Our Men Lay
Upon Their Oars And Endeavoured To Pacify Them, Which They At Length
Accomplished, And They Drew Near To Exchange Their Gold Plates, Some For
Two, And Others For Three Horse Bells, By Which Means We Procured Sixteen
Gold Plates Worth 150 Ducats.
Next day, being Friday the 19th of October,
the boats went again towards the land, intending to barter; but
Before
going on shore, they called to some Indians who were under certain bowers
or huts, which they had made during the night to defend their country,
fearing the Christians might land to injure them. Though our people called
long and loud, none of the Indians would approach, nor would the
Christians venture to land till they knew what were the intentions of the
Indians; for it afterwards appeared that the Indians waited to fall upon
our people as soon as they might land. But perceiving that they came not
out of the boats, they blew their horns and beat their drum, and ran into
the water as they had done the day before, till they came almost up to the
boats, brandishing their javelins in a hostile manner. Offended at this
proceeding, and that the Indians might not be so bold and despise them,
the Christians at last wounded one of them in the arm with an arrow, and
fired a cannon to intimidate them, on which they all scampered away to the
land. After this four Spaniards landed and called the Indians to come back,
which they now did very quietly, leaving their arms behind them; and they
bartered three gold plates, saying they had no more with them, as they had
not come prepared for trade but for war.
The only object of the admiral in this voyage being to discover the
country, and to procure samples of its productions, he proceeded without
farther delay to Catiba, and cast anchor in the mouth of a great river.
The people of the country were seen to gather, calling one another
together with horns and drums, and they afterwards sent two men in a canoe
towards the ships; who, after some conversation with the Indians who had
been taken at Cariari, came on board the admiral without any signs of
apprehension, and by the advice of the Cariari Indians gave the admiral
two gold plates which they wore about their necks, for which he gave them
some baubles in return. When these went on shore, there came another with
three men, wearing gold plates at their necks, who parted with them as the
others had done. Amity being thus settled, our men went on shore, where
they found numbers of people along with their king, who differed in
nothing from the rest, except that he was covered with one large leaf of a
tree to defend him from the rain which then fell in torrents. To give his
subjects a good example, he bartered away his gold plate, and bade them
exchange theirs with our men, so that they got nineteen in all of pure
gold. This was the first place in the Indies where our people had seen any
sign of building, as they here found a great mass of wall or masonry that
seemed to be composed of stone and lime, and the admiral ordered a piece
of it to be brought away as a memorial or specimen. From thence we sailed
eastwards to Cobravo, the people of which place dwell near the rivers of
that coast; and because none of the natives came down to the strand, and
the wind blew fresh, he held on his course to five towns of great trade,
among which was Veragua, where the Indians said the gold was gathered and
the plates manufactured.
The next day he came to a town called Cubiga, where the Indians of Cariari
said that the trading country ended; this began at Carabora and extended
to Cubiga for 50 leagues along the coast. Without making any stay here,
the admiral proceeded on till he put into Porto Bello, to which he gave
that name because it is large, well peopled, and encompassed by a finely
cultivated country. He entered this place on the 2d of November, passing
between two small islands within which ships may lie close to the shore,
and can turn it out if they have occasion. The country about that harbour
and higher up is by no means rough, but cultivated and full of houses a
stone throw or a bow-shot only from each other, and forms the finest
landscape that can be imagined. We continued there seven days on account
of rain and bad weather, and canoes came constantly to the ships from all
the country round to trade with provisions and bottoms of fine spun cotton,
which they gave in exchange for points and pins and other trifles.
On Wednesday the ninth of November we sailed from Porto Bello eight
leagues to the eastwards, but were driven back four leagues next day by
stress of weather, and put in among some islands near the continent where
the town of Nombre de Dios now stands; and because all these small islands
were full of grain, the admiral called this place Puerto de Bastimentos,
or Port of Provisions. While here one of our boats pursued a canoe, and
the Indians imagining our men would do them some harm, and perceiving the
boat within less than a stones throw of them, they leapt into the sea to
swim away, which they all effected; for though the boat rowed hard it
could not overtake any of them, or if it did come up with one he would
dive like a duck and come up again a bow-shot or two distant. This chase
lasted above half a league, and it was very pleasant to see the boat
labour in vain and come back empty handed.
We continued here till the 23d of November, refitting the ships and
mending our casks, and sailed that day to a place called Guiga, there
being another of the same name between Veragua and Cerago.
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