Other explorers have been sent out in different directions: Gaspar de

Badajoz, towards the west; Francisco Bezarra and Vallejo, the first by

the extremity of the gulf and the other along the western shore of

its entrance, will seek to lay bare the secrets of that country where

formerly Hojeda sought, under such unhappy circumstances, to settle.

They will build there a fort and a town. Gaspar de Badajoz, with

eighty well-armed men, was the first to leave Darien; Ludovico Mercado

followed him with fifty others; Bezarra had eighty men under his

orders, and Vallejo seventy. Whether they will succeed or will fall

into dangerous places, only the providence of the Great Architect

knows. We men are forced to await the occurrence of events before we

can know them. Let us go on to another subject.

BOOK VII

Pedro Arias, the governor of what is supposed to be a continent, had

hardly left Spain and landed at Darien, with the larger number of his

men, than I received news of the arrival at Court of Andreas Morales.

This man, who is a ship's pilot, familiar with these coasts, came on

business. Morales had carefully and attentively explored the land

supposed to be a continent, as well as the neighbouring islands and

the interior of Hispaniola. He was commissioned by the brother of

Nicholas Ovando, Grand Commander of the Order of Alcantara and

governor of the island, to explore Hispaniola. He was chosen because

of his superior knowledge and also because he was better equipped than

others to fulfil that mission. He has moreover compiled itineraries

and maps, in which everybody who understands the question has

confidence. Morales came to see me, as all those who come back from

the ocean habitually do. Let us now examine the heretofore unknown

particulars I have learned from him and from several others. A

detailed description of Hispaniola may serve as an introduction to

this narrative, for is not Hispaniola the capital and the market where

the most precious gifts of the ocean accumulate?

Round about the island lie a thousand and more Nereid nymphs, fair,

graceful, and elegant, serving as its ornaments like to another

Tethys, their queen and their mother. By Nereids I mean to say the

islands scattered round about Hispaniola, concerning which we shall

give some brief information. Afterwards will come the island of pearls

which our compatriots call Rico, and which lies in the gulf of San

Miguel in the South Sea. It has already been explored and marvellous

things found; and yet more wonderful are promised for the future, for

its brilliant pearls are worthy to figure in the necklaces, bracelets,

and crown of a Cleopatra. It will not be out of place at the close

of this narrative to say something of the shells which produce these

pearls. Let us now come to this elysian Hispaniola, and begin by

explaining its name; after which we will describe its conformation,

its harbours, climate, and conclude by the divisions of its territory.

We have spoken in our First Decade of the island of Mataninó, a word

pronounced with the accent on the last syllable. Not to return too

often to the same subject, Your Holiness will note the accent marking

all these native words is placed where it should fall. It is claimed

that the first inhabitants of Hispaniola were islanders of Mataninó,

who had been driven from that country by hostile factions and had

arrived there in their canoes dug out of a single tree-trunk, by which

I mean to say their barques. Thus did Dardanus arrive from Corythus

and Teucer from Crete, in Asia, in the region later called the

Trojade. Thus did the Tyrians and the Sidonians, under the leadership

of the fabulous Dido, reach the coasts of Africa. The people of

Mataninó, expelled from their homes, established themselves in that

part of the island of Hispaniola called Cahonao, upon the banks of a

river called Bahaboni. In like manner we read in Roman history that

the Trojan Æneas, after he arrived in Italy, established himself on

the banks of the Latin Tiber. There lies across the mouth of the river

Bahaboni an island where, according to tradition, these immigrants

built their first house, calling it Camoteia. This place was

consecrated and henceforth regarded with great veneration. Until the

arrival of the Spaniards the natives rendered it the homage of their

continual gifts; the same as we do Jerusalem, the cradle of our

religion; or the Turks, Mecca, or the ancient inhabitants of the

Fortunate Isles venerated the summit of a high rock on the Grand

Canary. Many of these latter, singing joyous canticles, threw

themselves down from the summit of this rock, for their false priests

had persuaded them that the souls of those who threw themselves from

the rock for the love of Tirana, were blessed, and destined to an

eternity of delight. The conquerors of the Fortunate Isles have found

that practice still in use in our own time, for the remembrance of

these sacrifices is preserved in the common language, and the rock

itself keeps its name. I have, moreover, recently learned that

there still exists in those islands since their colonisation by the

Frenchman Bethencourt under the authorisation of the King of Castile,

a group of Bethencourt's people, who still use the French language and

customs. Nevertheless, his heirs, as I have above stated, sold the

island to the Castilians, but the colonists who came with Bethencourt

built houses in the archipelago and prosperously maintained their

families. They still live there mixed with Spaniards and consider

themselves fortunate to be no longer exposed to the rigours of the

French climate.

Let us now return to the people at Mataninó. Hispaniola was first

called by its early inhabitants Quizqueia, and afterwards Haiti.

These names were not chosen at random, but were derived from natural

features, for Quizqueia in their language means "something large" or

larger than anything, and is a synonym for universality, the whole;

something in the sense that [Greek: pan] was used among the Greeks.

The islanders really believed that the island, being so great,

comprised the entire universe, and that the sun warmed no other land

than theirs and the neighbouring islands. Thus they decided to call it

Quizqueia. The name Haiti[1] in their language means _altitude_, and

because it describes a part, was given to the entire island. The

country rises in many places into lofty mountain-ranges, is covered

with dense forests, or broken into profound valleys which, because of

the height of the mountains, are gloomy; everywhere else it is very

agreeable.

[Note 1: Meaning in the Caribs' language _mountainous_. Columbus,

as we have mentioned, named the island Hispaniola, and it is so called

in early American history; but since 1803, the native name of Haiti or

Hayti has been applied both to the entire island, and to one of the

two states into which it is divided, the other state being called

Santo Domingo.]

Permit at this point, Most Holy Father, a digression. Your Beatitude

will no doubt ask with astonishment how it comes that such uncivilised

men, destitute of any knowledge of letters, have preserved for such

a long time the tradition of their origin. This has been possible

because from the earliest times, and chiefly in the houses of the

caciques; the bovites, that is to say the wise men, have trained the

sons of the caciques, teaching them their past history by heart. In

imparting their teaching they carefully distinguish two classes of

studies; the first is of a general interest, having to do with the

succession of events; the second is of a particular interest, treating

of the notable deeds accomplished in time of peace or time of war

by their fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and all their

ancestors. Each one of these exploits is commemorated in poems written

in their language. These poems are called _arreytos_. As with us the

guitar player, so with them the drummers accompany these arreytos and

lead singing choirs. Their drums are called _maguay_. Some of the

arreytos are love songs, others are elegies, and others are war songs;

and each is sung to an appropriate air. They also love to dance, but

they are more agile than we are; first, because nothing pleases

them better than dancing and, secondly, because they are naked, and

untrammelled by clothing. Some of the arreytos composed by their

ancestors predicted our arrival, and these poems resembling elegies

lament their ruin. "Magnacochios [clothed men] shall disembark in the

island armed with swords and with one stroke cut a man in two, and our

descendants shall bend beneath their yoke."

I really am not very much astonished that their ancestors predicted

the slavery of their descendants, if everything told concerning their

familiar relations with devils is true. I discussed this subject at

length in the ninth book of my First Decade, when treating of the

zemes, that is to say the idols they worship. Since their zemes have

been taken away the natives admit they no longer see spectres; and our

compatriots believe this is due to the sign of the cross, with which

they are all armed when washed in the waters of baptism.

All the islanders attach great importance to know the frontiers and

limits of the different tribes. It is generally the _mitaines_, that

is to say nobles, as they are called, who attend to this duty, and

they are very skilful in measuring their properties and estates. The

people have no other occupation than sowing and harvesting. They are

skillful fishermen, and every day during the whole year they dive into

the streams, passing as much time in the water as on land. They are

not neglectful, however, of hunting, they have, as we have already

said, utias, which resemble small rabbits, and iguana serpents, which

I described in my First Decade. These latter resemble crocodiles

and are eight feet long, living on land and having a good flavour.

Innumerable birds are found in all the islands: pigeons, ducks, geese,

and herons. The parrots are as plentiful here as sparrows amongst us.

Each cacique assigns different occupations to his different subjects,

some being sent hunting, others to fish, others to cultivate the

fields. But let us return to the names.

We have already said that Quizqueia and Haiti are the ancient names of

the island. Some natives also call the island Cipangu, from the name

of a mountain range rich in gold. In like manner our poets have called

Italy _Latium_, after one of its provinces, and our ancestors also

called Italy _Ausonia_ and _Hesperia_, just as these islanders have

given the names Quizqueia, Haiti, and Cipangu to their country. In the

beginning the Spaniards called the island Isabella after the Queen

Isabella, taking this name from the first colony they founded there.

I have already spoken sufficiently of this in my First Decade. They

afterwards called it Hispaniola, a diminutive of Hispania. This is

enough concerning names; let us now pass to the conformation of the

island.

The first explorers of the island have described it to me as

resembling in form a chestnut leaf, split by a gulf on the western

side opposite the island of Cuba; but the captain, Andreas Morales,

now gives me another and somewhat different description. He represents

the island as being cut into, at the eastern and western extremities,

by large gulfs,[2] having far extending points of land. He indicates

large and secure harbours in the gulf facing eastwards. I will see

to it that some day a copy of this map of Hispaniola be sent to Your

Holiness, for Morales has drawn it in the same form as those of Spain

and Italy, which Your Holiness has often examined, showing their

mountains, valleys, rivers, towns, and colonies. Let us boldly compare

Hispaniola to Italy, formerly the mistress of the universe. In point

of size Hispaniola is a trifle smaller than Italy. According to the

statements of recent explorers, it extends five hundred and forty

miles from east to west. As we have already noticed in our First

Decade, the Admiral had exaggerated its length. In certain places the

width of Hispaniola extends to three hundred miles. It is narrower at

the point where the land is prolonged in promontories, but it is much

more favoured than Italy for, throughout the greatest part of its

extent, it enjoys such an agreeable climate that neither the rigours

of cold nor excessive heats are known.[3] The two solstices are about

equal to the equinoxes. There is only one hour of difference between

day and night, according as one lives on the southern or the northern

coast of the island.

[Note 2: On the east is the gulf or bay of Samana, on the west

that of Gonaires.]

[Note 3: The superficial area of Haiti is 77,255 square

kilometres. The climatic conditions no longer correspond to Peter

Martyr's descriptions, as there are four seasons, recognised, two

rainy and two dry. In the upland, the temperature is invigorating and

wholesome.]

In several parts of the island, however, cold does prevail; Your

Holiness will understand that this is due to the position of the

mountain ranges, as I shall later demonstrate. The cold, however, is

never sufficiently severe to inconvenience the islanders with snow.

Perpetual spring and perpetual autumn prevail in this fortunate

island. During the entire year the trees are covered with leaves,

and the prairies with grass. Everything in Hispaniola grows in an

extraordinary fashion. I have already related elsewhere that the

vegetables, such as cabbages, lettuces, salads, radishes, and other

similar plants, ripen within sixteen days, while pumpkins, melons,

cucumbers, etc., require but thirty days. We have also stated that

animals brought from Spain, such as oxen, attain a greater size. When

describing the growth of these animals, it is claimed that the oxen

resemble elephants and the pigs, mules; but this is an exaggeration.

