The Spaniards Ride Upon
Them; And, When Weary, They Turn Their Heads Backward, And Void A
Wonderfully Stinking Liquor From Their Mouths.
From the rivers La Plata
and Lima, or Rimac, inclusively to the southwards, there are no crocodiles,
lizards, snakes, or other venomous reptiles; but the rivers produce great
store of excellent fish.
On the coast of St Michael on the South Sea,
there are many rocks of salt, covered with eggs. At the point of St Helena,
there are springs from which a liquor flows, that serves instead of pitch
and tar. It is said that there is a fountain in Chili which converts wood
into stone. In the haven of Truxillo, there is a lake of fresh water, the
bottom of which is good hard salt; and in the Andes, beyond Xauxa, there
is a fresh water river which flows over a bottom of white salt. It is also
affirmed that there formerly dwelt giants in Peru, of whom statues were
found at Porto Vejo; and that their jaw bones were found in the haven of
Truxillo, having teeth three or four fingers long.
In the year 1540, the viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoca, sent Ferdinando
Alorchon with two ships, to explore the bottom of the gulph of California,
and divers other countries. In the same year, Gonsalvo Pizarro went from
Quito to discover the _Cinnamon_ country, of which there ran a great fame
in Peru. Taking with him a force of 200 Spaniards, partly horse and part
foot, with 300 Indians to carry the baggage, he marched to _Guixos_, the
most distant place or frontier of the empire of the Incas; in which place
there happened a great earthquake, accompanied with much rain and dreadful
lightning, by which seventy houses were swallowed up.
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