Some authors hare believed this recital to be merely allegorical, while most of the commentators on Plato considered it as a real historical narrative. The nine thousand years, mentioned by Plato, must not be considered as an indication of this discourse being fabulous; since, according to Eudoxus, we must understand them as lunar years or moons, after the Egyptian mode of computation, or nine thousand months, which are seven hundred and fifty years. All historians and cosmographers, ancient as well as modern, have concurred to name the sea by which that great island was swallowed up, the Atlantic Ocean, in which the name of that ancient island is retained, giving a strong evidence of its former existence. Adopting, therefore the truth of this historical fact, it must be granted that this island of Atlantis, beginning from the Straits of Gibraltar near Cadiz, must have stretched a vast way from north to south, and from east to west, since it was larger than all Asia and Africa. The other islands in the neighbourhood must have been those now named Hispaniola, Cuba, Porto Rico, Jamaica, and others of the West Indies; and the Firm Land, that part of the Continent to which we still give the name of Tierra Firma, together with the other countries and provinces of America, from the Straits of Magellan in the south to the extreme north; as Peru, Popayan, Golden Castille, Veragua, Nicaragua, Guatimala, New Spain, the Seven Cities, Florida, Baccalaos, and so on along the north to Norway. The authority of Plato is conclusive that the New World which has been discovered in our time, is the same Continent or Firm Land mentioned by that philosopher; and his True Sea must be that which we name the South Sea, or Pacific Ocean; for the whole Mediterranean, and all that was before known of the Ocean, which we call the North Sea, can only be considered as rivers or lakes in comparison with the vast extent of that other sea. After these explanations, it is not difficult to conceive how mankind in ancient times may have passed from the great island of Atlantis and the other neighbouring isles, to what we now call the Tierra Firma, or Firm Land, and thence by land, or by the South Sea, into Peru: As we must believe that the inhabitants of these islands practised navigation, which they must have learned by intercourse with the great island, in which Plato expressly says there were many ships, and carefully constructed harbours. These, in my opinion, are the most probable conjectures which can be formed on this obscure subject of antiquity; more especially as we can derive no lights from the Peruvians, who have no writing by which to preserve the memory of ancient times. In New Spain, indeed, they had certain pictures, which answered in some measure instead of books and writings; but in Peru, they only used certain strings of different colours with several knots, by means of which and the distances between them, they were able to express some things in a very confused and uncertain manner, as shall be explained in the course of this history.
So much of the following history as relates to the discovery of the country, has been derived from the information of Rodrigo Lozan, an inhabitant of Truxillo in Peru, and from others who were witnesses of and actors in the transactions which I have detailed.
SECTION I.
Of the discovery of Peru, with some account of the country and its inhabitants.
The city of Panama is a port on the South Sea, in that province of the continent of America which is called Golden Castille. In the year 1524, three inhabitants of that city entered into an association for the purpose of discovering the western coast of the continent by the South Sea, in that direction which has been since named Peru. These were Don Francisco Pizarro of Truxillo, Don Diego de Almagro of Malagon, and Hernando de Luque, an ecclesiastic. No one knew the family or origin of Almagro, though some said that he had been found at a church door[1]. These men, being among the richest of the colonists of Panama, proposed to themselves to enrich and aggrandize themselves by means of discovering new countries, and to do important service to the emperor, Don Carlos V. by extending his dominions. Having received permission from Pedro Arias de Avila[2], who then governed that country, Francisco Pizarro fitted out a vessel with considerable difficulty, in which he embarked with 114 men. About fifty leagues from Panama, he discovered a small and poor district, named Peru, from which that name has been since improperly extended to all the country afterwards discovered along that coast to the south for more than 1200 leagues. Beyond that Peru, he discovered another district, to which the Spaniards gave the name of El Pueblo quemado, or the Burnt People. The Indians of that country made war upon him with so much obstinacy, and killed so many of his men, that he was constrained to retreat to Chinchama or Chuchama, not far from Panama.