Pork has an agreeable taste and is wholesome, because the pigs feed

upon mirobolanes and other island fruits, which grow wild in the

forests, just as in Europe they eat beech nuts, ilex berries, and

acorns. Grape-vines also grow in an extraordinary fashion, despite

the absence of all attention. If any one chooses to sow wheat in a

mountain region exposed to the cold, it flourishes wonderfully,

but less so in the plain, because the soil is too fertile. To one

unheard-of-thing people have certified upon oath; that the ears are as

thick round as a man's arm and one palm in length, and that some of

them contain as many as a thousand grains of wheat. The best bread

found in the island is that made from the yucca, and is called cazabi.

It is most digestible, and the yucca is cultivated and harvested in

the greatest abundance and with great facility. Whatever free time

afterwards remains, is employed in seeking gold.

The quadrupeds are so numerous that already the exportation to Spain

of horses and other animals and of hides has begun; thus the daughter

gives assistance in many things to the mother. I have already

elsewhere given particulars concerning red wood, mastic, perfumes,

green colouring material, cotton, amber, and many other products of

this island. What greater happiness could one wish in this world than

to live in a country where such wonders are to be seen and enjoyed?

Is there a more agreeable existence than that one leads in a country

where one is not forced to shut himself in narrow rooms to escape cold

that chills or heat that suffocates? A land where it is not necessary

to load the body with heavy clothing in winter, or to toast one's legs

at a continual fire, a practice which ages people in the twinkling

of the eye, exhausts their force, and provokes a thousand different

maladies. The air of Hispaniola is stated to be salubrious, and the

rivers which flow over beds of gold, wholesome. There are indeed no

rivers nor mountains nor very few valleys where gold is not found.

Let us close now with a brief description of the interior of this

fortunate island.

Hispaniola possesses four rivers, each flowing from mountain sources

and dividing the island into four almost equal parts. One of these

streams, the Iunna, flows east. Another, the Attibunicus, west; the

third, the Naiba, south, and the fourth, the Iaccha, north. We have

already related that Morales proposes a new division, by which the

island would be divided into five districts. We shall give to each of

these little states its ancient name and shall enumerate whatever is

worthy of note in each of them.

The most eastern district of the island belongs to the province of

Caizcimu, and is thus called because _cimu_ means in their language

the _front_ or beginning of anything. Next come the provinces of

Huhabo and Cahibo; the fourth is Bainoa, and the extreme western part

belongs to the province of Guaccaiarima; but that of Bainoa is larger

than the three preceding ones. Caizcimu extends from the point of the

island as far as the river Hozama, which flows by Santo Domingo, the

capital. Its northern border is marked by precipitous mountains,[4]

which on account of their steepness especially bear the name of Haiti.

The province of Huhabo lies between the mountains of Haiti and the

Iacaga River. The third province Cahibo, includes all the country

lying between the Cubaho and the Dahazio rivers as far as the mouth of

Iaccha, one of the rivers dividing the islands into four equal parts.

This province extends to the Cibao Mountains, where much gold is

found. In these mountains rises the River Demahus. The province also

extends to the sources of the Naiba River, the third of the four

streams and the one which flows south, towards the other bank of the

Santo Domingo River.

[Note 4: Now called Sierra de Monte Cristo, of which the loftiest

peak, Toma Diego Campo, is 1220 metres high.]

Bainoa begins at the frontier of Cahibo, and extends as far as the

island of Cahini, almost touching the north coast of Hispaniola at the

place where the colony was once founded. The remainder of the island

along the west coast forms the province of Guaccaiarima, thus called

because it is the extremity of the island. The word _Iarima_ means a

flea. Guaccaiarima means, therefore, the flea of the island; _Gua_

being the article in their language. There are very few of their

names, particularly those of kings which do not begin with this

article _gua_., such as Guarionex and Guaccanarillus; and the same

applies to many names of places.

The districts or cantons of Caizcimu are Higuey, Guanama, Reyre,

Xagua, Aramana, Arabo, Hazoa, Macorix, Caicoa, Guiagua, Baguanimabo,

and the rugged mountains of Haiti. Let us remark in this connection

that there are no aspirates pronounced in Hispaniola, as amongst the

Latin peoples. In the first place, in all their words the aspirate

produces the effect of a consonant, and is more prolonged than the

consonant _f_, amongst us. Nor is it pronounced by pressing the under

lip against the upper teeth. On the contrary the mouth is opened wide,

_ha, he, hi, ho, hu_. I know that the Jews and the Arabs pronounce

their aspirates in the same way, and the Spaniards do likewise with

words they have taken from the Arabs who were for a long time their

masters. These words are sufficiently numerous; _almohada_ = a

pillow; _almohaza_ = a horse-comb, and other similar words, which are

pronounced by holding the breath. I insist upon this point because

it often happens among the Latins that an aspirate changes the

significance of a word; thus _hora_ means a division of the day, _ora_

which is the plural of _os_, the mouth, and _ora_ meaning region, as

in the phrase _Trojae qui primus ab oris_. The sense changes according

to the accent: _occ[=i]do_ and _occ[)i]do_. It is consequently

necessary to heed the accents and not neglect the aspirate in speaking

the language of these simple people. I have spoken above about the

accent and the article _gua_.

[Note: [=i] is a long 'i', and [)i] is a short 'i'.]

The cantons of the province of Hubabo are Xamana, Canabaco, Cubao, and

others whose names I do not know. The cantons of Magua and Cacacubana

belong to the province of Cahibo. The natives in this province

speak an entirely different language from that spoken by the other

islanders; they are called Macoryzes. In the canton of Cubana another

language resembling none of the others is spoken; it is likewise used

in the canton of Baiohaigua. The other cantons of Cahibo are Dahaboon,

Cybaho, Manabaho, Cotoy, the last being situated in the centre of the

island and traversed by the Nizaus River, and finally the mountains

Mahaitin, Hazua, and Neibaymao.

Bainoa, the fourth province has the following dependent cantons:

Maguana, Iagohaiucho, Bauruco, Dabaigua, and Attibuni which takes this

name from the river; Caunoa, Buiaz, Dahibonici, Maiaguarite, Atiec,

Maccazina, Guahabba, Anninici, Marien, Guarricco, Amaquei, Xaragua,

Yaguana, Azzuei, Iacchi, Honorucco, Diaguo, Camaie, Neibaimao. In the

last province, Guaccaiarima, lie the cantons of Navicarao, Guabaqua,

Taquenazabo, Nimaca, Little Bainoa, Cahaymi, Ianaizi, Manabaxao,

Zavana, Habacoa, and Ayqueroa.

Let us now give some particulars concerning the cantons themselves:

the first gulf[5] found in the province of Caizcimu cuts into a rock

where it has worn an immense cave situated at the foot of a lofty

mountain about two stadia from the sea. Its vast arched entrance

resembles the gates of a great temple. In obedience to an order from

the government, Morales tried to enter this cavern with the ships.

Several streams come together there through unknown channels, as in

a drain. It used to be a mystery what became of a number of rivers

ninety miles long, which suddenly disappeared under the earth never to

be seen again. It is thought they are in some fashion swallowed up in

the depths of the rocky mountain, continuing their underground course

till they reach this cavern. Having succeeded in entering the cave,

Morales was very nearly drowned. He reports that inside there are

whirlpools and currents in incessant conflict, upon which his barque

was tossed to and fro like a ball, amidst the horrible roar of the

whirlpools and currents around him. He regretted having come, but

could find no way to get out. He and his companions drifted about in

the obscurity, not only because of the darkness prevailing in the

cavern, which extends into the depths of the mountains, but also

because of the perpetual mist rising from the constantly agitated

waters, and resolving itself into damp vapours. Morales compared the

noise of these waters to that of the falls of the Nile where it pours

forth from the mountains of Ethiopia. Both he and his companions

were so deafened they could not hear one another speak. He finally

succeeded in finding the exit, and emerged from the cavern, trembling,

feeling that he had left the infernal regions and returned to the

upper world.[6]

[Note 5: The gulf of Samana; its extent is 1300 square

kilometres.]

[Note 6: _Evasit tandem pavidus de antro, veluti de Tartaro,

putans rediisse ad superos_.]

About sixty miles from Santo Domingo the capital, the horizon is shut

in by lofty mountains, upon whose summit lies an inaccessible lake, to

which no road leads. None of the colonists have visited it because of

the steepness of the mountain. In obedience to the governor's orders

Morales, taking a neighbouring cacique for his guide, ascended the

mountain and found the lake. He reports that it was very cold there

and, as a proof of the low temperature, he brought back some ferns and

brambles, plants which do not grow in warm countries. The mountains

are called Ymizui Hybahaino. The waters of the lake, which is three

miles in circumference, are full of various kinds of fish. It is fed

by several streams, and has no outlet, for it is surrounded on all

sides by lofty peaks.

Let us now say a few words about another, Caspian or Hyrcanian sea (by

which I mean a sea surrounded by land), and other fresh-water lakes.

BOOK VIII

The province of Bainoa, which is three times the size of the three

provinces of Caizcimu, Huhabo, and Caihabon, embraces the valley of

Caionani, in the midst of which there is a salt lake[1] of bitter,

distasteful water, similar to what we read of the Caspian Sea. I will

therefore call it Caspian, although it is not in Hyrcania. There are

depths in this lake from which the salty waters pour forth and are

absorbed in the mountains. These caverns are supposed to be so vast

and so deep that even the largest sea-fish pass through them into the

lake.

[Note 1: The lagune of Enriquillo on the plains of Neyba.]

Amongst these fish is the shark, which cuts a man in two with one bite

and swallows him. These sharks come up from the sea by the Hozama

River which flows past the capital of the island. They devour numbers

of natives, since nothing will prevent the latter from bathing and

washing themselves in the river. Many streams flow into the lake; the

Guaninicabon, which flows from the north, is salt; the Haccoce flows

from the south, the Guannabi from the east, and the Occoa from the

west. These are the most important of the rivers and are always full.

Besides them, a score of smaller ones also fall into this Caspian Sea.

Not more than a stadium distant and on its northern shore are about

two hundred springs, arranged in the form of a circle, from which

fresh, potable water gushes forth, forming an impassable stream, which

mingles with the others in the lake.

The cacique of that country finding his wife at prayer one day in

a chapel built by the Christians in his territory, wished to have

intercourse with her; but the wife, alleging the holiness of the spot

refused, speaking as follows, _Tei toca, tei toca_, which means "Be

quiet"; _Techeta cynato guamechyna_ which signifies "God would be

displeased." The cacique was very much vexed by this _Techeta cynato

guamechyna_, and with a menacing gesture of his arm said, _Guayva_,

which means "Get out," _Cynato machabucha guamechyna_, meaning, "What

matters to me the anger of your God?" With which he overpowered his

wife, but was struck dumb on the spot and half lost the use of his

arm. Impressed by this miracle and overcome with repentance, he lived

the rest of his life as a religious, and would not allow the chapel to

be swept or decorated by other hands than his own. This miracle made a

great impression upon many of the natives and upon all the Christians,

and the chapel was frequented and respected by them. As for the

cacique, he submissively endured without complaint the punishment for

his insult. But let us return to the Caspian Sea.

