The voyagers were now abreast of some of the most stupendous
heights of this magnificent range; Chimborazo, with its broad
round summit, towering like the dome of the Andes, and Cotopaxi,
with its dazzling cone of silvery white, that knows no change
except from the action of its own volcanic fires; for this
mountain is the most terrible of the American volcanoes, and was
in formidable activity at no great distance from the period of
our narrative. Well pleased with the signs of civilization that
opened on them at every league of their progress, the Spaniards,
at length, came to anchor, off the island of Santa Clara, lying
at the entrance of the bay of Tumbez. *11
[Footnote 11: According to Garcilasso, two years elapsed between
the departure from Gorgona and the arrival at Tumbez. (Com.
Real., Parte 2, hb. 1, cap. 11.) Such gross defiance of
chronology is rather uncommon even in the narratives of these
transactions, where it is as difficult to fix a precise date,
amidst the silence, rather than the contradictions, of
contemporary statements, as if the events had happened before the
deluge.]
The place was uninhabited, but was recognized by the Indians on
board, as occasionally resorted to by the warlike people of the
neighbouring isle of Puna, for purposes of sacrifice and worship.
The Spaniards found on the spot a few bits of gold rudely wrought
into various shapes, and probably designed as offerings to the
Indian deity. Their hearts were cheered, as the natives assured
them they would see abundance of the same precious metal in their
own city of Tumbez.
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