*13
[Footnote 13: Xerez, Conq del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 180.
- Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms. - Montesinos, Annales, Ms.,
ano 1515. - Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 1, cap. 1. - Garcilasso,
Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 1, cap. 7. - Herrera, Hist. General,
dec. 3, lib. 6, cap. 13.]
Entirely discouraged by the aspect of the country, the Spaniards
began to comprehend that they had gained nothing by changing
their quarters from sea to shore, and they felt the most serious
apprehensions of perishing from famine in a region which afforded
nothing but such unwholesome berries as they could pick up here
and there in the woods. They loudly complained of their hard
lot, accusing their commander as the author of all their
troubles, and as deluding them with promises of a fairy land,
which seemed to recede in proportion as they advanced. It was of
no use, they said, to contend against fate, and it was better to
take their chance of regaining the port of Panama in time to save
their lives, than to wait where they were to die of hunger.
But Pizarro was prepared to encounter much greater evils than
these, before returning to Panama, bankrupt in credit, an object
of derision as a vainglorious dreamer, who had persuaded others
to embark in an adventure which he had not the courage to carry
through himself. The present was his only chance. To return
would be ruin. He used every argument, therefore, that mortified
pride or avarice could suggest to turn his followers from their
purpose; represented to them that these were the troubles that
necessarily lay in the path of the discoverer; and called to mind
the brilliant successes of their countrymen in other quarters,
and the repeated reports, which they had themselves received, of
the rich regions along this coast, of which it required only
courage and constancy on their part to become the masters.
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