"As
there is in Peru a story of some giants who landed on the coast
at the point of Santa Elena, in the vicinity of the city of Puerto
Viejo, I have resolved to mention what I was told about them,
as I understood it, without taking into account the opinions of
the common people and their various anecdotes, for they usually
magnify events larger than life. The natives, repeating a story
received from their forefathers from very remote times, say that
there came from across the sea on reed rafts that were as large
as big ships some men that were so big that an ordinary man of
good size scarcely reached up to their knees: their members were
in proportion to the size of their bodies, and it a monstrous
thing to see their enormous heads and their hair hanging down
about their shoulders. Their eyes were as large as small plates.
They say they had no beards and that some of them were clad in
the skins of animals, and others only in the dress nature gave
them. There were no women with them. On reaching this point, they
set up their camp like a village (and even in these times there
is a memory of the site of their houses). As they found no supply
of water they remedied the lack by making some very deep wells,
a labor certainly worthy of record, being undertaken by such strong
men as these must have been, to judge by their size. They dug
these wells in the living rock until they came to the water, and
afterwards they built the wells in stone from the water line upwards
so that they would last for ages. In these wells the water is
excellent and it is always so cold that it is very pleasant to
drink.
"When
these great men or giants had thus made their settlement and dug
these wells or cisterns, they destroyed and ate all the supplies
they could find in the neighborhood. It is said that one of them
ate more than fifty of the natives of the land; and as the supply
of food was not sufficient for them to maintain themselves, they
caught much fish with nets and gear that they had. They lived
in continuous hostility with the natives, because they slew the
latter's women in order to have them, and they also slew the men
for other reasons. But the Indians were not numerous enough to
kill these newcomers who occupied their land and lorded it over
them; and although they held great discussions about this, they
never dared attack them.
"After
some years the giants were still in this region, and as they had
no women of their own and the Indian women of the neighborhood
were too small for them, or else because the vice was habitual
to them and inspired by the demon, they practised the unspeakable
and horrible sin of sodomy, committing it openly and in public
without fear of God or personal shame. The natives say that our
Lord God, unwilling to conceal so wicked a sin, sent them a punishment
suited to the beastliness of the crime, and when all the giants
were together engaged in this accursed practice there came a fearful
fire from heaven to the accompaniment of a great noise, in the
midst of which a shining angel appeared holding a sharp, bright
sword with which he slew them all at a single stroke, and the
fire consumed them leaving only a few bones and skulls, which
God allowed to remain unconsumed as a token of the punishment.
This is the account they give of the giants, and we believe that
it happened, for it is said that very large bones have been found
and still are found thereabouts and I have heard Spaniards say
they have seen pieces of teeth which they thought must have weighed
half a pound when whole, and who had also seen a piece of a shin-bone
of wonderful size, all of which bears witness to the truth of
the incident. In addition to this one can see the places where
the sites of their villages were, and also the wells or cisterns
they made. I cannot state whence or how these giants came there.
"In
the present year of 1550 when in the city of Lima, I heard that
when his excellency Don Antonio de Mendoza was viceroy and governor
of New Spain, certain bones of men as big as these giants, and
even bigger, were found there. I have heard too that in an ancient
sepulcher in the city of Mexico or somewhere else in that kingdom
certain bones of giants have been found. Since so many people
saw them and attest having done so, it can therefore be credited
that such giants did exist and indeed they may all have been of
the same race.
"At
this point of Santa Elena, which is as I have said on the coast
of Peru and in the district of the city of Puerto Viejo, there
is a remarkable phenomenon: the existence of certain wells or
seams of pitch of such excellent quality that it would be possible
to tar all the ships one wished with it, since it flows from the
earth. This pitch must be from some seam passing through that
place: it comes out very hot,etc.
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