h nuts, ilex berries, and
acorns. Grape-vines also grow in an extraordinary fashion, despite
the absence of all attention. If any one chooses to sow wheat in a
mountain region exposed to the cold, it flourishes wonderfully,
but less so in the plain, because the soil is too fertile. To one
unheard-of-thing people have certified upon oath; that the ears are as
thick round as a man's arm and one palm in length, and that some of
them contain as many as a thousand grains of wheat. The best bread
found in the island is that made from the yucca, and is called cazabi.
It is most digestible, and the yucca is cultivated and harvested in
the greatest abundance and with great facility. Whatever free time
afterwards remains, is employed in seeking gold.

The quadrupeds are so numerous that already the exportation to Spain
of horses and other animals and of hides has begun; thus the daughter
gives assistance in many things to the mother. I have already
elsewhere given particulars concerning red wood, mastic, perfumes,
green colouring material, cotton, amber, and many other products of
this island. What greater happiness could one wish in this world than
to live in a country where such wonders are to be seen and enjoyed?
Is there a more agreeable existence than that one leads in a country
where one is not forced to shut himself in narrow rooms to escape cold
that chills or heat that suffocates? A land where it is not necessary
to load the body with heavy clothing in winter, or to toast one's legs
at a continual fire, a practice which ages people in the twinkling
of the eye, exhausts their force, and provokes a thousand different
maladies. The air of Hispaniola is stated to be salubrious, and the
rivers which flow over beds of gold, wholesome. There are indeed no
rivers nor mountains nor very few valleys where gold is not found.
Let us close now with a brief description of the interior of this
fortunate island.

Hispaniola possesses four rivers, each flowing from mountain sources
and dividing the island into four almost equal parts. One of these
streams, the Iunna, flows east. Another, the Attibunicus, west; the
third, the Naiba, south, and the fourth, the Iaccha, north. We have
already related that Morales proposes a new division, by which the
island would be divided into five districts. We shall give to each of
these little states its ancient name and shall enumerate whatever is
worthy of note in each of them.

The most eastern d