Ecuador -- History -- To 1809; Peru -- History -- 1548-1820; Peru -- History -- Conquest, 1522-1548; Pizarro, Gonzalo, -1548
On the 6th of May I crossed the river in a basket travelling along a
cable, and seven Indians came with me. The ten Indians of the Inca
helped me to cross, and accompanied me. That night I slept at the foot
of a snowy mountain, in an uninhabited village called Condormarca, where
there had been a bridge in ancient times, which crossed the river to go
to Tambo, Sapamarca, and Viticos in the country of peace.
On the 7th of May as many as a hundred Indians came to meet me and
accompany me over the road of Marainiyo, a very rough country with much
vegetation and some swamps. They asked me if it was I who had put up the
flag which I mentioned before. I said yes and that I had hoisted it as a
signal that I came on an errand of peace. They answered that it was a
great piece of insolence for anyone to hoist a flag in the territory of
the Inca, and if it had not been that the Inca had given orders for me
to enter, they would have killed me there and then. Each one then began
to brandish his arms, calling the Spaniards bearded cowards and thieves.
Others said, “May we not kill this little bearded one, to avenge what
his brethren have done to us.” I appeased them by saying it was true
than when the Spaniards came they did much harm; but that now there was
justice, that the people were favoured and had their liberty. They then
asked me if I was one of those who came first, or whether I had arrived
recently. I answered that it was seventeen years since I came from
Spain, that in all times there were some good and some bad, and that now
they deserved much honour for it seemed to me that they were good men.
As to what others had done, the fault did not lie with me. I then gave
them some drink, and I gave some of them needles, ornaments, knives, and
other things, so we made friends. I then wrote to the Inca to say that I
had entered his country, but had not yet come to where he was, and that
in token of friendship I sent him two glass jars and two dozen buttons
of green glass that looked like emeralds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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