In These Engagements Two Or
Three Of The Spaniards Were Killed, And Several Wounded, Among Whom Was
Gonzalo Pizarro, Who Received A Dangerous Hurt On The Knee.
Soon after this action, Hernando de Soto arrived from Nicaragua with a
considerable reinforcement of foot and horse.
But finding it difficult to
subdue the islanders effectually, as they kept their canoes concealed
among the mangrove trees which grow in the water, Pizarro resolved to
return to Tumbez; more especially as the air of Puna is unwholesome from
its extreme heat, and the marshy nature of its shores. For this reason he
divided all the gold which had been collected in the island, and abandoned
the place. In this island of Puna, the Spaniards found above six hundred
prisoners, men and women, belonging to the district of Tumbez, among whom
was one of the principal nobles of that place. On the 16th May 1532,
Pizarro set all these people at liberty, and supplied them with barks or
floats to carry them home to Tumbez; sending likewise in one of these
barks along with the liberated Indians, three Spaniards to announce his
own speedy arrival. The Indians of Tumbez repaid this great favour with
the blackest ingratitude, as immediately on their arrival, they sacrificed
these three Spaniards to their abominable idols. Hernando de Soto made a
narrow escape from meeting with the same fate: He was embarked on one of
these floats, with a single servant, along with some of the Indians, and
had already entered the river of Tumbez, when he was seen by Diego de
Aguero and Roderick Lozan, who had already landed, and who made him stop
the float and land beside them; otherwise, if he had been carried up to
Tumbez, he would certainly have been put to death.
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