s thick as a finger, according to the dimensions of the
crevices. It sometimes happens that pockets full of gold are found;
these being the crevices through which the branches of the golden tree
pass. When these pockets are filled with the output from the trunk,
the branch pushes on in search of another outlet towards the earth's
surface. It is often stopped by the solid rock, but in other fissures
it seems, in a manner, to be fed from the vitality of the roots.

You will ask me, Most Holy Father, what quantity of gold is produced
in this island. Each year Hispaniola alone sends between four and five
hundred thousand gold ducats to Spain. This is known from the fact
that the royal fifth produces eighty, ninety, or a hundred thousand
castellanos of gold, and sometimes even more. I shall explain later on
what may be expected from Cuba and the island of San Juan, which are
equally rich in gold. But we have spoken enough about gold; let us now
pass on to salt, with which whatever we buy with gold is seasoned.

In a district of the province of Bainoa in the mountains of Daiagon,
lying twelve miles from the salt lake of the Caspian, are mines of
rock salt, whiter and more brilliant than crystal, and similar to the
salts which so enrich the province of Laletania, otherwise called
Catalonia, belonging to the Duke of Cardona, who is the chief noble of
that region. People, in a position to compare the two, consider the
salts of Bainoa the richer. It seems that it is necessary to use iron
tools for mining the salt in Catalonia. It also crumbles very easily
as I know by experience, nor is it harder than spongy stone. The
salt of Bainoa is as hard as marble. In the province of Caizcimu and
throughout the territories of Iguanama, Caiacoa, and Quatiaqua springs
of exceptional character are found. At the surface their waters are
fresh, a little deeper down they are salty and at the bottom they
are heavily charged with salt. It is thought that the salt sea-water
partially feeds them, and that the fresh waters on the surface flow
from the mountains through subterranean passages. The salt-waters,
therefore, remain at the bottom while the others rise to the surface,
and the former are not sufficiently strong to entirely corrupt the
latter. The waters of the middle strata are formed by a mixture of the
two others, and share the characteristics of both.

By placing one's ear to the ground near the opening of one of these
springs it is easi