which he was to leave
already well established, and in order to await the reply of the
Christians whom he had sent to the coast in order to examine the ports
and set up crosses in them in case some one should come to reconnoitre
the land.

CHAPTER VI

Description of the bridges which the natives are wont to make in
order to cross the rivers; and of the toilsome journey which the
Spaniards had, in going to Cuzco, and of the arrival at Panarai and
Tarcos.

This captain departed with those who were to follow him on Thursday, and
the Governor with the rest of the troops, and Chilichuchima with his
guard left the following Monday. In the morning they were all ready with
their arms and other necessary things; the journey they were to make
being long, they were to leave all the baggage in Xauxa, it not being
convenient to carry it with them on that journey. The Governor journeyed
two days down the valley along the bank of the Xauxa River, which was
very delectable and peopled in many places, and on the third day he
arrived at a bridge of net-work which is over the said river and which
the Indian soldiers had burned after they crossed over, but already the
captain who had gone ahead had made the natives rebuild it. And in the
places where they build these bridges of net-work, where the rivers are
swollen, this inland country far from the sea being densely populated,
and because almost none of the Indians knows how to swim, because of
which even though the rivers are small and might be forded, they
nevertheless throw out these bridges, and after this fashion; If the two
banks of the river are stony, they raise upon them large walls of stone,
and then they place four [ropes of] pliable reeds two palms or a little
less in thickness, and between them, after the fashion of wattle-work,
they weave green osiers two fingers thick and well intertwined, in such
a way that some are not left more slack than others, and all are well
tied. And upon these they place branches crosswise in such a way that
the water is not seen, and in this way they make the floor of the
bridge. And in the same manner they weave a balustrade of these same
osiers along the side of the bridge so that no one may fall into the
water, of which, in truth, there is no danger, although to one who is
not used to it, the matter of crossing appears a thing of danger
because, the span being long, the bridge bends when one goes over it, so
that o