ANDAGOYA, Pascual de – 1540. NARRATIVE OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF PEDRARIAS DAVILA IN THE PROVINCES OF TIERRA FIRME OF CASTILLA DEL ORO

ANDAGOYA, Pascual de. NARRATIVE OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF PEDRARIAS DAVILA IN THE PROVINCES OF TIERRA FIRME OF CASTILLA DEL ORO (1540).

NARRATIVE OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF PEDRARIAS DAVILA IN THE PROVINCES OF TIERRA FIRME OF CASTILLA DEL ORO,
AND OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE SOUTH SEA AND
THE COASTS OF PERU AND NICARAGUA.
WRITTEN BY
THE ADELANTADO
PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

TRANSLATED AND EDITED,

WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTION

CLEMENTS K. MARKHAM.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY

M.DCCC.I.XV.

LONDON : T. RICHARDS, 37, GREAT QUEEN STREET.

INTBODUCTION.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA was one of the officers who
accompanied Pedrarias, when he went out as governor
of the newly discovered isthmus between the North and
South Seas in 1514. Andagoya was engaged in several
of the exploring expeditions which were despatched from
Darien, and he was the first Spaniard who obtained au-
thentic information respecting the rich empire of the
Yncas. His discoveries led to the expeditions of Pizarro
and Almagro, and Andagoya himself was eventually
governor, for a very short time, of the provinces round
Popayan. His narrative is that of an eye-witness of
some of the most stirring events which preceded the
discovery of Peru. The conquest of the isthmus and the
establishment of a colony at Panama were the necessary
preliminaries*to Spanish dominion along the shores of
the South Sea. An account of these events, written by
one of the actors in them, therefore, possesses peculiar
interest, and the narrative of Pascual de Andagoya1 has
1 It is printed in the work of Navarrete. Coleccion de los
viages y descrubrimientos, que hicieron por mar los Espanoles, desde
fines de siglo xv. Seccion iii. Establicimientos de los Espanoles
. i el Darien. Tom. iii, ‘No. vii, p. 393. The original MS. is pre-
v srved in the Indian Archives at Seville.
b

INTRODUCTION.

accordingly been deemed worthy of a place in the series
of volumes printed for the Hakluyt Society.
A famous discovery had been made, before the arri-
val of Pedrarias and his train of officers and lawyers,
by one of the greatest men that the age of Spanish
conquest in America produced. Vasco Nunez de Bal-
boa, in March 1511, found himself the leading and
most popular man in the forlorn colony of Darien.
The expeditions of Nicuesa and Ojeda had failed,
chiefly through the incompetence of their unfortunate
leaders.1 The man who, a few short months before,
had been a fugitive debtor headed up in a cask, was
now the commander of a great enterprise. An in-
capable though learned lawyer, the Bachelor Enciso,
alone stood between Vasco Nunez and his ambition,
and such an obstacle was at once removed. The erudite
author of the Suma de Geografia was shipped off to
Spain, and Vasco Nunez commenced his short but
brilliant career of discovery.
/ His acts, during his government of the colony of
If Darien, stamp him as a born ruler of men. His policy to-
wards the Indians was humane and statesman-like, while
j his sympathy for the sufferings of his own men ensured
him just popularity among the wild and reckless spirits
who formed his colony. There is more of diplomacy
and negociation, than of massacre and oppression in
the history of this great discoverer’s career; but there
was no want of that dauntless spirit of enterprise, that
resolute endurance of incredible hardships and suffer-
ings by which alone the conquest of the New World
1 See note at p. 34 of my translation of Cieza de Leon. J
‘ 1 !

INTRODUCTION.

iii

could be achieved. His treatment of the cacique of
Coiba secured the little colony of Darien a most valu-
able ally. His visit to the wealthy chief Comogre,
from whose son the first news of the existence of the
great South Sea was received, added another nation to
the list of his allies. His romantic expedition in search
of the golden Dobaybe was unstained by the atrocities
which usually marked the proceedings of Spanish ex-
plorers. Finally, his memorable discovery of the Pacific
Ocean could not have been achieved if his humane
•diplomacy had not secured the friendship of the Indian
tribes in his rear.
Eeduced to the greatest distress by the neglect of
the authorities in Spain and St. Domingo to send him
succour, and surrounded by dense forests and pesti-
lential morasses, Vasco Nunez never lost heart. He
overcame difficulties which to most men would have
appeared insuperable, and won the proud, distinction
of having equalled Cortes and Pizarro in bravery and
perseverance; while he is among the few Conquista-
dores who showed any sign of such qualities as hu-
manity and generosity, when the unfortunate natives
were concerned. Vasco Nunez fully explained the
difficulties which surrounded him, to the Spanish Go-
vernment, in a long letter dated January 1513 from
Darien, six months before his discovery of the South
Sea; and the words of the man himself convey the
best idea of his position. He says :—
‘1 Most Christian and most puissant Lord,
i: Some days ago I wrote to your Majesty by a caravel
which came to this town, giving your very Royal Highness
b 2

I

iv

INTRODUCTION.

an account of all that has happened in these parts. I also
wrote by a brigantine which left this town for the island of
Espafiola, to let the admiral1 know that we were in extreme
distress; and now we have been supplied by two ships laden
with provisions. We were then reduced to such extre-
mities that, if succour had been delayed, it would no
longer have been necessary. For no remedy could then
have delivered us from the consequences of famine; and in
our great need we lost 300 of the men we found here of
those I commanded, of those of Uraba under Alonzo de
Ojeda, and of those under Diego de Nicuesa at Veragua.
With much labour I have united all these parties together,
as your Royal Majesty will see in another letter which I
write to your very Royal Highness, where I give an account
of all that has taken place here. I sent, most Royal High-
ness, to order that the persons who were in the settlement
of Diego de Nicuesa should be brought to this town, and
I treated them with all the attention that was possible.
Your most Royal Highness will be aware that, after-Diego
• de Nicuesa came to this town and thence departed for
Espafiola, I took as much care of the people that were
left in his settlement, as if they had been under my own
charge, and had been conveyed from Castile by order of
your Royal Highness. When I found that they were in
want, I remembered to send provisions to them one two or
three times, until after a year and a half I conveyed them to
this town, seeing that I should thus further the service of
your most Royal Highness. For if I had not helped them
they would have been lost, five or six dying of hunger every
day, and the survivors being thinned by the Indians. Now
all the men who were left behind by Diego de Nicuesa are
in this town. From the first day of their arrival here they
have been treated as well as if they had been sent by
1 The son of Christopher Columbus, who had inherited that
title, and the government of Hispaniola, from his father.

INTRODUCTION. V
order of your most Royal Highness, for there has been no
difference made with them, any more than if they had come
here on the first day. As soon as they arrived here they
were given their pieces of land for building and planting in
a very good situation, close to those occupied by the men
who came with me to this town, for the land was not yet
divided, and they arrived in time to receive some of the best
pieces. I have to inform your most Royal Highness that
both the governors, as well Diego de Nicuesa as Alonzo de
Ojeda, performed their duties very ill, and that they were
the causes of their own perdition, because they knew not
how to act, and because, after they arrived in these parts,
they took such presumptuous fancies into their thoughts
that they appeared to be lords of the land. They imagined
they could rule the land and do all that was necessary from
their beds; and thus they acted, believing that they had
nothing further to do. But the nature of the land is such
that if he who has charge of the government sleeps, he
cannot awake when he wishes, for this is a land that obliges
the man who governs to be very watchful. The country is
difficult to travel through, on account of the numerous
rivers and morasses and mountains, where many men die
owing to the great labour they have to endure, for every
day we are exposed to death in a thousand forms. I have
thought of nothing, by day or by night, but how to support
myself and the handful of men whom God has placed under
my charge, and how to maintain them until your Highness
sends reinforcements. I have taken care that the Indians of
this land are not ill-treated, permitting no man to injure them,
and giving them many things from Castile, whereby they
may be drawn into friendship with us. This honourable
treatment of the Indians has been the cause of my learning
great secrets from them, through the knowledge of which ‘
large quantities of gold may be obtained, and your Highness
will thus be well served. I have often thought how it will be

VI

INTRODUCTION.

\ possible for us to sustain life, seeing that we have been as
badly succoured from the island of Espafiola as if we had
not been Christians. But our Lord, by his infinite mercy,
has chosen to supply us with provisions in this land, though
we have often been in such straits that we expected to die of
hunger; yet at the time of our greatest necessity our Lord
has pointed out the means of relief. Your most Royal High-
ness must know that after we came here, we were forced to
travel from one place to another, by reason of the great
scarcity, and it astonishes me how we could have endured
such hardships. The things that have happened have been
more by the hand of Grod than by the hand of men. Up
to the present time I have taken care that none of my
people shall go hence unless I myself go in front of them,
whether it be by night or day, marching across rivers,
f”through swamps and forests and over mountains; and your
f Royal Highness should not imagine that the swamps of this
land are so light that they can be crossed easily, for many
J times we have had to go a league, and two and three leagues,
f through swamps and water, stripped naked, with our clothes
fastened on a shield upon our heads, and when we had come
to the end of one swamp we have had to enter another, and
Lto walk in this way from two or three to ten days. And
if the person who is entrusted with the government of this
land remains in his house, and leaves the work to others, no
one else he can send in his place can manage the people so
well, or fail to make mistakes which may cause the destruc-
tion of himself and of all who are with him. I can say this
with truth, as a person that has seen what happens; for
sometimes, when I have been unable to go with the men
because I have been detained by some business connected
with the sowing of the crops, I have observed that those
whom I have sent in my place, have not acted according to
reason. f
” I, my Lord, have taken care that everything that has

INTRODUCTION.

vii

been obtained, up to the present day, shall be properly ‘
divided, as well the gold and the pearls (the shares of your
most Royal Highness being put on one side) as the clothing
and eatables; but up to the present time we have valued””1
the eatables more than the gold, for we have more gold than
health, and often have I searched in various directions,
desiring more to find a sack of corn than a bag of gold; and
I can certify the truth of this to your most Royal Highness,
for we have been more in want of food than of gold. IJ
assure your most Royal Highness that if I had not personally
gone in front of my men, searching for food for those who
went with me, as well as for those that remained in this
town, there would have been no one left in the town or in
the land, unless our Lord had miraculously taken pity upon
us. The way I have adopted in dividing the gold that has
been procured, is to give a proper share to each man who
has been engaged in finding it. All receive shares of the
food, although some have not gone in search of it.
” I desire to give an account to your most Royal Highness
of the great secrets and marvellous riches of this land of
which God has made your most Royal Highness the Lord,
and me the discoverer before any other, for which I give
many thanks and much praise for all the days of the world,
and I hold myself to be the most fortunate man that has been
born in the world, seeing that our Lord has been served at
my hands rather than at those of another. As so propitious
a commencement has been made, I beseech your most Royal
Highness that I may be permitted to complete this great
enterprise, and I am bold to make this supplication to your
most Royal Highness, because I know that you will thus be
well served, for I venture to say that, with the help of God,
and with industry, I shall be able to conduct the enterprise
in such a way that your most Royal Highness will be thereby
well served. But for this purpose your most Royal Highness
should order that 500 or more men be presently sent from

via

INTRODUCTION.

the island of Espafiola, that, united with those already here,
although we have not more than 100 fit to bear arms, I may
be able to march into the interior of the land, and pass over
to the other sea on the south side.
‘1 That which I, by much labour and great hardships, have
had the fortune to discover, is as follows :—In this province
of Darien many very rich mines have been found, and there
is gold in great quantities. Twenty rivers have been dis-
covered, and thirty containing gold-flow from a mountain
about two leagues from this town, towards the south. This
mountain is towards the west, and between the town and the
mountain no gold bearing rivers have been seen, but I believe
they exist. Following the course of the great river of San
Juan for thirty leagues on the right hand side, one arrives at a
province called Abanumaque, which contains much gold. I
have certain intelligence that there are very rich rivers of gold
in this province, from a son of a Cacique,1 and from other
Indian men and women whom I have taken. Thirty leagues
up this great river, on the left hand, a very large and beau-
tiful stream flows into it, and two days’ journey up this
stream there is a Cacique called Davaive. He is a very great
lord with a large and very populous land. He has great
store of gold in his house, so much indeed that he who does
not know the things of this land would be very hard of belief.
I know this of a certainty. All the gold that goes forth from
this gulf comes from the house of the cacique Davaive, as
well as all that is owned by the caciques of those districts,
and it is reported that they have many pieces of gold curiously
worked, and very large. Many Indians who have seen them,
tell me that this cacique Davaive has certain bags of gold,
and that it takes the whole strength of a man to lift one of
them on to his back.
” The cacique collects the gold, and this is the manner of
his obtaining it.
1 This was the son of the Cacique Comogre. See p. 11 (note).I

INTRODUCTION.

IX

“Two days5 journey from his house there is a very beauti-i
ful country inhabited by a very evil Carib race, who eat as
many men as they can get. They are a people without a
cl^ief, and there is no one whom they obey. They are war-
like, and each man is his own master. They are lords of
the mines, and these mines, according to the news I have
heard, are the richest in the world. They are in a land
where there is a mountain which appears to be the largest in
the world, and I believe that so large a mountain has never
before been seen. It rises up on the Uraba side of this gulf,
somewhat inland, it may be twenty leagues from the sea.
The way to it is in a southerly direction. At first the land
is flat, but it gradually rises, and at last it is so high that it
is covered with clouds. During two years we have only twice
seen its summit, because it is continually obscured by clouds.
Up to a certain point it is covered with a forest of great trees,
and higher up the mountain has no trees whatever. It rises
in the most beautiful and level country in the world, near the
territory of this cacique Davaive. The very rich mines are
in this land towards the rising of the sun, and it is two days’
journey from the rich mines to the abode of this cacique
Davaive.
” There are two methods of collecting the gold without any/
trouble. One is by waiting until the river rises in the/
ravines, and when the freshes pass off, the beds remain dry,
and the gold is laid bare, which has been robbed from the
mountains and brought down in very large lumps. The
Indians describe them as being the size of oranges or of a
fist, and others like flat slabs. The other way of gathering
gold is by waiting until the plants on the hills are dry, which
are set on fire, and when they are consumed the Indians go
to search in the most likely places, and collect great quanti-
ties of very beautiful grains of gold. The Indians who
gather this gold, bring it in grains to be melted, and barter
it with this cacique Davaive, in exchange for youths and boys)

X

INTRODUCTION.

to eat, and for women to serve them as wives, whom they do
not eat. He gives them also many pigs, as well as fish,
cotton cloth, and salt, and such worked pieces of gold as
they want. These Indians only trade with the cacique
Davaive, and with no one else.
“This cacique Davaive has a great place for melting gold
in his house, and he has a hundred men continually working
at the gold. I know all this of a certainty, for I have never
received any other account, in whatever direction I may have
gone. I have heard it from many caciques and Indians, as
well from natives of the territory of this cacique Davaive, as
from those of other parts, so that I believe it to be true,
because I have heard it in many forms, obtaining the infor-
mation from some by torments, from others for love, and
from others in exchange for things of Castile.1 I also have
certain information that, after ascending this river of San
Juan for fifty leagues there are very rich mines on both sides
of the river” The river is navigated in the small canoes of
the Indians, because there are many narrow and winding
mouths overhung with trees, and these cannot be passed
except in canoes three or four palmos in breadth. After the
river is entered ships may be built of eight or more palmos,
which may be rowed with twenty oars, like fastas? but the
river has a very strong current, which even the Indian canoes
can hardly stem. When it is blowing fresh the vessels may
make sail, assisted by the oars in turning some of the
windings.
“The people who wander along the upper course of this
great river are evil and warlike. It is necessary to be very
cunning in dealing with them. I have news of many other
1 The Dobaybe was as famous a person as the El Dorado,
amongst the early Spanish conquerors. He appears to have been
a chief whose territory stretched along the banks of the river
At rat o.
3 Lateen rigged craft in the Mediterranean.

INTRODUCTION.

XI

things, but I will not declare them until I know them more
fully, believing that I shall discover them with the help of
God.
” That which is to be found down this coast to the west-
ward is the province called Careta, which is twenty leagues j
distant. There are certain rivers in it which contain gold,
according to Indian men and women who are in this town.
The Spaniards have not gone there, in order not to rouse
the country until we have more men, for we are now few in
number. Further down the coast, at a distance of forty
leagues from this city, and twelve leagues inland, there is a
cacique named Comogre, and another named Pocorosa; who
are at equal distances from the sea. They have many wars
with each other. They each have a town inland, and another
on the sea-coast, by which the interior is supplied with fish.
The Indians assured me that there were very rich rivers of
gold near the houses of these caciques. At the distance of a
day’s journey from the cacique Pocorosa’s house there are
the most beautiful mountains that have been seen in these
parts. They are clear of forests, except some groves of trees
along the banks of mountain streams.
“In these mountains there are certain caciques who have
great quantities of gold in their houses. It is said that these
caciques store their gold in barbacoas like maize, because it
is so abundant that they do not care to keep it in baskets;
that all the rivers of these mountains contain gold; and that
they have very large lumps in great abundance. Their
method of -collecting the gold is by going into the water, and
gathering it in their baskets. They also scrape it up in the
beds of streams, when they are dry; and that your most
Royal Highness may be more completely informed concern-
ing these parts, I send an Indian workman of that district
who has collected it many times. Your most Royal High-
ness must not hold this subject as one for a jest, for I am in
truth well assured of it by many principal Indians and caci-

Xll

INTRODUCTION.

ques. I, sire, have myself been very near these mountains,
within a day’s journey, but I did not reach them, because I
was unable to do so, owing to the want of men; for a man
gets as far as he can, not as far as he wishes. Beyond these
mountains the country is very flat towards the south, and
the Indians say that the other sea is at a distance of three
days’ journey. All the caciques and Indians of the country
of Comogre tell me that there is such great store of gold
collected in lumps, in the houses of the caciques of the other
sea, that we should be astonished. They declare that there
is much gold in very large grains in all the rivers of the other
coast, and that the Indians of the other sea come to the resi-
dence of this cacique Comogre by a river, and bring gold
from the mines to be melted, in very large round grains, and
in great quantity. In exchange for the gold they get cotton
cloth and good looking Indian men and women. They do
not eat them like the people towards the great river. They
say that the people of the other coast are very good and well
mannered; and I am told that the other sea is very good
for canoe navigation, for that it is always smooth, and never
rough like the sea on this side, according to the Indians. I
believe that there are many islands in that sea. They say
that there are many large pearls, and that the caciques have
baskets of them, as well as the Indian men and women
generally. The river which flows from the territory of the
cacique Comogre to the other sea, forms itself into three
branches, each one of which enters the other sea by itself.
They say that the pearls are brought to the cacique Comogre
in canoes by the western branch. The canoes with gold
from all parts enter by the eastern branch. It is a most
astonishing thing and without equal, that our Lord has
made you the lord of this land. It should not be for-
\ gotten that your most Royal Highness will be served by
sending me reinforcements; when I will, if our Lord favours
me, discover things so grand, and places where so much

INTRODUCTION.

xiii

gold and such wealth may be had, that a great part of the
world might be conquered with it. I assure your most
Royal Highness that I have worked with more diligence for
the service of your most Royal Highness than the governors
who were lost here, Alonzo de Ojeda and Diego de Nicuesa;
for I have not remained in my bed while my people were
entering and exploring the country. I must let your most
Royal Highness know that no party has gone into any part
of this land unless I was in front as a guide opening the
• road with my own hands, for those who went with me. If
this is not believed, I refer to what I have sent home, and
to the fruits which each one of those who have laboured here
has yielded.
“As one who has seen the things of these parts, and who
has more knowledge of the land than anyone else has hitherto
acquired, and because I desire that the affairs of these re-
gions which I have originated, may flourish and reach such
a position as to be of service to your most Royal Highness;
I must make known what is necessary to be done and to
be provided at once, and until the land is known and ex-
plored. The chief requirement is that a thousand men
should come from the island of Espafiola, for those who
might come direct from Castile would not be fit for much
until they were accustomed to the country, for they would
be lost, and us who are now here with them. Your most
Royal Highness will please to order that, for the present,
this colony be supplied with provisions at the hands of your
most Royal Highness, that the land may be explored arid
its secrets made known. And thus two things will be ef-
fected; one that much money will be gained in the markets,
and the other and principal one that, the land being sup-
plied with provisions, great things and vast riches may be
discovered, by the help of God. It is also necessary to provide
the means of building small ships for the rivers, and to send
pitch, nails, ropes, and sails, with some master shipwrights

xiv

INTRODUCTION:

who understand ship-building. Your most Royal Highness
should also send two hundred cross-bows with very strong
stays and fittings, and with long ranges. They should not
weigh more than two pounds; and money would thus be
saved, because each man in this place ought to have one or
two cross-bows, as they are very good arms against the
Indians, and useful in the chase of birds and other game.
Two dozen very good hand-guns, of light metal, are also
required; for those made of iron are soon damaged by the
constant damp, and are eaten away with rust. They should »
not weigh more than from twenty-five to thirty pounds, and
they should not be long, so that a man may be able to
carry one of them wherever it may be necessary. Very good
powder is also wanted.
“For the present, it is necessary that as large a rein-
forcement of troops as possible should be sent to the pro-
vince of Darien, because it is a land very full of hostile
tribes. There should also be a force at the mines of Tu-
\ banama, in the province of Comogre, because it is also a
very populous region. At present, most puissant lord, the
troops cannot build with lime and stone, nor with mud,
but are obliged to make double palisades of very strong
wood, with mud between them, surrounded by a good strong
I ditch. And those who tell your most Royal Highness that
forts may be built of stone and lime, or of other material,
have not seen the quality of the land. What I would urge,
most puissant lord, is that people should come, so that the
land may be. explored from these two stations of Davaive
and Comogre, and that the secrets of it may be known, as
well as those of the sea on the other side towards the south,
and all other matters. Your most Royal Highness should
also send workmen to look after the cross-bows, for every
day they get out of order, owing to the constant damp. In
all the matters which I have named, your most Royal High- \
ness would gain money, and it would cost nothing beyond >
the order to send people here.

INTRODUCTION.

