- E.
[2] This force, according to Garcilasso, amounted to 100 horse, and an
equal number of foot. - E.
[3] According to Garcilasso de la Vega, his force consisted of 340
Spaniards, of whom 150 were horsemen. - E.
[4] These Indians, according to Garcilasso, were laden with arms,
provisions, and ammunition, besides large quantities of hatchets,
ropes, nails, and wooden pins, to use upon occasion. - E.
[5] Perhaps the elevated valley of Macas on the river Morona which runs
into the Tunguragua. - E.
[6] Even Garcilasso, who is sufficiently fond of the marvellous and ever
ready to adopt absurdities, honestly relates of these _Amazons_, that
they were a fierce and wild nation of men, whose wives went forth to
war along with their husbands; and that Orellana invented the tale of
a nation of Amazons to raise the honour of his atchievement, and to
induce the emperor to bestow upon him the government of the country he
had discovered. - E.
[7] According to Garcilasso, he contrived with great difficulty and danger
to navigate in his rude bark from the mouth of the Marannon or Amazons
to the island of Trinidada, where he purchased a ship for his voyage
to Spain. - E.
[8] The river Napo joins the Maranon in lat. 3 deg. 20' S. and long. 70 deg. W.
But we are uncertain whether this were the place where Orellana
deserted, as there are many junctions of large rivers in the course of
the vast Maranon. The two greatest of its tributary streams are the
Negro which joins in long. 60 deg. W. from the north, and the Madeira in
long. 58 deg. W. from the south. - E.
[9] Garcilasso preserves the name of that faithful Spaniard, Hernando
Sanchez de Vargas, a young gentleman of Badajoz. - E.
[10] We learn from Garcilasso that this new road was on the north side of
the river, Napo probably, and consequently that they had kept the
south side in their way eastwards. - E.
[11] It is hardly necessary to say that cinnamon comes only from Ceylon,
not from the Moluccas; and that so entirely different was the
substance sought for in this disastrous expedition from cinnamon, that
it is now entirely unknown in Europe; unless it be the Canella alba,
now only used as a light aromatic of small value by druggists.
Zarate is generally loose and confused in his accounts, and almost
entirely neglectful of dates. We learn from the History of America
that this unfortunate expedition lasted near two years, and that two
hundred and ten Spaniards and four thousand Indians perished during
its continuance, only eighty Spaniards returning to Quito. Garcilasso
says that two thousand of the Indians returned along with the
Spaniards, and served them during the hardships of the journey with
the most affectionate fidelity, supplying their extreme necessities
with herbs, roots, and wild fruit, and with toads, snakes, and other
reptiles, which the Spaniards greedily devoured, or they must have
died for want of food. - E.
SECTION V.
_Conspiracy of the Almagrians and Assassination of Pizarro_.
On his return to Quito in 1541, Gonzalo Pizarro received accounts of the
most afflicting nature. When, as formerly related, Don Diego Almagro was
put to death at Cuzco by Ferdinand Pizarro, a son whom Almagro had by an
Indian woman was sent to reside in Lima. This young man, who was named
after his father Diego Almagro, was of a graceful appearance, handsome,
generous, and excelling in all the martial exercises, being particularly
graceful and dexterous in riding the manage horse. His literary education
likewise had been so carefully attended to, that he was considered as more
versant in these things than his situation required. Juan de Herrada,
formerly mentioned, to whose care he had been especially confided by his
father, undertook the care of educating young Almagro in the capacity of
his governor, and had been particularly watchful and successful in the
charge. Their house in Lima was the rendezvous of such friends and
partizans of the late Almagro as remained unemployed in Peru, and had been
excepted from the division of lands and Indians after the defeat of their
party, as the adherents of the Pizarros would not, and their dependents
dared not to have any intercourse with them.
After the voyage of Ferdinand Pizarro to Spain, and the setting out of
Gonzalo Pizarro upon his disastrous discovery of Los Canelos, Herrada and
the younger Almagro, being now left at entire liberty by the Marquis, who
before had held them in a species of imprisonment, began to take measures
for the execution of an enterprize they had long contemplated. For this
purpose they secretly provided arms and every thing that appeared
necessary for their project of revenging the death of the elder Almagro.
Their partizans were farther animated to the accomplishment of this design
from resentment for the death of several of their friends and companions,
who had been cut off during the late civil war. The marquis had often used
his endeavours to reconcile Almagro and Herrada to his authority by gentle
means, and by the offer of his friendship and patronage to them and their
adherents; but finding all his advances ineffectual, he deprived Almagro
of the moderate repartition of Indians which had been assigned to him, on
purpose to prevent him from continuing to form a party by the application
of his fortune to the support of the malcontents. All these precautions
were ultimately ineffectual, as the Almagrians were so closely united
among themselves, that all their property was in a great measure held
common among the members of their party, even every thing that the
individuals acquired by play or otherwise being thrown into a common stock
in the hands of Herrada to serve their general expence. Their numbers
increased daily, by the accession of all who were dissatisfied by the
administration of the marquis, or who thought their merits overlooked in
the distribution of property and employments.
