saw a comet dart from the east side
of the city towards the mountains of the _Antis_, so great and clear
that it enlightened all places round with more splendor than a full moon
at midnight. Its motion was directly downwards, its form was globular,
and its dimensions as big as a large tower; and coming near the ground,
it divided into several sparks and streams of fire; and was accompanied
with a thunder so loud and near as struck many deaf with the clap, and
ran from east to west; which when the Indians heard and saw, they all
cried out with one voice, _Auca, Auca, Auca_, which signifies in their
language, _tyrant, traitor, rebel_[44], and every thing that may be
attributed to a violent and bloody traitor. This happened on the
nineteenth of June 1553, when the feast of our Lord was celebrated; and
this prognostication which the Indians made, was accomplished on the
13th of November in the same year, when Francisco Hernandez Giron began
a rebellion, which we shall now relate[45]."

[Footnote 44: In the language of Chili at least, _Auca_ signifies
_free_, or a _freeman_; it is possible however that in an absolute
government, the same term may signify a rebel, yet it is a singular
stretch of interpretation to make it likewise signify a tyrant.--E.]

[Footnote 45: This paragraph, within inverted commas, is given as a
short specimen of the taste of Garcilasso, and the respectable talents
of his translator, Sir Paul Rycant, in 1688. It gives an account of one
of these singular meteors or fire balls, improperly termed a comet in
the text, which some modern philosophers are pleased to derive from the
moon, and to suppose that they are composed of ignited masses of iron
alloyed with nickel. It were an affront to our readers to comment on the
ridiculous pretended prognostication so gravely believed by Garcilasso
Inca.--E.]

SECTION IV.

_Continuation of the Troubles in Peru, to the Viceroyalty of the Marquis
de Cannete._

On the 13th of November 1553, a splendid wedding was celebrated at
Cuzco, between Alonzo de Loyasa, one of the richest inhabitants of the
city, and Donna Maria de Castilla, at which all the citizens and their
wives attended in their best apparel. After dinner an entertainment was
made in the street, in which horsemen threw balls of clay at each other,
which I saw from the top of a wall opposite the house of Alonzo de
Loyasa; and I remember to have seen Francisco Hernandez Giron sitting on
a chair in