Artillery ,
to
which he trufl:ed very much, befides
a
number
of
Indians
,
&c.
Thefe are the Words of
Gomara,
to which he
farther
adds , That
[ohn
Ba/fa
was
his
G,eneral, and
Peter
d'
Onate
his Lieutenan.t-General. .
·
With thefe Souldiers, and with thefe Provilions and Equipage
Almagro
marched
to meet and give Battel to the Governour,
Yacti
de
Caft_rq,
and having proceeded
fifty
Leagues, he entred into
the
Prov.!,!ice of
Yi/Lea,
where he received informa–
tion, that the King's Army was
thirty
Leagues difiant -from thence.
-
But let us
for a
while make
a
digreffion from both thefe .Parties,. and return
to
Go~alo
Pi f; :irro,
whom with his Companions we left engolfed
in
the molt
inextr~
cable Difhculties and Necefficies, which humane Nature was capable to
fufiain;.
for they were to contend with deep and rapid Rivers,
with
Bogs and moorifu
Grounds,
'Which
were unpaifable ; and were to travel over Mountains of incredi;
ble height, on which grew Trees of an immenfe magnitude,
as
Gomara
in the end
of his eighth Chapter reports, u11on the authority of
Vtcente
Yanez Pinpm,
who
was one of the Difcoverers, and who having _related what had befaln
bim
in thofe
parts,
cortc~udes
at length with the firang_e Prodigies of
that
Countrey,
9f
which ,
he gives a Narrative in thefe following Words.
" The Difcoverers brought with them the bark of certain
Trees,
whlch feemed,
" to be Cinnamon, and the
~kin
of a Beaft
which
put its young ones into its
" Breafr; and they related for a firange Story, that they had feen Trees whicli
'~
fixteen Men. could not fathorne,
or
encompafs with their Armes,
&c.
But befide5 the many Difficulties with which
Gonzalo
Pi~arro
and his
Compa–
ni~ns
were to ll:ruggle, the moll: irrefifiible of all was Hunger, that grievous and
ci:uel
Enemy ofMan
and
Beafi, which
hath
been fo fatal to both
in
that uninha–
bited Countrey. We have faid before that
Gon:uilo Picarro
refolved to return un–
to
Per~,
and therefore
leav~g
the
Riv~r.,
he took his
way
Northward, and palfed
througq Ldands and Mounrams no lefs difficult than the former being forced co open
a
~ay
an.
p·arh
_witq
Bills
tchers, and to feed upon. Herbs and Roots, and
wild Frwt;
~h1c.h
were
fo
,
that when any plenty thereof happened, they
e~eem~d
.themfelves fortunate
i?
that Days journey; when they came
to
Lakes
a~d m.oor~~
.Grounds, they
ca~ned
their
fie~
and infirm. people on their Shoal-.
ders,
m which work none
cook
more pains
than
Gtm~l'J
Pi farro,
and bis
Captaiasl
.
WW