This salt lake is swept by hurricanes and storms, so that the

fishermen's boats are often in danger and frequently sink with all

on board. Nor has any drowned body ever been found floating upon the

waters or thrown upon the shore, as happens with those engulfed by

the sea. These storms provide generous banquets for the sharks. The

natives call this Caspian Sea, Haguygabon. In the midst of it lies

a sterile island called Guarizacca, which serves as a refuge for

fishermen. The lake is thirty miles long and twelve or, perhaps, even

fifteen broad.

Another lake lies in the same plain and quite near to the former, of

which the waters are bitter-sweet,[2] that is to say they are not

pleasant to drink, but may be drunk in case of absolute necessity. It

is twenty-five miles long by nine or ten broad, and is fed by a number

of rivers. It has no outlet, and the water from the sea also reaches

it, though in a small quantity; this accounts for its brackish waters.

The third fresh-water lake, called Painagua, exists in the same

province. It lies not very far to the west of the Caspian Sea. North

of this same Caspian lies a fourth lake, of small importance, since it

measures but four miles in length and a little more than one in width;

it is called Guacca, and its waters are potable. South of the Caspian

a fifth lake, called Babbareo is found; it is almost circular and

about three miles in length. Its waters are fresh like those of the

other two. As it has no outlet and its waters are not sucked down

into caverns, it overflows its banks when swollen by torrents. Lake

Babbareo lies in the Zamana district of the province of Bainoa. There

is still another lake called Guanyban, near by and south-west of the

Caspian; it is ten miles long and nearly round. Throughout the island

are numerous other small lakes, which we do not mention for fear

of being tiresome by too much insistence on the same subject.

Nevertheless there is one more particular concerning the lakes and

this is the last: All of them are full of fish, and support many

birds. They are situated in an immense valley which extends from east

to west for a distance of one hundred and twenty miles and a breadth,

at the narrowest point of eighteen and at the broadest, of twenty-five

miles. As one looks west the mountain chain of Duiguni borders this

valley on the left, and on the right rises the range of Caigun, which

gives its name to the valley at its base. Upon the northern slope

begins another valley larger than the former, for it extends a

distance of two hundred miles and a breadth of thirty miles at the

broadest, and twenty miles at the narrowest part. This valley is

called Maguana and sometimes Iguaniu or Hathathiei. Since we have

mentioned this part of the valley called Atici, we must make a

digression to introduce a miraculous sea fish.

[Note 2: _Lago de Fondo ... aquarum salsodulcium_...]

A certain cacique of the region, Caramatexius by name, was very fond

of fishing. Upon one occasion a young fish of the gigantic species

called by the natives _manati_ was caught in his nets. I think this

species of monster in unknown in our seas. It is shaped like a turtle

and has four feet, but is covered with scales instead of shell.

Its skin is so tough that it fears nothing from arrows, for it is

protected by a thousand points. This amphibious creature has a smooth

back, a head resembling that of a bull, and is tame rather than

fierce. Like the elephant or the dolphin, it likes the companionship

of men and is very intelligent. The cacique fed this young fish for

several days with yucca bread, millet, and the roots the natives eat.

While it was still young, he put it in a lake near to his house, as in

a fish-pond. This lake, which had been called Guaurabo. was henceforth

called Manati. For twenty-five years this fish lived at liberty in the

waters of the lake, and grew to an extraordinary size. All that has

been told about the lake of Baiæ or the dolphins of Arion is not to be

compared with the stories of this fish. They gave it the name of Matu,

meaning generous or noble, and whenever one of the king's attendants,

specially known by him, called from the bank Matu, Matu, the fish,

remembering favours received, raised its head and came towards the

shore to eat from the man's hand. Anyone who wished to cross the lake

merely made a sign and the fish advanced to receive him on its back.

One day it carried ten men altogether on its back, transporting

them safely, while they sang and played musical instruments. If it

perceived a Christian when it raised its head it dived under water and

refused to obey. This was because it had once been beaten by a

peevish young Christian, who threw a sharp dart at this amiable and

domesticated fish. The dart did it no harm because of the thickness

of its skin, which is all rough and covered with points, but the fish

never forgot the attack, and from that day forth every time it heard

its name called, it first looked carefully about to see if it beheld

anybody dressed like the Christians. It loved to play upon the bank

with the servants of the cacique, and especially with the young son

who was in the habit of feeding it. It was more amusing than a monkey.

This manati was for long a joy to the whole island, and many natives

and Christians daily visited this animal.

It is said that the flesh of manatis is of good flavour, and they are

found in great numbers in the waters of the island. The manati Matu

finally disappeared. It was carried out to sea by the Attibunico, one

of the four rivers which divide the island into equal parts, during an

inundation accompanied by horrible typhoons which the islanders call

hurricanes. The Attibunico overflowed its banks and inundated the

entire valley, mingling its waters with those of all the lakes. The

good, clever, sociable Matu, following the tide of the torrent,

rejoined its former mother and the waters of its birth; it has never

since been seen. But enough of this digression.

Let us now describe this valley. The valley of Atici is bordered by

the Cibao and Cayguana Mountains, which enclose it in a southerly

direction to the sea. Beyond the mountains of Cibao towards the north

there opens another valley called the Guarionexius, because it has

always belonged, from father to son and by hereditary right, to the

caciques called Guarionexius. I have already spoken at length about

this cacique in my first writings on Hispaniola and in my First

Decade. This valley is one hundred and ninety miles long from east to

west, and between thirty and fifty miles broad at its widest part. It

begins at the district of Canabocoa, crosses the provinces of Huhabo

and Cahibo, and ends in the province of Bainoa and in the district of

Mariena. Along its borders extend the mountains of Cibao, Cahanao,

Cazacubana. There is not a province or a district in it which is not

noteworthy for the majesty of its mountains, the fertility of its

valleys, the forests upon its hills, or the number of rivers watering

it. Upon the slopes of all the mountains and hills, and in the river

beds, gold in abundance is found; and in the latter, fish of delicious

flavour; only one is to be excepted, which from its source in the

mountains to the sea is perpetually salt. This river is called Bahaun,

and flows through Maguana, a district of the province of Bainoa. It

is thought that this river passes through chalk and saline strata, of

which there are many in the island, and of which I shall later speak

more fully.

We have noted that Hispaniola may be divided into four or five parts,

by rivers or by provinces. Still another division may be made; the

entire island might be divided by the four mountain chains which cut

it in two from east to west. Everywhere there is wealth, and gold is

everywhere found. From the caverns and gorges of these mountains pour

forth all the streams which traverse the island. There are frightful

caves, dark valleys, and arid rocks, but no dangerous animal has ever

been found; neither lion, nor bear, nor fierce tiger, nor crafty fox,

nor savage wolf. Everything thereabouts speaks of happiness and will

do so still more, Most Holy Father, when all these thousands of people

shall be gathered among the sheep of your flock, and those devil

images, the zemes, shall have been banished.

You must not be vexed, Most Holy Father, if from time to time in the

course of my narrative I repeat certain particulars, or allow myself

some digressions. I feel myself carried away by a sort of joyous

mental excitement, a kind of Delphic or Sibylline breath, when I read

of these things; and I am, as it were, forced to repeat the same fact,

especially when I realise to what an extent the propagation of our

religion is involved. Yet amidst all these marvels and fertility,

there is one point which causes me small satisfaction; these simple,

naked natives were little accustomed to labour, and the immense

fatigues they now suffer, labouring in the mines, is killing them in

great numbers and reducing the others to such a state of despair that

many kill themselves, or refuse to procreate their kind. It is alleged

that the pregnant women take drugs to produce abortion, knowing that

the children they bear will become the slaves of the Christians.

Although a royal decree has declared all the islanders to be free,

they are forced to work more than is fit for free men. The number of

these unfortunate people diminishes in an extraordinary fashion. Many

people claim that they formerly numbered more than twelve millions;

how many there are to-day I will not venture to say, so much am I

horrified.[3] Let us finish with this sad subject and return to the

charms of this admirable Hispaniola.

[Note 3: The _Brevissima Relacion de la Destruycion de las

Indias_, of Fray B. de las Casas, contains the most crushing

indictment of Spanish colonial government ever penned. When every

allowance has been made for the apostolic, or even the fanatical

zeal, with which Las Casas defended his protégés and denounced their

tormentors, the case against the Spanish colonists remains one of the

blackest known to history. Just what the native population of Haiti

and Cuba originally numbered is hardly ascertainable; twelve millions

is doubtless an excessive estimate; but within twenty-five years

of the discovery of America, the islanders were reduced to 14,000.

Between 1507 and 1513 their numbers fell from 14,000 to 4000, and

by 1750 not one remained. Consult Fabié, _Vida y Escritos de Fray

Bartolomé de Las Casas_ (Madrid, 1879); MacNutt, _Bartholomew de las

Casas, his Life, his Apostolate, and his Writings_, New York, 1910.]

In the mountains of Cibao, which are situated in about the centre of

the island, and in the province of Cahibo where we have said the most

gold was found, there lies a district called Cotohi. It is amongst the

clouds, completely enclosed by mountain chains, and its inhabitants

are numerous. It consists of a large plateau twenty-five miles in

length and fifteen in breadth; and this plateau lies so high above the

other mountains that the peaks surrounding it appear to give birth to

the lesser mountains. Four seasons may be counted on this plateau:

spring, summer, autumn, and winter; and the plants there wither, the

trees lose their leaves and the fields dry up. This does not happen

in the rest of the island, which only knows spring-time and autumn.

Ferns, grass, and berry bushes grow there, furnishing undeniable proof

of the cold temperature. Nevertheless the country is agreeable and the

cold is not severe, for the natives do not suffer from it, nor are

there snow storms., As a proof of the fertility of the soil it is

alleged that the stalks of the ferns are thicker than javelins. The

neighbouring mountainsides contain rich gold deposits but these

mines will not be exploited because of the cold, which would make it

necessary to give clothing even to those miners who are accustomed to

that labour.

The natives are satisfied with very little; they are delicate and

could not endure winter, for they live in the open air. Two rivers

traverse this region, flowing from the high mountains which border it.

The first, called Comoiaixa, flows towards the west and loses its name

where it empties into the Naiba. The second, called the Tirechetus,

flows east and empties into the Iunna.

When I passed the island of Crete on my journey to the Sultan,[4] the

Venetians told me that there was a similar region on the summit of

Mount Ida; this region, more than the rest of the island, produces

a better wheat crop. Protected by the impassable roads which led to

these heights, the Cretans revolted, and for a long time maintained an

armed independence against the Senate of Venice. Finally, when weary

of fighting, they decided to submit, and the Senate decreed their

country should remain a desert. All avenues leading to it were guarded

so that no one could go there without its consent.