[1] In a note of the French edition of 1742, it is said that, in the folio edition of Zarate printed at Seville in 1677, Luque was called the father of Almagro, and that no mention is made of that ecclesiastic having taken any part in the expedition. Robertson, in his History of America, II. 273, says that Pizarro was the natural son of a gentleman of honourable family by a low woman, and that his education was so entirely neglected that he could neither read nor write. He adds that, after serving some years in Italy, he embarked for America, where he greatly distinguished himself. In our last chapter, Diaz makes frequent mention of Pizarro as serving with reputation under Cortes, in the early part of the expedition to Mexico; but gives no account of his quitting the service of Cortes; to whom he was probably somehow related, as the mother of Cortes was named Catalina Pizarro Altamirano. Almagro, according to Robertson, was a foundling, and bred like Pizarro in the army. Luque acted as priest and schoolmaster at Panama, and had amassed considerable riches.--E.
[2] Named Pedrarias by Robertson.--E.
In the mean time, Almagro fitted out another vessel at Panama, in which he embarked with 70 men, and went along the coast in search of Pizarro as far as the river San Juan, a hundred leagues from Panama. Not finding him there, Almagro returned along the coast to the Pueblo quemado, where, from certain indications of Pizarro having been there, he landed with his men. The Indians, puffed up with the remembrance of the victory they had gained over Pizarro, attacked Almagro with great courage, and did him considerable injury; and one day they even penetrated the entrenchment he had thrown up for defence, through some negligence in the guards, and put the Spaniards to flight, who were forced to retreat with loss to their vessel and put to sea, on which occasion Almagro lost an eye. Following the shore on the way back towards Panama, Almagro found Pizarro at Chinchama[3]. Pizarro was much pleased by the junction of Almagro, as by means of his men, and some additional soldiers they procured in Chinchama, they had now a force of two hundred Spaniards. They accordingly recommenced the expedition, endeavouring to sail down the coast to the southwards in two vessels and three large canoes. In this navigation they suffered great fatigue from contrary winds and currents, and were much incommoded when they attempted to land in any of the numerous small rivers which fall into the South Sea, as they all swarmed at their mouths with large lizards, or alligators, called caymans by the natives. These animals, are ordinarily from twenty to twenty-five feet long, and kill either men or beasts when in the water. They come out of the water to lay their eggs, which they bury in great numbers in the sand, leaving them to be hatched by the heat of the sun. These caymans have a strong resemblance to the crocodiles of the river Nile. The Spaniards suffered much from hunger in this voyage, as they could find nothing fit to eat along this coast except the fruit of a tree called mangles, which grew in great abundance everywhere along the shore. These trees are tall and straight, and have a very hard wood; but as they grow on the shore, their roots being drenched in sea water, their fruit is salt and bitter; yet necessity obliged the Spaniards to subsist on them, along with such fish as they could find, particularly crabs; as on the whole of that coast no maize was grown by the natives. From the currents along this coast, which always set strongly to the north, they were obliged to make their way by dint of constant rowing; always harassed by the Indians, who assailed them with loud cries, calling them banished men, and hairy faces, who were formed from the spray of the sea, and wandered about without cultivating the earth, like outcasts and vagabonds.
[3] Chinchama, by the map in Zarate is that part of the western coast of Tierra Firma or Darien, opposite the Isla del Rey. The poor province of Peru, beyond or to the southwards of Cinchama, is that now called Biruquete; and the Pueblo quemada, or Burnt People, must be looked for in the province of Novita, perhaps Nounamas, immediately to the south of which is the river of St Juan.--E.
Having lost several of his men through famine and by the incessant attacks of the Indians, it was agreed that Almagro should return to Panama for recruits and provisions. Having procured twenty-four, they advanced with these and the remains of their original force to a country named Catamez[4], considerably beyond the river of St Juan, a tolerably peopled country, in which they found plenty of provisions. The Indians of this part of the coast, who were still hostile, were observed to have certain ornaments of gold, resembling nails, inserted into holes made for that purpose in different parts of their faces. Almagro was sent back a second time to Panama, to endeavour to procure a larger force, and Pizarro retired in the mean time to the small island of Gallo somewhat farther to the north, near the shore of the Barbacoas, and not far from Cape Mangles, where he and his people suffered extreme hardships from scarcity of provisions, amounting almost to absolute famine.