Ecuador -- History -- To 1809; Peru -- History -- 1548-1820; Peru -- History -- Conquest, 1522-1548; Pizarro, Gonzalo, -1548
On the 8th of May we departed from the station of the Inca called
Marainiyo, and marched to an Indian village named Lucuma where four
Indians came to see me from a captain, who was on that frontier, named
Cayanbi. I sent him salt and knives, and in return he supplied me with
maize and chicha, asking me not to pass on, because he had not sent to
tell the Inca anything about my arrival, but that he would come and
sleep that night, to accompany me. Considering the abominable road, and
the discomfort of having to travel on foot, and seeing that though I was
near the goal they would not let me reach it, I sent to say that I would
not go, and that I wanted to return to Cuzco. So I ordered the Indians
to take the road by which we had come, and I wrote a very angry letter
to the Inca saying that I had arrived at Lucuma by his order, and that
one of his captains, who was on that frontier, had refused to receive
me in his land. With the letter I sent a hat with two plumes of
feathers. When the captain saw my determination to return to Cuzco he
came to me, on the road, and begged me not to go until a reply came from
the Inca. He also brought plenty of food of the country.
I remained with the captain until another day when the reply of the Inca
came, the runner having covered 40 leagues in two days, saying in his
letter that he was very angry with the captain who would be well
punished. He sent another in his place named Vilcapaniguana, with a
hundred Indians to help in my journey. I was lodged in Arancalla, a
village of a hundred Indians, in a very rough country near the snows,
where there was a large fort.
I arrived there on the 9th of May, and they made me two houses on a hill
two arquebus shots from the village. Presently the inhabitants of the
village came with provisions for my party. Above all things they asked
me to show them the contents of my loads, because they desired much to
know. At first I refused, but as it seemed to me that they would manage
to find out, against my will, I thought that it would be well to let
them see. So they looked at everything. They saw that I carried a sword
and dagger, and said that I should show them to the Inca as he would
rejoice to see them. The same day a servant of the Inca arrived, with
two baskets of earth nuts[83], to visit me on his part. I received him
well and gave him a head cloth and an ornament; and for the Inca two
packs of cards and two pair of scissors. I understood that he came to
see what manner of man I was, and to learn from those who came with me
what I had asked, said, and done. They took leave, very well contented.
On the next day, the 11th of May, I received another letter from the
Inca, in which he made great offers to me, owing to the good report he
had heard of me from Cuzco, and that I was to come to a village further
on called Bambacona that we might sooner meet, and that he would be
there in two days.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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