[Note 4: _De Legatione Babylonica_.]

It was in that same year, 1502, that the Venetians again permitted

this district to be cultivated, but by labourers incapable of using

arms.

There is a district in Hispaniola called Cotoy, lying between the

provinces of Huhabo and Cahibo. It is a sterile country having

mountains, valleys, and plains, and is sparsely inhabited. Gold is

found there in quantities, but instead of being in the form of ingots

or grains, it is in solid masses of pure metal, deposited in beds of

soft stone in the crevices of the rocks. The veins are discovered by

breaking the rocks, and one such may be compared to a living tree, as

from its root or starting-point it sends forth branches through the

soft pores and open passages, right up to the summit of the mountains,

never stopping till it reaches the surface of the earth. Bathed in the

splendour of the atmosphere it brings forth its fruit, consisting of

grains and nuggets. These grains and nuggets are afterwards washed

away by the heavy rains and swept down the mountain, like all heavy

bodies, to be disseminated throughout the entire island. It is thought

the metal is not produced at the place where it is found, especially

if that be in the open or in the river beds. The root of the golden

tree seems always to reach down towards the centre of the earth,

growing always larger; for the deeper one digs in the bowels of the

mountain the larger are the grains of gold unearthed. The branches

of the golden tree are in some places as slender as a thread, while

others are as thick as a finger, according to the dimensions of the

crevices. It sometimes happens that pockets full of gold are found;

these being the crevices through which the branches of the golden tree

pass. When these pockets are filled with the output from the trunk,

the branch pushes on in search of another outlet towards the earth's

surface. It is often stopped by the solid rock, but in other fissures

it seems, in a manner, to be fed from the vitality of the roots.

You will ask me, Most Holy Father, what quantity of gold is produced

in this island. Each year Hispaniola alone sends between four and five

hundred thousand gold ducats to Spain. This is known from the fact

that the royal fifth produces eighty, ninety, or a hundred thousand

castellanos of gold, and sometimes even more. I shall explain later on

what may be expected from Cuba and the island of San Juan, which are

equally rich in gold. But we have spoken enough about gold; let us now

pass on to salt, with which whatever we buy with gold is seasoned.

In a district of the province of Bainoa in the mountains of Daiagon,

lying twelve miles from the salt lake of the Caspian, are mines of

rock salt, whiter and more brilliant than crystal, and similar to the

salts which so enrich the province of Laletania, otherwise called

Catalonia, belonging to the Duke of Cardona, who is the chief noble of

that region. People, in a position to compare the two, consider the

salts of Bainoa the richer. It seems that it is necessary to use iron

tools for mining the salt in Catalonia. It also crumbles very easily

as I know by experience, nor is it harder than spongy stone. The

salt of Bainoa is as hard as marble. In the province of Caizcimu and

throughout the territories of Iguanama, Caiacoa, and Quatiaqua springs

of exceptional character are found. At the surface their waters are

fresh, a little deeper down they are salty and at the bottom they

are heavily charged with salt. It is thought that the salt sea-water

partially feeds them, and that the fresh waters on the surface flow

from the mountains through subterranean passages. The salt-waters,

therefore, remain at the bottom while the others rise to the surface,

and the former are not sufficiently strong to entirely corrupt the

latter. The waters of the middle strata are formed by a mixture of the

two others, and share the characteristics of both.

By placing one's ear to the ground near the opening of one of these

springs it is easily perceived that the earth is hollow underneath,

for one may hear the steps of a horseman a distance of three miles and

a man on foot a distance of one mile. It is said there is a district

of _savana_ in the most westerly province of Guaccaiarima, inhabited

by people who only live in caverns and eat nothing but the products

of the forest. They have never been civilised nor had any intercourse

with any other races of men. They live, so it is said, as people did

in the golden age, without fixed homes or crops or culture; neither do

they have a definite language. They are seen from time to time, but it

has never been possible to capture one, for if, whenever they come,

they see anybody other than natives approaching them, they escape with

the celerity of a deer. They are said to be quicker than French dogs.

Give ear, Most Holy Father, to a very amusing exploit of one of these

savages. The Spaniards own cultivated fields along the edge of the

woods and thick forests, which some of them went to visit, as though

on a pleasure trip, in the month of September, 1514. All at once one

of these dumb men suddenly emerged from the woods and smilingly picked

up from the very midst of the Christians a young boy, son of the owner

of the field, whose wife was a native. The savage fled, making signs

that the people should follow him, so several Spaniards and a number

of naked natives ran after the robber, without, however, being able to

catch him. As soon as the facetious savage perceived the Spaniards

had given up the pursuit, he left the child at a crossroads where the

swineherds pass driving herds to pasture. One of these swineherds

recognised the child and taking it in his arms brought it back to the

father, who had been in despair, thinking this savage belonged to the

Carib race, and mourning the child as dead.

Pitch, of a quality much harder and more bitter than that obtained

from trees, is found on the reefs of Hispaniola. It consequently

serves better to protect ships against the gnawings of the worms

called bromas, of which I have elsewhere spoken at length. There are

likewise two pitch-producing trees; one is the pine, and the other

is called _copeo_. I shall say nothing about pines, for they grow

everywhere; but let us speak a little about the copeo tree, and give

a few details about the pitch and the fruit it produces. The pitch is

obtained in the same manner as from pine-trees, though it is described

as being gathered drop by drop from the burning wood. As for the

fruit, it is as small as a plum and quite good to eat; but it is the

foliage of the trees which possesses a very special quality. It is

believed that this tree is the one whose leaves were used by the

Chaldeans, the first inventors of writing, to convey their ideas to

the absent before paper was invented. The leaf is as large as a palm

and almost round. Using a needle or pin, or a sharp iron or wooden

point, characters are traced upon it as easily as upon paper.

It is laughable to consider what the Spaniards have told the natives

concerning these leaves. These good people believe the leaves speak in

obedience to the command of the Spaniards. An islander had been sent

by a Spaniard of Santo Domingo, the capital of Hispaniola, to one

of his friends living in the interior of the colony. The messenger

likewise carried some roasted utias which, as we have said, are

rabbits. On the way, whether from hunger or greediness, he ate three;

these animals not being larger than rats. The friend wrote upon one

of these leaves what he had received. "Well, my man," the master then

said, "you are a fine lad in whom to put confidence! So you have been

so greedy as to eat the utias I gave you?" Trembling and amazed the

native confessed his fault, but asked his master how he had discovered

it. The Spaniard replied: "The leaf which you yourself have brought

me has told me everything. Moreover, you reached my friend's house at

such an hour and you left it at such another." In this way our people

amuse themselves by mystifying these poor islanders, who think they

are gods, with power to make the very leaves reveal what they believe

to be secret. Thus the news spread through the island that the leaves

speak in response to a sign from the Spaniards; and this obliges the

islanders to be very careful of whatever is confided to them. Both

sides of these leaves may be used for writing, just as is the case

with our paper. Such a leaf is thicker than a piece of paper folded in

two, and is extraordinarily tough; so much so that when it is freshly

plucked, the letters stand out white upon a green ground, but when it

dries it becomes white and hard like a piece of wood, and then these

characters change to yellow; but they remain indelible until it is

burnt, never disappearing, even when the leaf is wet.

There is another tree called the _hagua_, whose fruit when green

exudes a juice which dyes so fast everything it touches a greenish

black, that no washing can destroy this colour within twenty days.

When the fruit ripens the juice no longer has this quality; it becomes

edible and has a pleasant taste. There is an herb also, whose smoke

produces death, like the wood which we have mentioned. Some caciques

had decided to kill the Spaniards; but not daring to attack them

openly, they planned to place numerous bunches of this herb in their

houses and set fire to them, so that the Spaniards, who came to

extinguish the flames, would breathe in the smoke with the germs of a

fatal malady. This plot, however, was circumvented and the instigators

of the crime were punished.

Since Your Holiness has deigned to write that you are interested in

everything related concerning the new continent, let us now insert,

irrespective of method, a number of facts. We have sufficiently

explained how maize, agoes, yucca, potatoes, and other edible roots

are sown, cultivated, and used. But we have not yet related how the

Indians learned the properties of these plants; and it is that which

we shall now explain.

BOOK IX

It is said that the early inhabitants of the islands subsisted for a

long time upon roots and palms and magueys. The maguey[1] is a plant

belonging to the class vulgarly called evergreen.

[Note 1: ..._magueiorum quæ est herba, sedo sive aizoo, quam

vulgus sempervivam appellat, similis_. (Jovis-barba, joubarbe, etc.)]

The roots of _guiega_ are round like those of our mushrooms, and

somewhat larger. The islanders also eat _guaieros_, which resemble our

parsnips; _cibaios_, which are like nuts; _cibaioés_ and _macoanes_,

both similar to the onion, and many other roots. It is related that

some years later, a bovite, _i.e._, a learned old man, having remarked

a shrub similar to fennel growing upon a bank, transplanted it and

developed therefrom a garden plant. The earliest islanders, who ate

raw yucca, died early; but as the taste is exquisite, they resolved to

try using it in different ways; boiled or roasted this plant is

less dangerous. It finally came to be understood that the juice was

poisonous; extracting this juice, they made from the cooked flour

cazabi, a bread better suited to human stomachs than wheat bread,

because it is more easily digested. The same was the case with other

food stuffs and maize, which they chose amongst the natural products.

Thus it was that Ceres discovered barley and other cereals amongst

the seeds, mixed with slime, brought down by the high Nile from the

mountains of Ethiopia and deposited on the plain when the waters

receded, and propagated their culture.

For having thus indicated the seeds to be cultivated, the ancients

rendered her divine honours. There are numerous varieties of agoes,

distinguishable by their leaves and flowers. One of these species is

called guanagax; both inside and out, it is of a whitish colour. The

guaragua is violet inside and white outside; another species of agoes

is zazaveios, red outside and white inside. Quinetes are white inside

and red outside. The turma is purplish, the hobos yellowish and the

atibunieix has a violet skin and a white pulp. The aniguamar is

likewise violet outside and white inside and the guaccaracca is just

the reverse; white outside and violet inside. There are many other

varieties, upon which we have not yet received any report.

I am aware that in enumerating these species I shall provoke envious

people, who will laugh when my writings reach them, at my sending such

minute particulars to Your Holiness, who is charged with such weighty

interests and on whose shoulders rests the burden of the whole

Christian world. I would like to know from these envious, whether

Pliny and the other sages famous for their science sought, in

communicating similar details to the powerful men of their day, to be

useful only to the princes with whom they corresponded. They mingled

together obscure reports and positive knowledge, great things and

small, generalities and details; to the end that posterity might,

equally with the princes, learn everything together, and also in the

hope that those who crave details and are interested in novelties,

might be able to distinguish between different countries and regions,

the earth's products, national customs, and the nature of things. Let

therefore the envious laugh at the pains I have taken; for my part, I

shall laugh, not at their ignorance, envy, and laziness, but at their

deplorable cleverness, pitying their passions and recommending them to

the serpents from which envy draws its venom. If I may believe what

has been reported to me from Your Holiness by Galeazzo Butrigario and

Giovanni Ruffo, Archbishop of Cosenza, who are the nunzios of your

apostolic chair, I am certain that these details will please you. They

are the latest trappings with which I have dressed, without seeking

to decorate them, admirable things; indications merely and not

descriptions; but you will not reject them. It will repay me to have

burned the midnight oil in your interest, that the recollection of

these discoveries may not be lost. Each takes the money that suits

his purse. When a sheep or a pig is cut up, nothing of it remains by

evening; for one man has taken the shoulder, another the rump, another

the neck, and there are even some who like the tripes and the feet.

