ne goes continually downward until the middle is reached, and from
there he keeps going up until he has finished crossing to the other
bank, and when the bridge is being crossed, it trembles very much, so
that it goes to the head of him who is not accustomed to it. Ordinarily
they make two bridges close together, so that, as they say, the lords
may cross by one and the common people by another. They keep guards over
them, and the lords of all the land keep them there continuously in
order that if someone should steal gold or silver or anything else from
him or from some other lord of the land, he would not be able to cross.
And those who guard these bridges have their houses nearby, and they
always have in their hands osiers and wattles and cords in order to mend
the bridges if they are injured or even to rebuild them if need were.
The guards who were in charge of this bridge when the Indians who burned
it passed over, hid the materials which they had for mending it, for
otherwise the Indians would have burned them also, and for this reason
they rebuilt it in so short a space of time in order that the Spaniards
might cross over. The Spanish cavalry and the Governor crossed by one of
these bridges, although, on account of its being new and not well made,
they had much trouble because the captain who had gone ahead with
seventy cavalrymen had made many holes in it so that it was half
destroyed. Still, the horses got over without endangering themselves,
although nearly all stumbled because the bridge moved and trembled so,
but, as I have said, the bridge was made in such a way that even though
they were thrown upon their knees, they could not fall into the water.
As soon as all were over, the Governor encamped in some groves near
which ran some streams of beautiful clear water. Later they proceeded
on their journey two leagues along the shore of that river through a
narrow valley on both sides of which were very high mountains, and in
some places, this valley through which the river passes has so little
space that there is not more than a stone's throw from the foot of the
mountain to the river, and in other places, because of the slope of the
mountain, there is but little more. Two leagues of this valley having
been travelled, they came to another bridge, a small one over another
river, over which the troops passed on foot while the horses forded, as
much on account of the bridge being in bad order as on account of the
fact