Now let the reader please observe what a deal there is for us to understand in the affairs of Peru. A very particular friend of mine has told me that I ought to give information respecting the great rivers Uriaparia and Marañón, and this one of La Plata. I answered him that if it should please God to give me grace to get through with the itinerary of my journeys I would write a special book for him on those subjects; but that at present I am concerned with the true account of men who in those days were engaged in discoveries, and must therefore leave the reader to find in that one what is here wanting. For the purpose of pursuing this, our work, there is no need to state more than that the Spaniards who accompanied Mendoza had but recently come from Spain, and did not understand the ways of the New World, nor what men have to surmount there; so that many of them died. The survivors, after their Governor's death, were gentlemen and men of honour, for death takes more quickly those of low degree than the noble; and these pushed on inland from the east side, traversing many regions and great provinces, until at last they came out very near to the town of Plata, as we will relate farther on. As the ships that had landed them on the coast left some of the fowls I have mentioned, our two explorers were able to procure some, and the natives, finding that they were profitable, and dainty eating, bred so many that they became distributed and increased far and wide, and thus it was that Diego de Rojas came to hear about them. As these Indians were such romancers, they exaggerated the reports of that country, saying that the Christians who went there were very fortunate, and that the land was very rich in gold and silver of its own production. The Spaniards, hearing these things, besought Diego de Rojas to leave the eastern[151] road, which led towards the river Arauco, and to make for the part mentioned by the Indians, so that in a short time they might perchance find themselves in a country where all would become rich. Diego de Rojas, eager for discovery, was overjoyed on hearing the words of those who wanted to go that way, and decided to do so.
[150] Now _Chicuana_. But the modern place is far from the old site.