them these guanines, palming off upon them vile
metal for gold. Neither did the Spaniards discover the trick till they
melted these supposed valuables.

Some architects who had wandered a short distance from the coast came
upon some fragments of white marble, and they think that strangers
must at some time have landed there and quarried this marble from the
mountains, leaving these fragments scattered about the plain. It was
at this place that the Spaniards learned that the river Maragnon
flows from the snow-covered mountains, its volume being increased by
numerous streams flowing into it. Its great size is due to the fact
that its course is long, and that it only reaches the sea after having
traversed well-watered regions.

The signal for departure was finally given. Nine hundred men who had
been landed, assembled shouting joyfully, marching in order, loaded
with plunder, and quite showy with crowns, mantles, feathers, and
native military ornaments. The anchor was hoisted on the sixteenth day
of the calends of July. The ships, damaged in frequent gales, had been
repaired, the flag-ship having especially suffered the loss of her
rudder, as we have already mentioned. The fleet put out to sea in the
direction of Carthagena, and in obedience to the King's instructions
ravaged some islands inhabited by ferocious cannibals which lay in the
course. The strong currents deceived Juan Serrano, chief pilot of the
flag-ship, and his colleagues, though they boasted that they were
well acquainted with the nature of these currents. In one night, and
contrary to the general expectation, they made forty leagues.

BOOK VI

The time has come, Most Holy Father, to philosophise a little, leaving
cosmography to seek the causes of Nature's secrets. The ocean currents
in those regions run towards the west, as torrents rushing down a
mountain side. Upon this point the testimony is unanimous. Thus I find
myself uncertain when asked where these waters go which flow in a
circular and continuous movement from east to west, never to return
to their starting-place; and how it happens that the west is not
consequently overwhelmed by these waters, nor the east emptied. If it
be true that these waters are drawn towards the centre of the earth,
as is the case with all heavy objects, and that this centre, as some
people affirm, is at the equinoctial line, what can be the central
reservoir capable of holding such a mass of waters? And what will