The first province to the westward of Acla is Comogre,[1] where the country begins to be flat and open. From this
- ↑ "Forty leagues down the coast, from the city of Darien, and twelve leagues inland, there is a cacique named Comogre, and another named Pocorosa, who are at equal distances from the sea. They have many wars with each other. They each have a town inland, and another on the sea coast, by which the interior is supplied with fish. The Indians assured me that there were very rich rivers of gold near the houses of these caciques. At the distance of a day's journey from the cacique Pocorosa's house there are the most beautiful mountains. They are clear of forest, except some groves of trees along the banks of the streams. In these mountains there are certain caciques who have great quantities of gold in their houses. It is said that these caciques store their gold in barbacoas, like maize, because it is so abundant that they do not care to keep it in baskets. Their method of collecting the gold is by going into the water and gathering it in their baskets. They also scrape it up in the beds of streams when they are dry: and that your Royal Highness may be more completely informed concerning these parts, I send an
Spaniards. He was received in a friendly manner, and was given many valuable pearls. On his return he murdered the Indians, stole their women, and caused twenty chiefs to be torn to pieces by his dogs. Vasco Nuñez says:—"He committed greater cruelties than have ever been heard of among Arabs, Christians, or any other people. He killed a hundred women and young lads, and all this, most puissant Lord, has passed without any punishment. On the island he burnt the houses and the stores of corn, but, nevertheless, the cacique gave him 15 or 16 marcs of pearls, and 4,000 pesos de oro. He afterwards seized many Indian men and women on this rich island, and sold them as slaves at Darien, without any conscience." He adds that "Morales brought a pearl from the rich island which weighed ten tomines, very perfect and without a flaw, and of so beautiful a lustre and shape as to be fit for the King's use." Navarrete Coll., p. 379. Morales seems to have been hard pressed during his retreat, by the outraged Indians, whose women and children he was taking away, to sell at Darien. He murdered these captives one by one, and left their bodies in the road, in the hope of thus checking the pursuit of the Indians.
Francisco Pizarro served as second in command, in this infamous expedition of Morales. The invaders entered the territory of the Cacique Biru, whose name supplied the Spaniards with an erroneous designation for the great Empire of the Yncas. It was here, possibly, that Pizarro first heard faint rumours respecting the scene of his future conquest, and here Andagoya afterwards collected fuller information on the same subject.