XV

” Those Indians, in certain of the provinces, who eat men,
and others at the bottom of the gulf of Uraba and in the
extensive flooded parts near the great river of San Juan and
round the gulf, at the entrance of the flat country of the
province of Davaive, have no workshops, nor do they sup-
port themselves on anything but fish, which they exchange
for maize. These are worthless people, and when canoes
of Christians have gone on the great river of San Juan,
they have come against them, and have killed some of our
people. The country where the Indians eat men is very bad
and useless, and can never at any time be turned to account.
But these Indians of Caribana have richly deserved death a
thousand times over, for they are a very evil race, and have
killed many of our Christians when we lost the ship. I
would not make slaves of so bad a people, but would order
them to be destroyed, both old and young, that no memory
may remain of them. I speak now of Caribana and for twenty
leagues inland, the people being evil, and the country sterile
and worthless. And it will be serviceable to your Highness
to give permission to take these natives to Espanola and the
other islands occupied by Christians, to be sold and made
profitable, that other slaves may be bought for their price;
for it is impossible to keep them even for a day, the country
being very extensive, where they can run away and hide.
Thus the settlers in these parts, not having Indians secured,
cannot work for the service of your Highness, nor extract
any gold from the mines. The settlers would also beseech
your Highness to grant them permission to bring Indians
from Yeragua, from a gulf called San Bias, which is fifty
leagues from this town, down the coast. Your Highness
will be well served in granting this request, because it is a
very worthless land, covered with great swamps and forests,
and, seen from the sea, it appears to be inundated. So that
no profit whatever can be made out of these Indians of
Veragua and Caribana, except in this way, by bringing them

xvi

INTRODUCTION.

to Christian settlements, whence they can be taken to Cuba,
Jamaica, and other islands inhabited by Christians, to be
exchanged for other Indians, of which there are many in
those islands. Thus by sending the warlike Indians far
from their homes, the natives of these parts will labour well
in the islands, and those of the islands here. I must inform
your Highness that permission to take the Indians of the
islands to the main land would be very conducive to your
service, and I must make known to your Highness that, for
a distance of two hundred leagues round this town there is
no inhabited island, except one in Carthagena, where the
people defend themselves well.
‘1 As regards the gold that is collected from the Indians
by barter or during war; it will conduce to your service to
give permission that henceforth a fifth may be given to your
Highness of all that may be obtained; and the reason why
this will conduce to the service of your Highness is that, the
share being a fourth, it is looked upon as hard service to
discover land and to march in war through great hardships,
for in truth they are so great as to be intolerable. The men
prefer to seek for gold, and there are very good mines near
here, rather than to go and die. And if I, or the governor
who may succeed me, have to make the Christians go inland
on expeditions of discovery, they will never go willingly,
and a thing done against the will is never so well done as it
should be; while, when it is done willingly, all will be done
well and according to our desire. I, therefore, assure your
Highness that if the Royal share of gold is a fifth, it will be
collected in much larger quantity than when it is a fourth,
besides which the country will be discovered according to
your Highnesses desire.
“With respect to the arms and the means of building
brigantines, and the shipwrights, these are important points,
because without them no good work can be done. If your
Highness should order them to be sent, it would be entirely

INTRODUCTION.

xvii

at the cost of the settlers in these parts, without any expense
to your Highness; and if your Highness would command
that everything should be supplied which I have asked
for, it would be a great advantage, and the land would be
provided with all that is necessary. Your Highness should
receive all this from me as your loyal servant, and should
give it credence because your Highnesses service will thus
be advanced. I do not desire to make towers of wind like
the governors whom your Highness sent out, for between
them both they have lost eight hundred men, and those
whom I have rescued scarcely amount to fifty, and this is
the truth. Your Highness will consider all that I have done,
and discovered, and endured with these people, without any
help but from God and my own industry.
“If I have erred in anything in working for the service of
your Highness, I beseech your Highness that my earnest
desire to serve your Highness may be considered. Although,
most puissant Lord, I have not succeeded in doing all that
is necessary in this land, I can certify that I know how to
administer better than all those who have come here hitherto:
and that your Highness may understand this, you must
consider how little other governors have discovered until to-
day, and how they have all failed, and left these shores very
full of graves, while, although many Christians may lie
underground, it is true that most of those that have died
have been eaten by dogs and crows. I do not desire to en-
large upon this, but your Highness should know what each
man has been able to do and has done up to this time.
“Most puissant Lord,—I have sent Sebastian del Campo,
that your Highness may be better informed of all that has
passed here; and I entreat your Highness to give him full
credence, for he has been informed by. me of the whole
truth concerning all that can be done in the service of your
Highness, and of that which ought to be done for this land.
“Your Highness must know that formerly there were
C

XV111

INTRODUCTION.

certain disagreements here, because the alcaldes and regi-
dores of this town, filled with envy and treachery, attempted
to seize me, and when they failed in that, they made false
charges against me with false witnesses and in secret. I
complain of this to your Highness, because if such acts are
not chastised, no governor whom your Highness may send
here will be free from attacks. For I, being alcalde mayor
for your Highness, have been exposed to a thousand slanders;
and if the representative of your Highness is not respected,
he cannot do what is necessary for your service. And
because the alcaldes and regidores sent an accusation against
me, which I believe your Highness will see; I appointed
two gentlemen as my judges, that they might draw up a
report of my life, and of the great and loyal services which
I have done for your Highness in those parts of the Indies
where we now are; which I send to your Highness, that
you may see the malice of these people, and because I
believe that your Highness will be pleased with all that
I have done in these parts for your service. I beseech your
Highness that favour may be shown me in proportion to my
services. I also send a report of what passed with respect
to those who invented these calumnies.
” Most puissant Lord, I desire to ask a favour of your
Highness, for I have done much in your service. It is
that your Highness will command that no bachelor of laws
nor of anything else, unless it be of medicine, shall come to
this part of the Indies on pain of heavy punishment which
your Highness shall order to be inflicted, for no bachelor
has ever come here who is not a devil, and who does not
lead the life of devils. And not only are they themselves
evil, but they give rise to a thousand law-suits and quarrels.
This order would be greatly to the advantage of your High-
nesses service, for the country is new. Most puissant Lord,
in a brigantine that we sent from here, on board of whiojh
was Juan de Quizedo and Rodrigo de Colmenares, 1 forwarded
i

INTRODUCTION.

xix

to your Highness 500 pesos of gold from the mines, in very
beautiful grains, and as the voyage is somewhat dangerous
for small vessels, I now send to your Highness, by Sebastian
del Campo, 370 pesos of gold from the mines. I would
have sent more if it had not been for the impossibility of
collecting it during the short time the vessels were here.
With respect to all that I have said, I beseech your High-
ness to do that which is best for your service. May the
life and royal estate of your Highness prosper by the addi-
tion of many more kingdoms and lordships to your sacred
rule, and may all that is discovered in these parts increase
the power of your Highness, as your most Royal Highness
may desire; for there are greater riches here than in any
other part of the world. From the town of Santa Maria del
Antigua, in the province of Darien, in the gulf of Uraba,
to-day this Thursday the 20th of January in the year
1513. The making and creation of your Highness, who
kisses your most royal hands and feet, Vasco Nunez de *
Balboa.”1
This interesting letter gives a clear insight into the
position and designs of Vasco Nunez two years after he
had taken command of the colony at Darien. He had
headed numerous exploring expeditions, had formed
alliances with Indian tribes, and was then preparing
his expedition to discover the South Sea, concerning
which he had collected correct and detailed informa-
tion. But his appeal to the king for reinforcements
and supplies met with no response, while the crushing
1 Navarrete, Coll., torn, iii, No. v, p. 375. The original is in
the Indian Archives at Seville. Vasco Nunez addressed another
letter to the Emperor, after the arrival of Pedrarias, from which
I have quoted in the notes to Andagoya’s narrative. It is dated
* October 16th, 1515. –

XX’

INTRODUCTION.

news was soon afterwards conveyed to him that the
complaints of his enemy, the lawyer Enciso, had been
favourably heard at court, and that he would probably
be summoned to Spain to answer for his conduct.
This intelligence made him resolve to attempt some
great undertaking which might cast oblivion over the
past, and on the 1st of September, 1513, he set out
from Darien, to cross the mountains, and discover the
South Sea.
The details of that famous enterprise are too well
known to require repetition in this place. Had the
news of its successful-issue reached the Spanish court
a few months earlier, the fate of half a continent would
have been changed. A young and statesmanlike ruler,
instead of a cruel and passionate old dotard, would
‘have settled the Isthmus of Panama ; and the humane
and enlightened Vasco Nunez, instead of the ruthless
and illiterate Pizarro, would have been the conqueror
of Peru. But this was not to be. Vasco Nunez re-
turned to Darien, from the coast of that mighty ocean
which he had discovered, only to receive the tidings
that old Pedrarias, with fifteen hundred men, was
coming out from Spain to supersede him.
Pedrarias was accompanied by many learned clerks
and gallant knights. Among them were Queved.o the
bishop, Oviedo the future historian, Enciso the learned
geographer and spiteful enemy of Vasco Nunez, Espi-
nosa the subtle lawyer, Belalcazar the destined con-
queror of Quito, Hernando de Soto the discoverer of
the Mississippi, and Pascual de Andagoya.
Andagoya was born in the valley of Cuartango, in the

INTRODUCTION.

xxi

province of Alava, of good parentage.1 His father was
a Hidalgo named Juan Ibanez de Area. He commences
his narrative from the date of his departure from Spain,
in the fleet of Pedrarias, narrates the events of the
voyage, and the arrival of the new governor at Darien,
in the end of July 1514. He then gives a most interest-
ing and valuable account of the manners and customs1
of the Indians of the isthmus.2 This fine race has re-
tained its independence down to the present day. The
unconquerable love of liberty of these Darien Indians
has been favoured by the dense forests, vast swamps, and
inaccessible mountains which form their native land.
The Spanish conquerors, and afterwards the bold Eng-
glish and French buccaneers, traversed the isthmus in
every direction, but modern explorers and surveyors
have been less successful. To this day the narrowest
part of the isthmus, between the Bayanos river and
the Carribean sea, is almost unknown, owing to the
hostility of the Indians.3 The fullest account of these
people is to be found in the narrative of Lionel Wafer,
a surgeon who served with Dampier, and who lived
amongst them for several months in 1681-82. They
treated him with hospitable kindness, and his truthful
story leaves a most favourable impression of his wild
entertainers. They were probably of the same type as
many kindred tribes that were exterminated by the
ruthless Spaniards,’ and there can be no doubt that
1 Navarrete gives a brief biographical notice of Andagoya.
Coleccion, iii, p. 457.
2 Pages 12 to 18.
3 See a paper on the Bayanos river by Laurence Oliphant, Esq.,
in the proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1865.

xxu

INTRODUCTION.

they are a noble and generous race. We are indebted
for a very complete knowledge of their characteristics
to the narratives of Andagoya and Wafer.1
Having given us an account of the Indians, Anda-
goya relates the proceedings of several exploring expe-
ditions in which he served. His first employment was
in the final adventure of the ill-fated Vasco Nunez.
Andagoya was serving with the great discoverer when,
with incredible labour, he transported the brigantines,
in pieces, over the forest-covered mountains, when he
reached the shores of the South Sea for a second time,
and when he was recalled by old Pedrarias to be judi-
cially murdered at Acla.2 After the death of Vasco
Nunez, Andagoya went with the Governor Pedrarias
to Panama, and received from him a repartimiento of
Indians. He married a maid who was in attendance
on the governor’s wife, and when Panama received the
title of a city from Charles V in 1521, Andagoya was
appointed one of its first Regidores. But he continued
to be actively employed with various exploring expe-
ditions, and he gives an account of their proceedings
in his narrative. After the founding of Panama he
went with the licentiate Espinosa to discover Nicara-
gua, and returned by land.3 The unsuccessful expedi-
tion of Gonzalo de Badajos, who went down the Baya-
nos river in 1516, and penetrated beyond Nata, on the
Pacific side of the isthmus,4 was followed by that of
Espinosa, in which Andagoya also served.5 He was

1 Dampier’s Voyages, iii, p. 344 (3rd edit., London, 1729).
2 Pages 18 to 22. 3 Pages 24 and 25.
4 Pages 26 and 27. 5 Pages 28 to 31.

INTRODUCTION.

xxm

afterwards employed in an expedition to Nicaragua;
and he gives a short account of the manners and cus-
toms of the Indians of that province.1
In 1522 Andagoya was appointed Inspector-Gene-
ral of the Indians on the isthmus, and for the first time
took the chief command of an expedition. On this oc-
casion he explored a province called Bird, south of the
isthmus, and between the river Atrato and the Pacific.
Here he seems to have obtained authentic accounts of
the great empire of the Yncas, which, as he tells us, was
erroneously called Peru, owing to a confusion between
it and this province of Biru* where the first tidings
concerning it were received. Bird had, however, been
already visited in 1515, by Gaspar de Morales and
Francisco Pizarro, during their infamous and devas-
tating raid from Darien to the Pearl Islands.2 Anda-
goya returned to Panama full of the wonderful news
he had collected, but sick from the effects of a ducking
which, as he tells us, was so injurious to his health
that he was unable to mount a horse for three years
afterwards. He was not made of the stern stuff which
went to form a conqueror of Peru, and he was easily
persuaded by Pedrarias to hand over the undertaking
to the partners Pizarro, Almagro, and Luque. He de-
clares, however, that the discovery of Peru was due to
the information collected by himself in Biru, and that
Pizarro would have fared better if he had more closely
followed his instructions.3 Meanwhile, Andagoya con-
tinued to live at Panama, acting as a sort of agent to
1 Pages 32 to 40. 2 See pages 9 and 10 (note).
3 Pages 42 and 43.

xxiv

INTRODUCTION.

the Peruvian conquerors. He lost his first wife in 1529
and, as misfortunes seldom come singly, he was, at about
the same time, thrown into prison and afterwards
banished by the new governor of Panama, Pedro de
los Eios. He retired to the island of San Domingo,
where he married his second wife Dona Mayora Mejia.
In 1534 he returned with her to Panama, was appointed
lieutenant to the new governor, Don Francisco de Bar-
rionuevo, and acquired considerable wealth by acting
as agent to Pizarro. In 1536 his reside?icia1 was taken
with great severity by the licentiate Pedro Vasquez, and
he was sent to Spain, but he was eventually acquitted
and honoured with favours by the Emperor, for his long
and faithful services.
After relating his own adventures in Bini, Andagoya
devotes several pages to an account of the conquest of
Peru, and of the civilisation of the Yncas.2 His version
of the oft-told tale is valuable, because, from his position,
he must have derived his information from men who
were actually engaged in the events which he described,
and* who saw Peru in the first years of the Conquest.
Andagoya happened to be at the Spanish court in
1538, when news arrived of the death of the licentiate
Gaspar de Espinosa at Cuzco, who had been appointed
Governor of New Castille.3, The government of this
territory was, therefore, granted to Andagoya. He
embarked from San Lucar with sixty men early in
1539, with the title of Adelantado, and reached Panama,
i
1 See note at.pages 85 and 86 of my translation of the life of
Don Alonzo Enriquez, for an account of these residencias.
2 See pages 42 to 59. 3 See page 59 {note).

INTRODUCTION.

XXV

where he collected two hundred followers, and made
preparations for his expedition down, the coast. His
new government was to extend along the Pacific coast
from the gulf of San Miguel on the isthmus to the river
of San Juan; but, unfortunately, its inland boundary was
not defined. The geography of the vast regions of South
America was little understood in Spain, and grants of the
government of territories were often made which over-
lapped each other, and created disputes that could only
be settled by the strongest arm and most unscrupulous
head. So it was that the honest but weak Andagoya
found himself opposed to a rough and determined an-
tagonist, the famous Sebastian de Belalcazar, and, as
was inevitable, came off second best in the encounter.
Belalcazar was an adventurer who had come to the
new world in the train of Pedrarias, and had after-
wards followed the fortunes of Pizarro. The conqueror
of Peru despatched him with a hundred and forty men
to occupy Quito in 1533, and he afterwards marched
north, conquering Pasto and Popayan, and reaching
Bogota in 1538.1 He then proceeded to the Spanish
court, to petition for a grant of the government of Po-
payan and the surrounding provinces, leaving small
Spanish colonies in the towns he had founded at Cali,
Pasto, Popayan, and a few other places.
Andagoya says that Belalcazar set out for Spain, be-
cause he heard that Espinosa had been appointed go-
vernor of the territory which he had discovered. As
Andagoya had been appointed to succeed Espinosa, he
1 For an account of Belalcazar, see my translation of Cieza de
Leon, p. 110 (note).

xxvi

INTRODUCTION.

thus tries to insinuate that Belalcazar knew that the
right was not on his side.1
Meanwhile the Adelantado Andagoya, with a grant
of the Pacific coast from the river San Juan to the
isthmus, and with a government having no defined
limit inland, was preparing his expedition at Panama.
Andagoya left his brother-in-law, Alonzo de Pefia, at
San Domingo, who was to collect more troops, horses,
and stores. He was not long in following his chief
with a hundred and forty men, forty horses, ammuni-
tion, and supplies, which were conveyed from Nombre
de Dios to Panama, and embarked on board a galleon,
a caravel, and two brigantines. Andagoya then com-
menced his voyage along the coast, on February 15th,
1540. He gives a short account of the events of the
voyage in his narrative, and of the discovery of .the
port of Buenaventura, where he landed.2 Here he
heard that there was a town founded by Belalcazar in
the interior, called Lili or Cali, and he marched to it at
once, over one of the most difficult routes in South
America.3 In this proceeding he was unquestionably
encroaching on the discoveries of another man, and
Herrera observes that he had a commission to conquer
the country round the river San Juan, but that he
marched to Cali without considering that there is no
river San Juan in that neighbourhood.4 Yet he arrived
at a most opportune moment. The horrible atrocities
1 See page 62.
2 See page 96. For a further account of the port of Buena-
ventura, see my translation of Cieza de Leon, chap. xxix.
3 Page 61. 4 Herrera, dec. iv, lib. v, cap. iii.

INTRODUCTION.

XXV11

of Belalcazar and his followers had driven the Indians
to desperation, and they had at length rushed to arms.
Timana and Popayan were closely besieged by them,
and the Spaniards had been defeated in the open field.
Andagoya restored peace to these provinces, established
himself at Popayan, and immediately began to busy
himself in conciliating and converting the natives. His
narrative contains a very curious account of his pro-
ceedings during his brief tenure of office.1
While Andagoya was thus quietly taking possession
of the fruits of the labours of Belalcazar, that bold con-
queror was successfully urging his suit at court. Charles
V granted him the government of Popayan with the
title of Adelantado, chiefly with a view to checking the
ambition of the Pizarros in Peru. The new governor
went out to Panama, fitted out an expedition, and sailed
down the coast to Buenaventura, in the wake of Anda-
goya. The latter had left one of his followers in com-
mand at that port, named Juan Ladrillero, “a man of
intelligence in affairs both by land and sea.” A con-
ference took place between Belalcazar and Ladrillero,
and the new Adelantado was allowed to land without
opposition, and to march towards Cali. Andagoya
prepared to resist, but some friars and leading citizens
interposed, and it was agreed that they should decide
upon the rival claims of the two Adelantados. The
assembly declared in favour of Belalcazar, who imme-
diately arrested Andagoya, and sent him in chains to
Popayan.2
, ?
1 See pages 63 to 75.
3 See my translation of Cieza de Leon, p. 105.

xxviii

INTRODUCTION.

In March 1541 Alonzo de Peiia arrived at Buena-
ventura with the wife and family of the unfortunate
Andagoya, and additional supplies and reinforcements.
While this officer was endeavouring, by mild and tem-
perate expostulation, to induce the stern Belalcazar to
liberate his brother-in-law, the Licentiate Vaca de
Castro opportunely arrived at the port. This func-
tionary had been sent out to co-operate with Pizarro
in restoring tranquillity to Peru, and, after a tedious
voyage, he was glad to land at Buenaventura, resolving
to perform the rest of the journey by land. He was
very ill from the effects of the hardships he had expe-
rienced during his voyage, and was carried to Cali in
a chair, on the backs of Indians. He conferred with
Belalcazar and his prisoner Andagoya, but was unable
to reconcile them; and, having received the astounding
tidings of the assassination of Pizarro while he was at
Popayan, he continued his journey towards the scene
of his duties in Peru, in August 1541. His parting
advice was that Andagoya should be sent to Spain, ,
where the Emperor might decide the limits of his go-
vernment.
At last Belalcazar allowed his rival to set out
for Buenaventura, accompanied by his brother-in-law
Alonzo de Pena. At the port he received the melan-
choly news of the death of his wife and children from
fever. Leaving one Payo Eomero as his lieutenant
there, he embarked for Panama, and proceeded thence
to Spain; having lost his government, and upwards of
50,000 castellanos de oro, besides 20,000 that he had
borrowed,—equal to more than £140,000 of our

INTRODUCTION.

XXIX

money. His lieutenant Payo Romero was a brutal
soldier whose career of rapine and murder was put a
stop to, by a revolt of the long-suffering Indians.1
The Adelantado Pascual de Andagoya, after he had
arranged his affairs in Spain in the best way he could,
returned to the Indies in 1546 with the Licentiate
Pedro de la Gasca, who was sent out with full powers
to put an end to the civil discord caused by the ambi-
tion of Gonzalo Pizarro in Peru. Andagoya eventually
reached the port of Manta, in the fleet of Gasca, where
death closed his eventful career.
He was a brave and honest officer, but he lacked
that reckless audacity and self-reliance which wereN
essential for success in those rough and lawless times.
Thus Pizarro forestalled him in the discoverv of Peru,
and he never stood a chance against the bold and un-
scrupulous Belalcazar, in the struggle for the govern-
ment of Popayan. The historian Oviedo, who knew
him well during the early days of the Darien colony,
speaks of him as a noble-minded and virtuous person.
He was a man of some education, and his humane
treatment of the Indians entitles his” name to honourable
mention in any history of Spanish conquest in South
America. The contrast between his conduct to the
natives, and that of Belalcazar, is most striking.
The personal narrative of such an eye witness of
some of the leading events which led to the discovery
and conquest of Peru, is certainly a most valuable
addition to our knowledge of those stirring times.
1 See my translation of Cieza de Leon, p. 107.

Narrati&e of tfje Proceeding*
OF
PEDRABIAS DAVILA
IN THE PROVINCES OP TIERRA FIRME OR CASTILLA DEL ORO,
AND OF WHAT HAPPENED IN THE DISCOVERY OF THE SOUTH SEA, AND
THE COASTS OF PERU AND NICARAGUA.
WRITTEN BY THE

ADELANTADO

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

NARRATIVE
OF
PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

IN the year 1514 Pedrarias de Avila_, who had been ap-
pointed governor of the mainland called Castilla del Om,1
1 Pedrarias was among the candidates for the appointment of governor
of Darien, and received it through the favour of the bishop of Burgas.
u He was an elderly man, of rank and high connections, of much repute^
in war, having served with honour in Africa. From his feats in the
tournament he had acquired the name of justador (the jouster).” He
was a suspicious, fiery, arbitrary old man. Helps, i, p. 374.
Vasco Nufiez, in a letter to the king, dated October 16th, 1515, thus
describes Pedrarias. ” With respect to the governor, although an honour-
able person, your highness must know that he is very old for this coun-
try, and that he is very ill of a serious disease, insomuch that he has not
been well for a single day since he arrived. He is excessively impatient,
and is a man that would not care much if half his followers were lost.
He has never punished the evil deeds and murders that have been com-
mitted both on caciques and Indians by those who have invaded the
country. He is a man who is much pleased to see discord between one
and another, and when it does not exist, he causes it by speaking evil to
one man of another. He gives little credit to what any one says, except
to such an one as he believes to have an interest in speaking the truth.
He takes little heed of the interest of your Majesty, and is a man in whom
reigns all the envy and avarice in the world. He is very miserable if he
sees that there is friendship between respectable people, and is pleased to
hear gossip amongst his followers. He is a man who more easily believes
evil things than good, or those that may be profitable. He is a person
without any judgment, and without any genius for government.” Vasco
Nunez was writing under a strong feeling of disgust at the wretched
misrule which this old incapable had produced ; yet the acts of Pedrarias
B

9

NARRATIVE OF

by the Catholic king of glorious memory, embarked at
Seville, with nineteen ships and fifteen hundred men—the
most distinguished company that had yet set out from
Spain.1 The first land of the Indies at which he arrived
was the island of Dominica. This island has a very large
and beautiful harbour.2 The land is for the most part hilly
and wooded. Here he disembarked with his troops, and
desired to find out whether there were any inhabitants.
Some of the Spaniards, entering the woods, met with
Indians armed with poisoned arrows, who were wandering
about in the forests which surrounded the camp, watching
for an opportunity to kill a stray Spaniard. These Indians
show that the character thus sketched by an enemy was but slightly
exaggerated. Navarrete Coll., p. 384. ^
1 Pedrarias was accompanied by a bishop of the new colony named
Juan de Quevedo, Gaspar de Espinosa as alcalde mayor, the Bachiller
Enciso as alguazil mayor (an old enemy of Vasco Nunez), and Gonzalvo
Hernandez de Oviedo, the famous historian, as veedor or inspector oi
gold foundries. Oviedo afterwards resided with his wife and family in
Hispaniola, paying occasional visits to Spain. In 1526 he published his
Sumario, and in 1535 his Historia General de las Indias, which contains
a detailed account of the Darien expedition of Pedrarias. The first part
is published in the collection of Ramusio.
2 Dominica was discovered by Columbus during his second voyage, in
1493. Dr. Chanca, the physician to the fleet of Columbus, in his letter
to the chapter of Seville, says :—” On Sunday, the 3rd of November, we
saw lying before us an island, and soon on the right hand another ap-
peared : the first was high and mountainous on the side nearest to us f
the other flat and very thickly wooded. As soon as it became lighter,
other islands began to appear on both sides, so that on that day there
were six islands to be seen lying in different directions, and most of them
of considerable size. We directed our course towards that which we had
first seen” (Dominica, so called from having been discovered on a
Sunday), ” and reaching the coast, we proceeded more than a league in
search of a port where we might anchor, but without finding one. All
that part of the island which we could observe, appeared mountainous,
very beautiful, and green even up to the water, which was delightful to
see, for at that season there is scarcely anything green in our own country.
One vessel remained all that day seeking for a harbour, and at length
found a good one, where they saw both people and dwellings.”

