tooke nothing for their diet, for
nothing cost them ought saue the Maiz or corne for their horses, because
the Gouernour went to visit them from towne to towne, and seased them in
the tribute and seruice of the Indians. Bayamo is 25. leagues from the
Citie of S. Iago. Neere vnto the towne passeth a great Riuer, which is
called Tanto; it is greater then Guadiana, and in it be very great
Crocodiles, which sometimes hurt the Indians, or the cattell which passeth
the Riuer. In all the countrie are neither Wolfe, Foxe, Beare, Lion, nor
Tiger. There are wild dogges which goe from the houses into the woods and
feed vpon swine. There be certaine Snakes as bigge as a mans thigh or
bigger, they are very slow, they doe no kind of hurt. From Bayamo to
Puerto dellos principes are 50. leagues. In al the Iland from towne to
towne, the way is made by stubbing vp the vnderwood: and if it bee left
but one yeere vndone, the wood groweth so much, that the way cannot be
seene, and the paths of the oxen are so many, that none can trauell
without an Indian of the Countrie for a guide: for all the rest is very
hie and thicke woods. From Puerto dellos principes the Gouernour went to
the house of Vasques Porcallo by sea in a bote, (for it was neere the sea)
to know there some newes of Donna Isabella, which at that instant (as
afterward was knowne) was in great distresse, in so much that the ships
lost one another: and two of them fell on the coast of Florida, and all of
them endured great want of water and victuals. When the storme was ouer,
they met together, without knowing where they were: in the end they
descried the Cape of S. Anton, a countrie not inhabited of the Island of
Cuba: there they watered; and at the end of 40. daies, which were passed
since their departure from the City of S. Iago, they arriued at Hauana.
The Gouernour was presently informed thereof, and went to Donna Isabella.
And those which went by land which were one hundred and fiftie horsemen,
being diuided into two parts, because they would not oppresse the
inhabitants, trauelled by S. Espirito, which is 60. leagues from Puerto
dellos principes. The food which they carried with them was Cacabe bread,
which is that whereof I made mention before: and it is of such a qualitie,
that if it be wet, it breaketh presently, whereby it happened to some to
eate flesh without bread for many daies. They carried dogges with them,
and a man of the Country, which did hunt; and by the way,