Of north
latitude, they discovered a group, consisting of many small low islands,
covered with grass, and full of palm trees, to which they gave the name of
_Los Jardines_, or the gardens[63]. Saavedra came to anchor in the midst
of these islands, where he remained several days, and concluded that the
people had come originally from China, but had, by long residence,
degenerated into lawless savages, using no labour or industry. They wear a
species of white cloth, made of grass, and are quite ignorant of fire,
which put them in great terror. Instead of bread they eat cocoas, which
they pull unripe, burying them for some days in the sand, and then laying
them in the sun, which causes them to open. They eat fish also, which they
catch from a kind of boat called _parao_, or _proa_, which they construct
with tools made of shells, from pine wood that is drifted at certain times
to their islands, from some unknown regions. The wind and weather becoming
more favourable for his return to New Spain, Saavedra resumed his voyage
thither, intending to have gone to Panama, to unload the cloves and other
merchandize he had brought from the Moluccas. His purpose was to have
carried this merchandize in carts from Panama, about four leagues, or
sixteen miles overland, to the river Chagre, which is said to be navigable,
and which discharges itself into the North Sea not far from Nombre de Dios,
where the goods could be reshipped for Spain; by which means all kind of
goods might be brought from India in a shorter time, and with less danger,
than by sailing round the Cape of Good Hope, as the voyage from the
Moluccas to Panama is almost a perfectly straight course between the line
and the tropics.
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