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA. 3

are a warlike people. They eat human flesh, and both men
and women go about stark naked. This island has not been
occupied, because the conquest would be very dangerous,
and of little value.1
Thence, continuing his way to the mainland, Pedrarias
arrived at the province of Santa Martha, where he landed
all his men. He wished to learn the secrets of the land,
and a company of his troops came to a village deserted by
its inhabitants, where they captured some spoil, and found
a certain quantity of gold in a tomb. The people of this J ‘
land are almost the same as those of Dominica, they are
armed with arrows, and the arrows are poisoned.2 Here
they found certain cloths and the seats on which the devil
sat. He was figured on them in the form in which he ap-
peared to the people, and although they did not worship
him, as being a thing which appeared to and conversed
with them, they noted his form, and represented it on their
cloths. Thence Pedrarias sailed.for Tierra Firme, without
stopping anywhere except at Isla Fuerte, which is in front
of Carthagena. The Indians get their salt from this island, !1
and a great number of bags of salt were found. Continuing
his voyage, he arrived at a province called Darien, which is at
the end of the gulf of the same name. Here he found a cer-
tain quantity of Spaniards, who had Yasco Nunez de Balboa
for their captain and alcalde mayor.3 Their setttlement was
1 The possession of the island was long disputed between Spaniards,
French, and English ; but in 1759 it finally became an English colony.
2 See chapter vii of my translation of Cieza de Leon, which treats of
“how the barb is made so poisonous with which the Indians of Santa
Martha have killecl so many Spaniards.” Castellanos says that these
Indians were called Caribs (or Cannibals), not because they ate human
flesh, but because they defended their houses well.
u No porque alii comiesen carne humana
Mas porque defendian bien su casa.”
Elegias, pt. ii, canto 3.
3 When Pedrarias arrived in the gulf of Urabia, he sent a messenger
1 B 2

4*

NARRATIVE OF

on the banks of a river, a league and a half from the sea. A
year before these people arrived at that province, the cap-
tains Diego de Nicuesa and Alonzo de Ojeda departed from
San Domingo, each one with his fleet. Ojeda went to the
coasts of Paria and Santa Martha, where most of his people
perished in the wars with the Indians or from disease.
The survivors took Francisco Pizarro, who was afterwards
governor of Peru, as their captain or leader, and followed
the coast until they reached Darien, where they established
themselves, and sent a ship to San Domingo, with the news
of what had happened. The judges who were there, ap-
pointed the said Vasco Nunez as alcalde mayor. Diego de
Nicuesa went with his fleet to the coast of Yeragua, where
he was lost.1 Leaving the remainder of his people on a hill
to inform Vasco Nunez of his arrival, who found the great discoverer in
a cotton shirt, loose drawers, and sandals, helping some Indians to thatch
a house. Vasco Nunez sent back to say that the colonists were ready to
receive the new governor. The colony consisted of 450 soldiers, while
Pedrarias had a force of nearly 1500 men. On June 30th, 1514, Pedra-
rias landed at Darien, and, as Herrera tells us (dec. i, lib. ix, cap. 3),
treated Vasco Nunez in a most malicious manner, appointing his old
enemy Enciso to hold his Residencia, fining him several thousand castel-
lanos, and for some time keeping him in confinement.
1 For an account of the proceedings of Ojeda and Nicuesa see my
translation of Cieza de Leon (note at p. 34).
In a letter to the king, dated from Darien January 20th, 1513, Vasco
Nunez says :—” We have lost three hundred men of those I commanded,
of those under Alonzo de Ojeda, and of those under Diego de Nicuesa.
With much labour I have united all these parties together. I sent to
Order that all the people who were in the settlement of Diego de Nicuesa
should be brought to this town, and I treated them with all the attention
that was possible. If I had not helped them they would have been lost,
five or six dying every day, and the survivors being thinned by the
Indians. Now all the men who were left behind by Diego de Nicuesa
are in this town. From the first day of their arrival here they have been
as well treated as if they had been sent by order of your most Royal
Highness ; for there has been no difference made with them, any more
than if they had come here on the first day. As soon as they arrived
here they were given their pieces of land for building and planting, in
good situations, close to those occupied by the men who came with mei

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

5

called the hill of Nicuesa, where Nombre de Dios stands, he
took a brigantine with some of his men, not knowing where
to go, the whole coast being marshy, covered with forest,
unhealthy, and thinly peopled. He sailed along the coast
in search of the people left by Ojeda, and to discover some
country where he might settle, for the coast of Yeragua as
far as Darien was under his jurisdiction. Ojeda had re-
ceived the other coast of Santa Martha and Carthagena.
Having arrived at Darien, he found Yasco Nufiez and his
followers, who received him as a stranger, and would neither
give him provisions, nor receive him as their governor.
Not desiring to let him remain with them, they made him
embark in a boat with some sailors, and it is even said that
this boat was caulked with a blunt tool only. I heard this
from the caulker himself who did the work.1 Thus the said
to this town; for the land was not yet divided, and they arrived in time
to receive some of the best pieces. I have to inform your most royal
highness that both the governors, as well Diego de Nicuesa as Alonzo de
Ojeda, performed their duties very ill, and that they were the causes
of their own perdition, because they knew not how to act, and because,
after they arrived in these parts, they took such presumptuous fancies
into their heads that they appeared to be lords of the land. They
imagined that they could rule the land and do all that was necessary
from their beds, and they acted thus, believing they had nothing further
to do. But the nature of the land is such that, if he, who has charge of
the government, sleeps, he cannot awake when he wishes ; for it is a land
that obliges him who governs to be very watchful. For this reason the
people desired to be rid of men who did not care whether things went
well or ill, like Diego de Nicuesa. This was the cause of the ruin both of
the one governor and of the other. These governors believed that they
could treat the people as slaves, and they never gave an account of the
gold they took, nor of anything else; for which reason all became so 1
careless that, even when they saw gold, they did not care to take it,
knowing that they would themselves receive a very small share of it.”
Navarrete Coll., torn, iii, Num. iv, p. 358.
1 Spanish carpenters and caulkers call their tools fierros or herramientas.
In caulking seams the estopa or oakum is first driven well in with a thin
edged caulking iron, and then remachado or secured with a blunt one or
fierro grueso. When Andogoya says that the vessel of Nicuesa was
caulked with a blunt tool (calafateado con ferro groso), he implies that

(5

NARRATIVE OF

Nicuesa was lost, and it was never known what became of
him.1 When the people, whom he had left in Nombre de
Dios, found that their captain did not return, obliged by-
necessity, they followed him, and, arriving at Darien, sub-
mitted to the authority of the others.
The Admiral Colon discovered these coasts, both the one
and the other.2
Pedrarias arrived at Darien in the end of July of the said
year 1514, where he was received by the people who were
there, and where he landed all his troops. The settlement
was small, and there were few resources in the land. The
provisions which were on board the ships were disembarked,
and divided amongst all the people. The flour and other
stores were injured by the sea, and this, added to the evil
nature of the land, which is woody, covered with swamps,
and very thinly inhabited, brought on so much sickness
among the people, that they could not be cured, and in one
month seven hundred men died of sickness and hunger.
Our arrival weighed so much on those who were already
settled at Darien, that they would do no act of charity for
any one. As in united enterprises, until experience has
shown the way, the correct method of acting is very seldom
adopted, so now Pedrarias was appointed jointly with the
the previous operation of driving the oakum well in with a sharp one
had been neglected, and that therefore the seams were easily forced open
afterwards.
1 Oviedo says that the last words he was heard to utter as he left the
shore were—Ostende faciem tuam et salvi erimus (” Show thy face,
O Lord, and we shall be saved”). Quoted by Helps, i, p. 133.
He set sail on March 1st, 1511, with seventeen faithful companions.
2 This was in his memorable fourth voyage in 1502. Columbus first
sighted the coast a few leagues to the east of the gulf of Honduras, and
on September 14th rounded the Cape, which he called Gracias a Dios, in
search of a strait. He sailed along the coasts of the Mosquito, Costa Rica,
and Veragua, and reached a harbour in November, which he called
Porto Bello. He went on for eight leagues to the point since named
Nombre de Dios, and returned thence to Veragua. He thus discovered
the whole coast from the gulf of Honduras nearly to that of Darien.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

7

bishop and officers (without whom he could do nothing).
These, seeing how the people were dying, began to send
out captains in various directions, not to make settlements,
but to bring as many Indians as possible to Darien.1 They
seldom succeeded, but lost many of their people in fights
with the Indians, some returning defeated, and others with
prisoners. As there were so many voices in every mea-
sure, each one given from motives of interest or wilfulness,
neither was good order preserved, nor was any evil doer
punished.21
It was but a short time since Yasco Nunez had reached a
point near the South Sea, whence he had seen it. The
captains anc1 troops who went forth in that direction, where
the country is healthier and more thickly peopled, brought
back great troops of captive natives in chains, and all the
gold they could lay their hands on. This state of things
continued for nearly three years. The captains divided the
captive Indians amongst the soldiers, and brought the gold
to Darien. They gave each man his share. To the bishop,’
1 The first expedition sent out by Pedrarias was commanded by Juan
de Ayora, who was ordered to build fortresses on the territories of the
caciques Comogre, Pocorosa, and Tubanama. He obtained gold by tor-
turing and burning the Indians, and then sailed away with it, and was
never heard of again in Darien. One Bartolome Hurtado was despatched
in search of Ayora, and brought back a hundred Indians as slaves, many
of whom he gave away as bribes to the principal officials in Darien.
2 Vasco Nunez wrote a letter to the king, dated October 16th, 1515,
in which he begged that some one might be sent to examine into the
state of the colony. He declared that he who would bring it back into
the condition it once was in, must neither sleep nor be careless. He said
that the Indians, who were formerly like sheep, had become as fierce
lions. That while once they used to come out in the roads with presents
for the Christians, they now go forth to kill them. He explained that
this change had been caused by the evil treatment they had received
from the captains who had invaded their territories, killed many chiefs
and Indians without any reason, and stolen their women and children.
The crimes of these captains had remained unpunished, while there is not
a single friendly tribe left, except the cacique of Careta, who remained
neutral, because of his proximity to Darien.

8

NARRATIVE OP

the officers who had a vote in the government, and the
governor, they gave a share of the Indians, and, as they
were appointed as captains by the favour of those who
governed, from among their relations and friends, although
they had committed many evil deeds, none were punished.
In this manner the land suffered for a distance of more than
a hundred leagues from Darien. All the people who were
brought there, and there was a great multitude, were imme-
diately sent to the gold mines, for they were rich in that
land j and as they came from a great distance, and were
worn out and broken down by the great burdens they had
to carry, and as the climate was different from their own,
and unhealthy, they all died. In these transactions the
captains never attempted to make treaties of peace, nor
to form settlements, but merely to bring Indians and gold to
Darien, and waste them there.
About thirty leagues from Darien there was a province
called Careta,1 and another, at a distance of five leagues
1 uTo the westward of Darien is a province called Careta, which is
about twenty leagues distant. There are certain rivers in it which con-
tain gold, according to Indian men and women who are in this town.”
Letter of Vasco Nunez.
It would appear that Careta was the name of the cacique, and that
the province was called Coiba. Careta had hospitably entertained two
Spanish fugitives from Nicuesa’s party, who fled to Darien, and basely
proposed to Vasco Nunez the invasion of their benefactor’s territory.
Accordingly Vasco Nunez marched to Coiba with 130 armed men, and
was received most hospitably. He feigned to return to Darien, but in
the dead of night he suddenly attacked the village, and took Careta and
his family prisoners, seizing provisions enough to load two brigantines.
Careta, when brought to Darien, offered his daughter to Vasco Nunez
as a pledge of his friendship if he was set at liberty, and the invader
allowed him to depart. Vasco Nufiez fell in love with Careta’s daughter,
and retained an unswerving attachment for her to the day of his death.
He kept his word with her father, and invaded the country of his enemy
the cacique of Ponca. When Vasco Nunez set out, on September 1st,
1513, to discover the South Sea, he sailed from Darien to Coiba, the
territory of his lady love’s father, the cacique Careta, who furnished him
with guides and warriors. Careta always remained a firm ally of his
quasi son-in-law.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

9

from it, called Acla. In these two provinces there were two
lords who were brothers, and, one of them desiring to possess
all, there were great wars, so that a battle was fought in a
place called Acla, where Pedrarias afterwards established a
town of Christians. Before the battle this place had another ~7
name; for Acla, in the language of that land, means “the
bones of men” and the province retained that name because
of the quantity of bones strewn on the battle field.1 After
this war there was so small a number of Indians, that when
we arrived they made no resistance. These people were j
more civilised than those of the coast of Santa Martha; for
the women were very well dressed, in embroidered cotton
mantles which extended from the waist downwards, and
they slept on beds of the same material. These dresses of
the women reached down so as to cover the feet, but the
arms and bosom were uncovered. The men went about
with their private parts covered with a bright coloured sea
shell very well carved, which was secured round the loins
by cords. In this way they were able to run and walk
with great freedom.2 These shells were used as articles of
barter with the inner lands, for they were not found any
where except on the sea coast. The land is covered with
forest, like that of Darien, though it is more healthy, and
there are gold mines in many parts of it.
At this time a captain named Gaspar de Morales set out”
to discover the South Sea, and he went out on it as far as
the islands of Pearls, where the lord was friendly, and gave
him rich pearls. He was the first man who visited them.3
1 Don Alonzo Enriquez de Guzman says : “I sailed from the island of
Hispaniola on my way to Peru, and arrived at the port of Nombre de
Dios, in the province of Castilla del Oro. The native name of the place
means Bones, and it was so called on account of the number of people
who have died there. See my Translation, p. 88.
2 Sin que por ninguna via se les pareciese cosa alguna de su natura,
salvo los genetivos, que estos no cabian en el caracol.
3 Morales was sent to the South Sea in search of pearls, with eighty

10

NARRATIVE OF

,j The first province to the westward of Acla is Comogre/
j where the country begins to be flat and open. From this
Spaniards, He was received in a friendly manner, and was given
many valuable pearls. On his return he murdered the Indians, stole
their women, and caused twenty chiefs to be torn to pieces by his
dogs. Vasco Nunez says :—” He committed greater cruelties than have
ever been heard of among Arabs, Christians, or any other people.. He
killed a hundred women and young lads, and all this, most puissant
Lord, has passed without any punishment. On the island he burnt the
houses and the stores of corn, but, nevertheless, the cacique gave him 15
or 16 marcs of pearls, and 4,000 pesos de oro. He afterwards seized many
Indian men and women on this rich island, and sold them as slaves
at Darien, without any conscience.” He adds that Morales brought
a pearl from the rich island which weighed ten famines, very perfect and
without a flaw, and of so beautiful a lustre and shape as to be fit for the
King’s use.” Navarrete Coll., p. 379. Morales seems to have been hard
pressed during his retreat, by the outraged Indians, whose women and
children he was taking away, to sell at Darien. He murdered these
captives one by one, and left their bodies in the road, in the hope of thus
checking the pursuit of the Indians.
Francisco Pizarro served as second in command, in this infamous
expedition of Morales. The invaders entered the territory of the
Cacique Biru, whose name supplied the Spaniards with an erroneous
designation for the great Empire of the Yncas. It was here, possibly,
that Pizarro first heard faint rumours respecting the scene of his future
conquest, and here Andagoya afterwards collected fuller information on
the same subject.
^ ” Forty leagues down the coast, from the city of Darien, and twelve
leagues inland, there is a ?a,cique named Comogre, and another named
Pocorosa, who are at equal distances from the sea. They have many
wars with each other. They each have a town inland, and another on the
sea coast, by which the interior is supplied with fish. The Indians
assured me that there were very rich rivers of gold near the houses of
these caciques. At the distance of a day’s journey from the cacique
Pocorosa’s house there are the most beautiful mountains. They are clear
of forest, except some groves of trees along the banks of the streams. In
these mountains there are certain caciques who have great quantities of
gold in their houses. It is said that these caciques store their gold
in barbacoas, like maize, because it is so abundant that they do not care
to keep it in baskets. Their method of collecting the gold is by going
into the water and gathering it in their baskets. They also scrape it up
in the beds of streams when they arc dry : and that your Royal High-
ness may be more completely informed concerning these parts, I send an

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

11

point forward the country was populous, though the chiefs
were of small account, being from a league to two leagues
apart from each other. In this country there is a province
called Peruqueta, extending from one sea to the other, and
including the Pearl Islands and the gulf of San Miguel.
And another province, which was called the land of con-
fusion, because there was no chief in it, is also called Cueva.
The people are all one, speaking one language, and aref*
dressed like those of Acla. From this province of Peru-
queta to Adechame, a distance of forty leagues still in a
westerly direction, the country is called Coiba, and the lan-|
guage is the same as that of Cueva, only more polished, and!
the people have more self-assertion. They differ also in the
men not wearing the shells, like those of Cueva; for they
go quite naked, without any covering. The women are
Indian workman of that district, who has collected it many times.
I, Sire, have myself been very near these mountains, within a day’s
journey, but I did not reach them because I was unable, for a man gets
as far as he can, not as far as he wishes. Beyond these mountains the
country is very flat towards the south, and the Indians say that the other
sea is at a distance of three days’ journey. All the caciques and Indians
of the country of Comogre tell me that there is such great store of gold
collected in lumps, in the houses of the caciques of the other sea, that we
should be astonished. They declare that the Indians of the other sea
come to the residence of this cacique Comogre by a river, and bring gold
to be melted. In exchange for the gold they get cotton cloth, and good
looking Indian men and women. They do not eat these men and women,
like the people towards the great river” (Atrato). ” The river which
flows from the territory of the cacique Comogre to the other sea forms
itself into three branches, each of which enters the other sea by itself.
Pearls are brought to the cacique Comogre to be exchanged, by the
western branch ; and the canoes with gold enter by the eastern branch.”
Letter of Vasco Nunez to the King. I presume this must be the river
Chucunaque of the Spanish maps.
Vasco NufLez had formed a friendship with the cacique of Comogre,
before the arrival of Pedrarias, and had visited his house, which was,
according to Las Casas, 150 feet long, 80 broad, and 80 in height.
Comogre gave the Spaniards some gold, over the division of which they
quarrelled, and then it was that his son told them of a country abound-
ing in gold, far to the south. It has been supposed that the young man

12

NARRATIVE OP

adorned like those of Acla and Cueva. From these pro-
vinces most of the Indians were taken, who were brought to
Darien, for as they were the nearest and most populous, no
sooner had one captain returned from them, than another
set out.
One of the captains of Pedrarias, named Meneses, estab-
lished a settlement called Santa Cruz, in the territory of
a chief named Pocorosa, in the province of Cueva, on the
north sea. From this settlement he advanced into the
province of Cueva with part of his forces, and was defeated
by the Indians, several of his people being killed. Then,
seeing that the Spaniards in Santa Cruz were defeated and
reduced in numbers, the Indians attacked them, and killed
them all, so that no one remained alive except a woman, whom
the chief took for himself, and lived with as his wife for
several years. His other wives, being zealous that the chief
liked her better than them, killed her, and gave their lord
to understand that an alligator had eaten her, when she went
| to bathe in the river. Thus this settlement was destroyed.
In these provinces there were no large villages, but each
chief had three or four houses or more on his land. These
were close together, and each man built his house in the
place where he sowed his crop. The chiefs in these pro-
vinces were of small account, because there were many of
them, and they had great disputes concerning their fishing
and hunting grounds, in which many were killed. The
country is very beautiful. The chiefs, in their language, are
called Tiba, and the principal men of the family of a chief
are called Piraraylos. The brave men renowned in war,
who had killed an adversary, or had come wounded from the
battle, received the name Gabra, as their title. The people
alluded to the empire of the Yncas, but I consider it very improbable
that he ever heard of that distant land. It is far more likely that he
alluded to some of the districts where there were gold washings, near the
southern frontier of his father’s territory. He, however, undoubtedly
gave Vasco Nunez the first notice concerning the Pacific Ocean.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

13

lived according to natural laws of justice, without any cere-
monies or worship. The chiefs, in these provinces, settled
disputes in person, and there were no other judges or offi-
cers, except those who apprehended prisoners. Their man-
ner of judging was this :—The parties appeared, and each
stated the facts of the case. Then, without evidence from
witnesses, and holding it for certain that the parties would
speak the truth (for he who lied to a chief was put to
death), the suit was determined, and there was no further
dispute respecting it. In these provinces the chiefs received
no rent nor tribute from their subjects, except personal ser-
vice ; but whenever a chief wished to build a house, sow
a crop, procure fish, or wage war, every one had to assist
without receiving any reward beyond food and drink, and
thus they neither exacted anything from their people, nor
did they want for anything. They were feared and loved,
and the gold they possessed was either obtained by barter,
or dug out of mines by the Indians. They had laws and
regulations by which he who killed another, or committed
robbery, was put to death. No other offences were com-
mitted by these people. They married one wife, and they
held a festival on the day of the wedding. All the relations
assembled, among whom were the principal people in the
country; there was much drinking, and the parents took
the woman and delivered her to the chief, or to him who
was to be her husband. The sons of this woman were those
who inherited the lordship or house. The chiefs took many
other women without this ceremony, who lived with the
principal wife, and she in no way treated them ill or became
jealous of them, but ruled over them, and they obeyed her
as their mistress. The sons of these other women were
looked upon as bastards, and inherited no share of their
father’s property, like the sons of the principal wife; but
those who inherited the house, looked upon the others and
maintained them as sons of the house. These women had to

14

NARRATIVE OF

take care of each other on pain of death. The people had
. certain chosen men called Tecnria, who were “said to converse
with the devil, whom they called Turia. The Tecuria had a
very small hut with no door, and no covering overhead. The
chosen person went there at night, and talked with the
/ devil, who conversed in divers tones; and the chosen
person told the chief what he pleased afterwards, saying
that the devil had given him such and such answers. In
these provinces there were sorcerers and witches who did
much harm to children, and even to grown up people, at the
suggestion of the devil, who gave them his salves, with
which they anointed those whom they bewitched. These
salves were made from certain herbs. On inquiring in what
form the devil appeared, it was stated that he took the form
of a beautiful boy, in order that the people, being simple,
might not be terrified, and might believe him. They did
not see his hands, but on his feet he had three claws,1 like
those of a griffin. And in all the mischief that these witches
did, they were assisted by the devil, who entered the houses
with them. These and many other things are contained in
the information which I received from the witches them-
selves, who said that they anointed people with the salves
which were given to them by the enemy. It was affirmed
that, on a certain night, a witch was seen in a village with
many other women, and that, at the same hour, she was
seen at a farm where there were servants of her master,
a league and-a-half distant.1
Wishing to know whether these people had any notion of
God, I learnt that they knew of the flood of Noah, and they
said that he escaped in a canoe with his wife and sons; and
that the world had afterwards been peopled by them. They
believed that there was a Grod in heaven, whom they called
Ghipiripa, and that he caused the rain, and sent down the
other things which fall from heaven. There is no report con-
1 This statement is quoted by Herrera, Dec. ii, lib. i, cap. 3.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

15

cerning the origin of these people, nor can they give any,
except that they are natives of the country. There was a
principal woman of this land who said that there was a belief
among the chiefs (for the common people do not talk of these
things), that there is a beautiful woman with a child in
heaven ; but the story goes no further.
The principal wives of the chiefs, whose sons inherit the
lordships, have the title of Hespode, besides their own name,
as who should say countess or marchioness. It was the
custom in the land that, when a chief died, the wives whom
it was supposed he loved best, should voluntarily be buried
with their husband, and, if the chief had pointed them out,
this was done whether they liked it or not. These were
girls who had not been legitimate wives. When a chief j/ \^
died, he was adorned with gold, and wrapped in the richesty
cloths. His heir, who had become the chief, with all the
family of his father, and the principal people of the land, rf
then assembled and hung up the chiefs body by cords,
placing many pans of charcoal round it. The body was
melted by the heat of the fire, and two vases were placed
underneath, to catch the grease. When it was quite dried, it
was hung up in the chief’s palace. All the time that
the body was being dried, ten of the principal men remained1
in the palace, where it was, day and night, seated round it,
somewhat apart, dressed in black mantles which covered
them from head to foot, and concealed the face and the^
whole body. No other person entered the place where they
watched with the dead. These watchers had a drum which
gave out a deep sound, and one of them struck blows on it
from time to time as a sign of mourning. When he who
played on the drum ceased his blows, he commenced a
response in the same tone, and all the others with him, and
then continued doing this for a long time with much
mourning, with their faces covered, as I have already
mentioned. Having finished these responses at two hours

16

NARRATIVE OF

after midnight, while all the people in the house were
watching, they gave so great a shout and howl that I, and
those who were with me, jumped out of bed and seized our
arms, not being able to imagine what was the matter.
After a short space a deep silence followed, and the mourn-
ers then began to laugh and drink; except the twelve
watchers who never quitted the dead night or day. When
they were obliged to go out for a moment, their faces and
bodies were entirely covered. I was present, as I have said,
at the obsequies of a chief called Pocorosa, in the province
of Cueva, and, wishing to know why they did these things, I
was told that it was the custom, and that, in those hours when
they shouted, they were repeating the history of the chief.
On the anniversary of the day that he died, in the following
year, they celebrate a festival in his honour, bringing all the
food he used to eat, and the arms with which he fought, and
models of the canoes in which he navigated, made with small
sticks, into the presence of the body. They then take the
body into a court which has been cleaned out, and burn it
to ashes, saying that the smoke goes to the place where the
dead man’s soul is.1 On asking them where that was, they
replied that they only knew that it was in heaven, and that
the smoke went there. And they continue to celebrate
these anniversaries for the dead, if he was a person who
could afford it, for much is spent on these occasions in
eating and drinking. They have no ceremony or worship
in this land, but they live by the laws of nature, keeping the
laws not to kill, not to steal, and not to take another’s wife.
They know not what evidence is, but they hold it to be
a very evil thing to lie. They also refrain from taking their
father’s principal wives, their sisters, or daughters for
wives, because they hold it to be wrong.
In these provinces the weapons of the Indians are darts
1 Herrera quotes this account of the obsequies of the cacique Pocorosa,
from Andagoya. Dec. ii, lib. i, cap. 3.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA. 17
i

and macanas (clubs). The people were warlike, for their
chiefs were continually at war with each other respecting
boundaries. There are quantities of deer, and of swine
which are different from those of Spain, and they go in
large herds. They have no tails, and they do not grunt,
even when they are killed. They have something re-
sembling a navel on their backs.1
The chiefs had grounds, where they went to hunt in
summer. They lighted fires to windward, and, as the
grass is high, the fires were great. The Indians were y
placed in readiness to leeward, and as the stags fled half
blinded with the smoke, the fire obliged them to go
where the Indians waited with their darts pointed with
stones. Few of the animals that fled from the fire,
escaped the darts. They have no other game in these
provinces excepting birds, of which there are two kinds
1 These are the peccaries. They have no tail, and no external toe to
the hind feet. Upon the back they have a glandular opening, from
which issues a fetid excretion. This gland was mistaken by Andagoya
and many other old writers for a navel. (See Cieza de Leon, p. 37, and
Alonzo Enriquez, p. 89.) The peccary is more easily tamed than the
wild boar of Europe and Asia. Azara says that the. flesh is good, but
that it is necessary to cut off the dorsal gland immediately after death,
or it will taint the whole body. The Indians, however, eat peccaries
without taking this precaution. The head of a peccary is shorter and
thicker than that of a common pig, and the body, neck, and legs shorter.
Their bristles are very stiff. There are two species, the common and the
white lipped peccary. The former go in large herds conducted by a male
leader, the latter in pairs or in small numbers. The best account of the ^
peccary is to be found in the work of Don Felix d’Azara.
Acosta speaks ” of the little pigs of the Indies with that strange pecu-
liarity of having a navel on their backs. They are cruel,” he says, ” and
fearless, and they have tusks as sharp as razors, with which they deal out
awkward stabs and cuts. Those who hunt them take refuge in the trees,.
and the pigs bite the trunks with rage, when they cannot get at the men,
who throw darts at them. They are very good eating, but it is neces-
sary to cut out the navel on the back at once, or otherwise the whole
carcass will be tainted within a day.” Historia Natural de Indias, lib. iv,
cap. 38. See also Herrera, dec. ii, lib. ii, cap. 4.

C

18 NARRATIVE OF

of turkeys,1 pheasants/ cloves, and many other sorts. There
are lions and tigers,3 which do harm to the people, so that,
on their account, the houses were built very close to each
other, and were secured at night. There is plenty of good
fish in the rivers. The trees are green all the year round,
but very few of them bear fruit, yet on what fruit there is,
the people subsist. There are three or four kinds of cats.

