So they toiled over the uninhabited waste, eating of all sorts, without leaving a dog, nor saddle leather, nor anything else that they could tear with their teeth. After having passed through infinite labour and fatigue they arrived at the village of _Coca_ (where they had originally entered the Canela country) on foot, shoeless, and so transfigured that they could scarcely recognize each other. The natives received them as friends, and gave them what supplies they had; and, to get themselves into some sort of order, it was settled that they should stay there for ten days. In talking to the Indians it was found that there was a shorter way to Quito by another track, not the one they had followed, so they determined to take it. But on this track they met with several broad and very deep rivers, so that they were obliged to make bridges over some of them. Journeying in this way they came to a river which was so rapid that it took them four days to make a bridge; and whilst keeping watch at night, lest the Indians should come and attack them by surprise, they saw a great comet traversing the heavens. In the morning Gonzalo Pizarro said that, in his dreams, a dragon came and plucked out his heart, and tore it to pieces with his cruel teeth. He then sent for one Jerónimo de Villegas, who was held to be something of an astrologer, to ask him what he thought of it. He is said to have answered that Pizarro would find that the object he most prized was dead. After other things had occurred, which may be counted as trifles rather than as history, Gonzalo Pizarro and the remnant of his followers finally reached the confines of Quito. Those who survived from that expedition say that 240 Spaniards started on it, and that most of them died of hunger, though they took with them from Quito 6,000 pigs, 300 horses and pack animals, 900 dogs, and many sheep, all of which were eaten or lost. We cannot lightly describe the deep sorrow Gonzalo Pizarro showed when he heard of the disastrous death of his brother. Although Sarmiento, his Lieutenant, sent horses for him and some of his companions, they would not mount them, but preferred to enter Quito on foot, in such sort that it was grievous to see them. When Gonzalo Pizarro heard that Vaca de Castro had been accepted as Governor by the whole Realm, he felt it keenly. He said that _he_ ought to govern, and that the King had been very ungrateful in not ordering that he was to succeed, on the death of the Marquis. He began to prepare to go in search of Vaca de Castro, wherever he might be; for it was not then known that the war was ended, nor that the victory had fallen to him in the battle. CHAPTER LXXXII _How Garcilaso de la Vega arrived in Cuzco; of the imprisonment of Don Diego, and how Vaca de Castro travelled to that city._