The homeward march, like the outward one, took more than a year, and it
was in June, 1542, that the survivors trod again the high plains of Quito.
They were a very different looking party from the well-equipped and
hope-inspired troop of cavaliers and men-at-arms who had left that upland
city nearly two and a half years before. Their horses were gone, their
bright arms were rusted and broken, their clothing was replaced by the
skins of wild beasts, their hair hung long and matted down their
shoulders, their faces were blackened by the tropical sun, their bodies
were wasted and scarred. A gallant troop they had set out; a body of
meagre phantoms they returned. Of the four thousand Indians taken, less
than half had survived. Of the Spaniards only eighty came back, and these
so worn and broken that many of them never fully recovered from their
sufferings. Thus in suffering and woe ended the famous expedition to the
Land of Cinnamon.
CORONADO AND THE SEVEN CITIES OF CIBOLA.
The remarkable success of Cortez and Pizarro in Mexico and Peru went far
to convince the Spaniards that in America they had found a veritable land
of magic, filled with wonders and supremely rich in gold and gems.
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