11

There are also certain vermin, smaller than foxes, which get
into the houses and eat the fowls. On one side of their
bodies they carry a bag into which they put their young,
and take them about in this way constantly while they are
small. Even when these creatures run or jump the young
cannot fall out, nor are they visible until the mothers are
^killed, and the bag is opened.4
Vasco Nunez, being in Darien after he had undergone
his residencia, sent one Francisco Garavita to the island
of Cuba, without the knowledge of Pedrarias. Garavita re-
turned with a ship and some men to the port of Darien, which
is a league and a half from the town. Without disembark-
ing his men, he made known to Vasco Nunez that he had
arrived. This came to the knowledge of Pedrarias, and he
discovered that the vessel came to take Vasco Nunez to the
South Sea, where he intended to form a settlement. So Pedra-
rias seized Vasco Nunez, and made a. cage in his own house,
into which he put him, and being there, he made an agree-
ment with him, and gave him his daughter in marriage,
who was then in Spain.5 Having thus received Vasco
Nunez as his son-in-law, Pedrarias sent him to the province
of Acla to form a settlement, being that which is now called
• 1 Turkeys are natives of Mexico, and do not come further south than
Guatemala. The bird alluded to by Andagoya is probably a curassow.
2 There are no pheasants in America. Andagoya no doubt alludes to
the crax, or penelope of the South American forests.
3 Pumas and jaguars.
4 Opossums.
5 This was arranged through the intervention of Juan de Quevedo,

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

19

■Acla. Thence Vasco Nunez sent people to the Rio de la Balsa,
and made two ships, that he might embark on the South
Sea, and discover what there might be in it.1
Vasco Nunez came to that river, near a populous district
which had no chief, for the heads of families were the chiefs
among that people; and all lived in friendship with each
other. This province borders on that of Cueva, and the
people are the same. It is wooded and flat, and fertile in
yielding crops for bread. In this river we made two ships ;
and we brought many Indians to Acla, to carry the materials
for the ships, and the food for the carpenters and other
workmen.2 We conveyed these ships down to the sea with
great labour, for we met with many torrents forming hol-
lows, which we had to cross. Having got down to the gulf
of San Miguel, there was a high tide, and, as the carpenters
did not know the wood, it proved to be such that all
the planks were eaten through, and honeycombed.8 Thus
there was much trouble before we could pass in the ships to
the islands of Pearls, where they came to pieces, and we
made others of good timber, which were larger and better.
Vasco Nunez was to be absent on this expedition for
a year and a half, at the end of which time he was to send
an account of what he had done to the governor.
the bishop of Darien, who had become a firm friend of Vasco Nunez.
The betrothal was a mere measure of expediency on the part of Vasco
Nuiiez, who was deeply attached to an Indian girl, the daughter of the
cacique Careta.
1 The scheme of Vasco Nunez was to cut and fashion the frames of his
vessels at Acla, then to carry the pieces over the forest covered hills, put
them together on the banks of the Rio de la Balsa, and so descend into
the South Sea, and commence his grand career of discovery. Certainly
a bold and difficult undertaking, worthy of the man. Andagoya served
in this, the last expedition of the. intrepid Vasco Nuiiez.
2 As many as five hundred Indians are said to have perished in carry-
ing the timber, ropes, and iron across the terrible sierra, with its dense
forests and rapid torrents. Both Spaniards and Indians suffered fearfully
from want of provisions. P
3 Fresh* timber, we are told by Herrera, had to be hewn on the banks

20

NARRATIVE OF

At this time the King heard of the differences in the
government, arising from the officers having votes, and he
ordered that Pedrarias should govern alone. As Vasco
Nuiiez had never paid much respect to the officials, nor sent
them any of the Indians that he had captured, as the other
captains did, they bore him no good will, and they said
to the governor that he had rebelled. They persuaded the
governor to go to Acla, that he might get news of Vasco
Nuiiez and send for him, and the officials accompanied the
governor. At this time Vasco Nunez, having built the
ships, came to the gulf of San Miguel, and landed in a
populous district called Pequeo, where he remained for two
months, seizing Indians and sending them to Acla for more
cordage or pitch, which were required for the ships. Here
we received news that Lope de Sosa had been appointed in
Castile to come out to this land as governor. So Vasco
Nuiiez assembled certain of his friends who were honourable
men, and it was arranged that one Valderrabano should
go with a small force in company with the Indians, and that
he should secretly send a man to the neighbourhood of Acla,
who should go at night to the house of Vasco Nunez and
find out the news about the new governor.1 If it was true
all the people were to return, that the new governor might
not break up the expedition, and we were to have gone
to settle at Chepabar, which is six leagues nearer Acla than
of the river ; but when it was placed on the stocks, the tide came up so
high as to carry away part of it, and bury the rest in the mud. The
workmen had to save themselves by climbing up the trees.
1 The plan was that one Francisco Garavita should go back to Acla,
and send in a man named Luis Botello to learn the news. If Lope de
Sosa had arrived, Vasco Nunez intended to have sailed away on his dis-
covery, but if Pedrarias was still in power, then the emissaries were to
have applied for further supplies of pitch and iron. This resolution was
made by Vasco Nunez in a conversation with Valderrabano, a notary,
one evening in a hut. It so happened that it came on to rain, and a
sentry, sheltering himself under the eaves, overheard just so much as to
make him think that Vasco Nufiez intended to sail away on the discovery
on his own account, and make himself independent of Pedrarias.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

21

Panama. But the man was seized for having come in
at night like a spy, and because the governor had ordered
that any one who arrived was to be sent to Darien. Soon
afterwards the governor, with the officials, arrived at Acla ;
and when Valderrabano came in, he sent his letters to
the governor. The officials began to accuse Vasco Nunez,
and advised that he should be sent for and made prisoner;
so the governor wrote him a letter, ordering him to come
and disprove the things of which he was accused.1 Vasco
Nunez presently arrived, and was put into a house at Acla
as his prison, with guards over him.2 Pedrarias, considering
him as his son-in-law, would not act in the matter, but
entrusted the case to the licentiate Espinosa, who was
Alcalde Mayor.’ This official drew up the process, and
sentenced Vasco Nunez, Valderrabano, Botello who was the
man that had been sent into Acla at night, and Arguello,
1 Francisco Garavita, the former friend of Vasco Nunez, appears to
have poisoned the mind of Pedrarias against his intended son-in-law, by
telling that irritable old man that there was an intention to throw off his
authority, and to sail away with the vessels on independent discovery.
Las Casas says that Garavita’s motive for this treason to his friend was
that both loved the beautiful daughter of the cacique Careta. This
induced the truculent and suspicious old governor to come to Acla with
his officials, and there he heard the story of the eaves-dropping sentry.
He then wrote a letter to Vasco Nunez, requesting him to return to
Acla, to confer with him on business, intending to get him into his
power, and find some excuse for putting him out of the way.
2 A Venetian astrologer, named Codro, had once told Vasco Nuiiez
that in the year in which he should see a certain star in a certain part of
the heavens, he would run great risk of his life. One evening, just before
he received the summons from Pedrarias, he saw the fatal star in the
quarter indicated by the astrologer, and laughed at his prediction, for
the great discoverer deemed himself to be on the high road to fortune,
with four ships and three hundred men ready to navigate the South Sea.
Vasco Nunez, quite unsuspicious of any treachery, set out at once to obey
the summons of Pedrarias, and was arrested on the road by his old com-
panion in arms—Francisco Pizarro. The great discoverer exclaimed,
“What is this, Francisco? You were not wont to come out in this
fashion to receive me.” He was put into confinement, and the licentiate

22

NARRATIVE OF

who was the friend of Vasco Nunez, and had sent him
certain letters,1 to have their heads cut off.3
This sentence having been executed, Pedrarias set out
for the islands of Pearls with all the troops that were at
Acla. The ships were there, with the people who had
remained in the South Sea. Thence he went in the ships to
Panama, where he founded the present city,3 the rest of the
people going round by land with the licentiate Espinosa.
The governor divided the land amongst the four hundred
citizens who then settled in Panama, leaving a certain portion
Espinosa was ordered to proceed against him, using the evidence of
Garavita and the sentry.
1 Hernando de Arguello was the last victim. His- crime was that he
had written to warn Vasco Nunez of his danger, and his letter was inter-
cepted. The sun had set before his turn came, and the people entreated
Pedrarias to spare him, but the hateful old man exclaimed: “I would
sooner die myself than spare one of them.” He was executed in the
dark.
2 The death of Vasco Nuiiez was one of the greatest calamities that
could have happened to South America at that time. He had collected
his little fleet in the bay of San Miguel, and was about to sail away into
the unknown ocean which he had discovered. He would thus have be-
come the discoverer of the great empire of the Yncas, and the conquest
of Peru would have formed a very different story from that which is now
interwoven with the ill-omened name of Pizarro. For Vasco Nunez was
one of those men who are born to govern their fellows. He had the true
genius of a statesman and a warrior, was as humane and judicious as he
was firm of purpose and indomitable of will. And this great man was
destined to fall through the mean jealousy of a miserable old dotard,
whom chance had kicked into power. *His execution took place in 1517.
He was in his forty-second year.
Oviedo says that Pedrarias witnessed the judicial murder of Vasco
Nuiiez from between the reeds of a wall which was close to the scaffold.
” For this inhuman act,” says Herrera, ” Pedrarias was never called to
account, but on the contrary was continued in the government.”
3 Herrera says that Panama was much disliked by the settlers, on
account of its unhealthy situation, and that 40,000 men were computed
to have died there of disease within the first twenty-eight years after the
founding of the city. Tello de Guzman had landed at Panama (a place
abounding in fish in the Indian language) in 1515, and Pedrarias founded
the city in 1519. It received its privileges from Charles V in 1521.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA. 23

of the province of Cueva for the citizens of Acla. But as the /
captains, who had made many incursions into the country
from Darien, had carried off great numbers of Indians, and
as the land was of small extent from one sea to the other,
there were very few Indians at the time that the land was
divided, and the governor could give only ninety Indians in
repartimiento, or fifty or forty. And as each cacique had
to give nearly all his Indians, who were required to till the
ground and build houses, and as those that remained were
taken off to the mines, where they died, in a short time
neither chiefs nor Indians were to be found in all the
land.1
Panama was founded in the year 1519, on the day of
Nuestra Sefiora de Agosto, and at the end of that year a
captain named Diego Alvites founded Nombre de Dios, by
order of Pedrarias.2 In Nombre de Dios there was a certain ‘8
race of people called Chuchures, with a language different
from that of the other Indians. They came to settle in this
place in canoes from Honduras, and as the country was un-
healthy their numbers decreased, and there were few of
them. Of these few none survived the treatment they re-
ceived after Nombre de Dios w>as founded.
Having founded Panama in this year, the governor sent
the licentiate Espinosa in command of the ships, with as
many men as they would hold, to the westward.3 The
licentiate arrived at the province of Burica, on the coast of
Nicaragua, some hundred leagues from Panama. Thence
1 This hideous picture of the devastation caused by the Spaniards,
within a few years after their first arrival, is but too true.
2 The town of Nombre de Dios was abandoned in the reign of Philip II,
on account of its extreme unhealthiness, and Porto Bello became the chief
Atlantic port of the isthmus. In later times Porto Bello was abandoned
for Chagres, and now Colon or Aspinwall is the Atlantic terminus of the
Panama railway.
3 These were the vessels constructed with such immense toil and dif-
ficulty by Vasco Nunez.

24

“NARRATIVE OF

he turned to come back by land, sending a ship to explore
a gulf which they called San Lucar, in Nicaragua. The
ship brought back news respecting that land; and the
Licentiate, returning by land to Panama from the province
of Burica, came, with as many men as he could spare, to the
province of Huista. Here he remained for some time,
loading the ships with maize, and sending it to Panama,
because there was great scarcity and little land that was
inhabited.
The people of this province and of that of Burica, were
almost exactly the same in the fashion of their clothes, and
in their customs. The women wore a truss round their
loins, as their clothing; and the men were naked. The
country is fertile, with plentiful supplies of fish, and a great
quantity of swine, which were caught with large nets of
stuff like hemp, called by the Indians nequen, the meshes
being a finger in breadth. These nets were fastened at the
entrance of a wood where there was a herd of swine, who
came against the nets and were unable to get through the
meshes. Then the people called out, the nets fell over the
swine, and they were killed with lances, so that none
escaped, of those that fell into the nets.1
Leaving this province on our way to Panama by land, we
arrived at a mountainous district, with a cold climate, where
we found some forests of very beautiful oaks covered with
acorns. There were three or four chiefs in this province,
and their villages were well fortified with pallisades made of
very strong thorny plants, intertwined, >and forming a thick
wall. Throughout these districts the Indians were seized
and bound. From Burica to this province, which is called
Tobreytrota, nearly every chief has a different language
from the others. From this hilly country we turned to
descend towards the sea, and came to the province of Nata,
1 This account of the manner of hunting peccaries is quoted by
Herrera. Dec. ii, lib. i, cap. 3.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA. 25

where the town was founded which is now called Nata.1 At
first it received the name of Santiago, and it is 30 leagues
from Panama. This was a very populous province, in-
habited by a very good, hard working people. The chief
of this land continually led his men of war against his
neighbours. His chief enemy was a lord named Escoria,
who had his villages on the banks of a great river, eight
leagues from Meta. Here he had very large deposits of
salt, which are made naturally by the water which flows into
the sea, in certain lakes formed by the increase of fresh
water, where it crystallises in the summer. Eight leagues’
further on, in the direction of Panama, there was another
chief called Chiru, whose people have a different language,
although their appearance, dress, and way of living is the
same as that of their neighbours. Seven leagues from Chiru,
towards Panama, is the province of Chame, which is the
point to which the language of Coiba extends.
In the year 1516, a captain named Gonzalo de Badajos set
out with a small force which was placed under his command
by Pedrarias, and, going by sea, disembarked at Nombre
de Dios.2 Thence he went along the skirts of the moun-
tains, through the territory of certain chiefs, until he came
out at Chiru, which we shall describe further on. From
Chiru he went to the province of Nata. The Indians had
1 William Funnel thus describes Nata in 1703. u The town of Nata
is a large and well compacted town, situated upon the banks of a river
of the same name. It has great trade with Panama, selling them pro-
visions, as cows, hogs, fowls, and maize. From Nata the coast stretches
in mountains and hills, and the water is so shoal that there is scarcely
any coming in for a ship; but if there were, here is never a port. Along
this coast ships ought to keep two or three leagues off shore, or else they
will meet with broken ground and sunk rocks ; but the coast has many
fresh water rivers, full of several sorts of very good fish.” Collection of
Voyages (London, 1729), iv, p. 95.
2 Herrera says he had a force of 130 men, and that his orders were to
conquer all the country between Nombre de Dios and the South Sea..
This expedition took place during the lifetime of Vasco Nunez.

26

NARRATIVE OF

never seen Spaniards, and held such people to have fallen
from the skies, and they would not attack them until they
knew whether they would die. Thus the Spaniards went
from Nata and Escoria, without having recourse to war,
and came to the province of Paris, which is twelve leagues
from Nata to the westward ; for nearly all this land, as far
as Nicaragua, trends to the westward. The chief of Paris,
with his people, concealed himself from the Spaniards, who
had brought two principal men from Nata as guides and
interpreters. These men, seeing that no natives appeared,
proposed to go in search of them, and get speech with the
chief. They started one morning, and came back in the
afternoon with a boy, who said that the chief was in a vil-
lage three or four leagues off, with all his household and
wives. They were sent with the boy to ask him to come, as
the strangers only desired peace and friendship. The chief,
whose name was Quitatara, sent back eleven castellanos of
good gold, saying that his women sent them, and asking
the Spaniards to leave his country, as he did not wish to
see them. The captain, moved to avarice at the sight of
this gold, sent back to summon him, saying that if he did
not come, he would go in search of him. The chief had
spies to watch when the Christians should set out from the
camp. When the captain took one road and the Indians
another, the chief fell upon those who remained in the
camp with such fury that the Spaniards were defeated, and
fled to a height, with the loss of some killed and others
wounded. The flight was so hurried that the Indians took
the hut where there were fifty and more thousand pesos of
gold, which up to that time had been collected. It was set
on fire before all the. gold could be taken out, and, the fire
reaching it, a bag containing eight pesos was burnt, for which
reason they left it there. The captain, as he was travelling
by land in the morning, met the Indians coming in war-
like array, towards the place where the Christians re-

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

27

mained; and on inquiring for the chief, they said that he
was at the Christian camp. On hearing this, the captain
returned with great speed, and when he arrived, he found
his people all wounded and maltreated.1 As his own party^
was fresh, he defeated the Indians, and, not wishing to
wait for a battle on the following day, he embarked on a
river that flowed near the village, in certain canoes, and
went out to sea; proceeding to Nata with the chief of that
place, who had come with him. Having heard the news of
the defeat of the Christians, the Indians prepared for war;
and the Christians, entering Nata without precaution, be-
cause they had left the place at peace, were met by the
Indians, who came out to fight them with great fury. They
fought almost all day, without either one side or the other
being defeated. Not wishing to wait another day, the
Christians went down to the place where they had left the
canoes, during the night, and went in them to the province
of Comogre, which is adjoining to Acla.
In the same year, six months after this captain departed,
Pedrarias left Darien with all the troops he had with him,
and went over to the other coast of Carthagena, below
C’enu, to obtain tidings of a captain named Becerra, who
had set out from Darien with one hundred and seventy
men, and had not been heard of since. Marching inland
we came to a very high hill, where there was a small village.
The Indians defended themselves with their arrows, and
wounded the Spaniards, but at last the heights were gained,
and it was gathered from the few people who were captured,
that Becerra and all his men had been killed by Indians,
while crossing a river. After receiving this news the
governor returned to the coast, embarked, and went to the
1 Badajoz took great care in dressing the wounds of his men. He
sewed them up with pack thread, used the grease of the Indians who had
been killed instead of oil, and bound them with bandages made of their
own shirts. Thus mauy recovered. Herrera.

28

NARRATIVE OF

province of Acla, to the place where the town now stands.
He was there taken ill, so he returned to Darien, and sent
the licentiate Gaspar de Espinosa, with all the troops he
could collect, in a westerly direction. ,
The first inhabited district we came to was that of Com-
ogre, and, being in Chiman (two leagues beyond Comogre)
we heard that Badajoz was passing along the high road, at
a distance of about a league from the place where we had
pitched our camp. On sending for tidings from him, we
learnt that he had been defeated in Paris, and had been
flying through all the districts on the road. He gave us a
guide to show us the way by which he had come, and thus
we went from Chiman to the province of Pocorosa, and
thence a journey of two leagues in a westerly direction
brought us to Pararaca, where the district of Coiba com-
mences. Thence four leagues in the same direction brought
us to Tubanama, eight leagues more to Chepo, six more to
Chepobar, two further on to Pacora, four more to Panama,
four more to Periquete, four more to Tab ore, and four more to
Chame, which is the boundary of the language and province
of Coiba.
We found all these provinces well peopled, and we passed
through them without having recourse to war, for we had
with us two horses, there then not being more in the land,
and one hundred and fifty men.1 From Chame to the province
1 Herrera says that Espinosa met with opposition in Comogre and
Pocorosa. He tried the prisoners, being a lawyer, hanging some, and
cutting off the noses or hands of others, according to their alleged crimes.
These civilians were often more cruel than the rudest soldiers. Well
might Vasco Nuiiez wish to be rid of all lawyers. In a letter to the
king he says: “Most puissant lord, I desire to ask a favour of your
Highness, and it is that your Highness will command that no bachelor of
laws, nor of anything else unless it be of medicine, shall come to this
part of the Indies on pain of heavy punishment, which your Highness
shall order to be inflicted; for no bachelor of laws has ever come here
who is not a devil, and who does not lead the life of a devil. And not
only are they themselves evil, but they give rise to a thousand quarrels.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

29

of Chiru is eight leagues of uninhabited country in the same
direction; and this Chiru is inhabited by a well disposed
people, with a language of their own. From this province to?
that of Nata there are four leagues of uninhabited country.
All these districts are fertile and level,—a very fine land11
abounding in supplies of maize, aji, melons different from
those here, grapes, and yucas; with excellent fishing in the
rivers and in the sea, and deer fit for the chace. The
districts of Coiba and Cueva are the same in these respects .J
We wintered in Nata, and during the period of our i
sojourn we collected large supplies of maize, and of all
things else that the district yielded. The chief retired to a
small hill in the centre of his territory with the greater part
of his people, and, as we left them without the food they
had gathered for the year, they suffered much from hunger,
insomuch that many came down to our camp, that we might
take them, and give them food. Thus a great number
were captured. After the winter, we set out in the same
direction, and came to the province of Escoria, six leagues
from Nata. Here we captured the chief, and went on to
the province of Paris, passing the place where the Indians
had defeated the Christians. We then approached another
village where the chief was, who came out to us to give us
battle on a plain, and this battle was fought with great
ferocity, and lasted from nine in the morning until an hour
before sunset, when several were wounded. It pleased God
that the Indians should be broken and defeated.
We remained there that night, and next day, following
the path to the village where the chief was, we came to it,
and found that it had been entirely destroyed. Passing
This order would be greatly to the advantage of your Highness’s service.”
Gaspar de Espinosa afterwards took an important part in the discovery
of Peru, having advanced money to Pizarro for his expedition. He fell
ill and died at Cuzco, while engaged in negotiating between Pizarro and
Almagro.

30

NARRATIVE OP

onwards for three leagues we reached the territory of
a chief, a vassal of Paris, named Ubsagano, where we found
•a very great quantity of maize crops ripe for harvest, which
we reaped. Here we formed our camp, intending to make
war upon Paris from this place, until he should give us the
gold that he had taken from Gonzalo de Badajoz. We
pressed him so hard that, not wishing to come out to fight
again, he consulted with one and the other of his vassals,
and determined to give us the gold in order that we might
desist. But, not wishing us to believe that he did so
because he was afraid, he arranged that two Indians should
let themselves be captured by us, and tell us where the gold
was from fear. The gold was on a hill apart from the
village that had been burnt, in a little hut which had been
built for it. These Indians showed us the way, and thus
the gold was recovered, without anything being lost.
This Cutatura, the chief of Paris, was a brave man,- and
conquered the provinces of Suema, Chicacotra, Sangana,
and Guarage in war. He was always at war with the
people of Escoria; and those of Escoria came to this same
land of Paris and made war during eight days, and no day
passed without a battle being fought. In Escoria there was
^ a race of Indians, much larger and more polished than the
others, among whom there were knights who were held
to be very valiant. Their breasts and arms were worked
over with certain chains in links and curves. Very few
of these survived the battles in Paris; but I saw some,
by the side of whom the other Indians looked like dwarfs.
They were very handsome and well made. As they were
waging war in the land of another, and as the vassal chiefs
of Paris could retire each day to refresh themselves, the
latter maintained the war with more ease. Finally, they
threw away their arms, and closed in an embrace, biting each
other. As those of Escoria were bigger and stronger than
those of Paris, they worsted them; so that, for want of

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

31

arms, those of Paris fled, and the number that died on
the road to their homes was such, that trenches were made,
into which the dead were put. We saw these, and, where the
battle took place, we found a great street entirely paved
with the heads of the dead, and at the end of it a tower of
heads which was such that a man on horseback could not see
over it. .
The languages of Escoria and Nata are different, and
each chief has a different language, so that they require
interpreters. In this land of Paris there are great quantities
of deer and dantas j1 but the Indians of war never eat
meat, except fish and iguanas, though the Indians, who are
labourers, do eat flesh. In all these districts the people ‘3
wear the same dress as those of Coiba, except that in Paris
their * mantles are dyed with very bright colours. In food
and everything else they follow the habits of those of Cueva
and Coiba. They have no more notion of the things apper- .
taining to God than the others, nor have they different rites
and ceremonies.
From this expedition we returned to Darien with a great
number of persons, so that, in order to make a day’s
journey of three or four leagues, we had to cut two roads
for the people to pass along. These people, with all
the others who went to Darien, ended their days there. It^
was seen that in Darien there were no Indians, unless they
were brought from other distant provinces; and as they all
died there, the settlement was removed to Acla, and thus
Darien was abandoned.
In the year 151 7 Gil Gonzalez de Avila2 arrived at Darien
with a certain capitulation which he had made with His
Majesty, accompanied by carpenters and labourers to build
1 Tapirs.
2 He had been accountant of Hispaniola, and was formerly in the
household of the bishop of Burgos, who appointed him to the command
of this expedition to discover and conquer Nicaragua.

