The town was well supplied with water by numerous
aqueducts, and the fruitful valley in which it was embosomed, and
the ocean which bathed its shores, supplied ample means of
subsistence to a considerable population. But the cupidity of
the Spaniards, after the Conquest, was not slow in despoiling the
place of its glories; and the site of its proud towers and
temples, in less than half a century after that fatal period, was
to be traced only by the huge mass of ruins that encumbered the
ground. *20
[Footnote 19: The worthy knight's account does not seem to have
found favor with the old Conqueror, so often cited in these
pages, who says, that, when they afterwards visited Tumbez, the
Spaniards found Candia's relation a lie from beginning to end,
except, indeed, in respect to the temple; though the veteran
acknowledges that what was deficient in Tumbez was more than made
up by the magnificence of other places in the empire not then
visited. "Lo cual fue mentira; porque despues que todos los
Espanoles entramos en ella, se vio por vista de ojos haber
mentido en todo, salvo en lo del templo, que este era cosa de
ver, aunque mucho mas de lo que aquel encarecio, lo que falto en
esta ciudad, se hallo despues en otras que muchas leguas mas
adelante se descubrieron." Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms.]
[Footnote 20: Cieza de Leon, who crossed this part of the country
in 1548, mentions the wanton manner in which the hand of the
Conqueror had fallen on the Indian edifices, which lay in ruin,
even at that early period.
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