which I had subdued, where he began to provision his ship. He was in an open road on this coast, with very lofty mountains rising up close to the sea, so that there was no land breeze to take the ship off the coast. The wind was continually from the west, and they were nearly four years in reaching the island of Gallo on that coast, where more than four hundred men died on the beach. Pedrarias and Almagro sent such reinforcements as they could collect from Panama.[1]
This province of Birú is bordered, on the upper coast, by the territory of two chiefs who had come as conquerors from the neighbourhood of Darien, and subdued the land. They are Caribs, and use arrows poisoned with a very evil plant. They are named Capucigra and Tamasagra, and are rich in gold. The people of Birú, as a defence against their arrows, make shields through which no arrow can pass; but nevertheless, as their dreaded enemies eat human flesh, those of Birú fear them infinitely.
Though it appeared from my report that these chiefs were rich, I nevertheless advised that Pizarro should not touch there, lest he should be lost, but that he should sail on from Panama on the high sea. But he went to Birú, where the Indians came down to the coast in an orderly way, wishing to treat for peace. Certain Indians, also, came to the Spanish camp, saying, that if the Spaniards wanted to trade, they were ready. Thus they began to ask for things of little value from the Spaniards, offering much in return. Pizarro, not knowing how best to deal with them, ordered that no one should traffic with them on pain of severe punishment. When the Indians saw that the Spaniards were not traders, they took up their arms and retired into their village. Pizarro marched to it, and found
- ↑ Pizarro sailed in the middle of November 1524. As many as twenty-seven Spaniards died at Puerto de la Hambre, in Andagoya's land of Birú, and, as Andagoya says, the fourth year had commenced before Pizarro discovered Peru. He returned to Panama in 1528.