32 NARRATIVE OP

ships, and all the necessary fittings for them, to be put toge-
ther in the Rio de la Balsa, and their futtock-timbers were
brought ready shaped from Spain. They disembarked at
Acla, and Gil Gonzalez went to Darien, to secure the sup-
port of the governor, for his enterprise. The ships, having
been built in the Rio de la Balsa, were sent down to
the sea, passed the island of Pearls, and, Panama having
been peopled in 1519, the flotilla was brought there.1 This
Gil Gonzalez had to discover a certain number of leagues to
the westward, concerning which the capitulation had been
made; and thus he coasted along and arrived at the gulf of
San Lucar, which had already been discovered by Pedrarias.
It is at the commencement of the land of Nicaragua. Having
passed the place where Leon and Granada now stand, he dis-
embarked, and came to a village where he found one hundred.
thousand pesos de oro.2 As soon as his arrival was known
in the land, a large force of warlike Indians came against
him, and obliged him to fall back and embark again, as he
had not sufficient force to resist them.3 He returned to
Panama with the gold,4 and went thence to Spain; but
returned to San Domingo, and equipped an expedition
to settle in Nicaragua, going by way of Honduras.
At this time Pedrarias sent one Francisco Hernandez de
Cordova in command of a force, to subdue and settle
Nicaragua; and he entered that land, subduing and con-
quering, and fighting in many skirmishes and battles. He
‘ founded the cities of Leon and Granada, and built fortresses
in them, for defence. This land was very populous and
fertile, yielding supplies of maize, and many fowls of the
1 Herrera says that the ships were built in the island of Terequeri, in
the bay of San Miguel; and the expedition sailed on January 21st, 1522.
Gil Gonzalez took with him Andres Nino as his pilot, and many Indians.
2 Here he met with a powerful chief named Nicaragua.
3 He discovered the whole coast of Nicaragua, as far as the gulf of
Fonseca, which he called after his patron the bishop of Burgos.
« In June 1523.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

33

country, and certain small dogs which they also eat, and ‘
many deer and fish. It is a very salubrious land. The
Indians were very civilised in their way of life, like those of
Mexico, for they. were a people who had come from that
country, and they had nearly the same language.1 These
people went about well dressed in the Indian fashion; the
women with their mantles like those of Coiba, and another
description of covering which, descending from the head,
covered the bosom and half the arms. The men covered
their loins with very long cloths made of cotton, which
they passed in many folds from the hips to the thighs.
In the villages they wore their mantles like cloaks under
the arms.’ They had a great quantity of cotton cloth,
and they held their markets in the open squares, where
they traded. The land was poor in gold, and they traded
with cacao, as in New Spain. They had many beautiful
women. Their parents had a custom, when they were’
maidens old enough to marry, of sending them to work
for their marriages, and thus they went through the land
working publicly, and as soon as they had wherewithal
to furnish a house, they returned to their parents and were
married. The husbands were so much under subjection that
if they made their wives angry, they were turned out of
doors, and the wives even raised their hands against them.
The husband would go to the neighbours and beg them
to ask his wife to let him come back, and not be angry with
him. The wives made their husbands attend on them, and
do everything like servant lads.2 They had another custom,
which was that when one of them was married, a man whom
they held as a pope, and who lived in a temple, had to sleep
1 Five languages were spoken in Nicaragua. The Charibizi, the
Cholotecari (being the most ancient), the Choutal, the Orotinan, and
Mexican. Herrera.
2 Herrera also says that the men swept the houses and performed
other menial services, and that in some places they even spun, having
their arms naked and painted.

34

NARRATIVE OP

with the bride on the previous night. In this temple there
was a statue of gold, to which they sacrificed through the
instrumentality of him who was there as priest, and their
sacrifice was that, in the presence of the statue, they tore
out the hearts of men and women who were sacrificed, and
anointed the statue with them. They also cut out the
tongues with certain stones like razors, and anointed the
statue with them.1 Likewise they offered up much game
and fish, and other eatables, and of these the priest, who
resided there, did eat. The Indians made a sort of confes-
sion of certain sins which appeared to them to be heinous,
and they thought that,” by confessing them to this priest,
they were freed from them.
This is a land of abundance of good fruit, and of honey
and wax, wherewith all the neighbouring countries are sup-
plied. The bees are very numerous, some of them yellow,
and these do not sting. They deposit the honey under the
ground. There are many wolves in this land, which live
upon the deer. They make wine from a kind of cherry,
which is as strong as the wine of Spain, although the
strength soon passes away. In all the countries I have
mentioned the whole happiness of the people consists in
drinking the wine they make from maize, which is like
beer, and on this they get as drunk as if it was the wine of
Spain, and all the festivals they hold, are for the purpose of
drinking.
In this province there is a volcano from which smoke
constantly issues, and at night it may be seen for three
leagues round. At night it looks like flame, and in the day
time like smoke.2 The mouth is round like that of a well,
1 The priest went thrice round the victim, singing a doleful hymn,
then tore out his heart, and cut up- the body. The priest ate the heart,
the cacique received the hands and feet, the man who had captured the
victim got the thighs, the trumpeter had the bowels, and the rest was
given to the people. Herrera.
2 This is a burning mountain called Massaya, about three leagues from
Granada.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

35

and half way down there is a ledge round the mouth; as
when they make a well, the upper half is wider, and the
lower half, being faced with masonry, is narrower, and ends
upwards in a sort of ledge. At times the fire comes out
with great fury, and sends forth many stones, that look like
great fiery pieces of iron. I have seen this, and it seems
that the fire has worked on them, and left them as cinders.
They destroy the herbage for half a league round; and the
Indians, to appease the fire so that it may not come and
destroy them, bring a virgin there, at certain times of the
year, to offer her up, and they throw her in. They are then
joyful, for they believe that they are saved. In this sacri-
fice, and in those to the statue, many people die every year.
A friar, they say, entered as far as the ledge half way down
the mouth, and thence he looked down and saw a certain
thing like metal, of the colour of fire, and he let down a
link of an iron chain by a rope, but when he drew it up he
found nothing.1 I do not think it can be gold, because
gold is cold, and if extreme force was not used, very little
could be broken off. I believe that the fire contains what
there is in it, and does not receive anything from any other
source. This land is poor in gold. No mines have been
found, except seventy leagues from Leon; and by taking
the people from a warm and level country to dig out gold
at such a distance and in high mountains, a very large part
of the population has disappeared; and afterwards, there
being no one to cultivate the land, the Spaniards began to
make slaves, and to reward the chiefs who brought slaves
to them. They were taken in great numbers to be sold at
1 Fray Bias de Ymesta, and two other Spaniards, were let down into
the first mouth in two baskets,’ with an iron bucket and a long chain, to
draw up some of the fiery matter, which they believed to be gold. The
chain went down for 150 fathoms, and as soon as it came to the fire,
the bucket and some links of the chain melted. The gold seekers re-
mained there that night, without wanting fire or candle, and came out
again next morning in their baskets, very much frightened. Herrera.
D 2

36

NARRATIVE OP

Panama and in Peru; and these are the reasons why this
country is now so much depopulated. The inhabitants
have a manufactory, where they make cordage of a sort of
nequen} which is like carded flax; the cord is beautiful, and
stronger than that of Spain, and their cotton canvas is ex-
cellent. Pitch and timber for ship building do not abound
more in Biscay. In this province there are two lakes of
sweet water, one of which drains itself into the North Sea,
and the other is more than forty leagues long.2 In them
there are great fisheries.
Francisco Hernandez, who settled this land, finding him-
self powerful in the number of his followers, and being ill
off in all things else, meditated a project to rise and throw
. off obedience to Pedrarias, or any one he might send.
With this view, he assembled the principal people of the two
settlements to induce them to write to his Majesty, praying
that he might be appointed their governor. But the captains
Francisco Campanon3 and Soto, not only refused their
assent, but condemned the proceedings. Fearing these
captains and their followers (for there were ten or twelve
who took counsel to resist his acts), he seized upon Soto,
and put him into the fortress at Granada. Francisco Cam-
panon, however, with nine of his friends, marched to
Granada, and took Soto out of prison. The whole party
then took the field, well armed and mounted. Francisco
Hernandez, as soon as he knew this, came to Granada with
sixty men, and found his. opponents in the field; but he
would not attack them, because he knew they would try to
kill him before anyone else. The dissentients then took
their way to Panama, and after many dangers. and hard-
1 A sort of pita ?
2 The lakes of Nicaragua and of Leon.
3 Campanon had been one of the most active assistants of Vasco
Nufiez when he conveyed the timber across the isthmus, for building his
vessels. He established a resting place or halfway house on the top of
the sierra.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

37

ships, and having abandoned their horses because they
could not pass that way, they arrived barefooted. They
had passed the villages of the Indians at night, and taken
provisions from them. Thus they had reached the province
of Chiriqui, which is between Burica and Nisca, where
there was a settlement which had been made by Captain
Benito Hurtado, by order of Pedrarias, called the city of
Fonseca. Here they were refreshed; and this captain gave
them a canoe, in which they came as far as Nata. Having
reported what had taken place to Pedrarias, he assembled
ships and men to go to Nicaragua, captured Francisco Her-
nandez, and cut off his head.
After these ten Spaniards had passed through this city
of Fonseca, the captain, with some followers, set out in the
direction of Nicaragua, whence the others had come. Thus
the settlement was abandoned; for those who remained,
seeing, that their comrades did not return, went after them
to the gulf of San Lucar.
At this time the Marquis del Valle1 passed near Nica-
ragua, when he went to Honduras; and Francisco Her-
nandez, desiring to revolt from Pedrarias, sent to invite the
Marquis to come and receive the province from him. Gil
Gonzalez, who set out from San Domingo in search of
Nicaragua by way of Honduras, encountered, in a province
called Manalca, the captain Soto, whom Francisco Her-
nandez had sent to that part. Soto resisted the passage of
Gil Gonzalez through the district, and Gil Gonzalez stopped,
and cunningly treated for peace. Soto, finding himself more
powerful in numbers than his opponent, did not fear him;
and though ‘the one force was very close to the other, he
did not set a guard on his camp. So, one night, Gil Gon-
zalez took him unawares, made him prisoner, and secured
his arms. Of the troops who came out to resist, two men
were killed with two arquebuses.
1 Hernan Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico.

38

NARRATIVE OF

But Gil Gonzalez did not deem it prudent to keep these
people in his company, so he released them, and seeing
that there was no way to enter Nicaragua, he returned to
Puerto de Cavallos, where was Cristoval de Olid, a cap-
tain of Cortes, and Casas, who was a captain sent also by
Cortes in search of him. Gil Gonzalez being entirely in the
power of Cristoval de Olid, one day, when he was at dinner,
they stabbed him, and so he died.
Pedrarias being now in Nicaragua, he sent one Martin
Estete, with some troops, to settle the province of Manalca;
but having founded a town, Don Pedro de Alvarado, of
Guatemala, sent another captain, declaring that it was
within his jurisdiction, and this other captain. took the
town from Martin Estete, who fled back to Pedrarias alone :
so that other captain formed the town of San Miguel, which
is now in the government of Guatemala.
We have already mentioned how Lope de Sosa came as
governor of Tierra Firme, and, arriving in the port of Da-
rien, died before he could land. Afterwards, Pedro de los
Rios came as governor to this land; and Pedrarias being in
Nicaragua, the new governor arrived at Panama to take his
residencia.1 Pedro de los Rios then went to Nicaragua. At
the time of his arrival, one Diego Lopez de Salcedo came
from the province of Honduras, sent there as governor by
the audience of San Domingo. He advanced into Nicaragua,
and both reached Leon almost on the same day; but Salcedo
was so successful in getting help, although he brought no
orders to that effect, that they received him as lieutenant of
Pedrarias, and drove Pedro de los Rios out of the country,
obliging him to return to Panama.
At that time the appointment of Pedrarias to the govern-
ment of Nicaragua arrived, and he went there, where he
1 Pedrarias had thus been governor of the isthmus from 1519 to 1526;
but even now the old wretch was allowed to retain the government of
Nicaragua, and he died at Leon in 1530.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

39

died. After his death the Bishop Diego Alvarez Osorio
remained as governor, who died a short time after he had
assumed the government, leaving it in the hands of the
licentiate Oastaiieda, who had been alcalde mayor. This man
did such things that, on hearing that Rodrigo de Contreras,
the son-in-law of Pedrarias, was coming out as governor,
he went off to Peru with all his family. Rodrigo de Con-
treras governed until the present time ; but he has lately
arrived at this court under arrest, and has been ordered to
return, that a residencia may be made. He did no good
thing worthy of record in that land, but persecuted honour-
able and married men.
-In all these provinces, from Nicaragua to Darien, there
is not half an hour between day and night during the year;
and the summer lasts from the beginning of December ^/
to the beginning of May. During this time the winds ^
blow from the north and north-east; it does not rain, or
become colder than in winter, and the people are healthy,
and it is a marvel if any are taken ill. The winter begins
in the early part of May, and lasts till the end of November;
and in September and August it rains more than in the
other months. It is hot, and there is thunder and lightning.
In this season people fall sick. During all the season the
wind blows from the S.S.E., until some shower causes it
to change. On this coast of Panama, as far as the gulf of
San Miguel, streams of fresh water enter the sea at every J
quarter or half league.
In all the rivers which enter the sea, there are a great quan-
tity of those serpents which we call lizards.1 In the rivers
they do people harm; but on the land they are very torpid,
though they are ready to resist and defend themselves,
yet they cannot run fast.. When I was in the province
of Gruanate with thirty men, we surrounded one of these
serpents in a place where it could not swim, wishing to kill
1 Alligators.

40

NARRATIVE OF

it for food. But it defended itself so fiercely that, though
we stabbed it many times, we could not cut through its
skin, and so by little and little, fighting all the way, it got
down to the water.
Two years before we came to Paris, a great army of
people arrived there, coming from the direction of Nica-
ragua ; and they were so fierce that the natives came out
to offer them all they wanted. They ate human flesh; and
this filled the people of all the districts through which they
passed with fear. In one province, bordering on Paris,
called Tauraba, they encamped on a plain, to which they
took the boys of the neighbouring villages, that they might
eat them. Here a sore disease broke out amongst them,
which made them raise their camp, and retire to the sea-
shore. Cutatara, the lord of Paris, seeing them enfeebled
by sickness and carelessly off their guard, from never hav-
ing been resisted, fell upon them one morning, defeated
them, and killed every one, so that none were saved. He
took the spoil, among which was much gold, and became
very rich.
In the year 1522, being Inspector-General of the Indians,
I set out from Panama to visit the surrounding territory to
(the eastward; and after reaching the gulf of San Miguel,
I went on to visit a province called Chochama, which is
populous, and where the same language is spoken as in the
districts of Cueva. Here I learnt how certain people came
f by sea in canoes to make war at every full moon; and the
inhabitants of that province were so terrified at their
approach, that they feared to go to sea to fish. These
invaders came from a province called Biru, the name of
which has been corrupted to Pirii. All the land in that
direction was inhabited by a numerous and warlike people.
To comply with the prayer of the people of Chochama that
I would defend them, and in order to discover what there
was further on, I sent to Panama for reinforcements.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA. 41

Having received them, I took the chief of Chochama, with
interpreters and guides, and marched for six or seven days,
until I reached that province, which was called Biru.1 I
then ascended a great river for twenty leagues, and met
with many chiefs and villages, and a very strong fortress at
the junction of two rivers, with people guarding it. They
placed their women and goods in safety, and defended it
bravely. At last, having occupied a position above them,
they were quickly defeated. They fought with large shields !
covering the whole body, and short spears; and as the
space was confined, and at the first assault they mixed with
the Spaniards armed with swords, they were easily routed.
This is a very populous province, and extends as far as the I
place where now stands the city of San Juan, which is a
distance of fifty leagues. After this defeat and the capture
of the fort, the people did not dare to show themselves in
arms again; but several chiefs came to treat for peace, and
went through the acts and ceremonies which are required
from those who become vassals of his Majesty. Afterwards
others came; and seven important chiefs became friendly,
among whom one of them was like a king over the others,
and was recognised as such by them all.
In this province I received accounts both from the chiefs
and from merchants and interpreters, concerning all the
coast, and everything that has since been discovered, as far
as Cuzco j especially with regard to the inhabitants of each
province, for in their trading these people extend their
wanderings over many lands. Taking new interpreters,
and the principal chief of that land, who wished of his own
accord to go with me, and show me other provinces of the
coast which obeyed him, I descended to the sea. The ships
followed the coast at some little distance from the land,
while I went close in, in a* canoe, discovering the ports.
1 Bini was first visited by Gaspar de Morales, with Francisco Pizarro
as his second in command. See page 9.

42

NARRATIVE OP

While thus employed, I_Jell^into the water, and if it had
not been for the chief, who took me iiiTnTarms and pulled
me on to the canoe, I should have been drowned. I re-
mained in this position until a ship came to succour me,
and while they were helping the others, I remained for
more than two hours wet through. What with the cold air
and the quantity of water I had drunk, I was laid up next
day, unable,to,turn^ Seeing that I could not now conduct
this discovery along the coast in person, and that the expe-
dition would thus come to an end, I resolved to return to
Panama with the chief and interpreters who accompanied
me, and report the knowledge I had acquired of all that
land.2
This land had never been discovered either by Castilla del
Oro, or by way of the gulf of San Miguel, and the province
was called Pirii, because one of the letters of Biru has been
corrupted, and so we call it Pirii, but in reality there is no
country of that name.
As soon as Pedrarias heard the great news which I
had brought, he was also told by the doctors that time
alone could cure me, and in truth it was fully three
years before I was able to ride on horseback. He there-
fore asked me to hand over the undertaking to Pizarro,3
1 Montesinos says that the illness of Andagoya arose, not from a
ducking, but from a fall from his horse, while showing off his horseman-
ship to the natives. But Andagoya himself must certainly have known
best.
2 Thus Andagoya was the first pioneer of the discovery of Peru.
3 Francisco Pizarro was born at Truxillo, in Estremadura, in about the
year 1471, the illegitimate child of a colonel of infantry. It is not known
when he first crossed the Atlantic, but at 1510 he was at Hispaniola, and
enlisted as a man at arms in the expedition of Alonzo de Ojeda to the
gulf of Darien. Ojeda formed a settlement which he called San Sebas-
tian de Uraba, and returned to Hispaniola for assistance, leaving the
main body of his following under the command of Pizarro. The Span-
iards suffered from famine and disease, and at last Pizarro embarked
them all in two small vessels; but outside the harbour they met a ship
which proved to be that of the Bachiller Enciso, Ojeda’s partner, coming

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

43

Almagro,1 and father Luque,2 who were partners,3 in order
that so great a discovery might be followed up, and, he
added, that they would repay me what I had expended. I
replied that, so far as the expedition was concerned, I must
give it up, but that I did not wish to be paid, because if
they paid me my expenses they would not have sufficient
to commence the business, for at that time they had not
more than sixty dollars.
Accordingly, these three, and Pedrarias, which made
four, formed a company, each partner taking a fourth share.4
Guided by the narrative and the interpreters given them by
me, they set out on the expedition with a ship and two j/****
canoes. Pizarro, su&picious^of me, took a direction different
to that which I have pointed out, and went to the province
with succour. Pizarro then sunk into a secondary position, and served
under Vasco Nunez de Balboa, who shortly afterwards deposed Enciso,
and founded the colony of Darien. He accompanied Vasco Nunez when
he discovered the South Sea, was second in command under Gaspar de
Morales in his ruthless expedition, and was the man who arrested Vasco
Nunez outside Acla, when he was on his way from the shores of the
South Sea, obeying the summons of Pedrarias. He afterwards accom-
panied Pedrarias to Panama, served in various expeditions, and received
a grant of land on the Chagres river.
1 Scarcely anything is known of Almagro uutil he appears on the
scene as the partner of Pizarro, in this daring project. (See my trans-
lation of Alonzo Enriquez, note at p. 134.)
2 Hernando de Luque had been a schoolmaster at Darien, and was a
priest in Panama. He owned the island of Taboga, and had amassed
considerable wealth. (Commentarios Reales, ii, lib. i, cap. i.) He died
just before Pizarro obtained the enormous ransom from the Ynca Ata-
hualpa, and for that reason his portion of the spoils was not set apart.
(Com. Real, ii, lib. i, cap. 28.)
3 They held their grants of land on the banks of the river Chagres in \ /
partnership, where they raised cattle, and realised a considerable sum of 1/
money. The licentiate Espinosa was also in the partnership.
4 The agreement between the partners was dated March 10th, 1526.
Pizarro and Almagro could not write. One Juan de Panes signed for
Pizarro, and Alvaro del Quiro for Almagro. Pizarro was then fifty-six
years.of-age> When Pedrarias was superseded, he retired from the part-
nership, to which he had never contributed a farthing.

44

NARRATIVE OF

which I had subdued, where he began to provision his ship.
He was in an open road on this coast, with very lofty
mountains rising up close to the sea, so that there was no
land breeze to take the ship off the coast. The wind
was continually from the west, and they were nearly four
years in reaching the island of Gallo on that coast, where
more than four hundred men died on the beach. Pedrarias
and Almagro sent such reinforcements as they could collect
from Panama.1
‘ This province of Biru is bordered, on the upper coast,
by the territory of two chiefs who had come as conquerors
from the neighbourhood of Darien, and subdued the land.
They are Caribs, and .use arrows poisoned with a very evil
plant. They are named Capucigra and Tamasagra, and are
rich in gold. The people of Biru, as a defence against
their arrows, make shields through which no arrow can
pass; but nevertheless, as their dreaded enemies eat human
flesh, those of Biru fear them infinitely.
Though it appeared from my report that these chiefs
were rich, I nevertheless advised that Pizarro should not
touch there, lest he should be lost, but that he should sail
on from Panama on the high sea. But he went to Biru,
where the Indians came down to the coast in an orderly
way, wishing to treat for peace. Certain Indians, also,
came to the Spanish camp, saying, that if the Spaniards
wanted to trade, they were ready. Thus they began to ask
for things of little value from the Spaniards, offering much
in return. Pizarro, not knowing how best to deal with
them, ordered that no one should traffic with them on pain
of severe punishment. When the Indians saw that the
Spaniards were not traders, they took up their arms and
retired into their village. Pizarro marched to it, and found
1 Pizarro sailed in the middle of November 1524. As many as twenty-
seven Spaniards died at Puerto de la Hambre, in Andagoya’s land of
Biru, and, as Andagoya says, the fourth year had commenced before
Pizarro discovered Peru. He returned to Panama in 1528.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

45

that it was on a height, where it could not be stormed. Some
of the Indians, who had been brought by the Christians to
cut grass for the horses, were hit by arrows, and twelve
days afterwards they were swollen like barrels.
Pizarro now saw that he had been well advised not to
touch at this place. He passed on to the island of Palmas,
where he found eight or ten houses, maize, and other pro-
visions. Here he remained some days, and the Indians at-
tacked him, and wounded some Spaniards. He sailed on,
and, without touching at the port of Buenaventura, arrived
at a province which is bounded by the river of San Juan.
Here the Indians killed some Spaniards. Not being able
to go inland, Pizarro sailed on past the river of San Juan,
at the mouth of which they came to a village, where they
found eleven or twelve thousand castellanos. Having robbed
this village they passed on, without touching at any point
until they came to the island of Gorgona, and as this was
uninhabited, they went on to the island of Gallo.
And before they reached this island, they had taken the
four years of which I spoke. At this time, Pedro de los
Rios came to Panama as governor, who, moved by avarice,
wished to displace Pizarro from the command of the expe-
dition, and he sent a captain in search of him. This captain
found the followers of Pizarro at Gallo, and he took them
back, Pedro de los Rios having ordered .that they should
return to Panama.
Pizarro, seeing himself ruined by this, determined to
remain there with ten1 men, who wished to accompany
him. He sent the vessels, with only the sailors on board,
to search the coast a-head, and they reached as far as a
land which was level and open. The vessels returned to
the island of Gallo, where Pizarro had been for seven or
eight months. Pizarro then sailed along this coast in the
1 Thirteen. See an account of these intrepid men in a note at p. 419
of my translation of Cieza de Leon.

46

NARRATIVE OF

vessel, and discovered Tumbez and Payta. Here Pedro de
Candia1 went on shore, and came to Tumbez, where he said
he had seen grand things, which did not afterwards appear.
The Indians, seeing that the Spaniards were so few in
number, did not fear them nor desire to- injure them,’ think-
ing that they were merchants. Pizarro returned; and two
Spaniards remained on shore of their own accord, who, not
knowing how to conduct themselves towards the Indians,
were killed by them.3 Pizarro returned to Spain with the
account of this discovery, and came back as governor. He
set out from Panama with a large force in two ships, and
landed on the island of” Puna, which is opposite Tumbez.
This is an island inhabited by a populous and warlike race.
They came forth peacefully; and on learning what the
Christians intended, they attacked their camp at dawn one
morning, and put the Christians to great straits. They
wounded Hernando Pizarro, who fell from his horse. .The
Indians being defeated and the island subdued, plenty of
provisions arrived at the camp; and Pizarro waited there,
without landing on the opposite coast, until Hernando de
Soto3 arrived from Nicaragua with the other ships, and re-
1 For an account of Pedro de Candia, see my Cieza de Leon, note,
p. 193.
2 Only one, Alonzo de Molina, one of the thirteen who crossed the
line. He died before the return of Pizarro. Herrera, dec. iii, lib. iii,
cap. 3.
3 Hernando de Soto was a native of Estremadura, son of a gentleman
of Xeres de Badajos. He went to America in the expedition of Pedra-
rias, and received promotion from him. Almagro sent him with a ship
to Nicaragua to collect troops and arms, and he sailed thence to reinforce
Pizarro, whom he found on the island of Puna, on the point of com-
mencing the invasion of Peru. In May 1532 Hernando de Soto landed
with Pizarro at Tumbez, and took a leading part in the subsequent con-
quest. He was one of Pizarro’s most enterprising lieutenants. He was
absent when the Ynca Atahualpa was so basely murdered by Pizarro and
his vile crew, and it is highly to his credit that, on his return, he ex-
pressed the greatest indignation at the perpetration of this atrocious act.
He went in advance of Pizarro, to Cuzco, but soon afterwards returned

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

47

inforcements of men and horses. When the reinforcements
arrived, which enabled him to go inland, Pizarro went to
Tumbez, and treated for peace with the chief of that place.
He then founded the town of San Miguel, at Payta, the
site of which was afterwards removed upwards of twenty
leagues, to the place where the town now stands, the dis-
trict being healthier and more convenient. Leaving this
town with a few settlers in it, Pizarro went in search of
Atabalica,1 who was lord of the whole country. He arrived
in the province of Cajamalca, where he found Atabalica.
Pizarro had to pass through a gorge in the mountains, and
Atabalica was informed of his approach, but he would not
oppose the passage of the Spaniards, as he might have
done, saying, that he would allow them to cross the moun-
tains, because afterwards they would not be able to escape,
and he could then capture them all, and discover what
manner of people they were.
Having descended to where Atabalica was encamped, they
found him with a large body of men, in tents, outside the
town. Pizarro wished to treat with him peaceably; so he
sent the captain, Soto, on horseback, armed only with his
to Spain with his share of the ransom of Atahualpa, which made him a
rich man. He married a daughter of Pedrarias, and was appointed
governor of Cuba and adelantado of Florida. The expedition com-
manded by Hernando de Soto sailed from Seville in 1538, and reached
Cuba in safety. Leaving his wife Isabella at Havanna he sailed for
Florida in May 1539, and landed on the coast. Then followed his
wonderful march through the modern States of Georgia and Alabama,
and his discovery of the Mississippi. His Portuguese biographer
says: ” On May 21st, 1542, departed out of this life the virtuous, and
valiant captain Don Hernando de Soto, governor of Cuba, and ade-
lantado of Florida, whom fortune advanced, as it used to do others, that
he might have the higher fall.” His companions wrapped his body in
his mantle, with a great deal of sand, and cast it into the mighty Mis-
sissippi. Hernando de Soto was the equal of Vasco Nunez for indomit-
able courage and perseverance, but, like most of these Spanish conquerors,
he was detestably cruel.
1 The Ynca Atahualpa.

