the products they harvest and eat. They are brutal. They delight in exaggerating their defects. There is no obedience among them, or deference on the part of the young for the old, nor of the son for the father. They are incapable of learning. Punishments have no effect upon them. Traitorous, cruel, and vindictive, they never forgive. Most hostile to religion, idle, dishonest, abject, and vile, in their judgments they keep no faith or law. Husbands observe no fidelity towards their wives, nor the wives towards their husbands. Liars, superstitious, and cowardly as hares. They eat fleas, spiders, and worms raw, whenever they find them. They exercise none of the humane arts or industries. When taught the mys teries of our religion, they say that these things may suit Castilians, but not them, and they do not wish to change their customs. They are beardless, and if sometimes hairs grow, they pull them out. They have no sympathy with the sick, and if one of them is gravely ill, his friends and neighbours carry him out into the mountains to die there. Putting a little food and water beside his head they go away. The older they get the worse they become. About the age of ten or twelve years, they seem to have some civilisation, but later they become like real brute beasts. I may therefore affirm that God has never created a race more full of vice and composed without the least mixture of kindness or culture. Now let peo ple judge what may be the root of such evil customs. We here speak of those whom we know by experience. Especially the father, Pedro de Cordoba, who has sent me these facts in writing, and I have discussed these things and agreed on this point and others I suppress; the Indians are more stupid than asses and refuse to improve in anything." In studying this and other similar documents, daily laid before us and carefully discussed by us, we observe, as we have said, that the oppressors have been punished for their cruelties. First of all, a large number of Spaniards have fallen victims to their rivalries for control. I have related their adventures in my preceding Decades, in speaking of the Pinzons, natives of the two Atlantic ports of Palos and Moguer in Andalusia, who, while exploring the vast coast of the continent and the banks of the marvellous Maragnon River, fell before the arrows of savage cannibals, were massacred, cut to bits, and served up in different dishes. The cannibals-likewise called Caribs are in fact anthropophagi. I have described the catastrophe of Solis, whom a similar fate overtook when exploring the other extremity of the continent. In consequence of this lamentable disaster, the name of Solis has been given to the maritime Gulf where Magellan stopped for a long time with his fleet. Such was the fate of Alonzo Hojeda and of Juan de la Cosa, who with a numerous band of soldiers explored the provinces of Cumaná, Cuchiibachoa, Cauchieta, and Uraba. They perished miserably, as did likewise Diego Nicuesa in command of about eight hundred soldiers whom he lost and for whom he searched along the coasts of Veragua and the western shores of the Gulf of Uraba. Juan Ponce, the first discoverer of Florida, was likewise mortally wounded by naked barbarians and returned to the island of Cuba to die. Many other leaders and soldiers fell before the onslaught of the cannibals and furnished great banquets for them; for it is proven that the Caribs frequently go several hundred miles from their shores in their fleets of canoes, engaging in regular man-hunts. The canoes are barques dug out of single tree-trunks; the Greeks called them monoxylon. Sometimes they will carry as many as eighty rowers. Finally I have mentioned Diego Velasquez, viceroy of Cuba, also called Fernandina, who, from his enormous riches, was reduced to poverty and has just died, and the quarrel with his mortal enemy, Fernando Cortes. Of all these captains, the only one who still survives, is Cortes. It is thought that he keeps a treasure of 3,000,000 pesos of gold in that great city of Temistitan which he conquered and ravaged. The Spanish peso is worth a quarter more than a ducat. Cortes is, in fact, master of many cities and lords, possessing an abundance of gold in their rivers and mountains. The richest silver mines are also his; but there is a vulgar proverb which may be applied to him, namely: De nummis, fide, sensu, multo minus in secessu reperiatur quam fama gerat." Time will tell. Juan Ribera, who knew the ambassador Tomas Maino, and Gillino, and was from his youth a representative of Cortes at court and shared all his dangers, asserts that his master is keeping back three thousand pesos which he wishes to send to his sovereign; but having been informed of the capture of several freighted ships by French pirates, he does not venture to send it. Large sums of gold, silver, sugar, and cinnamon-bark are stored on the continent, in Hispaniola, Cuba, and Jamaica. Stores of yellow and red wood, excellent for dyeing woollens, which the Italians call verzino and the Spaniards brazil, have been ready for a long time. Hispaniola is covered with forests of these trees, as commonly as pine or oak woods with us. We have debated in our India Council what measures should be taken for the protection of the ships; acting upon our decision and advice the Emperor has decided and commanded that all freighted ships should go to Hispaniola, the most important of our maritime possessions. From this island a strong fleet, consisting of all ' Cortes lived for twenty years after the demise of Peter Martyr, dying in Spain in 1547. He fell into disfavour and the last years of his life were embittered by disappointments, false accusations, and endless litigation which seriously impaired his fortunes. Of money, faith, and sense much less is found in reality than is reported. the ships there collected, will start, prepared to defend themselves against the attacks of any pirates they encounter. What will happen to this fleet, divine providence alone can tell. It is alleged that Cortes has had two cannon' cast in gold, capable of firing wooden bullets the size of little tennis balls; but I believe he has only done this out of ostentation, for, according to my opinion, gold could not withstand the force of an explosion. Perhaps this tale is an invention to injure him; for the exploits of this hero are constantly presented in a false light by the envious. There was but one such cannon or culverin and it was of silver. It weighed twenty-three hundredweight: it was ornamented with a phenix underneath which was the following inscription: Aquesta nació sin par, Yo en serviros sin segundo; WH BOOK V HILE engaged in writing the preceding, I learned that four vessels coming from the Indies had reached the coast of Spain. We do not yet know what riches they contain. The Royal Council of Hispaniola has sent a report to the Emperor on the subject of a recent painful and lamentable incident which it is feared may have hurtful consequences. I have already spoken at length concerning Francisco de Garay, governor of Jamaica, in letters I addressed to Pope Adrian, and which were carried to Rome by Giacomo Pierio. Francisco de Garay had already twice essayed to found a colony on the Panuco River, which gives its name to the country, the cacique, and all the neighbouring regions bounding on the vassal states of Temistitan. Both times he had been repulsed by the inhabitants, although they are almost naked. The preceding year he renewed his attempt, with eleven ships manned by more than five hundred soldiers and many horsemen. He had been granted royal letters patent authorising him to found the colony he desired on the banks of that river. The Panuco is a broad river, navigable for large ships, and serves as a port-all the regions dependent upon Temistitan being without ports and affording vessels very imperfect protection Garay and his companions succeeded in landing, but they had suffered from violent storms at sea, and evil |