This conduct of the natives of Tumbez is not easy to be
explained; considering the friendly relations maintained with the
Spaniards on their preceding visit, and lately renewed in the
island of Puna. But Pizarro was still more astonished, on
entering their town, to find it not only deserted, but, with the
exception of a few buildings, entirely demolished. Four or five
of the most substantial private dwellings, the great temple, and
the fortress - and these greatly damaged, and wholly despoiled of
their interior decorations - alone survived to mark the site of
the city, and attest its former splendor. *1 The scene of
desolation filled the conquerors with dismay; for even the raw
recruits, who had never visited the coast before, had heard the
marvelous stories of the golden treasures of Tumbez, and they had
confidently looked forward to them as an easy spoil after all
their fatigues. But the gold of Peru seemed only like a deceitful
phantom, which, after beckoning them on through toil and danger,
vanished the moment they attempted to grasp it.
[Footnote 1: Xerez, Conq del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 185.
"Aunque lo del templo del Sol en quien ellos adoran era cosa de
ver, porque tenian grandes edificios, y todo el por de dentro y
de fuera pintado de grandes pinturas y ricos matizes de colores,
porque los hay en aquella tierra." Relacion del Primer. Descub.,
Ms.]
Pizarro despatched a small body of troops in pursuit of the
fugitives; and, after some slight skirmishing, they got
possession of several of the natives, and among them, as it
chanced, the curaca of the place.
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