afterwards employed in an expedition to Nicaragua; and he gives a short account of the manners and customs of the Indians of that province.[1]
In 1522 Andagoya was appointed Inspector-General of the Indians on the isthmus, and for the first time took the chief command of an expedition. On this occasion he explored a province called Birú, south of the isthmus, and between the river Atrato and the Pacific. Here he seems to have obtained authentic accounts of the great empire of the Yncas, which, as he tells us, was erroneously called Peru, owing to a confusion between it and this province of Birú where the first tidings concerning it were received. Birú had, however, been already visited in 1515, by Gaspar de Morales and Francisco Pizarro, during their infamous and devastating raid from Darien to the Pearl Islands.[2] Andagoya returned to Panama full of the wonderful news he had collected, but sick from the effects of a ducking which, as he tells us, was so injurious to his health that he was unable to mount a horse for three years afterwards. He was not made of the stern stuff which went to form a conqueror of Peru, and he was easily persuaded by Pedrarias to hand over the undertaking to the partners Pizarro, Almagro, and Luque. He declares, however, that the discovery of Peru was due to the information collected by himself in Birú, and that Pizarro would have fared better if he had more closely followed his instructions.[3] Meanwhile, Andagoya continued to live at Panama, acting as a sort of agent to