48

NARRATIVE OP

tongue. Soto forced on his horse when he arrived at the
place where Atabalica was seated on his throne, until he
was close to him. Atabalica showed no sign of fear, and
did not even rise. Soto then delivered his speech, saying
how they came there on the part of the King of Spain, and
that they wished to be friends. He replied, that they
should lodge in the town, and that he would come and see
them there. He did this that he might secure them all in
the town. When Soto left him, there were large bodies
of troops on each side of the road, and when Soto.^came
near them on horseback, they got out of the way with
some show of fear. When Atabalica saw it, he ordered
their heads to be cut off, saying that they had no reason
to be afraid when he was there, and that they had fled from
a sheep.
On another day Atabalica, putting his forces in order,
advanced to the town where Pizarro was, in his litter, with-
out considering it necessary to alight from it. He entered
Cajamalca, where the Spaniards were lodged in the nouses.
The cavalry knew what was to be done, if Atabalica
should not desire peace. Fray Vicente de Valverde, who
was afterwards Bishop of Cuzco, came out to receive Ata-
balica, with a breviary in his hands, saying certain things
concerning the power of God. Atabalica took the book
in his hand, and cast it away among the people, asking
how they had dared to enter his house to lodge in it ?
Upon this the friar fled, and the troops, both horse and
foot, came out, and as the Indians had already entered the
open square, the cavalry charged them, and put them to
flight. Pizarro came up to Atabalica with the servants and
pulled him out of his litter, making him a prisoner. Ata-
balica, being captured, he surrendered the country, and
willingly became a vassal of his Majesty. He treated for his
ransom, for which he agreed to give a house (one of his
palaces) filled with gold and silver,—an undertaking which
he presently fulfilled.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA. 49

Atabalica bad a war witb bis brother, the lord of Cuzco.
Guanacaba,1 who was lord of all these lands, conquered and
subdued the country from Cuzco, as far as Puerto Viejo,
Quito, and other grand provinces; and this Guanacaba was
so great an administrator that, when he conquered a province,
he obliged its chief to go and live in Cuzco, make his home
there, and cause his son and heir to serve as a page. And
when any province made so strong a resistance as that its
chief was killed, the people of that province were sent to live
in the province of Cuzco, and some of those of Cuzco had to
go to the conquered province, thus exchanging lands and vil-
lages, so that in no future time might there be a rising.2
He placed his governors in these lands’, and took the legi-
timate daughters of the chiefs of all the provinces for his
women. The sons he had by them became lords of those –
provinces, so long as they recognised the lord of Cuzco as
their superior.
Atabalica was son of Guanacaba, by the daughter of
the lord of Quito, a very populous province, and a very
pleasant. When Guanacapa died, his son, Guazcar,3 became
lord of Cuzco, and was saluted as Ynga, with ceremonies
similar to those used in crowning a king or swearing in a
prince. Before these ceremonies are performed, he is not
lord, but he must be shut up in a palace, and remain there
certain days, fasting, and doing other things; and he must
not see a woman during this time. Having complied with
these obligations, they bring him forth with great solemnity,
and place a fringe, in place of a crown, on his brow, made
of various coloured wool, gold and silver, very rich. No
other man may put on this fringe, not even the captain-
general, on pain of death.
1 The Ynca Huayna Ccapac.
2 For an account of the Ynca institution of Mitimaes or colonists, see
Cieza de Leon, pp. 149, 150, 209, 328, 362.
3 The Ynca Huascar.
E

50

NARRATIVE OP

Having received the title of Ynga, which is the same as
king, he sent to all his brothers, each one of whom was lord
of a province, ordering them to come to acknowledge him,
as was their duty. Atabalica was a proud and wilful man,
and he replied that he was as much the son of Guanacaba
as the lord of Cuzco himself, that he would not recognise
his sovereignty, but that, on the contrary, he intended to
enter Guazcar’s dominions, and make himself master of
Cuzco. Guazcar, on the receipt of this message, sent an
army against his brother, and Atabalica came forth to give
battle, but was taken prisoner by the captains of Guazcar,
and a great number of people were killed.
The captains of Cuzco were given a city in the territory
of Atabalica, called Domipumpa,1 in which Atabalica was
imprisoned, within a tower, with certain captains. But he
made a passage under the foundations, got out, and reached
Quito. As soon as he escaped, he called his people together
at Quito, and collected an army again. The others came
against him \ but by means of a warlike stratagem, he de-
feated them, and killed or captured nearly all. He then
marched against the city where he had been imprisoned,
and when the garrison saw him approach in great anger,
fifty of the principal old men came out, and threw them-
selves at his feet, praying for mercy. But he refused to
hear them; and entering the city, he killed over seventy
thousand souls. It was a punishment which was feared
wherever he went conquering. Thence Atabalica advanced
to Cajamalca, and extended his army to Jauja and Chincha.
When he had conquered these provinces, he marched towards
Cuzco. Guazcar came forth, holding his enemy cheap, with
his Orejones, who were the knights, and all very valiant
men. These were of the tribe of Cuzco. They joined
battle, and there was great slaughter on both sides.
Through the ardour of one of Atabalica’s captains, named
1 Tuma-pampa.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

51

Puricachima,1 the Inga was taken prisoner. Fearing that
the followers of the Inga would rescue him, he treated with
the Inga concerning his release, and proposed that all his
captains should come to confer about i,t, giving many good
reasons. When the captains came, trusting to the word of
Puricachima, he seized them all, and cut off their heads.2
Thus he entered Cuzco, and was its master; and taking the
captive chief and his treasure, he set out on his return
to Cajamalca, where Atabalica was. But when the mes-
sengers of Puricachima and Quizquiz arrived, they found
that Atabalica was already a prisoner in the hands of
Pizarro,—for he was himself a captive before Guazcar was
taken prisoner.
When it was known in the camp how Atabalica had been
made prisoner, and by what sort of people, and that a house
of gold and silver was required for his ransom, it came to
the ears of Guazcar, who said, ” How shall my brother get
so much gold and silver for himself; I would give twice as
much as he can, if they would kill him, and leave me as
lord.” This saying was told to Puricachima, who presently
sent a messenger to Atabalica to tell him what his brother
had said. Then Atabalica went to the governor, feigning
grief, and saying, that he had received news that his brother
had been killed by the captain who had taken him prisoner.
As Pizarro was ignorant of the deceit, he tried to console
his prisoner by saying that he should not be sad, for as his
brother was dead, there was nothing to be done. Atabalica,
having thus found out that Pizarro would not harm him if
his brother was killed, sent messengers to his captains with
orders to cut off Guazcar’s head.
Having done this, and collected the ransom, Atabalica
found that, as a pretext to kill him, or from fear that, being
1 Chalcuchima.
2 For an account of the war between Huascar and Atahualpa, see
Cieza de Leon, p. 273 and note.

52

NARRATIVE OP

free, he would rise against them, the Spaniards had made
Indian sorcerers, who bore ill-will against Atabalica, declare
that he had an army ready to kill them. Atabalica replied
that it was a lie, and that they might rest satisfied that no
Indian would move throughout the land without his order.
He said, that when they saw anything suspicious, then they
might kill him; and that to satisfy themselves they should
send some one to the plain where it was said that the army
was, to ascertain the truth of the story. For this purpose, Cap-
/ tain Soto set out with some followers, and as it was arranged
between Pizarro and his councillors, they killed Atabalica
before the return of Soto. And at the time of his death he
i said many things concerning the pledge which had been
broken.
Atabalica was so perfect a gentleman that, when playing
at chess with a Spaniard, he staked cups of gold against
something from Spain. If he won, he did not take what
the Spaniards had put down, but he gave up his own
stakes promptly. One day the governor ordered these cups
to be taken and put into the house of deposit; and when
Atabalica knew this, he asked why the winnings of his
opponents were put there; that his opponent ought not to
have reason for thinking that he had not fulfilled his agree-
ment ; that what the man had won should be returned to
him, lest he should believe that he, Atabalica, was not a
great lord.
As soon as – Atabalica was dead, Pizarro set out for the
province of Jauja, and founded a city, which, owing to
its distance from the sea-coast, was afterwards removed to
the province of Lima, where now stands the City of the
Kings. From Jauja, the adelantado Almagro and Soto
departed for Cuzco, and taking the spies who were on the
road, they suddenly attacked the army of Cuzco, defeated
it, and following closely, entered Cuzco after the Indians.
Thus Cuzco was taken, and the city which is now called
Cuzco was founded for his Majesty.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

53

After these lords were dead (Atabalica and Guazcar), »
Pizarro raised up their brother, a youth who was with him,
to be lord and Inga; and this youth, owing to the ill-»
treatment he had received, rebelled, and marched with a
large army against Cuzco, which he besieged for three
months.1 During this time he often occupied half the city,
and in retaking the fortress, Juan Pizarro was killed. He
also sent an army against the City of the Kings, which was
besieged. Before the siege commenced, Pizarro sent three
or four detachments to succour Cuzco, under Diego Pizarro
and Gonzalo de Tapia; but these two captains, with all
their people, were killed by the Indians, and not one
escaped. They also defeated Morgobajo in Jauja, and killed
most of his followers, the rest escaping by flight.
The adelantado Don Diego de Almagro had departed
from Cuzco with six hundred Spaniards and a great many
Indians. Yillavina,2 who was a brother of the Inga, and
whom the Indians looked upon as a pope, went with him.
He marched to the provinces of Chile, which were within
, his government, and not finding in that land the means
of founding settlements where Spaniards might live, and
learning from the Indians that their brethren had taken
Cuzco, and that the Spaniards in it were killed, he returned
to Cuzco. When he got there he found that the Indians
had given up the war on receiving news of his approach.
He found Hernando Pizarro in Cuzco, to whom he sent to
announce his arrival. He said that he must receive him,
because that city was within his government. Hernando
Pizarro denied this. Finally, Almagro entered Cuzco in
spite of Hernando Pizarro, who retreated into a house and
barricaded it; but he was captured. Almagro then com-
menced a suit against him for having been the cause of the
rising of the Inga, and for other misdoings. But through
1 The Ynca Manco.
2 The ” Huillac Umu,” or high priest: a brother of the Ynca Manco.

54

NARRATIVE OF

the intervention of others, Almagro thought it well to
bring Hernando to Chincha, where the governor, Pizarro,
was, and there he was set free on certain conditions. As
soon as he was free, not only did he not keep the agree-
ment that had been made between them, but he wished to
seize Almagro”, who returned to Cuzco, and the Pizarros
began to collect troops to march against him. Then Her-
nando Pizarro gave battle to the followers of Almagro, near
Cuzco, and, through the fault of certain captains, Almagro
was defeated and taken prisoner, and Hernando Pizarro,
proceeding against him, put him to death.
Don Francisco Pizarro” now held the whole country in his
own possession. He founded a town at Aliquapa/ which is
a port of the sea for Cuzco, and another town at Gruapia-
gaques, in the province of Jauja; and between the City of
the Kings and San Miguel he founded Trujillo, under which
is placed the province of Cajamalca, and other neighbour-
ing districts. On the borders of Trujillo, in the interior,
there is a province called Brocamaros, where Alonzo de
Alvarado went to make a conquest, by order of Pizarro,
and there he made a settlement. They say it is a rich and
populous district. Don Diego de Almagro was the first
who founded a town in the province of Quito, called Santi-
ago. He went there to resist the invasion of the adelantado
Don Pedro de Alvarado, who had embarked at Puerto Yiejo
with a strong force, and had taken the road to Quito.
Having come to the encampment of Almagro, they agreed
together, and Almagro gave Alvarado one hundred thousand
castellanos in exchange for his troops and ships. Wishing
to go to the City of the Kings to see Pizarro, he left Benalcazar
in Quito as captain. This captain abandoned Santiago and
founded San Francisco, which is now the chief place in that
province. At that time Pizarro sent men to form a settle-
ment at Puerto Yiejo, and afterwards another town was
4 Arequipa.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA. 55

founded, called Santiago,1 opposite to the Island of Puna.
But the Indians of Puna attacked it, killed those who were
in it, and laid it waste.
The first lord, of whom there was any recollection in
Cuzco, was the Inga Viracoche.2 This was a man who
came to that land alone; but there is no record of whence
he came, except that Viracoche, in the language of the
people, means “Foam of the sea.” He was a white and
bearded man, like a Spaniard.3 The natives of Cuzco,
seeing his great valour, took it for something divine, and
received him as their chief. He ordained many excellent
laws and regulations for the government of the land ; built
the edifices of Cuzco and the fortress, which is made in a
wonderful manner. There is not much recollection of the
successors of this chief down to Guanacaba, because they
were not men who merited it. Guanacaba, on coming to
the throne, commenced a career of conquest, and his valour
was so great that he subdued the country as far as Puerto
Yiejo in a northern direction, and to Chile on the south.
He was the best governor of whom there is any memory.
He made a very broad road from Cuzco to the entrance into
Quito, with a wall on each side; and it is carried so well
over the mountains, and so well paved throughout, that it
appears like a Roman work. By this road the flocks of
sheep went, laden with merchandise, from one part to
another. All along this road, and along others which led to
other parts, they had post-houses placed at a distance, such
as an Indian might run without being tired. And they
had Indians so swift that this running-post could not be
equalled by any horse-post. When any tidings had to be
sent, or anyone was to be despatched to a distant province,
the first post received the message, and when the runner
came in sight of another post, he called out the message
1 The modern Guayaquil. 2 The Ynca Huira-ccocha.
3 See Cieza de Leon, p. 357.

56

NARRATIVE OF

to another runner, who started at once for the next post;
and thus news was brought from all parts of the land, and
the proceedings of the captains in every province, on each
day, were known. Each captain had an army, according
to the importance of his province, in order that any dis-
turbance might at once be punished. The pay received by
the soldiers consisted of all things necessary for themselves,
their wives, and children, as well food as clothing. In each
province, where an army was stationed, there was a store-
house full of all kinds of clothing and arms; and though
the cost was great, these houses were always kept full of
the things which the natives of the different provinces had
to provide for the men of war. These soldiers never
entered a village; they had their tents in the fields, and
took their wives and children with them; and thus, without
paying them other wages, the Ingas kept their armies
always in the field. When a province was conquered, the
Orejones were sent to it as governors and collectors of
tribute. They kept so good a record in the provinces,
that they knew how many were born and how many died
each year; and by means of knots they could reckon every
sum that can be reckoned with a pen. The number of
sheep that was reared in that country was wonderful; and
the traffic from the sea to the inland districts, and from one
province to another, was so great that there were many
flocks of three hundred and two hundred together, laden
with merchandise. When a province was taken, many sheep
were provided to be reared there; so that in every province
there were flocks of sheep, although before these provinces
were conquered, there might not have been any. It was
ordered, on pain of death, that the inhabitants of all the
subject provinces should learn the language of Cuzco, and
not speak any other, for originally they spoke different lan-
guages. Thus, the language of Cuzco was spoken over
more than five hundred leagues. This was one of the ex-

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

57

cellent things in the Inga’s government. It was also ordered
that all the chiefs should reside at the court of Cuzco, and
have the principal houses there. Thus the city became
very great, while the provinces were secure and at peace,
because their chiefs were living at the capital. When a
chief died, his house, and wives, and servants remained as
in his lifetime, and a statue of gold was made in the like-
ness of the chief, which was served as if it had been alive,
and certain villages were set apart to provide it with
clothing, and all other necessaries. The successor made a
new house, and service of gold and silver, for it was not
the custom to use those of his father. Thus there are
great treasures which have not been discovered; for’ of
those of Guanacaba, nothing has come into the hands of
Christians.
The rites and ceremonies which prevailed in this land
were the belief in the sun as a divine thing, to which they
made sacrifices and offerings. And the order of their wor-
ship is that, when the sun rises, they bring many jars of
chicha (which is the wine they make) into the open square
of the city, and there they pour it out with certain cere-
monies, placing their hands in front of their faces, and say-
ing certain words. They had certain houses of the sun
where they kept virgins, who were called women of the
sun; and they lived in those houses like nuns, and kept
from intercourse with men. He who attempted to do any-
thing to them suffered death. These virgins had their
services provided. If any of them appeared to be pregnant,
she said it was by the sun, and this was believed, unless
there was any evidence to the contrary.
The Ingas had excellent laws for the government and
administration of justice, among which there was one that
he who should take a woman in adultery, might kill both
her and the man with whom she was taken. The climate of
Cuzco is cold, with severe winters of snow and rain. That

58

NARRATIVE OP

of Lima is temperate, and rain has never been known either
there, or in any part of that coast, from Erguita1 to San
Miguel, because the same winds blow throughout the year.
Therefore the houses built by the Indians were more for
protection from the sun than from rain. They had houses
of the sun where there were certain statues of gold, and the
pillars, bolts, and doors were all of gold and silver in great
quantity. The people of that land were well versed in
weights and measures; and they were great workers in
silver, after their fashion. Gruanacaba was so strict con-
cerning the houses of gold and silver which he built, that
the worker in those metals who did not do his work as
it was ordered, died for it. Besides the tribute which
was given to this lord, he had great mines of gold and
silver.
No lord, however great he might be, entered the presence
of the Inga in rich clothing, but in humble attire and bare-
footed, and with some offering which he carried on his
shoulders; though he had come to the presence in a rich
litter of silver and gold. Nor might any man look at the
Inga’s face but with eyes down and very humbly. The
shirt which the Inga had once worn, was never used again,
nor the cup nor the plate. They had extremely .grand and
strange usages. ^tjuw^bi
From San Miguel towards Puerto Yiejo and the north
the climate changes; for it rains in certain seasons, and
the heat is greater. The people too are very different.
They go to sea to fish, and navigate along the coast in
balsas made of light poles, which are so strong that the
sea has much ado to break them. They carry horses
and many people, and are navigated with sails, like ships.
In these provinces are found the rich emeralds which
are met with throughout the land. On the coast there

1 Arequipa.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

59

is a fountain of rosin, whence they take a rosin like tar,
and it forms a little lake in front of the fountain which
gives it birth, ^md there it thickens under the sun. The
ships which pass by, take quantities on board, and with
it they tar the ropes and the ship’s sides. On this
coast there are salt deposits within the water of the sea,
where the ships that pass take in cargos. The Indians of
that land, owing to the slight resistance it offers, cut it out
in blocks, and these blocks are of very excellent salt. From
Tumbez onwards to Cuzco the land is so destitute of trees
that in many parts of the road no place can be found to tie
up a horse. Besides the sheep there are plenty of deer,
partridges, and other birds, different from those of Spain.
The land is so rich and fertile that from the first escudilla
of wheat. they sowed at Lima, they reaped eight hundred,
and from onefanega1 they got eight hundred; and generally
they reap three hundred to four hundred from one. All the
products of Spain yield wonderfully.
The government of New Castille commences in the pro-
vince of Catanez, which is north of Puerto Viejo, and ex-
tends to the river of San Juan. In the year 1536, this
government was given to the licentiate Caspar de Espinosa,
who died at Cuzco in 1537, having gone to assist the
Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro, and intending to go thence
to his government.2 This news arrived at court when I
1 Porringer.
2 The licentiate Gaspar de Espinosa went out with Pedrarias to
Darien as alcalde mayor in 1514. He it was who was ordered by the
cruel old governor to sit in judgment upon Vasco Nunez, the great dis-
coverer of the South Sea, whom he knew to be innocent. He reluctantly
found him guilty, but recommended him to mercy on the ground of
^his great services, urging that at least he should be allowed to appeal.
__^^Soon afterwards the licentiate was sent on that expedition in which
Andagoya accompanied him, and during which he committed many
atrocities on the Indians. He also went in the vessels built by Vasco
Nuiiez, as far up the coast of the South Sea as Cape Blanco, in Costa
Rica, in 1518. Espinosa amassed considerable wealth, and he supplied

60 NARRATIVE OP

was there, in the end of the year 1537, and a grant of this
same government was made to me, from the point of San
Juan to the gulf of San Miguel. I started from Toledo in
the year 1538, and embarked at San Lucar in the beginning
of 1539, taking sixty men with me from Spain. I arrived
at Nombre de Dios on the day of San Juan, and began to
prepare my expedition at Panama, having collected two
hundred men. I was thus engaged until the 15th of Fe-
bruary, having made three ships and two brigantines. I
left Panama on the 15th of February, and doubling Cape
\ Corrientes, sailed along the coast as far as the island of
1v Palmas, where I disembarked all the men and horses. I
found here five Indian huts, with some maize. I then sent
1 the brigantines to seek the inhabited parts; but the land
\ is so thick with trees, and overgrown with rushes which
enter the sea, that there were no inhabitants found, except
those of the five huts, and these came from the banks of
a river to this island to fish. Eight leagues from this
: island, the port of Buenaventura was discovered, and a road
descended through a very dense forest to the sea, by which
the Indians came to get salt. The Indians came down by
these forest-covered mountains, which are the highest and
most rugged that have been seen in the Indies. Leaving
fifty men with the ships, I entered this road with all the
rest of the men and horses, which I conveyed to a distance
of nine leagues from the sea with great labour; but from
that point onwards the country was and is so rugged that
many dogs, not being able to go on with the men, returned
to the sea. At a distance of fourteen leagues from the sea
most of the funds to Luque, the partner of Pizarro and Almagro in the
conquest of Peru. In 1537 he arrived at Lima with reinforcements for
Pizarro, which he had collected in Panama, Nombre de Dios, and Tierra
Firme; and Pizarro immediately sent him as his envoy to Almagro at
Cuzco, where he died. It appears, from Andagoya’s narrative, that he
had previously been appointed to the government of New Castille by the
court of Spain.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

61

I came to a province called Atanzeta, a very rugged country, / ‘*
but well peopled. The Indians came out prepared for war,
but as we gave no occasion for it, and entered their villages
without seizing or robbing anyone, they all became friendly.
Here I learnt that, in a province called Lili, ten leagues ‘/«
further on, there was a town of Christians, which Belalcazar
left there when he departed from this land.1 The town is called
Cali, and was subject to the Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro.
On the 10 th day of May, 1540, I arrived at this town, and
found thirty men in it, eighteen of whom were disabled. I
learnt how the Indians of a province, ten leagues distant, had
killed the captain, Pedro de Aiiasco, and the captain Osorio,
with upwards of fifty Spaniards, and as many horses, and
were besieging a town called Timana, which Pedro de
Anasco had founded.3 The besieged had sent for help to
the captain Juan de Ampudia, who was at Popayan, and he
had sent to pray for succour from Lili. The force which
was prepared to set out from these two towns of Popayan
and Lili amounting to sixty men. Two days after I arrived
at Lili,4 news arrived how that the Indians had defeated and
1 Andagoya marched to Cali through such ways that all his horses
were killed, and his men were much harassed. Herrera says that ” An-
dagoya had a commission from the king to conquer the country round
the Rio de San Juan, but he landed in a bay, and marched to Cali,
without considering that there is no Rio de San Juan in all that country.”
Herrera, Dec. iv, lib. v, cap. 3.
2 See Cieza de Leon, pages 93, 96, 99.
3 Osorio and Anasco were making their way from Popayan to Bogota
by the river Paez, when they were attacked and killed by the Indians
with all their party. Juan de Ampudia marched out of Popayan to
resist these Indians, and routed them three times, but they still con-
tinued to attack him, and he was killed in the fourth encounter. His
men escaped to Popayan under cover of night. Herrera.
Pedro de Anasco of Seville was a brother-in-law of Alonzo Enriquez.
(See my Life and Acts of Alonzo Enriquez, p. 48.) He was engaged in
a street brawl with him. His brother Juan de Anasco was second in
command with Hernando de Soto, when he discovered the Mississippi.
4 Cali and Lili appear to be the same place. Cali is the town, and

62

NARRATIVE OF

killed Juan de Ampudia, with other soldiers; that the sur-
vivors were flying by night through the forests; and that
the Indians, following up their success, had appeared before
Popayan. I made haste to march and resist their entry,
and on my arrival they halted. As soon as I arrived at
Popayan, I sent a captain, with fifty arquebusiers and cross-
bowmen, by a secret road, to succour Timana, and they
arrived at a time when the greater part of the inhabitants
were on the road, with the intention of going to Bogota.
Thus I restored peace to the province of Popayan.1
This Juan de Ampudia and Pedro de Anasco set out
from Quito in the year 1536, with the troops that had been
left there by Don Pedro de Alvarado, and marched through
this province until they arrived at Lili, where Juan de Am-
pudia formed a settlement, which he called the town of
Ampudia. In 1538, Belalcazar marched against them from
Quito, in disobedience of the express orders of his governor.
When he arrived in Lili, he caused the town which Juan de
Ampudia had formed, to be abandoned, and founded Cali
and Popayan. In 1539, as soon as Belalcazar heard that
the licentiate Espinosa was governor of that land, he
abandoned those two towns, with few men in them, and
went thence to the province of Bogota, where he found the
licentiate Jimenez and Filaymana,2 captains from Santa
Martha and Venezuela. Leaving a brother of the licentiate
Jimenez there as captain, they all went on to Spain.3
Lili the Indian district, in the valley of the Cauca. See Cieza de Leon,
pp. 101, 104, 93, 96, 99, 103.
1 ” Andagoya possessed himself of Popayan, and fearing that Belal-
cazar, who had founded this place, would return and call him to account,
he connived at all the crimes that were committed, to ingratiate himself
with the inhabitants, that they might assert his unjust cause.” Herrera.
2 Nicholas Fedreman, a German knight and lieutenant of the German
governor of Venezuela, George of Spires.
3 For an account of the meeting of Quesada, Fedreman, and Belal-
cazar at Bogota, see my Introduction to the Search for El Dorado, p. x.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

63

The Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro, when he heard that
Belalcazar had risen against him, sent the captain, Lorenzo
de Aldana,1 as his lieutenant, with an order to arrest Belal-
cazar, and bring him to Lima; but Aldana found that he
had already left the country. While Lorenzo de Aldana
was in Lili, in 1539, the licentiate, Badillo,2 arrived there
from Carthagena, in search of Peru. Badillo saw that his
enterprise was at an end, because the land which he had
reached was already occupied by Christians; so leaving a
part of his followers in Lili, he went on through Quito,
embarked at Payta, and reached Santo Domingo. Lorenzo
de Aldana learnt from Badillo that he had passed through
a rich and populous country, and that, at a distance of forty
leagues, there was a country called Biru (the same which I *
discovered from Panama). So, in the same year of 1539*,
Aldana sent Jorge Robledo with an expedition to that pro-
vince, and another captain came from Carthagena in search
of Badillo. When Robledo heard that other Spaniards
were coming, he founded a town, which he called Santa
Ana, although he had not received powers to form settle-
ments. The next day, those of Carthagena arrived where
he was, and finding officers of justice, they put themselves
under their protection. Then the captain, and as many as
chose to follow him, went on to Lili, restoring peace and
security to the province of Popayan.3
I sent a captain to these provinces in search of Jorge
Robledo, because his position was not known; and the cap-
tain arrived at this settlement, where there were thirty men
with five horses, and the chiefs of the country were about
to attack them. Jorge Robledo had crossed to the other
side of the great river, and had gone down it, no one
1 See Ciezd de Leon, p. 123.
2 Juan de Vadillo. See Cieza de Leon, pp. 40, 47 note, 50, 53 note,
57, etc.
3 Cieza de Leon was a man at arms serving under Vadillo and
Robledo ; and a full account of all these events is given in his Cronica.

