Note 12 — Chapter XII · THE VALLEY OF THE MAGDALENA

Finally, after the most heroic efforts, they came to a place where they found provisions—a veritable land of promise for the suffering but intrepid Spaniards. They had left behind them the inhospitable sierras of the Opon, and were on the verge of the fertile plateau of Cundinamarca, that constituted the home of the Muiscas. Here they found maize, potatoes,12 yucas, beans, tomatoes and, as Padre Simon phrases it, “a thousand other chucherias—titbits—of the aborigines.” Well could they, in the language of Castellanos, exclaim, with thanksgiving: