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Re: Llamas




Poster: Neil Maclay <nmaclay@psi.prc.com>

Lord Efenwealt Wystle asks:
>Did any period explorers make it to the Andes? or 
>did any Atlantic Coastal Native tribes keep Llamas?

I would suggest that Lord Efen read one of the histories
of the conquest of Peru. Prescotts history is still a classic
but some of the later authors were able to access some 
contemporary documentation that was not available to
Prescott in the early 19th century.

No, the Atlantic Coastal Native tribes dis not keep Llamas.
But that was uninmportant because the Pacific coast of 
South America and the region of the high plattoes of the
Andes was conquered before most of the Atlantic coast.

Pizzaro started exploring down the Pacific coast from Panama
in the 1520s. By 1533 he had made contact with the coastal
subjects of the Inca empire and launched his expedition of
conquest. It is interesting to note that for the Spanish,
armored calvery was their decisive tactical advantage rather
than their firearms.

As to the use by the Spanish of Llama wool, the Inca's capital
Cusco and the heart land of the Inca empire was the Andean
highland. The accounts written by the Spanish during and just
after the conquest discuss how severely they suffered from
the cold of the highlands as they were invading from the tropic
coast of Central America and were ill equiped for freezing
conditions. On their way to meet the Inca ( the king of the
Inca empire) they looted the public storehouses of the Inca.
In these storehouse were both food and clothing. I am sure
that as they were climbing over the passes of the Andes they
were wearing as much llama wool as they could steal.

	Malcolm MacMalcolm
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