INTENSE COLD ON THE PUNAS. I3o 



perished and died, and sometimes have scaped by great Llr&amp;gt; - ut - 

 happe, whereof some have remained lame. There runs a 

 small breath, which is not very strong nor violent, but 

 proceedes in such sorte that men fall downe dead in a 

 manner without feeling, or, at the least, they loose their 

 feete and handes ; the which may seeme fabulous, yet is it 

 most true. 



I knew and was long intimate with General Geronimo Cos- 

 tillas, 1 one of the first settlers in Cusco, who had lost three 

 or foure toes, which fell off in passing the desart of Chile, 

 being perished with this aire, and when he came to look on 

 them they were dead, and fell off without any paine, even 

 as a rotten apple falleth from the tree. This Captaine re 

 ported, that of a good army which hee had conducted by 

 that place in the former yeeres, since the discoverie of this 

 kingdome by Almagro, a great part of the men remained 

 dead there, whose bodies he found lying in the desart with 

 out any stink or corruption; adding therevuto one thing 

 very strange, that they found a yong boy alive, and being 

 examined how hee had lived in that place, hee saide that 

 hee laie hidden in a little cave, whence hee came to cutte 

 the flesh of a dead horse with a little knife, and thus had 

 he nourished himselfe a long time, with I know not how 

 many companions that lived in that sort, but now they were 

 all dead, one dying this day, and another to morrow, saying 

 that hee desired nothing more then to die there with the 

 rest, seeing that he found not in himselfe any disposition 

 to goe to any other place, nor to take any taste in any 

 thing. I have vnderstoode the like of others, and parti 

 cularly of one that was of our company, who being then a 

 secular man, had passed by these desarts ; and it is a 



1 Geronimo Costillas was a native of Zamora, of good family. He 

 accompanied Almagro s expedition to Chile ; and was afterwards actively 

 engaged in the campaign against Giron. See G. de la Vega, ii, p. 243 

 and note. 



