WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 413 



the truth, as in all else, for I was one of the 30 soldiers chosen to 

 go with Capt. Sancho Pizarro under the Governor's commission. 

 Accordingly, having left the river and the place where the General 

 had pitched camp, we came upon some very broad and excellent roads 

 which were like those of the Incas in Peru, except for the side walls ; 

 we took the road most traveled and after having gone 4 leagues on it 

 we struck a tambo or tavern like those of the Incas ; in it we found 

 two Indian women preparing cassava bread and other dishes, and 

 service Indians for the travelers coming from the Machifaro provinces 

 and others adjoining inland, to trade with those of other tribes. The 

 road went straight ahead, entering one gate of the tambo and going 

 out of the other; the whole neighborhood was thickly settled with 

 Indians. We took the Indian women and went ahead, following this 

 road over 30 leagues ; every 3 leagues we found tambos of the same 

 style as the first, and around each of these tambos were fields of 

 corn and yucca, and other root and field crops for the meals and 

 provisioning of the traders and travelers who came and went from 

 the inland provinces to trade with the natives of the Machifaro 

 provinces and others adjoining ; the barter medium was pottery and 

 fish, which was excellent in Machifaro Province, in exchange for 

 gold leaf and spirals and other native valuables, according to what 

 the Indian women gave us to understand. Proceeding farther inland 

 we kept finding rivers and watercourses of very cold and excellent 

 water, and many stones in them ; and by the indications we saw and 

 the data the Indian women gave us, we were given to understand that 

 we were about to come upon the largest settlements that I understand 

 Christians had ever discovered ; the one of the Indian women who 

 seemed the more intelligent took a handful of sand and gave us to 

 understand that just as it was impossible to count the grains and the 

 dust it contained, so it was with the great settlements there were 

 inland, and that if we went there we could not escape from their 

 hands since there were so many of them, and that the country was 

 very prosperous and rich, and had much of that metal which she had, 

 which was a piece of gold jewelry. 



1206. Capt. Sancho Pizarro and all of us were much pleased with 

 our discoveries and such excellent indications of finding the richest 

 and most populous country in the world ; but he did not dare go 

 farther ahead inland, for we were only 30 soldiers and we might 

 get into settlements such that we could not escape from them, not 

 even one to bear the news ; besides, he had no commission for so long 

 a time, and we were not well provided with sandals ; and so we 

 turned about to return with our captain at the end of the 30 days 



