How Pero López de Ayala discovered the river Soconcho, found a well-peopled region, and returned to where the general Felipe Gutiérrez was, and how they all set out for that region.

BEFORE the death of the captain Diego de Rojas, Pero López de Ayala had started out with a few mounted Spaniards to explore to the eastward; passing without meeting with any resistance over wide arid wastes and dense algarrobo forests, peopled by other Indians, who showed no inclination to attack them. At length they reached the banks of the river called Soconcho,[159] and found large villages on both sides. Reflecting that it would not be prudent to advance farther with so small a force, they returned to report to their leaders. When Felipe Gutiérrez heard what they had seen and discovered, he resolved to move his camp as far as the province of Tesuna, a distance of six leagues. He first sent Francisco de Mendoza to fetch certain Spaniards who had remained in Tucumá. In this service Mendoza heard much yelling and had some skirmishes with the Indians.

When they arrived in that province they found abundance of necessary things. The natives had retired, not daring to offer battle to the Christians. They now knew clearly............