OVALLE*S HISTORICAL RELATION OP CHILE. 



^SS 



fently bought one of the fhips which Balboa had built for that defign ; and having got 

 together threefcore men, and four horfes, (for at that time horfes were a great rarity,) 

 Hernando de Loque faid mafs ; and when he came to confecration, he divided the 

 Hoftia, or facrament of the body of Chrift, into three parts, of which he took one, 

 and gave the other two to his two companions, offering themfelves to God, with inten- 

 tion to propagate among thofe people his glorious name, and plant the Chriftian faith 

 amongfl them by the predication of the Gofpel. Thofe who were prefent flied tears 

 out of devotion, and at the fame time pitied thefe undertakers, looking upon their 

 enterprize as a mad one. 



About the middle of November 1524, Don Francifco Pizarro having left Don Diego 

 Almagro behind him, to get more people together, failed from Panama to the Ifle of 

 Pearls, to the port of Pinnas, (the laft difcovered by Balboa, and after him by Pafqual 

 de Andagoya,) and went up the river of the Cacique Biru, or Biruquete, to the coun- 

 try of Chocama, where he flopped to wait for his companion Almagro. The hard- 

 fhips that the Caftilians endured of hunger and other inconveniences are not eafily to be 

 told : twenty died flarved, and the refl were fick, having no other fuflenance than the 

 bitter Palmetos ; yet Captain Pizarro, without fhewing the leafl weaknefs^ took care of 

 them all with great affedion, which made them all love him. At that time Don Diego 

 d' Almagro, his companion in the undertaking, came to him : he was received like an 

 angel, for the relief he brought : he had loft one of his eyes by the fhot of an arrow, 

 in a rencounter he had with the Indians. They both together purfued their conqueft ; 

 but provifion failing them once more, and their foldiers being almoft naked, and fo per- 

 fecuted with mofquitoes, which are infinite there, that they could not live, they began 

 to talk of returning to Panama, to which Pizarro himfelf was well enough inclined ; but 

 Almagro exhorted them rather to die than lofe patience, offering to return to Panama 

 for new fuccour, while he fhould leave his companion in the ifland of Gallo. 



The effed that this had, was, that he found the government altered in Panama, and 

 Pedrarias fucceeded by Pedro de los Rios, who hearing of the roiferable condition of 

 thofe Caftilians, would not fuffer Almagro to return to them, being defirous they fhould 

 give over the enterprize as impracticable. He fent for this end a gentleman of Cordoua, 

 called Juan Tafur, a man of excellent parts, equal to his noble defcent, with a com- 

 miflion to bring thofe people back, that they might not all pcrifh. He came, and fig- 

 nified his order to Pizarro, at which he was out of all patience, feeing it would be the 

 ruin of his projedt. Tafur feeing this, took a prudent medium, which was, that he 

 fhould draw a line between him and Pizarro, who fhould be at the head of his men : 

 and Tafur told them, that all thofe who refolved to return to Panama, fhould pafs the 

 line, and come on his fide. Having faid this, they began to pafs the line, all to thirteen 

 and a Mulatto, who faid they would die with Pizarro : and fo Tafur returned with all 

 the reft to Panama. 



Captain Francis Pizarro remained with his thirteen companions in an ifland, which, 

 for the greater proof of his courage and conftancy, happened to be the Gorgona, which 

 is a pidure of hell for the clofenefs of its woods, the afperity of its mountains, the 

 infinity of its mofquitoes : the fun is fcarcely ever feen in it for the continual rains 

 that fall. 



When Tafur came to Panama, and his two friends Almagro and Loque found that 

 Pizarro ftaid behind with fo few companions, it is not credible how much afflidion they 

 fhewed : they folicited the prefident, that at leaft another veffel might be fent to bring 

 them away, in cafe they found them alive ; and after many difficulties, at laft a fhip 

 was ordered after them, but upon condition to be back at Panama in fix months : the 



X 2 fliip 



