Of the wells which there are at the point of Santa Elena; of the story they tell respecting the arrival of giants in those parts; and of the tar which is found there.

AS, at the beginning of this work, I gave a detailed account of all the ports on the coast of Peru, from Panama to the confines of Chile, which is a great length of coast, it does not appear necessary to repeat them here, and for this reason I shall not treat of them. I have also described the principal places in this province. There are, however, reports concerning giants in Peru, who landed on the coast at the point of Santa Elena, within the jurisdiction of this city of Puerto Viejo, which require notice. I will relate what I have been told, without paying attention to the various versions of the story current among the vulgar, who always exaggerate everything. The natives relate the following tradition, which had been received from their ancestors from very remote times. There arrived on the coast, in boats made of reeds, as big as large ships, a party of men of such size that, from the knee downwards, their height was as great as the entire height of an ordinary man, though he might be of good stature. Their limbs were all in proportion to the deformed size of their bodies, and it was a monstrous thing to see their heads, with hair reaching to the shoulders. Their eyes were as large as small plates. They had no beards, and were dressed in the skins of animals, others only in the dress which nature gave them, and they had no women with them. When they arrived at this point, they made a sort of village, and even now the sites of their houses are pointed out. But as they found no water, in order to remedy the want, they made some very deep wells, works which are truly worthy of remembrance; for such are their magnitude, that they certainly must have been executed by very strong men. They dug these wells in the living rock until they met with water, and then they lined them with masonry from top to bottom in such sort that they will endure for many ages. The water in these wells is very good and wholesome, and always so cold that it is very pleasant to drink it. Having built their village, and made their wells or cisterns where they could drink, these great men, or giants, consumed all the provisions they could lay their hands upon in the surrounding country; insomuch that one of them ate more meat than fifty of the natives of the country could. As all the food they could find was not sufficient to sustain them, they killed many fish in the sea with nets and other gear. They were detested by the natives, because in using their women they killed them, and the men also in another way. But the Indians were not sufficiently numerous to destroy this new people who had come to occupy their lands. They made great leagues against them, but met with no success. [The next sentence is unfit for translation.] All the natives declare that God our Lord brought upon them a punishment in proportion to the enormity of their offence. While they were all together, engaged in their accursed ... a fearful and terrible fire came down from heaven with a great noise, out of the midst of which there issued a shining angel with a glittering sword, with which, at one blow, they were all killed, and the fire consumed them. There only remained a few bones and skulls, which God allowed to remain without being consumed by the fire, as a memorial of this punishment. This is what they say concerning these giants, and we believe the account because in this neighbourhood they have found, and still find, enormous bones. I have heard from Spaniards who have seen part of a double tooth, that they judged the whole tooth would have weighed more than half a butcher’s pound. They also had seen another piece of a shin bone, and it was marvellous to relate how large it was. These men are witnesses to the story, and the site of the village may be seen, as well as the wells and cisterns made by the giants. I am unable to say from what direction they came, because I do not know.[305]

In this year 1550, I, being in the City of the Kings, heard that, when the most illustrious Don Antonio de Mendoza was viceroy and governor of New Spain, they found certain bones of men who must have been even larger than these giants. I have also heard that previously they discovered, in a most ancient tomb in the city of Mexico, or in some other part of that kingdom, certain bones of giants. From all this we may gather that, as so many persons saw and affirmed these things, these giants really did exist.

At the point of Santa Elena (which, as I have before said, is on the coast of Peru within the jurisdiction of the city of Puerto Viejo) there is a thing well worthy of note, and this is that there are certain wells, or mines, of such excellent tar, that as many ships as require caulking might be caulked with it. This tar must be some mineral which flows out at this place, and it comes forth very hot. I have not seen any other mines of tar in any of the other parts of the Indies which I have visited; but I believe that Gonzalo Hernandez de Oviedo, in the first part of the general history of the Indies, gives an account both of this and of others. Nevertheless, as I am not writing concerning the Indies generally, but only of the events which have taken place in Peru, I do not treat of other parts. With this I shall conclude what I have to say concerning the city and province of Puerto Viejo.