64

NARRATIVE OF

knew whither. My captain was received in the settlement
by the Spaniards, who gave thanks to God that he had come
to their relief at such a time. Leaving the troops there,
the captain returned to report to me that there were no
tidings of Jorge Robledo. Soon after, as Jorge Robledo
returned along the same road that he had gone by, he
arrived at a province called Camboya, seventeen leagues
from the settlement where he had left the Christians. Here
he heard how that I was governor of that land. I had
ordered the town of Santa Ana to be founded, as it was
within my jurisdiction ; and as I was already in the country
when Jorge Robledo founded it, I ordered it to be named
San Juan.1 Jorge Robledo departed, leaving his followers
in Timana, and came to Lili, where I was, reporting to me
what he had done. I then sent him as my lieutenant-
general to establish a city in that province, which I ordered
to be called Cartago; and when this was done, to found
another town in the province of Boritica, where Antioquia
now stands.
On arriving at Lili, I found that the road by which I
came was so rugged that it was impossible for horses to
pass; so I presently sent a party to discover another road
which should avoid the mountains. The new road came to
the seaside, in the bay of Zinzy (province of Yolo), where
I ordered the city of Buenaventura to be founded. On that
coast a large river opens out into a bay, three leagues
across, where ships, laden with all their cargo, may approach
so near the land as to disembark the horses in the very
square of the town. The land is wooded, and there are
many fruits; and pig hunting. This city is twenty-two
leagues from that of Lili, east and west; and that of Lili
is nearly twenty from that of Popayan, north and south.
Popayan is twenty-six leagues from the river of San Juan.
1 As soon as Belalcazar arrived, and turned out Andagoya, he ordered
that the town should not be called San Juan, but Santa Ana. Herrera.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

65

The town of Timana is twenty-six leagues east of Popayan;
and the town of Pasto, which was founded by the captain
Pedro de Puelles,1 under orders from the governor Fran-
cisco Pizarro, is thirty-eight leagues south of Popayan,
Pasto is within my jurisdiction.
The province of Tunceta is the highest land of that
country, on the south-west side, along the coast. It is a
very rugged and forest-covered region; but where it borders
on that of Lili, there are beautiful valleys and plains. The
language of Tunceta is very different from that of Lib, and
they do not understand each other without interpreters. A
league from Lili there is a chief on a great river called
Ciaman, where they speak a different language, not under-
stood by the people of Lili. And two leagues to the east-
ward, in the other chain of mountains, there are more chiefs,
with a language different from that of Lili.
On the ten leagues of road towards Popayan there is
another chief, called Jamindi, with another language; and
many villages with five hundred to eight hundred houses ;
of which, when I arrived, no memory remained, except the
ashes; for all had been destroyed, and the inhabitants killed
by Belalcazar. From the said chief’s territory commences
the language of Jitirigiti, which prevails in the maritime
cordillera, towards the river of San Juan and the south sea,
in the valleys; but in the mountains there is a different
language. From the point where this language commences,
on the east side of the Cordillera, the language of Popayan
prevails for ten leagues to the southward. From the tops
of the mountains, towards Timana, there is a different lan-
guage; and there are many other languages in the two
chains of mountains as far as Quito. Of the twenty leagues
between Popayan and Lib, the ten nearest Popayan are
over a cold country, where a fire is necessary; and the ten
towards Lili are over a warm country, with almost the j
1 See Cieza de Leon, pp. 187 and 283.

66

NARRATIVE OP

climate of Panama. The whole is a very beautiful land,
with plains, rivers full of fish, and abundant hunting of
deer and rabbits. This land, now laid waste, was a most
populous and fertile country, abounding in maize, fruit, and
ducks. When I arrived, it was so laid waste that there was
not a duck fit to breed, to be found throughout the land;
and where there were over one hundred thousand houses in
the space of these thirty leagues, I did not find ten thousand
men. And the principal cause of their destruction was
that they received such evil treatment, without having faith
kept with them. In Popayan, the Christians never sowed
during the whole time they were there, having the crops
of the Indians to live on, and they gathered these crops,
and turned their pigs and horses into the fields. tSo the
Indians determined not to sow, and there was no maize
for eight months, which caused so great a famine that many
ate each other, and others died. Belalcazar also took many
out of the country.
The few that remained were friendly, and I wished to
convert them to our holy faith, and to learn whether they
had any religion. They had none whatever, and did not
even worship the sun, like those of Cuzco. But they lived
according to the law of nature, with great justice, like those
of Tierra Firnie. The dress of the women was like that of
the women of Tierra Firme; but the men wore a garment
of cotton of very bright colours, which covered their loins,
after the manner of a cloak, from below the arms; only it is
short. The first who were converted in Popayan were one
hundred of the natives of that land, and fifty of those of
Quito, who had come here with the Spaniards. Among
them was one chieftainess, and two or three chiefs. They
asked me many lively questions, saying,’c Why had nothing
of this been told them before, for it appeared a good thing V3
and ‘c Why, if, as we declared, we had come to give them
life and salvation, had we killed many of them with so much

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

67

cruelty ?” They often disputed among themselves as to
what manner of people those could be who did so much
harm, saying ” When we are dead, whom will they have to
serve them V They delighted greatly to hear the things
concerning the creation of the world; for they themselves
have a tradition of Noe’s flood, just as we have. But they
had no other information in this province concerning Him
who was able to cause the water to rise and cover the land.
Having already instructed these one hundred and fifty
converts in the essentials of our holy faith, not touching
on the passion and incarnation of our Lord, and other mys-
teries, but only on matters easy to be believed, I wished to
convince them that there truly was a God the Creator.
I put before them how they might behold the sun; that
it was a thing created for the use of man and of the world,
and how it was ordained that it should not stop; and in like
manner the moon. I showed them that neither the earth,
which was without life, nor the sun and moon, nor the first
man, could do anything of themselves; whence they might
truly believe that it was the Creator and Maker of all things
who is God, whom we must worship. I did not think it
right to baptise them on the first day, but let them pass
the night on these thoughts, intending to baptise them next
morning. When they came to be baptised, I asked them
if they remembered what I had said to them the day before,
and whether they believed it, and desired to do as God
commanded. They replied that they had not slept all night,
but had conversed concerning all that had been said to
them, holding it all to be good, and that they desired to
do as God willed. 1 I then placed crosses of red cloth on
their shirts, and took them in procession to the church,
where they again asked to be baptised. Mass was solemnly
said, and having explained somewhat concerning it, they all
ate with me, and I ordered that the captains and officers of
his Majesty should serve them, at which they were asto-
p 2

G8

NARRATIVE OE

nished. After eating, I gave them to understand that on
that day they had merited to be changed from beasts to sons
of God and heirs of his kingdom. I ordered a tournament,
and a great festival to be celebrated, and they held it to be
very grand; and after four or five days there were three
hundred more, for whom the same festival was celebrated.
Having done this, I set out for the province of the Jitiri-
gites, which was four leagues off. Here three conversions
were made in three different parts, and four or five thousand
persons were converted. At one of the conversions, an
Indian turned to a captain, who was his master, when they
were learning the sixth” commandment,1 and said, ” Well!
how is it that you have three wives V3 The master, wishing
to dissimulate, did not answer, that I might not understand ;
and when at last he said that they were not his wives, but
his servants; the Indian replied, ” Then how is it that you
have them all with child V3 After the Indians were. con-
verted, the marriage state was treated of, and all the chiefs
were married according to law, and with a blessing. There
was a woman, who had been three days married, from
whom a Spaniard solicited favours, which she would have
freely granted before her conversion. But she replied,
almost rebuking him, ” Mana Senor que soy casada} y terna
Santa Maria ternan ancha jpina ;332 which means, ” do not
speak to me of such a thing, for I am married, and St. Mary
would be much offended.” In these provinces they wor-
shipped the cross; and the lords ordered that any Indian
who passed by a cross should kiss and worship it, on pain
of punishment. In one of these provinces, called Aisquis,
in the house of a chief named Jangono, on the day of
1 The Catholics omit the second commandment as given in Exodus xx;
and so the seventh becomes the sixth. They make up the ten by dividing
the tenth into two.
2 A mixture of Spanish and Quichua words. liana (notf; ancha
(very), pina (wrath), are Quichua.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

69

Magdalen, following the conversion, treating of the marriage
of a woman, whom they ought to take from the hand of
Grod, they brought out beautiful fair women, who had never
seen Spaniards, and were united that day. All the newly
married couples dined with me, and I gave them all trinkets
and ornaments of Castile. They were served at table in
the same manner as those who were converted at Popayan.
After dinner, the chief ordered twelve men to come with
twelve flutes, who made very harmonious music. They all
danced, and made the Spaniards dance with them. They
passed the whole day dancing to this music; and at night
they had many other games, inviting the Spaniards to play
with them.
On my return to Popayan from these provinces there
came to me the brother of a chief named Patia,1 who
lived at a distance of twenty or more leagues. Hitherto
this chief had not been friendly; and the messenger said
that his brother had sent him to tell me that he would
have come himself, if he had not received a hurt out hunt-
ing. On the day of my entry into Popayan, I received
messengers from this chief, who had been sent to give me
welcome, and to say that he had learned how I had treated
the chiefs and Indians, without deceiving them, and that
for this reason he wished to be my friend, and to do as I
desired. I sent back certain trinkets and ornaments by
these messengers, to the chief, his wife, and some daughters
he had. He sent his son to thank me, and I found him to
be so intelligent and rational that 1 engaged in his con-
version. He was converted, with his twelve Indians; and
the same festival and solemnities were celebrated as on the
former occasions, and they put on their crosses as signs that
they were Christians. When he returned to his brother
1 The Patia is a large river flowing into the Pacific. The valley of
the Patia has a direction north and south, for a considerable distance,
between Pasto and Popayan.

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NARRATIVE OF

and lord, and gave an account of what had been done,
the lord made festivals and rejoicings in the land. When
I sent eight men on horseback to the town of Pasto, with
letters to be sent forward to the Marquis Don Francisco
Pizarro; the chief learnt they were on the road, for they
had to pass near his village. His brother came out to
receive them for nearly four leagues, with Indians and pro-
visions, to escort them to the house of the chief, where no
Spaniards had ever been before. At a distance of nearly a
league from the village, five hundred souls had come out,
men and women, dancing and rejoicing, to conduct the
Spaniards to the chief, who had made a great festival. On
their return, they came out to meet them again for four
leagues, and induced them to tarry certain days in the
village. The chief then sent to ask me to come to his land,
as he wished to become a Christian, with all his people.
He engaged that all the neighbouring chiefs should do like-
wise, saying that they respected him, because he was a
greater chief than they.
Having done all that was practicable in the way of con-
version in these provinces, I returned to that of Lili, where
they were very resolute in their refusal to hear or receive
anything that was said to them. At length the chief of
that province had to come every morning to make me some
houses, with his people, and he embraced me, and said that
he was very fond of me. I replied, that I also liked him
very much, for he had served me better than the others,
and therefore I liked him best. I told him^that if he wished
to know God and become a Christian, I should like him
better than my own son. Fifteen days after I talked to
him concerning these things, he came to me, crying out,
that he wanted to be baptised, with all his people. He and
I agreed that the baptism should be performed three leagues
from the town, where there was a large village. At this
conversion a servant of the chief, whose house was on a

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

71

high mountain, came down with great diligence, with his
children on his back. In telling these chiefs of the flood of
Noe, they began to speak, and said that they held the same,
having received it from their ancestors and grandfathers;
and that they also held that there would be another destruc-
tion of the world by fire, and that afterwards there would
be no more worlds. They said they believed all that was
told them, because part of it was what they held. On
pressing them with the questions why,. if they believed
these things, they did not consider who it was that could
have power to destroy the world, and that no one could do
this except He who made it ? and why, if they understood
this, they did not worship Him who was powerful to do
this ? They replied that they worshipped no one, and knew
nothing more than what they had said: that all things in
the world were made from heaven, and that they were ruled
and governed from thence, but that they did not know who
did this.
On another day of the conversion, mass was said, and a
great cross was blessed. All the converted were present,
numbering as many as six hundred souls, and they took the
cross in procession, and placed it before the house of their
chief. They worshipped it on their knees, as if they had
seen it there all their lives. The servant of the chief was
not there, being out purveying. When he returned, and
entered the place where the chiefs were, they told him what
had been done touching the adoration of the cross. He
then went out alone, thirty men being seated in the open
space where the cross stood, and, without saying anything,
he passed us, went up to the cross, and fell on his knees, at
a distance of four paces from it. In this position he went
up to it and kissed it, then retired backwards a pace, rose up,
and made a reverence with his whole body. He had a
hooded cap in his hand, which he never put on until he had
done all this. After rising from the place where he had adored

72

NARRATIVE OF

the cross, he stood gazing at it during the time you might
say a creed, and then passed to the right hand side of the
cross, where, without going on his knees, he worshipped
with an obeisance. He then went to another side and did
the same, and then to the left side, standing while you
might say a creed, and gazing. Having done this, he re-
turned to where he had first worshipped, and, without
making an obeisance^ he gazed during the time it would take
to say two creeds. Then he returned to us with great speed,
crying out twice, and pointing with his finger to St. Mary.
After this two chiefs, with twelve followers, came from
Lib de los Sierros, which extends from the other side of the
Rio Grande to within three leagues of the town of Lili.
When they came to the river they asked a chief, who was
there on an island, to supply them with fish. They besought
him also to put them across the river, offering to pay him,
saying’that they were coming to see me, to which he. con-
sented willingly. Having crossed over and come to his
houses, he seized and killed one of the chiefs, with six of his
followers, moved by avarice at the sight of the gold and salt
which they were bringing as a present to me. A Spanish
servant of mine, who came to visit this chief and to see
certain pigs that he had, found those men stretched on
mats, with their heads cut off, before the house of the
chief. When a boy asked what they were, the chief said
that there were as many more tied up in another house,
who were not dead. On appearing before ine, I learnt what
had passed, and to whom those chiefs were coming. When
I asked them why they had come without being summoned,
they replied that they had heard how well their neighbours
were treated, and that, on hearing that news, they had
come to offer themselves to me. When that other chief
was made prisoner, he confessed what he had done before
the others, and his motive. After trial, he was sentenced
to death. Desiring to effect his conversion before the

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

73

execution, I had him brought before me from the prison,
and it was more than an hour before he would answer a
word. I left him and went out, and I did this three or four
times, before he would reply to me. At last, God untied
his tongue, and he replied to some things. Each hour after
that, he was more inclined to attend to what was said, and
I was with him from morning until evening. When at last
he said that he wished to be a Christian, and to be bap-
tised, I believed he did so that he might not be killed. I
therefore told hjm not to become a Christian in the hope
that he would not be put to death, because the sentence
was already pronounced, but that he must do it that his soul
might be saved. I told him to hold it for a certainty that
if he should know and believe in God, and regret that he
had not before known what had now been said to him, that
then he would be born again to be for ever an heir to the
kingdom of heaven, and that from a poor Indian he would
become one of the greatest lords of the world; otherwise,
he would die for ever in the pains of hell, concerning which
he had been told. He replied with a very loud voice, and
turning his face upwards, saying, that if he was to go to
so good a Lord, he would die most willingly, and that his
wife and children should also be baptised. This was done
with great solemnity, and a cross being placed in his hands,
without being untied, he said ” Credo in Deo.” Then,
assisted by his relations, and by all the natives who were
present, he was brought in procession to the open square
where the gibbet stood. In tightening the cords they
broke, and he fell to the ground unloosed; and before he
got up, he sought for the cross which had fallen, and rose
with it. When they were going to tie him again, he asked
them to wait, and said there were two plates of gold under
the bedplace in his prison, which should be secured, and
that he would give them to me. He then told them to do
as they pleased with him, and, saying the Creed, he died.

74

NARRATIVE OP

God wrought many other marvellous things in the con-
version of this people; but to avoid being tedious, I will
not repeat them here, except that, when I sent a captain to
discover the coast, he entered a river with two brigantines.
At one of the turns, they saw a great cross just erected.
When the Spaniards saw the cross, knowing that no Chris-
tians had ever entered the river before, they rowed the
brigantines so as to discover the turn of the river, and saw
a canoe with six men coming away, who had just put up
the cross. Further on there were two cjhiefs, with sixty
other canoes waiting, who, when they saw the brigantines,
made signs of peace. The captain replied to them, and a
chief came to the brigantines in a canoe containing pro-
visions. He asked the Spaniards, by signs, to come on
shore to a great house that was there, and he went with
them, and lodged them in it. This house was encircled on
all sides by crosses. Wishing to know afterwards why
they were received in this way by so warlike a people, for
this is the province of the Peties, they found that these
Peties were neighbours of those of Chasquio and of that
chief Jangono, and that they traded with them. It
appeared that some of the Peties, as spies, were present at
the conversion, and saw all that was done with regard to
the worship of the cross. For this reason, understanding
all that we did, they came out to receive us with a cross.
This valley and district of Popayan is very beautiful and
fertile. The provisions are maize, and certain roots called
papasj which are like chestnuts, and other roots like tur-
nips, besides many fruits. But their chief provision is the
wine which they make from maize in that land. It is made
from a kind of maize called niorocho, a very small hard
grain, which is reaped two months after sowing. They
also make very good bread of it, and wine, honey, oil, and
vinegar. In all the provinces of this government they have
1 Potatoes.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

75

these provisions, and in some of them they also have aji1’
and yucas? In Lili they do not eat the maize in the form
of bread, but toasted or boiled, although they have stones
on which to grind it. They make chicha ;3 but their neigh-
bours, who are the people of Atrinceta, eat their maize in
the shape of loaves of bread, for which reason they are a
stronger people than those of Lili.
These provinces have the same custom as those of Coiba
and Cueva, of celebrating festivals every year for their
dead. In these festivals those of one village united with
those of another, or the followers of one chief with those
of another, being friends, and ate and drank together, as is
done in Coiba and Cueva. After dinner, in the evenings,
they came out to play at tilting with reeds, a leader of one
side with fifty to thirty men, and another with as many
more, all with their shields well made and painted, and
their darts, which are the arms they carry in this country.
Having taken their places, they came out to skirmish, as
the troopers do in Spain, darting at each other like enemies,
and in this way they continued skirmishing, sallying forth
and retreating in skirmishing order, during the whole after-
noon. Many came out from the game wounded, and some
were killed: and there was no penalty or ill feelings for
him who killed another. In the houses of the chief of
this province of Lili, they found, all round the principal
room, skins of men, as many as would fit into the room,
flayed and stuffed with cinders, and set up aloft at a height
of three or four estados.4* They were seated close to each
other, with their arms placed in their hands as when living:
and the men of war ate those whom they captured and
killed, in token of victory.5
1 Capsicum frutescens. The pepper used in almost all Peruvian dishes,
and called uchu in Quichua.
2 Jatropha Manihot. (Lin.) 3 A fermented liquor.
4 An estado is a man’s average height.
5 For fuller details see Cieza de Leon.

76

NARRATIVE OP

In the chain of mountains overhanging the sea, whose
waters flow into it, all is forest-covered and rugged, and
there are villages as far as the shore. And from the river
‘ Santa Maria to near the island of Gallo, a distance of fifty
leagues, brigantines may pass inland from one river to
another, without going to sea, because one flows into the
other. All the banks are inhabited, and the houses there
| are three hundred paces long by two hundred and eighty,
and there are at least three hundred married people in each
house. They all go in canoes, for there are no roads by
land. They are made rich by trade in salt and by the
fisheries. Opposite the island of Gallo there is a certain
district where the banks of the rivers are well peopled.
All the houses are fortresses, built over trees or on very
high wooden pillars, and they go up by steps that can be
put up or down. The people are rich, and not given to war,
for it is enough that five or six men jump ashore from a
boat, to frighten them away from their fortresses. Near
this province there is a valley, nearly opposite the island of
Gallo, called ” de los Cedros,'” which is very populous and
rich, and each house has its yard for the pigs of the country.
The women have their arms covered with bracelets of fine
gold in great quantity. News of the riches of this district
and of the rites and ceremonies of the people have been
received from all parts. No certain tidings have been re-
ceived as yet from a captain I sent to settle the province of
Catellez, and I do not know the name of the settlement he
formed, so I do not put it down here.
There are many currents in this South Sea, for which
reason it can only be navigated close in shore, except with
long delay. They go up the coast every afternoon,1 and (if
possible) with the tide \ for there are many points where the
wind alone does not suffice to stay the current.3 The best
1 Because the trade wind blows.
2 Small sailing craft are sometimes driven back by the current, in front
of the Talapazos.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

77

time for navigating from Panama to Pern or Nicaragua is
from January to May, which is the season for north and
east winds; but from Payta, and even from Puerto Yiejo,
the wind is south all the year round. At the foot of Buena-
ventura the sea recedes more than half a league, and at the
island of Palms and the bay of La Cruz, it recedes the
distance of a cannon shot, though the distance from one of
these places to the other is eight and ten leagues. And all
along the coast the sea recedes more at one place than at
another, according to the flow. In the North Sea the tide
rises and falls very little, never more than half a cannon
shot, although there may be an ebb and flow between this
sea and gulf of Darien.
The province of Bogota bears east and west from Lili,
and is not distant above seven leagues on a straight road.
This province was very populous, and very rich in gold and
emeralds. The licentiate Jimenez and Federman set out in
search of Peru, and reached this province. When Feder-
man arrived he found Jimenez already there, and that he had
founded a city called Santa Fe, and two other towns, the
names of which I do not remember. After Federman
reached the place where the licentiate Jimenez was esta-
blished, Belalcazar joined them from Peru, and all three
agreed to depart, and went by the great river of Santa
Martha and Carthagena to this coast, and each one gave
the account which suited him. A brother of the licentiate
remained in Bogota as governor, and while he was there
Geronimo Lebron was placed at Santa Martha by the Audi-
ence of Santo Domingo, as governor, until His Majesty
should appoint another. As he of Bogota had been turned
out by the people and captains, Lebron desired that they
should receive him; but they refused to comply, so he re-
turned. This province was among the best, the richest, and
the most populous in the Indies, and as the captains were
not sure that they would not be turned out of their com-

78

NARRATIVE OF

mands, they only thought of enriching themselves. The
people were docile and friendly, and these captains did so
much harm to the land, and put so many Indians to death
for the purpose of robbing them, that the population has
greatly diminished. There are the same provisions in this
province as in the others, wonderful deer hunting, and the
climate is healthy, fresh, and temperate. There is a uni-
versal chief of all that land, who is very rich, and when he
saw the evil treatment his Indians had received, he neither
desired to be friendly nor to make war. This captain
Quesada, with the followers of Greronimo Lebron, and as
many more as he could collect, has gone inland, and up to
this time the result is not known.
There is a province called Apirama at a distance of ten
leagues from Popayan, which is where they killed the cap-
tains of whom I have already spoken. The chiefs of this
province, seeing that little resistance was made to their
invasion of Popayan, and that I had not been able to enter
their country to chastise them, waxed bold, and penetrated
within five leagues of the city of Popayan, laying waste the
land and killing the inhabitants they met with : so that it
became necessary to march against them, and invade their
country. I sent one hundred and fifty foot and sixty horse;
and they awaited their approach on a plain, formed in
close column, with as much precision as could have been
seen in Italy, to the number of twelve thousand, armed
with pikes forty palmos long, and between each pikeman
there was a man armed with a club which they call macana.
These came forth between the pikemen to fight, and then
retreated behind them; so that the cavalry could neither
break the line nor use their lances against them, until the
arquebusiers opened fire from a plain, and before the
Indians could close up they were charged by the cavalry.
Thus they suffered loss before they could retreat to rough
ground. After this they no more came down into the plains,

