d to get away. I, when I saw this,
ordered the _begare_[410-3] as it is called to be thrown to the pig where
he was, and though the animal was nearly dead, and the arrow had passed
quite through his body, yet he threw his tail round the snout of the
boar, and then holding him firmly, seized him by the nape of the neck
with his remaining hand, as if he were engaged with an enemy. This action
was so novel and so extraordinary, that I have thought it worth while to
describe it here. There is a great variety of animals here, but they all
die of _barra_.[410-4] I saw some very large fowls (the feathers of which
resemble wool),[410-5] lions, stags, fallow-deer and birds.

When we were so harassed with our troubles at sea, some of our men
imagined that we were under the influence of sorcery, and even to this
day entertain the same notion. Some of the people whom I discovered eat
men, as was evidenced by the brutality of their countenances. They say
that there are great mines of copper in the country, of which they make
hatchets[411-1] and other elaborate articles both cast and soldered; they
also make of it forges, with all the apparatus of the goldsmith, and
crucibles. The inhabitants go clothed; and in that province I saw some
large sheets of cotton very elaborately and cleverly worked, and others
very delicately painted in colors.[411-2] They tell me that more inland
towards Cathay they have them interwoven with gold. For want of an
interpreter we were able to learn but very little respecting these
countries, or what they contain. Although the country is very thickly
peopled, yet each nation has a very different language; indeed so much
so, that they can no more understand each other than we understand the
Arabs. I think, however, that this applies to the barbarians on the
sea-coast, and not to the people who live more inland. When I discovered
the Indies, I said that they composed the richest lordship in the world;
I spoke of gold and pearls and precious stones, of spices and the traffic
that might be carried on in them; and because all these things were not
forthcoming at once I was abused. This punishment causes me to refrain
from relating anything but what the natives tell me. One thing I can
venture upon stating, because there are so many witnesses of it, viz.,
that in this land of Veragua I saw more signs of gold in the first two
days than I saw in Espanola during fours years,[TN-10] and that there is
not a more fertil