*16 It may have been the invasion of Quito that
was meant, by the valiant Inca Huayna Capac, which took place
some years previous to Pizarro's expedition.
[Footnote 15: "Porque decian a los Castellanos, que por que no
sembraban. i cogian, sin andar tomando los Bastimentos agenos,
pasando tantos trabajos?" Herrera, Hist. General, loc. cit.]
[Footnote 16: "Dioles noticia el viejo por medio del lengua, como
diez soles de alli habia un Rey muy poderoso yendo por espesas
montanas, y que otro mas poderoso hijo del sol habia venido de
milagro a quitarle el Reino sobre que tenian mui sangrientas
batallas." (Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1525.) The conquest of
Quito by Huayna Capac took place more than thirty years before
this period in our history. But the particulars of this
revolution, its time or precise theatre, were, probably, but very
vaguely comprehended by the rude nations in the neighbourhood of
Panama: and their allusion to it in an unknown dialect was as
little comprehended by the Spanish voyagers, who must have
collected their information from signs much more than words.]
At length, after the expiration of more than six weeks, the
Spaniards beheld with delight the return of the wandering bark
that had borne away their comrades, and Montenegro sailed into
port with an ample supply of provisions for his famishing
countrymen. Great was his horror at the aspect presented by the
latter, their wild and haggard countenances and wasted frames, -
so wasted by hunger and disease, that their old companions found
it difficult to recognize them.
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