He was not disappointed, and, after extricating
himself from a dense wilderness of underbrush and foliage, he
emerged into an open space, where a small Indian village was
planted. The timid inhabitants, on the sudden apparition of the
strangers, quitted their huts in dismay; and the famished
Spaniards, rushing in, eagerly made themselves masters of their
contents. These consisted of different articles of food, chiefly
maize and cocoanuts. The supply, though small, was too
seasonable not to fill them with rapture.
The astonished natives made no attempt at resistance. But,
gathering more confidence as no violence was offered to their
persons, they drew nearer the white men, and inquired, "Why they
did not stay at home and till their own lands, instead of roaming
about to rob others who had never harmed them?" *15 Whatever may
have been their opinion as to the question of right, the
Spaniards, no doubt, felt then that it would have been wiser to
do so. But the savages wore about their persons gold ornaments of
some size, though of clumsy workmanship. This furnished the best
reply to their demand. It was the golden bait which lured the
Spanish adventurer to forsake his pleasant home for the trials of
the wilderness. From the Indians Pizarro gathered a confirmation
of the reports he had so often received of a rich country lying
farther south; and at the distance of ten days' journey across
the mountains, they told him, there dwelt a mighty monarch whose
dominions had been invaded by another still more powerful, the
Child of the Sun.
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