left there to gather gold from any evil
designs or attempts of the Indians. And the more to impress the natives
with awe and respect, and to take away all hopes that they might be able
to do now as they had done with Arana and the thirty-eight Christians who
had been left with him at the Nativity, he carried all the men that he
could along with him, that the natives might see and be sensible of the
power of the Christians, and that if any injury should be offered even to
a single individual of our people, there was a sufficient force to ensure
due and severe chastisement. To appear the more formidable to the natives,
when he set out from Isabella, and whenever he passed any of the Indian
towns, he caused his men to march with their arms in rank and file as is
usual in time of war, with trumpets sounding and colours flying. In this
way he marched along the river, which lay about a musket-shot from
Isabella; he crossed a smaller river about a league beyond, and halted for
the night in a plain divided into pleasant fields about three leagues from
Isabella, which reached to a craggy hill about two bow-shots high. To this
place he gave the name of Puerta de los Hidalgos, or the Gentlemens Pass,
because some gentlemen had been sent on before to order a road to be
opened, which was the first road ever made in the Indies. The paths made
by the Indians are only broad enough for one person to pass at a time.

Beyond this pass he entered upon a large plain over which he marched five
leagues the next day, and halted on the banks of a large river called the
River of Canes, which falls into the sea at Monte Christo, and over which
the people crossed on rafts and in canoes. In the course of the journey
they passed many Indian towns, consisting of round thatched houses, with
such small doors that it requires a person entering to stoop very low. As
soon as the Indians from Isabella who accompanied the march entered any
of those houses they took what they liked best, and yet the owners seemed
not to be at all displeased, as if all things were in common among them.
In like manner the people of the country were disposed to take from the
Christians whatever they thought fit, thinking our things had been in
common like theirs; but they were soon undeceived. In the course of this
journey they passed over mountains most delightfully wooded, where there
were wild vines, aloes, and cinnamon trees[8]; and another sort that
produces a fruit resembli