But enough of this digression on the subject of envious men and their

fury; let us rather describe how the caciques congratulate their

fellows when a son is born; and how they shape the beginning of their

existence to its end, and why every one of them is pleased to bear

several names.

When a child is born, all the caciques and neighbours assemble and

enter the mother's chamber. The first to arrive salutes the child and

gives it a name, and those who follow do likewise; "Hail, brilliant

lamp," says one; "Hail, thou shining one," says another; or perhaps

"Conqueror of enemies," "Valiant hero," "More resplendent than gold,"

and so on. In this wise the Romans bore the titles of their parents

and ancestors: Adiabenicus, Particus, Armenicus, Dacicus, Germanicus.

The islanders do the same, in adopting the names given them by the

caciques. Take, for instance, Beuchios Anacauchoa, the ruler of

Xaragua, of whom and his sister, the prudent Anacaona, I have already

spoken at length in my First Decade. Beuchios Anacauchoa was also

called _Tareigua Hobin_, which means "prince resplendent as copper."

So likewise _Starei_, which means "shining"; _Huibo_, meaning

"haughtiness"; _Duyheiniquem_, meaning a "rich river." Whenever

Beuchios Anacauchoa publishes an order, or makes his wishes known by

heralds' proclamation, he takes great care to have all these names and

forty more recited. If, through carelessness or neglect, a single one

were omitted, the cacique would feel himself grievously outraged; and

his colleagues share this view.

Let us now examine their peculiar practices when drawing up their last

wills. The caciques choose as heir to their properties, the eldest son

of their sister, if such a one exists; and if the eldest sister has no

son, the child of the second or third sister is chosen. The reason is,

that this child is bound to be of their blood. They do not consider

the children of their wives as legitimate. When there are no children

of their sisters, they choose amongst those of their brothers, and

failing these, they fall back upon their own. If they themselves have

no children, they will their estates to whomsoever in the island is

considered most powerful, that their subjects may be protected by him

against their hereditary enemies. They have as many wives as they

choose, and after the cacique dies the most beloved of his wives is

buried with him. Anacaona, sister of Beuchios Anacauchoa, King of

Xaragua, who was reputed to be talented in the composition of areytos,

that is to say poems, caused to be buried alive with her brother the

most beautiful of his wives or concubines, Guanahattabenecheuà; and

she would have buried others but for the intercession of a certain

sandal-shod Franciscan friar, who happened to be present. Throughout

the whole island there was not to be found another woman so beautiful

as Guanahattabenecheuà. They buried with her her favourite necklaces

and ornaments, and in each tomb a bottle of water and a morsel of

cazabi bread were deposited.

There is very little rain either in Xaragua, the kingdom of Beuchios

Anacauchoa, or in the Hazua district of the country called Caihibi;

also in the valley of the salt- and fresh-water lakes and in Yacciu, a

district or canton of the province of Bainoa. In all these countries

are ancient ditches, by means of which the islanders irrigate their

fields as intelligently as did the inhabitants of New Carthage, called

Spartana, or those of the kingdom of Murcia, where it rarely rains.

The Maguana divides the provinces of Bainoa from that of Caihibi,

while the Savana divides it from Guaccaiarima. In the deeper valleys

there is a heavier rainfall than the natives require, and the

neighbourhood of Santo Domingo is likewise better watered than is

necessary, but everywhere else the rainfall is moderate. The same

variations of temperature prevail in Hispaniola as in other countries.

I have enumerated in my First Decade the colonies established in

Hispaniola by the Spaniards, and since that time they have founded the

small towns of Porto de la Plata, Porto Real, Lares, Villanova,

Assua, and Salvatiera. Let us now describe these of the innumerable

neighbouring islands which are known and which we have already

compared to the Nereids, daughters of Tethys, and their mother's

ornament. I shall begin with the nearest one, which is remarkable

because of another fountain of Arethusa, but which serves no purpose.

Six miles distant from the coast of the mother island lies an isle

which the Spaniards, ignoring its former name, call Dos Arboles [Two

Trees], because only two trees grow there. It is near them that a

spring, whose waters flow by secret channels under the sea from

Hispaniola, gushes forth, just as Alpheus left Eridus to reappear in

Sicily at the fountain of Arethusa. This fact is established by the

finding of leaves of the _hobis_, mirobolane, and many other trees

growing in Hispaniola, which are carried thither by the stream of this

fountain, for no such trees are found on the smaller island. This

fountain takes its rise in the Yiamiroa River, which flows from the

Guaccaiarima district near the Savana country. The isle is not more

than one mile in circumference, and is used as a fish market.

Towards the east, our Tethys is protected in a manner by the island of

San Juan,[2] which I have elsewhere described. San Juan has rich gold

deposits, and its soil is almost as fertile as that of its mother,

Hispaniola. Colonists have already been taken there, and are engaged

in gold-seeking. On the north-west Tethys is shielded by the great

island of Cuba, which for a long time was regarded as a continent

because of its length. It is much longer than Hispaniola, and is

divided in the middle from east to west by the Tropic of Cancer.

Hispaniola and the other islands lying to the south of Cuba occupy

almost the whole intervening space between the Tropic of Cancer and

the equator. This is the zone which many of the ancients believed to

be depopulated because of the fierce heat of the sun: in which opinion

they were mistaken. It is claimed that mines, richer than those of

Hispaniola, have been found in Cuba and at the present writing it is

asserted that gold to the value of one hundred and eighty thousand

castellanos has been obtained there and converted into ingots;

certainly a positive proof of opulence.

[Note 2: Porto Rico.]

Jamaica lies still farther to the south and is a prosperous, fertile

island, of exceptional fecundity, in which, however, there does not

exist a single mountain. It is adapted to every kind of cultivation.

Its inhabitants are formidable because of their warlike temperament.

It is impossible to establish authority within the brief period since

its occupation. Columbus, the first discoverer, formerly compared

Jamaica to Sicily in point of size, but as a matter of fact it is

somewhat smaller, though not much. This is the opinion of those who

have carefully explored it. All these people agree as to its inviting

character. It is believed that neither gold nor precious stones will

be found there; but in the beginning the same opinion was held of

Cuba.

The island of Guadaloupe, formerly called by the natives Caraqueira,

lies south of Hispaniola, four degrees nearer to the equator. It is

thirty-five miles in circumference and its coast line is broken by two

gulfs, which almost divide it into two different islands, as is the

case with Great Britain and Caledonia, now called Scotland. It has

numerous ports. A kind of gum called by the apothecaries _animen

album_, whose fumes cure headaches, is gathered there. The fruit of

this tree is one palm long and looks like a carrot. When opened it is

found to contain a sweetish flour, and the islanders preserve these

fruits just as our peasants lay by a store of chestnuts and other

similar things for the winter. The tree itself might be a fig-tree.

The edible pineapple and other foods which I have carefully studied

above also grow in Guadaloupe, and it is even supposed that it was the

inhabitants of this island who originally carried the seeds of all

these delicious fruits to the other islands.

In conducting their man-hunts, the Caribs have scoured all the

neighbouring countries; and whatever they found that was likely to be

useful to them, they brought back for cultivation. These islanders

are inhospitable and suspicious, and their conquest can only be

accomplished by using force. Both sexes use poisoned arrows and are

very good shots; so that, whenever the men leave the island on an

expedition, the women defend themselves with masculine courage against

any assailants. It is no doubt this fact that has given rise to the

exploded belief that there are islands in this ocean peopled entirely

by women. The Admiral Columbus induced me to believe this tale and I

repeated it in my First Decade.

In the island of Guadaloupe there are mountains and fertile plains;

it is watered by beautiful streams. Honey is found in the trees and

crevices of the rocks, and, as is the case at Palma, one of the

Fortunate Isles, honey is gathered amongst briar and bramble bushes.

The island recently named La Deseada lies eighteen miles distant from

the former island, and is twenty miles in circumference.

There is another charming island lying ten miles to the south of

Guadaloupe, which is called Galante; its surface is level and it is

thirty miles in circumference. Its name was suggested by its beauty,

for, in the Spanish, dandies are called _galanes_.[3]

[Note 3: The island was, in reality, named after one of the ships

of Columbus.]

Nine miles to the east of Guadaloupe lie six other islands called

Todos Santos and Barbadas. These are only barren reefs, but mariners

are obliged to know them. Thirty-five miles north of Guadaloupe looms

the island called Montserrat, which is forty miles in circumference,

and is dominated by a very lofty mountain. An island called Antigua,

thirty miles distant from Guadaloupe, has a circumference of about

forty miles.

The Admiral Diego Columbus, son of the discoverer, told me that when

obliged to go to court he left his wife in Hispaniola, and that she

had written him that an island with rich gold deposits had been

discovered in the midst of the archipelago of the Caribs, but that it

had not yet been visited. Off the left coast of Hispaniola there lies

to the south and near to the port of Beata an island called Alta Vela.

Most astonishing things are told concerning sea monsters found there,

especially about the turtles, which are, so it is said, larger than a

large breast shield. When the breeding time arrives they come out of

the sea, and dig a deep hole in the sand, in which they deposit three

or four hundred eggs. When all their eggs are laid, they cover up the

hole with a quantity of earth sufficient to hide them, and go back to

their feeding grounds in the sea, without paying further heed to their

progeny. When the day, fixed by nature, for the birth of these

animals arrives, a swarm of turtles comes into the world, without the

assistance of their progenitors, and only aided by the sun's rays. It

looks like an ant-hill. The eggs are almost as large as those of a

goose, and the flavour of turtle meat is compared to veal.

There is a large number of other islands, but they are as yet unknown,

and moreover it is not required to sift al1 this meal so carefully

through the sieve. It is sufficient to know that we have in our

control immense countries where, in the course of centuries, our

compatriots, our language, our morals, and our religion will flourish.

It was not from one day to another that the Teucrians peopled Asia,

the Tyrians Libya, or the Greeks and Phoenicians Spain.

I do not mention the islands which protect the north of Hispaniola;

they have extensive fisheries and might be cultivated, but the

Spaniards avoid them because they are poor. And now adieu, ancient

Tethys:

Jam valeant annosa Tethys, nymphæque madentes,

Ipsius comites; veniat coronata superbe

Australis pelagi cultrix, re ac nomine dives.[4]

[Note 4: The following English translation for these lines has

been suggested:

Farewell, old Tethys, ocean goddess old;

Farewell thy company, the Nereid band;

And come thou, rich in name and pearls and gold

Crowned royally, Queen of the Southern strand.]

