" Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 192.]
Here Pizarro took up his quarters for the night. Without waiting
for the arrival of the rear, on the following morning he resumed
his march, leading still deeper into the intricate gorges of the
sierra. The climate had gradually changed, and the men and
horses, especially the latter, suffered severely from the cold,
so long accustomed as they had been to the sultry climate of the
tropics. *2 The vegetation also had changed its character; and
the magnificent timber which covered the lower level of the
country had gradually given way to the funereal forest of pine,
and, as they rose still higher, to the stunted growth of
numberless Alpine plants, whose hardy natures found a congenial
temperature in the icy atmosphere of the more elevated regions.
These dreary solitudes seemed to be nearly abandoned by the brute
creation as well as by man. The light-footed vicuna, roaming in
its native state, might be sometimes seen looking down from some
airy cliff, where the foot of the hunter dared not venture. But
instead of the feathered tribes whose gay plumage sparkled in the
deep glooms of the tropical forests, the adventurers now beheld
only the great bird of the Andes, the loathsome condor, who,
sailing high above the clouds, followed with doleful cries in the
track of the army, as if guided by instinct in the path of blood
and carnage.
[Footnote 2: "Es tanto el frio que hace en esta Sierra, que como
los Caballos venian hechos al calor, que en los Valles hacia,
algunos de ellos se resfriaron.
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