tch
and tar. It is said that there is a fountain in Chili which converts wood
into stone. In the haven of Truxillo, there is a lake of fresh water, the
bottom of which is good hard salt; and in the Andes, beyond Xauxa, there
is a fresh water river which flows over a bottom of white salt. It is also
affirmed that there formerly dwelt giants in Peru, of whom statues were
found at Porto Vejo; and that their jaw bones were found in the haven of
Truxillo, having teeth three or four fingers long.

In the year 1540, the viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoca, sent Ferdinando
Alorchon with two ships, to explore the bottom of the gulph of California,
and divers other countries. In the same year, Gonsalvo Pizarro went from
Quito to discover the _Cinnamon_ country, of which there ran a great fame
in Peru. Taking with him a force of 200 Spaniards, partly horse and part
foot, with 300 Indians to carry the baggage, he marched to _Guixos_, the
most distant place or frontier of the empire of the Incas; in which place
there happened a great earthquake, accompanied with much rain and dreadful
lightning, by which seventy houses were swallowed up. From that place they
passed over a chain of cold and snowy mountains, where they found many
Indians frozen to death, and they wondered much at finding so much snow
immediately under the equinoctial line. From thence they proceeded to a
province called _Cumaco_, where they were detained two months on account
of constant rain; and beyond this, they came to the cinnamon trees, which
are of great size, with leaves resembling those of the bay tree. The
leaves, branches, roots, and every part of this tree, tasted like cinnamon,
but this taste and flavour was particularly strong in the root; yet that
was still stronger in certain knobs, like _alcornoques_, or acorns, which
were good merchandize. This appears to have been of the same nature with
wild cinnamon, of which there is great abundance in the East Indies,
particularly in the island of _Jaoa_, or Java. From this cinnamon country,
they proceeded onwards to the province and city of Coca, where they halted
for fifty days; after which they travelled for sixty leagues along a river,
without being able to find any bridge or ford at which they could pass
over. In one place they found this river to form a cataract of 200 fathoms
in perpendicular fall, making such a noise as was almost sufficient to
deafen any person who stood near. Not far beyond this fall, the ri