" Ibid., p. 191.]
At length they reached the crest of the Cordillera, where it
spreads out into a bold and bleak expanse, with scarce the
vestige of vegetation, except what is afforded by the pajonal, a
dried yellow grass, which, as it is seen from below, encircling
the base of the snow-covered peaks, looks, with its brilliant
straw-color lighted up in the rays of an ardent sun, like a
setting of gold round pinnacles of burnished silver. The land
was sterile, as usual in mining districts, and they were drawing
near the once famous gold quarries on the way to Caxamalca;
"Rocks rich in gems, and mountains big with mines,
That on the high equator ridgy rise."
Here Pizarro halted for the coming up of the rear. The air was
sharp and frosty; and the soldiers, spreading their tents,
lighted fires, and, huddling round them, endeavoured to find some
repose after their laborious march. *3
[Footnote 3: "E aposentaronse los Espanoles en sus toldos o
pabellones de algodon de la tierra que llevaban, e haciendo
fuegos para defenderse del mucho frio que en aquella Sierra
hacen, porque sin ellos no se pudieron valer sin padecer mucho
trabajo; y segun a los cristianos les parecio, y aun como era lo
cierto, no podia haber mas frio en parte de Espana en invierno.
Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 4.]
They had not been long in these quarters, when a messenger
arrived, one of those who had accompanied the Indian envoy sent
by Pizarro to Atahuallpa.
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