Some Of These Floats Are Large Enough To Carry Fifty Men And
Three Horses, And Are Navigated Both By Oars And Sails, In The Use Of
Which The Indians Are Very Expert.
Sometimes, when the Spaniards have
trusted themselves on these floats, the Indian rowers have contrived to
loosen the planks, leaving the christians to perish, and saving themselves
by swimming.
The Indians of that island were armed with bows and slings,
and with maces and axes of silver and copper. They had likewise spears or
lances, having heads made of gold very much alloyed; and both men and
women wore rings and other ornaments of gold, and their most ordinary
utensils were made of gold and silver. The lord of this island was much
feared and respected by his subjects, and so extremely jealous of his
women, that those who had the care of them were not only eunuchs, but had
their noses cut off. In a small island near Puna, there was found in a
house the representation of a garden, having the figures of various trees
and plants artificially made of gold and silver.
Opposite to the island of Puna on the main land, there dwelt a nation or
tribe which had given so much offence to the king of Peru, that they were
obliged as a punishment to extirpate all their upper teeth; in consequence
of which, even now, the people of that district have no teeth in their
upper jaws. From Tumbez for five hundred leagues to the south along the
coast of the south sea, and for ten leagues in breadth, more or less
according to the distance between the sea and the mountains, it never
rains or thunders. But on the mountains which bound that maritime plain,
there are both rain and thunder, and the climate has the vicissitudes of
summer and winter nearly as in Spain. While it is winter in the mountain,
it is summer all along the coast; and on the contrary, during the summer
on the mountain the coast has what may be termed winter. The length of
Peru, from the city of _St Juan de Parto_ to the province of Chili lately
discovered, is above 1800[19] leagues of Castille. Along the whole of that
length, a vast chain of exceedingly high and desert mountains extends from
north to south, in some places fifteen or twenty leagues distant from the
sea, and less in others. The whole country is thus divided into two
portions, all the space between the mountains and the sea being
denominated _the plain_, and all beyond is called the mountain.
The whole plain of Peru is sandy and extremely arid, as it never has any
rain, and there are no springs or wells, nor any rivulets, except in four
or five places near the sea, where the water is brackish. The only water
used by the inhabitants is from torrents which come down from the mountain,
and which are there formed by rain and the melting of snow, as there are
even very few springs in the mountainous part of the country.
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