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Prescott, William Hickling, 1796-1859

"History of the Conquest of Peru; with a preliminary view of the civilization of the Incas"

" Carta,
Ms.]
[Footnote 5: "Todos los arroyos tienen puentes de piedra o de
madera: en un rio grande, que era muy caudaloso e muy grande, que
pasamos dos veces, hallamos puentes de red, que es cosa
maravillosa de ver; pasamos por ellas los caballos; tienen en
cada pasaje dos puentes, la una por donde pasa la gente comun, la
otra por donde pasa el senor de la tierra o sus capitanes: esta
tienen siempre cerrada e indios que la guardan; estos indios
cobran portazgo de los que pasan." Carta de Hern. Pizarro, Ms. -
Also Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms.]
The Spaniards were amazed by the number as well as magnitude of
the flocks of llamas which they saw browsing on the stunted
herbage that grows in the elevated regions of the Andes. Some
times they were gathered in inclosures, but more usually were
roaming at large under the conduct of their Indian shepherds; and
the Conquerors now learned, for the first time, that these
animals were tended with as much care, and their migrations as
nicely regulated, as those of the vast flocks of merinos in their
own country. *6
[Footnote 6: A comical blunder has been made by the printer, in
M. Ter naux-Compans's excellent translation of Xerez, in the
account of this expedition. "On trouve sur toute la route
beaucoup de porcs, de lamas." (Relation de la Conquete du Perou,
p. 157.) The substitution of porcs for parcs might well lead the
reader into the error of supposing that swine existed in Peru
before the Conquest.


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