Their principal food was crabs and such
shell-fish as they could scantily pick up along the shores.
Incessant storms of thunder and lightning, for it was the rainy
season, swept over the devoted island, and drenched them with a
perpetual flood. Thus, half-naked, and pining with famine, there
were few in that little company who did not feel the spirit of
enterprise quenched within them, or who looked for any happier
termination of their difficulties than that afforded by a return
to Panama. The appearance of Tafur, therefore, with his two
vessels, well stored with provisions, was greeted with all the
rapture that the crew of a sinking wreck might feel on the
arrival of some unexpected succour; and the only thought, after
satisfying the immediate cravings of hunger, was to embark and
leave the detested isle for ever.
But by the same vessel letters came to Pizarro from his two
confederates, Luque and Almagro, beseeching him not to despair in
his present extremity, but to hold fast to his original purpose.
To return under the present circumstances would be to seal the
fate of the expedition; and they solemnly engaged, if he would
remain firm at his post, to furnish him in a short time with the
necessary means for going forward. *1
[Footnote 1: Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 182.
- Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 1, cap. 2. - Montesinos, Annales,
Ms., ano 1527. - Herrera, Hist. General dec. 3, lib. 10, cap. 3.
- Naharro Relacion Sumaria, Ms.
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