(Annales del Peru, Ms., ano 1524.) But the Adelantado, in a
memorial of his own discoveries, drawn up by himself, says
nothing of this unlucky feat of horsemanship, but imputes his
illness to his having fallen into the water, an accident by which
he was near being drowned, so that it was some years before he
recovered from the effects of it; a mode of accounting for his
premature return, more soothing to his vanity, probably, than the
one usually received. This document, important as coming from
the pen of one of the primitive discoverers, is preserved in the
Indian Archives of Seville, and was published by Navarrete,
Coleccion, tom. III. No. 7.]
Yet the floating rumors of the wealth and civilization of a
mighty nation at the South were continually reaching the ears and
kindling the dreamy imaginations of the colonists; and it may
seem astonishing that an expedition in that direction should have
been so long deferred. But the exact position and distance of
this fairy realm were matter of conjecture. The long tract of
intervening country was occupied by rude and warlike races; and
the little experience which the Spanish navigators had already
had of the neighbouring coast and its inhabitants, and still
more, the tempestuous character of the seas - for their
expeditions had taken place at the most unpropitious seasons of
the year - enhanced the apparent difficulties of the undertaking,
and made even their stout hearts shrink from it.
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