iards was directed to the countries south of the Isthmus.[1]
Prescott says, in his "Conquest of Peru," that Balboa learned in this way of the riches of that kingdom. His authorities are Herrera, who says: "And this was the second report which Vasco Nunez received of the condition and wealth of Peru;"[2] and the later Quintana. Pascual de Andagoya, who went in 1522 as far as Punta de Pinas, on the western coast of New Granada, says: "He had received there exact accounts through traders and chiefs concerning the whole coast to Cuzeo."[3] Still, it may be doubtful whether this notice does not refer to the civilized tribes of central New Granada, who carried their salt over the beaten mountain paths to the cannibal inhabitants of the Cauca Valley and received gold in exchange for it. Without forgetting that the llama was never used as a beast of burden in New Granada, the supposition that accounts of Peru had reached the Isthmus, notwithstanding the great distance, involves nothing impossible. Prod-
- ↑ The discovery of Mexico by Córdova and its conquest afterward by Cortés affected the Spanish colonies south of the Isthmus very little. The influence of the colonization of the Mexican table-land extended no farther than to Yucatan, Guatemala, and a part of Honduras. The booty which the Spaniards gained there, partly in gold, was not great. The presents which the chiefs at Tenochtitlan sent to the seacoast to Cortés were lost at sea, and all the treasures which the Mexicans had accumulated in their great "pueblo" in the lagoon were ruined by the inundation during the retreat of July 1, 1519, or were burned during the subsequent attack.
- ↑ Decada i., p. 267.
- ↑ "Relation de los sucesos de Pedrarias Davila," etc.
