Day after day passed on, and a week had elapsed before tidings
were received of his companions, and Pizarro was becoming
seriously alarmed for their fate, when on the eighth morning Soto
appeared, bringing with him an envoy from the Inca himself. He
was a person of rank, and was attended by several followers of
inferior condition. He had met the Spaniards at Caxas, and now
accompanied them on their return, to deliver his sovereign's
message, with a present to the Spanish commander. The present
consisted of two fountains, made of stone, in the form of
fortresses; some fine stuffs of woollen embroidered with gold and
silver; and a quantity of goose-flesh, dried and seasoned in a
peculiar manner, and much used as a perfume, in a pulverized
state, by the Peruvian nobles. *13 The Indian ambassador came
charged also with his master's greeting to the strangers, whom
Atahu allpa welcomed to his country, and invited to visit him in
his camp among the mountains. *14
[Footnote 13: "Dos Fortalecas a manera de Fuente, figuradas en
Piedra, con que beba, i dos cargas de Patos secos, desollados,
para que hechos polvos, se sahume con ellos, porque asi se usa
entre los Senores de su Tierra: i que le embiaba a decir, que el
tiene voluntad de ser su Amigo, i esperalle de Paz en Caxamalca."
Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 189.]
[Footnote 14: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Oviedo, Hist.
de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap.
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