o invite their cacique to return; they were told to
promise him peace, friendship, and kind treatment, but if he did not
come, it would mean his ruin and the destruction of his people and
country.

In order to convince Chiapes of his sincerity, Vasco Nunez sent with
his messengers some of the natives of Quarequa, who were serving him
as guides. These latter spoke to him in their own name and that of
their cacique, and Chiapes, allowing himself to be persuaded by their
arguments and the entreaties of his own subjects, confided in the
promise made to him. Leaving his hiding-place, he returned to the
Spaniards, where a friendly agreement was made, hand-clasps and mutual
vows exchanged, the alliance being confirmed by reciprocal presents.
Vasco received four hundred pesos of wrought gold from Chiapes. We
have remarked that a peso was equal to rather more than thirty ducats.
The cacique received a number of articles of European manufacture, and
the greatest mutual satisfaction prevailed. A halt of several days was
decided upon, to await the arrival of the Spaniards who had been left
behind.

Dismissing the people of Quarequa with some gifts, the Spaniards,
under the guidance of the people of Chiapes and accompanied by the
cacique himself, made the descent from the mountain-ridge to the
shores of the much-desired ocean in four days. Great was their joy;
and in the presence of the natives they took possession, in the name
of the King of Castile, of all that sea and the countries bordering on
it.

Vasco left some of his men with Chiapes, that he might be freer to
explore the country. He borrowed from the cacique nine of those
barques dug out of single tree trunks, which the natives call
_culches_; and accompanied by eighty of his own men and guided by
Chiapes, he sailed on a large river which led him to the territory of
another cacique called Coquera. This chief, like the others, wished at
first to resist and drive out the Spaniards. His attempt was vain,
and he was conquered and put to flight. Acting upon the counsel of
Chiapes, Coquera returned, for the envoys sent by the latter spoke to
him thus: "These strangers are invincible. If you treat them kindly,
they are amiable, but if you resist them, they turn hard and cruel.
If you become their friend, they promise assistance, protection, and
peace, as you may see from our own case and that of the neighbouring
caciques; but if you refuse their friendship, then prepare for ru