" While speaking these words he raised his eyes to
Heaven and gave it to be understood that he referred to the sun. "In
destroying our proud and violent enemies you have given peace to us
and to all our people. You overcome monsters. We believe that you and
your equally brave companions have been sent from Heaven, and under
the protection of your machanes we may henceforth live without fear.
Our gratitude to him who brings us these blessings and happiness
shall be eternal." Such, or something like this, was the speech of
Bononiama, as translated by the interpreters. Vasco thanked him for
having escorted our men and received them kindly, and sent him away
loaded with precious gifts.

Vasco writes that the cacique Bononiama has disclosed to him many
secrets concerning the wealth of the region, which he reserves for
later, as he does not wish to speak of them in his letter. What he
means by such exaggeration and reticence I do not understand. He seems
to promise a great deal, and I think his promises warrant hope of
great riches; moreover, the Spaniards have never entered a native
house without finding either cuirasses and breast ornaments of gold,
or necklaces and bracelets of the same metal. If anyone wishing to
collect iron should march with a troop of determined men through Italy
or Spain, what iron articles would they find in the houses? In one a
cooking stove, in another a boiler, elsewhere a tripod standing
before the fire, and spits for cooking. He would everywhere find iron
utensils, and could procure a large quantity of the metal. From which
he would conclude that iron abounded in the country. Now the natives
of the New World set no more value on gold than we do on iron ore. All
these particulars, Most Holy Father, have been furnished me either by
the letters of Vasco Nunez and his companions in arms, or by verbal
report. Their search for gold mines has produced no serious result,
for out of ninety men he took with him to Darien, he has never had
more than seventy or at most eighty under his immediate orders; the
others having been left behind in the dwellings of the caciques.

Those who succumbed most easily to sickness were the men just arrived
from Hispaniola; they could not put up with such hardships, nor
content their stomachs, accustomed to better food, with the native
bread, wild herbs without salt, and river water that was not always
even wholesome. The veterans of Darien were more inured to all these
i