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

79

and in the mountains they practised warlike strategy by
which they wounded and surprised the cavalry who retired
to the camp, and in one skirmish they took three of my
soldiers alive. These chiefs hire Indians from other neigh-
bouring provinces, called Tijajos, who hire themselves out
in all parts to any one who sends for them. This province
is to the eastward, between Popayan and Bogota. In
the cordillera of Popayan there are two or three volcanoes,
and there is snow on the tops of the mountains all the year
round.
When Mexico and all that land had been acquired, the
Adelantado Don Pedro de Alvarado went to the provinces
of Guatemala with all the troops he could collect in Mexico,
and those provinces were among the richest and most
populous in all this land. There was much resistance made
to him, and the Indians often fortified themselves in rocky
places. Alvarado committed many cruelties, and pacified the
land at great cost to the inhabitants. He took away many
people for the expedition he made to Peru, and made slaves
as in Nicaragua, so that there has been a great-diminution
in the number of inhabitants in that land. It is a very
fertile and healthy country. This government contains the
city of Santiago, and the towns of San Salvador and San
Miguel, which is on the confines of Nicaragua. The people
of this land are like those of New Spain. In the year
1541, the Indians killed the Adelantado Don Pedro de
Alvarado, on his way from Mexico. At that time a moun-
tain opened near the city of Santiago, and a river suddenly
flowed out, towards the city, with such fury that it tore up
trees that stood in the way. After doing much damage in
the country, it entered the city, and, leaving all other parts,
it flowed straight to the house of the said Adelantado,
where his wife was. It entered the house, so that not a
living thing was left that was not drowned or swept away.
Thus died his wife and all his family, except a daughter

80

NARRATIVE OF

who happened to be outside the house. The fury of the
river having passed, it remained without any water. Pre-
sently they entered the house to see what damage had been
done, and found a bull at the door of the chamber where
the Adelantado’s dead wife was, with his horns down, and
he would suffer no one to enter; but this bull was never
seen more. The mountain opened near a volcano. In this
province there are the means of building ships, both timber
and all other materials; and there are abundant supplies of
provisions. On the death of the Adelantado, the licentiate
Maldonado remained in charge of the government.
The province of Carthagena is bounded on one side by
Santa Martha, and on the other by Darien. The first
governor who came there, after Pedrarias passed by that
coast, was Pedro de Heredia,1 who was appointed governor
of the country from the great river of Santa Martha to that
of Uraba, for the purpose of gathering the^ Indians together
into towns, and bartering and treating with them, but not
for giving them as slaves to the colonists, ^^his was the
cause of much mischief, for as no one held them, or thought
of having them in encomienda, so no one sought for them,
except to bring accusations against them, whereby to rob
and make slaves of them. When this mischief was amended,
there were few Indians who could cultivate the land; for the
country is sterile and unhealthy,—a low, swampy land, with
few rivers and little fresh water. The people, both men
and women, go quite naked; and they have few provisions,
but the fisheries are abundant. The people are the vilest
that I have seen anywhere.
The first town was formed at Carthagena, and afterwards
a town was founded in Uraba, near the great river of San
Sebastian. Another town is established at Mompox, near
the great river of Santa Martha; but this has always been
thinly settled; for the Indians killed certain Spaniards
1 See Cieza de Leon, note at p. 35.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

81

there. Some negroes, who had fled from the Christians,
formed a village near Mompox, and served the Indians, and
these negroes are now more feared in that land than the
Indians.
In this land there is a province called Zenu, where, in
ancient times, the Indians had their tombs, and above them
great heaps of earth. All the Indians were buried with all
the gold they possessed, of which much has been procured.1
They have no rites nor ceremonies in this land.
The licentiate Badillo, a judge of Santo Domingo, came
to take a residencies of Pedro de Heredia in the year 1536,
and he kept Heredia a prisoner for a long time, until, at
the request of Heredia, the licentiate Santa Cruz was sent
out as Juez de residencies in the year 1537. When Santa
Cruz arrived at Carthagena, he found that the licentiate
Badillo had gone in search of Pirii, with all the men he
could collect together, in a southerly direction. He passed
by the province of Biru, which has already been described,
and came to that of Lili, where he found the captain Lo-
renzo de Aldana, and here Badillo was dismissed, for most
of his followers remained at Lili, while the rest went on to
Quito. As soon as Santa Cruz-arrived at Carthagena, he
sent a captain after Badillo, with certain troops, who fol-
lowed him as far as Lili, where the captain remained, and
the troops went where they pleased.
Pedro de Heredia went to Spain with his residencies in
the year 1539, and returned to the government of the pro-
vince of Santa Martha. The first governor of Santa Martha
was Bastidas, but one Villafuerte and another killed him by
stabbing him in his tent, and he died before he could do
anything permanent in that land. One Palomino then re-
mained captain of the colony, who began to conquer the
1 Becerra was sent by Pedrarias to discover this rich land of Zenu,
where he lost his life. See page 27. In January 1534 Heredia, the
governor of Carthagena, set out with a body of two hundred infantry
G

82

NARRATIVE OF

country, and had many encounters and wars with the In-
dians. He was so brave and valiant a man, that the Indians
feared him, and began to come in peaceably. In crossing
a great river on his horse, he was drowned. Afterwards
Garcia de Lerma was appointed governor of that land.
There is a province, seven or eight leagues from the town
and port of Santa Martha, inland, called Bonda, where, there
are large villages, but the country is very rugged and
and fifty cavalry, each with two or three spare animals, in search of Zenu.
They marched inland through the dense forests, and at length reached a
wide open plain, where the cavalry chased the deer. Here they came to
some huts surrounded by a vast number of mounds or tumuli. This was
the general cemetery of the surrounding country, where all the dead
were buried, with their riches, food and drink. Heredia ordered the place
to be pillaged. On the first day twenty-four wooden idols covered with
gold plates, and some golden bells were collected. Heredia then marched
further inland, in search of the place where the gold is found; but the
country was very difficult, his provisions were failing him, and he eventu-
ally retreated to Carthagena with an immense quantity of gold, in. June
1534. Father Simon tells us that all who robbed these tombs died in
extreme poverty.
The cemetery of Zenu was composed of thousands of tumuli, some
conical, others oblong. When an Indian died, a hole was opened, large
enough to contain the body, his arms and ornaments, with some jars of
chicha, and heaps of maize, a stone for grinding it, and his wives and
servants. The latter were first made drunk, and then buried alive. One
mound was so large that the Spaniards discerned it at a distance of a *
league, and they called it the devil’s tomb. Gold ornaments were found
in almost all these tumuli. They were in the form of all kinds of
animals, from a man to an ant, and 30,000 dollars’ worth was taken from
a single mound. The gold came from a great distance, and was obtained
from other Indian tribes, by the men of Zenu, in exchange for ham-
mocks, salt, and dried fish.
In recent times numerous gold ornaments have been dug up in the
neighbourhood of the ancient Zenu, which possess considerable merit as
works of art. See a description of some of them by Uricoechea. Memo-
ria sobre los Antiguedades Neo-Granadinos por Ezekiel Uricoechea, p. 39.
See also JVoticias Historiales de Fray Pedro Simon, pte. iii, Not. i, No. 55,
and Descubrimiento de la JVueva Granada por El Coronet Joaquim
Acosta, cap. vii, p. 120. Cieza de Leon accompanied the expedition of
Heredia to Zenu or Cenu, and mentions the immense quantity of gold.
found in the sepulchres. See my translation, pp. 221-8.

PASCUAL DE ANDAGOYA.

83

mountainous, the people warlike, and users of poisoned
arrows. Garcia de Lerma set out with a good force of
Spaniards to subdue them, but the Indians received the
invaders so well that they were defeated, and certain soldiers
were killed. Returning to their town, the Spaniards have not
again invaded that province. No other town was formed
in that province, and there was much trouble in subduing
it. There being some complaints against Garcia de Lerma,
the Dr. Infanta, a judge of Santo Domingo, arrived to take
his residencia, but in the meanwhile Garcia de Lerma died,
and the Dr. Infanta remained there. During his time not
only was no increase made in the extent of the province, but’
it suffered diminution, many Spaniards leaving it,,who had
come there as settlers. Afterwards Don Pedro de Lugo
arrived as governor, with a good force and a fleet; and he
sent his son Don Alonzo to a province called Ramada, which
is on the coast towards Cabo de la Vela, where there were
two or three chiefs more pacific than the others. The land
was plain, and rich in gold, and they always gave some of it
to the captains who went there. Thence Don Alonzo went
to the snowy mountains, and there captured a rich chief,
with a quantity of gold, with which, without doing more in
that land, he returned to Santa Martha.
After being there some days he embarked in a ship, on
the day before the gold was to have been melted down, that
each man might have his share, without his father knowing
anything about it, and went to Cuba with all the gold.
There he melted it, and went on to Spain. The other people
who remained behind went with the licentiate Jimenez to
the great river, some by sea and others by land. Five
brigantines were lost at the mouth of the river, but another
went on to Carthagena. Jimenez, who went by land,
ascended the river until he. arrived at Bogota, where he
formed a settlement. This province of Santa Martha was
not very populous. The wind blows from the north and

84

NARRATIVE, ETC.

north-east during the greater part of the year, and there-
fore there is little rain, for when these winds blow it does
not rain. There are many very good partridges of the size
of doves, and the food of the people consists of maize and
yucas. The sheep and cows that are raised in that land,
are of the best breed in the Indies.
The Indians of that land have no ceremonies, nor do they
worship anything except the figures they work in gold and
in cloth, which have a resemblance to the devil.1 Men and
women go naked, like those of Carthagena.
In the province of Bamada, near the Cabo de la Vela,
they have discovered pearl fisheries, to which certain men
have gone from the islands of Pearls, to settle there.
On the death of the adelantado Don Pedro de Lugo,
Geronimo Lebron was sent as governor to Santa Martha,
and he went on to Bogota, as has already been said. On
his return to Santa Martha he found that Don Alonzo de
Lugo had arrived as governor, so he went back to his own
house at Santo Domingo. Villafuerte, and the others who
killed Bastidas, fled inland to the villages of the Indians,
and wandered over wide tracts of land, but the Indians
never injured them. On returning to Santa Martha, they
were seized and sent to Santo Domingo, where justice was
executed on them.
On my arrival at Panama I will send what remains to be
told of these provinces, and the dates of events that are
wanting.
1 See page 3.

FINIS.

I N D

E X

ACLA, province of, 9 ; origin of the
name, ib.; dress of the natives, ib.;
settlement formed by Vasco Nunez,
19 ; judicial murder of Vasco
Nunez at, 22; colony removed from
Darien to, 32.
Adechame, province of, 11
Aisquis, weddings at, 68-69
Aldana, Lorenzo de, sent by Pizarro
to arrest Belalcazar, 63, 81
Alligators, 39
Almagro, in partnership with Pizarro,
43 ; enters Ouzco, 52 ; marches to
Chile, 53 ; defeat and death of, 54.
Alvarado, Pedro de, 54 ; conquers
Guatemala, 79
-Alonzo de, conquers Brocamoras,
54
Alvites, Diego de, founds Nombre de
Dios, 23
Ampudia, Juan de, 61, 62
Anasco, Pedro de, killed by the
Indians, 61
Andagoya, Pascual de, Inspector
General of Indians, his expedition
to Biru, 40 ; receives tidings of the
empire of the Incas, 41 ; falls into
the water, 42 ; gives up the dis-
covery of Peru to Pizarro, 43 ; ap-
pointed Governor of New Castille,
59 ; sets out from Spain, and lands
at Buenaventura, 60 ; marches to
Lili, 61 ; restores peace to Popayan,
62 ; converts Indians round Popa-
yan and Lili, 67-74.
Animals on the isthmus, 17, 18
Antioquia, 64
Apirama, warlike Indians of, 78
Arguello, Hernando de, judicial mur-
der of, 22
Atabalica (Atahualpa), receives Soto,
47; treacherously imprisoned by
Pizarro, 48; his war with his bro-
ther, 50-1; murdered by Pizarro, 52
Atanzeta, province of, 61
Atrinceta, province of, 75
Avila, Gil Gonzalez de, expedition to
Nicaragua, 32, 37 ; murdered by
Cristoval de Olid, 38

Badajos, Gonzalo de, expedition of,
26, 28
Badillo, licentiate arrives at Lili, 63 ;
imprisons Heredia at Carthagena,
81 ; and marches to Lili, ib.
Balboa, Vasco Nunez de, his character
of Pedrarias, 1 note ; at Darien, 3 ;
appointed Alcalde mayor of Darien,
4 ; sends Garavita to Cuba, 18 ;
imprisoned by Pedrarias, 19 ; sent
by Pedrarias to explore the South
Sea, ib.; forms a settlement at
Acla, ib. ; plans of, on hearing of
the appointment of a new governor,
21 and note ; judicial murder of,
22 and note.
Balsa, Rio de la, Vasco Nunez builds
ships on the, 19
Bastidas, governor of Santa Martha,
killed by one Villafuerte, 81
Becerra, Captain, sent to explore
Cenu, 27
Belalcazar, Sebastian de, proceed-
ings of, 62 ; Pizarro sends Lorenzo
de Aldano to arrest, 63; destruction
caused by, 65, 66 ; reaches Bogota,
77
Biru, province of, 10 note ; entered
by Andagoya, 41 ; boundaries of,
44 ; shields used by people of, ib. ;
Pizarro touches at, 44, 45
Bogota, province of, 77; discovery of
by the licentiate Jimenez, ib. and 83
Bonda, province of, near Santa
Martha, 82
Boritica, 64
Botello, Luis, to return to Ada for
news, 21 ; judicial murder of, 22
Buenaventura, founded by Andagoya
60; description of, 64
Burica, province of, discovered by
Espinosa, 24,37
Cajamalca, Pizarro arrives at, 47
Cali (see Lili)
Camboya, province of, 64
Campanon, Francisco, opposes the
schemes of Hernandez, 36 ; his
flight from Nicaragua, 37

86

INDEX.

Candia, Pedro de, lands at Tumbez,
46
Cannibals arrive at Paris, 40
Capucigra, Indian chief, 44
Careta, province of, 8 ; Cacique, 8
note
Carthagena, salt on the Isla Fuerte, 3;
affairs of, 80
Castaneda, licentiate, governor of
Nicaragua, 39
Catellez, province of, 76
Cenu, 27 (see Zenu)
Chame, near Panama, 25, 28
Chasquio, province of, 74
Chepo, 28
Chepobar, 28
Chiman, 28
Chiriqui, 37
Chiru, chief of a province near Pana-
ma, 25, 26, 29
Chochama, province of, 40
Chucheres, a remarkable tribe of
Indians, 23
Ciaman, river of, 65
Codro, the astrologer, warns Vasco
Nunez, 21 note
Coiba, province of, 11, 25, 29, 31, 75
Colon, Admiral, discoverer of the
coast of Tierra Firme, 6
Comogre, province of, 10, 27, 28
Contreras, Rodrigo de, governor of
Nicaragua, 39
Cueva, province of, 11,19, 23, 29, 31,
40, 75
Cutatara, chief of Paris, destroys a
race of cannibals, 40 (see Paris)
Cuzco, entered by Soto and Almagro,
52 ; besieged by Inca Manco, 53 ;
Pizarro sends succour to, 53
Darien, Pedrarias lands at, 3; Pizarro
with the remnant of Ojeda’s fol-
lowers, settles at, 4 ; condition of
the colony at, 6, 7 ; abandoned, 32
Dominica, island of, 2 and note
Escoria, a chief at war with Nata,
25; war between Paris and, 30
Espinosa, the Licentiate Gaspar de,
accompanies Pedrarias, 2 note;
appointed to try Vasco Nunez, 22;
goes by land to Panama, 23; com-
mands an expedition by sea to
Nicaragua, 24; expedition of, to
the westward, 28; account of, 29

note; in partnership with Pizarro,
43 note ; death of, 59 ; account of,
59, note; Belalcazar hears of death
of, 62
Enciso, The Bachiller, goes to Darien
with Pedrarias, as alguazil mayor,
2 note
Estete, Martin, sent by Pedrarias to
Manalca, 38
Federman reaches Bogota, 77
Gallo, island of, 44, 45; heroic reso-
lution of Pizarro at, 45; account
of the Indians on the coast opposite
to, 76
Garavita, Francisco, sent by Vasco
Nuiiez to Cuba, 18; to be sent to
Acla for news by Vasco Nunez, 21
note
Gorgone, island of, 45
Guanacaba Inca, 49, 57
Guanate, province of, alligators in, 39
Guarage, 30
Guatemala, conquered by Alvarado,
79; account of, 79-80
Guazcar Inca, brother of Atabalica, 49
Heredia, Pedro de, governor of Car-
thagena, 80; imprisoned by Ba-
dillo, 81; governor of Santa Mar-
tha, ib.
Hernandez, Francisco, settles Nicar-
agua, 36; revolts against Pedrarias,
36 ; beheaded by Pedrarias, 37
Huista, province of, discovered by
Espinosa, 24
Hurtado, Benito, founds a town called
Fonseca, 37
Incas {see Yncas)
Indians on the isthmus, treatment of,
7; manners and customs of, 13-17;
mode of dispensing justice, 13;
laws of, 13 ; superstitions of, 14 ;
method of performing obsequies of
the dead, 15; weapons of, 17;
division of, in repertimiento, 23;
remarkable tribe of, called Chu-
chures, 23; of Nicaragua, customs
of, 33 ; of Popayan, revolt of, 61;
dress of, 66; conversion of, by An-
dagoya, round Popayan and Lili,
67-74; warlike Indians of Apirama,
78 ; of Santa Martha, 80

INDEX.

87

Infanta, Dr., governor of Santa
Martha, 82
Ingas (see Yncas)
Isthmus, see seasons on ; Indians of;
animals of ; languages on
Jamindi chief, people massacred by
Belalcazar, 65
Jangono, an Indian chief, of the pro-
vince of Aisquis, 68, 74
Jauja, city founded there by Pizarro,
52; Morgobajo defeated at, 53
Jimenez, discoverer of Bogota, 77-83
Jitirigiti, language of, 65; conversion
of Indians of, 68
Languages, on the Isthmus, 25, 31;’
of Nicaragua, 33; round Popayan,
65
Lebron, Geronimo, governor at Santa
Martha, 77-83
Lerma, Garcia de, governor of Santa
Martha, 82
Lili (or Cali), province of, Andagoya
marches to, 61; Andagoya’3 efforts
to convert Indians of, 70; food of
the people of, 75; customs of
natives of, 75
Lima, founded by Pizarro, 52; climate
of, 58 ‘
Lugo, Don Pedro de, governor of
Santa Martha, 82; Alonzo, 82
Luque in partnership with Pizarro, 43
Maldonado, licentiate, succeeds Alva-
rado in the government of Guate-
mala, 80
Manalca, province of, 37; Martin
Estete sent to, by Pedrarias, 38
Meneses forms a colony called Santa
Cruz, 12
Meta, 25
Mompox, 81
Morales, Gaspar de, expedition of, 9
Morgobajo defeated at Jauja, 53
Nata, province of, 25 note, 26, 29;
people of, attack the Spaniards, 27
Nicaragua, Espinosa discovers coast
of, 24; Indians of, their customs,
33; expedition of Gil Gonzalez de
Avila to, 32; volcano in, 34; af-
fairs of, 36-39
Nicuesa, Diego de, 4; fate of, 5
Nisca, 37

Nombre de Dios founded by Diego
Alvites, 23 ; Andagoya arrives at, 60
Ojeda, Alonzo de, 4
Olid, Cristoval de, murders Gil Gon-
zalez de Avila, 38
Osorio, Captain, killed by the Indians,
61; bishop, governor of Nicaragua,
39
Oviedo, the historian, goes to Darien
with Pedrarias, as inspector of
gold foundries, 2 note
Pacora, 28
Palms, island of, 45, 60, 77
Palomino, governor of Santa Martha,
is drowned, 81
Panama, founded by Pedrarias, 23
Pararaca, 28
Paris, province of, invaded by Gon-
zalo de Badajos, 26 ; and by Espi-
nosa, 29; war between Escoria and,
30 ; fierce cannibals arrive at, 40
Patia, chief of, his kindness to the
Spaniards, 69
Pearls, islands of, 9 ; Vasco Nuiiez
reaches the, in his ships, 20; fish-
eries near Cabo de la Vela, 83
Peccaries, 17, and note; method of
hunting, 24
Pedrarias de Avila, governor of Cas-
tilla del Oro, embarks at Seville,
1 ; his character, ib. note; lands
at Darien, 3-6; imprisons Vasco
• Nuiiez, 19 ; sends Vasco Nunez to
explore the South Sea, ib.; arrives
at Acla, 21 ; sends for, and im-
prisons Vasco Nuiiez, ib.; murders
Vasco Nuiiez, 22; founds Panama,
23; goes in search of Becera, 28 ;
goes to Nicaragua, and beheads Her-
nandez, 37; superseded by Pedro de
les Rios, 38 ; in partnership with
Pizarro, Almagro, and Luque, 43
Pequeo, province of, Vasco Nunez
lands at, 20
Periquete, 28
Peru, origin of the name, 42 (see
Pizarro)
Peruqueta, province of, 11
Peties, Indians of, 74
Pizarro, Francisco, chosen leader of
Ojeda’s followers, 4 ; settles at
Darien, ib. ; undertakes the con-
quest of Peru, 43 : sets out on his

88

INDEX.

expedition, ib ; heroic resolution
of, at Gallo, 45 ; arrives at Caja-
malca, 47; captures the Inca, 48;
murders the Inca Atahualpa, 52 ;
dispute with • Almagro, 54; sends
Aldana to arrest Belalcazar, 63 ;
Juan, death of, 53 ; Hernando
wounded at Puna, 46 ; imprisoned
by Almagro, 53; his treachery to
Almagro, 54; Diego sent to relieve
Cuzco, and killed by Indians, 53
Pocorosa, funeral obsequies of the
chief of, 16 ; province of, 28
s Popayan, 61 ; Andagoya restores
peace to, 62; conversion of Indians
round, 67; description of 74; food
of the people of, ib.
Puelles, Pedro de, founds Pasto, 65
Puna, island of, natives attack” the
Spaniards, 46
Puricachima, general of Atabalica, 51
Quevedo, Juan de, bishop of Darien,
accompanies Pedrarias, 2, note
Quitatara, chief of Paris (which see)
Quizquiz, general of Atabalica, 51
Ramada, province of, discovered by
Alonzo de Lugo, 82; pearl fisheries
at, 83
Rios, Pedro de los, supersedes Ped-
rarias, as governor of Panama, 38;
is driven out of Nicaragua, ib.
Robledo, Jorge, proceedings of, 63
Salcedo, Diego Lopez de, arrives in
Nicaragua, 38
Salt, supply of, near Panama, 25, 59
Sangana, 30
San Juan river, 45, 59, 65; city of, 41
San Miguel, gulf of, 11 ; ships of
Vasco Nuiiez reach the, 20
San Sebastian de Uraba founded, 80
Santa Cruz, sent out as judge to
Carthagena, 81
Santa Cruz, settlement formed by
Meneses, 12; fate of a Spanish
woman at, ib.
Santa Maria, river of, 76
Santa Martha, Pedrarias lands at, 3;
many of Ojeda’s people perish at,
4 ; Geronimo Lebron, governor at,
77 ; affairs of, 81; climate of, 83

Seasons on the isthmus, 39
Sosa, Lope de, appointed governor of
Darien, 20-38
Soto, in Nicaragua, 36; is outwitted
by Gil Gonzalez de Avila, 37 ; Her-
nando de, joins Pizarro, 46 ; his
embassy to the Inca, 47
South Sea, discovery of by Vasco
Nuiiez, 7; expedition of Gaspar
Morales to, 9 ; expedition of Pedra-
rias to, 22; currents in the, 76 ;
navigation of, 77
Suema, 30
Tabore, 28
Tamasagra, Indian chief, 44
Tapia, Gonzalo de, sent to relieve
Cuzco, and killed by the Indians, 53
Tauraba, province of, cannibals at, 40
Tijajos, Indians of, 79
Timana besieged by the Indians, 61,65 *
Tobreytrota, province of, 25
Tubanama, 28
Tumbez, 47
Tunceta, province of, 65
Ubsagano, a vassal of Paris, 30-
Uraba, San Sebastian de, founded, 80
Valderrabano, arranges with Vasco
Nunez to return to Acla, 20; judi-
cial murder of, 22
Valverde, Fray Vicente de, his inter-
view with Atabalica, 48
Vasco Nunez (see Balboa)
Villafuerte kills Bastidas, 81 ; exe-
cuted, 83
Villavina (Huillac Umu or high
priest) goes with Almagro to
Chile, 33
Volcano in Nicaragua, 34
Ynca Manco besieges Cuzco, 53
Yncas (see Atabalica, Guazcar, Gua-
nacaba), Viracocha, the first Ynca,
55 ; roads made by the, ib.; laws
and civilisation of the, 56; religion,
57 ; ceremonies, 58
Yolo, province of, 64
Zenu, province of, gold found in
tombs, 81 (see Cenu)
Zinzy, bay of, 64