length of the continent over which your authority is destined to extend. Some day we shall doubtless clearly understand its width.

Let us now discourse a little concerning the variety of polar degrees. Although this continent extends from east to west, it is nevertheless so crooked, with its point bending so much to the south, that it loses sight of the polar star, and extends seven degrees beyond the equinoctial line. This extremity of the continent is, as we have already said, within the limits of Portuguese jurisdiction. In returning from that extremity towards Paria, the north star again becomes visible; the farther the country extends towards the west, the nearer does it approach the pole. The Spaniards made different calculations up to the time when they were established at Darien, where they founded their principal colony; for they abandoned Veragua, where the north star stood eight degrees above the horizon. Beyond Veragua the coast bends in a northerly direction, to a point opposite the Pillars of Hercules; that is, if we accept for our measures certain lands discovered by the Spaniards more than three hundred and twenty-five leagues from the northern coast of Hispaniola. Amongst these countries is an island called by us Boinca, and by others Aganeo; it is celebrated for a spring whose waters restore youth to old men.' Let not Your Holiness believe this to be a hasty or foolish opinion, for the story has been most seriously told to all the court, and made such an impression that the entire populace, and even people superior by birth and influence, accepted it as a proven fact. If you ask me my opinion on this matter, I will answer that I do not believe any such power exists in creative nature, for I think that God reserves to himself this prerogative, as well as that of reading the hearts of men, or of granting wealth to those

The reference is to the fabulous waters of eternal youth in quest of which Juan Ponce de Leon set forth. The country is Florida.

who have nothing; unless, that is to say, we are prepared to believe the Colchian fable concerning the renewal of Æson and the researches of the sibyl of Erythræa.

We have now discoursed sufficiently of the length and the breadth of this continent, of its rugged mountains and watercourses, as well of its different regions.

It seems to me I should not omit mention of the misfortunes that have overtaken some of our compatriots. When I was a child, my whole being quivered and I was stirred with pity in thinking of Virgil's Alchimenides who, abandoned by Ulysses in the land of the Cyclops, sustained life during the period between the departure of Ulysses and the arrival of Æneas, upon berries and seeds. The Spaniards of Nicuesa's colony of Veragua would certainly have esteemed berries and seeds delicious eating. Is it necessary to quote as an extraordinary fact that an ass's head was bought for a high price? Why do many such things, similar to those endured during a siege, matter? When Nicuesa decided to abandon this sterile and desolate country of Veragua, he landed at Porto Bello and on the coast which has since been named Cape Marmor, hoping to there find a more fertile soil. But such a terrible famine overtook his companions that they did not shrink from eating the carcasses of mangy dogs they had brought with them for hunting and as watch-dogs. These dogs were of great use to them in fighting with the Indians. They even ate the dead bodies of massacred Indians, for in that country there are no fruit-trees nor birds as in Darien, which explains why it is destitute of inhabitants. Some of them combined to buy an emaciated, starving dog, paying its owner a number of golden pesos or castellanos. They skinned the dog and ate him, throwing his mangy hide and head into the neighbouring bushes. On the following day a Spanish foot-soldier finding the skin, which was already swarming

He

with worms and half putrid, carried it away with him. cleaned off the worms and, after cooking the skin in a pot, he ate it. A number of his companions came with their bowls to share the soup made from that skin, each offering a castellano of gold for a spoonful of soup. A Castilian who caught two toads cooked them, and a man who was ill bought them for food, paying two shirts of linen and spun gold which were worth quite six castellanos. One day the dead body of an Indian who had been killed by the Spaniards was found on the plain, and although it was already putrefying, they secretly cut it into bits which they afterwards boiled or roasted, assuaging their hunger with that meat as though it were peacock. During several days a Spaniard, who had left camp at night and lost his way amongst the swamps, ate such vegetation as is found in marshes. He finally succeeded in rejoining his companions, crawling along the ground and half dead. Such are the sufferings which these wretched colonists of Veragua endured.

At the beginning there were over seven hundred, and when they joined the colonists at Darien hardly more than forty remained. Few had perished in fighting with the Indians; it was hunger that had exhausted and killed them. With their blood they paved the way for those who follow, and settle in those new countries. Compared with these people, the Spaniards under Nicuesa's leadership would seem to be bidden to nuptial festivities, for they set out by roads, which are both new and secure, towards unexplored countries where they will find inhabitants and harvests awaiting them. We are still ignorant where the captain Pedro Arias, commanding the royal fleet, has landed; if I learn that it will afford Your

This Decade was written towards the end of the year 1514, but although Pedro Arias had landed on June 29th, no news of his movements had yet reached Spain. The slowness and uncertainty of communication must be constantly borne in mind by readers.

Holiness pleasure, I shall faithfully report the continuation of events.

From the Court of the Catholic King, the eve of the nones of December, 1514, Anno Domini.