"
Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 5, cap. 29.]
At length, the harassed followers of Blasco Nunez reached the
depoblado, or desert of Paltos, which stretches towards the north
for many a dreary league. The ground, intersected by numerous
streams, has the character of a great quagmire, and men and
horses floundered about in the stagnant waters, or with
difficulty worked their way over the marsh, or opened a passage
through the tangled underwood that shot up in rank luxuriance
from the surface. The wayworn horses, without food, except such
as they could pick up in the wilderness, were often spent with
travel, and, becoming unserviceable, were left to die on the
road, with their hamstrings cut, that they might be of no use to
the enemy; though more frequently they were despatched to afford
a miserable banquet to their masters. *10 Many of the men now
fainted by the way from mere exhaustion, or loitered in the
woods, unable to keep up with the march. And woe to the straggler
who fell into the hands of Carbajal, at least if he had once
belonged to the party of Pizarro. The mere suspicion of treason
sealed his doom with the unrelenting soldier. *11
[Footnote 10: "I en cansandose el Caballo, le desjarretaba, i le
dexaba, porque sus contrarios no se aprovechasen de el." Ibid.,
loc. cit.]
[Footnote 11: "Had it not been for Gonzalo Pizarro's
interference," says Fernandez, "many more would have been hung up
by his lieutenant, who pleasantly quoted the old Spanish proverb,
- 'The fewer of our enemies the better.
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