In the volume of letters I sent Your Holiness last year, by one of my

servants, and which Your Holiness has read in its entirety before the

Cardinals of the Apostolic See and your beloved sister, I related that

on the same day the Church celebrates the feast of St. Michael the

Archangel, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, the leader of the men who had

crossed the lofty mountain chain, had been told that an island

remarkable for the size of its pearls lay within sight of the coast

and that its king was rich and powerful and often made war against the

caciques whose states lay on the coast, especially Chiapes and Tumaco.

We have written that the Spaniards did not attack the island because

of the great storms which render that South Sea dangerous, during

three months of the year. This island has now been conquered and we

have tamed its proud cacique. May Your Holiness deign to accept him

and all his rich principalities, since he has now received the waters

of baptism. It will not be out of place to remember under whose orders

and by whom this conquest was effected. May Your Holiness attend with

serene brow and benignant ear to the account of this enterprise.

BOOK X

As soon as he landed, the governor, Pedro Arias, confided to a certain

Gaspar Morales an expedition to Isla Rica.[1] Morales first passed by

the country of Chiapes, called Chiapeios, and of Tumaco, those two

caciques along the South Sea who were friends of Vasco. He and his men

were received magnificently as friends, and a fleet was equipped for

attacking the island. This island is called Rica and not Margarita,

although many pearls are found there; for the name Margarita was first

bestowed upon another island near Paria and the region called Boca de

la Sierpe, where many pearls had likewise been found. Morales landed

upon the island with only sixty men, the dimensions of his boats,

called culches, not permitting him to take a larger number. The proud

and formidable king of the island, whose name I have not learned,

advanced to meet them, escorted by a large number of warriors, and

proffering menaces. Guazzaciara is their war-cry; when they utter this

cry, they let fly their javelins; they do not use bows. Guazzaciara

means a battle; so they engaged in four guazzaciaras, in which the

Spaniards, aided by their allies of Chiapes and Tumaco, who were that

chieftain's enemies, were victorious. Their attack was in the nature

of a surprise. The cacique wished to assemble a larger army, but

was dissuaded by his neighbours along the coast from continuing the

struggle. Some by their example, and others by threatening him with

the ruin of a flourishing country, demonstrated that the friendship of

the Spaniards would bring glory and profit to himself and his friends.

They reminded him of the misfortunes which had the preceding year

befallen Poncha, Pochorroso, Quarequa, Chiapes, Tumaco, and others who

attempted to resist. The cacique gave up fighting and came to meet

the Spaniards, whom he conducted to his palace, which was a veritable

royal residence marvellously decorated. Upon their arrival at his

house he presented them with a very well-wrought basket filled with

pearls of ten pounds weight, at eight ounces to the pound.

[Note 1: The description at this point is inaccurate and

misleading. The pearl islands number in all one hundred and

eighty-three, forming an archipelago. There are thirty-nine islands

of considerable size, of which the principal ones are San José, San

Miguel, and Isla del Rey; the others are small, some being no more

than reefs, or isolated rocks rising above the surface of the sea.]

The cacique was overjoyed when they presented him with their usual

trifles, such as glass beads, mirrors, copper bells, and perhaps some

iron hatchets, for the natives prize these things more than heaps of

gold. In fact, they even make fun of the Spaniards for exchanging such

important and useful articles for such a little gold. Hatchets can

be put to a thousand uses among them, while gold is merely a not

indispensable luxury. Pleased and enchanted by his bargains, the

cacique, took the captain and his officers by the hand and led them

to the top of one of the towers of his house from whence the view

embraced an immense horizon towards the sea. Looking about him, he

said: "Behold the infinite ocean which has no end towards the rising

sun." He pointed to the east, and afterwards turning to the south and

the west he gave them to understand that the continent, on which the

vast mountain ranges were perceptible in the distance, was very large.

Glancing about nearer to them, he said: "These islands lying to the

left and right along the two coasts of our residence belong to us.

They are all rich; they are all happy, if you call lands happy which

abound in gold and pearls. In this particular place there is not much

gold, but the shores of all these islands are strewn with pearls,

and I will give you as many as you want if you will be my friends. I

prefer your manufactures to my pearls, and I wish to possess them.

Therefore do not imagine that I desire to break off relations with

you."

Such were the words, amongst many others similar, they exchanged. When

the Spaniards planned to leave, the cacique promised to send each year

as a present to the great king of Castile a hundred pounds of pearls,

at eight ounces to the pound. He made this promise voluntarily,

attaching little importance to it, and in no way considering himself

their tributary.

There are so many rabbits and deer in that island that, without

leaving their houses, the Spaniards could kill as many as they chose

with their arrows. Their life there was luxurious, and nothing was

wanting. The royal residence lies only six degrees from the equator.

Yucca, maize bread, and wine made from grains and fruits, are the same

as at Comogra or amongst the other continental and insular tribes.

The cacique, Most Holy Father, was baptised with all his people who

are become as sheep under their shepherd to increase your flock.

Pedro Arias, the governor, wished to bestow his name upon them. The

friendship established increased, and the cacique, to assist the

Spaniards to regain the continent more easily, lent them his

fishermen's culches, that is to say barques dug out of treetrunks in

the native fashion. He also accompanied them to the shore.

After setting aside the fifth for the royal officials, the Spaniards

divided amongst themselves the pearls they had secured. They say they

are extremely valuable. Here is a proof of the great value of the

pearls from that island. Many of them are white and have a beautiful

orient, and are as large or even larger than a nut. What has quickened

my recollection is the remembrance of a pearl which the Sovereign

Pontiff, Paul, predecessor of Your Holiness, bought from a Venetian

merchant through the intermediary of my relative Bartolomeo the

Milanese, for forty-four thousand ducats. Now amongst the pearls

brought from the island there is one equal in size to an ordinary

nut. It was sold at auction and bought at Darien for twelve thousand

castellanos of gold, ending in the hands of the governor, Pedro Arias.

This precious pearl now belongs to his wife, of whom we have already

spoken at the time of his departure. We may assume, therefore, that

this pearl was the most precious of all, since it was valued so highly

amongst that mass of pearls which were bought, not singly, but by the

ounce. It is probable that the Venetian merchant had not paid such a

price in the East for the pearl of Pope Paul; but he lived at a time

when such objects were greedily sought and a lover of pearls was

waiting to swallow it.

Let us now say something of the shells in which pearls grow. Your

Beatitude is not ignorant of the fact that Aristotle, and Pliny who

followed the former in his theories, were not of the same opinion

concerning the growth of pearls. They held but one point in common,

and upon all others they differed. Neither would admit that pearl

oysters moved after they were once formed. They declare that there

exist at the bottom of the sea, meadows, as it were, upon which an

aromatic plant resembling thyme grows; they affirm they had seen these

fields. In such places these animals resembling oysters are born and

grow, engendering about them numerous progeny. They are not satisfied

to have one, three, four, or even more pearls, for as many as a

hundred and twenty pearls have been found in one shell on the

fisheries of that island; and the captain, Caspar Morales, and his

companions carefully counted them. While the Spaniards were there,

the cacique had his divers bring up pearls. The matrix of these pearl

oysters may be compared to the organ in which hens form their numerous

eggs. The pearls are produced in the following manner: as soon as they

are ripe and leave the womb of their mother, they are found detached

from the lips of the matrix. They follow one by one each in turn

detaching itself, after a brief interval. In the beginning the pearls

are enclosed, as it were, in the belly of the oyster, where they grow

just as a child while in the womb of its mother lives on the substance

of her body. Later on they leave the maternal asylum, where they were

hidden. The pearl oysters found--as I myself have seen from time to

time--upon the beach and imbedded in the sand on different Atlantic

coasts, have been cast up from the depths of the sea by storms, and do

not come there of themselves. Why brilliant morning dew gives a white

tint to pearls; why bad weather causes them to turn yellow; why they

like a clear sky, and remain immovable when it thunders, are questions

which cannot be examined with precision by those ignorant natives. It

is not a subject that can be treated by limited minds. It is further

said that the largest pearl oysters remain at the bottom, the commoner

ones in the half-depths, and the little ones near the surface; but

the reasons given to sustain this theory are poor ones. The immovable

mollusc does not reason about the choice of its home. Everything

depends on the determination, the ability, and the breath of the

divers. The large pearl oysters do not move about; they are created

and find their sustenance in the deepest places, for the number of

divers who venture to penetrate to the bottom of the sea to collect

them is few. They are afraid of polyps, which are greedy for oyster

meat and are always grouped about the places where they are. They are

likewise afraid of other sea-monsters, and most of all they fear to

suffocate if they stay too long under water. The pearl oysters in the

profoundest depths of the sea consequently have time to grow, and

the larger and older the shell becomes, the larger the pearls they

harbour, though in number they are few. Those born at the bottom of

the sea are believed to become food for the fish; when first gathered

they are soft, and the shape of the ear is different from the larger

ones. It is alleged that no pearl adheres to the shell as it grows

old, but there grows in the shell itself a sort of round and brilliant

lump which acquires lustre by filing. This, however, is not valuable,

and takes its nature rather from the shell than from the pearl. The

Spaniards call the tympanum _pati_.[2] Sometimes pearl oysters have

been found growing in small colonies upon rocks, but they are not

prized. It is credible that the oysters of India, Arabia, the Red Sea,

and Ceylon exist in the manner described by celebrated authors, nor

should the explanations given by such eminent writers be entirely

rejected; I speak of those who have been for a long time in

contradiction with one another.

[Note 2: _Pati appellat Hispanus tympanum_; a sentence for which

the translator has found no satisfactory meaning.]

We have already spoken enough about these sea-animals and their eggs,

which luxury-loving people stupidly prefer to the eggs of chickens or

ducks. Let us add some further details outside our subject.

We have above described the entrance to the Gulf of Uraba, and said

the different countries washed by its waters were strangely different

from one another. I have nothing new to relate of the western shore,

where the Spaniards established their colony on the banks of the

Darien River.

What I have recently learnt about the eastern shore is as follows:

the entire country lying to the east between the promontory and shore

which extend into the sea and receive the force of the waves, as far

as Boca de la Sierpe and Paria, is called by the general name of

Caribana. Caribs are found everywhere, and are called from the name of

their country,[3] but it is well to indicate from whence the Caribs

take their origin, and how, after leaving their country, they have

spread everywhere like a deadly contagion. Nine miles from the first

coast encountered coming from seawards where, as we have said, Hojeda

settled, stands in the province of Caribana a village called Futeraca;

three miles farther on is the village of Uraba, which gives its name

to the gulf and was formerly the capital of the kingdom. Six miles

farther on is the village of Feti, and at the ninth and twelfth miles

respectively stand the villages of Zeremoe and Sorachi, all thickly

populated. All the natives in these parts indulged in man-hunts, and

when there are no enemies to fight they practise their cruelties

on one another. From this place the infection has spread to the

unfortunate inhabitants of the islands and continent.

