But the legend does not stop there.

Whereever he went that day, he returned to his toil, and pursued his way down the river Chacamarca till he reached the sea.

There his fate becomes obscure; but, adds Pachacuti, "I understand that he passed by the strait (of Panama) into the other sea (back toward the East).

This is what is averred by the most ancient sages of the Inca line, (_por aquellos ingas antiquissimos_)." We may well believe he did; for the light of day, which is quenched in the western ocean, passes back again, by the straits or in some other way, and appears again the next morning, not in the West, where we watched its dying rays, but in the East, where again it is born to pursue its daily and ever recurring journey.
According to another, and also very early account, Viracocha was preceded by a host of attendants, who were his messengers and soldiers.

When he reached the sea, he and these his followers marched out upon the waves as if it had been dry land, and disappeared in the West.[1] [Footnote 1: Garcia, _Origen de los Indios_, Lib.