CHAP. xrii. GONZALO PIZARRO CROSSES THE ANDES. 239 



mosses^ growing luxuriantly, thickly caked and interlaced upon 

 the rotten bark. In the clearing around the edifice little birds 

 hopped about fearlessly, and at night clouds of moths ^ sailed 

 into the tent, attracted by the lights. 



The valley in which La Dormida is situated forms the 

 southern boundary of Cayambe ; and at its head, two or three 

 miles more to the east, there is the divide or water-parting of 

 the streams flowing into the Pacific and Atlantic. The Avhole 

 of the drainage of the eastern side of Cayambe goes into the 

 Atlantic. Most of the streams flowing down its southern slopes, 

 and all of those upon its west, fall into the Pacific. 



Somewhere not far away, perhaps over this very ground, 

 Gonzalo Pizarro, ^ the most dexterous with the lance of any man 

 that ever passed into the New World, ^ ' the most beloved man 

 in all Peru,^ crossed the Andes in 1540 (it is said) with 340 

 Spaniards, 4000 Indians, and about 4000 Swine, to look for 

 ' the Land of Cinnamon ' ; on the memorable expedition which 

 resulted in the discovery of the River Amazons by his lieutenant 

 Orellana, and in the death of the greater part of the explorers.'' 



The exact route taken by Gonzalo Pizarro cannot I think 

 be told with certainty from the relation of Garcilasso de la 

 Vega.* It is, however, certain that he crossed and recrossed the 



1 Thuidium delicatulum, Lindb, ; Sematopkyllum subscabrum, Mitt. ; S. pungens, 

 Mitt. ; J)idymodon, near acutifoUus, Jaeg. ; Fbrotrichum variabile, Hampe ; Neckera 

 Jamesoni, Tayl. ; Lejeunia sp. ; Aneura sp, ; and Dicranum speciosum, Hook, ct 

 Wils. 



^ Eariraene excelsa, var. (very numerous) ; Halsidota suffusa, H.S. ; Agrotis sp. ; 

 Epiolus sordUus, H.S. ; and others. 



3 See The Royal Commentaries of Peru, by Garcilasso de la Vega (translated by 

 Sir Paul Rycaut), fol., Lond., 1688, pp. 601-7, 631-3. 



^ It is said that ujjon starting Pizarro went through ' the Province of Quixos, 

 which lies North from Q%iitu ' ; that he returned to the north of his outward 

 route ; and that when he re-arrived in the interior some of the inhabitants of 

 Quito went thirty leagues to succour him. Little dependence, I imagine, can be 

 placed upon the figures. Inasmuch as the trail through Papallacta is the only 

 known way across the Eastern Andes, at the present time, in the neighbourhood 