[Note 3: There are more theories than one concerning the origin of

the Caribs and their name. Among other writers who have treated this

subject may be cited Reville, in an article published in the _Nouvelle

Revue_, 1884, and Rochefort in his _Histoire naturelle et morale des

isles Antilles_.]

There is another fact I think I should not omit. A learned lawyer

called Corales, who is a judge at Darien, reported that he encountered

a fugitive from the interior provinces of the west, who sought refuge

with the cacique. This man, seeing the judge reading, started with

surprise, and asked through interpreters who knew the cacique's

language, "You also have books? You also understand the signs by which

you communicate with the absent?" He asked at the same time to look

at the open book, hoping to see the same characters used among his

people; but he saw the letters were not the same. He said that in his

country the towns were walled and the citizens wore clothing and were

governed by laws. I have not learned the nature of their religion, but

it is known from examining this fugitive, and from his speech, that

they are circumcised.[4] What, Most Holy Father, do you think of this?

What augury do you, to whose domination time will submit all peoples,

draw for the future?

[Note 4: ..._recutiti tamen dispræputiatique, ab exemplo et

sermone fugitivi confererunt_. The man may have been a Peruvian or

of the civilised plateau people of Cundinamarca. Wiener, in his

interesting work, _Perou et Bolivie_, studies the Peruvian system of

writing.]

Let us add to these immense considerations some matters of less

importance. I think that I should not omit mentioning the voyage of

Juan Solis,[5] who sailed from the ocean port of Lepe, near Cadiz,

with three ships, the fourth day of the ides of September, 1515, to

explore the southern coasts of what was supposed to be a continent.

Nor do I wish to omit mention of Juan Ponce,[6] commissioned to

conquer the Caribs, anthropophagi who feed on human flesh; or of

Juan Ayora de Badajoz, or Francisco Bezerra, and of Valleco, already

mentioned by me. Solis was not successful in his mission. He set out

to double the cape or promontory of San Augustin and to follow the

coast of the supposed continent as far as the equator. We have already

indicated that this cape lies in the seventh degree of the antarctic

pole. Solis continued six hundred leagues farther on, and observed

that the cape San Augustin extended so far beyond the equator to the

south that it reached beyond the thirtieth degree of the Southern

Hemisphere. He therefore sailed for a long distance beyond the Boca de

la Sierpe and Spanish Paria, which face the north and the pole star.

In these parts are found some of those abominable anthropophagi,

Caribs, whom I have mentioned before. With fox-like astuteness these

Caribs feigned amicable signs, but meanwhile prepared their stomachs

for a succulent repast; and from their first glimpse of the strangers

their mouths watered like tavern trenchermen. The unfortunate Solis

landed with as many of his companions as he could crowd into the

largest of the barques, and was treacherously set upon by a multitude

of natives who killed him and his men with clubs in the presence of

the remainder of his crew.[7] Not a soul escaped; and after having

killed and cut them in pieces on the shore, the natives prepared to

eat them in full view of the Spaniards, who from their ships witnessed

this horrible sight. Frightened by these atrocities, the men did not

venture to land and execute vengeance for the murder of their leader

and companions. They loaded their ships with red wood, which the

Italians call verzino and the Spaniards brazil-wood, and which is

suitable for dyeing wool; after which they returned home. I have

learned these particulars by correspondence, and I here repeat them. I

shall further relate what the other explorers accomplished.

[Note 5: Juan Diaz de Solis, a native of Sebixa, sailed with

Vincente Yañez Pinzon in 1508, when the mouths of the Amazon were

discovered. In 1512, the King appointed him and Giovanni Vespucci his

cartographers.]

[Note 6: Governor in 1508 of Porto Rico and later, in 1512, the

discoverer of Florida, of which country he was appointed Adelantado by

King Ferdinand. He died in Cuba in 1521, from the effects of a wound

received during his expedition to Florida in that year.]

[Note 7: The scene of this massacre was between Maldonado and

Montevideo.]

Juan Ponce likewise endured a severe check from the cannibals on the

island of Guadaloupe, which is the most important of all the Carib

islands. When these people beheld the Spanish ships, they concealed

themselves in a place from which they could spy upon all the movements

of the people who might land. Ponce had sent some women ashore to wash

some shirts and linen, and also some foot-soldiers to obtain fresh

water, for he had not seen land after leaving the island of Ferro in

the Canaries until he reached Guadaloupe, a distance of four thousand

two hundred miles. There is no island in the ocean throughout the

entire distance. The cannibals suddenly attacked and captured the

women, dispersing the men, a small number of whom managed to escape.

Ponce did not venture to attack the Caribs, fearing the poisoned

arrows which these barbarous man-eaters use with fatal effect.

This excellent Ponce who, as long as he was in a place of safety, had

boasted that he would exterminate the Caribs, was constrained to leave

his washerwomen and retreat before the islanders. What he has since

done, and what discoveries he may have made, I have not yet learned.

Thus Solis lost his life, and Ponce his honour, in carrying out their

expeditions.

Another who failed miserably in his undertaking the same year is Juan

Ayora de Cordova, a nobleman sent out as judge, as we have elsewhere

said, and who was keener about accumulating a fortune than he was

about administering his office, and deserving praise. Under some

pretext or other he robbed several caciques and extorted gold from

them, in defiance of all justice. It is related that he treated them

so cruelly that, from being friends, they became implacable enemies,

and driven to extremities they massacred the Spaniards, sometimes

openly and sometimes by setting traps for them. In places where

formerly trade relations were normal and the caciques friendly, it

became necessary to fight. When, so it is said, he had amassed a large

amount of gold by such means, Ayora fled on board a ship he suddenly

procured, and it is not known at this present writing where he landed.

There are not wanting people who believe that the governor himself,

Pedro Arias, closed his eyes to this secret flight; for Juan Ayora

is a brother of Gonzales Ayora, the royal historiographer, who is a

learned man, an excellent captain, and so intimate with the governor

that he and Pedro Arias may be cited amongst the rare pairs of friends

known to us. I am in very close relations with both of them, and may

they both pardon me; but amidst all the troubles in the colonies,

nothing has displeased me so much as the cupidity of this Juan Ayora,

which troubled the public peace of the colonies and alienated the

caciques.

Let us now come to the tragic adventures of Gonzales de Badajoz

and his companions. In the beginning fortune smiled upon them, but

sufficiently sad changes very quickly followed. Gonzales left Darien

with forty soldiers in the month of March of the preceding year, 1515,

and marched straight to the west, stopping nowhere until he reached

the region the Spaniards have named Gracias á Dios, as we have above

stated. This place is about a hundred and eighty miles, or sixty

leagues from Darien. They passed several days there doing nothing,

because the commander was unable either by invitations, bribes, or

threats to induce the cacique to approach him, although he desired

very much to accomplish this. While camping here he was joined by

fifteen adventurers from Darien, under the leadership of Luis Mercado

who had left that colony in May, wishing to join Gonzales in exploring

the interior. As soon as the two groups met, they decided to cross the

southern mountain chain and take possession of the South Sea already

discovered. The most extraordinary thing of all is, that on a

continent of such length and breadth, the distance to the South Sea

was not more than fifty-one miles, or seventeen leagues. In Spain

people never count by miles; the land league equals three miles, and

the marine league four miles. When they reached the summit of the

mountain chain, which is the watershed, they found there a cacique

called Javana. Both the country and its ruler bear the name of Coiba,

as we have already stated is the case, at Careta. As the country of

Javana is the richest of all in gold, it is called Coiba Rica. And in

fact, wherever one digs, whether on dry land or in the river-beds,

the sand is found to contain gold. The cacique Javana fled when the

Spaniards approached, nor was it possible to overtake him. They then

set to work to ravage the neighbourhood of his town, but found

very little gold, for the cacique had taken with him in his flight

everything he possessed. They found, however, some slaves who were

branded in a painful fashion. The natives cut lines in the faces of

the slaves, using a sharp point either of gold or of a thorn; they

then fill the wounds with a kind of powder dampened with black or

red juice, which forms an indelible dye and never disappears. The

Spaniards took these slaves with them. It seems that this juice is

corrosive and produces such terrible pain that the slaves are unable

to eat on account of their sufferings. Both the kings who originally

captured these slaves in war, and also the Spaniards, put them to work

hunting gold or tilling the fields.

Leaving the town of Javana, the Spaniards followed the watershed for

ten miles, and entered the territory of another chief, whom they

called the "Old Man," because they were heedless of his name and took

notice only of his age. Everywhere in the country of this cacique,

both in the riverbeds and in the soil, gold was found. Streams were

abundant and the county was everywhere rich and fertile. Leaving that

place, the Spaniards marched for five days through a desert country

which they thought had been devastated by war, for though the greater

part of it was fertile, it was neither inhabited nor cultivated.

On the fifth day they perceived in the distance two heavily laden

natives, approaching them. Marching upon them, they captured the men,

and found that they were carrying sacks of maize on their shoulders.

From the answers of these men they gathered that there were two

caciques in these regions, one on the coast, called Periqueta, another

in the interior, called Totonogo; the latter being blind. These two

men were fishermen who had been sent by their cacique Totonogo, to

Periqueta, with a burden of fish, which they had traded for bread.[8]

Trade is thereabouts carried on by exchange in kind, and not by means

of gold, which claims so many victims. Led by these two natives, the

Spaniards reached the country of Totonogo, the cacique whose country

extends along the west side of the gulf of San Miguel on the south

sea. This chieftain gave them six thousand castellanos of gold, partly

in ingots and partly worked; amongst the former was one which weighed

two castellanos, proving that gold exists in abundance in this region.

[Note 8: There has evidently at some time been an error of

transcription: the cacique Totonogo, who is first mentioned as ruling

along the sea-coast, is now described as sending fish to his neighbour

Periqueta.]

Following along the western coast, the Spaniards visited the cacique

Taracuru, from whom they obtained eight thousand pesos; a peso, as we

have already said, corresponding to an unminted castellano. They next

marched into the country of his brother Pananome, who fled and was

seen no more. His subjects declared the country to be rich in gold.

The Spaniards destroyed his residence. Six leagues farther on they

came to the country of another cacique called Tabor, and then to that

of another called Cheru. The latter received the Spaniards amicably,

and offered them four thousand pesos. He possesses valuable salt

deposits, and the country is rich in gold. Twelve miles farther they

came to another cacique called Anata, from whom they obtained twelve

thousand pesos, which the cacique had captured from neighbouring

chieftains whom he had conquered. This gold was even scorched, because

it had been carried out of the burning houses of his enemies. These

caciques rob and massacre one another, and destroy their villages,

during their atrocious wars. They give no quarter, and the victors

make a clean sweep of everything.[9]

[Note 9: This was everywhere the case on the mainland; while it

does not excuse the cruelties inflicted by the Spaniards upon the

native populations in their rapacious struggle for wealth, it may

temper the undiscriminating sympathy of the emotional to reflect that

oppression, torture, extortion, and slavery, not to mention human

sacrifices and cannibalism were practised among them with a hideous

ingenuity upon which no refinement introduced by the Spaniards could

improve.]

