A Certain Species Of Bitterns
Are Said To Make War Upon The Sea-Wolf Or Seal; For When This Bird
Finds
them on land, it tries to pick out their eyes, that they may not see their
way back to
The water, and then kills them; and the fight between the
bitterns and the seals is said to be a pleasant sight.
Those who live on the tops of the Andes, between the cold and the heat,
are mostly blind of one eye, and some are totally blind; so that hardly
can two men be found but one of them at least is half blind.
Notwithstanding the great heat of the sand in Peru, it yields good crops
of Maize and Potatoes, and an herb called _cocoa_, which the natives carry
continually in their mouths, as those in the East Indies do _Betle_, and
which they say satisfies both hunger and thirst. It is affirmed that, from
Tumbez southwards, for the space of 500 leagues, there is neither rain,
thunder nor lightning, with only some light showers. In Peru, there are
certain animals, called _xacos_[93] by the natives, and sheep by the
Spaniards, because they are covered with wool; but their shape resembles
that of deer, and they have saddle backs like a camel, and are capable of
carrying burdens of about a hundred weight each. 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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