It Is Reported Of Ruminagui, That One Day After His Arrival In
Quito, Where He Had A Great Number Of
Wives, that he told them they might
soon expect to have the pleasure of seeing the Christians, with whom they
Would have the opportunity of diverting themselves; and that, believing
him in jest, they laughed heartily at the news, on which he caused most of
them to be put to death. After this cruel deed, he set fire to a large
apartment filled with rich dresses and valuable moveables belonging to the
late Inca Huana Capac, and retired from Quito, having first made another
unsuccessful attempt to surprise the Spaniards by a night attack, after
which Benalcazar made himself master of Quito with very little opposition.
While these things were going on in the kingdom of Quito, the governor
Pizarro received information that Don Pedro de Alvarado, who was governor
of Guatimala, had embarked with a considerable force for Peru, on which
account he deemed it proper to detach some troops under Almagro to San
Miguel, to inquire into the truth of that report and to prevent the
invasion of his government. As Almagro on his arrival at San Miguel could
get no distinct accounts of the motions of Alvarado, and was informed of
the resistance made to Benalcazar in the kingdom of Quito by Ruminagui, he
accordingly marched there with his troops and formed a junction with
Benalcazar, assuming the command of the combined forces, after which he
reduced several districts and fortified stations of the natives. But, as
he did not find any gold in that country, which was by no means so rich as
he thought he had reason to expect from report, he soon afterwards
returned towards Cuzco, leaving the command in Quito to Benalcazar.
After the conquest of New Spain by the Marquis del Valle, he detached one
of his captains named Don Pedro de Alvarado to a neighbouring country
called Guatimala; which that officer accordingly reduced to subjection
after much trouble and many dangers, and, as a reward of his services, was
appointed to the government of that province by the king of Spain. On
receiving intelligence of the riches of the newly discovered empire of
Peru, Alvarado solicited permission from the emperor Don Carlos to be
permitted to undertake the conquest of some part of that country, beyond
the bounds that had been granted to Pizarro, and received a patent to that
effect. Having received authority for this purpose, while he was making
preparations for the expedition, he sent one of his officers, named
Garcias Holguin, with two ships to examine the coast of Peru, and to gain
some precise intelligence respecting its actual state. From the report of
Holgum respecting the immense quantities of gold which the governor Don
Francisco Pizarro had found in that country, Alvarado was encouraged to
proceed in his enterprize; flattering himself, that while Pizarro and his
troops were occupied at Caxamarca, he might be able to acquire possession
of Cuzco[28], which he considered as beyond the two hundred and fifty
leagues which had been assigned as the extent of the government conferred
upon Pizarro. For the better execution of his design, and lest
reinforcements might be sent from Nicaragua to Pizarro, he came by sea to
that place one night, where he made himself master of two large ships
which had been fitted out there expressly for the purpose of carrying a
large reinforcement of men and horses to Peru. In these two ships, and in
those which he brought with him from Guatimala, Alvarado set sail with
five hundred men, cavalry and infantry, and landed on the coast of South
America at the harbour of Puerto Viejo.
From Puerto Viejo, Alvarado marched almost due east with his army,
crossing those mountains which separate the plain country of Guayaquil
from the table land of Quito, which the Spaniards call the _Arcabucos_,
being thickly covered with brushwood, but over which the road is tolerably
easy and only moderately steep, being almost under the equator. In this
march his men suffered extremely from hunger and thirst, as the country
through which they went was very barren, and had neither springs nor
rivulets. The only relief they could procure was from certain large canes
as thick as a mans leg, in each of the joints of which they usually found
rather more than a quart of excellent water. They were so much distressed
by famine on this march as to be under the necessity of eating several of
their horses, the flesh of which sold so high that a dead horse brought
more money on this occasion than he had cost when living. Besides thirst
and famine, they were very much distressed during a considerable part of
the way by quantities of hot ashes falling upon them, which they
afterwards learnt were thrown up by a volcano in the neighbourhood of
Quito, which burns with such violence that its ashes are often carried by
the wind to the distance of eighty leagues, and its noise like prodigious
thunder is sometimes heard at a hundred leagues from Quito. In the whole
march, which was nearly under the equinoctial line, the troops of Alvarado
found everywhere abundance of emeralds. After a long and difficult march
through these _arcabucos_, where they were for the most part obliged to
cut their way through the thick brushwood by means of axes and their
swords, they came at length to a high chain of mountains covered with snow,
over which it was necessary to pass. In this difficult and dangerous
passage by an extremely narrow road, it snowed almost continually, and the
cold was so extremely severe, that although every one put on all the
clothes they had along with them, more than sixty men perished from the
extreme severity of the weather. One of the soldiers happened to be
accompanied by his wife and two young children, and seeing them entirely
worn out with fatigue, while he was unable to assist them, he preferred to
remain with them and perish, although he might have saved himself.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 171 of 216
Words from 174121 to 175142
of 221091