In this wise the excellent Gonzales de Badajoz and his companions

wandered, without any fixed plan, until they came to the territory

of Anata; and during their journey they had collected piles of gold,

girdles, women's breast ornaments, earrings, headdresses, necklaces,

and bracelets, to the value of eighty thousand castellanos more. This

they had acquired, either by trading their merchandise or by pillage

and violence; for the majority of the caciques had opposed their

passage and had sought to resist them. They had in addition forty

slaves, whom they used as beasts of burden to carry their provisions

and baggage, and also to care for the sick.

The Spaniards traversed the country of a cacique, Scoria, and arrived

at the residence of another called Pariza. They did not expect to be

attacked, but the cacique closed about them with a great number of

armed men, surprising them at a moment when they were off their guard

and scattered. They had no time to seize their weapons; seventy of

them were wounded or killed, and the rest fled, abandoning their gold

and all their slaves. Very few of them ever came back to Darien.

The opinion of all the sages upon the vicissitudes of fortune and the

inconstancy of human affairs would prove unfounded if this expedition

had terminated profitably and happily; but the ordering of events is

inevitable, and those who tear up the roots, sometimes find sweet

liquorice and sometimes bitter cockle. Woe, however, to Pariza! for he

shall not long rest quietly. This great crime will soon be avenged.

The governor was preparing to lead a campaign against him in person at

the head of three hundred and fifty men when he fell ill. The learned

jurisconsult, Caspar Espinosa, royal judge at Darien, took his place

and acted as his lieutenant; at the same time the Spaniards sent to

the island called Rica to collect the tribute of pearls imposed upon

its cacique. We shall in due course learn what happened.

Other leaders marched against the dwellers on the other side of the

gulf; one of whom, Francisco Bezerra, crossed the head of the gulf and

the mouth of the Dabaiba River. His band consisted of two officers and

a hundred and fifty well-armed soldiers. His plan was to attack the

Caribs in the country of Caribana itself. He first marched against the

village of Turufy, of which I have spoken when describing the arrival

of Hojeda. He was provided with engines of war, three cannon firing

lead bullets larger than an egg, forty archers, and twenty-five

musketeers. It was planned to fire upon the Caribs from a distance

because they fight with poisoned arrows. It is not yet known where

Bezerra landed nor what he did; but it was feared at Darien when the

vessels were leaving for Spain, that his expedition had turned out

badly.

Another captain, called Vallejo, carried on operations along the lower

part of the gulf, crossing over by another route than that taken by

Bezerra; thus one of them menaced Caribana from the front and the

other from behind. Vallejo has come back, but out of seventy men he

took with him, forty-eight wounded were left in the power of the

Caribs. This is the story told by those who reached Darien, and I

repeat it.

On the eve of the ides of October of this year, 1516, Roderigo

Colmenares, whom I have above mentioned, and a certain Francisco de la

Puente belonging to the troop commanded by Gonzales de Badajoz came to

see me. The latter was amongst those who escaped the massacre executed

by the cacique Pariza. Colmenares himself left Darien for Spain after

the vanquished arrived. Both of them report, one from hearsay and the

other from observation, that a number of islands lie in the South Sea

to the west of the gulf of San Miguel and the Isla Rica and that on

these islands trees, bearing the same fruits as in the country of

Calicut, grow and are cultivated. It is from the countries of Calicut,

Cochin, and Camemor that the Portuguese procure spices. Thus it is

thought that not far from the colony of San Miguel begins the country

where spices grow. Many of those who have explored these regions only

await the authorisation to sail from that coast of the South Sea;

and they offer to build ships at their own cost, if they only be

commissioned to seek for the spice lands. These men think that ships

should be built in the gulf of San Miguel itself, and that the idea of

following the coast in the direction of Cape San Augustin should be

abandoned, as that route would be too long, too difficult, and too

dangerous. Moreover it would take them beyond the fortieth degree of

the southern hemisphere.

This same Francisco, who shared the labours and the perils of Gonzales

says, that in exploring those countries he saw veritable herds of deer

and wild boar, of which he captured many in the native fashion by

digging ditches across the trails followed by these animals and

covering them over with branches; this is the native method of

trapping these wild quadrupeds. In catching birds they use doves just

as we do. They tie a tame dove in the trees, and the birds of each

species which flock about it are then shot with arrows. Another way is

by spreading a net in an open space, sprinkling food round about it,

and placing the tame dove in the middle. The same system is used with

parrots and other birds. The parrots are so stupid that, while one

chatters on a tree in whose branches the bird-catcher is concealed,

the others flock thither, and allow themselves to be easily caught.

They are not frightened when they see the bird-catcher, but sit

looking until the noose is thrown round their necks. Even when they

see one of their companions captured and thrown into the hunter's bag,

they do not fly away.

There is another system of bird-hunting which is quite original and

diverting to relate. We have already stated that there exist in the

islands, and especially at Hispaniola, stagnant lakes and ponds upon

whose waters flutters a whole world of aquatic birds, because those

waters are covered with grasses, and little fish and a thousand

varieties of frogs, worms, and insects live in that liquid mud. The

work of corruption and generation ordained by the secret decree

of providence is promoted in these depths by the heat of the sun.

Different species of birds swarm in these waters: ducks, geese, swans,

divers, gulls, sea-mews, and countless similar.

We have elsewhere related that the natives cultivate a tree in their

gardens, whose fruit resembles a large gourd. The natives throw a

large quantity of these gourds into the ponds, after having carefully

stopped up the holes by which water is introduced into them, to

prevent their sinking. These gourds, floating about on the water,

inspire the birds with confidence; the hunter then covers his head

with a sort of cask made of a gourd, one in which there are little

holes for his eyes, like in a mask. He wades into the water up to his

chin, for from their infancy they are all accustomed to swim, and do

not fear to remain a long time in the water. As the birds find the

gourd which conceals the hunter similar to all the others floating

about, the man is able to approach the flock. Imitating with his head

the movements of the floating gourd, he follows the little waves

produced by the wind, and gradually approaches the birds. Stretching

out his right hand he seizes a bird by the foot, and without being

seen, quickly jerks it under the water and thrusts it into a bag he

carries. The other birds imagining their companion has dived in search

of food, as they all do, fearlessly continue their movements, and in

their turns become victims of the hunter.

I interrupted my narrative with this description of bird-hunting and

other sport, in order that these harmless tales might divert you from

the horror you must have felt in reading the story of so many crimes.

I should still like to speak to you concerning a new theory of the

current which drives the waters of the gulf of Paria towards the west;

and also of the system of gold-mining in Darien. These are particulars

which have just recently been furnished me. After this dual report,

which will be in no sense tragic, I shall take leave of Your Holiness.

The Captain Andreas Morales and Oviedo, whom I have above mentioned,

came to visit me at Madrid, or to be more accurate, at Mantua

Carpetana; and in my presence they had a discussion on the subject of

this current. They agree that the Spanish possessions extend without

interruption towards the northern lands behind Cuba and the other

islands, and to the north-west of Hispaniola and Cuba; but they do not

hold the same opinion concerning the current. Andreas claims that the

force of these waters is broken by the great body of land believed to

be a continent, and which, as we have said, bends towards the north,

in such wise that, breaking against these obstacles, the waters turn

in a circle and are driven towards the northern coasts of Cuba and the

other lands lying outside the Tropic of Cancer. Thus, these waters,

which flow from narrow straits are absorbed, as it were, in the

immensity of the ocean, and their force is diminished as they spread

through immense spaces where they ultimately disappear. I might

compare this current to the eddies of water in a mill-race. Water

flowing, no matter how rapidly, through a narrow canal, and afterwards

falling into a lake, at once spreads out; the volume is broken, and

although an instant before it flowed riotously, and seemed capable of

sweeping away every obstacle, it is calmed. Even the direction of the

current is no longer perceptible. I once questioned Admiral Diego

Columbus, son and heir of the discoverer, who had crossed these seas,

coming and going, four times. When asked his opinion, he answered: "It

is difficult to return as one went; but upon sailing northwards on

the open ocean to return to Spain, the movement in the waters driving

towards the east is very perceptible. I think this is probably due to

the ordinary influence of ebb and flow, and should not be attributed

to those eddyings of the waters. The continent is open, and there must

exist between the two bodies a strait through which these turbulent

waters escape to the west. In obedience to a decree of Heaven, they

circulate throughout the entire universe."

Oviedo agrees with Andreas in thinking that the continent is closed,

but he does not believe that this western mass of the continent breaks

the current, driving it into the vast ocean. He likewise affirms that

he has carefully noted that the current running westwards, takes its

rise in the open sea; when following along the coast in small ships,

it is the current running eastwards that is struck, so that one may

be transported in two opposite directions at the same spot. This is

a phenomenon which may frequently be observed in rivers, where the

conformation of the banks gives rise to whirlpools. If straws or bits

of wood are thrown into the river at such a place, those which fall

into the middle are carried away by the current; on the contrary,

those which drop into some bend along the shore or by a slanting bank,

go up the current until they again drift into the middle of the river.

Such are their opinions, and I repeat them, although they are in

contradiction. We shall form no well-grounded opinion until the true

cause of this phenomenon has been verified. Meanwhile it is only

possible to set forth these different theories, until the day fixed

and the astronomical moment for the discovery of this secret of Nature

shall arrive. But enough concerning these pelagic currents.

Some few more words about gold mines at Darien, and we shall have

accomplished our task.

We have said that nine miles from Darien begin the hills and plains

containing gold deposits, either in the earth or in the bed or the

banks of the rivers. Any one who has been bitten by the gold fever

usually sets out as follows: the directors assign him a parcel of

ground twelve paces square, which he may choose as he pleases, on

condition that it is not land that has already been occupied or

abandoned by his companions. When he has made his choice, he settles

on that spot with his slaves, as though within a temple, whose limits

the Augurs have traced with their sacred staves. The Christians use

native labour both in the mines and in agriculture. This plot of land

may be held as long as the occupant wishes; and in case no gold, or

very little, should be found there, a request for a fresh square of

like dimensions is presented, and the parcel of abandoned land reverts

to the common demesne. This is the order followed by the colonists of

Darien who are engaged in gold-seeking. I think it is the same for the

others, but I have not questioned all of them. Sometimes such a parcel

of twelve paces square has netted its possessor the sum of eighty

castellanos. Such is the life people lead to satisfy the sacred hunger

for gold;[10] but the richer one becomes by such work, the more does

one desire to possess. The more wood is thrown on the fire, the more

it crackles and spreads. The sufferer from dropsy, who thinks to

appease his thirst by drinking, only excites it the more. I have

suppressed many details to which I may later return if I learn that

they afford pleasure to Your Holiness, charged with the weight of

religious questions and sitting at the summit of the honours to which

men may aspire. It is in no sense for my personal pleasure that I have

collected these facts, for only the desire to please Your Beatitude

has induced me to undertake this labour.

[Note 10: _Sic vivitur in sacra fame auri explenda_.]

May Providence, which watches over this world, grant to Your Holiness

many happy years.

END OF VOL. I.