847 / 1060
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BooK
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Royal
Commentaries•
.
but loft the lives of all thofe who belonged to their Party, as we £hall fee .here–
after.
To
perform
this
aetion
two
hundre9 choice Souldiers
were
detac~ed
and
mo~n-
ted
on Horfe-back, and with them thirty Lances ; and
to
march with the lefs m–
cumbrance they were to carry no Baggage but fuch as was neceffiry for rhe Men,
and
Horfe;
and Mules. And
as
to
the faying of
Carvaptl,
that he iliould
make
his Bed with four Quilts and a pair of Hol_land Sheets,
~d
that
~he
Mufquets
fbould be charged with Powder onely and without Shor, his meanmg was, that
he fhould make all hafie poffible, and that onely by giving the Enemy a true al–
arm
without farther aetion they fhould overcome and defeat them. And as to
his faying,
that
though all
th~_Devils
in
Hell fuould help tJ1em,
&_c.
ic•was
tp
ex–
prefs the diligence and exped1t10n the Enemy would ufe m frammg the Bridge;
the
which
was
the
ufual form and
manner which this
great
Captain uted
in
ex–
preffing
his
mind.
.
The Prefident comes to the
Ri-ver
of
Apur.imac.
The diffi–
culties and
da11gers
they
find
in
the
pa/fage.
John
de
. Acofta
defends
the Pafs.
The little care
and
ill Con–
duf;l he fhewed in
all
th'vs
ictcrion.
N
Otwithftanding all the hall:e and diligence the Prelident and his Captains
could make they could not reach nhe Bridge that night, but were forced to
flop two leagues iliort,
by
reafon that
it
was dark;
but
fo
foon as the Moon arofe
they began their Journey
again,
being forced
co
walk
a
great part
thereof"
on foot,
by
reafon of the ruggednefs of the
way.
About eight a Clock in the morning
they
arrived at
the Bridge, and with
all
the diligence they coutd uf
e.
they could
not
lay the firft
Stranne
before
noon.
The
fecond
was
fitted and laid about
fe–
ven a Clock in_tbe evening, over which they oafl: boughs and thin boards fafined
together with fplit Canes. About ten a Oock at night the firft Ranks began to
pafs ; and fome few Souldiers were ferried over in a float hewed out of a piece of
Wood
which they call
fi{faguey,
which ,is
very light, and fornething
like
thofe
Goards
or
Cal1tba-pu
which grow in thofe Countries, ancf may be as thick as a man s
Leg: thefe Boars are drawn with Cords from one fide of the River to the other.
The Horfes
f
warn over
with
great danger of being drowned ;
for
on the Gd
es
of
the
River ther.e being no
place made for them
to enter
in gently,
they
forced and
plunged them in from the fide of the Bank,
here the fiream was
fo
rapid that
it
carried them down and caft them againft the Rocks,
where,
meeting with whirle–
pools, they were turned quite round, and therein (as
Carate
reports, Book the
fecond Chapter
the fifth)
above
fixty
Hurfe were drowned, and many others
were lamed. And though that Countrey was not a place for Horfes to fight in
by reafon
of
the Rocks and mountainous ways, yet they hafined over with all di–
ligenc~
poffible, lefi the Enemy iliould furprife them before they had finHhed their
paffiige. Al)d indeed there was good ground to apprehend the coming
of
the
Enemy, for
the
paifal!e was
very
dangerous in the time ofWar, which
Carvajal
fo
well knew that he
defi~ed
no other advantage over
the
Enemy than that. And
indeed the difficulties of that River are fuch , and the Mountains on each fide are
fo
rocky and high, that they are at leafi two leagues perpendicular in height, the
which I can attefr, having
feen
them
my
fef£ .
And therefore
it
was not
ithout
reafon that
Carvajal
demaoded this employment for· himfelf, ·•rnd when he was
- denied, that he complained of his hard fortune ; being well affirred, in cafe they
would
have
intrufied the management of this a6tion unto him, to have returned
with
Viltory ;
for
he
knew
and was acquainted with the difficulty of the paffage
at
Cotapampa.
B
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