While in Spain, Pizarro received a supply of money
from Cortes, under whom he had served in the early part of the
conquest of Mexico. - E.
[11] His commission from the crown of Spain, imposed the condition of
raising 250 men, and to supply the ships and warlike stores necessary
for the expedition; but his funds and credit were so low that he could
hardly complete half the number, and had to steal away from the port
of Seville to elude the examination of the officers as to the
fulfilment of his contract. - Robertsons America, II. 284.
[12] It is impossible to give any competent geographical account of this
extensive country in the compass of a note. Proper Peru begins at the
river Tumbez in the gulf of Guayaquil, in about lat. 3 deg. 20' S. and
extends S.S.E. along the Pacific Ocean to the desert of Atacama, which
divides it from Chili, in lat. 21 deg. 28 S. an extent of about 1200 miles;
consisting of two remarkably different tracts of country. A narrow
valley along the Pacific Ocean, seldom so much as 70 miles in breadth,
bounded on the east by the enormous main ridge of the Andes; beyond
which are many elevated vallies or table lands of various extent,
divided by collateral ridges and branches of the Andes, from each
other and from the prodigiously extensive plains of the vast Orinoco
Maranon and La Plata rivers. Quito, which had been annexed to the
kingdom of Peru, only a short time before the Spanish conquest, is
similarly situated, both as to maritime vale, and elevated table land,
immediately to the north of Peru proper, and seems to have reached
from lat. 3 deg. 20' S. to about lat, 1 deg. N. but is now included in the
viceroyalty of New Granada which reaches to the Carribbean sea, with
which it is connected by the river Magdalena. - E.
[13] The substance of this description appears to refer entirely to that
province of the kingdom of Quito which is named Esmeraldas or Tacamez,
on both sides of the equator. - E.
[14] Various reasons have been assigned for the origin of the word Peru,
as the name of the empire of the Incas, unknown to themselves, at
least in that sense. The most probable derivation is from the river
_Piura_, near its northern frontier, where it was first visited by
Pizarro. - E.
[15] This circumstance is unintelligible, as the bones could not shrink,
unless by supposing these _human heads_ to have been the heads of
small apes, resembling human faces. The expression of the text,
immediately before, of human carcasses hung up _in the form of
crosses_, ought perhaps to have been rendered _instead of_ crosses. - E.
[16] A good deal more is said of these giants, both by Zarate and
Garcilasso de la Vega, p. 363, but so vague and absurd as not to be
worth insertion. The whole story seems to have arisen out of the
colossal representation of a man and woman at Puerto viejo. - E.
[17] This is merely a repetition of the _big bones_ of Mexico and the Ohio,
already referred to the Mammoth, or animal ignotum. - E.
[18] Puna is in the bay of Guayaquil, in lat. 3 deg. S. and is near _thirty_
leagues in circumference, being about _ten_ leagues long by five in
breadth. - E.
[19] The estimate in the text is exceedingly erroneous. The city of Parto
is in lat. 1 deg. 12' N. and the Rio de Loa, or commencement of the desert
of Atacama, in lat. 21 deg. 26' S. which give only a difference of nearly
25 degrees of latitude, which at 17-1/2 Spanish leagues to the degree
are only 438 leagues. Even supposing the text to include Chili, which
extends to 39 deg. 21' S. the whole extent of Peru and Chili is only 753
Spanish leagues. - E.
[20] This is only to be understood of the period when Zarate wrote, about
the middle of the sixteenth century, or two hundred and fifty years
ago. The first town he enumerates, Puerto Viejo, is now in the
viceroyalty of New Granada. - E.
[21] The wool-bearing animals of Peru, improperly named sheep, are one or
other of the species of camel already mentioned in a former note. - E.
[22] Instead of _four_ degrees, Quito is only the _fourth_ part of a
degree beyond the line. - E.
[23] Bracamoras, or Jaen de Bracamoras, in lat. 5 deg. 30' S. is in the
district or province of Jaen in the kingdom of New Granada, on one of
the branches of the Lauricocha or Tanguragua, which is one of the
great rivers which contribute to form the vast Maranon, or river of
the Amazons. - E.
[24] No place of that name is now found in our best maps. The principal
town of the district of Chachapoyas has the same name, otherwise
called St Juan de la Frontera. - E.
[25] Not far to the south of San Leon de Guanuco, in the mountains of
Lauricocha, there are considerable silver mines. - E.
[26] No such place is now found on our maps in the province of Guamanga;
but the ruins of a town named Vittoria are marked in the district of
Calca, about fifty miles north-west from the city of Cuzco. Perhaps
the Vittoria of the text is the town now called Guamanga. - E.
[27] Probably the country of the people now called _Chunchos_, who are
implacable enemies to the Spaniards. - E.
[28] Probably the province now called _Chicas_ on the eastern side of the
Andes, occupying the head of the river Chirivionas which joins the
Paraguay or Rio Plata.
