Concerning the river of Santa Martha,[253] and of the things which are
met with on its banks.
Now that I have reached the city of Popayan, and described its site,
neighbourhood, founding, and people, it seems well that I should give an
account of the river which flows near it, and which is one of the two
branches which form the great river of Santa Martha. Before treating of
this river, however, I will relate what I find in the Scriptures
concerning the four principal rivers mentioned there, which are, first,
the Ganges, flowing through the East Indies; second, the Nile,
separating Asia from Africa, and watering the land of Egypt; third and
fourth, the Tigris and Euphrates, which encircle the two regions of
Mesopotamia and Cappadocia. These are the four which are said, in the
Holy Scriptures, to issue out of the earthly paradise. I also find that
mention is made of three others, which are the river Indus, whence India
takes its name; the river Danube, being the principal in Europe; and the
river Tanais, dividing Europe from Asia. Of all these, the greatest is
the Ganges, concerning which Ptolemy says, in his book of geography,
that the narrowest part is eight thousand paces, and the broadest
twenty thousand paces across. According to this, the broadest part of
the Ganges is seven leagues across. This is the extreme breadth of the
largest river in the world, that was known before the discovery of these
Indies. But now they have found rivers of such strange bigness, that
they appear more like gulfs of the sea, than rivers which flow through
the land. This appears from what is stated by many of the Spaniards who
went with the Adelantado Orellana. They declare that the river which
flows from Peru into the North Sea (commonly called the Amazons or
Marañon) is more than a thousand leagues long, and in some parts
twenty-five broad; and the Rio de la Plata is said by many who have been
there to be so broad that, in many places, the banks on either side are
not visible from the centre of the stream, being more than eight leagues
across. The river of Darien, too, is great, and that of Urapa is no
smaller, and there are many others of great size in these Indies,
amongst which is this river of Santa Martha.
The river of Santa Martha is formed by two branches. One of these, which
flows by the city of Popayan, rises in the great Cordillera of the
Andes, in some valleys formed by the mountains five or six leagues from
the city. These valleys were well peopled in former times, and are so to
this day, though not so thickly, by certain Indians whom they call
Coconucos, and among these, near a village called Cotara, this river has
its source, which, as I have before said, is one of the branches of the
great and rich river of Santa Martha.
The sources of the two branches are forty leagues from each other, and
the river is so large at the place where they unite, that it has a
breadth of one league, while, where it enters into the North Sea, near
the city of Santa Martha, it is seven leagues broad, and its force is so
great that its waters enter into the waves at last to be converted into
a part of the sea. Many ships have taken in good fresh water from it
out at sea, for its force is so mighty that it passes for more than four
leagues into the sea before it mingles with the salt water. It enters
the sea by many mouths and openings. In the mountain of the Coconucos
(which I have already said is the birth-place of one of the branches) it
is like a little brook, but it flows on to the broad valley of Cali,
receiving streams from mountains on both sides, so that, when it reaches
the city of Cali, it is so great and powerful that to me it seemed to
have as much water as the Guadalquivir at Seville. Lower down, when it
reaches Buritica, near the city of Antiochia, having received many more
streams, it is still larger. There are provinces and villages of Indians
from the source of this river to the point where it enters the ocean,
and such wealth of gold, both in mines and in the possession of the
Indians, that it cannot be exaggerated, it being so great. The natives
of these regions are not very intelligent, and they have so many
languages that, in going amongst them, it was necessary to take many
interpreters.
All the wealth of the province of Santa Martha, most of that of
Carthagena, of Nueva Granada, and of the province of Popayan, is near
this river; and, besides the country which has been discovered near its
banks, there are rumours of populous districts between the two branches,
which have yet to be explored. The Indians say that in these districts
there is great store of riches, and that the Indians who are natives
possess the mortal herb of Uraba. The Adelantado Don Pedro de Heredia
passed by the bridge of Brenuco, where, the river flowing in great
strength, the Indians had made a bridge with trees and strong creepers,
after the fashion of the bridges I have described already. He went some
days march by land, but returned, having few horses and Spaniards with
him. The Adelantado Don Sebastian de Belalcazar also wished to send
another captain by a route more to the eastward, which is less
dangerous, called the valley of Aburra, to explore the country
thoroughly between the two branches of this great river. But when he was
on the road the enterprise was abandoned, in order to send the troops to
the viceroy Blasco Nuñez Vela, at the time when he was at war with
Gonzalo Pizarro and his followers.
Returning to the subject of this river of Santa Martha, I would observe
that, where the two branches unite, a number of islands are formed, some
of which are inhabited. Near the sea there are many very fierce
alligators and other great fish, called _manatee_,[254] which are as
large as a calf, and are born on the beaches and islands. They come out
to browse when they can do so without danger, and presently return to
their haunts. About one hundred and twenty leagues below the city of
Antiochia, that of Mompox has been founded, within the jurisdiction of
Carthagena, and here they call this river the Cauca. The length of the
river from its source to the sea is more than four hundred leagues.