o 5,000 feet, there reigns
perpetually a soft spring temperature, which never varies more than 10 deg.
Fahr. The natives give to this region the name of _Tierras templadas_
("temperate country"), in which the mean heat of the whole year
is about 70 deg. Fahr. The plains elevated more than 7,000 feet above
the sea level are called _Tierras frias_ ("cold regions"), where
the mean temperature is under 62 deg. Fahr. See Humboldt's _New Spain_
(Black's trans.), i, pp. 64-67.

The name Tierra Firme was applied not only to the northern part of
the South American continent, but to a definite region which extended
from the middle of the Gulf of Darien to Cape Gracias a Dios. It was
at first called Darien, and Castilla del Oro.

[15] Span., _de no aver pies ni cabeza_, "as he had neither feet
nor head."

[16] Cauchi is a phonetic form of Kuchi, the Malay appellation of the
region known in recent years as Cochin-China, now a part of French
Indo-China. Camboja is a better form of the name usually written
Cambodia, also a part of French Indo-China; Sian is but a variant of
Siam. Patani and Pahang are Malayan states on the eastern side of the
Malay Peninsula. Jabas is a corruption of Jawa (now commonly written
Java), the name of the principal nation inhabiting the island--the
most civilized and moral of the Malayan peoples. Samatra is only a
variant of Sumatra--the largest island, next to Borneo, of the Malayan
archipelago. Achin (or Achen) and Manangkabo (Manancabo) are states
in the island of Sumatra; and Batachina evidently means "land of the
Bataks," a tribe of cannibals dwelling near Achin. See Crawfurd's
_Dictionary_ for valuable information regarding all these regions.

[17] The three great military orders then vested in the crown of
Spain--those of Santiago, Alcantara, and Calatrava.

[18] The order of Friars Minors (_Fratres Minores_), better known as
Franciscans, was founded (1208) by St. Francis of Assisi.

[19] _Mestizo_: the offspring of a white man and an Indian woman,
or of an Indian man and a white woman--of course, almost entirely
the former. See interesting notes on this subject by Retana, in his
_Zuniga_, ii, pp. 525*, 526*.

[20] Herrera says (_Descripcion de las Indias_, cap. 26), that:
"The West Indies [_Indias del Poniente_] comprise all the islands and
mainland [_Tierra firme_] beyond the line of demarcation of Castilla
and Leon, as far as the western bounds of that said demarcation, the
line whereof